I worked with this German company to enhance their Discovery and CMDB with various storage metadata and data from unsupported storage systems. I wrote extensive TPL code which integrated with APIs for NetApp, Dell Isilon, IBM Spetrum, and Nasuni.

For Nasuni I had to develop the whole model using data extracted from the APIs to model the Management Console, Volumes and Shares.

The outcome of this project was to allow the client to accurately track storage usage and billing.

During this time I also assisted the client in troubleshooting Azure discovery and retrieving additional matadata from VMware.

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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 worked 3 short projects with a US-based energy company over a period of three years to develop customisations to the data pipeline to their CMDB. This was to enable a front-end form for application ownership selection. For this they needed specifically to be able to extract metadata from their IBM DB2, MSSQL, Oracle, MongoDB and MariaDB databases for promotion to the front-end display.

The solution involved custom TPL code applied to BMC Discovery, which used a combination of SQL connections of JDBC and API connectivity with MongoDB. Both Discovery and the CMDB sync connections needed to be modified to make it work.

MongoDB presented the most challenging connection as Discovery was not built for a direct integration, so the solution called for running the API retrieval queries directly on the server as it scanned, with a local encrypted text file which contained the API credentials. The output was then retrieved the normal way.

The solution allowed for the client to be able to correctly identify and assign ownership for their database dependent applications.

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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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As part of my time as a Delivery Manager I worked with an account to deploy an IT Asset Management solution as part of a Global Programme, and to fill in as Test Manager for the new Workday HR system.

The account management team for this company had been selected interally, and did not have a choice about taking the solution so there was a lot of resistance, particularly using security as a blocker. This was overcome by a global CISO sign off, however I listened to the concerns of the account that the licensing would take them over their budget and knew there was a better way to create a Win-Win scenario for them and for us.

I advised the Programme Manager that we needed to not only deploy the ITAM solution but create a package of benefits for them – which required setting up some reporting an analytics. I asked the account director to provide a breakdown of their charges for services and an export of their current asset data.

With this information, using Discovery, I was able to identify that they were underbilling by £50k annually, primarily on database services to their client. Another highlight was to replace their manual spreadsheet tracking of software with the product’s up to date OOTB software lifecycle reporting, allowing them to save time on querying manually and implement accurate, up to date record keeping.

HR Solution

I was asked to fill in as a Test Manager for a HR system rollout already in progress after the current test manager had left. The issues over resourcing meant that the delivery team had fallen behind and the deadline for implementation was at risk.

The key was to commit to being fully onsite, and obtaining buy in from the team to work extra hours to get catch up. I was in charge of ensuring that all the test scripts were completed, bugs were handled by the onsite developer, or exeptions were signed off.

With the combined effort of the team, we managed to pull the project back on track and able to deliver the implementation of the HR system to client satisfaction. Not all of the test scripts had been completed, but it was agreed with the client all significant bugs had been resolved and so the outstanding backlog were not critical to functionality and could be handed post go-live.

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I worked for a partner consultantancy with the Software and Configuration Management team to extend and customise BMC Discovery to provide support for their licensing and auditing function. With the software license discovery and modelling that I workend on both indendently and sometimes as part of a team, the bank was able to make substantial savings in the 100’s of thousands of US Dollars on licensing to vendors such as Oracle, IBM and Microsoft.

I worked under and Agile framework to develop TPL code, performed monthly regression analysis on software install data and created and maintained all documentation for customisations.

I was also part of the team to code and develop an extension that modelled their various SAN storage solutions deployed. After the solution was implemented, the bank was able to identify 10,000 US Dollars in monthly savings by being able to turn off a decommission storage arrays that were no longer being used.

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I stepped into this project as Project Manager after it had started, but the key Solution Architect had left the business. I therefore needed to provide some guidance for the project delivery but also leverage my own technical skill to support the consultant.

There were a number of issues from workshop that had not been resolved and so the first task was to align with the client on what had been agreed. I then looked at identifying change requests from the client and arranged this into a Gap Analysis with estimates as to effort.

During deployment I was able to get hands on in designing the main Nimsoft/UIM Monitoring Dashboard using the built in tooling, I also leveraged my experience with ITAM discovery to assist with setting up the SNMP traps, despite not really being familiar with the tool.

The client were very satisfied that despite the loos of our Solution Architect, the project was handled carefully and delivered as expected.

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A UK non-profit organisation planned datacenter move within the next 12 months. The required an understanding of their environment, the servers, applications and storage. Their main focus was on Production, DMZ and Disaster Recovery.

A successful proof of concept had been carried out prior and they were ready for deployment of the ITAM scanning solution.

A workshop was conducted to assess their capabilities and readiness as well as determine how the solution would be deployed. This results in a Solution Design and commencement of the deployment of scanning.

The client also required modelling of their application architecture in preparation, so they could understand the dependencies for the move. As well as delivering on these requirements within a six week timeframe, I was able to provide additional value by identifying approximately 100 Windows servers that were out of compliance.

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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 was brought in to architect and deliver an data pipeline for updating their CMDBs from multiple data sources. The CMDB itself was hosted on Salesforce and the data sources were Discovery, Active Directory, Spreadsheets and SCCM.

A particular challenge was being restricted to operating remotely using TeamViewer – which does not perform well over data instensive remote connections – and requires an active user on the end to keep the connection going. This did cause development work to go much slower than planned, but thankfully did not cause overall delay to project.

The integrations were developed, tested and deployed successfully to the satisfaction of the client.

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