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I have been working as the Compute & Storage Architect at NBCUniversal for their multi-million pound APAC, EMEA and Regional Storage Refresh Projects. Utilizing my Cloud knowledge and skills, I have provided input into their Corporate Cloud Strategy, including details of the assessments, discovery and due diligence that must be taken against each service stream in order to determine the best possible platform – whether it be on-premise, on-cloud or a hybrid of the two. NBCUniversal are embracing next generation platforms and I have been responsible for the design and migration of their on-premise datacentre NAS/SAN Storage. I have assisted with the fulfilment of one of the Corporate Cloud Strategy streams, which includes the migration to Cloud for several Regional NAS Storage deployments – vastly reducing costs and reducing the time to refresh. Project highlights include:
· Designing ONTAP Cloud on Amazon AWS for six Regional Sites requiring CIFS Storage, mitigating the need for deploying, operating and supporting locally deployed infrastructure.
· Designing APAC & EMEA Datacentre Storage Solutions using FAS8000 Series Hybrid SSD/HDD Storage Clusters, fully segregated using NAS/SAN Vservers to support NBCUniversal’s array of business units
· Using the 7-Mode Transitioning Tool to seamlessly migrate 7-Mode NAS/SAN workloads to on-premise and off-premise cDOT 8.3 & 9.1 environments
· Migration of the entire APAC & EMEA VMware estate from 7-Mode to cDOT consisting of over 1,500 VMs
· Designed the Storage Solution for NBCUniversal’s acquisition of DreamWorks Animation

Working as a Solutions Architect on a multi-million Managed Services Contract for Nationwide Building Society on behalf of Tata Consultancy Services. As a Solutions Architect, I was working on a Service Transition & Transformation Programme, which included the takeover of all Nationwide's Flexpod-based Compute, Network and Storage Platforms that support business services. Platforms include:
· Development Suite - Supporting the Nationwide automated Development platform
· VDI - Supporting the Corporate Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for 15,000 Desktops
· Branch Infrastructure - Providing services to 100s of Nationwide Bank Branches
· Card Data Protection - Providing the secure PCI-compliant platform for Card Services
· Virtual Server Platform - Providing the core back-end Nationwide Business Services
· Nationwide Now - Supporting the Customer Portal for Online Banking
· UCCE - Supporting the IP Telephony and Point of Presence infrastructure

Designing infrastructure solutions for the European Space Agency on behalf of Serco. As a Solutions Architect, I have translated the customer’s high-level business requirements into technical and infrastructure solution specifications. Later, the role developed encompassing Technical Architecture, where I was responsible for contributing to design work and supervising other architects and external consultants. Project highlights include:
· ESRIN/ESOC Cloud – Architecting an on-premise, DR replicated compute platform to support the services required for ESA’s two main sites; reducing operational costs and improving reliability. The chosen solution was a Flexpod consisting of Cisco UCS Blade Infrastructure, NetApp FAS8000 Series Storage, Cisco Nexus, Cisco MDS Fabric, VMware vSphere and protected with VMware SRM. The solution was architected in such a way that it would provide multi-tenancy/segregation of ESA services using SVMs, vApps and Network Security Zones.
· Server Backup Consolidation – Consolidating four of ESA’s legacy backup solutions to a single unified solution to reduce costs and simplify management. CommVault Simpana 10 achieved this using dual replicated backup sites for disaster recovery and off-site tape backup, driven by the ESRIN/ESOC Cloud instances and using tiered SSD, SAS and SATA Storage.
· Active Directory Upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2 to improve domain security and availability globally across fifteen sites including the ratification of the domain structure and DNS/DHCP.
· Distributed Sites – Architecting a virtualized platform tailored to thirteen of ESA’s Major and Minor Sites to provide high availability of AD, File, Print, Monitoring SCCM; achieved using Cisco UCS Blade & C-Series infrastructure, VMware vSphere and NetApp Storage.
· Test Environment – CommVault Simpana delivered this; the solution allowed for any one or a number of ESA’s corporate Physical or Virtual systems to be spun up in isolation for testing and development without affecting the live environment.
· Security Hardening – Converging vendor best practices with ESA security specifications to reduce the security footprint of all Serco-deployed infrastructure and meet compliance requirements. This was achieved by compiling and invoking a Security Hardening document incorporating VMware, NetApp, Cisco and HP technologies; covering all levels from hardware to software, RBAC, network, monitoring and so on.

