Wren Mott
wren@cloudlasso.net
+44 (0)
779 278 1870
Profile – Azure
I am a member of Microsoft’s Azure Advisory Board and
currently the Lead Azure Architect (Cloud Solutions Architect) for Maersk,
the world’s largest logistics company.
I am also a former full time MSFT employee (Microsoft
Consulting Services). I have a broad technical skill set spanning the
Microsoft stack, data centre virtualisation and design with an emphasis on
converged infrastructure, management and execution of large-scale
deployments, disaster recovery and business continuity, global messaging
systems, transformational refresh programmes, and rolling out secure cloud
solutions for some of the largest companies in the world across Europe,
Africa and the US. I thrive on leading highly skilled technical teams,
delivering cutting edge technologies, learning new things, a dynamic work
place, strong team work, and being thrust into the mix.
My softer skillset has been honed not only through MSFT MCS
and its mentoring program but also as a freelance consultant for cross sector
companies where I have liaised with primary stakeholders to define
requirements, highlight risks, look after budgetary matters, and leading more
junior resources whilst delivering at the highest of levels within aggressive
timelines. I am comfortable and experienced with interacting at all levels of
the business and have demonstrated a strong and engaging presentation
ability.
Over the last four years I have become the director of my own
consulting firm running SME teams and delivering technologies facilitating
the mergers and acquisitions of BSKYB (SKY) TV, the rebranding,
restructuring, and re-envisioning of an intercontinental IT department across
the UK and West Africa (Sierra Leone) for African Minerals, and guided a
technology transformational programme of work at Jupiter Asset Management,
rolling out the latest MSFT and messaging technologies including AOAG enabled
SQL 2012 geo-clusters for HA/DR/BCP. This programme encompassed mission
critical applications like SharePoint 2010, CRM 2011, K2, Coric, and others.
Likely, one of the first such projects undertaken in the UK. I also
working closely with Cisco to deliver a multi-site, optimised converged
infrastructure data centre solution based on their UCS offering.
Work experience
August 2015 –
Present
Maersk via
CloudLasso/
U.K. – Principal Azure Architect
The Maersk
Group is a worldwide conglomerate and operates in some 130 countries with a
workforce of over 89,000 employees. In addition to owning one of the world’s
largest shipping companies, Maersk is involved in a wide range of activities
in the shipping, logistics, and the oil and gas industries.
• Member of
the Microsoft Azure Advisory Board
• Azure
Solutions Architect lead supporting and designing secure Azure PaaS solutions
designed to run on a global scale often times under very harsh and challenging
conditions
• Responsible
for the technical integrity and scalability of Azure resources across three
continents (Azure regional data centre facilities) including hybrid
ExpressRoute configuration in North America, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and soon
India.
• Consultation
and collaboration with both internal and third-party architects world-wide
across a variety of cloud related disciplines
• Responsible
for instituting process and strategy behind designing and maintaining Infrastructure
as Code on the Azure Service Manager and Azure Resource Manager platforms
March 2015 –
August 2015
Medecines and
Healthcare Regulatory Agency via CloudLasso/ U.K. –
Principal Azure Architect
Trend-setting
programme of work for the MHRA, an agency within the UK Department of Health,
whose mission is to transform two 'terrestrial' datacentres and their
services into Azure IaaS/PaaS
dramatically
reducing the MHRA’s terrestrial footprint, drive down costs associated
with IT, and pave the way for future innovative solutions based upon a cloud
first mantra.
• Member of the
Microsoft Azure Advisory Board
• Aligned solutions
according to CESG, G-Cloud, Cloud Principles, and the National Technical
Authority for Information Assurance
• Azure Enterprise
Agreement (EA) management, design hierarchy (EA Admin), and fiscal governance
• Lead technical
architect for a hybrid Azure IaaS deployment that includes ExpressRoute,
third party virtual appliances, the extension of on-prem Active Directory and
integration with Azure Active directory for the enablement of single sign-on
with O365
• Both Azure Service
Manager and Azure Resource Manager manipulation and automation of various
Azure services and constructs
January 2014 –
March 2015
Content and Code/ U.K. – Systems
Architect and Datacentre Lead
Content and Code are the
UK's leading supplier of Microsoft business solutions, specializing in
Microsoft SharePoint, Intranets, Office 365, and Azure.
