Meet the Aces Luis Freixas

Who is Ace Luis Freixas?

Geoff:  Hi Luis, please introduce yourself. Where are you from, and what are you doing?  

Luis: I’m Luis Freixas, based in Spain. I was an IT Infrastructure and Backup specialist, and I am now a Global Infrastructure Business Analyst—a translator between the business and IT. I am an Infrastructure advisor, community lover, Dad, Husband, Friend…  

Interest and Career Path in IT

Geoff:  How did you get into IT? Tell us about your journey.  

Luis: Since I was a kid, 8 or 9 years old, I have been interested in IT, focused on hardware. I have an uncle who showed me the Systems Administrator’s Job, and I loved it. I continued my studies and preparation as an IT-curious child. My Parents supported me by buying my first computer. It was just for me, and it was awesome! I continue updating, playing, and studying always as a hobby. When I grew older and was able to go to technical school, I chose the Operating System and Network Administrator Professional Career and began to work in an IT company during my studies. I got promoted, and then virtualization and backup caught my eye. That is when the journey began and continues today!  

Geoff: Q3 When did you start working with Backup software and why?  

Luis: Oh boy, a long time ago.  Ever since I can recall, I’ve been making  “copies” from diskettes to ZIP, CD, DVD, and later on, external HDD. Today, the cloud plays an important role in my personal backups (Including all my daughter's pictures and videos).  

Working with Veeam Software

Geoff: Have you been using Veeam software for a long time? Do you have any interesting stories about data protection and saving customers?  

Luis: I have been using Veeam from the time since I started as Professional Systems Administrator back in around November 2015.  

It was August 10th, 2022, and I was enjoying my summer holidays before moving to a new company. I was celebrating my 37th birthday at the swimming pool area with my family, and, as a surprise, my phone dings with an alert.  I had a quick look and saw this message on the screen: “We’ve got a Virus on our Systems.” I felt goosebumps all over my body. I left my pint of beer (Yes, I love beer) on the table, and I addressed my wife and told them, “I have to go.” Ransomware! I changed my clothes, from my comfortable swimming suit to jeans and a t-shirt, went to the office to get a better understanding of what was going on, and executed the necessary actions to mitigate and solve the issue. In the back of my mind, I had this crazy idea: “Maybe It’s just a joke.” My colleagues are doing this to scare me, and it’s a surprise cause I’m leaving the company, and it’s a farewell prank, but I was wrong.  

We confirmed that the virus was a ransomware called and hit our servers and spread itself like gunpowder into our virtual machines. After a huge effort, and coordinating all the IT resources at the office, we finally found the origin of the Infection!  We took the machine offline, formatted that PC with , and then it was time to recover. Then another surprise!  Our Veeam Backup Server was also hit and the backup repository was not accessible!  

Calm down! No need to worry. We were able to recover all our servers! Luckily, in our design, our two ESXi Hosts were replicating virtual machines to each other, something like a “last resort” plan in case we had lost production backups, replicas, and even repositories. After a deep breath, we executed our recovery plan to recover our environment from our replicas. After a tense few minutes, everything started to run as it was supposed to. We felt more and more confident as each virtual machine was recovered successfully. Such a great feeling!  After less than 60 minutes, we were fully recovered. Everyone worked according to plan.  The managers and C-level executives were very pleased that we could protect and recover the business quickly and smoothly.  

What does an Ace think about the future of IT

Geoff:  What do you think the future of IT holds for us?  

Luis: Data day-to-day is becoming more important, and data retention has to be longer. Ransomware came and is here to stay.  Figuring out where to store all those backups, architecting the solutions, and making them resilient is an awesome challenge that we have in our profession. However, don’t forget that we need to continue to study, renew and refresh our knowledge in order to be able to protect and advise our clients, costumers, businesses to be successful.  

Life outside of IT        

Geoff: What do you like to do in your spare time? How do you take breaks from the fast-paced world of technology?  

Luis: I discovered a few years ago that riding a motorbike was a relaxing and exciting activity. Every time I put my helmet on, all the stress and voices in my head disappear, and to be fully disconnected, I don’t have any electronics on my bike, not even Bluetooth or intercom. I also decided to take up practicing martial arts again and of course spend some time taking care of myself so I can take care of my family the best I can.

Geoff:  Thank you, Luis. The Object First Aces are a fascinating and very talented group of people. Luis Freixas is not only a first-rate IT connoisseur but also has an equally fantastic personality to match.