Evan Connell | IT and Infrustructure Manager
New Madinah College

Evan Connell’s career in technology began in the 1990s, developing international enterprise networks and securing systems across 27 countries. Through the early 2000s, he worked extensively on infrastructure projects across Europe and Africa, gaining a global reputation for scalable, secure network design in both government and corporate sectors.
In 2009, Evan lead server infrastructure support for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) in Queensland, managing high-availability systems and mission-critical services for state operations. But by 2010, the industry had shifted — cloud computing was on the rise, and traditional servers were on the way out.
Anticipating this change, Evan founded a digital marketing agency that helped businesses transition from on-premise infrastructure to fully cloud-based platforms. Over the next decade, he led hundreds of digital transformation projects, integrating SEO, automation, and cloud tools into businesses of all sizes.
After semi-retiring in 2023, Evan relocated to Young, NSW — where a small role at a local college unexpectedly re-ignited his passion for open-source software and sustainable IT in education.
Faced with a tight budget and a classroom full of ageing laptops, Evan began experimenting. He installed solid-state drives, loaded up Ubuntu — a free, open-source operating system — and configured the machines for online learning. Using Mozilla Firefox, students logged in to Office 365, completed assignments, and even built websites. The result? A zero-cost, lightning-fast computer lab that outperformed new machines — without a single Microsoft licence.
That experiment became a mission.
Evan went on to replicate the features most schools rely on from Windows — Active Directory, OneDrive, SharePoint — into a custom-built Ubuntu system called CReSED: Cloud-Ready Secure Education Distribution.
Today, Evan is the founder and Senior Developer at Digital Education Systems, a company that partners with Ubuntu and Red Piranha preparing to deliver CReSED across schools and government departments throughout Australia and Africa.