About Patrick Mackeown

I am a self-employed computing consultant, based in London. Prior to setting up Help-Desks I worked as a Senior Infrastructure Analyst at AOL Time Warner. I was part of the early Internet revolution when back in 19XX I worked at CityScape, Cambridge's first ISP, and then as Systems Administrator at Demon Internet. In those days a 56kbps dial-up connection to the Internet was heralded as super-fast! I obtained a HNC in Computing and qualified as a Sun certified systems administrator for Solaris 10. In addition I continuously test and examine the latest technologies in my own lab. All in all I can look back on X years of computing career, y of which as systems administrator.

My core technical expertise lies in the administration of Unix-based systems: Solaris, FreeBSD, RedHat Linux to name but a few. I pride myself in automating routine tasks by writing my own scripts. I am fluent in Perl, X Y Z, etc. I am comfortable in installing a variety of applications, such as DNS, Java, Oracle, XXX. The most challenging back-up solution I ever implemented was Veritas NetBackup whilst at AOL Time Warner. I refined the system so that its robot would operate better. Though not my core area of expertise I could not help but pick up a fair amount of networking knowledge over the years.

My approach to computing is best described as "down to earth". I listen to my clients' requirements and provide a recommendation made up of tried and tested components. Moreover, I take care that the solution fits in with my customer's in-house IT expertise. It's no good developing a sophisticated IT solution that rings all the latest buzzwords only to find that the client is completelty overwhelmed with its day-to-day operation.