RAD IT Consultancy
RAD ITC LTD
(Richard A. Dakin)
Tel: 07972 596826
Education
Oakwood Comprehensive School: Sept 1996 - July 2001
GCSE Subjects: Maths, English, Double Award Science,
GNVQ (Greater National Vocational Qualification) Information Technology at Higher Level
Continuing Professional Development
2008 - MCTS SharePoint 2007 \ WSS 2003
2001 - CISCO Net Master Degree (2001)
2010 - Prince2 Foundation
2012 - TFS 2012 Administration and Development
Biztalk 2010 Administration and Development
Windows Server 2008 / R2 / CORE Administration
Windows Server 2012 / R2 / CORE advanced administration and automation (PowerShell)
IIS7 Administration
ITIL Foundation
2014 - Several CISCO based refresh courses network administration and firewalls
F5 introduction course and iRule introduction course
2015 BootStrap Fundamentals, BootStrap Intermediate courses
HTML5 Fundamentals course
Wordpress administration, installation and maintenance courses
MS Dynamics Course
Server 2012 refresher course
2017 Extensive training in PowerShell, DSC (Desired State Config)
Chef on Windows eLearning
Microsoft Azure and Hyper V – 2 courses
Richard Dakin
I have over 10 years experience in the IT industry. Working in commercial, private sector and heavily regulated industries including banks and financial services. All relying on 100% uptime which serious revenue, share price and regulatory penalties involved. I have strong analytical, troubleshooting and project management skills. I am a true self starter who is relied on and left to manage their own workload and tasks with a proactive nature. I have coached staff and trained many transferees into the team and junior staff on complex applications as well as business level training to end users. I have a proven track record of coming onto complex projects and improving stability in both design level and already in place system through configuration performance changes using in depth monitoring techniques and best practices to stabilise and improve systems through architecture. I am confident self-starter who thrives on learning the way things work to understand applications from the ground up. Though I am not a developer, I have a sound understanding of how several coding languages are used and implemented.
Although I work in IT, I have an acute understanding of business practices and processes. I am as happy working alongside a director of a department with zero technical understanding obtaining business requirements as I am working with a software architect discussing how the application is designed. I am an end to end analyst. I wish to understand both the technical side and the business usage / End user.
In my spare time I also design, supply and fit extremely low voltage PC’s for the automotive industry, concentrating on the in-car entertainment industry for VAG based vehicles.
Key Skills
Wintel implementation • Wintel infrastructure design • Cloud and hybrid solutions • IaaS • SaaS • F5 Networks BigIP and LTM • Automation • Packaging • Server Hardening • Web Security • SharePoint Technologies • Aptean Pivotal CRM • BizTalk • .Net based custom application • Windows Servers (all versions) • Windows environment architecture • Networks (DNS, DHCP, CheckPoint Firewalls, BigIp F5, NLB, VLAN, WAN) • Active Directory • IIS • Apache • VMWare • Infrastructure Operations • Technical Leadership and Coaching • SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2012 including clustering, replication, stored procedures, SSIS, design and implementation and MI querying and maintenance • DevOps Windows Stack • Business and stake holder management • Infrastructure Design • Incident Management • Powershell • BizTalk (2006 and 2010) • Data centre design • Migrations • Re-architecture • PCI Compliance • ISO 2001 • Server hardening • IT Security • Low Voltage PC Design • IT Hardware • Automotive electrics • HPSA • CSA
Career Summary
Lloyds Banking Group (Contract, extended)
Senior Infrastructure Developer / Senior Technician
September 2015 – Current
Project role, engaging projects at design and study stage to act as SME for Windows web servers and staying engaged through the route to live
Design amendments, challenge, best practice and security / hardening
Design and implementation of IIS tailored solutions
Design and implementation of automation practices for IIS and Windows Cluster solutions
Challenge and improve designs created by architecture team involving web based infrastructure
Extensive Application Discovery, design and automate pre-existing solutions
Supplier management and third party management
Requirements gathering, documenting and translating into fully functioning architecture
Cluster SME. Windows 2012 HA, AG, SQL, DFS. Extensive knowledge building and automation of cluster based practices
SME web security and best practices for IIS role infrastructure
SME web packaging, automation, continuous integration using PowerShell and DSC
Extensive automation development, creating “generic” and re-usable automations to ease life of Project and BAU development and support of infrastructure
HPSA, CSA and custom written automation tools
Design and implementation of load balancing solutions engaging other technical teams to achieve design
F5 Load Balancer SME within the team
DNS management
Server building
Ad hoc development, .net, C#, HTML, PowerShell as required to complete requirements
Taking third party software and changing to fit strict banking security policies, advising third parties of best practices and policy management
High availability and consistent design practices
Technical documentation to banking standards
Windows 2000, 2003, 2008 (R2 and Standard) 2012, IIS, .Net Framework 2.0 and 4.0, bespoke apps and OOB, MQ Websphere, SQL 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, SSIS, T-SQL, SharePoint WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 /2013, CISCO network devices (routers, checkpoint, switches etc), F5 BigIP, MVC, ASP, VB, Access, C#, Java, Tomcat, SSRS, DTC, SMTP, SCCM, RADMIN, TFS, SQL 2005, SQL 2012, SQL 2014
Pearson PLC Technical Architect (ARM(Application Remediation and Migration Programme))
December 2013 August 2015
Global Initiative run in “pocket” teams across the Pearson IT structure. To mitigate global risks to learner data and ensure its appropriate protection. To enhance audit capabilities to prove that Pearson applications are secure. To achieve cost reduction and optimization. To resize Pearson's global technical footprint.
