Laurie is available for hire
Hire LaurieLaurie Barnes
Verified Expert in Engineering
DevOps Engineer and Developer
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Toptal member since June 29, 2023
Bio
Laurie is a highly experienced storage and virtualization engineer with 20 years of industry experience. He is an expert in various storage services—including EMC, NetApp, IBM, Hitachi, and HPE—and virtualization platforms, such as VMware, Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV), Kernel-based Virtual Machine, and Microsoft Hyper-V. Laurie can run hands-on implementation and project tasks and design end-to-end solutions, having worked in presales, architecture, and professional services roles.
Portfolio
Canon Australia
Veeam, Commvault, VMware, Ubuntu Linux, Windows, Virtualization, Cloud Storage...
VMware
VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter, VMware VMotion, VMware vCloud, VMware NSX...
Brisbane City Council
Dell EMC Isilon, NetApp, Performance Testing, Virtualization, VMware...
Experience
- Network-attached Storage (NAS) - 20 years
- Windows - 20 years
- Performance Testing - 20 years
- VMware - 20 years
- Virtualization - 20 years
- Linux - 20 years
- NetApp - 18 years
- VSAN Technology - 8 years
Work Experience
Senior Systems Engineer
2021 - PRESENT
Canon Australia
- Engaged in a 6-month contract for a financial institution and was offered a full-time contract for my excellent performance.
- Migrated an insurance provider onto our private cloud with massively shortened timelines. The kind of project that normally takes 9-12 months was performed by the team in just 3 months.
- Worked with management to help improve processes and increase profitability within the professional services organization.
Technologies: Veeam, Commvault, VMware, Ubuntu Linux, Windows, Virtualization, Cloud Storage, ECS, Storage, System Administration, Azure, Azure Virtual Machines, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Hosting, SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), LAMP, Perl, Networking, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hyper-V, Windows Server, VM, VMware vSphere, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, MacOS, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Cloud, Red Hat Linux, Unix, VMware Horizon, NetApp, Amazon FSx, Terraform, Linux, Ubuntu, GPU Computing, DevOps, Ansible, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Gemini, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud, Databases, VMware vRealize Automation, VMware vRealize Orchestrator, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Terragrunt, Python, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Solution Architecture, HP Enterprise (HPE), Azure Cloud Services, Azure Functions, Cloud Native, OpenStack, Automation, CentOS, Cloud Environments, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, Azure DevOps, HP, HPE SimpliVity, HP StoreOnce, GitLab CI/CD, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, KVM, KVM/Qemu, VirtualBox, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
vSAN Specialist
2019 - 2020
VMware
- Joined VMware in Brisbane to help grow the vSAN business.
- Focused primarily on the VMware ecosystem and was there during a period of significant acquisition, including that of Carbon Black and investment into Kubernetes.
- Employed some marketing methodologies to help bring prospective users on board. Unfortunately, I was made redundant after 14 months, as it became apparent that Dell sold most of vSAN as VxRail in this market.
Technologies: VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter, VMware VMotion, VMware vCloud, VMware NSX, VSAN Technology, Virtualization, VMware, Cloud Storage, ECS, Storage, Azure, Azure Virtual Machines, Identity & Access Management (IAM), SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), LAMP, Perl, Networking, Veeam, Hyper-V, Windows Server, VM, VMware vSphere, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, MacOS, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Cloud, Red Hat Linux, Unix, VMware Horizon, Terraform, Linux, Ubuntu, GPU Computing, DevOps, Ansible, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Gemini, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud, Databases, VMware vRealize Automation, VMware vRealize Orchestrator, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Python, Solution Architecture, HP Enterprise (HPE), Azure Cloud Services, Azure Functions, Cloud Native, OpenStack, Automation, CentOS, Cloud Environments, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, HP, HPE SimpliVity, HP StoreOnce, GitLab CI/CD, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, KVM, KVM/Qemu, VirtualBox, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Senior Storage Consultant
2018 - 2019
Brisbane City Council
- Assisted BCC in moving from on-prem storage into a private cloud. This was my first serious contract role after moving from Sydney to Brisbane.
- Reduced migration time down to six months. I was initially hired to run BAU while existing staff ran migration to the cloud. However, I quickly reversed those roles when my source and destination equipment skills became apparent.
