It's very difficult deciding what to say about myself. My CV would say that I am 'a well-respected senior consultant with extensive IT expertise in the fields of technical architecture, information security, service management, systems management and project management. Excellent interpersonal skills at all levels of seniority and computer or business literacy. Broad experience within public and private sectors. Able to operate effectively as a manager, team leader or team member'.
That's all true but I also have a keen interest in travelling and photography. But that's all in the past now as I have chosen to hangup my work shoes to concentrate on travel. I will be updating the site in coming months to include detail and photos of trips since I stopped woring in 2015.
The pictures on this site have been taken during my travels over the years and I felt that my old trustworthy boots, which gave up the ghost during a trek in Sikkim, deserved to be remembered hence the photo.
Until recently I was playing rugby but whilst the spirit was willing the flesh got to the point where it refused to do as requested and so I have hung my boots up (for the moment I could be persuaded if anyone were really desparate!!).
Everyone has dabbled in photography one way or another and like every kid I had a box Brownie but I became really interested in photography around 20 years ago when I started travelling in earnest. During my
travels I have had the chance to photograph people and places from all
over the world. Traveling through Africa, India, Nepal, New Zealand, the
USA and the South Americas amongst others. I guess these travels have helped make me the image maker I am today.
My first forage into digital photography came during a trip around South America in 2003 when I bought a Canon Powershot, an A20 I think. After the trip I immersed myself in Digital photography with a vengance (it saved me a fortune!!). I still have a Lumix TZ7 for those times when you just need to 'point and shoot'.
Until recently most of my phototographs have been taken using a Nikon D200 primarily with a Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3, for wide angle shots I used to use a Sigma 15-30 f2.8. I still use the Sigma 28-300mm lens with my F80 when using film but I'm doing this less and less so maybe now is the time to go completely digital and upgrade!.
I got a really good bargain getting Nikon DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and Nikon DX 55mm-300mm f/4.5-5.6 for the Sigma 15-30 wide angle lens. Both lenses have anti-vibration which is really great although not sure its helped me that much.
The photographs in the gallery are just a sample and were taken about 10 years ago when I first got into digital photography. I haven't got around to scanning in my older photos so can't share those at this time. It may just be easier to revist everywhere I've been and use a digital next time!
To see more pictures from my travels click here
GOVERNMENT: | G-Cloud, Government Digital Services (GDS), e-Government initiatives, CRM, EDRMS, WCM, Infrastructure and Data Centre Design, Information Security, Performance and capacity analysis |
FINANCE: | Mid-office systems (retail banking, unit trust accounts), Payment systems (Government), Oil & petrochemical market information. |
RETAIL: | Information Security, Service management, CRM |
TELECOMMUNICATIONS: | Information Security, Service management, CRM, Voice & data networking |
INDUSTRY: | Information Security, Service management, CRM, IT & Internet, Performance and capacity analysis |
KEY ROLES: | Technical Design Authority, Data Centre Architect, Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Information Security, Service Management, Systems Management, Consultant, Presales Consultant, Project Manager |
Solutions Design
Consultancy assignments on information security, service management and technical infrastructure including:
SECURITY: | Cisco, Checkpoint Firewall-1, GNATBox, Symantec ESM, Evidian Access Master, Cryptography (PKI, SSL, RSA, SHA1, MD5) |
IDENTITY SYSTEMS: | GDS ID&A, Public Sector Internal Identity Federation (PSIIF), Government Gateway, Oracle Identity Management, Active Directory Federation Services |
HARDWARE: | Servers: Sun, HP, IBM, Dell Storage: EMC (Incl. VTL), Hitachi, IBM, HP, Symantec NetBackup Appliances Networking: Cisco (Switches, Routers and Firewalls), Bluecoat, BigIP, Infoblox |
OPERATING SYSTEMS: | All Microsoft operating systems, Novell NetWare, Some UNIX (Solaris and Linux), Active Directory, LDAP |
VIRTUALISATION: | VMWare, Citrix (XenApp), Oracle VDI |
RDBMS: | Oracle, SQL Server |
APPLICATIONS: | EDRMS, WCM, CRM, IIS, Case Management |
DEVELOPMENT: | PL/SQL, Transact SQL, HTML, XML, ASP, some Java |
METHODOLOGIES & FRAMEWORKS: | Experience in PRINCE2, ITIL, TOGAF, COBIT, SOA and SSADM |
2013 - Date Defra (CAP Delivery Programme) Infrastructure Architect - Responsible for defining the requirements for hosting and inter-site connectivity for Defra delivery bodies allowing them access to the CAP DP solutions. Taking the technical lead in the G-Cloud procurement of these services ensuring alignment to the Cabinet office and GDS standards.
2004 - 2013 Logica (now part of CGI) Senior Technical Architect - Working with Public Sector clients to define and implement solutions covering a range of business areas including Enterprise Architecture Design, SOA, EDRMS and WCM.
2004 The IT Group CTO
(Contract) - Determining technical direction for the business and day-to-day management of technical departments .
1997 - 2003 CIBER UK Ltd (formally ECsoft plc) Senior Consultant - Part of an international IT services company delivering a broad range of consulting, applications development and systems integration services. Undertaken a diverse range of assignments to both public and private sector clients..
1997 Iridium LLC Data Centre Architect (Contract) - Designed a secure network infrastructure and commercial services environment with resilience and security. Managed the build-out of a Data Centre to supply a secure, 24 x 7 operational facility for all commercial and development systems to be used in North America..
1996-1997 Preferred Health Systems LLC Director of Systems Architecture (Contract) - Designed and implemented a secure network infrastructure and commercial services environment. Managed the creation of procedures and policies for the testing, operation and maintenance of corporate and commercial systems prior to roll-out of a bespoke healthcare system.
1978 - 1996 Various - Held a variety of roles including Production Director, Managing Director, Computer & Distribution Manager, Consultant, Systems Division Manager and Operations Manager.
Email:mattgivertz@gmail.com
Mobile:07050 301066
click here to download a copy of my CV
If you want a photographer for an event please contact me through the Crashers online form.