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Wednesday 16 October 2013

New Job, New Role

After 5 years working for Nexus within multiple roles I've decided it was time for a change and a new challenge.  Throughout my IT career I've always worked within operations, climbing the progression ladder from 1st Line support through the ranks and then up to my current role as a Systems Architect.  I've enjoyed these roles as you get exposure to a multitude of technologies and it can be a fast paced environment.  I will be sad to leave Nexus as I've met some great people and I'm very thankful for the opportunities they have given me over the last 5 years.

After numerous interviews and a trip to lovely Frimley I've gladly accepted a role as a Pre-Sales Systems Engineer within VMware covering the UK North.  I am extremely excited to start this role as the VMware software portfolio is something that I 100% believe in.  The role is completely new to me and I'm expecting a steep learning curve but I'm excited and looking forward to all the challenges this role brings with it.  I'm especially looking forward to getting out and meeting customers and VAR's and gaining more experience and knowledge with the entire VMware software suites   I'll post an update once I've been at VMware for a few months to see how the move has been.

Saturday 12 October 2013

Kielder Marathon Completed

For those of you who don't know me I'm a keen runner for both fitness and enjoyment.  I've completed the Great North Run twice now which is a half marathon with my best time being 1h 32m 10s.  I've always wanted to complete a marathon and this year I decided to train and hopefully complete the Kielder Marathon which is knows as as Britain's most beautiful marathon.

I trained solid for 3 months increasing the distance on my Sunday long runs until I knew I could complete the distance.  Race day was Sunday 6th October but unfortunately I had a gum infection on the Friday before and was on both antibiotics and pain killers for the weekend which completely wiped me out and it would have been stupid to attempt the distance the way I was feeling.  I was extremely disappointed not being able to complete the marathon and get my medal and T-shirt so I though I'd email the organisers and see if I can complete the run the Saturday afterwards and prove that I completed the distance with a GPS watch.  They were more than happy and agreed to send the medal and T-shirt to the reception where I could collect upon finishing.

So, today I completed the full 26.2 miles in 4h 9m 7s which was one of the hardest runs I've completed not due to the distance but the elevation.  I've included my report for the Garmin website and a few photo's from the run below.  It's safe to say that now I've checked this off the list I think I'll be sticking to half marathons and trying to get my time under 1h 30m.

 

 

Tuesday 8 October 2013

VMware Certified Associate Exams

VMware have recently released some new entry level exams call VMware Certified Associate or VCA.  There are currently three courses and exams available, soon to be four, and consist of:
      Each exam has an accompanying online course that is available for free from the VMware Certification Website.  You don't need to sit these courses before attempting the exam but obviously it is recommended.  These courses and exams are ideal for people want a good overview of the associated VMware products and gain a certification in them.  The cost of the exams are £80 plus VAT and can be booked via Pearson VUE once you have authorisation via the VMware Certification Website.  VMware have an offer on at the moment whereby if you book the exam before the end of 2013 you will receive a 50% discount.  If you also book the exam before the end of October and use the voucher code VCA13ICS you will be able to sit the exam for free.  I've sat a passed all currently available VCA exams and found them to be very fair.  I've never worked with Horizon or the vCloud Suite so I found the online training valuable and very informative.