About Jack Went: 20+ Years in IT

Hello!

I’m Jack Went. I’ve spent over 20 years in IT, most of it at a Managed Service Provider, where I’m now Head of Technical Delivery. That’s meant working across pretty much everything: servers, networking and the application layer. What I enjoy most is building solutions that are secure, reliable and actually help the business do what it needs to do.

How I got here

It started with a love of electronics and coding as a kid, and the curiosity never really went away. I still get a kick out of trying new tools and finding a neat answer to a messy technical problem.

What drives me

Tech moves quickly, so I keep learning. The goal hasn’t changed in 20 years though: build systems people can rely on, make their working lives easier, and use technology to open up new opportunities.

jack@jackwent: ~scan

jack@jackwent:~$ nmap -sV jack.local Starting Nmap 7.95 after 20+ years of uptime Nmap scan report for jack.local PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION 22/tcp open cisco ASA firewalls, Catalyst switches 53/tcp open microsoft Server 2003 to 2022, AD, Exchange, Entra ID, Intune 80/tcp open hpe-net ProCurve, Aruba switches, HP CLI 88/tcp open hpe-proliant blade and server diagnostics, firmware 111/tcp open hpe-storage iSCSI, SAS, FC, MSA2040, fibre zoning 443/tcp open vmware ESX 3 to 7, vCenter 902/tcp open veeam Backup and Replication, tape, Office 365 993/tcp open watchguard WebBlocker, Gateway AV, IPS/IDS 1194/tcp open paloalto firewalls 3478/tcp open ubiquiti UniFi, Cloud Key 4443/tcp open opengear Lighthouse remote management 5060/tcp open voip Mitel MCD, 8x8, Twilio with FreeSWITCH 8089/tcp open security Splunk, Carbon Black, Proofpoint, Qualys 9000/tcp learning linux Ubuntu, LAMP, syslog Service detection performed. 14 services found. Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 20+ years jack@jackwent:~$

Skills

Click a heading to see more.

Cisco

Installing, configuring, managing and maintaining ASA firewalls and Cisco Catalyst switches.

Microsoft

Installing and configuring Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 and 2022
Installing and configuring Hyper-V, with PowerShell automation
Installing and running Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019
Building and maintaining Windows WDS images
Customising and deploying Windows images
Active Directory
DHCP
DNS
Certificate Authority servers
IIS
Print and Print Management services
Terminal Services (Remote Desktop Services)
Office 365
Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID)
Intune

HPE Networking

Installing, configuring and managing HP ProCurve and Aruba switches, and confident on the HP CLI. Basic ASA configuration too.

HPE ProLiant Servers

Fault diagnosis on all HP ProLiant blades and servers
Software upgrades
Firmware upgrades

HPE Storage

Racking and cabling
Installing and configuring iSCSI, SAS and FC
Installing and configuring P2000, MSA2040, EVA4400 and LeftHand
Fibre zoning

VMware

Installing and configuring ESX 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
Installing and configuring vCenter
Skills transfer and documentation

Veeam

Installing, configuring and running Veeam Backup and Replication, across multiple sites and with tape libraries, plus backup for Office 365.

WatchGuard

Installing, configuring, managing and maintaining WatchGuard firewalls, including WebBlocker, Gateway AntiVirus and IPS/IDS policies.

Palo Alto

Installing, configuring, managing and maintaining Palo Alto firewalls.

Ubiquiti

Installing, configuring and managing the UniFi range, including access point management through the UniFi controller and Cloud Key.

Opengear

Installing and configuring Opengear devices, along with the Opengear Lighthouse server for secure remote management.

Linux

Still learning, and loving it. Ubuntu is my distro of choice, and I’ve set up several LAMP web servers and syslog servers. Some of what I’ve built is on my projects page.

Security

Setup, configuration and administration of:

Carbon Black
Splunk
Syslog
IPS/IDS
Web filtering and web proxies
Proofpoint
Mimecast
Cloudflare
Malwarebytes
Tenable Nessus
Qualys

VoIP

Setting up, managing and maintaining a Mitel MCD 3300 with vMAS and vMBG
Setting up, managing and maintaining 8x8 across multiple countries using soft clients
Setting up, managing and maintaining Twilio with FreeSWITCH across multiple countries, using soft clients and desk phones

jack@jackwent: ~/.certsverified

jack@jackwent:~$ ls ~/.certs | wc -l 35 jack@jackwent:~$ verify-certs ~/.certs [ OK ] cisco 2 Meraki CMNA, IMINS [ OK ] microsoft 3 70-410, 70-411, Exchange [ OK ] vmware 3 VCP 5.1, 6, 6.5 [ OK ] hp 10 ProLiant, BladeSystem, storage [ OK ] proofpoint 4 PPS 101, 102, 103, TAP 101 [ OK ] cybsafe 1 security awareness [ OK ] nexthink 10 admin, NQL, IT support, DEX, adoption, partner [ OK ] cato 1 CCA [ OK ] xla-institute 1 XLA in a Day 35 certificates verified, 0 errors jack@jackwent:~$

Certifications

Click a heading to see more.

Cisco

Meraki CMNA
Managing Industrial Networks with Cisco Networking Technologies (200-401 IMINS)

Microsoft

Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 (70-410)
Administering Windows Server 2012 (70-411)
Configuring, Managing and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and 2013

VMware

VMware Certified Professional (5.1)
VMware Certified Professional (6)
VMware Certified Professional (6.5)

HP2-K31: Technical Introduction to the HP Storage SMB Portfolio
APS: HP ProLiant ML/DL/SL Servers
APS: HP BladeSystem Solutions
HP2-T16: Industry Standard Architecture and Technology
HP2-T17: Servicing HP ProLiant ML/DL/SL Servers
HP2-T19: Servicing HP BladeSystem Solutions
HP2-T21: Administering HP Server Solutions
HP ProLiant DL500 Series Server Family Technical Training
HP BladeSystem c3000/c7000 Service Qualification
HP0-D13: Technical Introduction to the HP Enterprise Portfolio

Proofpoint

PPS 101: Protection Server Foundations, Level 1
PPS 102: Protection Server Administration, Level 1
PPS 103: Protection Server Configuration, Level 1
TAP 101: Targeted Attack Protection Foundations, Level 1

CybSafe

CybSafe Certification in Security Awareness

Nexthink

Certified Nexthink Associate
Certified Nexthink Administrator
Certified NQL Practitioner
Certified Nexthink Associate in IT Support
Certified Nexthink Professional in IT Support
Certified Nexthink Associate in Digital Adoption Management
Certified Nexthink Professional in DEX Management
Certified Nexthink Professional in Content Management
Partner DEX Managed Services Certification
Partner Product Basics Certification

XLA Institute

XLA in a Day

Cato Networks

Cato Certified Associate (CCA)

jack@jackwent:~$ ls -lht ~/projects | head -3

Related projects

total 3

-rw-r--r--07 Oct 267.0Kserver-alerts.yamlOne Home Assistant notification listing every offline server and pending update, which clears itself when everything is healthy. Full YAML included.-rwxr-xr-x16 Oct 258.5Kha-mqtt-agent.shMonitor Ubuntu and Debian servers in Home Assistant with a light MQTT agent: CPU, RAM, disk, IPs, pending updates, remote reboot and self updates.-rwxr-xr-x24 Aug 246.4Kubuntu-autopatch.shA script that keeps Ubuntu 24.04 servers patched automatically: updates, kept back packages and reboots, picking up where it left off after a restart.