VMTN Blog

Blog URL:http://blog.vmote.net
Twitter handle:@dawoo
Current employer:Xtravirt Ltd 

How did you get into IT?

Straight from school with only Commodore VIC20 and ZX Spectrum (48k) experience I landed a position in a local company, their proposition was software for telephone call logging. The first week was spent formatting floppies, copying files onto them, labelling them up and posting. It was a riot. By week two I was bored so read the MS-DOS 3.2 manual, not one I’d recommend for a riveting read. I started building XT / AT PCs, loading the OS and installing their software and soon after moved on…

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

Accelerating through (many) years of support, developing in (Cobol & C) and more support I started a deployment of VMware ESX Server v2.5 booting from SAN (first in Europe) encompassing server consolidation, BC and DR, rather prevalent at the time. I’ve continue with VMware since then as it’s been one of the few products that simply ‘just works’.

The vExpert accolade came by surprise. Before this I was on the ‘Core Customer Program’ and reaped the rewards of VMware’s generosity with licenses, clothing and even a VMworld ticket. Yes I blog a bit, promote VMUGs and contribute where I can but I’ve being doing this since 2006 after presenting at a couple of US VMworlds, writing documents in the Proven Practice section etc..  Inwardly I am still very chuffed though. :)

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

Understand infrastructure concepts first, virtualisation is not a solution it’s part of the route towards utopia.