Chris Kirk
Head of Ultima Labs at Ultima Labs- Claim this Profile
Click to upgrade to our gold package
for the full feature experience.
Topline Score
Bio
Thomas Penrose
Chris was a fantastic colleague to work with and be managed by. He defined clear goals, but let engineers solve the problem in a ways they wanted too. He was always around for advice and support and never shunned away from a challenge. Chris has an extreamly methodical mind and is extreamly good at taking projects from start to finish. He can often be found working on projects in his own time, or researching new technology to ensure he stays up-to-date. Chris was a pleasure to work with and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for any IT based role.
Adam Lee
I found working with Chris Kirk very easy; he is a remarkable team leader. His communication skills, attention to detail, meticulous preparation and planning make working with Chris a pleasure. Chris has a
Thomas Penrose
Chris was a fantastic colleague to work with and be managed by. He defined clear goals, but let engineers solve the problem in a ways they wanted too. He was always around for advice and support and never shunned away from a challenge. Chris has an extreamly methodical mind and is extreamly good at taking projects from start to finish. He can often be found working on projects in his own time, or researching new technology to ensure he stays up-to-date. Chris was a pleasure to work with and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for any IT based role.
Adam Lee
I found working with Chris Kirk very easy; he is a remarkable team leader. His communication skills, attention to detail, meticulous preparation and planning make working with Chris a pleasure. Chris has a
Thomas Penrose
Chris was a fantastic colleague to work with and be managed by. He defined clear goals, but let engineers solve the problem in a ways they wanted too. He was always around for advice and support and never shunned away from a challenge. Chris has an extreamly methodical mind and is extreamly good at taking projects from start to finish. He can often be found working on projects in his own time, or researching new technology to ensure he stays up-to-date. Chris was a pleasure to work with and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for any IT based role.
Adam Lee
I found working with Chris Kirk very easy; he is a remarkable team leader. His communication skills, attention to detail, meticulous preparation and planning make working with Chris a pleasure. Chris has a
Thomas Penrose
Chris was a fantastic colleague to work with and be managed by. He defined clear goals, but let engineers solve the problem in a ways they wanted too. He was always around for advice and support and never shunned away from a challenge. Chris has an extreamly methodical mind and is extreamly good at taking projects from start to finish. He can often be found working on projects in his own time, or researching new technology to ensure he stays up-to-date. Chris was a pleasure to work with and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for any IT based role.
Adam Lee
I found working with Chris Kirk very easy; he is a remarkable team leader. His communication skills, attention to detail, meticulous preparation and planning make working with Chris a pleasure. Chris has a
Credentials
-
Exam 535: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions
MicrosoftApr, 2018- Oct, 2024 -
MCSA: Cloud Platform
MicrosoftApr, 2018- Oct, 2024 -
Exam 533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
MicrosoftSep, 2017- Oct, 2024 -
HP ATP Server Solutions v2
Hewlett Packard EnterpriseJun, 2016- Oct, 2024 -
HPE ATP Storage Solutions v2
Hewlett Packard EnterpriseJun, 2016- Oct, 2024 -
Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 70-342
MicrosoftFeb, 2015- Oct, 2024 -
Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 70-341
MicrosoftDec, 2014- Oct, 2024 -
MCTS Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuring 70-662
MicrosoftAug, 2014- Oct, 2024 -
VCA-DCV
VMwareJul, 2014- Oct, 2024 -
MCTS Active Directory, Configuring 70-640
MicrosoftAug, 2013- Oct, 2024 -
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
MicrosoftJan, 2019- Oct, 2024 -
CNSS / NSA 4011 Security Recognition
-Feb, 2014- Oct, 2024 -
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) - Routing and Switching
CiscoFeb, 2011- Oct, 2024 -
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) - Security
CiscoFeb, 2014- Oct, 2024
Experience
-
Ultima Labs
-
Australia
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
Head of Ultima Labs
-
Jul 2022 - Present
