Any successful cloud project or migration not only depends on technology aspects, but often people and processes are at least as important. In my role I try to manage all these aspects as well as possible in order to achieve the desired result. This doesn't only include drawing technical designs, but also validate business and project goals, define a PoC or migration strategy and discuss requirements and activities like stakeholder management and giving workshops. My main focus is AWS and Azure but I've also been involved with projects on OCI.CloudNation is a young, energetic and fast growing consultancy and professional services company entirely focused on public cloud solutions. This can vary from the creation of landing zones and migration of workloads to optimizing existing cloud environments and iOT implementations, and everything in between; from business case and design to build & manage. Within CloudNation I am specialized in cloud/hybrid networking solutions and helm the cloud networking competency group, including maintaining partner relationships.

Helping the company with promotion through diverse media like Facebook profile management, features in magazines and product reviews on websites. Also aiding in product development through testing prototypes and providing feedback. Editing and translating product catalogue and news stories.

In June 2022 I was hired by Nederlandse Spoorwegen to fulfill the role of Product Owner for their AWS Operations team. My assignment was to bring more structure and build a more mature team. During the past year that has succeeded in many ways. Several processes were implemented, the team now has a more clear position within the organization and a better view on tasks and responsibilities. As a result the AWS environment is now more secure and reliable, and the team can better help business teams deploy their services. A key aspect in my approach was not to dictate what needed to be done, but to facilitate, and stimulate the team members to take ownership.Additionally I was involved in the strategic project Network of the Future. One of the pilots was the implementation of a Zero Trust Network Access remote client access solution, based on Palo Alto Prisma Access. As project lead it was my task to assist in writing designs, build test setups, ensure deliverables were on the sprint plannings of other teams and facilitate policy- and architectural decisions. Another important part was the organization and alignment of several stakeholders, like the software vendor, implementation partner, internal departments and pilot teams. Through consequent clear communication and keeping everyone involved we were able to tackle all challenges that arose, which ranged from technical to compliancy issues.

In the summer of 2021 CloudNation was asked by our partner Proact to assist in the design, build & migration of the cloud networking environment of their customer Arriva. I stepped in and in a couple of months we were able to build a solid Azure foundation based on Virtual WAN, ExpressRoute, VPN and Azure Firewall. We also created integrations with Cisco Meraki SDwan and Zscaler. I’m happy that I was able to help this project in advising, making solid design decisions and speed up the migration phase, and learning a few new things along the way! It once again proves that when your workloads rely on connectivity you must properly redesign it for public cloud.

Nationale-Nederlanden is migrating most Delta Loyd workloads to the public cloud. My role is to specifically help design and prepare migration of OHRA and ABN AMRO Verzekeringen applications to AWS. In this role I have two major tasks: first is to create solution designs for these applications which conform to the NN guidelines and standards, second is to support the business teams with their AWS designs and solutions.

GVB is migrating the bulk of its application landscape to Azure public cloud. Within the project I write the migration designs how each application workload will land within the Azure landscape. My tasks consist of cooperating with technical and functional application management, business stakeholders, suppliers and infrastructure management to describe the current state and application requirements, defining the future state with the required Azure services, motivating the design decisions, calculating the cost impact and defining migration risks and points of attention. I also assist in designing/defining the Azure IaaS/PaaS services and landing zone design, and used my experience to help shape the migration process within the project.

De transformatie van Royal FloraHolland is de grootste AWS implementatie van Nederland. Als Solutions Architect namens Conclusion FIT schrijf ik adviezen en maak globaal ontwerpen hoe RFH applicaties op de AWS landing zone moeten komen te draaien. In deze rol ben ik tevens betrokken bij, en aanspreekpunt voor de daadwerkelijke applicatie migraties.

Als architect ben ik in diverse rollen actief binnen Conclusion FIT. Om te beginnen als projectarchitect voor een migratie van een klantomgeving naar onze private cloud. Van requirements afstemming met de klant naar implementatie door het project tot acceptatie door beheer ben ik het 'technisch geweten'. Ook ben ik betrokken bij diverse public cloud initiatieven/onderzoeken voor zowel interne- als klantsystemen. Tot slot heb ik als technische streamlead gefungeerd voor enkele transities van infrastructuur beheer naar Conclusion Managed Services. Belangrijkste deliverables waren waarbij een totaal inventarisatie van de klant infrastructuur, en overzicht van geconstateerde knelpunten en risico's.

Conclusion is dé zakelijke dienstverlener op het gebied van ICT- en organisatievraagstukken. Wij zijn uniek en onderscheiden ons met ongeveer 30 gespecialiseerde werkmaatschappijen die samenwerken om flexibel in te springen op de vraag van de markt. Conclusion IT Services kent vijf werkmaatschappijen die elk hun eigen expertise hebben:ICT infrastructuur, Java (web- en applicatie)ontwikkeling, Oracle technologie, Microsoft technologieën (waaronder Sharepoint) en SAP implementaties.Een van de werkmaatschappijen die onder IT Services valt is Conclusion FIT (Future Infrastructure Technologies). Met bijna 300 vaste medewerkers richten wij ons op het optimaliseren van bedrijfsprocessen en de bijbehorende ICT infrastructuren van onze klanten. Wij bieden een uitgebreid ICT dienstenpakket aan, bestaande uit Infrastructure Management, Managed Application Services, Mission Critical Services, Cloud Computing en End User Computing. Het doel van Conclusion FIT is om ICT samen te laten smelten met de core business en ervoor te zorgen dat onze klanten 24/7 beschikbaar, beveiligd en FIT zijn. Wij richten ons op de marktsegmenten zorg, rail, industrie en finance.Conclusion FIT is anders dan andere bedrijven. Wij onderscheiden ons in kwaliteit, enthousiasme voor het vak, plezier in ons werk en onze wil en kunde om nauw samen te werken met de klant om tot de beste ICT-oplossing te komen. Onze bedrijfscultuur is informeel, we hebben korte lijnen en houden van snel schakelen. Wil jij meer informatie over Conclusion FIT, kijk dan op onze site www.conclusionfit.nl!

Designing the fitting infrastructure environment for new applications.

My responsibilities include…

Currently working at Belastingdienst Centrum voor Infrastructuur en Exploitatie. Finishing a project in replacing all Juniper and Avaya loadbalancers with Cisco ACE modules. Also playing a key role in organising and developing network monitoring and management.

Performed a research project for network performance resulting in recommendations and a future design advice. Following the research a project was started to implement a few key recommendations.

Coördinating the tests of all applications on the new PC + image, coördinating pilot rollout.

First main project was designing and implementing a new network monitoring and reporting environment. Besides that I was one of the keyplayers in a loadbalancing migration project, designing and building the new situation and coördinating the migration of all traffic flows.

Main project was planning, designing and coördinating the move of all networks and external lines within the datacenter.

Analysing the current network design and providing design improvements. Also advised on specific issues like dynamic routing, vlan assignment, firewall setup and IP plan.

Structuring the team workload, making processes more efficient and providing the manager with team reports.