EMC Proven Professional Spotlight: Justin Beardsmore

Name: Justin Beardsmore

Title: Infrastructure Manager at St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust in London, UK

Certifications:

• Cloud Architect, Virtualized Infrastructure Specialist
• Information Storage and Management Associate

Areas of Expertise: Storage Infrastructure, Desktop and server virtualization, IT management, and Healthcare IT (HIT)

ECN: JBe

Twitter: @justbeardsmore

LinkedIn: Justin Beardsmore

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Justin Beardsmore was awarded 1st place in the 2014 Knowledge Sharing Competition. You can read and discuss his article, VDI and the Fast Access to Patient Data Challenge, in the EMC Proven Professional Private Community.*

What was your chief motivation for writing on this topic? Is it related to your work, or a personal interest?

My primary motivation was that I wanted to write. The subject matter was topical to the healthcare sector, and I had been living with it on top of my day job for the past few years. Therefore, it was a natural choice. I’d presented at various conferences and gatherings and taken part in case studies, etc. However, I felt I could explore the challenges of implementing VDI in a healthcare setting via a traditional longer piece of writing—which wasn’t a technical paper or case study—by leveraging my knowledge, mistakes made, and views on this topic.

On a psychological level I hoped by writing the article I would be closing a project period of my life, and allow me to let go and move on to other projects and interests. Ironically, the opposite has occurred as the article has been well received, and consequently prolongs my involvement.

Did you write this paper with the idea of providing material for others to implement your ideas? How do you see other people using the knowledge that you’ve shared?

I aimed the article at a range of people who were about to embark on solving the fast access to patient data challenge. I wanted to write something which would help them clarify their thinking around a range of strategic and operational topic and issues. Also, I wanted to remind them that it is a clinical change project and not just an IT infrastructure one.

Describe the process of writing the article. What was most challenging? What did you enjoy the most?

The process of writing is a lonely one--it’s just you, but I guess I’m not the first person to utter those words. Since I applied late (days before deadline) my biggest challenge was juggling a large writing project with tight deadline on top of other commitments. Being disciplined got me through the process. Once I’d worked out the structure of the piece, I wrote up a writing schedule with accompanying word count I needed to achieve at the end of the session. Because I was meeting the session count, the pressure of the deadline was always manageable; this created a nice balance of pressure to keep my focus, without losing the ability to think.

The enjoyment wasn’t at the end of the process; I’d describe that more as relief. My greatest enjoyment was during the process, when the writing was flowing and the article was taking shape.

Is this the first time you’ve participated in the Knowledge Sharing Competition? If not, what other articles have you submitted?

Yes it’s my first attempt. I only discovered the competition two weeks before the abstract submission date and decided to go for it.

Can you briefly describe your background? For example, how did you first become interested in IT? What training did you undertake to start your career?

It’s safe to say that I stumbled into IT. I was playing around with databases for an organisation I was working for prior to doing some post graduate study when it struck me this was wanted I wanted to do. So I changed my study to computer science. My initial years in the private sector around the city of London have now been succeeded with seven years in Healthcare IT.

Describe your current position/role. What most interests you about your work?

Variety and opportunity are what keeps me where I am, through seven years and five roles. We have a small IT technical team, in a public organization, in one of the most expensive cities in the world. There, you get a lot of opportunities to get involved in various projects, some very much outside your area of expertise.

What big project are you working on now?

I’m currently working on planning our storage infrastructure refresh (Backup, SAN, NAS, archive, and DC/DR). The decisions and choices we made over five years ago have served us well for the acute hospital site. However, we need to consider how our data storage architecture can support the move to mobility and geographically dispersed points of care. Not so much big data at the moment, but we are beginning to see the forecasted large data growths. Our implementation of EMC Documentum and Captiva for legacy paper-based medical records being a case in point. This is very much the healthcare environment I discussed in the Knowledge Sharing article. I sense a new article taking shape.

This technology focused work also encompasses the capability aspect: how we are going to provide this infrastructure on, or off premise, as a service, etc. I buy totally into the whole ITaaS thing, so I’m very much interested in this debate.

What major project have you recently completed?

I just completed the recent VDI expansion, which included a migration to XtremIO.

What projects/technology are you planning for the future? Are you planning to take more training or learn a new skill?

In addition to the storage refresh project, mobility and cloud will be occupying my interest for the next few years.

Briefly, how has the Proven Professional Program benefitted you personally or professionally?

It’s given me the opportunity to write and showcase what I’ve written. My rationale for pursuing certification hasn’t been around gaining a qualification in order to tick a box or for compliance. I’ve embarked on the certification path because I felt that it was the best structured way to develop my understanding and knowledge around a specific area.

What advice would you give to someone entering the Proven Professional Program?

I like Michael Mendola’s advice from a previous Spotlight:

“Study above and beyond that required just to achieve a passing exam grade. Study and learn to expand your personal knowledgebase and deeper understanding of IT infrastructures and how these work together to serve business. Gain personal experience wherever and however you can. This is what will carry you far. Think of attaining EMC Proven Professional certifications as augmenting your general career path and as a personal differentiator on that road, instead of the goal, itself.”

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’d like to say thank you to the EMC UK Health Team, along with their partners for their support and patience over the past few years.

Read other EMC Proven Professional Spotlight articles in the Proven Professional Spotlight Archive

*The EMC Proven Professional Private Community is only open to certified EMC Proven Professionals. If you are certified and don’t have access, you can request it here: Request Access for the EMC Proven Professionals Private Community