This script I wrote essentially takes a python version or an ansible version and will loop through checking out each branch then printout which versions of Kubespray are supported.

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I was asked to provide a health check with insights into the clients Discovery operations. I created a custom application called Pithos – a python-based application which collected data from CMDB and Discovery. This data was then imported into Power BI and we were able to present the following back to the client:

• High disk utilisation
• Presence of core dumps
• Segregated architecture, but no network segregation
• Sensitive data such as plaintext usernames and passwords stored in unstructured data fields
• Scan schedules impacting performance

This was followed up with a roadmap of improvements for the client with the option of being delivered by my company.

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I worked with presales to deliver a $55k project with insights into the clients Discovery operations created with Pithos – a custom built python-based application which collected data from CMDB and Discovery. This data was then imported into Power BI and we were able to present the following back to the client:

• Sensitive data filters not capturing plaintext username/password
• Under-specced Outpost sizes causing performance issues
• Active user accounts from departed users not removed
• Various data quality issues
• Configuration discrepencies between prod and dev environments

This was followed up with a roadmap of improvements for the client which included development of a runbook, and 10 consultancy days of remediation.

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As part of a larger digital transformation I was responsible for the architecture of their Discovery, modelling application architecture and data integration pipelines to the CMDB.

The initial deployment was minimal and did not cover the whole estate, which was airgapped. I was challenged to come up with an architecture which would be suitable enough capture data across the airgapped environments. The proposed solution involved manual DB snapshots which would be transferred by ftp, however this was later dropped in favour of deployment of a mutual shared platform, which was desperately needed.

This was a part-time multi-year engagement, during this time I developed and delivered various customatisations to their data collection and pipeline, such as:

• SSL Certificate Discovery
• Netcool edge device intergration
• Service modelling
• Reporting and analytics
• Written maintenance manual

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I was in charge of the architecture for the deployment £200k worth of solutions and a managed service for a large German consulting firm that wanted to implement a new Asset & Configuration Management function using BMC’s toolset.

Once the deployment was completed and the customer onboarded, I acted as an 3rd line escalation point issues logged through the managed service. In particular I got involved with issues with Data Quality and modelling their network environments. As part of the service they were also gauranteed regular health checks – which we provided in the form of a unique set of analytics written in Python which were exported to Power BI for presenting insights back to the customer, such as:

• Root user logins
• Vulernable open ports
• Recommendations for search and query optimisation
• Compliance issues
• Data quality issues

This unique service was provided only by the company I was working for at the time where I developed it.

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I was approached by the account management team for a US coffee brand to implement SSL Certificate Discovery for their network, as they were having issues with expiring certificates causing application failures.

During deployment one challenge was the need to expand the tool to query the Windows stores and resolve an issue where Azure agents would automatically issue and manage short-term 24 hour expiries – which significantly skewed the analytics. These certificates were identified and excluded from reporting.

The solution was deployed quickly and there was time to develop additional analytics and dashboards to allow the account team to quickly export a list of all certificate expiry dates.

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I was hired as a Delivery Manager and Enterprise Architect for the global rollout of Discovery and CMDB for an international Managment Consulting company. This was a 2 year programme directed at North America and European regions worth €2m.

In the first year I identified and implemented €90k worth of cost savings to the programme by automating level 1 support so that the resources were no longer required. I led a team of 8 offshore engineers in India and Poland and was responsible for their training and managing their progress on the the deployment to individual accounts.

I reported to the Programme Manager and was responsible for not only the software architecture but the security design needed to obtain global CISO sign off and allow the programme to proceed when it hit a major hurdle and was blocked by security compliance. One of the many hurdles was implementing RBAC into the solution which had not been designed for full RBAC control.

I worked with one of my lead engineers to find and document all the group permissions available in the tool, then employed a hack to prevent certain pages from loading without the right permissions. This satisfied the requirements of Global CISO. During the process we even discovered a vulnerability that allowed access without permissions, which was reported back to the vendor. The vendor was so impressed that they asked if they could see our documentation.

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A leading US Investment Bank wanted to extend their off-the-shelf scanning solution to discover edge devices and follow hops to find the very edge of the network. This was not possible OOTB.

I developed a small solution comprising of shell scripting and TPL to discover and map the edge devices which allowed identification of unmonitored networks within the Bank’s infrastructure. The output was sent to CSV files which was the format requested for injestion into their network monitoring tool.

I also wrote a TPL file to discover Windows disk drives, which was another requirement from the client. I finished up by writing full documentation on the approach and code before handing over to the client.

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I was contracted to a this British Transport Company to provide consultancy services in the area of modelling approximately 60 business applications. Some of them had been modelled before but had fallen behind on maintenance and the model had drifted. Others needed to be modelled from scratch.

The method chosen by the client was to do the modelling through questionnaires to SMEs who would provide the initial seed data. This then allowed me to model the architecture for each application.

Whilst working onsite, I was asked if it was possible scan and report details of SSL certificates, as the company was having issues with certificates expiring. I quoted them work on developing a solution from scratch that would work with BMC Discovery. This was designed and implemented within 3 days, which allowed the client to save £20,000 on an anual subscription to a 3rd part piece of software.

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I have developed comprehensive health checks for BMC Discovery, Kubernetes, NFS and PostgreSQL. I have also developed exception reporting on data pipelines for data quality assessment. The health checks I have developed have saved customers in the following areas:

• Identified security vulnerabilities around plaintext usernames and passwords storage
• Identified issues around NFS performance
• Identified opportunities for license reclaimation
• Identified usage patterns for insecure practices (i.e. logging in as root user)
• Identified various misconfigurations in non-alignment with best practices

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