Marc Bennett

Current

• Network & Security Architect at Torus Insurance (UK) Ltd
• Managing Director at Ginger Ltd

Past

• Network & Security Specialist at Sainsburys Supermarkets Ltd
• Technical Architect at Atos Origin
• Network & Security Architect at Hiscox

• Network & Security Architect at Symbian
• Network & Security Architect at Aspen Re
• Senior Network Designer at Euroclear SA/NV
• Cisco LAN/WAN Manager at SpectraSite Transco
• Cisco Engineer at Fiserv Europe
• Infrastructure Engineer at Artery Solutions
• Cisco Field Engineer at TELINDUS
• Cisco Engineer at SHL Systemshouse
• Cisco Project Engineer at LIFFE for Equant
• Network Operations Engineer at British Gas Trading
• PC/Network Support Analyst at Digital Equipment Corporation
• PC/Network Support Engineer at Camden Council
• Network Systems Analyst at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

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13 more...

Education

• University of East Anglia
• University of East Anglia
• Staffordshire University

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Recommendations

7 recommendations

Connections

252 connections

Industry

Computer Networking

Websites

• My Company

Marc Bennett’s Summary

I have worked in a number of different industries over the years and enjoy taking a big picture view of network builds.

Key skills and attributes

• 13 years of technical experience covering a wide range of technologies and industries.
• Proven skills in team leadership, project management, design, purchasing, implementation and support handovers.
• Responsible attitude to the work being undertaken.
• Working as part of a team to complete the overall goal.
• Writing and drawing up of necessary documentation to design, propose and support networks.
• Effective time scheduling and organization of tasks.
• Good overall telephone, face to face, customer and public facing skills.
• Understanding of the problems and pressures on IT and non-IT staff at a number of levels.

Marc Bennett’s Specialties:

Network strategy, pricing, design, build and test.
LAN, WAN, MAN, QoS, Routing, Switching, Cisco, Checkpoint, SecurID, 6500 VSS, Infoblox, IPSec VPN, SSL VPN, EIGRP, OSPF, HSRP, VRRP, STP, Spanning tree, Data Centre, VoIP, Video Conferencing, Tandberg, Polycom, Avaya, ASA, Load Balancing, WAF, Juniper, Firewalls, NMS, Monitoring, IP Management.
Mentoring of juniors.

Marc Bennett’s Experience

• Network & Security Architect

  Torus Insurance (UK) Ltd

  (Privately Held; Insurance industry)

  February 2009 — Present (1 year 8 months)

  Torus is a start-up company which has enjoyed massive growth during the last year and is looking to further expand during 2010. We have expanded from being a single office with an outsourced data centre a year a go to being a multi-site multi-national with insourced data centres in London, Bermuda and Toronto. Our office locations are growing steadily and now include Bermuda, New Jersey, Amsterdam, Delhi, Houston and Atlanta. We make use of fast provisioning services from leading edge companies to work with the business growth needs. My role in the company is to provide a technical lead on all things network and security.

• Managing Director

  Ginger Ltd

  (Privately Held; Computer & Network Security industry)

  February 2007 — Present (3 years 8 months)

  Ginger Ltd provides consultancy services to SME's in and around London. My specific area of expertise being IT Networking and Security has lead me to forge partnerships with leading technology service providers and vendors in the industry (including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks and Masergy Communications).

• Network & Security Specialist

  Sainsburys Supermarkets Ltd

  (Public Company; Retail industry)

  August 2008 — February 2009 (7 months)

  Working on the Sainsburys To You (Sainsburys On-Line) project.

• Technical Architect

  Atos Origin

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ATO; Information Technology and Services industry)

  April 2008 — July 2008 (4 months)

  Working on the Ministry of Justice account to help migrate services to a new set of data centres. Security Cleared and signed up to the Official Secrets Act.

• Network & Security Architect

  Hiscox

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; HSX.L; Insurance industry)

  April 2007 — March 2008 (1 year )

  Project Overview
  • Data Centre migration moving all Hiscox IT services into purpose built DC's.
  • Migration to a new COLT wide area network covering 25+ offices across Europe and the USA.
  • Specification of DC network equipment, intercab cabling, power requirements and cabinet space allocation.
  • Network design and implementation including IP strategy, routing, VLAN segregation, Firewalling, Quality of Service and Internet, Third Party and Office connectivity.
  • Standardised equipment specification and configuration for office WAN connectivity.
  
