I’m presently Principal Engineer for a network integrator in Bristol (UK) where my responsibilities cover a number of products including Firewall’s, Security devices and Log/Information Management as well as supporting switched, router and ADSL networks, WAN solutions, VPN provision, Managed Services and pre-sales support for new customers. As part of doing my job I enjoy finding useful services based around an Open Source architecture especially Security monitoring using IoT devices or cost-effective sensors, and Network Management/Monitoring systems. On a day-to-day basis I manage, support, and design network and security solutions across many different enterprise verticals from transport, agriculture, utilities and education.

I specialise in the following products/vendors –

Allot – NetEnforcer, NetXplorer, SMP
Barracuda – Web Filter, Anti-Spam Firewall
Blue Coat/Symantec – ProxySG, ProxyAV/CAS, SSL Visibility, PacketShaper, Secure Analytics Platform, ThreatPulse, Malware Analysis Appliance, Reporter, Management Center
Juniper – SRX, EX, MAG/SA, M Series, STRM, JunOS Space
Pulse Secure – Pulse Connect Secure, vADC
VMWare – ESXi, vCenter
Linux – Debian, CentOS, Redhat, Ubuntu, ZeroShell, VyOS, Kali
Graylog – Log processing, threat intelligence enrichment, reporting and alerting
Zeek IDS – Network Traffic collection and metadata extraction
Elastic Stack – Event processing, threat intelligence enrichment, reporting and alerting
Ansible – Linux and JunOS automation
Wallix – Privileged Access Management
Ruckus – Smartzone/Unleashed Wireless

I’ve taught myself and then written PHP/MySQL based applications for internal company use, including a Device Database (DeviceDB) which allows for scheduled alerting when device support is up for renewal, and an engineer/part booking system (EPR) to allow our engineers to book support jobs requiring a site visit up in an automated way against 3500+ sites and 22,000+ devices.

I quite enjoy engulfing myself in technical challenges, like replicating customer environments in virtual labs, and finding new and/or better ways to do things on a customers behalf.