John Mccrudden Email & Phone Number

London

Providing IT consulting to ensure Technical Projects are delivered to the highest standard.

Bristol

Abu Dhabi

Due to the nature of the project there are only a few details I am authorized to disclose.This is the most expansive contract I have worked to-date, with over 24 Petabytes of Storage across both DDN and EMC SAN’s and high performance networks over Nexus Fiber Optic switches (including a pair of Nexus 7000’s).The server Architecture encompassed Dell M610 Blade Servers (over 1000) in a multi-datacenter environment. Multi-node highly available cluster servers built using Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering Services connected to SAN storage disks for Quorum and Data LUNs. High performance Video Workstations built to an exacting standard using automation clients such as Symantec’s Altiris Deployment solution and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. Monitoring of the Server and Application Tier health was performed by System Center Operations Manager 2012. Red Had Linux 5 Enterprise servers where used for secure external DNS for remote connectivity to our site. I also installed and configured MS SQL 2008 clusters and performed regular backups and the occasional recovery of databases.My day to day tasks on this project included, but where not limited to, maintenance of the Lab and Datacenters; verifying and validating high level and low level designs changing and updating where appropriate, attendance, participation and leadership of the Change Advisory Board, co-ordination of 3rd parties and vendors in various support and fault resolution tasks, participation in Systems Architecture Planning and Development of next generation Infrastructure Deployment.

3rd Line Infrastructure Support; During my time at Unite I have been able to get involved in quite a large number of Infrastructure and Business driven projects, the highest profile project that I was involved in to date related to taking customer payments on our Website. I had to co-ordinate several 3rd parties including our off site Hosted Infrastructure Partner, ensuring that there where clear lines of communication so that all relevant Change Requests were approved and carried out well in advance of Business Deadlines.One of my earliest projects within Unite was to rebuild their ISA Firewall and bring it more in-line with best practices. During this upgrade I also integrated Websense Filtering and Security and put in place several procedures for monitoring and reporting on Internet Usage within the Organization. Following my recommendations has reduced the overall network bandwidth utilization of the company for none work related activates by 80%.Working with one of our 3rd parties I installed Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager 2007. This has been successfully deployed throughout Unite for Desktop Deployment, Software and Asset Tracking/Reporting, Remote Assistance (for Help Desk personnel) and Application Deployment.

This was a multi-function role as I provided both remote assistance via Telephone and Support Tickets and also a variety of On Site visits. These have involved journeys to Manchester and Glasgow from the London Based office. I was primarily responsible for incident resolution or as a point of escalation for the Helpdesk.Sovereign have a large focus on Citrix Servers, I administered Server Farms of 8 or more servers. This has allowed me to increase my Citrix exposure dramatically.I have also been responsible for marinating the Data Center which houses many of the clients off site servers, such as Citrix server farms, Exchange servers and Data Servers. This is a temperature controlled, static free environment with several Racks containing many servers and infrastructure equipment. Cisco Switches and Routers provided the network connectivity for the Center.

2nd and 3rd line Support; I function mainly as the Apple resource for the company. As well as being the main Apple resource I also support Active Directory Windows 2k and 2003, Exchange Server 2003 and mainly Juniper Netscreen Firewalls and Blackberry Enterprise Servers. During my time with Wavex I have installed and configured Bloomberg Terminals and configured their connectivity to the Bloomberg network. I have also worked with numerous Blackberry configurations, from Internet only Blackberrys to Enterprise Blackberrys using an Enterprise Server. I have implemented mail-filtering services such as Blackspider, Message Labs and GFI for a number of companies, ensuring that their systems are secure from unwanted e-mail. There are some Citrix, Cisco PIX firewalls and SOHO ADSL Routers that I am involved in supporting. Recently I installed an Apple solution for Printflow in Islington. I have been tasked to design and implement in-house training for Apple Desktop and Server support.

The role mainly consisted of supporting Active Directory and Exchange for over 600 Curriculum PC's across 2 sites. Maintaining 8 servers, which consisted of a mix of Windows 2000 and 2003 and one Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Server. The Site also included 2 Proxy Servers, 2 Exchange Servers and an Application server. The network was built on top of a Fibre Optic backbone that connected the Servers to each of the main Buildings of the College, these buildings then had their own HP managed switches that provided the second layer connections to the classrooms and offices. This was supplemented with a wireless network that was provided by 3com access points that where placed at various places around the college. The College also used a mixture of HP, Oki and Konica Minolta network printers. The Apple Mac systems where connected to the OS X Server via Open Directory and LDAP, which was used to Shadow the Active Directory database so that users would have the ability to use the same user account on either system. Also support was required for the various Promethean and Smatbfsoard interactive whiteboards and Sony and Epson projectors that where installed in the majority of classrooms. During my time at QE I was also called upon to teach the Teachers and Staff on various different aspects of using IT. Including but not limited to Apple Macs, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and HTML.

I specialized in PC systems and Software, Customer Interaction on a Daily basis in a face to face environment. I addressed concerns about purchases and gave general PC advice. I looked after the Shop Face, insuring that it was kept neat and tidy; also I assisted with early morning deliveries by unloading from the van and inputting stock into the stores database.

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