PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Cloud Solutions Architect

Confidential, Atlanta, GA

Responsibilities:

• Produced a complete top to bottom PCI - DSS compliant architecture for deploying cloud infrastructure for the 4th largest bank in the United States.
• Worked with teams across the organization to socialize and engage various stakeholders to adopt cloud and Digital Transformation.
• Defined PCI-DSS, SOCKS, PII, etc. compliance and policy owners and roles for the organization Confidential large, and engaged Microsoft and AWS account teams to review and validate them with their owners.
• Evaluated Confidential corporate private cloud strategy, identified gaps, and presented an optimized solutions pathway which is still being adopted.
• Designed and implemented Multi-Region and Multi-Provider network architectures, DR plans, Infrastructure-as-Code tooling, DevOps workflows, Trans-Atlantic connectivity between US and EU datacenters & cloud provider regions utilizing multiple redundant vendors.
• Created the Confidential Cloud Strategy and provided financials which prompted the CEO of Confidential to name my CIO “King of Cloud” which allowed us to take charge from our parent organization, and resulted in a “Cloud-First” directive from the executive team for all new projects since 2018.
• Performed PoC work to demonstrate and train the organization on Containers, Container Management, Docker, LXD, LXC, Provider CaaS (ECS/App Engine/Container Engine/Magnum), Kubernetes (and Kube as a Service), datacenter connectivity, network SOA model, cost optimization, DDoS and resiliency loss mitigation, and Multi-Region/Multi-Cloud/Provider Agnostic management, migration, and meeting regulatory requirements.
• Embedded into various teams as a member to perform development/deployment/operationalization duties to ease adoption, evangelize optimal solutions, and prevent projects from getting stuck in the process of adopting new technologies and methodologies.
• Advised the members of the Cloud Architecture Working Group one on one to get them up to speed in assessing cloud project proposals, identify required technologies and how to properly implement them, and inform them of any nuances or caveats related to items under their purview.
• Assisted the Confidential Enterprise Architecture group in getting up to speed on cloud technologies, obtaining official regulatory requirements for technology approvals, creating a service catalog, documenting approved use cases, tracking technical debt and negative outcomes for future resolution, as well as an extensive amount of one-on-one and group training sessions for members of business lines and technology teams.
• Built out and defined rules and governance around sandbox, PoC, and Innovation Lab environments for the organization.
• Designed and built out the Elavon Greenhouse Innovation Center private cloud environment in Atlanta, GA.

Cloud Solutions Architect

Logisticare Solutions LLC Atlanta, GA

Responsibilities:

• Designed, architected, produced POCs, and deployed various “Nextgen” projects.
• Hired, trained, and supervised staff for cloud deployments, operations management, cost optimization, and standards and best practices implementation.
• Leveraged resources from external vendors and internal project and development teams to realize functionality, performance, and stability improvements across all business units.
• Designed and implemented CI/CD processes and provided guidance and code changes to improve the functionality and manageability of internally developed application stacks to include automating container builders and container management by environment.
• Analyzed and documented issues found with various code, architecture, and infrastructure projects and engaged product owners, business units, vendors, and security and compliance teams for cataloguing and remediation.
• Produced project plans, supervised management, guided executive staff, and engaged vendors and junior level personnel on all aspects of an AWS EC2 Container Service Docker infrastructure while migrating away from Openshift Enterprise on EC2.
• Created and demonstrated alternative deployment architecture in less than 2 months singlehandedly that cut CAPEX by 50% and OPEX by nearly 70% versus the existing plan that took almost 2 years and millions of dollars in vendor spend to implement.
• Created an internal “Cloud Team” to build and manage AWS and on-premises Openstack cloud platforms, identifying individual strengths of existing team members and augmenting them, while augmenting with new personnel as needed.
• Produced high and low level task lists and worked directly with PMO to establish goals and traceable metrics.
• Trained corporate architecture, networking, and development teams on the rules of the road, led security and auditing teams to define and implement process controls and auditing/compliance measures.
• Performed custom infrastructure development where necessary, assisted assumed top level DevOps control of all new projects, and produced automated repeatable architecture deployments using proven enterprise grade methodologies, utilities, and best practices.
• Deployed Openshift environments for production and non-production environments.
• Provided engineering support for various Openshift issues including diagnosing issues with network overlays, instrumenting container monitoring strategy, migrating from EFK to alternative logging systems, implementing metering and task “pod” scheduling metrics, and replacing expired SSL certificates.
• Repaired and replaced dead Openshift components, and completed resolution of over 80 Red Hat support tickets regarding Openshift deployments.
• Registered as a Red Hat Developer Network member and proposed multiple improvements to the product including a network driver to use Docker bridge networking in lieu of the unnecessary overlay topology on AWS overlay.

