Solutions Architect and Product Manager that attempts to craft reasonable solutions for humans. Tinkerer, coach, dad.
I’ve spent the last 25 years helping to build and run independent and local Internet Service Providers. I’ve worn a lot of hats (from Tech Support to CEO), and I’ve appreciated them all in different ways. My current role as Solutions Architect and Product Manager provides me with an opportunity to build systems that deliver real value to internal and external customers.
6 years ago I joined a company that was navigating a period of tremendous growth as it expanded from a local to a regional Internet Service Provider. We had always been reliant on vendor partnerships for delivering solutions for both agents and customers, but we recognized that we had an opportunity to build an internal team that could provide some real value to the business.
Our experiment of a team started with building simple scripts and pipelines to automate tedious and risk-prone work, and quickly grew to become a central figure in building and determining how we use technology throughout the company.
🗃️ Brian O’Neal (he/him)
🏠 Lincoln, NE
Allo Communications | 🗺️ Lincoln, NE | 📅 2017 - 2023
I’ve worked on a number of products and initiatives in my 6 years at Allo. With my background as a linux admin and network engineer, I joined the company on our systems/network team. As the size and complexity of our business grew, we discovered the need to be more strategic with our deployment and interoperability of our systems. To meet that need, my role changed to be more focused on the overall architecture of our digital ecosystem. I became the first member of the System Integration Group (SIG), and got to work building tooling for the company and helping to guide technology decisions.
Over the last 6 years I’ve helped to scale our team from a one-person band (me) to a team of 12, and transitioned us to a fully-remote working environment. I serve as the team’s Solutions Architect and Product Manager, and as one of the company’s Enterprise Architects. The list that follows is comprised of products that I’ve helped bring to life, and responsibilities that I carry for the company.
Internet Nebraska | 🗺️ Lincoln, NE | 📅 2000 - 2020
The first 20 years of my career were spent working for a scrappy little Internet Service Provider called Internet Nebraska. I started as a support tech, quickly moved into system administration, then manager, CIO, and eventually CEO. That period of my life taught me a great deal about how to interact with other humans (customer and coworkers alike). The majority of Internet Nebraska was absorbed by Allo over the course of several years, and most of our staff and customers found homes at Allo.