Jim Knudsen

Email: jlknudsen@gmail.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimknudsen1

Telephone: (801) 376-1233

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Senior level executive with five plus years experience successfully architecting, delivering and managing a
Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, comprised of a fully virtualized infrastructure that leverages Cisco
networking and servers, NetApp storage, VMware hypervisors and Citrix VDI, in three data centers in
North American and Frankfurt Germany.
Professional technology executive with 20 plus years of success managing high quality Customer &
Technical Support, Information Systems and Systems Engineers responsible for corporate IT infrastructure,
support of customer on premises systems and SaaS infrastructure to a global customer base. During this
time the company grew from 35 to over 350 employees. From one office in the US to 8 offices; three in the
North American with the remaining five in the UK, Scandinavia, Australia and Central America.
PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Architected and delivered an award winning Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, delivered out of three
data centers, two in North American and one in Frankfurt, Germany, resulting in increased profitability,
sales and more stability for customers. Currently delivering over 100 newspapers, 250 websites and more
than virtual 3000 desktops
Awarded the 2011 Cloud Computing Excellence Award from Cloud Computing Magazine.
Hired and managed technical team of highly qualified, expert systems engineers to administer the DTI data
center(s) SaaS infrastructure. Most of my technical staff was with me for over 15 years!
A successful history managing a team of 50+ Customer Support, IT and Systems Engineers.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Digital Technology International
2010 2013
Director, Cloud / Technical Services
Managed and directed all aspects of a SaaS Cloud including data centers, infrastructure and technical
support staff, vendor relation, project management and12 engineers.
Created and successfully managed both Cloud and Technical Services Department related budgets during a
period of high volume growth and expansion.
Within two years DTI's SaaS offering was responsible for over 90% of DTI's new business.
Digital Technology International
2008 2010
Director, Support Services
Successfully added managerial responsibility for Customer Support teams totaling 30+ support analysts to
my areas of responsibility.
Accepted increased responsibility for the management and expansion of DTIs SaaS offering with the
addition of data centers in New York, NY and Frankfurt, Germany.
Digital Technology International
1995 2008
Technical Director
In 2008 tasked to deliver a Software as a Service (SaaS) model to deliver newspaper publishing solutions.
Researched, selected and contracted for the three data centers to host DTIs SaaS solution.
Architected the SaaS computing infrastructure, ultimately comprised of a fully virtualized infrastructure
that leverages Cisco networking and servers, NetApp storage, VMware hypervisors and Citrix VDI.

With IT team, successfully designed and implemented a new network infrastructure in a new building DTI
had acquired. In addition, coordinated the move in the new building, moving DTI's entire infrastructure
over a single weekend.
Managed a highly professional staff of Customer Support, Information Systems, Technical Services,
Project Management, Training and Implementation teams for DTI

SUMMARY AT DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL (24 YEARS)

Sales Manager to Director, Cloud / Technical Services

1995 2013

I spent the last 24 years at Digital Technology International, also known as DTI. DTI is a Utah based software
company that provides a wide range of software and solutions to the newspaper industry.
When I started my career with DTI, there were 25 employees. During my 24-year at DTI, DTI acquired several
companies and grew from 25 to 350 plus employees.
I began my career with DTI as the Western Region Sales Manager. From Regional Sales Manager I spent 18+
months creating the Project Management and Auditing teams and processes. I then moved to Operations
Manager, then Technical Manager, then Technical Director, then Director of Support services and finally
Director of Cloud and Technical Services.
As you can tell from my job experience, I was drawn to the IT side of things. My focus for the last 6 years at
DTI was on the creation and delivery of a SaaS solution to deliver Newspaper publishing solutions. Historically
the Newspaper publishing solutions were a turnkey solution that were configured and installed on premises at
each newspaper. We learned early on that even though we provided detailed specifications for the hardware,
network, servers, storage and backup in almost every case when we arrived on site to configure the hardware,
the hardware that was purchased was not was we specified, resulting in project delays and less than satisfactory
system performance. As a result we became a Sun Certified partner, and sold sun hardware and solutions for
more than 15 years. Ultimately my team became only one of a several of teams worldwide certified to install
and certify Sun Microsystems Cluster solutions.
Because of our success selling, configuring, delivering and supporting Sun Solutions, my Technical Services
department became a profit center, generating millions of dollars in hardware sales annually.
In early 2008 the DTI CEO and I had a brief conversation about the possibility of converting the delivery of our
newspaper publishing solutions from the turnkey on premises delivery to a SaaS delivery. I spent most of 2008
educating myself about data centers and possible architectures for our SaaS solution, ultimately settling on a
fully virtualized solution, comprised of Cisco Networking, Cisco UCS Servers, NetApp SAN, Vmware
hypervisors and Citrix VDI. (A Whiptail solid stated disk (SSD) solution was added to achieve the 500
microsecond latency required to deliver an optimal VDI experience). The solution we chose and implemented
came to be known in the industry as FlexPod when Cisco, NetApp and VMware collaborated to standardize
and certify this hardware solution for cloud computing. I selected and contracted for three data centers,
Chandler AZ, Manhattan, NY and Frankfurt Germany. Our first data center was installed in Chandler AZ in
December of 2008, the first SaaS customer when live in April of 2009. Today over 120 newspapers, 300
websites and almost 4000 virtual desktops are delivered from those three data centers. In 2013 the Chandler and
NY DCs were up 100%, the Germany DC was up 99.987%.
I hired a team of nine systems engineers to install, administer and support all aspects of the SaaS infrastructure.
In addition, I had a team of three Application Engineers who were responsible for the delivery and support of
the Citrix VDI (Xen Destop) solution, including the OS and application images.
These twelve engineers were responsible for all aspects of the SaaS solution, were on call as was I, 24x7x365,
taking turns being the lead engineer on call.
Prior to and early in the SaaS project, in addition to my SaaS responsibilities I was responsibility for all IT and
Customer support in North America, with IT, Customer and Technical Support teams in Utah, Minnesota and
Montreal Canada. As the SaaS project grew in scope and importance I divested myself of the IT and Support
management role to focus on the SaaS project.

From 1995 to 2008 I was the Technical Director, responsible for the enterprise IT and Technical Services Teams.
This was a period of significant growth and expansion, growing from 50 to over 350 employees, 1 office to 8, plus a
move to new corporate offices. During this period, in addition to the requisite IT infrastructure growth we
implemented many new technologies, including CRM, OpenAire and several email systems finally settling on
Microsoft Exchange. In addition we implemented Microsoft Active Directory for security and single sign on.
Another large project was the introduction of virtualized systems to speed the delivery and availability of critical
systems.
EDUCATION
Brigham Young University
Marriott School of Management