I was invited back to Arkessa's parent group, The Wireless Logic Group, as a Consulting Network Architect on an initial 6 month contract (now extended for 1 year) to assist their Network TDA is designing and implementing a network to combine both Wireless Logic and Arkessa customers, solutions and partners.

My previous employer would not support me in my goal of trying to attain CCIE Routing and Switching. Having passed the CCIE R&S written exam in 2011, I embarked on a self-funded self study programme provided by IPExpert, including a week long boot camp. This has been over 2,000 hours of study, and over 1,000 hours of hands-on experience, mastering all aspects of Cisco routing and switching. Along the way, I did my CCxP recert exam, completed CCNP Service Provider, CCNP Security and ITIL V3 Foundation. I am between lab attempts,having been caught in the V4 to V5 exam place lockout, summer of 2014. I re-passed the CCIE R&S written in May 2014. I have also passed Check Point CCSA, and Juniper JNCIA, JNCIS, JNCIP.I have concurrently, been pursuing a lifetime ambition, to write, compose, record and release, albums with my band, The ZAAG Band. Six are currently on sale worldwide, on Amazon, iTunes, Google and others with the sixth released at the end of May 2016. The music press have finally taken some notice of us, and we have reviewed/interviewed for Issue 75 of Fireworks magazine.

I was approached by a former CTO to assist his new client in the recruitment of an experienced Network Engineer. I devised various hands on technical lab test, and hands off interview testing scenarios, in order to assess the true technical competence of their selected candidates. They recruited a network engineer based o my recommendations.

I started on 1st August as Network Manager at Arkessa Ltd, in Bishops Stortford, managing a team of 2 Network Engineers, responsible for all aspects of the Arkessa network. Arkessa were acquired by the Wireless Logic Group in January 2021, so I tranferred to Wireless Logic Network TDA at the start of May 2022. I left the group at the end of that month.

Rolling contract to provide networking consultancy to Pearson Technology:1. worldwide rollout of the Prolexic DDoS mitigation service, including the production of invocation and backout procedures for Network Operations.2. worldwide rollout of McAffee IPS/IDS infrastructure to worldwide data centres including low level design.3. Rollout of Cyberark Privilige User Management.4. Rollout of IPSonar.

Network Technical Specialist. Initial secondment to Tesco's PCI DSS programme, to review store estate for PCI compliance, and to provide costed solutions to achieve compliance for wired network and wireless. Returned to Network Group: designed and implemented new redundant and failover connectivity between Tesco Store and Tesco Dotcom, eliminating single points of failure between Dotcom and the entire store estate. Designed and implemented Disaster Recovery Cold Aisle Containment (CAC) blade centres onto Cisco network core and backup data centre. Provided consultancy in the move from IP management, DHCP server and NTP server, from QIP to Infoblox, affecting entire UKROI estate. Designed 50 node multicast network (Cisco 3750 and 3650) in support of CCTV system at new depot. Day to day design and config approvals, especially for Cisco 6500 based ACE load balancers and legacy CSSs.. Attended monthly C&W review meetings. Implemented new BGP community based traffic load sharing scheme with C&W. Contributed to the commissioning of Tesco Bank networking infrastructure at main UK data centre.

Network and Security Manager, leading a team of 3 engineers, responsible for design, development and support of NL's UKROI WAN, campus LANs, data centres, firewalls (Cisco and Checkpoint), Cisco Call Manager IPT system (multisite) and Unity, H.323 and MGCP gateways, legacy Meridian phone systems, wireless LAN controller based wireless networks, . Technical lead in their PCI DSS programme. Managed networking rollout in support of massive store opening programme. Managed IPT rollout. Designed and implemented due DMZ in support of a move to new ISP including management of migration of public facing services.

Led a team of 1 permanent Network Engineer, and several remote site generalists, supporting the campus LAN and head office LAN, and MCI International MPLS network. Migrated campus user community onto new LAN (new physical and new IP address range) in support of a global SAP rollout. Enhanced design to incorporate better interface between BSI and MCI. Provided support to Stores team on network issues. Supported remote access solutions based on Cisco VPN3000 Concentrator and dial. Installed wireless LAN at head office and provisioned network for campus CCTV system rollout.

Contract renewed at 6 monthly intervals. Worked 32 months during this period.De facto System Design Authority for U.K. Timeplex network, carrying NATS Operational Air Traffic Control Systems. Designed and Project Managed implementation of WAN at London Area Control Centre (LACC), Swanwick, Hampshire, in support of new U.K. air-ground-air voice communications system and major U.K. airspace re-sectorisations. Designed similar for Scottish Oceanic and Area Control Centre (ScOACC), Prestwick. Designed and Project Managed implementation of new network synchronisation scheme. Devised and implemented method of pro-active future network capacity planning, using Unix-based management tools. Produced numerous individual site design proposals. Provided consultancy to ongoing project for next generation of network. Developed disaster recovery procedures for both LACC and ScOACC. Trained permanent staff members as appropriate.

Led a team of 10 WAN engineers who supported and developed the worldwide corporate and customer IP WANs, LANs, London sites’ phone systems, Checkpoint Firewall and other network security products. Responsible for team restructuring, new workflow and work allocation methods, recruitment, performance reviews.

Started as a graduate trainee, ended up at Router Team Leader with a team of 6 network engineers.Responsible for the management, 3rd line support and project work of/on the Group’s Cisco router, Timeplex Link mux, X.25, IBM SNA and voice (Ericsson MD110) networks. Management of relevant staff. Configuration/installation/troubleshooting equipment. Disaster recovery and contingency planning.Project managed the design and implementation of a TDM network to support the merged Royal and Sun Alliance non-routable protocols, onto a common platform.Co-managed the migration of networking services due to a data centre closure, from an owned to an outsourced location.