About Me
I am an IT and tech nerd with a passion for both technology and the people working in it. I have been in the industry since 2008 and am now focusing on DevOps having previously worked in a number of roles covering System Administration, and Technical Support. While DevOps is a multi-discipline field I would say I have come to this field via a less traditional path as I’m not a long term developer. Instead I bring a background of Windows and Linux administration, cloud and virtualisation technologies, network design, implementation and operation covering both wired and wireless networks, and telephony.
I live with my girlfriend, Elina, and our 3 rescue pets, a cat, Diesel, and dogs, Lili, and Bella. Rescued is absolutely my favourite breed and I love giving the opportunity for them a new start and a safe, loving home. I enjoy running and cycling in addition to my lifelong interest for tinkering with technology. Where possible I try to support charities that I believe in, particularly around trying to make life better for those people and animals in need.
I am driven by a continuous excitement to learn, as well as the people and teams around me. Continuously learning is not just a buzz word for me, it’s a way of life. I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow and improve; such as creating this site, before making this site I’d never built a website! I also take my role as a senior engineer very seriously; I believe in leadership through example, mentorship and providing growth opportunities. Guiding individuals to new learning that will benefit them and providing the opportunities to exercise those new skills alongside mentoring is a keystone of how I approach working with the teams around me. For me leadership is not about knowing more; it is about providing a framework where development is encouraged and learning through failure is expected and made safe.
For work, I am a Technology Principal, AWS Architect & Line Manager working for Version 1. I joined Version 1 in January 2023. Previously I was working as a Principal Engineer in DevOps for Stryker after they acquired Vocera in 2022. It was my second spell with Vocera, having originally joined them as a Technical Support Engineer in 2014. In March 2020 I left to join Microsoft as a Senior Technical Support engineer; moving companies at the height of a global pandemic and lockdown was an interesting time. I worked on Windows Performance and became a global SME for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). I learnt a lot at Microsoft, however one of the things I learnt was that I needed a new challenge, away from Customer Support roles. Vocera offered me an opportunity to transition into DevOps, which led me to where I am today. I’ll be eternally grateful to Vocera for giving me the opportunity to transition into DevOps and I’m excited to see what the future holds.
Charities
I have a number of charities that I support, primarily financially through donations, and who I often ask for donations to in lieu of cards and presents.
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National Animal Welfare Trust
- Particularly the Berkshire branch where our rescue cat Diesel came from. I now sponsor their small herd of Alpacas.
- If you live nearby and have dogs then check out their Secure Dog Paddock! Lili loves it!
- Particularly the Berkshire branch where our rescue cat Diesel came from. I now sponsor their small herd of Alpacas.
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National Trust
- Protecting both the physical and natural history of the UK; who doesn’t want a beautiful place to explore and probably a delicious tea/coffee/cake to go with it?
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Shelter
- Being homeless is not a personal failing, as society often tries to teach us, it’s a societal failing. It’s in often little more than luck that we’re not in the same position ourselves, we’d want compassion and care if our luck was to change; be the human that you’d hope to meet.
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WWF
- Even if you still question climate change, we’re not isolated in this world, we benefit from the natural world around us and we should care for it so that it can continue to care for us.
Equipment
A list of things that make my working or personal life easier or more enjoyable.
- Running
- Cycling
- Sport Tracking
- Laptop(s)
- Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen1
- Windows 11
- Lenovo ThinkPad T480
- Fedora (currently 39)
- Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen1
- Displays
- 1 x BenQ PD2705U 27” 4k HDR10 IPS
- 2 x BenQ BL2420PT 24” 1440p IPS
- Keyboards
- Logitech MX Keys
- Logitech MX Keys Mini - For traveling
- Mice
- Logitech MX Master 3
- Microsoft Surface Precision Mouse
- Microsoft Arc Mouse - For traveling
Home Office Setup
- Laptop(s) (as per Equipment)
- Displays (as per Equipment)
- Keyboards (as per Equipment)
- Mice (as per Equipment)
- Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 4 Dock
- Dual gas strut monitor arm mount
- Single gas strut monitor arm mount
- Laptop stand
- Custom made powered sit/stand desk
- Based on these
- Lab/Test VM Hosts
- 2 x DroiX CK1 Pro
- Windows Server 2019 Datacentre - Running Hyper-V
- Intel i7-8565U / i5-8365U
- 32GB RAM
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- Benfei USB-C External 2nd NIC (for management traffic)
- 2 x DroiX CK1 Pro
- Raspberry Pi(s)
- Turing Pi 2
- 4 x Turing Pi RK1 compute nodes
- Serving as a Kubernetes cluster
Technologies
A (fairly exhaustive) list of the the tools and technologies that I am familiar, and have worked with.
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Linux
- Fedora
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
- Ubuntu
- Amazon Linux
- MacOS
- Virtualization
- Hyper-V
- VMware
- Nutanix
- Cloud Infrastructure
- AWS
- Azure
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Ansible
- Terraform
- Terragrunt
- Amazon AWS CDK
- Amazon AWS CloudFormation
- Microsoft Bicep
- Languages
- PowerShell
- Bash
- Python
- C#
- Go (go-lang)
- Containers
- Docker
- Podman
- Kubernetes
- Visual Studio Code
- Visual Studio Professional
- Networking
- Wired
- Routing
- SonicWall
- Draytek
- Ubiquiti
- Switching
- HP ProCurve
- Draytek
- Ubiquiti
- Routing
- Wireless
- Ubiquiti
- AirMax
- UniFi
- Cisco
- Ubiquiti
- Telephony
- Samsung
- Wired