Feb 1994 to Jan 1995
DS Group of Companies
Advanced Systems Group Consultant
349 Edinburgh Avenue,
Slough, SL1 4TU
As a consultant for the Advanced Systems Group, I was responsible for the design and implementation
of leading edge network technologies and also, acted as a roving trouble-shooter. Internally, the
company had a number of NetWare 3.x and NetWare 4.x file servers.
Customers included large corporations
such as the Texas Instruments (TI) Group, Hitachi, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Memorex Telex,
MSAS, PictureTel and Volvo.
Designing and building new desktop systems and infrastructure at Volvo was one of the large projects
for which I was the technical lead. Using Volvo’s training centre in Daventry as a model, I created
and built a 16Mbit Token Ring Network, with connectivity to their other networks in Marlow and Crick;
access to the AS400’s at their data centre was allowed. I implemented a system for 100 users which
permitted a user to go to any desk, log in, and have all his/her personal MS Windows settings and files
automatically.
The system was built around a NetWare 4.1 file server.
A number of problems were encountered with the integration of the NetWare network and the AS/400s.
These problems were solved by splitting the network into multiple rings, most running at 16Mbit/s while
leaving the ring connected to the bridge (and subsequently, the AS/400s) running at 4Mbit/s.
The system
was considered so satisfactory that subsequent to my departure from Advanced Systems, it was propagated
to Volvo’s Marlow Headquarters.
In my role as a trouble shooter, I responded to customer problems escalated from the help desk. Problems
were resolved either as the result of a visit or, over the phone. Work as a trouble shooter gave me
exposure to LAN to LAN bridging as well as to dissimilar machine connectivity (using systems such as
NFS or X).
My final role at Data Supplies was being contracted out to the Computer Sciences Corporation as their top level troubleshooter. CSC liked me so much they paid Data Supplies an amount equivalent to one year of my salary to be able to break the contract and offer a position to me directly
JAN 1995 TO FEB 1996
Computer Sciences Corporation (now DXC.technology)
European Research Manager
279 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7LS
My association with CSC culminated in the role of European Research Manager of the Technical Research Facility.
The job entailed creating, running and managing a research facility focused on the design and implementation of effective and efficient ways to pool resources. In addition to setting up the facility, during my eight month tenure, I wrote an operating manual that allowed it to function in an organised fashion, established a presence at CSC’s French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish affiliates and forged working relationships with key people in the United States where CSC Europe’s parent organisation is located.
The Technical Research Facility evaluated new technologies as well as proposals for implementation of technologies into CSCNet on a European Scale. It also carried out a number of external and internal research projects. The design, building and implementation of a complete workstation to LAN to server management system based upon a thick infrastructure / thin client model was but one of the projects I spearheaded.
Work done by the Technical Research Facility, during this period, saved the company $18m per year.
I had come to CSC as a result of six months of work done on contract from Data Supplies. At the end of this period, CSC offered me a permanent position with its UK operation as Technical Issues Manager. This involved managing a small team of engineers who solved internal and external client problems. Earlier, I had played a more technical role as the sole 3rd level support person for all internal network issues.
The CSC Network is a worldwide entity large enough to have its own class A internet address. The UK part of CSCNet connects approximately 15 CSC sites and about 70 client sites.
The required rate of change was high and I was involved at an architecture level utilising new technologies in the overall network infrastructure for CSC and its clients at an architecture level.
Clients include British Aerospace, Lucas Industries, United Distillers, the NHS and the MoD.
The LAN had evolved over a period of time, but its real growth occurred during the period I was involved in design for CSC and its clients at an archetecture level; the most challenging aspect of the work involved management of the rate of change. In the UK Headquarters, I managed Novell NetWare 4.1 file servers, Windows NT 3.51 servers, a number of UNIX boxes and approximately 300 desktop users as well as about 500 portable users, who floated in and out of the office and required access to network services on an ad-hoc basis.
I was also responsible for providing solutions to diverse queries coming from client sites and networks concerning that their help-desks had been unable to solve.
Due to the scale of the system, I planned and implemented a number of changes that resulted in better utilisation.
Among other things, fibre cards were placed in all the servers. The primary login server contained three fibre cards, and I utilised NLSP routing to achieve load balancing.
Each server also contained an STP card used for segregation traffic destined for printers or IP traffic.
In addition, I was involved in WAN management and Internet access. The organisation had a variety of devices enabling connectivity, including Hughes Enterprise Hubs, Cisco and Wellfleet routers, leased line and frame relay connections. At the time these were all leading edge technologies.