Cloud Solutions Architect

Confidential Stafford, VA

Responsibilities:

• Designed and Implemented AWS cloud platform solutions for multiple private and government entities spanning operations across the globe.
• Operated as an “Engineering Storm Trooper” for advanced technical, architectural, and complex engineering issues on multiple projects.
• Contributed high level client technical support, architecture change proposals, and published comprehensive SOW documentation.
• Conceived and circulated detailed architecture and planning documents for client integrations and migrations.
• Assisted internal and client technical teams with best practices, compliance, architecture, and performance items as needed daily.
• Created and configured Autoscaling Groups, Directory Systems (AD/389 Server,) Redshift/RDS/Vendor Database Clusters, Web Servers, API Gateways (CA & Varnish,) ELK Stack, TIBCO, All Linux Variants, Application Servers, VPC Networks, VPN Tunnels, UTM/Routing Appliances (FortiGate/FortiWeb/WAF/Sophos/Cisco,) Certificate Authorities, SSL, Keytool, Java EE, etc.
• Provided support and training references to peers for Linux, Chef, Cloudfront, Cloudformation, and other technologies regularly.
• Won the Openstack Innovation Center’s Big Bounties for Big Ideas Contest sponsored by Intel Confidential the Openstack Austin Summit.
• Joined Cloud Academy and started the AWS certifications path. Obtained the AWS SysOps Administrator Associate certification. Completing all associate level certifications by EOY.
• Amazon container service, LXC, LXD, and Docker w/Kubernetes deployment, maintenance, architecture, and development.
• ELK stack architecture design, implementation, configuration auditing, and tuning. Instructed overseas teams on how to interact with these in a meaningful way.

Cloud Scaling Architect

Confidential, Incorporated Raleigh, NC

Responsibilities:

• Participated in the Openstack Tailgaters community project team providing solutions, code, guidance, and documentation as needed.
• Served as an official Cisco representative in the Open Source community for cloud scaling and benchmarking efforts. Completed Cisco internal open source certifications.
• Identified architectural, physical, and software defined problems with Cisco cloud deployments.
• Prepared summit talk that was accepted as an alternate Confidential the Openstack Summit in Tokyo, Japan.
• Created the “Mythos - Supernatural Testing for Cloud” project and hosted on Launchpad and Github.
• Tested large scale Openstack deployments to define SLAs, determine BOM requirements, and identify system and service improvements which were submitted to Cisco and Red Hat cloud teams for resolution.
• Used off the shelf open source components to build a cloud scale testing platform using Vagrant, Linux, Puppet, NMap, Siege, Bombardment, perl-gd, Chart 2.x, PSSH, Apache, and various shell functions.
• Wrote BASH scripts to create, configure, deploy, and manage the Medusa scale testing platform.
• Created “Odin” chain loader for Openstack Rally tests to allow tests to run sequentially without human intervention and maximize testing windows.
• Worked side by side with engineers and developers form Cisco, Red Hat, Intel, Rackspace, Canonical, Dreamhost, and many, many others to plan, coordinate, develop, deploy, and report on various testing systems and methodologies for Cisco.
• Completed internal social media and open source contributor training programs for sharing projects with the community Confidential large.
• Collaborated with Red Hat, Canonical, and Mirantis performance teams to develop testing methodologies and quantify differentiating product offerings.
• Operated and tested Cisco and various vendor NFV deployment architectures.

Cloud POC Consulting

Confidential Minneapolis, MN

Responsibilities:

• Produced architecture reference documentation for multiple cloud hosting providers and multiple regions.
• Created and configured private cloud implementations on IBM Softlayer and AWS infrastructures and linked to client private infrastructure.
• Analyzed and client application stacks and modified deployment mechansisms allowing them to run on multiple cloud hosting providers.
• Implemented Chef configuration management for core and cloud resources.
• Augmented existing data center services to support deployment operations and decrease capital expenditures.
• Assisted IBM vendor with ICO, Heat, IWR, Chef, and RDO Openstack implementations and troubleshooting.
• Supervised personnel and provided action items across the company to facilitate cloud data center deployments and the adoption of new technologies.
• Integrated and operated with IBM and VMWare NFV environments (although technically NSX is not a full NFV solution.)