  Technical Overview
  • Cisco switching, routing, PIX/ASA and VPN, BlueCoat, Nokia, Checkpoint, Juniper NetScreen.
  • Implementation of InfoBlox infrastructure for DNS, DHCP and IP management.
  • Post change troubleshooting and support.
  
  Soft Skills Overview
  • Project Management of Network tasks in the Data Centre migration project.
  • Running of design/implementation discussions and planning workshops.

• Network & Security Architect

  Symbian

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Computer Software industry)

  January 2007 — April 2007 (4 months)

  Technical Overview
  • Technical design, specification, testing and deployment of BlueCoat ProxySG/AV, Reporter and Director system.
  • Design and implementation of new Catalyst 4500 series DMZ switches as part of a new computer room build.
  • Symbian network strategy reviewer.
  
  Soft Skills Overview
  • Project Management of global deployments.

• Network & Security Architect

  Aspen Re

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; AHL; Insurance industry)

  April 2006 — December 2006 (9 months)

  Technical Overview
  • Implementation of PIM multicasting for video broadcasting over the WAN.
  • Video Conferencing support - Tandberg VC units, Tandberg Content Server, Tandberg Management System
  • Specification, test and live running of video broadcasting system - Sony Video Cameras, Gemini Wireless Microphone system, Adobe Premiere (video editing), Extron AV over UTP extenders
  • Operational reviews including - Spanning Tree, Routing, QoS and device configuration standardisation
  • Design and installation of WLAN - Cisco AP1240's & Vernier EdgeWall Express
  • Cisco ACS management and integration with WLAN installation
  • Specification and installation of Raritan Dominion SX Terminal Servers for remote access to device console ports
  Analyser
  • Support of security components such as : CP FW1 NG (Internet & 3rd party) and BlueCoat Proxy SG400/ProxyAV
  • Support and design of Aspen WAN (based on MCI/Verizon MPLS in Europe, USA & Bermuda), OSPF, IP subnetting & management

• Senior Network Designer

  Euroclear SA/NV

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Banking industry)

  August 2001 — March 2006 (4 years 8 months)

  Technical Overview
  • Over the course of 2004/05 I was a lead player in a project to consolidate six data centers into three. My focus was on data center LAN architecture, LAN/WAN routing, QoS implementation, DNS/DHCP and IP management strategy for the group. I was also responsible for the quality assurance testing (writing, implementing and verifying test scripts) of the designs in the near full scale lab in Brussels. During the project I was also given steering input on the WAN encryption (10Gig), office & third part connectivity, DMZ, RAS and other network projects.
  
  Soft Skills Overview
  • Team leader covering four person firewall team looking after internal and external facing firewalls and content checking systems.
  • On-call Network Manager and IDS Manager position during non office hours.

• Cisco LAN/WAN Manager

  SpectraSite Transco

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  January 2001 — April 2001 (4 months)

  • Management, design, configuration, troubleshooting and documentation of the LAN & WAN
  • Cisco 6500 & 4000 switches, 3660 & 800 routers, PIX firewalls

• Cisco Engineer

  Fiserv Europe

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry)

  November 2000 — December 2000 (2 months)

  • Design, testing, implementation, documentation and hand over of a wide area network supporting a third party bank in the UK
  • Cisco 2600 and 3600 series routers
  • Technologies such as EIGRP (with MD5 encryption), IRB, TCP/IP and SNMP

• Infrastructure Engineer

  Artery Solutions

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  July 2000 — October 2000 (4 months)

  Contract position - Design, build and test of Internet infrastructure for a Dutch start up company.
  
  • Design, implementation and testing of Internet infrastructure for a Dutch start up company
  • Equipment such as a Cobalt server, Dell PowerEdge servers running Windows 2000 and a PIX firewall.
  • Responsible for the delivery of the infrastructure in time for a web site go live date
  • Tasks included configuration and installation of all software (including SQL Server, IIS 5.0 and Coldfusion), and consultation on various aspects of domain naming, mail delivery and secure remote administrative access to the equipment.

• Cisco Field Engineer

  TELINDUS

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  June 1999 — June 2000 (1 year 1 month)

  Contract position - Based in the Nederlands - Working in various companies troubleshooting, building, testing and designing network solutions.
  
  • Main project was the upgrade of a European network to ATM using Cisco IGX switches
  • Tasks included troubleshooting of networks, configuration of equipment and network design.
  • Equipment used included Cisco 7500, 7200, 4000, 3600 & 1600 routers and 1900, 2900, 4000 & 5500 switches.
  • Troubleshooting of Internet connectivity problems, firewall configurations (Checkpoint Firewall-1), BRI and PRI ISDN backup configurations
  • Documentation of networks and procedures

• Cisco Engineer

  SHL Systemshouse

  (Public Company; Information Technology and Services industry)

  April 1999 — June 1999 (3 months)

  Contract position - Y2K project - planning and implementing the decommissioning of routers and their replacement with Cisco equipment.

