Career

Accenture

2010 – date: Consultant, Data Centre Technology and Operations

Design and implementation of an active-active, dual-datacentre, fully virtualised back-end infrastructure for YouView TV Ltd, the UK’s newest set-top box which will bring together traditional ‘over the air’ television, a personal video recorder (PVR) device, and catch-up/on-demand TV services such as the BBC’s iPlayer.

Data Connection Ltd (aka Metaswitch Networks Ltd)

2006 – 2010: IT Infrastructure Engineer and Virtualisation Specialist

Introduction and implementation of virtualisation technologies:

• Introduced Data Connection to the concept of virtualisation in July 2006 when I joined; this included a few instances of VMware Server and VMware Workstation for test kit for developers
• Researched virtualisation options for an Enterprise implementation, starting in October 2007. Proposed that Data Connection move forward with VMware ESX
• Installed and configured VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation, which consisted of a VMware VI3 Server and 3 VMware ESX hosts
• Performed a small-scale P2V project on a number of 10-year old machines (roughly 20), as a proof of concept. Management liked the fact that these key servers were no longer hardware-dependent, and were incredibly easy to backup and restore
• Upgraded the VMware Infrastructure 3 Foundation setup to the Standard setup, allowing the addition of more than 3 VMware ESX hosts
• Implemented VMware Update Manager to manage updating of VMware ESX hosts. Tested Update Manager with Windows clients, but decided to stick to updating Windows clients with our WSUS system
• Performed a larger-scale P2V project on developer test machines (roughly 120). This allowed us to cut power consumption by 50%, and also to reclaim an office that had temporarily been set aside for use as a machine room
• Following the success of the virtualisation of developer test kit, I started advertising the benefits and availability of virtualisation within Data Connection. There was a large take-up of new test kit, P2V test kit, new infrastructure servers, and P2V infrastructure servers
• We now run 27 VMware ESX hosts spread over 4 geographically separate offices, hosting over 300 VM guests. All routine maintenance and configuration is managed by me, and all 3rd line support requests are passed to me internally to resolve
• I am responsible for actively seeking out areas within the Company where virtualisation of a set of computers would be advantageous, and planning and executing these P2V migrations. I am also responsible for proposing the future direction of virtualisation within Data Connection, including the technologies they should be looking at using for this platform
• In early 2009 I took and passed the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) examination

Support and general administration of Company systems:

• Infrastructure server support, installation and maintenance on a range of Windows, Linux and Unix operating systems, including Windows NT 4, Windows 2000/2003 Server, VMware ESX, RedHat/CentOS Linux, and Solaris/HP-UX/AIX Unix
• Administration of Cisco network devices (mainly switches) and perimeter firewalls (running OpenBSD)
• Implementation and maintenance of automated build process for Windows workstations and servers
• Hardware maintenance and upgrades on servers and desktops (90%+ Dell systems)
• Documentation of known problems and fixes
• Setting up and configuring systems in the event of failure/DR
• Good working knowledge of Active Directory, DHCP and DNS (Windows and Linux-based), WSUS server and client patching, Exchange Server and OWA, DFS and replication
• Primary Helpdesk role (on average one day a week) – responsible for logging phone calls and emails into our ticket system; dealing with and closing as many tickets as possible on the day; or working the ticket through to completion on subsequent days
• Backup Administration role (on average one week every two months) –  responsible for ensuring that all backup systems were running correctly, including the monitoring of Mission Critical Backups; supporting the Primary Helpdesk by logging Tickets when he was not available; and taking on tasks from the Primary Helpdesk during busy periods
• General desktop support, installation and maintenance, including Windows 2000, XP and Vista

2004 – 2006: St Anne’s College, University of Oxford – IT Support Staff

• Building college network server
• IT support for College Administrative and Academic staff
• Audio/Visual support to Conference organisers and delegates