TAQA is a global energy company active in Oil and Gas exploration, production & storage. Operating in 11 countries around the Globe including Canada, Europe (Netherlands, UK, North Sea) and Greater MENA (Middle East, North Africa and India), TAQA, has a combined asset base of US$32 billion, annual revenues of US$6 billion and a workforce of over 2800 people.
As Global Infrastructure Team Leader (Contractor), I lead an International and culturally diverse team of 10 network and system engineers based in Netherlands and Abu Dhabi (UAE). Responsible for the Global Data Center (based in Netherlands) & Global WAN infrastructure, I report to the Global Head of IT Operations in UAE.
Major Projects at TAQA
The Global Data Centre provides high-capacity, high availability business critical applications and services for TAQA entities, both off shore and onshore. Mixed Windows (2003/2008/2012) / Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtual environment (Vsphere 5 & 4). Netapp storage 3170/3250. Cisco OSPF LAN with Interroute BGP MPLS WAN.
Projects: Discuss technical requirements with Project Managers; made recommendations regarding configuration/architecture and budgets for implementation (hardware,software, resource management). Hands-on involvement with Infrastructure team during implementation. Major projects included:
Upgrade of current VMware 4 environment to 5.1.
Implement ITIL Change Management: Member of global group tasked with adopting and implementing ITIL Change Management. I am voting member of Global Change Advisory Board and Emergency CAB.
ITIL Incident & Problem Management: Manage incidents and problems, ensuring service quality standards are achieved & continuity ensured. Create and monitor SLAs and OLAs. Bi-weekly review meetings with major external suppliers. Identified, developed, documented and maintained policies, procedures, standards and guidelines relating to Data Center Operations.
Management: Provide senior level technical advice and mentoring to the multicultural Global Infrastructure team of 10 network and system engineers based in geographically diverse locations.
InterTrust is an international finance company with a multi-site, global infrastructure supporting over 1000 staff based in 20 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Based in Amsterdam, as Infrastructure Architect in the Group IT department I was responsible for designing and implementing Group IT Projects and providing expert technical knowledge to local IT departments in Americas, Europe and Asia and the major data centers in Amsterdam and Hong Kong. I joined the Group IT department just after it was formed in a period of rapid expansion and was heavily involved in the design and implementation of the global multi-site infrastructure.
Major Projects at InterTrust
As Infrastructure Architect I...
EXPERIENCED as:
Infrastructure Architect
Cloud Computing & Virtualization Specialist
Infrastructure Team Leader
Project Manager (Technical)
Storage /SAN 3rd line Technical Support / Analyst
Systems and Network 3rd Line Technical Support / Analyst
Designed, Implemented & Supported virtualization & cloud solutions for four international multi-site Companies: London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong & Amsterdam .
Experienced on variety of platforms
VMware 5.x (Vsphere) using HP Proliant Servers with Netapp FC & NFS SAN.
VMware 4 (Vsphere) using IBM Servers with EqualLogic iSCSI SAN.
VMware 4 (Vsphere) using HP Proliant Servers with Netapp & EMC FC SAN.
VMware ESX 3.5 on HP Class C Blade Enclosures with HP EVA FC SAN.
Configured DataCenter Disaster Recovery solutions covering SAN replication & VMWare Site Recovery Manager (SRM).
Project managed & implemented datacenter Physical to Virtual transformations using VMWARE Converter, PlateSpin PowerP2V, HP Server Migration pack & build from new.
Expert on Vcenter: HA ,DRS, Resource Pools, Update Manager, Virtual Network configuration.
Expert on IaaS: vCloud Director, vShield, vCloud Chargeback.
Solid technical understanding of the Infrastructure technologies within a DataCenter; Networks, Storage, Systems, Security & Monitoring – CCNP, MCSE and VMware certified.
Analysed technical and business requirements. Developed well-reasoned and logical propositions in clear and accessible language, tailored as necessary for the intended audience.
Evaluated and implemented new and updated technology components.
Strong stakeholder engagement skills, excellent communication, presentation and planning skills.
Comfortable working within architecture frameworks – TOGAF certified.