Take SME / Technical Lead position on all migrations.
Migration covered datacenter to data centre but also remediation of 2003 server to 2008 R2 or 2012, dependent on technology.
Discover, Document existing applications in place. Covering 5 data centres, 90% of software unknown at this level.
Document all firewall rules, 90% of systems were undocumented, this included discovering firewall rules and touch points in place using several different network techniques, such as NMAP, Telnet, NETSTAT, WireShark, log interrogation, router interrogation. Complete network level architecture diagram with all touch points.
Some ethical hacking required. Several companies Pearson had acquired did not document password, hacking into SQL, third party software and some windows servers was required to obtain credentials for ethical purposes.
Architect PCI or non PCI compliant infrastructure for replacement / migration of current infrastructure. 80% Server 2012 / 20% Server 2008 R2
Create hardening plan for new architecture, such as closing ports unrequired, turning off services none required, AV installation and group policy configuration.
Create deployment / migration plan of software, granular level, including deployment instructions. Ideally with zero impact to the customer / user base using techniques such as DNS failover and BigIP iRules or pool switching to minimise impact.
Present migration to CAB / board of peers answer any technical / non technical questions as required regarding architecture decisions, take on feedback and amend if required.
Undertake or management SQL database migration including build, backup and restore / migration. User accounts and jobs etc
Devise test plan and complete testing.
Deploy application / website to new architecture. Noting all bugs and raise PCR’s to fix issues. Documenting all additional config / configuration changes required and feeding back into overall documentation.
Make sure that proper completion and change control procedures are well followed.
Analyse various logs file/ Trace file for any application related issue.
Hand over application to BAU team once migrated and act as 2nd line support for BAU team if required for a period of time thereafter.
Environment:
Windows 2000, 2003, 2008 (R2 and Standard) 2012, IIS, .Net Framework 2.0 and 4.0, bespoke apps and OOB, Linux, MQ Websphere, SQL 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, SSIS, T-SQL, Oracle Developer, Toad, Foglight (Dell), NewRelic, Apache, Wordpress, Mongo, PHPBB, SharePoint WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 /2013, CISCO network devices (routers, checkpoint, switches etc), F5 BigIP, Filezilla server, Zengenti Contensis CMS, Adobe CQ, Genifax, MVC, ASP, VB, Access, C#, Java, Tomcat, SSRS, DTC, SMTP, SCCM, RADMIN, TFS
Pearson PLC / Edexcel Org Application Specialist / Application Support - Feb 2008 to August 2015
Partial home based / remote working.
Application installation, tuning, and general system administration.
Provide Application support to business (Level 3/4 support) End Users and third parties.
PowerShell, batch file scripting and some VBA. Automation of process and user orientated tasks such as disk maintenance, tidies, application restarts, backup’s and monitoring.
Some C# writing to develop UI based automation for end users.
Extensive SQL experience, 2000 through to 2012 installation, configure, tuning, T-SQL writing, stored procedures, some SSIS and job writing.
Delivered 3rd level technical support to current, new business applications. Extensive technical diagram’s, work instructions (none and technical) and hand over documentation to 1/2/3 line teams.
