SUMMARY:

Analytical, solutions - driven, Network & Systems Administrator with over 10 years of progressive IT experience supporting end-users, managed services clients, and corporate business objectives. Skilled at analyzing business needs and implementing system upgrades that increase productivity, while decreasing costs. Accomplished Project Manager with extensive experience conducting network and systems studies that connect business objectives with IT resources.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

• Project Management
• Hardware/Software Troubleshooting
• Network Analysis & Administration
• Systems Design & Development
• End-User Support & Training
• Network Design
• Server/System Optimization
• IT Strategy Development
• Mitigation/Upgrades
• Vendor Negotiations
• Desktop & Imaging Technology
• Cost/Benefit Analysis & Reporting

KEY TECHNOLOGY SKILLS:

Operating Systems: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1

Server: 2003, 2008, 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2, Mac OS 10.6-10.10, Ubuntu.

Hardware: NetApp, EMC VNXe 3150, Cisco 1841 Router, SonicWALL TZ and NSA series UTM, Sophos UTM, Netgear ProSafe Routers, Cisco Catalyst 2960 Switch, Cisco Small Business series Switches, Netgear ProSafe series Switches, Cisco Meraki, Ruckus 1000 series, Wireless Systems, Dell and HP Servers, Dell and HP Desktops and Laptops, Apple, MacBook PRO, Mac Mini Server, Xerox WorkCentre 3000 and 5000 series MFPs, and other peripherals.

Software: VMware vSphere 5.1/5.5, VMware Horizon View, BMC Asset Core, Google Apps for Business, CrashPlan PROe Server and Client, GFI MAX RemoteManagement, ConnectWise PSA, LogMeIn, GFI Vipre Business Premium, Exchange 2007/2010, Microsoft RDS, Hyper-V, Microsoft Office Suite, Acronis Suite, Remedy, IBM Lotus Sametime, and various tools.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Confidential, Glenview, IL

Network Administrator

Responsibilities:

• Maintain, install, and support network infrastructure, including network hardware, software, and systems.
• Increased free space by approximately 20% on the primary aggregate and facilitated an additional 6 months of data growth on existing hardware by investigating and discovering unnecessary over-allocations on several NetApp volumes.
• Reduced the total number of ESXi hosts required to run the virtual infrastructure by approx. 25%, effectively utilizing VMware Operations Manager, Veeam ONE, and vSphere to identify over - allocated VMs. Created and implemented action report to resolve over-allocation of RAM and CPU, without additional budget for upgrades.
• Identified degraded performance of VMware Horizon View pools due to poorly configured master templates and stale snapshots, and increased View VM performance by approx. 20%, and decreased the recompose time for each View pool by approx. 50%. Optimized the master templates using VMware's optimization scripts and removed unnecessary snapshots, successfully reducing monthly maintenance by 2 hours.
• Conducted study on access points (AP) to resolve user complaints regarding poor wireless connectivity. Collaborated with Facilities Manager to obtain blueprints, identify APs, and report on AP connection loss, peak usage times, and guest usage, identifying the optimal placement for APs and creating a business case for purchasing additional APs to increase coverage.

Confidential, Gurnee, IL

Systems Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Executed systems development tasks, including design, integration, and formal testing to meet complex business and customer requirements, and help resolve business or technology issues.
• Proactively designed system to address backlogged clients in danger of being overlooked, serving as the single point of contact for clients with backlogged issues, which increased response time by approx. 80% and cultivated a culture of trust and accountability, resulting in referrals for new business.
• Identified underutilized server and network resources in the internal IT system, negotiated with hardware and software vendors to procure storage, networking, and hypervisor solutions, configured all networking and VMware parameters, and virtualized all physical servers. Resulted in an approx. 50% reduction in power consumption, approx. 80% increase in operations efficiency, and an approx. 90% reduction in new server setup times.
• Increased revenue by an average of 20% through reengineering how inventory and billable time were tracked, recommended and implemented ConnectWise PSA, a business automation solutionthat accurately tracked inventory, technician hours, and invoicing of billable time.
• Collaborated with CEO on several projects, including streamlining workflow to technicians based on technician’s strengths, which increased productivity, and researching and implementing a cost-effective hybrid cloud-based backup solution using CrashPlan PROe, which created a new revenue source with an average adoption rate of 95% for new and existing clients.
• Charged with developing a managed services program that would produce new revenue and provide additional value to clients. Successfully investigated and implemented a remote monitoring and management (RMM) strategy, utilizing the GFI MAX RMM suite, resulting in an estimated 15% increase in monthly recurring revenue.

Confidential, Gurnee, IL

Systems Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Investigated and conducted studies of new systems collaborating directly with CFO and IT Manager, handled mitigation and group testing, identified software and hardware requirements, and analyzed costs.
• Developed Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system study, and was hand-picked by CFO to lead project, proactively directed Made2Mange (M2M) support team in mitigation and testing, and enlisted volunteers to experiment with new system. Study resulted in IT Manager organizing a team comprised of members from each department to further research the impact of upgrade organization-wide.
• Singlehandedly developed the company's first hardware refresh strategy, identifying departmental business needs and collaborating with vendors to determine system configurations, created a hardware deployment schedule, and secured budget approval, increasing productivity by approx. 30% and reducing help desk calls by approx. 20%.
• Implemented and ran queries on Crystal Reports, improving data accuracy for Sales and Production Manager’s reports.
• Received rapid acceleration of responsibilities, trained and responsible for imputing new phone and users in the Cisco VoIP system, administered Active Directory users and groups, DHCP and DNS configuration, and solely managed the daily NetVault tape backup of the datacenter servers, within 3 months.
• Researched, purchased, configured, and deployed LogMeIn Central and LogMeIn Pro to provide cloud based remote diagnostics, allowing for immediate help desk assistance, while reducing support costs by approx. $5,000 and end-user downtime by an average of 30%.
• Received approval for and managed hardware configuration project, collaborating with Dell to standardize hardware configurations, successfully reduced help desk calls by approx. 20% and implemented cost saving of over $20,000 over 3 years due to Dell contract negotiations.
• Developed and implemented a systems imaging strategy that reduced prep time from 1-2 hours to 30 minutes, standardized user experience organization-wide, and reduced help desk calls by an average of 20%.
• Converted reporting of IT assets from Microsoft Excel to Access, created database and transferred all data, successfully identified non-recorded or missing assets, and created method for capturing new and existing hardware information.
• Performed remote help desk support and troubleshooting, and repaired laptops that were mailed in for service.
• Revamped inventory system for remote staging storeroom, optimized inventory layout by following the FACT method (Fill Align Center Tag), resulting in greater transparency, and Warehouse Manager increasing resupply rate, which reduced mobile technician travel time and increased productivity by approx. 20%.
• Built relationships and collaborated with various IT groups to coordinate support for approx. 5,000+ users campus-wide, coordinated resources amongst groups and prioritized issues, which reduced deployment time of network resources by an average of 20%, and increased response time for Tier 2/3 support by an average of 10%.