Technical Solution Manager / Solution Architect
IBM Global Services
Total des années d'expérience :16 years, 6 Mois
IBM Global Services (April 2011 to Date): Technical Solution Manager / Solution Architect
As the Solution Architect, my key responsibility is to assist my client to drive value for money through the use of appropriate infrastructure architecture/services and analysing the business strategy and intended goals, and defining the strategic direction to deliver the desired outcomes.
Achievements and Responsibilities include: • Work within a cross-functional team to provide technical expertise in the design, planning and implementation of data center infrastructure and customer applications, middleware and databases. In this regard, I collaborate with the client on IS/IT vision, strategy and architecture; work with business unit/ organization to establish and influence their IT strategy and help to develop strategies and roadmaps that meet the business visions and objectives.
• Lead the Infrastructure solution and proposal covering ICT hosting, End user Workstation services, Data Centre Management including storage, network operations, Data & Voice, Mobile Telecoms
• Definition, design and interpretation of technical architecture artefacts taken from user requirements specifications or in direct discussions with the business, to create solutions architecture that meet business requirements.
• Performs design authority and provide an assurance role, ensuring that all architecture activities and deliverables (in-house and external) are produced to a high quality and are consistent with existing IM architectural standards, policies and strategies or have dispensation agreed by the appropriate parties
• Architecture and Design of client's Wintel Platform consolidation / centralisation project, which includes: the Centralisation of all File and Print, Active Directory and Messaging (MS Exchange) infrastructure into 2 Data Centres, using VMware and Blade technology for space optimisation and reduction in cost of ownership.
• Delivery of cloud technology and Cloud Advisory service for clients in UK and Europe; this includes cloud and hosting strategies including SAAS, PAAS, and IAAS.
• Delivery of Enterprise Security Infrastructure (Antivirus, Patching, Firewalls, IPS/IDS, Certificates, Secure file transfer) for IBM clients in the UK and Europe
• Disaster Recovery (DR) Solution & Design. Produced DR Design and Option paper for client's consideration including Recovery Point Objective (RPO); Recovery Time Objective (RTO); Network Recovery Objective (NRO); Critical Application Server and Services Recovery priority.
• Strategy and Planning - contributes to the defining and maintaining the technical road maps, and IT technical standards for all technology within the customer environment.
• Carried out due diligence on a major client's proxy services and emails systems. The outcome was a recommendation and implementation of an externally managed internet facing email and content solution that stopped viruses and spam, blocked inappropriate content, enforced policy and provided secure off-site email storage. The project delivered significant cost savings, performance and security.
• Produced a Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance Solution for a major Financial Services company, encompassing Data Security Standard, servers, workstations and network perimeter standards.
• Development of enterprise architecture artefacts including current state architecture, target state architecture, architectural roadmaps, referential architecture patterns and technology standards.
Atos Origin (September 2007 - May 2009): Technical Solution Architect
As a Technical Architect in a Strategic Global Sourcing organisation, I performed a key role in pursuing and winning large multi-million pounds outsourcing deals by creating differentiated solutions that meet the requirements of the customer.
Achievements and Responsibilities include: • Redefined client's IT infrastructure with "virtualization technology" to reduce server count by 80% and enable centralized server management. This saved US$322, 000 in annual server support costs and set the stage for total cost reduction of approximately 45% over 2 years.
• Architect the solution to optimize and virtualized servers in order to reduce data centre space, software licensing costs, mounting operations and maintenance expenditures. Systems were consolidated from 650 servers down to only 200, while also reducing complexity and the TCO
• Technical Design Authority (TDA) for Atos Origin clients (Network Rail), responsible for conducting project/account design reviews; Review and approve project design deliverables etc.
• Data Centre Rationalisation for Network Rail - With cost savings of approx £1 million, the project included consolidation of client's application servers onto HP Superdome using multiple partitions.
• Designed NHS Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) based on Cerner PACS (running on Linux) to deliver Digital image distribution and archiving functionality; and Cerner RIS (running on IBM Pseries & Citrix front-end) to deliver diagnostic workflow functionalities.
Lloyds TSB Group (April 2005 - August 2007): Infrastructure Solution Consultant
As an 'In-house' Infrastructure Consultant at Lloyds TSB, I worked with Vendors, Service Providers and Suppliers, Application Developers, Business partners, Project Managers and Delivery team members; capturing the Bank's business and technical requirements and creating conceptual, logical and physical infrastructure specifications and designs for complex business systems and infrastructure.
Key achievements include:
• Presented the data storage and Information Lifecycle Management vision/strategy, and proposed developments/solutions to all levels of management and technicians.
• Lead Architect for the Bank's NT 4 eradication project, with the sole aim of removing all NT4 and Novell OS from the Bank's estate. I was also the Technical Lead for the Bank's ITT Process for Storage Virtualisation and Tiering
• Joint Architect for the Bank's Wintel Platform consolidation / centralisation project, which includes: the Centralisation of all File and Print, and Messaging (MS Exchange) infrastructure into 2 Data Centres, using Blade Server technology for space optimisation and cost savings
• Delivered multi platform systems and infrastructure for various Business systems such as POMOL
• Designed and helped to implement mandatory software upgrade incorporating Aix, Wintel and Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM)
• Developed and agreed the infrastructure strategy with relevant internal IT /Business organizations; Strategic business planning, Risk Management and Regulatory Changes
• Business case and internal investment proposal generation.
• Procurement and Vendor management on behalf of Lloyds TSB
IBM Global Service - Technical Solution Designer (April 2000 -April 2005)
My first stint at IBM, my roles evolved from being a Technical Solution Designer to that of a Project / Solution Architect by the time I left the company. Part of my role was to facilitate the creation and identification of new business opportunities by translating specific business opportunities to technical solutions; then leveraging IBM products, technologies and services to fulfil those solution requirements.
Key achievements include:
• Design and development of IBM's E-business server farm architecture in the Netherlands and the e-Business-on-demand products, such as storage-on-demand and processor-on-demand.
Previous Employments:
• April 1998 to March 2000 (PayPoint Financial Services): Technical Solution Designer / Systems DBA
• April 1996 to April 1998 (Hays Distribution Plc): Infrastructure Analyst and SQL DBA
Professional Trainings & Certification
• Certified Cloud Architect Workshop
• Enterprise Architect - IBM Architectural Thinking & Reference Architecture
• EMC Virtualized Data Centre and Cloud Infrastructure
• VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, & Manage
• VMware vSphere Design Workshop
• TOGAF Practitioners, Prince 2 & ITIL Certified.
• Enterprise Storage - EMC Storage Architect and EMC Solution Design Workshop
• Unix - AIX System Administration, Implementation & Design
• Microsoft - MCSE (Active Directory); MS Exchange; MS SQL
• Networking - Internetworking with Cisco (CCNA)
• IBM - Creating Winning Proposal
• IBM - Solution Definition Manager - A complex solution management & costing Tool
• BSc & Diploma (Business & Finance)
• Designed large scale and complex Enterprise Storage Solution (SAN), which achieved significant cost reduction for IBM clients, designed e-Business Storage-on-demand offering, based on usage per Gigabyte and port usage. • Designed and documented the technology / infrastructure components of the BBC Digital Curriculum solution for delivering on-line education service to about 200, 000 users in UK Schools and Colleges. • Designed a Managed Storage Services for Zayed University in Dubai and Abu Dhabi based on Open, flexible architecture and Capacity on Demand. • Heavily involved in designing IBM hosting solution for BP