Red Hat's product strategy aims to deliver exciting new capabilities across management, automation and security, allowing customers to embrace and succeed in hybrid cloud environments by being first to market whilst controlling cost. Our solutions aim to deliver a seamless user experience that allowing both developers and operators to get from Development to Production faster; Abstracting complexity and ensuring security across multiple platforms. In my role as EMEA Sales Specialist I bring my extensive experience in Red Hat and in the Industry as a whole to help our key Partners successfully engage their customers and grow business with Red Hat OpenShift and associated solutions.

Since moving to the Go To Market team in April 2018 I have taken responsibility initially for our Cloud Infrastructure and Virtualization solutions; Then moving to cover OpenShift Cloud Services, and now since 2022 I focus on Platform Solutions based around Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) across EMEA. My role has evolved along with our teams towards focusing on practical use-cases. I am specialising in the simplification of platforms with Red Hat technology to enable secure, seamless, manageable and durable platforms supporting application innovation across datacentres and The Cloud.Nearly 30 years ago Red Hat revolutionized Open Source with Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL). Today, we have expanded our portfolio to include hybrid cloud infrastructure, middleware, agile integration, cloud-native application development, and management and automation solutions. This means that by stabilising on a core infrastructure based on RHEL you build a consistent, manageable and secure base for all your application workloads across all Hybrid Cloud footprints, from the Datacentre to the Edge. I work with skilled colleagues and our Sales and Pre-Sales teams in all of the EMEA regions, making sure our solutions and messaging are aligned with our customers' and partners' business needs.I interface with the regional sales teams directly, and with their customers and / or partners directly where additional presence is required focused on my solutions. I also interface directly with the relevant global business units, solution development teams and with marketing within Red Hat to make sure that field sales have the latest, most accurate information on product functionality, futures, any issues, and any sales plays or campaigns of relevance. I maintain relationships with my colleagues and management globally to share experience from our regions. I also broker interactions with our partners where needed to assist sales efforts.

Represent the technical aspects of Red Hat Infrastructure and Cloud Computing solutions into our prestigious blue-chip Finance and Insurance customer base in the UK and Ireland. My responsibilities include fostering strong and professional working relationships both with Customers and within Red Hat in order to increase sales performance across the portfolio.As a company, Red Hat aims to provide the best and most trustworthy technical advice and assistance to enable customers to maximise return on investment in IT solutions. As a Pre-Sales Solution Architect I need to have an in-depth understanding of Red Hat's Cloud and Infrastructure software portfolio, the market factors and use-cases to which the solutions apply, and to be able to articulate the benefits to both technical and managerial audiences in order to support excellent sales performance.

Promoted within 14 months to an EMEA role within Red Hat working with large Telecommunication Provider and System Integrator partners as a subject-matter expert to evangelize the business benefits of cloud computing and to support cloud sales opportunities. Designing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) solutions based around Red Hat technologies, with particular focus on Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform (RHEL OSP), Red Hat CloudForms cloud management platform (CMP), Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) and OpenShift Enterprise PaaS.Leading the EMEA technical community within Red Hat around Cloud technologies and solutions and influencing Open Hybrid Cloud adoption both internally and externally. Setting up and leading EMEA-wide communities of practice around cloud technologies. Maintaining internal blogs and regular teleconferences bringing together the EMEA Cloud technical sales community.Liaising with press and analysts on Red Hat cloud and virtualization solutions at product launches and significant strategic milestones, and presenting at conferences worldwide.

Joined Red Hat from Hewlett Packard as a specialist overlay technical consultant supporting the sales organization in the UK & Ireland and North Eastern Europe. Qualifying, pursuing and closing cloud and virtualization sales opportunities. Leading in-house and external discussion forums and workshops, providing SME input regarding Red Hat virtualization and cloud technologies, as well as strategic input on industry direction and technology adoption.Providing expert consultancy to regional Pre-Sales teams on customer engagements ranging from presentation and consultancy in initial sales meetings and RFx responses through standard or custom demonstrations, varying length technical sales workshops, solution design and on-site proof of concept or proof of value exercises.Driving pipeline creation by leveraging contacts in existing and potential customers, networking and articulating the business value of Red Hat Cloud and Virtualization solutions.

Promoted within the company to a new EMEA role specialising in Cloud solutions.Providing technical expertise in server and process automation and expanding knowledge to cover the full Cloud reference architecture including Self-Service, ITSM, BSM, Workload Management and Capacity Planning, Storage and Networking and aspects of HP hardware architecture and management.Supporting the EMEA sales force in qualifying, pursuing and closing any Cloud or Automation sales opportunities.Providing expert consultancy to EMEA sub-regional Pre-Sales teams on customer engagements from presentation and consultancy in initial sales meetings and RFx responses through standard or custom demonstrations, varying length technical sales workshops, solution design and on-site Proof of Concept / Value exercises.Networking with contacts in existing and potential customers, to arrticulate the business value of HP Cloud and Automation solutions and to help create sales pipeline.Sharing knowledge and experience with the EMEA-wide technical sales community via Virtual Team meeting presentations, deal reviews and at sales and marketing events.

Joining Hewlett Packard following the acquisition of Opsware Inc., as a UK & Ireland server and process automation subject matter expert. Responsibilities covered all technical sales aspects of customer engagements from presentation and consultancy in initial sales meetings and RFx responses through standard or custom demonstrations, varying length technical sales workshops, solution design and on-site Proof of Concept / Value exercises.Engaging in Business Value Workshops with potential customers to articulate the value propositions associated with automation software. Perform analysis of customers’ business processes and the costs associated with them in order to calculate Return on Investment to support sales of automation products.Assisting successful sales teams on a number of significant bids during a difficult economic climate including business-transforming deployments of server and process automation into major global financial institutions, tier 1 systems integrators and UK government departments.

Technical lead for deployment and support of Opsware in EMEA for EDS since 2003.Assisted in the design of and then led the build out of Opsware meshes in the UK, Italy and Germany. One mesh connecting the UK and Germany is inside a highly secure network environment with satellites in NAT'ed environments behind multiple firewalls.Developed cost models and business case justifications to sell the benefits of Opsware to EDS account teams and exceeded targets for initial deployment of Opsware agents to the existing midrange server estate.Developed a support model for Opsware in the UK which utilizes EDS leveraged teams in Brazil and the UK. Completed UK Opsware technical support documentation and trained the UK support teams in the use of Opsware.Technical lead for current upgrade of Opsware UK and German Opsware infrastructure and software. New infrastructure will run Red Hat Linux on a mixture of Sun and Dell hardware, and Opsware SAS "Einstein" version 6.5.Developed technical designs for new webhosting accounts in an automated environment dependent upon Opsware. Provided the technical lead on both new account deployments and existing accounts in support covering Opsware, OS support, networking and webhosting middleware.

Responsible for managing the installation and maintenance of the National Automated Fingerprint Information System (NAFIS) LAN and WAN environments. This comprised an ATM and ethernet LAN at the central site, linked to an Energis ATM WAN, with frame relay links to 43 outlying fingerprint bureaux. Experienced and trained on Cisco, Fore Systems, Satelcom and other Networking hardwareWorked on the development, roll-out and support of the Sun Solaris based NAFIS infrastructure from the design phase through to live operations. Deployed and administered a range of Sun hardware from desktop workstations, scanners and printers to the largest back-end servers and 5TB of EMC storage.