An excerpt from The Chicago Weekly
You must have heard, unplanned things often end up constituting the best moments of your life. Well, they constitute the best enterprises as well.
And we have got a perfect case in point, River Point Technology, a company dedicated to helping companies transition into cloud computing technology, and a company born out of nowhere, thanks to Jeff Eiben.
A tech entrepreneur, technologist, and engineer, Jeff Eiben had umpteen interests growing up with divorced parents and two brothers in Pittsburgh. He wasn’t much of an art guy from the start as the love for science and technology had pretty much occupied the center stage of his life. Following that, he attended an engineering school at West Virginia University where he ushered as an ambitious student with dreams high as mountains.
His unique, solution-oriented approach to engineering enabled him to recognize problems many never focused on. Throughout his journey, from school to university, from university to professional life, and from professional life to his entrepreneurship career, he was keen observant. That’s why when he realized the perks and privileges offered by cloud computing for businesses, he didn’t dither and founded River Point Technology.
What happened next? Let’s hear it from himself!
“I started River Point Technology with no experience as a business owner previously as I was always in technical sales roles,” says Jeff Eiben. “I tend to be the one who is not afraid of trying something and challenging my boundaries. I always wanted to run my own business and made up my mind that why don’t just give it a try,” he further said, adding that he was thinking if things don’t work out, he was more than marketable to get back into the business.
Interestingly, Jeff didn’t undertake any preparations. He opened River Point Technology with no business plan. Although a high-level strategy existed, it too lacked the required focus. So basically, it was a shot in the dark.
“I hung a shingle and started calling my network about the opportunities around cloud technology and where they existed in this race. What I found was surprising; the market was incredibly immature and companies weren’t moving as fast as I anticipated,” shared Jeff.
The start was more disappointing than promising for Jeff, even more so than he expected. He learned that market timing is crucial for business success, and one should strike only when the iron is hot. However, little did he know that the disappointment stemming from mediocre results in business was to be the foundation stone of his success in the industry.
“While I was considering my business to be a ‘no-brainer’, the average company was so busy just trying to keep the lights on and focusing on the day-to-day. That’s why the daily grind didn’t leave them with the time to focus on innovation, which, though is indispensable, remained an under-funded priority,” Jeff shared more.
That discovery led him to focus on ‘value creation technology’ and a model to form a particular solution. According to Jeff, when they adopted this approach at business and scanned the market under it, they have since been on the front edge of technology innovation and have helped the world’s largest brands in support of their needs in the cloud space.
From starting as a novice in the business world to climbing to the top of it, that’s the story of Jeff Eiben and it’s still far-off the last chapter.
*Note link to this article no longer accessible.
When we think of the Liberty Bell, what comes to mind first for most of us, is the infamous crack, (funny how we think of the failures first, huh?). How we begin often has a direct effect on how we end.
Tradition tells of a chime that changed the world on July 8, 1776, with the Liberty Bell ringing out from the tower of Independence Hall summoning the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.
Earlier that week, in the late afternoon of July 4th, the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted.
Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris first ordered a bell for the bell tower in 1751 from the Whitechapel Foundry in London. This company was known for casting Big Ben, and is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as Great Britain’s oldest manufacturing company. Though, it didn’t seem to matter how prestigious or famous this company was when it dropped the ball on the bell, casting it with metals too brittle to last.
Chalk up the Philly landmark’s famous blemish to faulty building materials from across the pond.
When the bell arrived in Philadelphia in 1752, it cracked on its first test strike. Two local craftsmen, John Pass and John Stow, twice cast a new bell using metal from the cracked English bell. Then later, others tried to prevent further damage by boring out hairline cracks on the bell, to keep them from expanding dangerously.
Oddly enough, there’s no one widely accepted story for how the recast bell got its now-famous crack. Fast forward to almost a century later and the Philadelphia Public Ledger chronicled the bell’s final peal in a Feb. 26, 1846, story:
“The old Independence Bell rang its last clear note on Monday last in honor of the birthday of Washington and now hangs in the great city steeple irreparably cracked and dumb. It had been cracked before but was set in order of that day by having the edges of the fracture filed so as not to vibrate against each other…It gave out clear notes and loudly, and appeared to be in excellent condition until noon when it received a sort of compound fracture in a zig-zag direction through one of its sides which put it completely out of tune and left it a mere wreck of what it was.”
The Craftsmen did everything they could to revive the bell, and in the end, unintentionally made things worse. The Liberty Bell moved from a signal to a symbol, and even though its main function has been moved to the back seat, it still holds a place in America’s heart.
What would have happened if it was created properly the first time? What costs could have been avoided? What losses might have been wins instead?