• Cisco Project Engineer

  LIFFE for Equant

  (Public Company; Information Technology and Services industry)

  December 1998 — April 1999 (5 months)

  Contract position - Implementation of the LIFFE CONNECT for Futures trading network
  
  • Project of around 130 companies connected to the LIFFE network which enables trading on the electronic futures exchange
  • Configuration, installation and testing of Cisco 2611 routers and Sun Ultra 5 servers

• Network Operations Engineer

  British Gas Trading

  (Public Company; Utilities industry)

  April 1998 — August 1998 (5 months)

  Contract position - Y2K upgrade of N.E.T. frame relay switches in the UK core WAN.
  
  • Monitoring and troubleshooting of BGT's Frame Relay WAN, which was based on N.E.T's IDNX and Promina circuit switches interfacing with Cisco routers
  • Use of HP Openview and NetCool/OMNIbus
  • Responsibilities included the day to day running of all N.E.T. equipment in the B.G.T. WAN

• PC/Network Support Analyst

  Digital Equipment Corporation

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Computer Hardware industry)

  December 1997 — March 1998 (4 months)

  • Support of the client and server machines in the main London office and satellite sites
  • Network support, which included patching of ports, replacement of failed equipment and configuration of switches

• PC/Network Support Engineer

  Camden Council

  (Government Agency; Government Administration industry)

  June 1997 — December 1997 (7 months)

  • Support of approximately 2000 users of networked and standalone PC's in council departments
  • Multi-vendor/Multi-protocol environment

• Network Systems Analyst

  AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

  (Public Company; Pharmaceuticals industry)

  August 1996 — June 1997 (11 months)

  • Support of around 1000 employees in a Pharmaceutical Multinational.
  • Everyday tasks include network patching, problem analysis, updating network documentation and the installation and configuration of new communications hardware
  • Project work included upgrading the network from a bridged network to a switched/routed network. This included configuring and installing Digital (DEC) backplanes with appropriate repeater and switch modules. Also, two Cisco 7000 series routers were configured to split the network into a number of IP subnets.
  • HP OpenView was used for network monitoring, problem verification and resolution on the legacy Cabletron hubs, while ClearVISN (a DEC product) was used on the new Digital equipment
  • Analysis and documentation of network loading and usage using RMON on network probes

Marc Bennett’s Education

• University of East Anglia

  BSc , Computer Science , 1997 — 1997

• University of East Anglia

  BSc , Computer Science , 1996 — 1996

• Staffordshire University

  BTEC HND , Computing , 1992 — 1994

Additional Information

Marc Bennett’s Websites:

• My Company

Marc Bennett’s Interests:

Working hard & playing harder, films, music, keeping in touch with friends, fine wines, finer foods, keeping up with tech, art, grooving, travelling, reading, exercise...

Marc Bennett’s Groups:

Professional Contractors Group, Member of the Tate

•    PCG, The Voice of Freelancing
•    IT Specialist Group
•    Information Security Community
•    CPUG: The Check Point User Group
•    Networkers Club for all Cisco networkers (http://www.hightecher.com)
•    CIO Forum
•    Strategic Use of Information Technology
•    ISO 27000 for information security management (4000+)
•    Infosecurity Europe
•    I'm a European IT Contractor!
•    Lloyds Insurance Market IT professionals
•    Monarch IT Senior Appointments Networking Group

Marc Bennett’s Honors:

Held Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification (17th of July 2001). CCNP has now lapsed and renewal is being sought.

Cisco Networkers Conference 13th to 16th December 2004
Techtorial – MPLS. Seminars – Advanced Campus Design, Understanding 802.1x, Grid Computing, DNS and DHCP operations, Planning for business continuity & disaster recovery, Routing and switching design in the data center and Deploying IPv6.

Cisco - 20th to 24th September 2004 – BGP
Configuring BGP on Cisco Routers V3.1

Cisco - 5th to 9th July 2004 – QoS
Implementing Cisco QoS. Subjects such as DiffServ, IntServ, ToS, Queuing, Policing and Marking.

RIPE - 25th June 2004 – Local Internet Registry (LIR)
Overview of the LIR process used to apply for and allocate IPv4 and IPv6 addressing within Europe.

Marc Bennett’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch