Synergy’s Employee Spotlight series profiles some of the best and brightest of Syniverse who make mobile work for our customers around the world.
What’s your title and role at Syniverse?
I am Advisory Systems Engineer and Database Administrator (DBA). I support production and development databases for multiple products at Syniverse. These systems control the organization, storage, retrieval, security and integrity of data for many of our products and services.
How long have you been at Syniverse?
Eighteen years. I started as DBA to support Syniverse’s fraud management products that used Informix databases, and later became DBA to support multiple products that use Oracle databases. In all my years at Syniverse, I’ve supported databases and other applications for a number of products, with the largest group being our data roaming products.
What are you working on this month?
My big project is an upgrade to our Service Management Gateway application and its migration from a Solaris to Linux platform. The project is part of a Syniverse upgrade that will greatly improve the functionality for our local number portability product, and an overall technology upgrade that the whole mobile industry has been eagerly awaiting and is beginning to implement.
What’s one of the most valuable lessons you’ve gained during your career in mobile?
Despite all the years I’ve worked in mobile, it still never ceases to amaze me how fast technology continues to grow and evolve. I used to be impressed with how fast computers developed compared with cars, but I think the development of mobile technology has now surpassed that. For this reason, one of the lessons I’ve learned is that it’s critical to always stay up with the newest technologies so you can be prepared to integrate these technologies as well as adapt current technologies to work with the new ones.
What’s been one of your best moments at Syniverse?
We recently re-architected and migrated the applications and databases for some of our mobile data roaming products from a Solaris platform to a Linux platform at our data centers in Dallas and Chicago. These systems were reaching their capacity and not operating as efficiently as new technologies now enable. But the new architecture we implemented now allows them to have virtually unlimited scalability and much higher work availability. This project required the long-range planning of a number of complex processes, careful coordination among different team groups, and a lot of hard work for everyone involved. In the end, however, the way we were all able to collaborate efficiently under a tight deadline and complete this huge upgrade without any major problems was an extremely rewarding team experience.
What’s one of the best things about working at Syniverse?
The people. I’ve always been fortunate to have a strong team for whatever product or project I’ve supported at Syniverse. Although the teams have gotten larger and the technologies more complex, each team continues to be strong because of the great people we have. My team members are extremely skilled and experienced in different areas of mobile, and they would do anything to help me with my tasks as well as help me learn skills in new areas.
Tell us about your mobile lifestyle. What kind of mobile phone do you use?
I use a Samsung Galaxy S5.
What’s your favorite app or tool on your phone?
It may seem boring, but the two apps I use most often are Google Maps and TuneIn Radio. The second one lets me to listen to my favorite music whenever a radio is not available.
In the last year, what’s the longest you’ve gone without using your phone?
Honestly, only when I’m sleeping, which is for about eight hours. Other than that, I usually always have my phone nearby.
What do you like to do outside of work?
My family takes up most of my time outside of work, and I love spending that time with them. We like to travel, and we have a lot of opportunities to visit other family members. My parents and sister live in Germany, and I have extended family in Armenia, so we often go to these places and use them as a base to explore nearby destinations. I’m lucky that I’m able to schedule long vacations for these trips because of, again, the strong teams and great people that I work with.
A family vacation in Paris, at the Place de la Concorde.
On the same vacation, in Berlin, at the Reichstag Building.
Visiting the heart of Prague, also as part of the same vacation from above.
In Armenia, at the Khor Virap Monastery. Behind me is the famous Mt. Ararat.
Davit Brotgandel is Advisory Systems Engineer, Database Administrator, and works at Syniverse’s headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
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