He quickly rose through the ranks, from a Desktop Administrator role through to Server Engineer then into more specialised Consultancy Services – deploying VMWare solutions to a wide variety of organisations (local, central Government and private sector).

From the private cloud to locally hosted data centres, the landscape evolved again as external hosting environments gave birth to the public cloud. Darren’s been working in this cloud, specifically with AWS, since 2017.

Darren’s been with us a few days now, getting to know the team (and fitting in nicely)! We caught up with him to see how’s it’s been, ask some quick questions and find out a little more about our latest cloud specialist.

So Darren, what made you make the switch to Firemind?

The targets of the company to grow rapidly in the AI/ML space were very appealing to me. It’s a space that intrigues me and will provide me with challenges I’ve yet to experience in my long IT career.

How have you found it here so far?

The team have been very friendly and inviting, and the whole office culture and vibe, coupled with the company’s vision, suits me perfectly.

Which areas of our business interested you the most?

There is a strong development focus within the Firemind organisation.
Taking on a client’s idea and helping shape that into a working product is something new and appealing to me.

I’m used to getting involved at the MVP stage, when a business has developed a product but now needs to get it out of a VSP hosting platform and implemented into a truly enterprise scalable environment on AWS. Working closely with the Firemind developers as we build out solutions from start to finish is a challenge I am certainly looking forward to with abundance!

What will be your main goals/objectives whilst working at Firemind?

As I have alluded to, I’m from an infrastructure “CloudOps” background. I love CloudOps, but as I progress, I have objectives to become more DevOps focused. I want to be able to immerse myself deeper into projects that are cutting edge, from conception into delivery.

Outside of work, what do you get up to?

Sadly, my hobbies and professional career overlap significantly. I’ve always been interested in technology, and tinkering around with new tech is something that I enjoy in my spare time. I’m also a coach for the local under 7’s team that my youngest plays in (which I was roped into by one of the other ‘dadas’ and am now completely hooked, no matter how relentless it is).

Outside of tech and coaching, one of my favourite activities to relax is to simply go for a nice long walk with the family and our pet dog Dolly.