“Ben is an exceptional technical solutions architect and pre-sales consultant in one, which is an invaluable asset to a new business sales person. I have had the pleasure of working on a number of customer initiatives with Ben and the things that stood for me was his professionalism and ability to listen to the customers technical and business requirements and then quickly align them to a real solution, but above all his work ethic, technical ability and commitment is second to none. I am full of confidence every time Ben joins me for a customer meeting as he always adds real value.” August 2, 2010
Core Skills
- Subject matter expert on desktop virtualisation and Application Virtualisation technologies
- Excellent reputation for architecting well performing and maintainable solutions for client computing transformation projects
- Experience of all project stages including requirements definition, analysis, architecture, implementation, testing, QA, documentation and support.
- Adept at producing a range of customer documentation including sales proposals, audit and analysis reports, conceptual and architectural designs, project plans and operational handover documentation.
- Proven track record of establishing and maintaining good relationships with vendors, distributors, customers and co-workers.
Professional Experience
Esteem Systems, Wetherby, West Yorkshire
August 2007 – Present
Solutions Architect
As a Solutions Architect my primary area of expertise is the Virtualisation market, specifically the Citrix product set. I have a wealth of experience in XenApp, XenDesktop and XenServer deployments along with Access Gateway, NetScaler and WanScaler deliveries.
I am also a member of the AppSense inner circle, which is an council of AppSense subject matter experts across the UK.
My current role splits my time between technical pre-sales, solutions design and infrastructure implementation/support.
I have recently been assigned to the British Telecommunications account as Solutions Architect. Responsible for all architecture and quality assessment work within this account as well as providing design and implementation services on other major transformational projects across key accounts
I work continuously towards setting standards and best practice for several products and technologies including:
- Desktop Virtualisation, Application Delivery and Server Virtualisation
- Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer and NetScaler.
- Microsoft Hyper-V and App-V
- AppSense Management Suite.
- BT Access Platform (BTAP) – BTAP is a key component within the on-going transformation of BT’s desktop and application delivery infrastructure. Microsoft App-V is used to centrally manage all application updates and sequenced applications can subsequently be deployed to managed laptops as well as being securely delivered to a peak of 8000 concurrent users within the BTAP Citrix XenApp infrastructure. AppSense is used to ensure acceptable end user performance, application configuration and session level security including bespoke integration with the core BT firewall infrastructure.
- Great Ormond Street Hospital – A new virtualised XenServer infrastructure providing consolidation, improved management and increased scalability. This infrastructure was designed to consolidate approximately 200 physcial servers in to 32 servers. The project also delivered a new XenApp platform incorporating the entire "Citrix Platinum Suite".
- Telford and Wrekin Council (BSF) - As part of the building schools for futures initiative I have worked closely with Telford and Wrekin Council to design a Proof of Concept environment based upon Citrix XenDesktop. The purpose of the PoC is to showcase application delivery methods in relation to academic scenarios. The solution incorporates XenDesktop, XenApp, VMware, App-V and Live@EDU to deliver a unique user experience.
Next Plc – Pontefract, West Yorkshire
April 2006 - August 2007
Senior Systems Engineer
As a Senior Systems Engineer it was my responsibility to manage and implement projects for the delivery of infrastructure services to the Next-Plc warehouses. Projects included the consolidation of 3 fragmented citrix farms into one warehouse farm used across 5 sites with several hundred users. The project has involved building Dell blade servers to host a single citrix build comprising in excess of 60 applications.
Norwich Union
1999 - 2006
IT Professional
I worked as the technical lead of a small team dedicated to the development and delivery of IT services to the Actuarial department. In this role I developed and excellent relationship with both the customer and the project manager and worked closely with the design team to put forward a valid solution. Within this role I gained experience in building HP and IBM server infrastructures along with leading edge software technologies of the time. key components of the implementations were: Windows 2000 clusters, Windows 2003 DFS root servers, IIS servers hosting an Automation web interface, Altiris server support suite comprising software/image delivery, patch management, server monitoring and server recovery.
Education and Credentials
- 2:2 Bsc (Hons) Geology, Royal Holloway, University of London
- 4 A levels, York Sixth Form College.
- 9 GCSE’s, King James School, Knaresborough
Professional Training and Certifications
- Citrix Certified Integration Architect (Virtualisation)
- Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (Virtualisation)
- Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA). XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop, Password Manager, Provisioning Server
- AppSense Inner Circle Member
- MCP Windows Virtualisation (Hyper-V)
References
Available on request
