Contract Position

COLT is an award winning and leading provider of Data, Voice and Managed Services to businesses and government in Europe. The company specialises in providing Data, Voice and Managed Services to major enterprises, small and medium sized businesses and wholesale customers.

Project
AS part of the Office of The Future (OTF) program, I was contracted by SCC (a consulting firm) to architect and implement a new MOSS 2007 intranet portal to support 500 pilot users through on-site work for Colt Telecoms, including: Clustered Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with replication via log-shipping, network load-balancing for front-end servers, VMWARE VSphere server virtualization, partner extranet area and remote access. Final deliverables included the operational portal and two documents: Functional/Technical Design and Installation/Configuration manual.

• Technologies: Windows 2008, MOSS 2007, Infopath, Groove, VMWARE VSphere, SQL Server 2005, MS IIS, ISA 2007.
• Designed and implemented the MOSS 2007 farm which included a virtual WFE (Web Frontend), and Application server and clustered SQL Server 2005 backend.
• Implemented an Enterprise search service with the Index service running on the Application server and Query service on the WFE.
• Configured the Index server to crawl 2TB for the pilot out of the current 20TB approx of content on over 700 file servers.
• Configured the Excel services for Business Intelligence.
• Configured and implemented the Mysites functionality.
• Configured a separate SSP (Shared Services Provider) to give access to external partners via the extranet.

Contract Position

Virgin Media is the UK's leading entertainment and communications company. Virgin Media is the only
provider in the UK enabling consumers for the first time, to get everything they need from one
company - a 'quad-play' of broadband, digital TV, phone and mobile. With almost 10 million customers
Virgin Media is the largest residential broadband provider in the UK and the second largest home phone and pay TV provider and the UK's largest mobile virtual network operator.

Project
As part of its drive to provide a reliable, flexible, secure and robust platform VM embarked on the NGP (Next Generation Platform) project which was a combination of the NGTV (Next Generation TV) project which is to replace the current 3 legacy broadcast platform with 1 central IP platform with full DR (Disaster Recovery) capability. Also to help reduce the fraudulent use of its services VM embarked on a project to implement a new Next Generation CAS(Conditional Access System) based on Nagra product set.

• Technologies: SUN Solaris, Windows NT4/2000/2003/2008, MOSS 2007, IBM H/W, HP SAN, VMWARE, SQL Server 2000/2005, MS IIS, MySQL, Cisco Routers/Switches, FW, Oracle 10g.
• I had to interface with 5 different project managers across the project portfolio as the whole NGP project was broken down into 5 different work streams lead by different project managers and the operational readiness stream cut across all 5 work streams.
• Design and the implementation of MOSS 2007 solution for collaboration between project teams all around company.
• Produced both high level and low level designs for both the CAS & EventIS platforms.
• Liaising with other teams working in parallel and carrying out virtualisation work as well.
• Providing post implementation support and working with the other team on any issues.
• Producing the High Level and Low level design documents for solutions.
• Creation of installation documents for the implementation engineers.
• Carried out impact assessment of all impacted business areas to identify the level of impact the project had on the area and also to gather and document their requirements for operational readiness.
• Carried out training needs analysis for each impacted area and also documented and liaised with an external training supplier to coordinate and deliver the training to each business area.
• Identified impacted business processes and was involved in mapping the “AS IS” processes where they are not currently mapped and then carrying out the gap analysis and mapping the “TO BE” processes.
• Liaised with key stakeholders to gather requirements via various interviewing methods.
• I was responsible for organizing all user workshops relating to the operational readiness.
• I was responsible for engaging with the business to gather all the functional and non functional business and systems requirements.

Contract Position

The National Programme for IT (NPfIT), is an initiative by the Department of Health in England to move the National Health Service towards a single, centrally-mandated electronic care record for patients and to connect 30,000 General practitioners to 300 hospitals, providing secure and audited access to these records by authorised health professionals. The Department of Health agency NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) is responsible for delivering this programme. NPfIT is said by the NHS CFH agency to be "the world's biggest civil information technology programme".

