OpenEye Profile: Matt Buckholdt

In honor of System Administrator Appreciation Day, we recognize the person at OpenEye who ensures that our network is secure, our Wi-Fi is working, and who manages our day-to-day IT issues, so every employee can provide heroic customer service. Meet Matt Buckholdt, OpenEye’s Senior Systems Engineer.

What is your primary job function?

Before the Alarm.com acquisition I was responsible for everything considered “IT,” networking, workstations, servers, storage, backups and all of our infrastructure, all the magic that happens behind the scenes. Post-acquisition, I now work closely with the Alarm.com Systems Engineering team to ensure OpenEye operations are running smoothly. I also maintain OpenEye’s applications and servers to ensure everything is running optimally and provide support to our users, communicating potential problems to the Alarm.com team and working with them to find solutions. 

What drew you to this field?

Since I was a kid, I’ve had an interest in technology. My mom tells me stories of me fixing things when I was only six, one of those being a toaster. I took it apart to learn how it worked and made it work again. I did this with countless things; my mom tells me she used to have to hide things so I didn’t get my hands on them because I wanted to take EVERYTHING apart. 

The first computer I ever used was a Commodore VIC-20 in the1980s. I remember typing in Basic for hours just to play simple games. The VIC-20 didn’t have a way to save things, so once you turned it off everything was gone.

In the 90s, we got our first real PC, which was a Cordata 8088 that ran in turbo at 8 MHz and only had 512 KB memory and two 360K 5.25-inch floppy drives, it came with DOS 2.11. I remember upgrading the memory to 640K by installing ROM chips onto the motherboard. Back then I was really into BBS, Bulletin Board Systems (before the internet). This computer only had a green screen, no color, and no storage except for the 360K floppy disks. 

In high school I ran the audio-visual equipment for all our assemblies. The Associated Student Body (ASB) and the principal even let me spend $20,000 on new sound equipment as a freshman. I thought at that time I wanted to get into professional AV production, but that wasn’t the path I chose. 

As I got older, my interest in computers and technology grew even more.

These days I am really into home theater, home automation and home security. Our home is fully automated and connected to the internet in some fashion. Between all the IoT and Z-Wave devices, our network consists of over 150 devices. 

What do you like most about your job at OpenEye?

I started with OpenEye back in 2002, when there were only 15 people in the company. OpenEye has always had an amazing culture and the best group of people to work with. I guess what I like most about my job is that nothing ever feels repetitive, and I love what I do. I am always working with the Alarm.com team to make things better for everyone and strive to make things easier. 

What do you think the future of your field is?

This is a hard question to answer. As threats and AI become more streamlined, network security and end-user training will become more important than ever. This field is always changing, and being able to adapt to those changes is important. You must have a very open mind to change. 

Learn more about current opportunities at OpenEye.