Projects as Infrastructure Architect included:
Defining the IT infrastructure of multi-site global organization, ensuring that it catered for both the current and future business requirements.
Setting up and implementing Hong Kong data centers, creating a fully integrated virtual environment and establishing a plan for implemeting the legacy systems.
Ensuring that an off shore entity was correct and efficiently divested from the IT perspective.
Technical hands-on leadership as Infrastructure team leader and technical project manager.
Managed large (up to 10 person), virtual multi-national teams.
Comfortable in different business environments having worked in Oil, Finance, London City Law and Public sector companies.
Ability to multi-task across multiple projects, prioritizing work and allocating resources.
Experienced-honed approach to risk management and Change Control.
Proficiency in formal project management methods – worked in PMI & Prince2 environments.
Experience has included:
Managed 10 person multi-national Infrastructure team (network & system engineers) with staff situated in Abu Dhabi and The Netherlands.
Part of team which developed and implemeneted Global Change Management for international company. Voting member of Global CAB board and Emergency CAB board.
Technical projects covering Virtualization, Networks, Storage and Wintel Systems domains.
Technical lead in delivery and execution of storage related projects, including planning, documenting, deployment, testing and support stages.
Experienced in FC, iSCSI, FCoE, NFS & CIFS solutions.
Collaborated on solution architectures to ensure all storage implementations are resilient, scalable and adaptable enough to evolve with changing requirements.
Designed and implemented greensite solutions with High Availability, Disaster Recovery, Thin Provisioning & Deduplication.
Worked with a broad range of Storage vendors:
Netapp FAS 3200 series : Operations Manager, Volumes, Snapshots, SnapMirrors.
HP EVA 8000/6000 series: CommandView, CA, BC.
EMC CLARiiON CX3 series: Navisphere Manager.
Dell EqualLogic PS series: EqualLogic Array Software.
Experienced with FC Zoning / SAN fabric admin – Cisco MDS 9000 & Brocade DS4100 FC Zoning.
Strong "hands on" experience of performance analysis and resolving complex storage incidents, working calmly & methodically under pressure.
Knowledge and experience of routing, switching & QoS configurations – CCNP certified.
Designed (including HA), Implemented, Monitored & Supported LAN & WAN global MPLS Networks.
Cisco Networks: Catalyst 6500, 3750
Wireless Networks: Cisco 4400
Extreme Networks: Alpine, Summit.
Security Infrastructure: Configured & Supported Firewalls from range of vendors: Juniper SSG, Cisco ASA, Netscreen.
Monitoring tools: Kiwi Syslog, Cisco Network Assistant, SolarWinds.
Projects included:
Changing WAN MPLS vendors (KPN to InterRoute)
Expanding WAN network to cater for acquisitions in high growth period.
New Builds: High Availability Cisco Network (LAN & WAN) with Mitel VOIP
Designed & Implemented Integrated Communications Solution: Mitel (LBG, SpeechServer) & Communication Server 2007.
Designed, Consolidated, Developed & Supported Global Enterprise Scale environments
Active Directory including migrations: Win2K, W2K3, Win2008 R2, Win2012:
Active Directory Security: GPO, Quest Tools, Certificate Services.
Multi Forest, multi Domain Active Directory configurations OU, GPO, DNS, DHCP.
Messaging Infrastructure including migrations: MS Exchange 5.5, 2003, 2007 & 2010.
Blackberry (BES), MailMarshal, MailControl, EMS (Disaster Recovery, including EMS on BES), Enterprise Vault (Archiving).
2005/2008/2012 & working knowledge on Oracle.
Citrix XenApp Farm: XenApp, XenServer, Access Gateway, Web interfaces
SharePoint 2010.
Windows Patching: WSUS and SCCM.
Monitoring: SCOM, HPSIM, IAS, Syslog, Solarwinds, Quest tools
SCCM: Packaging & rollouts of Windows 7. Scripting PowerShell.
Server hardware: HP Proliant, HP Class C Blade enclosures (including Connectivity modules : FC & Ethernet Gbe2c), IBM
Internet Security: ForeFront Threat Management Gateway (TMG), SurfControl,
AntiVirus: McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (EPO), TrendMicro Office Scan.