IT Life: Setting Workers Free With The Cloud

How are you managing security in terms of letting people get on the corporate network?
Because the environment is driven through HTTP, we’re just using HTTPS. We have deployed Microsoft DirectAccess on Windows 7. But if truth be told I can only think of quantity surveying access software that needs accessing and that’s through a browser.

We’re pretty much trying to drive everything through HTTP, we’re not interested in having in VPNs. I wanted to move away from proprietary VPNs as much as possible

Do you not have concerns about security with that model?
I don’t have concerns about security. Our chief operating officer says we’re not the FBI.

Our corporate website has nothing to do with the access people need. There’s no portal from the website for employees to access the document management system, or the finance system.

We could get anal about it but I think  you can make problems for yourself. We have to make these things easy for people to use. If we went down the route of giving them key fobs or whatever for access, people would lose them.

Don’t get me wrong, people need to use different passwords and change them regularly.

It seems like you’ve got a really supportive environment. But how is budget looking right now? Is it down?
Absolutely. I had to cut five percent of the annual budget last year because construction is one of the first industries into recession and one of the last ones out. Fortunately we’d got a lot of spending out the way before we had to cut the budget.

I’m an egotistical swine though, so I don’t mind that sort of challenge… the tax man can’t tax inspiration.

Have you always been in IT?
Yeah, I started out as an IT manager. When I came out of university and was given a job as an IT manager in the NHS. And I’ve done that ever since. I’m not the world’s biggest techie but I can look at technology and know what it’ll do and whether it is worth buying and that has pretty much carried me through.

On a personal level, is there any technology that you really like right now?
In terms of stuff I enjoy using, it really has to be Microsoft stuff. Bill Gates has provided me with a career. People slate Microsoft, and I can understand why. I’d like to get a ticket to Redmond and start banging heads together.

But I’ve used Microsoft from day one and, apart from a few quirks and foibles, it’s basically what has made my career.

So is Bill Gates your hero then? Do you have a villain?
My tech hero would be Bill Gates. Not because of the software. What rounds it out for me is that not only did he give Microsoft a mission, which some people disagree with. I do find it funny that some of the things that Gates has been slated for are the things Steve Jobs has been adored for. But the thing that makes him my tech hero is that he gave up when he said he would and now he’s sitting there with a huge pile of money handing it out to worthy causes.

My villain would be Steve Ballmer. I met him at Microsoft in Victoria for a meet and greet. He just seemed to shout for no reason. It freaked me out. I’m not a small guy but he made me jump.

But my problem with Ballmer is that I don’t see any vision there.

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