The Sussex Azure User Group has been founded by Ryan Littlemore – Azure Solution Specialist at Microsoft & Jack Tracey – Cloud Solutions Architect at Microsoft.The group is aimed at I.T professionals in Sussex to meet and discuss all things Microsoft Azure. Whether you are new to Azure or a Microsoft MVP, this group is aimed to bring people together to learn and network within the Sussex community & the #AzureFamily

Working as part of the CDW Solution team as a Public Cloud Solution Architect.In this role I work primarily in the pre-sales arena, assisting our sales teams with their customer opportunites relating to Microsoft Azure.Daily Responsiblites - Responsible for pre-sales and post-sales architecture for all things Public Cloud related (primarily Azure)- Hosting & running customer meetings, workshops and architecture sessions- Producing professional services effort estimations/calculations- Producing Azure consumption estimations/calculations- Producing requirements captures and solution proposals - Producing HLDs for proposed solutions- Producing LLDs, when required, for proposed solutions - Working collaboratively with colleagues (sales and other Solutions Architects) on RFP/RFIs for clients, all Azure focused - Assisting partner manangement and sales teams in buliding a strong Microsoft partner relationship- Driving innovation internally with Azure technology and changes (Azure Lighthouse adoption, IaC (ARM Templates & Terraform))- Running Webinars and internal training sessions to increase Azure knowledge across the company and our clients

Level 5 FA Qualified Referee for Sussex FA

Following yet another internal promotion, I now report into the Chief Architect & CEO in a Technical Archtiect role.In this role I work closely with our clients, sales teams, account managers, proffessional services engineers, project managers and the operational support teams to ensure the solutions I scope, sell and design are implemented as smoothly as possible.Daily Responsibilities:- Assisting sales teams and account manager with pre-sales activities for the opportunities for their customers that they have raised.- Creating & reviewing PS estimates, BOMs, HLDs, LLDs, solution proposals, RFP/RFI responses- Attending & leading customer pre & post sale meetings, workshops and architecture sessions- Working closely with the project management teams & proffessional services delivery engineers to ensure all projects that I responsible for were delivered on budget and clients remained happy with the solution.- Innovating with new technoligies to keep our solutions up-to-date and relevant in the ever changing technology landscape- Assisting colleagues with their work where required to ensure we all succeed together

Following a further internal promotion, I now manage a team of 6 Technical Systems Engineers of various skillsets as well as continuing to still be hands on in the networking & security technology stack for complex/advanced deployments.I have also taken on the role of a Technical Specialist which means I am also responsible for designing solutions for our customers for various technology stacks, however mainly networking orientated.Daily Responsibilities:- Line management of 6 Technical Systems Engineers - including monthly 1-2-1's, professional development plans and training- Ensuring the delivery of quality deployments on each project- Attending internal and customer kick-off meetings for projects- Running customer satisfactions surveys with customers on-site or remotely for projects delivered by my team- Assisting the resourcing team with any requirements/issues they may have- Providing various reports to the CFO and CEO as and when required- Liaising and working with the executive board daily- Producing high and low-level designs when required to for customer solutions- Working closely with the Technical Engineering Manager and the Head of Projects to ensure the professional services team are delivering quality solutions to our customers consistently - Working closely with the Service Operations teams management to ensure solutions are being handed over to be able to be supported by the Service Operations customer teams- Arranging and hosting team meetings

Following an internal promotion after assisting the professional services engineering team on several networking related P1's, I moved into the engineering team as a networking & security specialist.Daily activities included:- Assisting/writing high and low-level designs for networking (routing, switching and firewalls) and various Windows Server requirements (mainly Hyper-V)- Writing and maintaining technical deployment standards for networking equipment deployed by Acora- Building and installing from low-level designs for networking and Windows server, both remotely and on customer sites.- Attending and running customer workshops to define solutions when required- Assisting the Technical Engineering Manager with his day-to-day responsibilities when requiredTechnologies worked with:Network - FirewallsJuniper SSG/NetScreen (ScreenOS), Juniper SRX, Cisco ASA, Palo Alto, SonicWall, Draytek, WatchguardNetwork - Routing, Switching & WirelessCisco Catalyst, Cisco ISR/ASR, Cisco Nexus 2/3/5k & 1000v for Hyper-V with SCVMM, Cisco Small Business Switching, Cisco Wireless including WLC, Cisco Meraki MX & MR series devices, Juniper EX, Ruckus WirelessNetwork - Remote Access, Load Balancing & OtherCitrix NetScaler MPX & VPX (both Hyper-V & VMWare) series devices, Kemp LoadMaster, Citrix Access Gateways, Juniper SA, Pulse Secure Remote Access appliances, Citrix NetScaler SD-WANProject Highlights:- Re-build and installation of 2 HP C7000 chassis and associated blades as Hyper-V 2012R2 clusters for FTSE 100 customer into co-location datacenter.- MPLS replacement with Cisco ISR/ASR Routers using IPSec VPN's (VTI) and EIGRP for international customer across 3 European countries and UK based datacenter- Multiple Azure IaaS networking deployments for customers, including VNET Gateways & Express Routes- Multiple office/datacenter re-locations and builds both in the UK and abroad - Multiple WAN resilience installations for customers in UK and abroad

Moved to give myself greater exposure to more technology in a fast paced environment.Provided 3rd line support to one of our largest customers from the start of their contract with Acora.Maintained and supported the following technologies for the customer:-SAN's - NetApp FAS (7-mode and cluster mode), NetApp E-Series, Dell Equallogic & HP MSA- Virtualisation - vSphere ESXi 5.0 and later (including vCenter Server & Update Manager), Hyper-V (including SCVMM)- Networking - Juniper SRX, Dell PowerConnect, Cisco ISR, Cisco Catalyst, Cisco AeroNet, Ruckus Wireless, Citrix NetScaler 9 and later, VPLS & MPLS networks- Windows Server OS from 2000 and later - exposure to most roles (ADDS, DNS, DHCP, IIS, Print, File etc...)- Windows Desktop OS from 98 and later- Citrix XenApp 6.5 and later- Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 and later- Citrix PVS

Worked as an IT Technician supporting over 150 schools & businesses across West Sussex and its surrounding counties. Working on-site and remotely supporting our clients on a daily basis and ensuring everything runs a smoothly as possible.Also assisted running the projects for all schools over their holidays, which ranged from wireless installs to entire server infrastructure replacements.Highlights:- Successful Exchange 2003 to 2010 and 2010 to 2013 upgrades for customers- Migration of 100+ schools internet connections away from the council provided connections to JSPC's own internet and web filtering services, including domain and e-mail migrations for each school as well

Following an internal promotion from Senior Helpdesk Engineer to a Field Engineer I provided onsite support to 50-100 of my own customers, to who I was their dedicated engineer for all their IT needs.My day-to-day tasks range from assisting the helpdesk team in the office with escalated issues to new server installs on-site at customer sites alongside proactive maintenance.Highlights:- Completed several Small Business Server 2003/2007/2011 swing migrations for various clients

Provided day-to-day support to 75+ different customers, each with there own specific infrastructure critical to their business. Ranging from resolving issues with Servers, Desktops, Laptops, Mobile Devices, Cloud Based Systems, Web Hosting, Networking, Internet and much more.