HP Innovation Journal Issue 09: Spring 2018 | Page 53

Maker Spotlight
What is your favorite part
about working at HP?
There are so many great
things about working for HP
that it’s hard to pick just one
thing! First, I have the con-
stant opportunity to work on
unique technical challenges.
I’ve always liked puzzles, and in
my job, there’s always a new and
challenging puzzle to solve. The
other great thing is the people.
The people I’m surrounded by
at HP have a great diversity of
talents—many also like to solve
puzzles! I’m constantly discov-
ering new ways to think about
things, and learning new skills
that I can bring to bear against
a problem though my interac-
tions with coworkers.
What projects are you
currently working on?
I’m currently working on the
next generation of HP Sure
Start, which will continue to
raise the bar for hardware-en-
forced endpoint security. I’m
also involved in some exciting
new platform capabilities that
build on the foundation provided
by Sure Start to provide an OS
disaster recovery solution—HP
Sure Recover—and to provide
hardware-based enforcement,
ensuring security-critical ser-
vices and applications are
present and operating correctly
in the OS, with HP Sure Run.
Can you tell us more about
your team’s innovation
with Sure Start?
Endpoint devices are on the
front line in the war to secure
data and keep data safe from
cyber criminals. If the endpoint
device is compromised, no
amount of security investment
How the maker
spirit impacted HP’s
award-winning
Sure Start
HP’s Distinguished
Technologist, Jeff
Jeansonne, shares
how he and his team
are continually
raising the bar for
hardware-enforced
endpoint security
in the cloud or back end data
center can offer protection from
a data breach when consuming
that data on the compromised
device. Sure Start is HP’s
industry-leading solution that
uses hardware enforcement to
ensure that only genuine HP
Firmware is started on a device
when it is turned on and that
the integrity of that firmware
is not compromised after the
system has started. Addition-
ally, HP Sure Start adds cyber
resiliency to HP platforms as it
can quickly and automatically
recover the firmware from a
protected backup copy in the
event of a security breach.
Congratulations on your
HP Reinventor Award for
Best Product Innovation at
the 2017 Sales Leadership
Kickoff! What does it mean
to you and your team?
I had the great honor of
accepting the “Best Product
Innovation” HP Reinventor
Award on behalf of the entire
Sure Start team at the HP
Sales Leadership Kickoff. It
was a great event and fantas-
tic opportunity to hear HP’s
2018 strategy from the Execu-
tive Leadership Team (ELT). It
was inspiring to see how much
momentum HP has and how
much confidence the ELT has
in HP’s future.
What do you enjoy about
innovating/being a maker?
I enjoy constantly learning
new skills. Creating something
where there was nothing
before. Delighting customers
by solving their problems with
HP solutions.
What role does teamwork
play in innovation?
The innovations I’m currently
working on are very complex,
multidisciplinary solutions
that would not be possible
without teamwork. I look to my
HP Labs colleagues not only
for forward-looking thinking
and identification of emerging
trends we need to start thinking
about, but also more tactically
focused expertise in terms of
best practices in security, cryp-
tography, and more.
Within our business unit,
there are many skill sets needed
to turn concepts into reality,
including mechanical engi-
neering, electrical engineering,
firmware development, soft-
ware development, and user
experience engineering.
Non-technical teams are
also critical to properly pro-
gram manage the solution and
create go-to-market mate-
rials that distill a complex
solution into an understandable
message with a clear customer
value proposition.
What’s the best career
advice you’ve ever
received?
The best advice I’ve received
was to pursue the technical
career path at HP. This career
path allows HP employees to
advance in the company while
remaining focused on technical
growth and contributions as
opposed to focusing on a man-
agement track.
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