Belfast – Seite 4 – afib@Irland

Cisco Heaven

Yesterday my work day started with a visit at Translink’s „data center“ at Belfast Central Station.

They have servers …

server rack — Servers at Belfast Central Station

… networking equipment …

switches and cables — Some network equipment at Belfast Central Station

… and when it comes to structured cabling Translink strives for perfection! 😉

As you can see it’s rather a storeroom with a rack, some switches and an air conditioning system put in than a real data center.

I went there with my colleagues John and John, who both do most of the networking stuff at Translink. Why did we go there? The IS department just got a new redundant SAN system and plans are to move one part to Central Station to improve redundancy. To prepare this we met a network technician from Northgate (an IT service provider supporting Translink’s networking staff). He was introduced to Translink’s core network infrastructure with multiple sites connected via fibres and copper wires. After that he rushed through the core switch consoles, reviewed the configurations and presented some things that need to be changed in order to make the SAN replication work. We will get a full report soon.

The whole Translink data network is built on Cisco technology (as far as I know) so I hope there will be several opportunities to utilize my networking skills earned in the CCNA course in this (and coming) project(s).

While walking down the streets…

Everyday and every afternoon, i walking down the streets from my workplacement to my apartment, sometimes like monday, i saw some nice buildings in very nice sunshine, so i have took my smartphone and took some nice pictures along the streets…

Challenging IT project documentation

After finishing all the usual IT job startup tasks I had a first look at one of my projects: documenting a business intelligence application developed by my german colleague Mateusz Gwara, who spent his work experience at Translink last year. After Mateusz left Translink the application has been refined continuously, but nobody really cared about documentation … we’ll see what I will make out of it!

And because of the fact that I don’t want to bore you with another picture of my desk I’ve put a shot of Belfast city with some beautiful landscape in the background. (This photo can also be seen on the corresponding article on the afib website.)

My first weekend in Belfast…

Hello guys,

yeah… The first weekend in Belfast will be ending this sunday evening and it was really funny, because we were in a very nice pub on friday evening and walking down the street where i find a nice church, where i saw a funny and high spire on this building. But after a calling a taxi, we are reached the pub and have a great party. On sunday afternoon and evening, we are chilled out the day and talking about god and the world, we watched some hd films and looked a the nice skyline of belfast.

The church... — Walking down the street to the next taxi...

The church... No.2 — The church... Picture No. 2

Shopping tour

After cleaning we did a shopping tour at Victoria square shopping mall. It has a stunning architecture. The roof is built by a dome and in the mall there is tower with an observation platform. The view is great and you have a great view over most of the city. As we were going through the shops we made our first experiences with salespersons and how it feels to go shopping in another city. We had a lot of fun and everytime it becomes easier to get in touch with the people here in Belfast. From my point of view this culture is very friendly, helpful and polite.

Going Out For a Run

Yesterday Oliver and me decided to go out for a run in the evening. You might think it’s unbelievable, but it’s true: sporty nerds! 😉

First we decided to take a course of approximately 3.5 km, but due to some orientation difficulties we ended up with about 5.1 km. Here you can see the running course we finally took:

It was quite interesting to see some new areas of Belfast. The view along the waterfront at Ormeau Embankment is beautiful! And of course it was a very good feeling when arriving at home again. 😀

My first experience at work…

Hi,

it’s me… My first day at the no non-profit organisation „Volunteer Now“ was really interesting, because i am involved in two projects over the two months. One of them is the migration of Sharepoint server to a newer one with a new version of Sharepoint. The new design of this page will be created by me and the other project is a migration, too, but this will be the new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Well, my workplacement is very nice and my colleagues are so friendly, the atmosphere is very friendly. I have so much freedom at my workplace, i like this, that’s what i need to develop.

Here are some pictures of my workplacement and belfast, too.

The usual IT job startup tasks

[caption id="attachment_186" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Translink staff bus"]

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Tue, 24th Apr 2012

After taking the Translink staff bus from Europa Buscentre at 8:45 (which I’ll probably do every morning I go to work for the next two months) I arrived at Translink’s office at Milewater Road in the northeast of Belfast near the shipyard the famous Titanic was built at.

Tue, 24th Apr 2012

Paul McGrattan, my supervisor here at Translink, gave me some information about the department I will work for: Information Services (IS). Probably this is the only IT department which does not have IT in its name. 😛 I learned about the department’s structure and general tasks, the core network infrastructure and some other general IT stuff. After being introduced to the colleagues (whose names I can’t remember, except for maybe three or four people) I was shown my desk:

Before getting a user account I had to read the User Acceptability Policy (UAP), which consists of rules and guidelines on how to use the IT infrastructure.

I also had several nice talks with my new colleagues. One thing that really fascinates me is that people in Northern Ireland are so friendly. Even when just asking someone for the way he notices you are not from here and shows interest in where you are from and what are you doing in Belfast (as René already posted). I can’t imagine experiencing something like this in Berlin.

First Day

Hi there,

this is my first blog entry. I’m landed at Dublin Airport in the evening of Sunday. The flight with the Irish low-cost airline was quiet good and we haven’t any delay. My friend Benjamin and me have the luck, that we can go into the airpline like the we have booked the priority boarding. In the airplaine were a lot of Irish people singing, maybe british, songs.

At Dublin Airport we waited for the bus which drove us to the Europa Center in Belfast. The contact person here in Belfast ordered a few taxis which drove us to our apartment. On the whole this accommodation is very good and a the furniture is at a high level. I will talk about that later at a future time.

Yesterday we had a meeting with Kevin Shine (responsible for the jobs in Belfast) who give us a lot of information about Belfast. I also get the information that I have a meeting with Kevin and Jannik at Wednesday. We will drive together to NIBEC at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown.

So, I have quiet a lot to write about my experiences here in North Ireland. Stay tuned!

The first 24 hours

After a smooth flight from Berlin Schönefeld to Dublin and a … hm … let’s call it „dynamic“ bus ride we arrived at the Europa Bus Centre in Belfast at approximately 23:15 (UTC). María Gonzales, one of our contact persons here in Belfast, picked us up there and organized some taxis to bring us to our new homes for the next two months. Oliver, René, Tobias and I live in the Somerset Mews Townhouses in the centre of Belfast.

Today we had an induction meeting at RSM Tenon (the company which planned our work experience and supports us here in Belfast) with Kevin Shine, another of our contact persons and our supervisor here, where we got some general information about Belfast and Nothern Ireland as well as more specific information on our work placements.

After the induction Kevin and me took a cab to go to my job interview at Translink, the public transport provider in Northern Ireland, where I was told about general facts of the work at Translink, the current projects and my possible tasks. I will start tomorrow at 9 o’clock.

In my next post I will tell you something about my first day(s) at Translink …

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Schlagwort: Belfast