Technical Architect, Emerging Technologies

Confidential, Alpharetta, GA

Responsibilities:

• Provided detailed complex engineering documentation and implementation guidelines for Openstack Data Center, Central office, and Network Technology Center.
• Served as a local subject matter expert to teams on all facets of Openstack, AWS, and general cloud terminology, components, reference architectures, implementation requirements, and governance.
• Collaborated with external teams and technical resources to dictate sizing and topology requirements for hosted services and management components, network design considerations, vendor component, and development project goals and statuses, and published my findings.
• Designed Openstack reference architectures to meet customer and internal business unit requirements in accordance with best practices.
• Served as a team mentor providing education, guidance, and documentation to coworkers and subordinates. I was widely regarded as a cloud-guru, and my guidance and opinions were highly sought after within the organization.
• Defined sizing and infrastructure requirements and developed capacity planning strategies for deployment to 9 different sites and designs over a period of 6 months.
• Guided top tier contracted Openstack technology experts and vendors on design and implementation details to ensure that the end product meets our requirement.
• Active member of multiple internal scrum teams for deployment, general cloud architecture, design, Openstack specific items, and CI/CD relelase management and testing frameworks.
• Created AWS mock environments and utilized EC2 methodologies frequently as training and reference materials. Identified divirgences and parallels between these offerings.
• Performed POC deployments for all major Openstack vendors and current releases. Evaluated multiple variants including Canonical Ubuntu Cloud (MaaS+Juju) and Hyperscale, Mirantis, Rackspace, Community, Stackforge, HP Helion, RDO, Piston, and others.
• Pioneered Confidential &T use of LXC for control plane functions, TripleO undercloud/overcloud deployments, the Ironic hypervisor, Non-blocking service architecture, and Distributed Control Plane Openstack component architecture to support multi-regional deployments and administration without Nova Compute Cells.
• Actively contributed to and maintained Confidential &T Github, Stackforge, and internal Chef code repositories.
• Produced bill of materials, architecture, and design documents, and supervised construction of 16 lab and 4 production site phase 1 deployments. My name is on around the architecture documentation for upwards of 300 Openstack deployments now.
• Created cloud training programs which were adopted for use by 20,000 employees.
• Completed internal social media and open source contributor training programs for sharing projects with the community Confidential large.
• Deployed, evaluated, and documented various NFV solutions to include Opendaylight, Juniper, and vendor-specific solutions.

Senior Cloud Systems Architect

Confidential Atlanta, GA

Responsibilities:

• Designed application stacks for AWS cloud platform to include artifact management, configuration management and orchestration, and development of cloud utilities.
• Implemented clustered HA Logstash Rsyslog senders, aggregators, shippers, and Elasticsearch/Kibana graphing across geographical regions for consolidation of all log monitoring and analysis across the globe. Built, tested, and deployed all the associated Puppet modules.
• Built Netflix Simian Army Gradle packages to deploy Chaos Monkey to development and QA environments and leveraged to design auto-scaling metrics and eliminate single points of failure.
• Created Python modules for automation and interaction with various cloud API layers to facilitate automation actions sequences.
• Deployed and integrated Rundeck, and built EC2 plugin artifacts to allow automatic discovery of cloud assets and provide a mechanism for bulk action sequences and cluster lifecycle management.
• Implemented AppDynamics agent monitoring and configured autoscaling policies.
• Created EC2 images for autoscaling groups and defined autoscaling metrics and policies.
• Implemented Puppet modules for complete instance lifecycle management.
• Introduced policies, procedures, and technologies to guide the architecture to be vendor agnostic and allow for multi-vendor/multi-architecture implementation.

