Siegfried Behrens

Siegfried Behrens Siegfried has a premium account Click to upgrade to Premium President and Co-Founder at Kenner Technologies Potomac, Maryland 500+ connections Contact info Kenner Technologies Penn State University About Accomplished technology sales executive with over $2 Billion in sales over 20 years in public sector across education and government. Set world records in deal sizes at Microsoft. Believes in making an impact with technology to improve lives so t... see more Articles 2,265 followers Fortnite Obsession, the Cloud, and our Kids Siegfried’s profile photo Siegfried Behrens Published on LinkedIn Gaming obsession has reached new heights. If your kids are obsessed with Fortnite like ours, then you know what I’m talking about. Fortnite Battle Royale (FNBR) is kind of like Hunger Games. In the game, you, the player, land on an island and kill as many people as you can before you get killed. Then, (unlike Hunger Games,) you magically come back to life and do it again. Over and over. If your family remotely resembles ours, you’ve actually had to result to rationing game-time because the kids just CAN’T STOP playing this game. To be fair, getting sucked into this virtual reality world isn’t hard. You can easily play with your friends on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and even on the phone, and with an additional $50 headset you can trash talk and encourage each other relentlessly. Just like the Today show highlighted this morning, it’s been frustrating to see our sons (and our daughter) get so hooked that we have to constantly find ways to drag them away to play outside or get back to homework. And these are actually athletic kids who normally like to shoot hoops in the driveway. Fortnite is way bigger than I thought. As parents of three kids in grades 3rd through 7th, I thought Fortnite was limited to this age group until I saw the UMBC basketball team doing Fortnite dances in the locker room after their historic win over UVA during March Madness and comparing that win to winning their first Fortnite “dub” in their infamous interview. And you know things have really gotten out-of- hand when hundreds of thousands of young gamers are taking time out of the day just to watch rapper @Drake and a green-haired, crowd-sourced, gamer-hero named @Ninja battle it out. Yes, folks, these are the times. From an adoption perspective though, Fortnite’s growth numbers are truly phenomenal. Over 45 million unique players so far with over 1 Billion minutes watched and a new peak of 3.4 million gamers playing at one time. Those are ridiculous numbers in just ten months. That is the power of the Cloud and how quickly ideas can “catch fire” which was so eloquently highlighted in the recent best seller “New Power.” The cloud can scale, bring people together at breakneck speed, and transform fame almost overnight. Therefore, as cloud technology experts who are also parents, there is an upside to this madness. Now we have a way to talk to our kids about the Cloud. When trying to inspire our kids about careers in the future, it’s always been hard for them to understand the ambiguous concept of technology careers (or anything really that they can’t physically see). Research tells us that people remember 10% of what we see, 20% of what we hear 30%, 80% what we discuss with others, but 95% or what we do with our hands while teaching or collaborating with others. This collaborative platform is truly amazing for engagement. It hits all the bells with kids: gaming, learning, teaching, and having fun with your friends. Instead of catching my kids on their devices, now I walk into our living room and catch them playing Fortnite on the Xbox. How should we all feel about this? At least with Fortnite we can describe to our kids that the place where everyone battles it out, this magical place that is always sunny with their friends running alongside bearing weapons, this amazing place where they need to have split-second decision-making is in the Cloud. Not on a PC, not on the Xbox, but the Cloud. Fortnite runs on servers, actual physical objects running in managed data centers that need electricity, cooling, and maintenance. “Son, there is an operating platform out there which actually exists to make all those anxious people run around on your screen.” Today, Fortnite (and all games from parent company Epic Games) run on AWS. “And yes, your parents, and many of their friends, work on platforms like that by developing and optimizing applications and capacity to it so that they don’t crash.” They have complained about latency from time to time. But now they know what it is. “Now do you understand what Mom and Dad do and how this industry kind of works?” If you get a head shaking up and down, you’ve made progress and can smile and walk away that is, until you check the time and realize they’ve been there for over an hour again. 26 Likes 3 Comments Like Comment Share See all Experience Kenner Technologies President and Co-Founder Company NameKenner Technologies Dates EmployedJun 2017 – Present Employment Duration2 yrs 2 mos LocationWashington D.C. Metro Area Driving business for a new services organization which is focused on solving problems and creating solutions for government, business, education, and non-profit clients. Our focus is on high-quality execution with expertise in the field of cloud computing and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Convergence Center for Policy Resolution Advisory Board Member Company NameConvergence Center for Policy Resolution Dates Employed2012 – Present Employment Duration7 yrs I was honored to be a charter founder and now advisory board member for the "Re-Imagining K-12" project. Our collective leadership is committed to transform education with a focus on student centered learning. Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) National Board Member Company NameJobs for America's Graduates (JAG) Dates EmployedNov 2010 – Present Employment Duration8 yrs 9 mos Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) is a state-based national non-profit organization dedicated to preventing dropouts among young people who are most at-risk. In more than three decades of operation, JAG has delivered consistent, compelling results – helping nearly three... See more Stratasys General Manager, Global Education Company NameStratasys Dates EmployedJan 2015 – May 2017 Employment Duration2 yrs 5 mos LocationWashington D.C. Metro Area Leading Stratasys's largest vertical at the world’s largest leading 3D printing technology provider which is disrupting how things are made. Heading the global strategy and go-to-market planning and execution across all segments of the education market: Research, Highe... See more Around the World of 3D Printing in 87 Seconds Around the World of 3D Printing in 87 Seconds The Collective Project: Robert Downey Jr. Delivers a Real Bionic Arm The Collective Project: Robert Downey Jr. Delivers a Real Bionic Arm Blackboard President Global Sales Company NameBlackboard Dates EmployedSep 2012 – Jun 2013 Employment Duration10 mos LocationWashington D.C. Metro Area Blackboard's mission is to improve student outcomes through technology that helps teaching and learning. Blackboard serves over millions of students and faculty across 10,000 institutions in over 65 countries. I was honored to lead a 500 person, $600+ Million direct and indirec... See more The Education-Technology Revolution Is Coming The Education-Technology Revolution Is Coming Microsoft General Manager Company NameMicrosoft Dates Employed1996 – Sep 2012 Employment Duration16 yrs LocationWashington D.C. Metro Area Led $600M US Education business whose mission is to help educators and school leaders connect, collaborate, create, and share so that students can realize their greatest potential. Education is Microsoft’s largest vertical business in the world serving over 85 Million students, teachers, and faculty across K12 and Higher Education. -Closed largest CRM deal in K12 history, 70,000 seats at LA Unified School District -Closed 12 state-wide deals for Microsoft IT Academy at the gubernatorial level GM of the US Public Sector Dynamics team and grew business from $12M to $50M in four years. -Developed Task Management Solution (TMT) for DoD on Dynamics CRM which drove over $300M in recurring business (still ongoing). -Pioneered the creation of Dynamics AX for Public Sector, the first Fund Accounting based ERP solution from Microsoft. Director of the US Air Force and Defense Services Business -Led the team that closed the largest deal in Microsoft history across 38 existing customers with sole source contract in 2004. Was honored as global top performer at Microsoft. -Developed the first "Desktop Image" that became the Windows standard across the federal government. See less Air Force deal offers a model for outsourcing IT security -- GCN Air Force deal offers a model for outsourcing IT security -- GCN Show fewer experiences Education Penn State University Penn State University Degree NameBachelor of Arts Field Of StudyInternational Politics Dates attended or expected graduation 1990 – 1994 Activities and Societies: Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Field Of StudyAeronautics/Aviation/Aerospace Science and Technology, General Dates attended or expected graduation 1989 – 1990