I’m a New Zealander at heart who made Brisbane, Australia my home. Yes, I still support the All Blacks.
My I.T. career of over 20 years started in Enterprise Systems Administration and Architecture for Banking, Government and Defence, focused on Microsoft and IBM software platforms. My last Enterprise role was as a Service Delivery Manager for a large systems integrator, responsible for IBM developers & system administrators in multiple locations.
Deciding to start a family, I quit my day job and we started a business dedicated to Small and Medium Business customers. We provided technical projects and support and helped customers to successfully adopt new technologies the right way, achieving great business results. Here I dived into collaboration, productivity and the future of work (including AI and bots). With a “virtual CIO” hat on, I also helped guide technology strategy in alignment with the current status & future plans of a business.
Recognised for my community involvement, Microsoft awarded me as an MVP in the Office Servers & Services and Windows Insider categories. I regularly engaged with other I.T. partners to help them keep up with the rapid pace of change in our industry and authored several courses at Pluralsight.
Now I’ve landed in my dream job – as a Cloud Advocate for Microsoft.
I write online and speak at events, appear in guest blogs & podcasts and run presentations & training (both in person & online). With even greater involvement in technical communities of IT Pros, I talk to them about their challenges operating workloads in the Cloud, on-premises or in hybrid environments. Then I get to deliver that feedback to Microsoft’s engineering teams or directly influence the improvement of our related resources.
An introvert at heart, I recharge with Netflix marathons or my Kindle. And when I’m not at my desk or on a plane, I’m at my espresso machine in my home office or I’m volunteering in my community with Red Frogs Australia.
For the latest technical blog posts from my Microsoft team, visit ITOpsTalk.com