Senior Systems Architect and Infrastructure Manager

Confidential Brentwood, TN

Responsibilities:

• Replaced Amazon EC2 infrastructure with Openstack Nova Compute cluster providing double capacity and massive performance improvements with 2 years of hosting with a total project cost of less than 6 months of their current AWS hosting bill.
• Cut ISP costs in half by consolidating circuits, switching from T-1 to SIP, installing Asterisk VOIP systems and moving to a more reliable telco provider.
• Implemented Redundant LDAP and Active Directory systems and rebuilt broken directory trees.
• Installed multiple OpenVPN virtual machines as a low cost and high quality redundant VPN solution.
• Developed, installed, configured, and maintained Zabbix monitoring, Amanda backup, Rundeck orchestration, Opscode Chef deployments, Nginx web servers, Rails workers, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Pentaho Enterprise, Ubuntu, Cisco, Digium, and others.
• Directly supervised 3 personnel and an offshore team. Maintained over 100 server instances including Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Windows server operating systems.
• Performed Nessus penetration testing and remediation internally and as part of client audits.
• Managed VMWare, built KVM systems, and installed Netapp and Netgear storage appliances.

Software Integration and Linux Engineer

Confidential Nashville, TN

Responsibilities:

• Administered, configured, developed, and maintained numerous enterprise technologies including Tomcat, Jboss, Wso2, Jetty, Q2, and Jboss AS 6 and 7 servlet containers and application server clusters. Replaced production AMQ JMS systems with HornetQ.
• Postgresql database administration, maintenance, clustering, and development.
• Planned, configured, tuned, and maintained hundreds of applications on CentOS 5, and RHEL 5 to RHEL 6.2 virtual machines on both VMWare and Linux KVM virtualization platforms.
• Created Mediawiki site to provide extensive documentation of the company's technologies, procedures, and client implementations. Migrated to and maintained Confluence system.
• Acted as sole point of contact for Pentaho Data Integration Clustered (ETL) and Business Analytics platform implementations across multiple data centers. Managed upgrading, troubleshooting, ETL and reporting development, and resolved multiple software defects with the Pentaho development team.
• Replaced Controltier deployment orchestration with Opscode's first ever commercial Private Chef installations. Learned Ruby programming language and assisted with Puppet programming for provisioning.
• Standardized deployment of all services to multiple networks in multiple geographical locations with one consolidated set of Ruby deployment scripts and standardized deployments.
• Created multiple scripts and automations for various daily activities and “glued” dissimilar processes together.
• Implemented Rundeck Orchestration services and created automations for anything from crontab scheduled file transfer automations for multiple major financial institutions.
• Connected Linux hosts to multiple commercial banking and processor systems including Windows and Unix mainframe computing systems including remote data centers.
• Maintained SAS 70 security and PCI compliance standards through LDAP and AD directory services integration and process creation and implementation in a DevOps environment.
• Implemented JNDI resource publishing and JBoss application services.
• Installed and configured the first ever Private Chef server. The product offering did not exist until I asked for it.

Independent Consultant

Confidential Nashville, TN

Responsibilities:

• Built and reconfigured networks and services for a local companies including LAN, DMZ, Gateway UTM appliances, hardware VPN concentrators and IPSec VPN solutions, Cisco standard and PoE network switches, structured cabling, wireless access points, and VOIP telephone systems.
• Built and configured pure IP based surveillance system combining Geovision network video recorder and third party PoE cameras including management web server and VPN access.
• Provided confidential on-call and break/fix support for various local companies on an emergency basis.

Systems Administrator

Confidential, Franklin TN

Responsibilities:

• Supported remote load balanced RHEL5 web services cluster for Maxim.com, Blender.com, and StuffMagazine.com serving dynamic content to an excess of 8 million unique visitors peak in one month.
• Planned, created, tested, integrated and supported custom advertising and feature websites for multimillion dollar advertising campaigns.
• Performed cross platform content migrations and facilitated code and feature integration.
• Performed advanced computer networking, administration, development, and troubleshooting tasks on a daily basis.
• Created integrated remote and local LAMP systems for development, monitoring and recovery, performance tracking and system alerts to facilitate relocation of development team.
• Created and optimized high availability database replication scenarios in Master/Master, Master Slave, and Master only replication scenarios using INNODB Wildcard replication, adjusted BINLOG sizes and formats.
• Automated backup and recovery operations to ensure data integrity and prevent downtime.
• Created scripts, modified settings, and performed optimization tasks to address performance and reliability issues. Modified backup and recovery tasks to prevent data loss and down time.
• Performed remediation of security risks identified by TAC security assessment team with absolute proficiency and accuracy.
• Supported custom built Java based CMS, staging, and development systems to include Hudson, Visual SVN, Apache-Tomcat clustering, Maven, Jackrabbit clustering, Spring, OCM, Solr, Hibernate, Mysql Clustering, Akamai Caching, CDN, and Dynamic Site Accelerator with Tiered Distribution.
• Created an advanced monitoring and automated service recovery system on existing hardware to provide 24X7 service and host monitoring, alerting, and that actually performed recovery actions on affected systems when they go down.
• Created CDN integration utilities for content Management Systems using PERL which are now being integrated as a new feature for the Vignette CMS platform.
• Created and maintained documentation if the form of a wiki, network and service diagrams, and presentation through personal correspondence of systems, processes, and issues unique to our operating environment.
• Managed VMWare (vSphere managed) ESX servers with multiple Windows and Linux VHosts on ESX Versions 3.5 through 5.5 and migrated virtual hosts between multiple geographical areas.

