The People Behind Cloud Genius
On moving his company to Wales, he saw great opportunities for offering training and development. Currently he has recruited and trained one person from the Jobs Growth Wales scheme. He is looking to take on more trainees immediately and in the coming years.
John has experience of a vast range of IT systems – everything from NHS distributed data collection systems to massive, UNIX-based office automation systems through to Microsoft Windows server systems and Cloud-based services. His IT career spans three decades so far and he was one of the pioneers of Cloud-based computing, working in the early days of ‘private clouds’ and Software as a Services (SaaS). John’s first experience of a ‘computer terminal’, at school, was a telex machine, linked up by an acoustic modem to the local college (see picture).
He says that his greatest programming achievement is the Eventbrite -> Salesforce integration that he created for a client.
Among his qualifications: Salesforce Administrator and Consultant, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, CompTIA Security+, UNIX systems administrator, as well as honours degrees from Durham and Oxford.
In his spare time, John enjoys bread-making and bee keeping.
Spreadsheets are enough for my business – move on
Spreadsheets are wonderful. I have a load of them. Everything from personal ones that calculate my kg weight in stones and pounds (apologies to US readers) and my BMI through to things that help me calculate budgets and so on. I even have transient data in them, when...
Growing the Business in Interesting Times
Did you notice that the last 12 months has been interesting? Rather like that curse, may you live in 'interesting times'. For me, it has been a time of re-engaging with my lovely, lovely customers. A year ago, I gave up my staff, gave up the office, started working...
Training on Salesforce for free?
On of the advantages of the current crisis is that it has allowed us to meet virtually, at a moment's notice. No travel time. Distance is no longer an object. It is a tiny sop, out of a global crisis.. but it is very real. Running on cloud-based technology, my clients...
A heart to heart – what I learned from Lunch and Learn
One of the mind-games that I play as a business owner is that I am not good enough. That in many ways I have failed each and every client at some point in time. So, asking for a testimonial is only asking for trouble. This week, I held a ‘Lunch and Learn’. My...
I feel a change coming on. I have a vision.
These are odd times. To say the least. Many people have been furloughed or wondering what to do with their lives. Will they have a job? Are they happy with the job they have? With so much spare time, many people have taken this as a opportunity to think about their...
Podcast with HGKC and Useful Tips for Lockdown
Just finished recording a new podcast with Kim Jones of HGKC. Kim and her company offer high-quality coaching for small and medium-sized businesses. In these unusual times they are producing a range of podcasts to help people navigate their businesses through these...
Cloud Genius checks your emails (from your website) are working
Most web hosters won’t admit it, but email from websites is a NIGHTMARE. It used to be really easy and cheap to set up email to send from a website, for instance when a form is filled in on the website inform the owner of the website. As it gets more complex, many...
Why do you pay people?
I recently heard a great story about a man with a hammer… bear with me as I have a more up-to-date version. The story starts with a submarine captain. His submarine is broken. This is a big problem. The submarine had a large crew. Every day that he was stuck in dock...
Passwords… and why you need to care
Let me tell you of an IT company. It had started off small so the director had chosen a favourite password ‘D0neit01' This was some time ago, so the fact that it had numbers in made it really secure. It wasn’t particularly long, but it was memorable. Much better than...
