The Background
Five years ago Splunk published several videos showcasing members of the SplunkTrust(tm) to share their story and passion for the Splunk community. As it is currently application-season (now through May 5th, 2023!), we are revisiting featured SplunkTrust members to see where they are now.
Rich Mahlerwein was the star of a .conf17 video when he was a Senior Information Systems Security and Database Architect with Forest County Potawatomi Community. Watch his video to get to know Rich:
Are you interested in becoming a member of the SplunkTrust? Know a peer that would be a great fit? Read this blog for more information about the process, and feel free to utilize the nomination and application forms.
Where is SplunkTrust member Rich Mahlerwein now?
Rich Mahlerwein, aka @Richfez on Splunk Answers and the Splunk community Slack, is currently a Director Of Operations with Splunk partner Sideview, LLC.
We interviewed Rich for this Where Are They Now series of posts to share his career growth story with you. Read on to learn more about Rich since his video was released.
How has your career changed since you started working with Splunk products?
When the video was made I worked for the Forest County Potawatomi Community, and the job was a lot of systems administration and Splunk was rejuvenating to use. I enjoyed providing the Splunk Documentation team with feedback as I used the product more, and I received a Document Feedback Champion trophy. I also got more involved in the Splunk community and became a member of the SplunkTrust.
I was at that job for 11 years and thought it was time for a change. I knew Nick Mealy, the founder of Sideview, LLC, from the Splunk community, as we had collaborated on a few things. I took a role with Sideview, and now I work for a Splunk partner instead of being a customer.
How has your usage of Splunk changed with the new role?
At the Forest County Potawatomi Community we had a cute Splunk environment. It was like a road between two sizes; it wasn’t giant, but we used a lot of enterprise features. Now I’m at a company that has just two full-time people, so I wear a lot of hats. Our usage of Splunk is focused around the development and support of our Cisco CDR Reporting and Analytics app.
I interact with customers a lot — that’s probably the most fun and is really bizarre to me because of being an introvert. We’re always willing to jump on a call with our customers to help with the app, and it is fun to step out into other areas of Splunk and help them with any Splunk questions they might have.
Are there any projects that you are particularly proud of with your recent work?
I think I’m just proud of most everything I do. Something I was just finishing up right now is making sense of one IT vendor’s data model and defining the fields in Splunk. Puzzling through the documentation, the database, and actually making sense of the places where the vendor is wrong. So maybe I am just proud I haven't lost that skill.
I enjoy being the grease in between what ought to be and what is. That's the driving force behind me; I like to see other people happy while doing things I can help them do better.
You’re still involved in the Splunk community and a member of the SplunkTrust. What areas of the community do you focus on now?
I still do a lot of things with Splunk docs. I helped run the most recent Splunk BSides along with Clara Merriman, and that has been really important. Splunk BSides originally grew from the hallway conversations people would have when attending .conf events, and we wanted to bring more technical content to the conference in an underground-community way. Those efforts convinced Splunk that we needed a dedicated SplunkTrust track at the conference.
Family was a big focus of your video. How is your family doing?
Well, we still go kayaking, although it's usually not when there's still ice on the lake. Evey presented at the .conf18 BSides about regular expressions, and she now insists she has forgotten everything. Maddie is a freshman and starting to think about her long-term plan. Both Evey and Maddie are driving now. My wife, Colette, is getting back into IT.
Thank you for your time, Rich!
We appreciate everything you do as a member of the SplunkTrust and your contributions to the Splunk community! Thank you for being you!
If you would like to learn more about the SplunkTrust program then read this blog for more information about the process. You can utilize the nomination form to refer a peer to the SplunkTrust program, and the application form to apply to the program yourself.
