Data Center Infrastructure Technical Team Leader / VMWare Cloud Computing Architect

Multi-Platform Data Center Assessment, Build Out, Migration, Consolidation, Optimization and Virtualization Solutions

Dedicated 20 year career leading the architectural design, build out, migration, and implementation of enterprise-wide infrastructure solutions for Apple, Tiffany Co, Disney, IBM, TDBankNorth, and JPMorgan Chase.

• Recognized as a subject matter expert on data center, VMware, and Cloud computing solutions Lead organizations in designing, strengthening, standardizing, upgrading, and migrating large-scale multi-platform physical / virtual data center environments to improve performance, reduce costs, and ensure optimal uptime and performance of applications, systems, and services.
• Strong project management capability Evaluate, plan and oversee all aspects of design, migration, optimization, and implementation projects from initial planning, inventory documentation, and scope definition through successful delivery.
• Exceptional collaboration and leadership skills Interact with and lead technical, infrastructure, vendor, and user resources to design solutions, resolve issues, and build stable, redundant, and scalable clustered environments.

Professional Experience

Cofidential

Retained as a consultant by clients to provide the dedicated leadership and technical expertise for the build out, optimization, migration, and optimal performance of large scale data center and infrastructure environments.

Confidential VMware Architect, SME Project Manager

Brought in to conduct a complete assessment of existing VMware data center environments, recommend solutions to resolve performance / capacity issues, and provide the expertise to build and align growing VMware environments with virtualization best practices to enhance the development, testing, and manufacturing of new iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac products.

Key Projects Achievements

• Performed a comprehensive assessment of existing LAN / WAN, storage, and VMware development, testing, and production environments across multiple domestic data centers. Defined and presented architecture and roadmap to leadership team. Gained approved and drove all aspects of concurrent initiatives that resulted in the build out of a stable environment to support strategic goal of expanding virtualization from 20 to 80 .
• Oversaw the complete redesign of LAN / WAN infrastructure that reduced unplanned outages to nearly zero. Collaborated with network team to build new elastic 10G cluster and migrate 14 ESX hosts and 200 VMs from 1G to new private, redundant and load-balanced 10G vMotion infrastructure. Recommended and led the upgrade of VM network from e1000 to vmxnet 3 virtual adapters, reconfiguration of Cisco Switch ports from access to trunking modes leveraging vLAN tagging, and the migration of ESX Hosts and VM's from standard switch to new Virtual Distributed Switch.
• Led the architectural redesign of SAN environment to support tiered storage requirements for I/O intensive VM's that reduced single point of failure issues. Implemented SAN HA with Round Robin load balancing leveraging multiple HBA's and network paths.
• Collaborated with support teams, application groups, and clients to understand application environments. Implemented Resource Pools to provide the level of resources and performance required for each application. Captured and leveraged historical data to identify potential infrastructure bottlenecks that impacted application performance. Data was subsequently utilized to demonstrate wasted resources in excess of 75 assigned to VM's and recommended downsizing standard VM deployments with the ability to grow upon demand if necessary by leveraging the Hot Add feature of VMware.
• Introduced and oversaw the adoption of VMware and Infrastructure HA best practices by effectively distributing ESX hosts within and between data centers. Implemented Affinity Rules and oversaw the separation of IBM Blades between multiple Blade Chassis and racks to minimize single point of failure and ensure optimal failover in case of failure.
• Currently training and mentoring teams, defining standards, and operationalizing the host configuration and updates for each Large VM comprised of 32 CPUs, 96 Gig of RAM, and over 1 Terabyte of storage. Implemented Host profiles, updated Manager Profiles, upgraded ESX 5.0 hosts to ESX 5.1c and vCenter from 5.1 to 5.5, implemented vCops and VCAC for monitoring, reporting and administration of VMware environment.

Confidential VMware Architect SME Project Manager

Retained through Mitchell Martin to plan, coordinate, and migrate large-scale environments from ESX 4.x to vSphere 5.1 and resolve client's critical performance and downtime issues. Based upon success, requested to stay on to deliver new infrastructure solutions and assist operations team in supporting and resolving issues across large-scale production, quality assurance, and test physical / virtual environments comprised of 300 ESX/ESXi hosts and 4,000 virtual machines in 4 data centers.

