GAVIN DANDRIDGE

Complex information systems don't build themselves. They are the sum of many disparate parts, brought together by skilled teams. Each piece of infrastructure has to be finely configured, honed and tuned until the parts become whole. Skilful teams obfuscate this process, they are the gate keepers of the magic box.

Information Systems have kept me employed for all my working life, and entertained for a fair part of my childhood. I've had the privilege of watching the Internet emerge from the preserve of University IT labs to today's seemingly omnipresent state.

For my part I've helped architect and implement hundreds of systems during that time. I've seen a range of networking technologies come and go, and worked with most of them.

Right now I'm a strong advocate of virtualisation and the hybrid cloud. I believe almost any business can leverage the power of these technologies to deliver powerful, scalable and resilient computing systems at a fraction of the cost of comparable dedicated systems.

Using VMware ESX, Citrix Xen and Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud I've helped some of the UK's most successful companies architect and build virtualised elastic ecosystems that can deliver computing power on demand, just when it's needed.

When I'm not working I'll be spending time with my wife and son. I get put to good use fixing everything and anything that breaks around the home.

... and when all this is done you'll find me in the air flying light aircraft.