As a Technical Consultant, this role was particularly customer-orientated where I was responsible for the design and delivery of several solutions and providing a level of support. Solutions include:
· Tiered Backup & Data Protection for a Lloyds Insurance Underwriter: Canopius. The solution was achieving using the array-integration abilities of the NetApp Storage to provide automated multi-site data mirroring and data vaulting for Databases, Email and File data; governed by policies depending on the data type, retention requirements and RPO/RTO allowing compliance with the business.
· SQL Migrations for Canopius – from legacy stand-alone SQL 2003/2008 to clustered multi-site AlwaysOn configurations to ensure critical databases remained in service 24/7.
· FlexPod deployments providing a number of customers with their own on-premise highly available and scalable cloud platform using Cisco UCS B-Series, Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, NetApp FAS2000 Series and VMware vSphere.
· Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for several customers delivered using a hybrid of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop based on user and application requirements. Citrix Provisioning Services streamlined the desktop delivery and maintenance, allowing IT departments to seamlessly manage their desktop estate from images.

Designing and implementing IT infrastructure for two financial regulatory authorities: European Banking Authority (London) and European Insurance & Occupational Pensions Authority (Frankfurt). The role involved end-to-end delivery and included engaging with the client, producing high/low level design documentation, building the solution and providing testing and handover at the end of each phase. The solutions include:
· FlexPod Deployment to provide the private cloud platform for all infrastructure services. This was achieved using Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus, NetApp Storage and VMware vSphere to provide a unified platform for the virtualised environment across two replicated datacentres, protected by VMware SRM for Disaster Recovery.
· NetApp Backup & Data Protection Implementation using the array-integration tools to protect business services including Exchange, SQL, and VMware. Based on protection and recovery requirements, policies governed and orchestrated the flow of data to meet legislation - including site-site SnapMirror for short-term DR replication and SnapVault for long-term 7-year data archival.
· NetApp Storage as a Service using OnCommand Suite/DataFabric Manager for orchestrating the creation, customization and protection of all storage within the deployments across both datacentres based on their characteristics such as provisioning, protection and performance requirements.
· Exchange 2013 Migration in a multi-DAG setup to provide resiliency and high-availability of Email functionality across the environment for 1000+ mailboxes.
· SQL Server 2012 Implementation using AlwaysOn Availability Groups to provide high-availability of SQL databases across both datacentres with automated failover and zero downtime.
· 802.1x/RADIUS Implementation to support a wireless network deployment using Cisco 5500 Series WLC, 802.1x using Microsoft NPS for RADIUS authentication and WebAuth for guest access.

Providing technical consultancy and support to mid-enterprise level customers. This has been a combination of both remote and on-site visits, providing services from Cetus’ portfolio of products. Solutions include:
· VMware vSphere 4.x to 5.1 Migrations, backed by NetApp FAS 2000 series storage over NFS or iSCSI. Protecting the environment using NetApp VSC to offer on-disk backup for rapid backup/restore.
· NetApp SnapMirror replication between customer sites for disaster recovery.
· Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp delivered desktop deployments – streamed using Citrix Provisioning Services to allow simplified image management using base images and version control.
· Exchange 2010 Migrations with DAGs to offer redundancy and balanced workloads – protected using NetApp SnapManger for Exchange to offer on-disk backups for DAG members.

Maintaining and developing the group’s centralized IT infrastructure, supporting eight remote MPLS sites across the north-west. The role involved managing the Technical Team to ensure business as usual as well as the design and development of the infrastructure based on business vision and requirements. Several projects I was responsible for include:
· VDI Deployment to maximize user experience based on their needs. This was achieving through the migration of XenApp 5 to hybrid Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 & XenApp 6.5 desktops. Delivered using Citrix Provisioning Services, this allowed the ICT Technical Team to effectively manage software updates and patch management using images.
· Implementing Cisco UCS Blade infrastructure to deliver high density, fully redundant and power efficient VMware vSphere platform; reducing the overall power and cooling requirements in the local datacentre and allowing the ease of expansion.
· Upgrade of the Core Network using Cisco Catalyst 4500-X switches. Providing native 10GbE connectivity to the datacentre infrastructure including Cisco UCS, NetApp storage, and 3750-X edge stacks.
· Implementing Disaster Recovery to replicate the primary site to the DR site. This was accomplished using VMware SRM with storage array integration for NetApp to provide SAN-level replication of VMs using asynchronous SnapMirror between our live and DR sites.

Maintaining and developing the school’s IT Infrastructure to support 850 users across workstations, laptops and thin clients. The role was particularly hands-on with the inclusion of leading a small team. Major projects I worked on include:
· Exchange 2007 Migration – moving 1000+ mailboxes from legacy Exchange 2003 and Novell GroupWise to a single solution
· Implementing VMware ESXi 3.5 to consolidate physical servers and reduce hardware costs
· Implementing Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 with Secure Gateway to provide remote access for Students and Teachers
· Implementing a Hitachi Fibre-Channel SAN to provide high availability clustering for ESXi, Email & SQL

Managing all systems and maintaining the network infrastructure across the school campus. Whilst in this position I was involved in:
· Implementing a centrally-managed wireless solution using HP Wireless Edge Services to provide highly available wireless access across all classrooms
· Unifying Server Infrastructure with deployment of HP ProLiant DL Series servers
· Upgrading of the switching infrastructure to HP ProCurve to support gigabit connectivity