Ultima Labs has been formed as an "internal startup" within an existing business to focus on imagining and developing innovative software solutions for our customers around automation of the public cloud and on-premises/cloud process automation. Our commercial, off-the-shelf solutions enable customers of any size to adopt these areas more easily and with confidence.Coming from a technical background in on-premises infrastructure, public cloud infrastructure and automation solutions architecture, our overall goal is to take what is complex and time consuming for customers and make things simple. My technology portfolio currently covers areas relating to Microsoft Azure infrastructure, DevOps, PowerShell and C# cloud automation, AWS infrastructure, Robotic Process Automation, Power Automate flows/Logic App flows and API management. https://www.ultima.com/ultima-labsAs the head of Ultima Labs I am directly responsible for:- Driving the vision and strategy for our customer facing platforms- Developing and testing commercial business models - Providing leadership and overarching management for Ultima Labs- Road mapping and Portfolio Management- Product evangelism and senior stakeholder management- Involvement in digital marketing, analytics, experimentation- Driving business strategy for our cloud and automation tools to allow alignment to customers needs- Providing technical development guidance to the product teams as required- Providing assistance to the wider business around cloud adoption and automation adoption process, procedures and use cases- Providing talks and lectures at in-person or digital events
-
-
Lead Cloud Developer & Architect
-
Mar 2020 - Jul 2022
At Ultima Labs I'm responsible for cloud architecture and design of our automated cloud solutions to our customers by heading up our R&D team, with our main focus around our cloud management, monitoring and optimisation tool that is IA-Cloud. I've been a cloud automation developer, senior consultant and cloud devops consultant previously, bringing together all this experience into our tools and processes to better our customer's cloud experience.I also assist in customers cloud journeys with our sales and management teams to help customers needs be translated into achievable requirements by our tools - with an emphasis on automation.
-
-
-
Ultima Business Solutions
-
United Kingdom
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
Cloud Development Team Lead
-
Jan 2020 - Present
-
-
Senior Technical Consultant - Cloud
-
Jul 2018 - Jan 2020
At Ultima I work on technical pre-sales, discovery, design or implementation work for our customers looking to expand their business into the Microsoft Azure platform, or get the most out of their existing Azure workloads.
-
-
-
Coeo Ltd
-
Australia
-
IT Services and IT Consulting
-
Cloud Consultant
-
Sep 2017 - Jul 2018
As a cloud consultant for Coeo, I specialise in Microsoft Azure solutions for customers in the gaming, financial and retail sectors.I work with our customers from technical pre-sales, architecture workshops and design work as well as implementation of those designs. As part of my role I also provide technical training for a wide variety of public and private sector companies on Azure.I have also provided user group talks on the more interesting aspects of cloud computing, such as IoT.
-
-
-
-
Junior Technical Consultant
-
Jul 2013 - Aug 2017
My position at Ultima has seen me responsible for several design, implementation, migration and support projects ranging from SMB companies, National Pension providers to London Financial Services and Investment firms.Project highlights include:- Azure IaaS and PaaS architecture and implementation projects including technical pre-sales- Review of on-prem workloads and design work to migrate these to Azure- Operations Management Suite (OMS) implementation and design for monitoring IaaS, PaaS and on-prem services- Automated deployments using Azure ARM templates and Powershell DSC- DevOps style implementation of automation with Azure and VSTS/TFS.- DNS and Active Directory migration/healthcheck, 2003 EoL projects- Automation for custom in-house application healthchecking across the estate.
-
-
-
Churchers Solicitors
-
United Kingdom
-
Legal Services
-
1 - 100 Employee
-
IT Team Leader
-
Jun 2008 - Jun 2013
In this position I am responsible for the entire IT infrastructure at Churchers Solicitors, which is in use 24 hours a day due to the growth and demand of the department in recent years. I am also responsible for the IT team management, made up of up to 4 people from analysts to software developers.
-
-
Systems Analyst
-
Jun 2007 - Jun 2008
Part-time contract while studying my final year at University. During this year I served as front line support as well being introduced to management duties such as cost analysis and dealing with contractors and suppliers.During this year I was also involved in several system upgrades including assisting in the migration of the wide area network from leased lines to MPLS via NTL.
-
-
IT Admin - Industrial Placement
-
Jun 2006 - Jun 2007
Hired for a year in industry as part of my University degree. In this role I was the first line of support to 100 users of the firm, spread over 5 offices in the Portsmouth area. This involved dealing with user change requests and troubleshooting desktop problems. Desktop roll outs and other hardware roll outs were also performed during this year.
-
-
Education
-
2004 - 2008
University of Portsmouth
BSc (Hons) Computer Network Management and Design -
2002 - 2004
Sandwich Technology School Sixth Form
A-levels, IT, Maths and Cisco Network Academy -
1997 - 2002
Sandwich Technology School
Community