Project
I was involved in the various different projects within the programme which is divided into a number of key deliverables NHS CRS (Care Records Service), Choose and Book electronic booking service, PAC (Picture Archiving Communication Systems (PACS) and QMAS (Quality Management and Analysis Systems) and also the migration of key applications to the new NHS datacentre in Leeds.

• Technologies: Redhat Linux, SUN Solaris 10, HP Unix, Windows NT4/2000/2003/2008, IIS, SUN H/W, HP H/W, HP SAN, VMWARE, Clusters, Load balancers, PIX FW, MOSS 2007, SQL Server 2000/2005, Oracle 10g, Cisco Switches/Routers.
• Design and implementation of new security and operational policies.
• Produced both the High level and low level designs for all designs.
• I was responsible for the analysis of all operational related business and systems processes within the Enterprise Architecture ensuring that they are fit for purpose and regulation compliant. Where there are process flaws, I elicit requirements and propose solutions through change requests where required.
• Was involved in the implementation of a new data centre in Leeds.
• Involved in the migration of NHS clinical applications to the new data centre in Leeds.
• Improved operational efficiency by re-engineering and automation current processes.
• Design and Implementation of a clustered SQL database for the new solution.
• Designed solutions with backend databases using both Oracle and Microsoft SQL Servers.
• Was involved in the design and the implementation of the new virtualised hosting platform using VMWare. Involved in the migration of services to the new virtual servers.
• Making design changes to different platforms which contain a mixture of both Unix and Wintel servers running Solaris and Windows 2000 & 2003, virtualisation, and the Storage Area Network (SAN).
• Involved in the full project life-cycle from gathering of the requirements, solution design and implementation.
• Produced both high level and low level designs for the server consolidation.
• Liaising with other teams working in parallel and carrying out virtualisation work as well.
• Providing post implementation support and working with the other team on any issues.
• Liaising with project managers and updating on projects working on.

Contract Position

Anite Public Sector is a market leader in the provision of IT solutions and consultancy to public service organisations, including 75% of local authorities, 100% of police forces, government departments and other organisations.

Project
Implementation of a new MOSS 2007(Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server), migration of data from Sharepoint 2003 and a thin client solution based on Citrix Presentation Server 4 and migration of the existing solution to the new solution for the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission).

• Technologies: MOSS, Citrix Presentation Server 4, Citrix Metaframe XP, Windows 2000/2003, Microsoft Operations Manager, Dell H/W, Dell Blade Servers, Dell PowerVault (SAN), DFS, MS IIS, MS SQL 2005.
• Technical lead for the design and implementation of the new Citrix Presentation Server 4 infrastructure comprising of 40 Presentation Servers and a user base of over 500 Users.
• Produced both high and low level design documentation for the proposed infrastructure.
• Migration from the current Citrix Metaframe XP to the new farm.
• Design and implementation of the server and desktop security lockdown using Group Policy.
• Created a DR plan for the recovery of the servers in case of a disaster.
• Development of training materials for the Sharepoint portal and the Citrix solutions.
• Delivery of hands on training sessions to both end users and technical support team.
• Implementation and configuration of VDI broker from HP Session Allocation manager
• Design, implementation & documentation of MS CRM & MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager).
• Administration of the MOM infrastructure and creating of weekly reports.
• Building Citrix Application servers and creation of server images using Symantec Ghost.
• Packaging and deployment of PNAgent using MS Installer.
• New centralised file and data storage solution using Microsoft DFS (Distributed File System) and the migration of the existing file servers.
• Rewriting their existing Kix logon script in VB script.
• Deployment of applications such as MS Office Suite, MS Project, MS Great Plains etc.
• Implementation of the Citrix Web Interface and Citrix Access Suite Console.
• Updated the existing infrastructure documentation to reflect the new changes to the infrastructure.
• Upgrade of the company’s Microsoft Sharepoint 2003 server to Sharepoint 2007 and migrated the data over to the new infrastructure.

Contract Position

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 175,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers.

