Arcitecta Appoints SVP of Customer Success Worldwide and Managing Director for Europe, Frank Radefeldt, to Open European Office

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Arcitecta Appoints SVP of Customer Success Worldwide and Managing Director for Europe, Frank Radefeldt, to Open European Office.

Hi Frank, can you tell our readers the story of how you bumped into Arcitecta?

I was first introduced to Arcitecta when I took a position at Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI). In my eyes, this computer company was the holy grail of technology at the time and essential to developing computer graphics as we all know and love them today.

While running SGI’s Media Installations department, building high-performance compute (HPC), and virtual reality (VR) centres, I eventually found a piece of software in the product portfolio that immediately appealed to me. It was called Livearc, which was a repackaged Mediaflux created for SGI to augment their DMG and storage solutions. I quickly fell in love with its beauty, ease of use, and capabilities to move data seamlessly onto tape archives and back – hence I soon became the subject matter expert for that solution for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). That must have been around 2014 or so.

What are some details of your personal and professional background you think we should know?

Growing up with home computers like the C64, Atari ST, and Amiga gave me an early start in IT. Taking pictures and video filming was also my passion, which at an early age led to me working for local broadcasters in various roles with the Electric News Gathering team (ENG). I was then appointed to support and maintain the IT systems within the TV station, including the OnAir graphics running on SGIs and later became a production supervisor.

Eventually, my boss suggested that I should not waste my skills confined to TV. Hence, I went to Furtwangen University to complete a Master of Digital Media and Media Informatics, which covered the full scope of developing software to design screens and storyboards. Graduating with an understanding of development and design, I became a project manager and coordinator, bridging the gap between artists and developers. Many projects involving seemingly opposing skills had their communication difficulties and mutual misunderstandings. My "translation skills" improved endeavours by presenting project requirements in a language either side could understand. Working with many different stakeholders in a meaningful way pathed my way to becoming a manager eventually.

In my free time (which is not too much with three sons), I love to do many things - from diving, cooking, and gaming, such as LARPing (live-action role-playing), modern board games (my favorite one is 'shadows of brimstone') and videogames.

What excites you most about working with Mediaflux?

Mediaflux is a tool that provides our customers with the means to efficiently work with a lot of data. Computers are just tools like a hammer or a screwdriver – they are supposed to make your life easier rather than more complex. You can often find IT solutions which are cumbersome to use – plus organisations often build workflows that don’t necessarily meet their requirements in the best way, especially when they grow organically. Giving structure back to ‘chaos’ is something which Mediaflux can undoubtedly help with.

What customer challenges are you most interested in sinking your teeth into?

For me, it's all about working efficiently. When we can automate and facilitate complex things to make working with data easy, that usually leads to delighted customers. And being able to help the customer become happy is what drives me.

My first engagement was with the local Bavarian supercomputing department. They have recently won the opportunity to host all the data generated by the DLR – Deutsche Luft und Raumfahrt (the German space agency) – and hope to allow students to do research based on that 60 PB dataset. Although there were already challenges in making its existing data sets easily accessible and usable, Mediaflux will be used to smooth out current workflows and scale its data management into the tens of petabytes and beyond.