About me

Work

I work as a Solutions Architect in financial services in Cape Town, South Africa. Most of my work is managing technical architecture and integration, and more recently BI solutions architecture.

Technical

  • AWS Certified Associate Solutions Architect
  • Datavault 2 certified
  • TOGAF 9 certified
  • BSC.ENG
  • BSC.IS (Hons)
  • UML and Archimate designing
  • Integration architecture
  • ESB integration (retro)
  • SOAP, WSDL, XSD (even more retro)
  • Swagger, REST and JSON
  • IBM IAA/IPS
  • Big data
  • Kimball data modelling, scalable warehouse, datavault
  • SAP Hana, Cloudera
  • Devops, dataops and code pipelines
  • Linux, GIT, Apache, Springboot, Node.JS etc.
  • C, C++, C#, VB, ASP, ASP.NET, SQL, Java, PHP, JavaScript, Delphi, Pascal, Python
  • S3, EC2, IAM, Cloudformation, Load balancers, Autoscaling, Lambda, DynamoDB etc
  • I started programming in 1984 (on the Apple 2) and have always worked in tech.
  • I wrote my first computer program at the age of 11 on an Apple 2 computer
  • I have programmed embedded C-bases systems, Windows applications & services, SQL, websites, integration layers, web services, ESB’s, SharePoint and WordPress.
  • I have programmed in most languages (C, C++, C#, VB, ASP, ASP.NET, JAVA, SQL, BASIC, PHP, Javascript frameworks, Pascal), and have worked onsite for many South African companies, including Old Mutual, Woolworths, Sanlam, Santam, and Metropolitan Life.

Some past projects

  • Embedded device programming
  • Telephone switchboard config software
  • E-commerce website architecture
  • SharePoint solutions architecture
  • Various extranet application, including services-based Angular applications
  • SAP integration
  • VISA credit card migration
  • Corporate websites (Santam, Sanlam, Old Mutual being the big ones)
  • Project managed the redevelopment of the Woolworths.co.za retail website
  • Designed call-center software for a 500+ seat call center (including credit and store card system integration)
  • Written software to allow the mainframes and PC platforms to use common interfaces (of course XML)
  • Written software for insurance, retail, manufacturing, shipping, banking, securities, professional speakers, NPO’s, SMME’s and individual people
  • Hand-coded RS232 and RS485 Com port drivers (in the olden days); I have even hand-soldered and wired the cables
  • Implemented wireless warehousing scanning directly into SAP processing (in the mid 1990′s before wifi was mainstream)
  • Consultant architect on various integration and cloud projects

Business References

Education

  • BSc.Eng.Elec (UCT)
  • BSc.Hons.IS (UNISA)
  • TOGAF 9 certified
  • Datavault 2 certified
  • AWS Solutions architect-associate certified (expired, to renew)
  • Diploma in Coaching
  • Diploma in Professional Photography
  • Distinguished Toastmaster

IT and Technical

  • Used VI, one of the best and strangest text editors in the world
  • Hand-coded HTML and CSS (in the olden days before we had frameworks)
  • Written more lines of code than I care to remember
  • Wrote my first program in 1984
  • Learned about OOP in C++, loved it in Delphi, discovered that it is not-existent in VB, and found it again in C# and Java
  • Designed and tested a real-time telephony call processing architecture in SDL; a forerunner of UML (BSC.Eng thesis for which I received a first-class pass)
  • Helped companies by solving technical problems, writing better code, implementing reuable patterns, simplifying integeration, and designing better systems

Photography

  • I am also a keen photographer and make a small supplementary income from photography (really just enough to support the hobby).
  • Pictures of mine have been used on book covers, magazines, websites and brochures.
  • Here is my portfolio
  • Here are some photography references

Music

  • A song of mine has been used as the theme tune for a show on National Public Radio (USA)
  • In 2003 my band hit #1 on a South African MP3 download chart.
  • I have being played on national and regional South African radio (5FM and KFM respectively)
  • I play about 7 musical instruments to varying degrees, including the bagpipes, saxophone, classical & jazz piano, ukelele, grala and bass guitar
  • You can download some of my music from the past and from the distant past

Social

  • I have sponsored a Guide Dog and I actively support SA guide dogs
  • I have created and hosted the occasional free website for NPO’s
  • I run as an offical pacer for Western Province Athletics (10k to marathons)

Public Speaking

  • I headed up Toastmasters Southern Africa (representing 9 countries and about 2000 members) in 2010
  • I have spoken and trained all over Southern Africa (mostly through Toastmasters International)
  • I have taught public speaking to juvenile prisoners

The person

  • I have played the bag pipes in Edinburgh
  • I have touched the Liberty Bell
  • I have made over 1000l wine (cabernet sauvignon)
  • I used to make approximately 150l beer per year (all grain)
  • I have voted in every democratic election in South Africa
  • I run a travel photoblog which has been active for over 10 years (and counting)
  • I run a public speaking blog
  • I read Lord of the rings for the first time when I was 11, and have done so several times since
  • I am married to a blind person
  • I own every Discworld novel by the late Sir Terry Pratchett, and was privileged to have met him
  • I am addicted to the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, and have read several translations
  • I have run loads of marathons and a few ultra marathons

I have not

  • Read the entire PMBOK (I tried really hard)
  • Programmed in COBAL or FORTRAN