Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Practical Insights and Lessons Learned in Securing the Modern Campus

Adrian is responsible for the day-to-day management and operations of the University’s network core, distribution, and edge services across multiple campuses with over 200 hub rooms and 50000+ networking ports, including capital projects and investment programmes. His technical responsibilities included the installation, configuration, implementation, design, analysis, upgrade, troubleshooting, and support for various mission-critical technologies in LAN, WAN, voice, and wireless technologies.

Bilal is the IT Infrastructure Manager (CCSS) at Middlesex University. He is responsible for the design, development, implementation and maintenance of the University’s enterprise infrastructure, with a particular focus on identity, enterprise service bus & messaging, virtualisation and communication technologies (across network, server, storage and desktops), database, and security technologies. Bilal has been in this role for 18 years where he has overseen a complete virtualisation of the University’s server and storage infrastructure, the adoption of data centre as a managed service model, the installation of an automated provisioning and identity provider infrastructure for circa 60k accounts, the adoption of cloud services for the student VLE, filestore and mailboxes, the installation of video conferencing and digital signage, and the installation of federated authentication services.

Simon has over 30 years’ experience designing and implementing network infrastructure and security architectures in higher education. Working with key stakeholders, he has a track record of providing innovative and relevant solutions to real business needs. Simon has a passion for new technology that can be employed to solve challenges practically and efficiently, while ensuring that security is always at the heart of creating digital transformation. As Education Sector Lead at ITGL, Simon is focused on elevating the conversation to build security capability, and increase visibility and protection. His experience gives him a unique focus on meeting clients aspirations and bringing their digital journeys to life, helping to ensure their success in a constantly changing digital landscape.

As Security Practice Lead at ITGL, Andy works with his colleagues to help resource constrained organisations improve their security postures, while minimising friction for users and stakeholders alike. Although cybersecurity has risen up the priorities list for most organisations in recent years, he appreciates that the size of today’s attack surface along with constantly evolving threat vectors and common resource constraints, means that the security challenge faced by educational organisations is still significant. Andy enjoys working with clients and partners to determine the most effective security architectures and strategies to protect and support organisations missions.