Key Projects Achievements

• Built new stable vSphere 5.1 production, testing, and quality assurance environments that improved uptime from 70 to 95 . Planned and migrated 150 hosts and clusters from 4 ESX 4.x virtual centers into a new consolidated vCenter 5.1 platform to manage the VMware vSphere environment.
• Recommended and oversaw the standardization of host profiles, DVS network configurations, and ESX builds across all 4 data centers that improved portability and reduced issues. Trained and mentored employees and consultants on standards and best practices.
• Researched, evaluated, advocated, and managed the implementation of new vSphere 5.5 Center that resolved load issues with existing vSphere 5.1 server.
• Drove the design and development of new operating procedures and best practices to support high-availability and high-load environment. Defined Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity and new Change Control policies that mitigated risks and enabled organization to comply with SOX, HIPAA, and ITIL regulations.
• Partnered with storage vendors to resolve critical issues affecting the performance of the large-scale and constantly growing environments.
• Consulted with Cisco and VMware on emerging technologies to reduce costs and increased flexibility. Evaluated Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Heartbeat, VCAC, vCOPS and UCS technologies. Built new proof-of-concept vSphere 5.1 leveraging Cisco UCS as a potential replacement to HP Blade servers. Set-up and configured UCS, VNX systems, and Cisco Nexus 1KV to evaluate feasibility of replacing infrastructure for POS systems.
• Presented and accepted project to upgrade Intel virtual / physical servers from Windows 2003 to 2008 X64 supporting 200 business applications. Currently collaborating with application owners, lines of business, and vendors to plan, coordinate, and implement physical / virtual server, operating system, and application upgrades with minimal impact to services.

Confidential VMware Team Lead

Requested by Disney's IBM senior account management and retained through Collabera to provide VMware expertise to strategic client. Charged with driving the introduction of standards and best practices to effectively manage, expand, and ensure optimal uptime / performance of large-scale virtualized environment comprised of more than 500 VMware hosts / farms in 6 data centers. Led efforts of 8 VMware Specialists in the United States and offshore manager in India supporting internal / external users.

Key Projects Achievements

• Pivotal role in rebuilding relationships with key decision-makers collaborating with leadership teams to align virtualization strategies with evolving business goals and implementing standards and best practices that have reduced impact to the users and projects, and increased overall customer satisfaction.
• Collaborated with clients to design optimal data center environments to meet current and future needs interfaced with architects to implement solutions and led teams in deploying, enhancing, and optimizing VMware environments.
• Recommended and partnered with client to establish the governance structure, and processes and procedures for expanding and managing VMware environment. Instituted standards for requesting, reviewing, and approving new adds, moves, or changes to VMware hosts, clusters, and servers.
• Transformed VMware team from a reactive to a proactive group that eliminated performance issues. Introduced and oversaw the adoption of standards for deploying, resizing, and administering VMware services across development, quality assurance, testing, and production environments.
• Primary VMware Subject Matter Expert SME for all Severity 1 power, HVAC, storage, networking, security, application, and physical issues across VMware environments for all data centers.

Confidential Senior VMware Engineer Co-Team Lead

Originally retained through Collabera for 3-month strategic initiative for new client to install and configure 21 new VMware 3.x ESX hosts in 3 new IBM Blade Center Chassis. Following success, requested by client to provide continued expertise to expand the virtualized environment. Primary interface with client, IBM, and external partners in designing, proposing, and implementing new VMware ESX technologies.

Key Projects Achievements

• Pivotal role in expanding the client's virtualized environment by 100 within 2 years. Proposed and implemented VMware high-availability environment expanded disaster recovery capability by enabling full-fail over of 25-30 VMware hosts to hot site in Maryland and introduced fault-tolerance technologies.
• Collaborated with client and Red Hat partner to develop and implement a standard Red Hat 5.2 operating system build for new servers that reduced timeframe to deploy new environments.
• Planned and implemented several upgrades to the ESX infrastructure, encompassing Virtual Center from 1.x to 2.x and subsequently vSphere including all MS SQL database structures ESX 2.x hosts to 3.x, 3.5 and subsequently to ESX 4.0 and vSphere and all VMware software and associated tools. Coordinated with team members for the migration of ESX hosts and VMware between all data centers.
• Senior SME / Co-Team Lead for the internal IBM VMware team assigned within the account. Assisted team members and client with the resolution of major issues and outages affecting production environment. Recognized by the client and internal staff as the Go-To person for major issues involving VMware. Reviewed, approved, assigned, and tracked of new problems and requests from domestic and International Wintel, Unix/Linux, Storage, and Network support teams.
• Consulted with client's management and technical teams to define needs and design optimal solutions to enhance and consolidate environments, optimize server deployments, and meet existing and future business / regulatory goals.

