David Goh

Welcome to the website of:

David Goh <david@goh.id.au>

Software Designer and Developer.
Systems Integrator and Administrator.
Unix, Internet, Cloud and Open Source Applications Specialist.

Nowadays this once unusual combination of skills is called DevOps - but I have been doing these things together professionally since long before that job title existed. For further details, please read on (or skip to the section with my resume if you like).


Software Designer and Developer.

I have worked professionally as a software architect, designer and developer on a large range of projects. They have ranged from very large (e.g., 1.3 million lines of C on a realtime OS with a team of 50+ people) to the very small (e.g., a few lines of shell script for automating minor system administration tasks), to everything in between.

As a result of working on such varied projects, I have extensive experience in every stage of the software lifecycle, including:

I have experience in most styles of software development ranging from the full waterfall cycle in formal software maintenance mode through to agile methodology implementations.

What Can I Do For Your Business?

I can:

Systems Integrator and Administrator.

Instead of being "just another software developer", I have always been heavily involved in the environmental aspects of development. Where there has not been an official unix systems administrator in the workplace for certain periods, I have usually taken on that role in addition to my primary job.

Where there has been an official unix systems administrator, I have generally been the liaison point between development and systems administration, ensuring that the systems are set up correctly to support development activities as well as general Internet and intranet services such as websites and email. This includes Cloud services such as O365 and G-Suite. I have also administered virtual servers (Parallels, VMWare) and containerised services (Docker).

In the past, I have conducted formal Perl and Unix Training Courses, as well as having conducted many informal training sessions on a variety of subjects, from new configuration management procedures, to good software engineering practice.

I have also:

I have generally worked in and maintained heterogenous environments where the desktop PCs have been running Windows and the servers have been running unix variants. At home, I have run macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and Debian Linux. For me, interoperability isn't just a word. It's a lifestyle.

What Can I Do For Your Business?

I can help with:

Unix, Internet, Cloud and Open Source Applications Specialist.

Unix Specialist.

As detailed in my resume, I have extensive commercial experience with a large variety of Unix variants, macOS, MSDOS, and Windows. In contrast to an individual with a single unix vendor certification or experience, I have a great deal of knowledge and experience in the features which are constant across the many different versions of unix, and where they differ.

This is beneficial from both development and systems administration perspectives. As a developer, understanding the similarities and differences between the vast variety of unix variants is crucial to writing portable software. The same is true of creating system administration procedures and scripts which can be moved to different operating systems when required.

It also means that if I'm faced with a unix variant I haven't seen before (there aren't many left), I'll adapt to it very rapidly, because I understand the basic principles and know where to start looking.

What Can I Do For Your Business?

Regardless of which unix variant(s) you use, I can help with:

  • ensuring unix software portability,
  • unix systems analysis/troubleshooting,
  • unix systems administration.

Internet Specialist.

I've been using the Internet in various ways since 1992, shortly before commercial Internet existed as a service in Australia. I've seen the vast shifts in the nature of the Internet that have occurred over that period and I'm very familiar with most of the Internet related technologies that have been in use across that entire time, including various cloud services that have grown in popularity more recently.

If it's an open standard technology that's been used on the Internet at any point since 1992, I'm almost certainly familiar with it. At minimum by having used it extensively, but more likely by having actually run the software needed to provide the service as well.

What Can I Do For Your Business?

I can provide advice regarding almost anything relating to the Internet, including such topics as:

  • how and where to advertise your products and services,
  • what specific security technologies you should be using and under what circumstances,
  • how to access the Internet in the best way for your business,
  • what cloud or hosted solutions might be appropriate for you,
  • where to locate additional information.

Cloud and Open Source Applications Specialist.

As a result of my Unix and Internet expertise, I have a great deal of experience with Open Source technologies, as a vast number of popular unix applications and Internet applications are Open Source.

However, almost all the software development I've done has been for closed source projects, and I am entirely comfortable with the commercial reasons for doing closed source development. There are commercial situations where open source development is preferable, but they are rare. I do recommend commercial products for use (either for use as part of a particular project under development or for systems administration purposes) when the commercial product has more value to the business than an Open Source alternative. There are also a variety of commercial Cloud services widely available now, which I can evaluate and secure as well.

The key is being able to evaluate the Open Source solutions (typically free or very low cost, more able to be customised to your particular needs and easier to maintain) vs the commercial closed source vendor solutions (typically more costly, but easier to set up initially) vs Cloud services (easier to maintain, less easy to customise, harder to secure), and to choose an appropriate solution based on the situation.

What Can I Do For Your Business?

I can help with:

  • accessing the benefits of Open Source applications,
  • expert customisation of Open Source applications that you may already be using,
  • design and implementation of cost effective solutions by selecting Open Source applications, closed source applications, cloud services or a combination of the three.

Resume

My resume is available in a variety of formats for your convenience:


Interested?

If you are interested in hiring me (for either part time or full time work, depending on availability), I can be contacted via email or mobile phone:

Email Address: David Goh <david@goh.id.au>
Mobile Phone: +61 411 692 516


Thanks,

David Goh

Software Designer and Developer.
Systems Integrator and Administrator.
Unix, Internet, Cloud and Open Source Applications Specialist.

-- 
--   Email: David Goh <david@goh.id.au>
-- Website: https://goh.id.au/~david/
--  Mobile: +61 411 692 516