Meet the [Con]nected 2026 Speakers: How Buildertrend Scales Secure Developer Access with CloudConnexa and Google Cloud

Welcome to the next post in our Meet the [Con]nected 2026 Speakers series. Each post introduces one of our guest speakers, the company behind them, and what they'll bring to the event.

Zack Dunning, staff cloud engineer at Buildertrend, presents our real-world use case spotlight at 1 p.m. ET at OpenVPN [Con]nected 2026, our free virtual event on October 22, 2026. Zack will show how his team pairs CloudConnexa with Google Cloud Private Service Connect to give developers secure, scalable access to cloud infrastructure.

Register for free to see the architecture.

Who is Buildertrend?

Buildertrend is a leading construction business management platform for professional home builders, remodelers, specialty contractors, and commercial construction firms. Shaped by more than two decades of customer insight and industry expertise, Buildertrend brings financials, schedules, operations, teams, and customers together inside one connected platform. With AI built into the workflows contractors rely on every day, Buildertrend helps construction businesses reduce complexity, make faster decisions, and grow with more confidence.

Buildertrend brings every part of a construction business into one platform:

• Sales: lead tracking, CRM, and proposals
• Project management: scheduling, change orders, plans and specs, and daily logs
• Financials: bids, estimates, job costing, budgeting, and forecasting
• Communication: a client portal with online payments and a subcontractor portal, plus a mobile app for the job site

The goal is total control and complete clarity, for builders and for the clients whose homes they build. According to Buildertrend, 96% of its customers stay within 10% of their planned margins, and 92% give their clients real-time visibility into their projects. If you build, remodel, or manage construction projects, see what Buildertrend can do for your business.

Meet Zack Dunning

Zack works on cloud engineering at Buildertrend, where his team keeps the platform's infrastructure secure, reliable, and scalable. With more than 700 employees and a large development organization, Buildertrend needs its engineers to reach cloud resources quickly and safely, wherever they work.

Zack has spent the past decade building and scaling enterprise SaaS systems on Google Cloud. At Buildertrend, he helps architect the cloud infrastructure behind a leading construction business management platform, with a focus on reliability, performance, and modernization at scale.

Zack recently led Buildertrend's migration from Memorystore for Redis to Valkey, partnering directly with Google Cloud to re-architect a mission-critical system. The result was greater scalability, stronger disaster recovery, a Google Cloud case study, and Buildertrend's 2025 Google Cloud DORA Award for "Unleashing the Full Power of the Cloud."

Buildertrend and OpenVPN

Buildertrend uses CloudConnexa, OpenVPN's cloud-delivered ZTNA service, to give its developers secure access to infrastructure on Google Cloud. CloudConnexa connects users to private resources without exposing those resources to the internet, and it applies access policies based on who the user is and what they need.

Zack's team pairs CloudConnexa with Google Cloud Private Service Connect, which lets you reach managed services privately from your own network, with traffic staying on Google's infrastructure.

Want to try a similar setup? You'll learn how at the session. You can also start with our tutorial to connect your Google Cloud VPC to CloudConnexa.

What Zack will cover at [Con]nected 2026

In "Enabling Development at Scale with CloudConnexa and Google Cloud Private Service Connect," Zack walks through:

• How Buildertrend's development organization uses CloudConnexa and Private Service Connect together
• The architecture behind secure, scalable access to cloud infrastructure
• The benefits for engineering teams, from simpler access to fewer exposed endpoints

If you run development teams on Google Cloud, this is a real-world blueprint you can learn from, with time for live Q&A.

About OpenVPN [Con]nected 2026

OpenVPN [Con]nected 2026 is a free, half-day virtual event on Thursday, October 22, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. As OpenVPN celebrates its 25th anniversary, the event dives into AI and Zero Trust, with product roadmap sessions for Access Server and CloudConnexa, guest speakers, live Q&A, and on-demand product support. See the full agenda.

Frequently asked questions

When does Zack Dunning speak at OpenVPN [Con]nected 2026?

Zack presents the Customer Spotlight at 1 p.m. ET on October 22, 2026.

What is Buildertrend?

Buildertrend is construction management software that helps home builders, remodelers, and contractors manage sales, projects, financials, and client communication in one platform.

Does CloudConnexa work with Google Cloud?

Yes. You can connect Google Cloud VPCs to CloudConnexa with a connector, giving users secure access to private resources on Google Cloud.

Is [Con]nected 2026 free?

Yes. It's free and fully virtual, and replays will be emailed to all registrants.

Save your spot

See how Buildertrend secures development at scale, and bring your questions for Zack. Register for OpenVPN [Con]nected 2026 today. It's free.