Position: Lead
Systems Architect
·
Azure Infrastructure Lead (Azure
Active Directory, Intune, IaaS and other services)
·
Completed Azure University at MSFT
HQ in TVP
·
Led SMEs throughout the build of
hosted solutions for the BBC, Johnson Matthey, Williams Lea, Mott MacDonald
and other global coroporate entities with focus on networking, storage,
compute, and security
·
Liason officer between the
business and NIU Solutions, an IBM partner
·
Specifically brought on board to
lead their push into the hosting space
·
Responsible for developing
business continuity and disaster recovery plans for global clients within a
mutli-tenancy, multi-datacentre infrastructure
·
Network performance and
optimisation for various clients wishing to move to O365 (Office 365)
·
Increased profit margins by
transitioning clients from VMWare to Hyper-V 2012 R2.
·
Exchange 2013 hybrid migrations
November 2013
– December 2013
New Look Retailers/ U.K. - Contract
New Look is a leading fast fashion retailer, offering excitement and
accessible fashion across the globe with over 1,000 stores, serving 120
countries online, and employing over 18,000 people.
Position:
Solutions Architect/Collaboration Specialist
· Corporate wide deployment of Lync 2013 enabling chat,
presence, and voice and video calling
· Quick enablement of Hong Kong based office through Office
365 and Lync federation
· Managed requirements and commmunications between various
teams to enable secure Lync external access covering all aspects of the
network including ASA/Checkpoint firewalls, public certificates and SANs,
load balancers (Barracuda), and detailed TCP/IP troubleshooting
· PIC federation for IM and presence information between New
Look, external vendors (Accenture), and public XMPP compliant chat offerings
like Skype and Google+
June 2012 –
October 2013
Jupiter Assest
Management
/
U.K. – Microsoft Lead
Jupiter Asset Management is an award-winning UK fund management group,
managing over 25 billion pounds in equity and bond investments for private
and institutional investors.
Position:
Solutions Architect/Microsoft Lead
· Directed team members across technical disciplines to
deliver projects on time and under budget
· Design and build of SQL 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Group
Geo-Clusters
· Liaison between the business and Cisco on the delivery of
a converged and virtualized data centre infrastructure (IaaS) based on
Cisco’s Unified Computing System. Role included requirements
development, participation in high level and low level design discussions,
and application discovery and mapping
·
Overhauled and consolidated the business’ SQL environment onto a
multi-instance SQL 2012 AlwaysOn geo-cluster including PowerShell deployed
SharePoint 2010 (33,000 sites) and CRM 2011. This role required tight
integration and collaboration with the development team.
·
Designed a proprietary branch office appliance around MS Server 2012,
Direct Access, and Branch Cache technologies to support rapid global
growth. Offices were expected to be thrown up overnight and
decommissioned or relocated as requested.
· Deployed PowerShell enabled Azure based pilot office for
hybrid infrastructure research and development.
· Technical lead for a transformational programme of work
which was responsible for bringing all legacy systems up to current release
and consolidating wherever possible
· Contributed to Exchange 2003 to 2010 transition with the
following additional components
o
Websense External Gateway for security, archiving, compliance, and
business continuity
o
Good
Technologies for Mobile Device Management
(MDM) for BYOD
o
Ironport
o
Blackberry
Enterprise Server (BES) upgrade and deployment
o
HP 5500 Messaging Appliances
o
Introduction
of F5 3600 and stretched VLANs to accommodate global and automated failover
March 2012 –
June 2012
CSC/Royal Mail
Group
/
U.K. - Contract
CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled business
solutions and services
Position:
Solutions Architect
· Lead team member of a UK wide deployment of branch office
appliances for the Royal Mail Group
· Member of a team responsible for delivering a self-service
private cloud IaaS solution based on Hyper-V and SCCM 2012
· Transformational work bringing all MSFT based legacy
systems to current 2008/2012 versions
· Deep hands-on technical troubleshooting for estate-wide
upgrade to Windows 7
October 2011 –
February 2012
African Minerals / U.K./ Sierra
Leone Africa - Contract
African Minerals is involved in exploration, greenfield Rail &
Port construction & operations and production of Iron Ore in Sierra Leone
with over US$1.1bn of funding.
