Summary

Senior IT Consultant with unique communication and collaboration skills and over 17 years of experience in Windows, Linux, Network Security, Cloud, Cisco Networking, Storage, Physical and Virtual Servers administration and automation. Most recently, have supported many clients with administrating and designing various virtual and clustered environments as well as security hardening in order to comply with the current security regulations and standards.

Result focused, entrepreneurial and technical, progressive leadership in financial and service delivery based on the ITIL v3 best practices, lean operating methods, and incentive driven rewards for team achievement.

Cross-cultural competencies refined through experience in GCC countries and Canada.

Accomplishments:

Automation: developed automation scripts in Windows, Linux and VMware ESXi platforms for various Cloud and Physical infrastructures using languages such as VBScript, PowerShell/PowerCLI.

Datacenter Management & Servers: managed 24x7 physical and virtual environments in different server platforms (IBM, Dell, HP, and Cisco), the ability to monitor, immediately detect, triage, escalate, resolve and communicate production issues within established service levels are essential.

Cloud Design, Configuration and Administration: successfully conducted many P2V exercises into VMware, and HyperV then to Microsoft Azure cloud and provided full administration and support after the migration. For every single migration, I managed to meet the project timeline and budget with a solid design that is simple to administer and manage.

Identity and Access Management: with using tools like MS Active Directory, Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE), I have been able to create a centralized user management and Single sign-on authentication for different mixed OS environments. I have also performed various Active Directory migrations, upgrades, domain and forest trusts and utilized authentication methods for NPS, LDAP to create a secure and easy to access for authorized users.

Database Management: Thorough working experience in setting up SQL database A/A or A/P clustered environments for load balancing and high availability of consolidated instances. Experience in Database Security includes creating Logins and Roles for users to access the database. Managed security logins and worked with Windows authentication, SQL server authentication and mixed modes.

Security Compliances and Server Hardening: based on the project requirement, assessed and discovered the current vulnerabilities in environments at both OS and Network levels and implemented various hardening solutions to mitigate discovered vulnerabilities. For the OS level, I configured and administered OS firewalls, proxy and antivirus/DLP policies such as Symantec, McAfee, and ESET. For the Network level I configured and administered appliances such as Barracuda webfilter 310 to restrict web content access and Cisco ASA to control inbound-outbound traffic.

Backup and Disaster Recovery: planned, tested and documented disaster recovery and high availability procedure in both physical and virtual environments and implemented and maintained various backup solutions such as Veeam, Symantec/Veritas Backup Exec and Commvault.

Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 Administration and Migration: Created, managed, and supported thousands of Exchange objects such as distribution lists, mail-enabled security groups, public folders and other managed Exchange objects. Successfully developed and delivered migration from on-premise Exchange 2010, 2013 platforms to Office 365. Automated many Active Directory, migration and Exchange cleanup tasks through PowerShell scripts. Administered and managed users through Forefront Identity Manager (FIM). Performed full email archiving solution for Exchange through Symantec Vault.

System analysis: Experienced in planning, developing, and implementing real-time interfaces and complex software applications. Strong knowledge of source control and software development life cycle methodologies. Skilled in software testing and transforming business needs into software designs & solutions

Project Management, Technical Documentation and Training Skills: Prepared technical support documentation, internal course curriculums and training manuals. Developed project plans and provided technical training for the project team members. Created detailed DR and business continuity documentations and wrote technical notes and solution content for publication to knowledge base. Deployed ITIL v3.0 best practices of Incident, Problem and Change Management. Analyzed Infrastructure and identified risk factors affecting SLA (Server Level Agreement). Managed to deliver projects within the allocated timelines and budget and often received very positive feedback from my clients.

Work History:

Sr. System Administrator/Sr. Cloud Architect, Jun 2017 – Oct 2017 (Project Contract)

Distributel Communications Inc., Ottawa, ON

Responsible for the projects technical design, planning, implementation, and the highest level of performance tuning and recovery procedures for mission critical enterprise systems. Served as the main technical consultant in systems administration for complex operating systems. Recommended the redesign and configuration of operating systems and system applications. Investigated and analyzed feasibility of system requirements and developed systems specifications. Identified methods, solutions, and provided project leadership and management to provide a high level of service to end customers. Tasks Included:

Managed the day-to-day operations of the company & its subsidiaries host computers by analyzing system performance, configuration, availability, maintenance and repair. Ensure that records of system downtime and equipment inventory are properly maintained.