Project
Business process re-engineering for the online strategy and company re-brand for British Midland Airways (BMI), leading the processes on Navigation and functional flow of the Internet Sales Order Process as well as the whole website for the customer acquisition phase of the project. This also involved the alignment of the web issues with Siebel CRM and implementation of a Content Management System (CMS). Thus far, the new strategy implemented showed an immediate rise in the conversion rate of prospects to actual customers.

• Technologies: Windows NT4/2000/2003, IIS, IBM Blades, VMWARE, Clusters, Load balancers, SQL Server 2000/2005, WAN Accelerators, DNS, DHCP, DFS, Cisco Switches/Routers.
• The upgrade of Microsoft Sharepoint server 2003 to 2007 and WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0 and working with WWF (Windows Workflow Foundation with .NET 3.0.
• Administration, support and management of Sharepoint Server 2003 and 2007.
• The new Active Directory 2003 single forest and single domain infrastructure.
• Migration of over 65 sites from NT4 domain to a centralised Active Directory 2003 domain.
• Migration of roughly 2000 users spread nationwide.
• New centralised file and data storage solution using Microsoft DFS (Distributed File System) and the migration of the existing file servers.
• Design of the new core services such as DNS, DHCP, WINS and Printing and the migration of the existing services.
• Developments of MS Sharepoint training materials and the delivery of Sharepoint training to the end users.
• Installation, configuration and support of Mercury LoadRunner & WinRunner technology.
• Implementation and support of new Microsoft CRM solution.
• Performing infrastructure performance testing for the new solution.
• Updating the existing infrastructure documentation to reflect the new changes to the infrastructure.

Contract Position

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 175,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers.

Project
Fujitsu Services is one of the largest consultancy firms in the world today. Working in partnership (PACT) with IBM (the main DVLA account owner) on the DVLA account. Fujitsu Services was responsible for a number of the key IT project delivery for the DVLA. As part of the CSA (Customer Solutions Architect) my role was in the design of resilient systems/solutions with no SPOF (Single Point of Failure) using Fujitsu’s internal design methodology IDBM (Infrastructure Design & Build Methodology.

• Technologies: Redhat Linux, SUN Solaris 8, HP Unix, Windows NT4/2000/2003, IIS, SUN H/W, HP H/W, HP SAN, IBM Blades, VMWARE, ERDMS, CMS, MS Sharepoint, Clusters, Load balancers, PIX FW, SQL Server 2000/2005, Oracle, Cisco Switches/Routers.
• Working closely with PM (project Managers) on the delivery of system design to budget and deadline.
• Producing the High Level and Low level design documents for solutions.
• Designed solutions that are resilient with no Single point of failure (SPOF).
• Creation of installation documents for the implementation engineers.
• Design, implementation & documentation of MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager).
• Implementation and configuration of HP Session Allocation manager
• Administration of the MOM infrastructure and creating of weekly reports.
• Responsible for the development of various training materials including the ERDMS & CMS system
• Conducting a comparison of different solutions that meets the customer requirements.
• Design of a Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services (MOSS) solution for user collaboration.
• Involved in a project to deliver detailed authentication, identification and access control solutions across the extensive DVLA estate using MIIS (Microsoft Identity Integration Server).
• Configuration and management of directory synchronisation.
• Manipulation of Active Directory programmatically using VBScript.
• Researching and providing costing for the solution, system sizing, & hardware specification.
• Liaising with the Compute team responsible for the implementation of the solutions and acting as technical point of reference for any problems or questions.
• Designing solutions across a wide range of Microsoft product such as Windows 2000, 2003, 2000 R2, IIS, DFS, Microsoft Printing, DHCP, DNS etc.
• Designed the new Microsoft Active Directory 2003 domain infrastructure and the migration from NT4 domain to the new AD domain.
• Designed a new resilient fax and scanning solution based on Capitaris Rightfax and Top Image Systems eFlow products for the DfT (Department for Transport) SSC (Shared Services Programme).

