Blog
About
I am a technology enthusiast that is passionate about solving business problems with tech . My weapon of choice is reading books and I cant sit still knowing there is so much more tech that needs exploring. I get a thrill out of paring technology with real life business or social problems, for me thats where the magic happens. I am most experienced when it comes to data driven solutions and I am a firm believer in making sure your architecture is sound. I am part of a small boutique technology consulting firm called Ideam Consult where We are all passionate about building innovative solutions. Nonetheless, I love teaching others what I know, and I welcome a good challenge .
Certificates
Skills
Ask me about any of the following, this is what I do best :-)
Services
I am best suited to help with any of the following:
Building & desiging cloud based solutions
Vast experience in building cloud solutions and cloud based architecture in Google Cloud, AWS and Azure. From simple applications, productivity automation, data systems and more importantly helping you understand the best solution for your cloud needs
Data Warehouse Design
Much of my career was built on data warehouse design and data pipelines as the field has evolved with time. Wheher you are looking for a data mart with a dimensional modelling style or a flexible and scalable data vault. Im am the man to help you understand where each fits and how best to implement these to meet your business requirements. I have experinece in the data lata lake pattern, cloud data platforms, hadoop and various wharehouse automation tools, and offer patterns and accelerators for many of the common data problems an organisation will face.
Building custom software solutions
This is fundamentally the core of what I do and everything else is often a side effect of building a business solution. While my language of choice is java or python, I have experience with various others. From microservices architecture to cloud first and serverless. We build front end applications to to meet any requirement most of which is in Angular and more recently React and React Native.
Building Data Pipelines / Platforms
Building data-driven solutions and data pipelines is again a core offering especially if you are using open source frameworks like hadoop, spark or are embarking on a cloud journey and need help getting your data into the cloud from various external and internal sources. I have experince with realtime streaming and batch operated data platforms and a wide range of technolgies and patterns
Technical Leaderhsip and project execution
I am very well suited to help architect, plan and lead technical projects and can help wramp up your projects if need be or manage delivery quality and architectural soundness throughout the journey. Especially when it comes to introducing new cutting edge patterns or technologies that can often be difficult and complex to implement and manage from a people and process perspective - I excel under these conditions.
Building Devops Solutions
Every solution is underpinned by a strong devops capability to be able to deliver at pace and with predictable quality. I can help not only building devops solutions like CI / CD piplines but also help with the adoption of the culture within you organisation. Having built many such solutions, I can offer accelerators for cloud and on premise with templates and experience. More notably container based environments in docker and kubernetes is where I have the greatest advantage to asisst you and help evolve if you are looking into this still..
Technical Training
I love to teach and have a work ethic of high quality documentation which is condusive to knowledge transfer and learning. Over the years i have built up a vast content management system with hundreds of how to's and architecture diagrams with technical and business lenses that I find help people understand complex problems easier. I also enjoy training others and I am both geared and experienced to conduct training for new teams or teams embarking on new technolgies
Testimonials
See what those who have worked with Keith have to say:
I have worked with Keith for the last 4 years on a large BI transformation program. He is one of those rare unicorns who not only has the range across numerous technologies (especially modern technologies) and methodologies but he has the depth as well. From Data Engineer to DevOps Engineer he has the ability to deep dive into any topic. He's a purist and loves conceptually well architected solutions but also has the practical skills to get things done, no matter the curveball. He has excellent technical leadership qualities and has held the role of technical lead over the last couple of years where he has delivered complex solutions in a timely fashion
Corne Potgieter
BI Technical Lead (Deloitte)
In the 30 years of my experience in IT and BI solution establishment, Keith is in my opinion a leading multi-skilled, talented and enthusiastic professional. Whether the requirement is integrating or producing technical solutions using existing applications. Developing new applications or structuring and developing BI assets with a real clarity of thought applied to delivering elegant practical solutions. He is widely experienced and extremely well informed in all aspects of the modern IT landscape and has a passion for learning and understanding - in detail - progress in the industry from new development languages to new methodologies and philosophies. As a person he is amenable, easily manages his own and other’s output, approaches all aspects of his deliveries in a well-structured and planned manner with a passion and skill for effective and enabling documentation. He takes on all levels of project delivery from effectively running daily team effort and planning, developing designs and executing the more complex components of a solution when they are out of range of other members of the team. If there is one critical element (as a colleague recently said about him) it is “He never switches off” where his interest in IT will mean that even in his spare time he will be extending skills and developing his abilities to better execute solutions. That said he appears to manage an effective work / life balance.
Roy Terlien
Enterprise Architect (Sanlam)
I have worked with keith for a number of years. I have witnessed him architect and deliver some real applause-worthy solutions during our time working together. His biggest strength is in his ability to deal with conflicting priorities in high-pressure environments but stay on track and delivers on time. The big data and software solutions delivered really increased the client’s confidence in our team. Keith has been a great mentor in deepening my understanding of big data and has shaped my skill set for what it is today. I highly recommend Keith if a job needs to get done.
Dyllan Higgins
Developer
Contact
Feel free to reach out an ask questions. I would be happy to help and connect with like minded people. Or, maybe you need help with a technical project :)
Location:
Green Point, Cape Town, South Africa, 8001
Email:
keith@ideamconsult.com
Call:
+27 83 4411 232