By Ocient Staff
Ocienteers are quite literally trailblazers.
While our day jobs keep us focused on unlocking value from hyperscale datasets for our customers around the world, our internal teams recently came together at an offsite to help fight invasive species and clear outdoor trails at the Forge in Lemont, Illinois.
The Forge (also founded by Ocient CEO and Co-Founder, Chris Gladwin) is a state-of-the-art park designed to deliver unique activities for adventurers of all ages and abilities.
While the Ocient team spent time at the Forge doing team-building activities (pictures below to prove it), we also had some fun at the annual Ocient Awards where we recognize the innovative work of our colleagues from across teams; the highlight for many employees was the opportunity to give back to the environment and allow native species to flourish in the park.
Invasive plants are a primary threat to natural areas like the Forge and the native species that live there. Prevention and maintenance is one of the most effective and cost efficient means of managing this threat to the ecosystem.
The Forge is committed to protecting the natural landscape. And just like analyzing the world’s large datasets, preserving the natural habitat takes a long-term vision, collaboration, and teamwork to achieve meaningful impact. Below are some lessons that our teams learned, and believe it or not, where there is overlap between the two very unique, but ambitious goals:
- It Takes Vision and Preparation: Before our team members hit the ground, there was a smaller team at the Forge who established a clear plan for what areas needed to be cleared. As another technology company you might have heard of (rhymes with “frugal”) likes to say, “First, do no harm,” we did not want our good intentions of helping the habitat to hurt it any way. Brush (not unlike data sprawl) is pesky and having a clear plan to execute against before beginning any work is a key. We’re grateful for the teams at the Forge who had the foresight that would allow Ocienteers to make impact.
- Right Tools for the Right Job: Similar to how we encourage our customers to think about work loads, some obstacles in the trail needs a chain saw to clear, and sometimes you just to use your hands to help clean a path to allow for growth. Our teams designated different tooling to different roles which allowed us to move fast.
- Persistence Wins: It’s easy to burnout or lose your way when exerting so much energy to the task at hand. Just as our team has been building for five years before launching our general available version of the Ocient Hyperscale Data Warehouse in 2022, the teams had patience to methodically move through the trails slowly and steadily in order to clear the most and even had some fun while doing it.
At Ocient, we are committed to sustainable growth. We are taking climate action with a commitment to maintaining a carbon neutral footprint across all operations, including our LEED certified data center, business travel, and remote workforce.
Thanks again to the Forge for having us. We’re already looking forward to next year. If you’d like to join us, we’re hiring!