How we start a journey is almost as important as how we finish.
River Point Technology (RPT) is a key component to a successful start. One of our clients, a Global 500 life sciences company, with more than 117,000+ employees worldwide, might not have lost as much as they did – if they started their journey with RPT.
Our client was struggling with speed to market, the overwhelming burdens of operational overhead, and their multi-tenant service offerings. Moreover, they were experiencing challenges in providing solutions to the 500+ tenants that needed to be supported on a consistent platform.
This company quickly developed a significant 7-figure monthly spend in AWS. Which totaled nearly $1M in direct and indirect costs all related to AWS. Eventually, they noticed this was an increase from the average $750,000 monthly spend in their AWS consumption.
It didn’t matter what they seemed to do on their own, expenses continued to rise as productivity and revenue stayed the same.
Call RPT to the rescue!
RPT was engaged to help our client reduce their AWS cost in a variety of ways.
The craftsmen of the 1800s learned a valuable lesson over and over again. Continuing to do what you have already done, in the way you have always done it, will end up the same way it always has: cracks that keep splitting.
We recognize there’s no “one-size-fits-all” scenario and RPT goes beyond packaged offerings to provide clients with a truly customized solution.
Setting up success means the right materials, the right people, and the right processes all working towards the same goal. River Point Technology understands each client and coordinates our suite of solutions to help achieve their goals. In the case of our client, we got called in late, but it’s never too late for the right solution. And at least their challenges didn’t become a national symbol!
These results are not guaranteed as each client brings a unique situation to the table.
February 16, 2022
Globe NewsWire
HashiCorp® (NASDAQ: HCP), a leader in multi-cloud infrastructure automation software, and River Point Technology, a digital service provider, announced a partnership to accelerate adoption of HashiCorp’s products. The partnership will extend the prescriptive offerings that River Point Technology has successfully deployed with many of HashiCorp’s customers. As companies work to build out their digital transformation journey in the midst of the Covid pandemic, it is imperative that the pace of business requirements be met.
River Point Technology has packaged subscription solutions that enable an organization to progress through the maturation of adopting modern solutions such as HashiCorp. The RPTAcceleratorTM subscription is built for organizations within all levels of maturation on their journey, from those who are just starting to more advanced organizations that are looking to gain accelerated adoption.
“The pace of digital transformation has only accelerated in the face of Covid, however the challenges of adopting new technology with limited resources are very real for companies of all sizes. We’ve been refining our subscription methodology to allow companies to leverage the power of automation without having to start from scratch,” said Jeff Eiben, Founder and Owner of River Point Technology. “Our customers love that we’re there with them through the journey to provide a level of accountability while serving as a safety net as they progress.”
HashiCorp believes infrastructure enables innovation, and they are helping organizations to operate that infrastructure in the cloud. Their suite of multi-cloud infrastructure automation products underpin important applications for the largest enterprises in the world. As part of the once-in-a-generation shift to the cloud, organizations of all sizes, from well-known brands to ambitious start-ups, rely on HashiCorp’s products to provision, secure, connect, and run their business-critical applications.
“River Point Technology’s continued investments and expertise in multi-cloud and digital transformation makes them an ideal partner to help HashiCorp’s enterprise customers operationalize a cloud operating model at scale. 57% of respondents to our 2021 State of Cloud Strategy Survey say there is a multi-cloud skills shortage, making our partnership with System Integration partners like River Point Technology critical to joint customer success,” said Michelle Graff, Global Partner Chief at HashiCorp.
About HashiCorp
HashiCorp is a leader in multi-cloud infrastructure automation software. The HashiCorp software suite enables organizations to adopt consistent workflows and a standardized approach to automating the critical process involved in delivering applications in the cloud: infrastructure provisioning, security, networking, and application deployment. HashiCorp’s open-source tools Vagrant™, Packer™, Terraform®, Vault™, Consul®, Nomad™, Boundary, and Waypoint™ were downloaded approximately 100 million times during the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2021. Enterprise and managed service versions of these products enhance the open-source tools with features that promote collaboration, operations, governance, and multi-datacenter functionality. For more information, visit hashicorp.com or follow HashiCorp on Twitter @HashiCorp.
About River Point Technology
River Point Technology helps enterprises tackle their most aspiring Cloud and DevOps projects with transformative capabilities redefining what is possible for their organization. River Point Technology was founded to support our clients at the crossroads of strategic vision, the ability to execute, and create successful Day 2 Readiness and Adoption outcomes. The River Point Technology teams bring a gamut of business and technical domain knowledge to enable success for your organization across the entire Cloud and DevOps lifecycle.
Read the full article here.