My move to Tanium [2019 - 22]

Originally published on LinkedIn.

Note that this was a personal post and the views expressed may not represent those of any current or former employer.

Many were surprised that I chose to move on from Deloitte - and in all honesty, it was a tough decision to leave such a great firm. I worked hard supporting the innovation strategy for Risk Advisory and then leading the creation of the “Solutions Factory” - which included product/solutions architecture and open source/cloud engineering and operations teams. The team and I learnt a massive amount along the way; about designing and supporting software and services within the highly regulated and federated partner operating model of a Big 4 firm (that does so much more than Audit and Accountancy). I made some great friends along the way that I hope to stay in touch with for years to come.

I could probably write a whole book on the challenges and successes of the role at Deloitte but I won't bore you and don't want to say too much – as per my last post about Business Social! What I will say is that after nearly 3 years I decided I needed a change and so when I started speaking to Tanium I got very excited. A large part of that was due to a friend who told me about them and their unique platform for endpoint management and security about a year previously.

What is unique you ask? Well it turns out quite a few things - not just the architecture and engineering:

Tanium invented something called a Linear Chain Architecture to collect data about the IT environment in real time. Put simply it allows endpoints (computers, laptops, servers, devices) to check-in with their immediate neighbourhood about their status in a chain - massively increasing speed, scalability and efficiency. Not only to report their status - but to ask questions such as “What is installed on the machine - and is it up to date?” “What processes are running?”, “What else is on the network?” - in fact pretty much anything you can imagine to run - and also to run actions like commands, remediating actions or software deployments. All these things leverage the efficient linear chain - reducing network traffic, providing accurate information fast and speeding up IT operations and management. This is the core of the platform on which other enhancing product modules sit - but it turns out customers can do a massive amount with the core platform.

Strong Customer Support 

Tanium has Technical Account Managers (TAMs) who work alongside customers all the way through the sales process to implementation and on-going support. Last week I spent a few days in their technical training, meeting many existing TAMs and these smart guys and girls are a core part of our success. They help clients to get the best out of the platform. Alongside TAMs are the newer Customer Success Management team who ensure customers realise the full potential of their investment and help them communicate the business benefits from adopting the platform to their peers.

My role

The Chief IT Architecture role is so variable from company to company. My role at Tanium [was] a mix of reference architecture, workshops with customers, thought leadership/blogging/speaking, influencing the platform and product roadmap, particularly around my areas of experience, and helping customers enhance their architecture. There are ample opportunities to learn which is great as I strive to grow and improve, but also a good balance of areas where today I can contribute to the success of our customers and alliance partners.

Building an Architecture community: Architect Tomorrow. We are keen to get involved with and build Architecture communities / networks across Europe. These are about networking and knowledge sharing.

More blogs / articles please do continue to give me feedback on these - whether you like them and if there are topics you’d like to see me cover. There is likely to be one on IT Operations and Cyber Security reference architecture fairly soon.

Speaking at events and conferences

Thanks go out to…

Firstly thanks to my former Deloitte colleagues and leaders who supported me in the Chief Architect role within Risk Advisory. And those of you who provided me advice earlier in the year - for those of you who are regular readers you'll know it's been a tough year at times. Thanks to my former team for your hard work and understanding my reasons for moving on - I am sure you will continue to be brilliant. Last but not least my new colleagues at Tanium!

Originally published on LinkedIn.