Developed new security policies & web access filtering implementation plans, custom PS scripts and testing procedures to ensure operational reliability. Also developed strategies for sharing, storing, and retrieving large-volume and confidential data.

Established guidelines and methods for the installation and management of the servers operating systems, disk arrays, FC switches, tape libraries and other equipment.

Successfully migrated (over 350 Mailboxes, public folders, DLs) of Exchange 2010 environment to Office 365 hybrid and Veeam migration of over 30 VMs (different OS platforms) into Windows Azure.

Executed tasks of production deployments, maintenance and troubleshooting applications on Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure Azure. Successfully installed and configured wildcard and FQDN SSL certificates in web servers and enabled secured (https) financial transactions. Helped in analyzing the IIS logs to collect information about server events, server performance, and user activity. Configured NLB for various web applications.

Automated day-to-day PowerShell admin tasks and workflows for Azure, Office365, Azure AD, and on-prem exchange and AD environments.

Sr. System Engineer/Sr. Cloud Architect, Dec 2015 – May 2017

Nova Networks Inc., Ottawa, ON

As managed service provider, Tasks Included:

Supported the company internal infrastructure i.e. Installing, configuring, maintaining, and providing 3rd level support of MS windows 2k3, 2k8, 2k12 infrastructure (Active directory domain services, Exchange, WSUS, IIS web applications deployments, DNS, DHCP services …etc) under various LAN and WAN environments.

Implemented security policies using ACL, Firewall, IPSEC, SSL, VPN, IPS/IDS, AAA (TACACS+ & RADIUS).

Handled major technical escalations and rendered advanced support with aggressive deadlines for closure.

Designed/Implemented complete 3 tier applications method i.e. web/application/DB. Configured F5 Big-IP as web application load balancer. Developed the maintenance and monitoring process. And, configured various backup solutions i.e. Veeam, Veritas to customers.

Provided technical guidance for migration, configuration and deployment for some selected customers from MS Exchange 2007, 2010, 2013 to MS Exchange 2016/Office 365 environment:

Developed T-SQL stored procedures, triggers SQL scripts to support customers’ prod databases transactions and maintenance plans (log shrinking, backup/restore, log trunc, eliminating indexing fragmentation,…etc). Performed business analysis and wrote quality effective documentation and specifications. Deployed AlwaysON availability group of SQL 2K14 for some important customers as a cost-effective HA solution, deployed mirroring & clustering as well.

Wrote business opportunities proposals, and relevant BOQs for projects initiated by the company.

Provided consulting and cloud architecture for premier customers and internal projects running on MS Azure platform for high-availability of services, low operational costs.

Worked on escalated tasks related to Azure interconnectivity issues and complex cloud-based identity management and user authentication, service interruptions with Virtual Machines (their host nodes) and associated virtual storage.

Installed McAfee EPO and ESET enterprise antivirus solutions and configuring the appropriate exceptions to some customers.

Used Zenoss, Solarwinds, SCOM as performance monitoring and reporting tools, Heat ITSM as ticketing and service desk applications.

Used PowerShell, PowerCLI scripting as part of daily tasks for task automation, systems management, taking control of the entire windows infrastructure.

Senior System Engineer/Analyst, Jul 2008 – Nov 2015

Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department, Abudhabi, UAE

Lead teams in the design of new applications, configuration of system upgrades and development of new programming tools.

Manage deployment and support of internal infrastructure system ensuring that periodic tasks are completed by each team member.

Create business processes, best practices, standards, templates and operating procedures to optimize IT project development. Oversee projects to design and implement local IT infrastructure, data centers, network systems and servers.

Designed, managed, and controlled Data Centers and Computing Environment that included Administration of IBM SystemP servers, HP C7000, Dell PowerEdge M1000, Cisco UCS chassis systems.

Implemented a complete Virtual production environment using VMware ESX 5.1 vSphere, and developed a maintenance and monitoring process including scheduled back-ups. Also installed, configured and maintained Microsoft Windows HyperV environment. Maintained VMWare backup through Veeam backup & replication software. Conducted P2V conversion of servers to VMWare ESXi & HyperV to reduce IT footprint and increase system’s availability and redundancy.

