Rob Austen spent 24 years as a logistician in the RAF filling a number of aerospace engineering roles before moving to the IS environment as a ‘hybrid’ in 1999. Filling a number of data and information related roles since this time, he was targeted to establish a Business System Manager role for Information Management within Defence Logistics to act as a focal point for middleware exploitation activities working extensively with MoD departments and SIs. Since 2007 Rob has worked as an independent consultant, remaining involved in a number of SOA, EA and Information Integration related projects within government and defence.