Profile

I came over to the United Kingdom in 2006 from South Africa when I was 21 years old. I wanted to live abroad and felt the UK was best suited for me. After a few weeks I was given an opportunity to start working for a company called Future-tech as a labourer. Over time through hard work, I then started at College and an Apprenticeship through Future-tech. I studied Electrical Installations, attending College on day release once a week from work. The rest of the week I worked as per normal enhancing my skills as an Electrician. I have now been at Future-tech for 15 years and over that time I have been able to vary my work interests. As I am now a Site Manager and a Maintenance Engineer working within the Data Centre field.

During my downtime I enjoy my Sport. My passion is Rugby and specifically the Springboks. I love the outdoors and travelling with my family. I enjoy the beach and during the summer there is nothing better than being on the beach and paddle boarding. When I can my best friend and I play tennis and make podcasts. I love superhero movies.

I am married and my wife and I have a 2 year old Son. My Wife and I love watching him grow up and parenting is wonderful.

Serving an Apprenticeship was a great way to learn. However doing it whilst working gave me more experience and increased my confidence and capabilities at work.

I found working within the Data Centre environment to be very interesting and that every job was so different.

I started completing the install side of the Data Centre and I found that in order for the Data Centre to work, all the different aspects needed to work hand in hand with each other. From the Electrical to power the Data Centre in order for things like the Air Conditioning, Fire Systems, and Monitoring Systems  to work correctly.

Through all of this I learnt a great deal and was able to become competent. I also leant more regarding the network and IT and thus becoming more computer literate.

I am now a Site Manager as well and overlook the whole works on site regarding the installation of the Data Centre. This also includes the Health and Safety of all on site. I ensure that all the works by those on site are completed correctly, safely and on time.

Site Management Day

I arrive on site at about 07:30 allowing about 1-1.5 hours of travel time. I then open up site and sign in. Sub- contractors then arrive, I ensure they are signed in and that all their paperwork for the works to be completed are up to date and correct. If required I give an induction to any new site engineers. This is a health and safety briefing of the site to ensure the new attending engineer fully understands the site rules. I then complete my daily health and safety inspections and complete my own work on site. My work can be different depending of what is required. I can be installing a new BMS (Building Management System), which is system which alerts or notifies any alarms from the equipment within the Data Centre once the build is completed. SO as an example, a running air conditioning unit will have a network cable connected which communicates via the clients network (servers) and sends notifications via email if there are any faults. So my job installation wise, would be to run in all the cabling from each point where required back to the specific server of BMS outstation. I would then terminate ‘make off’ the cabling at both ends. I would then test the cable prior to connecting them to the outstation. After this is complete I would power up the outstation and programme each individual point I pre wired and tested. Once all has been programmed, when the Data Centre is completed the BMS system will require to be tested so all the equipment monitored by the BMS system then create alarms to ensure the correct communication and alarms are being received.

This above is not all done in a day but over a period of time as part of the installation process within the Data Centre.