Installed, Configured, administered clustered environments of MS SQL 2005, 2008, 2012 along with T-SQL stored procedures writing, triggers and functions in support of department databases. Performed business analysis and wrote effective documentation and specifications. Administered SQL Servers High Availability and Disaster Recovery strategies.

Proactively monitored and maintained management and security for productions servers. Architecture, design, implementation, administration, and support of Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 and 2012 (SCOM). Creation and tuning of all state based, event based, and performance monitoring.

Conducted regular DR drills for most of the business-critical applications to ensure their high availability as part of business continuity and resiliency planning.

Orchestrated vendor selection, contract negotiation process and ongoing cost management resulting in good annual savings of at least 20-30%.

Developed and tracked vendor performance using scorecards and benchmarking boosting efficiencies and business stakeholder satisfaction by 30 percent. And acted as a liaison between vendors and IT PMO regarding operational issues.

Successfully negotiated a multi-year IT outsourcing contract that resulted in a savings of $3M over the term of the agreement.

Provided recommendations to IT management for resolving contractual and service delivery issues and served as escalation point when parties could not reach agreement.

Ensured vendor compliance with key contract deliverables by reviewing evidence based on agreed schedule with IT management and vendors.

IT Systems Engineer, April 2008 – July 2008

Abudhabi Islamic Bank, Abudhabi, UAE

Reviewed/Developed and implemented policies and procedures for IT systems operations and development.

Implemented and maintained Windows Active Directory 2003/2008 infrastructure, Exchange 2003/2007, ISA 2004/2006, SQL 2005/2008 implementations.

Implemented desktop management system for Application and Operating System deployments.

Assembled and managed teams of information systems personnel to design, develop, implement, operate and administer computer software, and information systems.

Maintained existing IT System, including hardware, Operating System, upgrading, patching, security and virus protection.

MSSQL Database Administrator - .Net Developer, September 2000– February 2008

UAE, Ministry of Education, Abudhabi, UAE

Performed critical database administration exercises that included - optimizing accessibility with SQL Server Data Guard, executing data migration, enhancing memory management, managing backups and maintenance schedules, and optimizing resources utilization (fine-tuning). I also was in-charge of user auditing & database access privileges operations.

Performed System Engineer functions such as Assuring the suitability of specific software to meet business requirements, through project cost accounting, system designing (physical designing, data modeling, data flow modeling, procedures …etc.), test designing and implementation, programming and coordination of the system projects lifecycle and finally handover.

Analyzed cost, effort performance parameters and implementing improvements based upon data collated. As well as; supported process improvements.

Managed and drove master resource management plan, involved financial justification for crossover / migration in respect of man-hours and overheads.

Interfaced with, conducted training to all levels of end users and data analysts, to prototype possible approaches to problems, and translate raw data into informative information for management.

PROJECT SUPERVISOR, Dec 1998 - Sep 2000:

Gold Award General Trading Company, Ajman, UAE

Leaded a team be made up of of 7 technical employees (Network Admin, 2 Web developer, 3 Data entry operators, H/W Engineer) to develop and upload the institution website using ASP and JAVASCRIPT.

Provided support and incorporated specific customizations, encompassing the following technical areas – RDBMS, networking, front end and backend applications.

Managed & Supporting a LAN consisting of 20 computers, plus Windows 2000 Advanced Server AD, Exchange Server 2000, IIS 5.0, Site Server 3.0, ISA Server 2000, SQL Server 2000.

Education

Feb 1992-Aug 1998; ComputerMan College (Future University), Khartoum – Sudan

Bachelors, Computer Science (Honors Degree)

Sep 2016-2018 University of Ottawa (UOttawa), ON, Canada

Master of Computer Science

Professional/technical Trainings & Skillsets:

See Appendixes One & Two attached to the resume

References:

Available upon request

Appendix # 1

Professional Training

August 1999

June 2003

Apr 2006

Sep 2006

Feb 2006

April 2007

June 2009

Nov 2009

Nov 2009

July 2009

July 2009

August 2009

June 2010

Oct 2010

Feb 2011

Mar 2011

Sep 2011

Mar 2012

Apr 2013

Sep 2013

Sep 2014

Jan 2015

•Programming with SQL Server & VB6– Self paced.

