Michael, tell us something about yourself and your job
I trained as an IT specialist at Evonik in Marl and, at the same time, completed a degree in business informatics at the FOM. After my training in 2009, Evonik took me on, and since then I've always worked in the WAN area, the wide area network that connects all Evonik sites. For the past ten years or so, I've been working with six other colleagues on global WAN incident management – ensuring that incidents in the WAN are resolved as quickly as possible. I'm also technically responsible for Evonik TV, which can be used at all sites to display individual news and information on screens, for example in the cafeteria or plants.
What exactly does your job as WAN Incident Manager involve?
When an incident occurs, it has to happen quickly; after all, the goal is to keep the sites operational. I then evaluate log files from routers and the data from our WAN monitoring systems and communicate closely with the responsible colleagues on site, our telecommunications provider and our WAN and cyber security experts. Once the cause has been identified, I make sure that the incident is resolved quickly. I'm the link between the site, IT, and the provider, so to speak.
At Evonik, more than 200 sites worldwide are connected via WAN, but there are only seven WAN incident managers. How does that work?
On the one hand, we have sophisticated monitoring systems that sound an alarm when a defined threshold is exceeded. In many cases, this allows us to detect faults at a very early stage and respond quickly – ideally before users feel the effects. Here we benefit from the fact that we use software-defined SD-WAN worldwide; this makes it easy to monitor networks. And, of course, we maintain close contact with the sites and are always up to date if there are problems somewhere. In addition, our team is spread over three continents, so we cover all time zones 24/7. That works extremely well.
What do you like about your job?
That it is so communicative. Through my work, I have contact with a lot of colleagues in the Group, and I also feel very comfortable in my team – people know and trust each other. In addition, I am so well equipped technically that I can work from home at any time and access the various systems. I have three children, so I have a good work-life balance. Our twins have already caught on, too: they already enjoy