Ensure 99.9% uptime on sites handling 3+ million hits a day and all related services in a 3—4 tier architecture.
Ensure that proper completion and change control procedures are well followed. Wrote best practice on deployment documentation for CAB presentation and test plans.
Ensure project work is “fit for live” by being involved at ground level and feeding production best practices into the project.
Extensive log analysis on all platforms.
Performing new and emergency releases/changes.
Out of hours support on 1in4 rota 24/7 on-call.
Third party management and relationship ownership.
SME and IT Technical Authority on Pivotal CRM system for all of Pearson UK business. Responsible for upkeep, maintenance and patching plus day to day ticket support for £100M platform. Well known in the CRM industry. Aptean (third party) use Pearson infrastructure and implementation as “best practice” example of Pivotal CRM.
Technical Lead / Project manager on multiple million pounds + 1800 user base upgrades
Extensive experience in Windows patching large (3500+) estates via Bladelogic / WUS
Ownership of testing and pre-production sign off of CRM platform and other .net best systems.
Stakeholder management from users to VP level.
Application scaling – interpreting performance testing stats and scaling as required to meet peak periods of usage.
DR creation, replication and management.
Team management (contractor team) and mentoring / training
Off-shore work, based in Kuala Lumpur on behalf of Pearson training and implementing off-shore team for 1st line role.
SME for all MOSS and WSS installations on wide corporate enterprise bases.
Extensive experience with NLB (F5 BigIP, Server Iron and Windows NLB).
Firewall CheckPoint, DNS, DHCP.
SSL Certificates.
SSRS report writing.
Creation of CMDB for all secure credentials using best practices and latest internal security methods.
Build software packages in SCCM for deployment to Windows 7 users.
Environment:
Windows 2000, 2003, 2008 (R2 and Standard) 2012, IIS, .Net Framework 2.0 and 4.0, bespoke apps and OOB, Linux, MQ Websphere, SQL 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, SSIS, T-SQL, Oracle Developer, Toad, Foglight (Dell), NewRelic, Apache, Wordpress, Mongo, PHPBB, SharePoint WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 /2013, CISCO network devices (routers, checkpoint, switches etc), F5 BigIP, Filezilla server, Zengenti Contensis CMS, Adobe CQ, Genifax, MVC, ASP, VB, Access, C#, Java, Tomcat, SSRS, DTC, SMTP, WMS Delta Warehouse management, SCCM, TFS
Pearson PLC / Edexcel Org On-Call Duty Manager / Major Incident Manager - Jan 2010 to August 2015
Single point of escalation / contact for all major incidents affecting Pearson Core region business out of hours (24 hours a day at weekends)
Single point of contact for all software automated alerting platforms for Pearson Core region business out of hours (24 hours a day at weekends) generated by Foglight or NewRelic, or other automated platforms.
Management of UK and offshore team of System Specialists to analysis and resolution of major incidents.
Management and completion of all business communication and stakeholder communication paths including feeding up to senior management.
Responsible for change and incident management to resolution for on call issues. Making business critical decisions for a business with 5 million + external customer base and 37,000 staff. These decisions can impact revenue, and share price plus we are heavily regulated by the OFQUAL and other regulatory bodies.
Certain systems have a 1 hour unplanned outage limit, over this the company is fined.
Handover to BAU teams during office hours, stakeholder reports and lessons learnt based off incident management and RCA.
Problem management for incidents that occur after hours.
Edexcel Org Service Desk Analyst / External second line support - June 2007 to February 2008
Internal Service Desk analyst for Edexcel as a charity, roughly 2,000 user base
Active directory maintenance
Customer Service
Management of user leaving and joining the company, account completions and access
Remote desktop support to externally based employees running on none Edexcel equipment
First and second line support for Pearson’s external marking system “ePEN” which included Java and windows support.
2 year travel gap spent touring Europe. Worked in Javea, Spain. Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam where I met my Fiancé.
Gamebattles.com /Owner / Creator – 2001-2005
Shared ownership of small web based company supplying range of gaming ladders and support for the predominantly US market at the time for Xbox and PS3 platform.
High profile third party management, dealing with Ubisoft, Sony, Rapture.
Managed customer services via forum and ticket system
Managed a team of volunteers and buy in staff on the site
Managed a team of volunteer referees who oversaw the gaming ladders
Created events and sponsored events with third parties.