Confidential Discovery Migration Team Lead

Retained through PSI Careers to define and execute a major Data Center Consolidation and Migration strategy in support of merger between Toronto Dominion TD Bank of Canada and Bank North of Portland Maine. Defined migration method, timing and grouping for individual applications. Collaborated and led cross-functional teams in multiple, simultaneous consolidation, virtualization, and migration projects.

Key Projects Achievements:

• Conducted an assessment of application, server and network infrastructure across bank's main data center and 3 peripheral data centers. Organized and led Deep Dive application interview sessions to document application, server and network infrastructure, and interconnectivity to determine migration plan and impact
• Defined and drove the migration of 200 applications and 500 servers from 4 separate Bank North data centers to TD corporate data center in Toronto with minimal disruption to business operations, resulting in reducing overall support functions and associated costs. Created overall strategy comprised of 4 major migration initiatives based on complexity of applications infrastructure and business impact.
• Partnered with business, networking, architecture and engineering teams to document Application Architecture Documents and designed migration plan utilizing Physical-to-Physical, Physical-to-Virtual, and Virtual-to-Virtual migration methods. Led build out TD data center in Toronto to support new environment.

Confidential Technical Team Leader Project Manager Confidential

Brought in through Technology Navigators as a core member of IBM team accountable for planning, coordinating, and leading Data Center migration and consolidation engagements for clients throughout the United States. Held cross-functional responsibilities as Lead Architect / Engineer and Project Manager for virtualization, migration, upgrade, and consolidation projects. Built and led teams of up to 4 utilizing onshore/offshore delivery model.

Key Projects Achievements:

• Originally retained to plan, architect and ensure the appropriate and on-time delivery of key project and was kept on to drive the delivery of several client engagements valued at up to 40 million.
• Oversaw the outsourcing of 500 servers to IBM for major entertainment company. Defined migration and virtualization strategy upgraded hardware and migrated client data center to IBM managed data center.

Confidential

• Oversaw the consolidation, virtualization, and migration of applications and infrastructure from 3 Data Centers into one in response to merger of 2 major financial institutions. Migrated 80 servers and applications to new physical and virtual environments. Discovered major issues with applications prior to migration, leading vendors to update and release new versions of applications. Requested by client for future engagements.
• Planned and managed the migration of more than 200 servers from client data center to IBM managed data centers for a major facilities management company. Received outstanding recognition by client for completing the migration project in less than 3 months. IBM upper management highlighted project during meetings as an example of teamwork, dedication and an outstanding success story for future engagements.

Confidential Infrastructure Manager ITS / T SS

Requested by management introduce new processes, procedures and standards to turnaround failing outsourced network / server global infrastructure support operations. Directed team of 10 managers and their associated technical teams in building, administering, optimizing and enhancing more than 1000 servers.

Key Projects Achievements:

• Brought in-house outsourced global infrastructure support operations, rebuilt Data Center, and introduced processes and procedures, increasing functionality of applications and achieving 100 customer satisfaction.
• Initiated the review and ensured the adherence to established Change Management and Global Policies and Procedures, enhancing communication and workflow between organizations. Introduced infrastructure performance management and monitoring tools and procedures to identity existing or potential problems.
• Proposed and implemented VMware 1.x and 2.x Server environments to facilitate application testing in lab environments and migrated existing Windows environment into Active Directory and SAN Infrastructures.

Confidential Performance Capacity Planning Analyst

Recruited by senior management to new role to define and deliver recommendations to eliminate performance issues across multiple production environments.

Key Projects Achievements:

Selected to research, recommend and facilitate the deployment of WebSphere and Web Server performance monitoring and management tools for the Web environments, increasing uptime by 80 .

Confidential Senior Infrastructure Engineer Confidential

Kept on and promoted after Unit Trust Division was purchased by Chase Manhattan Bank to manage and enhance infrastructure for the Division and assist in designing and delivering high-performance solutions to Chase Manhattan Bank's Global Investor Services Division GIS .

Key Projects Achievements

• Member of team accountable for integrating network applications and infrastructures to support Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan merger, JP Morgan and Chase merger, IBM Outsourcing and Bank One and JPMorganChase merger.
• Key member of team accountable for the architectural design, build out and construction of new Data Center in Dallas, Texas to integrate GIS and Chase business units. Collaborated in migrating global business units to new Data Centers. Recruited and trained IT personnel to appropriately support new global Data Centers.
• Assisted in designing and implementing 3 Regional Data Centers to eliminate single point of failure, standardizing server infrastructures, increasing delivery of services and reducing support costs.