Position:
Solutions Architect/Head of Workplace Technologies
·
Management, mentoring and guidance
of junior staff across technical disciplines
·
Led the restructuring and
rebranding of the cross intercontinental IT department consisting of teams of
7 in the London HQ and 30+ in Sierra Leone
·
Responsible for purchasing and
deployment of technologies in a challenging and sometimes hostile environment
across 4 mining camps in west Africa
·
Migration and consolidation of
legacy systems including Exchange, Forefront, Active Directory, and network
services largely automated through PowerShell
·
Designed and deployed Lync 2010
for instant messaging and AV communications
·
VSphere management of virtualized
systems
·
Designed and implemented SCCM/Forefront
for client end point security
·
Second tier support for satellite
communications and intercontinental connectivity
April 2011 –
September 2011
British SKY
Broadcasting / U.K. - Contract
BSKYB is the largest extra-terrestrial provider of media content and
consumer based IP services in the UK
Position:
Solutions Architect
· Directly responsible for reporting project progress to
business stakeholders at all levels of management
· Designed and executed the integration of newly acquired
businesses into the core SKY infrastructure including email, network
services, and third party LOB applications
· Installed and configured Quest Migration Manager for
Active Directory
· Installed and configured Quest Migration Manager for
Exchange
·
Migrated over 700 user accounts
from an externally trusted forest into the primary forest at BSKYB
·
Migrated over 700 mailboxes (2TB+)
from an external Exchange 2007 to the corporate Exchange 2010 SP 1 system
·
Led daily and weekly status
meetings
July 2010 –
February 2011
Esteem Systems / U.K.
Esteem is one of the leading MSFT gold partner consultancies and IT
Managed Services providers in the UK
Position:
Technical Architect and Microsoft Practice Lead
· Led several high profile Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010
migration projects, some of which utilized Quest migration tools
· Solutions architect responsible for delivering a
virtualized private cloud (SCVMM/SCOM) for the National Maritime Museum and
managing other consultants’ work streams
·
Member of a team of architects
responsible for designing and building a fail-over private cloud datacentre
solution for one of the largest outsourcers in the country
·
Responsible for setting, managing,
and maintaining stakeholder/business unit leaders’ expectations
· Oversaw the development of a team of Microsoft consultants
and liaised between Esteem and Microsoft to sustain their relationship
through pre-sales and adherence to partnership requirements
· SQL 2008 design, implementation and backup (SCVMM)
· Worked with third party vendors to install additional hubs
to LAN/WAN environments
· Deployment and design of various third party tools like
Symantec/Sophos/Forefront antivirus, Netbackup, and monitoring solutions
· Extensive use of vendor hardware including IBM, both blade
and traditional chassis, Dell, HP, EMC Celera, and NetApp
August 2008 –
June 2010
Microsoft / U.K.
Microsoft
Consulting Services
Position: Infrastructure Architect (Senior
Consultant II)
·
As the only delivery consultant in
the UK for BPOS (Office 365) EMEA I was responsible for rolling out cloud
solutions (Exchange, OCS, Live Meeting, and SharePoint) to multi-national
companies spanning several countries and encompassing thousands of users
utilizing enterprise class datacentres around the world
· Infrastructure lead for building a proof of concept for
the Foreign Commonwealth Office which included technologies like SharePoint
2007, SQL 20008, Exchange 2010, IIS 7.0, and Windows server 2008 Active
Directory
· Worked with Redmond to fine tune Microsoft hosting
facilities across the globe to support cloud computing
· LAN/WAN optimization and troubleshooting across a private
MPLS infrastructure
·
SC Cleared for work within a
‘lights out’ datacentre working on multiple projects for the MOD
· Delivery consultant responsible for the entire lifecycle
including, requirements gathering, high level design delivery, low level
design delivery, and implementation
· Project management utilizing Microsoft Operations
Framework (MOF) methodology
· Direct communication with stakeholders and ‘C’ level
executives
· Managed third party vendor relations with the likes of
Fujitsu, Toshiba, IBM, EMC, and others
· SharePoint lead on a project for Leeds City Council
responsible for incorporating information architecture, technical
architecture, and building a 12 node highly-available Hyper-V farm to host
the solution
· Global deployments of Active Directory based on Windows
server 2008 R2 including the design of Group Policy and networking services
for 50,000+ globally dispersed users
February 2008
- June 2008
Globanet Consulting / Los
Angeles, California
Globanet is
one of the earliest and most comprehensive email archiving practices
