As is often the tradition I thought I would start the year with a couple of posts covering an overview of some key points from the last year, and some planned projects for this year.
As I am sure you have guessed this post will be a brief review of 2011 from a study / career / research perspective.
2011 was a pretty busy year with cloud security research, masters work and finally realising my previous role was no longer offering much/any challenge; culminating in moving to a new role at the end of the year / start of 2012.
From a study perspective I completed two more MSc modules;
– Wireless mobile and ad-hoc networking
– Secure systems programming
Assuming I pass the secure systems programming module (final piece of coursework was completed 9/1/12) there is ‘just’ the project left to complete in order to finish my masters.
Also on a Study front I achieved a couple of certifications;
– ISSAP (Information Systems Security Architecture Professional). This is a secure architecture addition to the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional).
– British Computer Society Enterprise and Solutions Architecture certificate.
So all in all a successful and reasonably productive year from a study / certification perspective, especially if I have managed to pass the secure coding module!
From a career perspective I has been looking around within my previous company for a little while but decided that I was stagnating in my previous role so it was time to look outside in order to move on. The good news is I was successful, being offered a considerably improved role as a Senior Systems Architect with Canada Life that I started 3/1/12. I’ll update on how this is going and any non propriety technologies / projects I am working on in upcoming posts.
From a research / general learning perspective 2011 was the year of the cloud. As anyone who has read this blog knows I have been very involved in work defining Security as a Service (SecaaS) with the Cloud Security Alliance, chairing the research group on this topic. This has resulted in a paper being published and SecaaS being added as a new domain to the CSA guidance.
I’ll follow this post with one detailing some of my plans and projects for 2012.
K