Contract Position

Atos Origin is a leading international IT services provider. THe company provide integrated design, build and operate solutions to large multi-national clients in carefully targeted industry sectors. Atos Consulting offers advice and a pragmatic, realistic approach to addressing client needs. It provides “end-to-end” services and solutions, ranging from supporting strategy development through to enterprise solutions and technology decisions.

Project
The implementation of an enterprise portal solution based on Microsoft Sharepoint 2003 and the roll out a thin client infrastructure based on Citrix Presentation Server 4 to all GP practices in Scotland totalling over 1000 with over 20,000 user base.

• Technologies: Redhat Linux, Hitachi SAN, Windows 2000/2003, IIS, IBM H/W, IBM Blade servers, VMWARE, Clusters, Load balancers, PIX FW, SQL Server 2000, Oracle, Cisco Switches/Routers, Citrix Presentation Server 4, Citrix Gateway, MS IIS, DFS, MOM, Exchange server, Active Directory, GPO, .
• Administration, support and management of Microsoft Sharepoint Servers 2003.
• Design, implementation & documentation of windows 2003 Active Directory.
• Involvement in the design of the Citrix thin client solution based on Presentation Server 4.
• Design, implementation, training and support of Microsoft Sharepoint server.
• Delivery of training sessions to various end users on the new Sharepoint portal solution.
• Design, implementation & documentation of domain based DFS (Distributed File System).
• Design, implementation & documentation of MOM (Microsoft Operations Manager).
• Design, implementation, troubleshooting of GPO (group policy objects).
• Involvement in the design & implementation of MS Exchange server 2003.
• Management of Trend Micro Anti Virus solution and the implementation of flexprofiles & mandatory profiles. Installation and administration of MS SQL Server 2000.
• Installation, configuration and support of Microsoft Certificate Server.
• Providing support for HDS (Hitachi Data Systems) Lightning 9900 Series SAN and allocating disk space to the DB servers. Configuration & support of database clusters based on Microsoft.
• Configuration of directory synchronisation between AD and the GPASS bespoke directory.
• Manipulation of Active Directory using and automation of administrative tasks using VBScript.
• Involved in the design of a DR (Disaster Recovery) plan for the infrastructure.
• Involved in the setup and implementation of the DR site in Edinburgh data centre.
• Installation and configuration of IBM Director 4 & 5.10 for system monitoring.
• Use of IBM Remote deployment & Symantec Ghost for deploying server images.
• Providing support to the infrastructure and acting as point of escalation for problems.
• Design, implementation & documentation of WSUS (Windows Server Update Services).
• Configuration and troubleshooting of Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) used by some of the bespoke applications.
• Configuration of services such as DNS, IIS 6.0, MS cluster service, and domain based DFS.
• Creation of user logon scripts using VBScript & ADSI. Implementation of Flex profiles.
• Configuration of IBM BladeCenter HS20 servers & IBM XSeries servers.

Contract Position

RM is the leading provider of ICT software, infrastructure and services to UK education. Founded in 1973, RM has spent over 30 years designing solutions for education that are based on the needs of teachers and learners in the classroom. RM supplies leading edge products and services, combining value with quality and innovation.

Project
Development of a web based electronic script marking solution and a Content Management System (CMS) for UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) to enable the marking of exam papers such as A Levels, GCSE etc to be done electronically by markers.

• Was in charge of the design and development of the test infrastructure.
• Worked closely with the development team in the specification of the server infrastructure for the solution, which was built on Windows 2003 Server and Active directory.
• Providing application support with technology such as ASP.Net, IIS6, DCOM, COM, MSMQ.
• Configuration and troubleshooting of Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ).
• Installation and administration of SQL server 2000 database. Writing sql queries for querying the database. Writing VB scripts to automate tasks.
• Using LoadRunner for application testing and writing scripts.
• Design & specification of test cases, test scripts, test data; execution of test cases, both manually and automated; participate in the production of test reports participate in design, development.
• Designed and implemented a separate LAN for the test infrastructure and pilot infrastructure.
• Was also involved in the design and implementation of the pilot infrastructure.
• Was involved in rolling out the latest application build to the different test kits.
• Liaising with the QA team in regards to building the test environment and setting up test kits for the load & performance testing.
• Produced documentation of the infrastructure setup.

