Ross Stone

I was promoted within Marie Curie and began focusing on expanding our adoption of native cloud services and implementing proactive security workstreams. Additionally, I worked on developing mature architecture processes and repositories. Through this work, I was able to deepen my knowledge of cloud technologies, cloud technical architecture, and design principles.

• Designed, created, and populated the organisations Architecture Repository using SharePoint Online.
• Successfully led the technical design and implementation of Azure Virtual WAN, Always On VPN, and integration with the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN).
• Implemented security measures such as Azure Bastion and Network Security Groups (NSG's) to enforce usage.
• Led the deployment of Azure Virtual Desktop and managed the team's development of Azure Automation Update Management and Autopilot.
• Supported the technical architecture design of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution, Oracle Cloud integrations, and Azure SQL powered data warehouse workstreams.
• Assisted with the NHS DSPT and Cyber Essentials Plus workstreams.

I was promoted internally and was responsible for managing a larger team of around 12 people, the IT Technical Services budget, as well as overseeing the organization's infrastructure and technical architecture.

• Led the new IT Technical Services team to continue its improvements and adoption of Microsoft Cloud services and maintaining technical infrastructure.
• IT was well prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic due to my team's prior cloud and modernisation efforts. As a result, Marie Curie could focus on providing care without worrying about technology.
• IT Technical Services work during and prior to the pandemic was recognised by Microsoft in a video interview between Marie Curie's Director of IT and Microsoft viewable here on YouTube.
• Using my knowledge, the organisations systems, I played a key role in designing and implementing the Joiner, Mover, Leaver (JML) processes at Marie Curie. This involved automating processes from HR records to IT systems and streamlining various manual IT steps.

I was hired by Marie Curie to build and manage a new infrastructure team. My responsibilities included discovering and remediating failing infrastructure, mitigating operational and security risks, reducing operational costs, and providing stable IT services to the charity.

• As a manager of a new infrastructure team, I hired and oversaw a team of 2-4 employees and several contractors during the insourcing of IT services.
• I worked with the IT Service Management team to support the transfer of knowledge, processes, and 3rd line services from a managed service provider to our in-house team.
• I led the infrastructure team in migrating on-premise services to Microsoft 365 and Azure, enabling us to decommission our datacentres.
• By implementing Microsoft cloud services, we were able to address various operational and security risks, such as unstable, unpatched, or unbacked-up services.

Initially hired as an Application Support Analyst and became instrumental in the delivery of desktop replacement, Windows 7 upgrade and Office 365 migration. This led to being promoted to a Windows Services Infrastructure Analyst in July 2014 where I became responsible for Windows infrastructure and Office 365 environment, which then led to another promotion to a Senior Windows Services Infrastructure Analyst in September 2015.

• Worked with the Infrastructure Services Manager to assist in planning of activities and training requirements for the Windows team assisting in delegating activities between the Windows team based on the team’s unique skills and specialities.
• Supported activities with regards to asset management. Documenting physical assets, support and licence information.
• Documented various business processes to be handed over to other teams. Regularly coached and assisted in the development of other teams.
• Worked very closely with the network and telephony project to ensure a smooth and successful Skype for Business rollout providing an enterprise voice solution.

I transferred from Loss Management Group to the International Art & Antique Loss Register as I was responsible for the IT services of the sister company after Loss Management Group was sold. With short notice, I had to step up and make sure IT services could continue without disruption, resulting in a significant successful infrastructure project.

• Instigated an infrastructure renewal project that resulted in the successful overhaul of all company systems. All servers, network and telephony equipment were brought up to date.
• Responsible for Windows servers, Active Directory, VMware and Network infrastructure such as Watchguard Firewall Appliances and Avaya PBX telephone systems in multiple sites.
• Responsible for various tenders and suppliers who provided IT services. Hardware and software suppliers, managed telephone services, developers and offsite server hosting.
• Managed the desktop replacement project from Windows XP to Windows 7. Migrated Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps for Business.
• Project manager for website redevelopment. Selected developers through tender. Established key deliverables, budget and timescales. Building automated online services used by numerous auction houses, museums and police forces around the world.
• Assisted Police in several criminal investigations providing computer logs to assist in investigations.
• Created and maintained very detailed documentation for day to day activities, overviews of infrastructure, business continuity procedures and supplier contact information.
• Provided onsite 1st, 2nd and 3rd line support to users in our offices in Bath, London, Paris and New Delhi. Provided remote support to users in our New York and Cologne offices.

The Instituto Cervantes is the official Spanish Language and Cultural centre. It's a non-profit organization founded by the Government of Spain in 1991. Its mission is to promote Spanish language teaching throughout the world as well as Spain's co-official languages, in addition to fostering knowledge of the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries.

This course covered management of Azure resources, including deployment and configuration of virtual machines, virtual networks, storage accounts, Azure Site Recovery, automated deployments, applications architecture, monitoring, telemetry, logic apps, Azure Cognitive Services and Azure AD including hybrid identities and role-based access control.

Course run internally at Marie Curie, which gave the chance to practice the leadership skills developed in Senior Leaders’ Workshops, an assessment process providing feedback on how you come across as a leader and further development opportunities to meet both your specific needs and those of Marie Curie.

TOGAF 9.2 framework contains substantial guidance on what to do to establish an architecture practice and then how to use it in connection with planning the longer-term transformation of the enterprise (strategic architecture), and designing capabilities to support it.

The course covered the new features and functionality in Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, including management, network infrastructure, storage, access control, Hyper-V, high availability and identity federation.

This course was a mix of in-depth instructor led training and hands-on labs where you I learned about the features, server roles and components included in System Center Service Manager 2012 SP1.

Architected migration project to Microsoft Azure, delivered by myself and my team, delivering £1.2 million cost benefit over three year period for Marie Curie.

Nominated with several others to attend on behalf of Marie Curie due to my achievements at Marie Curie.

Technically reviewed content about PowerShell and Active Directory for technical accuracy and understandability prior to publication.