One chapter closes, another begins…

Today a chapter closes on my career at CSC.

I’ve been working in the same office for 22 years, originally starting straight from Uni in the Unix Support team for the Post Office, looking after NCR and HP Unix servers around the country – much of which was on dial-up modem rather than IP networking.

While part of the Post Office/Consignia/Royal Mail I moved through NT Infrastructure and Internet Infrastructure teams, picking up Windows Server and Internet technology skills, then we were outsourced to CSC in June 2003.

I spent a short time in the Firewall management team in CSC, but then moved to the team looking after Windows server infrastructure for the NHS account. This team was almost entirely formed from ex-Royal Mail staff, and had set up a significant amount of automation and standardisation already. It was here that I was first exposed to VMware ESX, and it immediately resonated with me.

Due to the similarities with Unix, and because I could see the future benefits of virtualised infrastructure, I decided to try and become the team expert in VMware ESX. I learned a lot along the way, and I’m grateful to the TAM team at VMware for the learning opportunities they made available – Joshua Lory, Adrian Voss, Jesse Shapiro and Liam Farrell, I thank you all.

I was by no means the only VMware expert though, having colleagues with the same thirst for knowledge really pushed me along and we have been pretty competitive in our quest for certification and recognition. I wouldn’t even have thought to apply for vExpert if my colleague Darry Cauldwell hadn’t done so, and I believe my achieving double VCAP-DCV and VCIX-NV has pushed others along the certification path.

But 22 years is a long time to spend in one location, and I’ve felt for a while that it was time to find a new challenge, so I will be starting a new role on Monday, with Sky Betting and Gaming. It will be a very different working environment compared with a global outsourcer, but one I’m really looking forward to.

Personal news…

Hi all, thanks for all the kind comments I’ve received about the VCP-NV study guide. I will try and get a complete PDF uploaded somewhere for those who have asked about it.

More excitingly (for me anyway!) Mrs D and I have spawned a new instance (or have we forked our code base?)…  Yes, we have a baby boy, Wesley Albert, 3.3kg, born on Saturday 31st January.

They’re both home and doing fine, but it might be a little while before any regular postings are resumed!

Brief hiatus…

You may have noticed there’s been a much longer break than normal since my last update on the VCP-NV study guide. There are a number of reasons for this.

• Section 8.3 is the most difficult one to find the information for so far
• I had a competition with my band at the weekend (we came 2nd and I won the soloist prize!)
• We’re having a re-organisation at work, and all have to apply for jobs in the new structure, for mine this entails a number of things including a group session and a formal interview including a presentation.

I’m hoping to continue updating the study guide alongside this, but it may take a little while longer to get the next update out, please bear with me 🙂

Off topic…

I don’t plan on doing many off topic posts, but I’ll make an exception for this.

I’m getting married tomorrow!

It’s not going to be a huge, lavish event, in fact we’ve been pretty slack about organising it! But it’s about us, our love for each other, and sharing the event with those we care about – the important things. Oh, and we’ve both been married before, and would rather have a new kitchen than a £20k wedding 😀

Anyway, consequently I won’t be posting much over the next few weeks, but I hope everyone has a fab summer, and normal service (with boring tech postings) will resume in a few weeks.