Oct 2016 – Oct 2019 · 3 yrs · Cardiff, United Kingdom

• Cloud Architect on the Welsh Government's (WG) Future ICT programme which is a 3 year programme of works to help WG digitally transform.
• Responsible for hybrid cloud design using IaaS (Microsoft Azure) and on-premises data centres. Including but not limited to design and implementation of Azure regions, resilient connectivity between Azure and existing on-premise data centres and WG WAN.
• Responsible for transforming the WG network and network security from MPLS and perimeter based security controls to the Security Access Service Edge (SASE) framework using Zscaler (SSE) and VMware Velocloud (WAN Edge). Migrating over 60 sites and 6,000 users.
• Part of the identity team to introduce modern authentication initially through Microsoft ADFS and integration with Azure AD through to enabling Azure AD identity protection and Conditional Access for cloud applications. This also involved integrating existing MFA investment in RSA SecurID using OIDC.
• Other projects of note:
• Checkpoint Firewall deployment on premise and VSec/Cloudguard in Azure.
• Palo Alto NGFW and Global Protect design and implementation in Azure.
• Barracuda Web Application Firewall and Advanced Threat Protection design and implementation in Azure.
• Citrix NetScaler Gateway design and implementation using SAML and FAS.
• Citrix NetScaler GSLB design and deployment.

Oct 2016 – Oct 2019 · 3 yrs · Greater Cardiff Area

• Network Jigsaw offers bespoke technology consultancy, design and implementation services to help businesses of any size on their cloud transformation journey. Specialists in cloud connectivity, cyber security and anything and everything network related.
• Highlights:
• Designed and deployed Zscaler Internet Access and Private Access for a public sector body. Contracted to provide ongoing support for the deployment.
• Helped a food logistics business by completing a network discovery and providing recommendations to improve their cloud connectivity. This involved designing and redirecting the default route to another data centre and helping them migrate from Bluecoat Proxies to using Zscaler Internet Access.
• Helped a financial institution secure their AWS cloud environment and securely connect to multiple Tier-1 banks.
• Helped a public sector organisation secure their Microsoft Azure virtual machines by using Zscaler Internet Access for content filtering and malware protection.

Apr 2014 – Oct 2016 · 2 yrs 6 mos

• Primary role of producing high and low level network design documentation, a member of the pre-sales team on bids and proposals, providing governance for key accounts and producing blueprint documents and reference architectures. Secondary role of Systems Engineer implementing complex network solutions.
• Highlights:
• Transition of a new private sector customer into the Capgemini UK data centres using a private cloud solution. Responsible for the network design and delivery of the data centre network and successful transition of applications and services. The data centre network comprised of Cisco Nexus Switches and ASR routers using protocols such as FabricPath, OTV and BGP. Complimented with Fortinet Firewalls and F5 BIGIP Application Delivery Controllers.
• Working in collaboration with the market leader to produce a workspace blueprint for Mobility and Server Based Computing offerings for new and existing customers scaling to 100,000 users. Responsible for designing the Application Networking environment which includes Citrix XenMobile, Citrix NetScalers and Citrix CloudBridge.
• Responded to an RFP worth circa £25m over 5 years for a large manufacturing sector client to transition their data centres into the Capgemini data centres on a hybrid cloud solution.
• Designed (high and low level) an F5 BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager solution for a major insurance sector client.
• Designed (high and low level) a dual ISP environment for a major insurance sector client which had various functional requirements which made this a complex and challenging design to try and keep simple and standardized to enable support of the environment.

Dec 2010 – Apr 2014 · 3 yrs 4 mos

• Primary role of producing high level network design documentation, supporting the pre-sales team on bids and proposals, providing governance for key accounts and overseeing project delivery from bid to support.
• Recent work includes responding to, and won an RFP worth circa £10m over 5 years for a large government organization to transform their telephony system from analogue to IP Telephony and moving them to IaaS offering.
• Highlights:
• High level network and security designs to meet industry, security best practice and Business Impact Level standards.
• Project management and Architecture lead
• Producing and presenting solutions and proposals to senior management and customers
• Provide technical guidance and assist in proof of concept activities
• Data Centre design and capacity planning.
• Disaster Recovery and Redundancy planning and testing.

Dec 2006 – Dec 2010 · 4 yrs

• Responsible for producing low level design documents and leading the network & security build and deployment team; implementing and delivering solutions to meet new and existing customer requirements. Regularly asked to validate designs put forward by other Technical Architects and have significant input at concept, pre-sales and procurement. Design and implementation experience includes data centres, wide area networks, remote access, wireless and web hosting environments.
• Recent works included producing High and Low Level Network Designs for a new government entity to provide two new data centres (Primary and DR), transition 80 sites to new MPLS WAN including LAN refresh of all branch sites. Technical Lead for the network and server teams in implementing the solution which was based on Cisco, VMWare and Netapp.
• Highlights:
• High and low level network and security designs to meet industry, security best practice and Business Impact Level standards.
• People management and development of the Build and Deployment team
• LAN and WAN devices and Routing Protocols, Multicast and QoS.
• Firewall/VPN, remote access and Intrusion Prevention.
• Load balancing and Global Server Load Balancing

Jul 2004 – Dec 2006 · 2 yrs 5 mos

• Primary role of implementation and transition of customer networks into the Logica Data Centres. This role involved extensive implementation, administration and auditing of Cisco routers and switches, Checkpoint and Cisco PIX/FWSM firewalls. Secondary role of 3rd line network support providing network administration, upgrade and troubleshooting of customer networks. This role required excellent knowledge of LAN and WAN routing protocols and troubleshooting methods and tools.
• Highlights:
• Installation, configuration and maintenance of a wide range of Cisco routers, switches, firewalls and remote-access solutions
• LAN and WAN Routing protocols
• Troubleshooting Network and Security issues and providing auditing and improvement designs.
• Administration and monitoring of Network Management Systems, SQL and Syslog servers
• Windows and Unix Server installations, including active directory, Group Policy, DNS and Remote Desktop