•Introduction to SQL – PL / SQL, Oracle Developer 6i - Self Paced.

•Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), @ Cambridge Institute, UAE.

•MCSE – (Microsoft Certified System Engineer) - Self paced.

•International Computer Driving License (ICDL), @ ICDL GCC, UAE.

•International Standard Organization (ISO), @ Ministry of Finance, UAE.

•Microsoft Certified IT Professional MCITP, @ Microsoft, UAE.

•Certified Datacenter Professional (CDCP), @ HP / EPI Malaysia, UAE.

•Certified Information Technology Manager, @ HP / EPI Malaysia, UAE.

•Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server Network Infrastructure, @ Exceed Training Center, UAE.

•Configuring and Troubleshooting Identity and Access Solutions with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, @ Exceed Training Center, UAE.

•Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services, @ Exceed Training Center, UAE.

•Dell Blade server configuration and troubleshooting, @ Dell Systems, UAE.

•RH131, Red Hat Linux System Administrator, INNOSOFT Gulf, UAE.

•ITIL v3 Foundation, EXIN, Dubai, UAE.

•Strategy Management Taster Course, @ BUiD, UAE.

•Oracle Weblogic 10g Adminsitration and cluster building, @ Oracle University, Abu Dhabi.

•ManageEngine Operation Manager (OpManager 9) and Netflow Analyzer, ManageEngine Application (AppManager 11).

•Cisco Unified System computing (UCS blade server’s setup/configuration, and troubleshooting) @ Cisco, Dubai.

•ITIL v3.0 Operational Support and Analysis Certificate, @ EXIN, Dubai.

•Cisco Unified System computing Support Specialist @ Cisco, Dubai.

•ININ Certified CIC v4.0 Handler Development Course @ ININ, Dubai.

Appendix # 2

-Professional Technical Skills working in:

MS SQL Server database administration, MS SQL Server 2000/ 2005/2008/2012, 2014 management, log shipping, DB Mirroring, AlwaysOn configuration, disaster recovery, backup and scheduled maintenance jobs, and DB structure Design.

MS Active Directory, Azure AD, AD LDAP services, NPS, MS Exchange 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 & DR planning, Office 365/on premises coexistence & Azure migration, MS PowerShell Scripting, IIS web applications deployments.

Veeam, Commvault and Symantec backupexec software administration and troubleshooting.

High Availability and capacity planning, various systems monitoring & performance enhancement, network & web security monitoring.

Middleware/Web Application Servers i.e. IIS, Oracle Weblogic 12c with LDAP integration, proxied with Apache servers, SSL implementation.

Performance monitoring tools i.e. SCOM, ManageEngine AppManager & OpManager, SolarWinds.

Virtualization using HyperV and VMware ESXi 5.1, 5.5, 6 installation and configuration/resource pooling, Creating VMs, Templates and maintaining the entire infrastructure, and daily tasks. Also worked with vCloud (vSphere-based private cloud) and UCS director (Infrastructure as a service) for automated VMs, storage/LUNs provisioning.

Hardware support/Management & Troubleshooting; i.e. HP C7000, IBM BladeCenter, Dell PowerEdge, and Cisco UCS. IBM Director, Dell Server Admin, HP Virtual Connect, Cisco UCSM Software systems. Networking components i.e. Cisco Nexus 2K, Nexus 5K, Nortel Passport switches, HP ProCurve switches, Dell M6220 Blade switches.

Operating Systems i.e. Windows server 2000, 2003, 2008R2, 2012R2, 2016 as well as Client OS such like XP, Windows 7, Windows 8-8.1, and 10, Oracle VM and RedHat Linux.

Implementation of Barracuda load balancers and Barracuda web filter appliances including Load balancers installation and configuration, Business continuity planning & DR sites preparations.

-Managerial and Operational Skills Summary

•Technical Team leading.

•Benchmarking and KPIs.

•Negotiations & Contract Management.

•Forecasting and Budgeting.

•Vendor Performance Reviews.

•SOWs, RFIs and RFPs.

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