As Hosted Services Technical Manager at CMTG, Neil Morris plays a pivotal role in the design, deployment and performance of CMTG’s hosted infrastructure.
With over 12 years in this position – and nearly two decades at the company – Neil’s expertise has been instrumental in shaping CMTG’s high-performance, flexible hosting environment that continues to exceed customer expectations.
Neil’s day-to-day activities revolve around ensuring CMTG’s hosting platforms remain robust, scalable and responsive.
“A typical day for me involves monitoring service health, planning capacity upgrades and leading new deployments,” he explains.
“I also spend a lot of time mentoring other engineers and refining our runbooks to incorporate best practices.”
Neil’s career in tech began in the UK in the 1980’s when a Christmas gift – a microcomputer from his father – sparked a lifelong interest in programming.
“It was the era of kids teaching themselves how to code,” he said.
“That passion carried through to my first job in local government as a Novell Netware engineer.”
After moving to Australia in the early 2000’s, Neil joined CMTG in 2007, gradually progressing from technician to the leadership role he holds today.
Neil is especially proud of the collaborative culture at CMTG.
“We’re agile – because we own our own datacentre and have a deeply skilled team, we can deliver bespoke solutions other providers simply can’t,” he said.
One of the key advantages CMTG offers clients is the ability to tailor solutions at a cost point and speed that large public cloud providers struggle to match.
“For example, we provide 10Gbit connections with sub-millisecond latency and no ingress/egress charges,” Neil said.
“In simple terms, we can deliver high-speed, low-cost access with unlimited traffic, and for the customer, it feels like their servers are right in the next room.”
This year, Neil and his team have spearheaded a major infrastructure upgrade across CMTG’s production platforms.
These include a 52% jump in central processing unit (CPU) base clock speed, the introduction of DDR5 RAM with 118% speed gains, GPU-accelerated Windows 11 virtual desktops, and industry-leading ransomware detection built directly into CMTG’s upgraded IBM SAN storage solution.
“These upgrades are a massive leap forward and we’re delivering them to our clients at no extra cost,” Neil said.
“It’s all about performance, security and value.
“And we’re proud to pass those benefits directly on to our customers.”
CMTG’s hosting services have been internationally recognised, with Neil co-authoring a white paper presented at IBM TechXchange 2024 in Las Vegas.
He’s also a member of IBM’s Storage Technical Client Council and a Rising Champion in their FlashStorage Champion program.
Looking ahead, Neil sees AI-driven operations and hybrid environments shaping the future of hosted services.
“We’re seeing more customers connect via dark fibre for that seamless, on-prem experience, but with all the flexibility and scalability of hosted infrastructure,” he said.
For aspiring IT professionals, Neil’s advice is simple.
“Build a lab, get hands-on practice, automate everything you can and stay curious,” he said.
“Tech moves fast – learning never stops.”
When he’s not evolving CMTG’s hosted environments, Neil enjoys beach walks with his dogs, family time, and the occasional video game, although he admits tech is rarely far from his thoughts.
“I love what I do – it’s exciting to be part of something that’s always pushing forward,” he said.