- Ran performance testing with the BCC internal testing team, uncovering misconfigurations that would have been disastrous if not found. Left the organization with systems technically running in good shape.
Technologies: Dell EMC Isilon, NetApp, Performance Testing, Virtualization, VMware, Cloud Storage, Storage, System Administration, Azure, Azure Virtual Machines, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Hosting, SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Perl, Networking, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Windows Server, VM, VMware vSphere, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, MacOS, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Cloud, Red Hat Linux, Unix, Terraform, Linux, Ubuntu, DevOps, Ansible, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Kubernetes, Databases, Python, Solution Architecture, HP Enterprise (HPE), Azure Cloud Services, Azure Functions, Cloud Native, OpenStack, Automation, CentOS, Cloud Environments, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, HP, HPE SimpliVity, HP StoreOnce, GitLab CI/CD, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, KVM, KVM/Qemu, VirtualBox, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Senior Systems Engineer
2015 - 2017
Nutanix
- Assumed multiple roles—from presales and marketing to training and product support—working first time for a startup.
- Ran customer education workshops and helped to develop a format and script for these in my territory.
- Became skilled in the Nutanix offerings such as AHV and Acropolis and performed initial forays into the cloud, including AWS and Nutanix's cloud.
Technologies: Nutanix, Nutanix AHV, Virtualization, VMware ESXi, VMware, Cloud Storage, ECS, Storage, System Administration, Azure, Azure Virtual Machines, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Hosting, SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), LAMP, Perl, Networking, Veeam, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hyper-V, Windows Server, VM, VMware vSphere, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, MacOS, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Cloud, Red Hat Linux, Unix, Slurm Workload Manager, Terraform, Linux, Ubuntu, GPU Computing, DevOps, Ansible, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Gemini, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Kubernetes, Databases, VMware vRealize Automation, VMware vRealize Orchestrator, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Python, Solution Architecture, HP Enterprise (HPE), Azure Cloud Services, Azure Functions, Cloud Native, OpenStack, Automation, CentOS, Cloud Environments, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, HP, HPE SimpliVity, HP StoreOnce, GitLab CI/CD, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, KVM, KVM/Qemu, VirtualBox, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Presales and Solution Architect
2010 - 2015
Hitachi Vantara
- Started as the sole subject-matter expert for a product Hitachi was onboarding: NAS company's BlueArc, which they had just acquired.
- Developed internal methodology to drive trust in the product and help sell more.
- Created design templates and work breakdown structures, ensuring there was a "productized" solution—handling significant levels of responsibility for the territory: from Perth, Western Australia, through Wellington, New Zealand.
- Ran a virtual team, wrote standards, and trained 2-3 other staff who could perform my tasks while I was away. The product did so well that several of us would often be engaged at once.
Technologies: Network-attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), Virtualization, VMware, Cloud Storage, Storage, System Administration, Identity & Access Management (IAM), SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), LAMP, Perl, Networking, Veeam, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hyper-V, Windows Server, VM, VMware vSphere, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, MacOS, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Team Leadership, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Cloud, Red Hat Linux, Unix, Slurm Workload Manager, Terraform, Linux, Ubuntu, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Gemini, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Databases, VMware vRealize Automation, VMware vRealize Orchestrator, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Python, Solution Architecture, Azure Cloud Services, Azure Functions, Cloud Native, OpenStack, Automation, CentOS, Cloud Environments, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, HP, HP StoreOnce, GitLab CI/CD, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, VirtualBox, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Team Leader, Storage
2009 - 2010
QBE
- Managed the team, wrote business proposals, and oversaw the budget and hiring.
- Reduced batch processing time by 75%. Improved the team's overall satisfaction significantly by resolving outstanding complaints with user drives.
- Employed a more process-oriented management role. Working with the CIO's office and MBA students was a rewarding challenge.
Technologies: NetApp, Data, EMC VMAX, IBM SAN, Storage, System Administration, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Hosting, SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, LAMP, Perl, Networking, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hyper-V, Windows Server, VM, VMware vSphere, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Team Leadership, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Red Hat Linux, Unix, Linux, Ubuntu, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Databases, Python, Solution Architecture, Automation, CentOS, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, HP, GitLab CI/CD, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, VirtualBox, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Professional Services Consultant
2007 - 2009
NetApp
- Engaged as a hands-on professional services resource for Sydney-based customers.