Contract Position

IBM is one of the leading and oldest technology companies in the world today. IBM Strategic Outsourcing Services is the management of companies' applications and information technology (IT) systems. Customers strategically partner with IBM to manage and operate their applications and IT systems, generally under a mutually beneficial agreement

Project
American Express Bank (AEB) IT services was outsourced to IBM and I was based on site at AEB helping with the migration of the NT4 servers in the EMEA region to Windows 2000 & 2003.

• Maintaining, supporting and administering Active directory, Windows 2000 and 2003 in clustered environment. Creating and maintaining local & group policies. Server farm consisted of 300+ servers and about 2000 users.
• The implementation and administration of Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2005.
• Also involved in the global refresh of all the servers systems to Windows2000 servers and windows 2003 servers and the desktops to Windows XP Professional and the creation and deployment of automated build images using WinPE and supporting users in the process.
• Providing support for the Citrix Farm. Troubleshooting problems with Presentation server XP.
• Building Citrix servers and configuration of the server farm.
• Creation, implementation and troubleshooting of GPO.
• Design & specification of test cases, test scripts, test data; execution of test cases, both manually and automated; participate in the production of test reports participate in design, development.
• Supporting the WAN/LAN network and configuration of Cisco switches and VLAN’s.
• Was involved in the roll out of AD (Active Directory) to the EMEA offices of AEB.
• Use of Quest Active Roles Server for Active Directory user provisioning & admin.
• Large-scale migration of NT4 & Novell servers to Windows 2000 Server & Windows 2003.
• Data migration from existing NT4 servers to the new Windows 2000/2003 servers.
• Administration of NetIQ Appmanager management suite which was used for the management and monitoring of the server farm.
• Day to day administration of the NetApps NAS multi site storage infrastructure. Using tools such as Snap Mirror, CIFs Admin, Sync Mirror, Snap Restore, Snap vault etc. Installation and management of the four AV Scanners running MCAfee virus scanning software.
• Setup, monitoring and reporting of storage quotas on the NetApps filers. Hot swapping failed hard drives and liaising with NetApps for replacement.
• Backup of NetApps NAS solution using Veritas Netbackup and NDMP.
• Use of HP Radia for systems management and software deployment to desktops.
• Involvement in the implementation of Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2000 with AD.
• Performing proactive network & server monitoring and reporting using NetIQ
• Performing data backup with Arcserve & Tivoli storage manager.
• Also offering Ad-hoc support for problems encountered during project.
• Working mainly with HP/Compaq server hardware and some Dell hardware.

Contract Position

Microsoft is one of the biggest software companies in the world today. The company also persevere to provide their customers with the best support possible for their products. So the staffs always have to work to very high standards

Project
Microsoft was awarded the desktop solution part of the NHS contract. So was working in the project team doing some performance testing on the deliverables to the NHS.

• Part of the project team working on the NHS contract to provide a customised desktop and a portal solution using Microsoft Sharepoint server.
• Design & specification of test cases, test scripts, test data; execution of test cases, both manually and automated; participate in the production of test reports participate in design, development.
• Using LoadRunner for application testing and writing scripts.
• Performing performance, release & integration testing of Microsoft windows systems.
• Building and configuration of Microsoft SMS 2003 server.
• Performance testing of Microsoft System Management Server 2003, MSMQ & SUS/WUS.
• Configuration and troubleshooting of Microsoft Message Queuing 2.0.
• Was responsible for the testing and proof of concept on the Windows work stream.
• System and application testing using Microsoft ACT for performance and stress testing.
• Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server for pc/server simulation.
• Used Product Studio 2.1 an internal tool for test case management and bug tracking
• Building and installing test servers. Writing test plans, test cases/specifications.
• Liaising with the test teams up at MS HQ in Redmond.
• Some project management using MS Project 2002.
• Testing SUS server solution to find the optimum settings for different sites with different bandwidths capacity.