operating one of the largest EV development teams in the world
Position: Senior Technical Engineer
(Contract)
· Migrated a cluster of 12 Exchange 2003 servers (20
thousand mailboxes) to 2007 for the largest private hospital in the country
· Deployment of Enterprise Vault (EV) for the largest
private hospital in the country
· Oversaw the migration of terabytes of user data from
localized storage to an EMC Centerra SAN
· Implemented patch management utilizing Microsoft Software
Update Services (SUS)
· 17a-4 Compliance and E-Discovery including WORM/Centerra
integration and migration
February 2005
– June 2008
Prosum Technology / Los Angeles,
California
Prosum
Consulting is a full service IT consulting firm focused on the Selection,
Implementation, and Support of information systems, by aligning technology
with corporate strategic goals and business drivers
Position: IT Manager/Senior
Consultant
· Ensured email continuity, archiving, and legal discovery
utilizing Postini off premise solutions
· Sharepoint web farm design and implementation for
California State University supporting 30,000 students
· Author of Sharepoint Quickstart a program aimed at
introducing small to medium sized businesses to Sharepoint for a fix contract
bid
· VMWare administration and virtual server builds
· Responsible for decommissioning a global Exchange 2003
infrastructure consisting of 32 sites around the world for a major oil firm
· Windowss DRM for Sharepoint 2007
· Migrated the decommisioned Exchange infrastructure to the
new global parent company
· Design and documentation of disaster recovery and backup
solutions
· Responsible for all internal IT staff and delivery
corporate services including file and print, email, and remote access
technologies
January
2004 - February 2005[1]
Wolters
Kluwer (CCH) / Los Angeles, California
The leading provider of information services,
software and workflow tools for tax, accounting, legal and business
professionals.
Position:
Senior Systems Engineer
· Lead support personnel multiple revenue generating
multi-tiered .NET web applications spread across 900 servers and three Active
Directory forests
· Responsible for designing a secure system for the
transportation of financial data to the IRS
· Responsible for change management and adhering to
TOGAF/ITIL principles
· Authored Web Farmer a vbscript application that
checked and moniotored the health of the web farms
November
2001 – April 2003
Goldpocket
Interactive / Los Angeles, California
Goldpocket Interactive was a start-up interactive
television company later sold for £80,000,000
Position:
Network Engineer
·
Designed
server architecture for globally load balanced interasctive television system
·
Management
of networking components including routers and F5/Server Iron load balancers
·
Responsible
for maintaining WAN environment encompassing three data centres located
across the country
·
Responsible
for the day to day operation eighty web sites, three data centers, and
thousands of users
·
Monitoring
of system environment using ADSI, WMI, and Vbscript
April
2001 – November 2001
Imperial
Capital, LLC. / Beverly Hills, California Imperial Capital is a small boutique bond trading
firm catering to high net worth individuals around the world
Position:
Senior Systems Analyst
·
Directly
managed a variety of different vendors including hardware vendors, telephony
contractors, Network VARs, ISPs, and co-location services
·
Trained
and directed junior analysts in both the Beverly Hills and New York offices
·
Implemented
secure wireless access across multiple offices
·
Successfully
desgined and engineered a shared AD across geographic locations supported by
a pricvate MPLS network
·
Responsible
for 24X7 operation of trading specific applications like Bloomberg and all
back end mission critical services
Education
University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, California
Core Skill Set
Detail and Sector Experience
MCSE: Private Cloud (transcript available upon request)
- Microsoft
based
technologies
-Cloud based solutions: private, public, and hybrid -
Disaster Recovery
-(DR) and
Business Continuity
(BC)
- Team Leadership -Direct stakeholder interaction and accountability
- Data centre
architecture and design - System Center (SCCM,
SCVMM)
- Large-scale migrations (AD 2003/2008)
- Cloud
Technologies (BPOS/Office 365, Hyper-V, Virtualization,
High-availability) -Shared
Services/Multi-tenant design
- Remote
Access technologies (VPN, DirectAccess, Terminal Services) -
Global Email Systems (Exchange 2003-2010)
- Client and
Partner Relationship Management - Collaboration Solutions
(SharePoint, OCS) - Pre-sales and presentations
- Technical
writing: high level and low level designs, Statements of Work (SoW), Intent
to Tender (ITT) responses
- Knowledge and experience with storage solutions
(SAN/NAS/DAS) -
PKI -Quest Software
Suite
-Converged Infrastructure
–Lync 2013 -Advanced network troubleshooting including firewalls, load
balancers and in depth TCP/IP analysis