- Worked with various customer systems, from Telstra at the upper end to the smallest implementations.
- Became a trusted advisor. Ran the proactive NetApp audit service across customers, allowing a technical touchpoint outside of sales.
Technologies: Network-attached Storage (NAS), NetApp, Storage, System Administration, Identity & Access Management (IAM), SSL Certificates, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, LAMP, Perl, Networking, Windows Server, VM, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Red Hat Linux, Unix, Linux, Ubuntu, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Database Administration (DBA), Databases, Automation, CentOS, Communication, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, Big Data, HP, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Team Leader, NAS Support | Asia-Pacific, Japan, and Korea (APJK)
2004 - 2006
Dell EMC XtremIO
- Went from being a team member to leading a team of 13 people supporting the EMC NAS product.
- Created a database-driven web tool to ensure the team took support cases in line with a sometimes conflicting set of 20-some rules from management.
- Handled my initial forays into the Fibre Channel (FC) storage world as Celerra connected to EMC FC back ends. Performed Brocade and CISCO FC switching and network data management protocol backups.
Technologies: EMC Celerra, Virtualization, VMware, Storage, Identity & Access Management (IAM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, LAMP, Perl, Networking, Windows Server, VM, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, NAS Servers, File Systems, Virtual Machines, Team Leadership, Samba, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Red Hat Linux, Unix, Linux, Ubuntu, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Databases, Automation, Infrastructure, Linux RHEL/CentOS, RHEL, Scripting, IT Support, HP, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, Memory Management, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments
Project History
Critical System Upgrade
Provided solutions to multiple ongoing issues, overruns on batch processing, and backups not completing on time.
As a manager at QBE, I worked first on assessing the situation, then moved to resolve the issues systematically. My biggest win as part of this was procuring new EMC VMAX storage after a lengthy budgetary process, writing a business plan to justify the capital expenditure, and then overseeing the technological implementation. My efforts significantly reduced batch processing times, increased redundancy and resilience, and resulted in happier internal stakeholders.
As a manager at QBE, I worked first on assessing the situation, then moved to resolve the issues systematically. My biggest win as part of this was procuring new EMC VMAX storage after a lengthy budgetary process, writing a business plan to justify the capital expenditure, and then overseeing the technological implementation. My efforts significantly reduced batch processing times, increased redundancy and resilience, and resulted in happier internal stakeholders.
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Terragrunt
Tools
VMware, Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, KVM/Qemu, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Terraform, VMware vRealize Orchestrator, GitLab CI/CD, VirtualBox, Ansible
Paradigms
Samba, Automation, Hosting, DevOps, Azure DevOps
Platforms
Linux, LAMP, Windows Server, Ubuntu, OpenStack, Linux RHEL/CentOS, HPE SimpliVity, KVM, Windows, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), MacOS, Red Hat Linux, Unix, Amazon EC2, Azure Functions, Cloud Native, CentOS, Ubuntu Linux, Kubernetes
Storage
NetApp, On-premise, NAS Servers, HP StoreOnce, Storage Area Networks (SAN), Google Cloud, Amazon FSx, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Database Administration (DBA), Databases, Azure Cloud Services, Cloud Environments, EMC VMAX, Oracle Cloud
Languages
JavaScript, Perl, Python
Other
EMC Celerra, Network-attached Storage (NAS), Nutanix, Virtualization, VSAN Technology, Veeam, Cloud Storage, Storage, System Administration, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Architecture, Cloud Architecture, VM, Backup & Recovery, File Servers, File Systems, Virtual Machines, Technical Documentation, Licensing, Data Center Infrastructure, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), VMware vRealize Automation, Solution Architecture, HP Enterprise (HPE), Infrastructure, RHEL, IT Support, Big Data, IT Consulting, Hypervisors, IT Infrastructure, Unix/Linux Virtualization, Virtual Environments, IBM SAN, Performance Testing, Commvault, ECS, Azure Virtual Machines, Identity & Access Management (IAM), SSL Certificates, Google, Networking, Team Leadership, Linux Servers, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR), Cloud, VMware Horizon, GPU Computing, CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Scripting, HP, Memory Management, Data, Nutanix AHV, VMware ESXi, Dell EMC Isilon, VMware vCenter, VMware VMotion, VMware vCloud, VMware NSX, Slurm Workload Manager, Gemini, Communication
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