Othman Baalache, Principal Cloud Architect

Othman Baalache

Principal Cloud Architect

Emirates Airlines

Location
United Arab Emirates - Dubai
Education
Master's degree, MSc Advanced Security & Digital Forensics
Experience
18 years, 4 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :18 years, 4 Months

Principal Cloud Architect at Emirates Airlines
  • United Arab Emirates - Dubai
  • My current job since March 2019

• Define cloud road-map and migration strategy
• Define and lead implementation of multi-cloud governance framework (technology
standards, principles and guidelines)
• Define and implement cost & budget managements framework (cloud)
• Define cloud security architecture principles and policies
• Design hybrid cloud reference architectures, models and patterns
• Represent cloud and Infrastructure chapter at the CTO Architecture Review Board
• Review solution design artefacts, HLD/LLD, RFX
• Drive implementation of Cloud Landing Zone through Infrastructure as Code

Lead Cloud Architect at Anglo American PLC
  • United Kingdom - London
  • July 2018 to February 2019

• Create and evaluate technical reference architectures and ensure enterprise-wide buy-in,
adoption, adherence
• Implementation of a global cloud landing zone initiative and cloud governance framework
• Analyse business requirements and develop technical systems solutions, determine overall
design direction and provide best practice recommendations for complex technical issues
• Partner with all IT teams for strategy, planning, and road-maps to ensure infrastructure
solutions meet requirements
• Design and lead implementation of production DR/HA/QA/Dev/Test environments and
CI/CD pipelines
• Support implementation plans, and project timelines for various IT projects
• Develop functional requirements, specifications, and standards documents
• Solve complex problems to include various storage, compute and virtualization platforms
• Maintain and develop strategic relationships with key infrastructure vendors
• Mentoring and developing skills for members of the systems and IT operations team

Senior Cloud Architect / Manager at Cognizant Technology Solutions
  • United Kingdom - London
  • February 2017 to July 2018

Leading the Squad:
• Asses and migrate production workloads from HP Private Data Centres to Azure & AWS
• Re-engineer IaaS workloads to serverless architectures
• Overcome technical challenges and mitigate security risks
• Address Information security risks
• Build proof-of-concept and pilot programs
• Recommend best practices
Ownership of Technical Artefacts:
• Design Blueprints, HLD/LLD, Reference Architectures and Design Patterns
• Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)
• Technical Recovery Action Plan (TRAP)
• Technical Run Manual (TRM)
• Build / CMDB sheets and security checklists
Process Ownership:
• End-to-End Service Migration (Assess, Design, Implement, Release to Production)
• Presenting Technical Solutions at Technical Design Authority (TDA)
• Release management, dry-run, cut-over/cut-back, Go/No-Go
• Validate infrastructure and security posture post release

Cloud Service Reliability Consultant - DevOps at World Remit
  • United Kingdom - London
  • August 2016 to January 2017

Lead Implementation of Geo-distributed Data Platform- Azure
• Lead Implementation of security and compliance solutions for key production services - WAF
• Implement automated workflows for DevOps and Identity Management tasks
• Lead transition from Azure Classic to Azure ARM - Infrastructure-as-Code approach
• Provide expert diagnosis and review of live services and application performance with
emphasis on service reliability
• Manage and own the implementation of cloud CI/CD environments through automated tools
and processes (Teamcity, Octopus Deploy, Desired State Configuration)

Lead Cloud Solutions Architect at Pygmalion Solutions - MS CSP
  • United Kingdom - London
  • January 2015 to August 2016

• Complete solution development; business requirements and objectives; design and specify
solutions; plan; and implement all solution building blocks, lead project
• Lead Service Desk function and provide 3rd line support where required
• Lead, Design and Deploy Microsoft Azure IaaS and PaaS implementation projects
• Lead, Design and Deploy Microsoft O365 Hybrid and collaboration projects
• Define solutions / tools for migrating and integrating data and platforms
• Manage and deliver design and communications workshops
• Define and lead the implementation of pilots and proof-of-concept
• Lead sprint planning and task management, define Scrum team roles and responsibilities
• Produce and keep up to date high level project plans
• Meet project deliverables of specification, quality, budget & time-scales and customer
satisfaction
• Assist project managers with the implementation stages of medium to large scale projects,
provide planning data, etc.
• Build relationships and communication channels with client personnel - senior/directors and
operational personnel - to effectively develop solutions and architectures
• Design and implement automation workflows to assist in solution implementation
• Identify potential areas

IT Infrastructure and Security Manage at Medilink Ltd
  • United Kingdom - London
  • October 2012 to December 2014

Ensuring around the clock efficient and highly available access to data and voice services as well
as collaboration and LOB applications with sufficient business continuity measures including:
• Leading the IT Support function
• Maintaining on-premises Data Center and O365 Services
• Managing vendor relationships and RFX processes
• Leading infrastructure and data security audits and implementing Secure-by-design processes
• Leading platform migrations and application/system integration projects (see projects)
• Implementing biometric access control systems and manage enterprise voice infrastructure
• Project management (Office relocation, see projects)
• Develop induction documentation and presentations
• Define and managing new-joiners and leavers process
• Design and implement DR solutions and Business Continuity processes (See projects)
• Produce management information, Business Intelligence reports, improve business processes
through IT and report to C-level stakeholders

Director at NG Networx Ltd
  • United Kingdom - London
  • October 2008 to September 2012

Director
• Cygnet Properties & Leisure PLC (Client: Real Estate)
• London Wide Ltd (Client: Real Estate)
• Castle Rock Group PLC (Client: Healthcare)
• Oxford College International (Client: Education)
• International Oil Services Ltd (Client: Oil & Gas)
IT consultancy and Support SLAs covering: IT Service desk, technical workshops, staff training,
server maintenance, SaaS collaboration and productivity services, Backup and DR services, tuning
SQL databases, systems integration, process automation, system migrations and transformations,
managing office relocation projects, maintaining site-to-site connections, data and voice system
maintenance, Data/

Systems Engineer at Sircles
  • United Kingdom - London
  • January 2006 to September 2008

• Providing on/off-site IT support and responding to technical queries
• Maintaining Linux, Apache MySQL PHP Stack
• Implementing office moves and migration
• Maintaining Microsoft Windows Servers, Cisco switches, WatchGuard & Barracuda firewalls
• Maintaining company websites and preforming regular updates and data integration tasks

Education

Master's degree, MSc Advanced Security & Digital Forensics
  • at Edinburgh Napier University
  • November 2021

(Masters Degree in Cyber Security Forensics and Counterterrorism) Accreditations: • UK Government GCHQ (Global Computer Head Quarters) • BCS (British Computer Society) • CIT (Chartered Institute for IT)

High school or equivalent, IT and Networks
  • at New Horizons Computer Training Institute
  • November 2019

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Course CISCO: Inter-connecting Cisco Network Devices Course

High school or equivalent, ECDL - European Computer Driving Licence
  • at Hammersmith & West London College
  • January 2005

Specialties & Skills

Enterprise Architecture
Agile Software Development
IT Service Management
Microservices Architecture
Cloud Computing
BUDGETING
STRATEGIC
MIGRATION
Security Policies
ARCHITECTURE

Social Profiles

Personal Website
Personal Website

URL removed due to policy violation. Please contact support for further information.

Languages

Arabic
Expert
English
Expert

Training and Certifications

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Messaging (Certificate)
Date Attended:
January 2017
Microsoft Certified Azure Expert (Certificate)
Date Attended:
July 2019