Linux & Network Systems Administrator

Confidential Franklin, TN

Responsibilities:

• Provided direct support for over 150 end users and 18 servers including various Linux variants, Mac OS X, and Windows Server 2003. Consolidated various proprietary systems on white boxed Linux systems.
• Wrote Shell Scripts to address Permissions and issues and address Backup System Limitations.
• Administrated Linux and Windows systems on various virtualization platforms. Updated modules, added/removed software components from packages and source code for multiple data centers. Used Alien module to convert installer packages to different distributions.
• Rebuilt EMC Retrospect Backup System to record and restore history. Produced and implemented Disk and Tape backup schedules for Quantum Tape Auto-loader to accommodate Disaster Recovery Operations. Implemented company-wide Disaster Recovery Plan.
• Implemented Sonicwall SSL-VPN, Open LDAP Directory Services, Built DMZ Network, Created NAT policies, Changed ISP's, Aggregated Redundant WAN Connections using OSPF.
• Supported Open Exchange mail system (Communigate,) MS and MySQL database systems.
• Removed development operations from production systems and into an isolated development environment to negate stability issues and allow for proper testing of new code before it hit the production systems.
• Supported integration of Expression Engine and Drupal Content Management Systems.
• Documented changes to infrastructure and device/service configurations in the form of wiki documentation and hard copy technical manuals for deployed systems and services throughout the organization.

Network Administrator

Confidential Nashville, TN

Responsibilities:

• Virtualized data center and migrated bare metal hosts to white boxed Linux systems.
• Built and configured IIS and Apache web servers with MySQL backends to replace deprecated systems and improve performance.
• Built Windows Surveillance server with camera cards to provide 24 hour monitoring of new construction.
• Planned, supervised installation, and connected new fiber runs to incorporate new building into existing network structure using upgraded switches and fiber cards.
• Built Asterisk VOIP Servers, configured, and integrated Rhino channel banks and Redfone phone bridges to provide analog telephone service for students in newly constructed dormitories.
• Upgraded and reconfigured network equipment and resources to maximize efficiency and uptime. Performed security audits to prevent intrusions and unauthorized access to resources.
• Created ala carte IT support service for private entities troubleshooting desktop support issues. Converted over 40 home users from outdated Windows systems environments to Linux desktop operating systems and continue to provide free support.
• Created and enforced internet and technology use agreements for students.
• Migrated all systems to a new datacenter after planning and supervising its construction.

Information Resource Associate

Confidential Nashville, TN

Responsibilities:

• Monitored large scale enterprise network of over 1,400 end sites using HP Openview monitoring suite and various diagnostic and management tools.
• Produced detailed documentation of symptoms, testing results, technical analysis, and historical problem resolutions for issues as they arose to record for future reference and hand off to administrator to assist in diagnosing issues.
• Used advanced tools to perform root cause analysis of network outages and provided event specific information to technicians on site to expedite recovery and minimize downtime.
• Managed and Coordinated 1st and 2nd tier support assets to ensure the root cause of issues was being addressed in a timely manner.
• Provided desktop and telephone support to over 20,000 users from multiple government agencies across the Confidential .
• Administered both Novell Netware and Active Directory replicated domains.
• Managed user accounts, troubleshot connectivity issues and outages, and handled escalations for IBM mainframe/distributed computing systems.
• Utilized 3270 terminal interface connections to access government mainframe computing systems for management and troubleshooting purposes.
• Worked with CICS and other various mainframe computing environments on a daily basis for user account administration, storage access and validation, service and connectivity management, and modification of environment settings.
• Onsite.ris operating systems.