Project Management
Resume:
Thomas S Palathra *** Manor
Brook Dr.,
Silver Spring, MD, 20905,
Contact: 301-***-****
E mail: ******.********@*******.***
Systems Architect
15+ years’ rich experience in delivering optimal results & business value in high growth environments
Technically sophisticated and management professional with a pioneering career reflecting strong leadership qualifications coupled
with solid experience in architecting critical projects. Enriched with the latest trends and techniques and a wide range of skill in
project management, quality initiatives, technology, critical thinking, troubleshooting, problem analysis and resolution.
Demonstrated strengths in application server implementations and lifecycle management related to complex system architectures
involving Microsoft centric operating systems and foundation tools. Core strengths in leading, designing and implementing various
types of software delivery projects. Acquired rich multi cultural global experience in providing strategic IT & Business Solutions to
leverage technology in creating revenue opportunities.
Key competencies in using variety of reference materials and manuals. Proven expertise in researching, choosing, interpreting,
modifying, and applying available guidelines for adaptation to specific problems and issues. Demonstrated strengths in applying
information systems security principles/methods, and network operations and protocols. Rich exposure to systems testing and
evaluation.
Proven acumen in initiating, administering and executing across a portfolio of projects harmonizing technical needs with business
realities including conceptualization, pre sales, budgeting/estimation, planning/monitoring, development, testing, implementation
and maintenance/support. Solutions oriented professional with excellent skills of collaborating with project teams, interfacing with
clients, and deploying technology to build successful solutions for clients.
PROFESSIONAL VALUE OFFERED
End to End Solutions Requirement Analysis Customer Support
Stakeholder Management
System Architecture/MIS System Administration Resource Optimization Training &
Development
Messaging/SMTP Services Server Management System Establishment Cluster
Management
Business Continuity Planning Technical/Quality Support Project Management
Knowledge Transfer
PERFORMANCE MILESTONES
Having credential of establishing the basic structure of the system, defining the essential core design features and
•
elements that provide the framework for all that follows.
Played pivotal role in designing, administrating, maintaining and supporting Microsoft Active Directory domain
•
services and Exchange infrastructure in a high availabilty clustered environment.
Umpired enterprise infrastructure projects by preparing project schedules, meeting project budgets, directing the
•
work of project team members and briefing management on the resources and time required to complete the project.
Led initiatives in developing new technology infrastructure solutions on Microsoft platforms by providing expert
•
analysis, design and solutions that comply with NIST standards and regulations.
Pioneered planning and project management activities for enterprise directory and messaging solutions.
•
Recognized for designing and implementing Web Analytics and Data Collector Servers to improve marketing ROI.
•
Distinction of designing, administrating, maintaining and supporting High Availability Clusters, Network Load
•
Balancers, Volume Manager and Volume Replicators running on WINTEL Servers.
Solely responsible for designing and implementing corporate business continuity plan which ensured continued
•
operations in the event of a catastrophe. Plan included agreement for recovery of services.
Credited for formulating strategies and recommending senior leadership to promote effective use of technology
•
within budget limitations.
Refined the future architecture by identifying individual application development task orders.
•
Sustained information and advice on asset allocation and change management plans.
•
Thomas Palathra
Page 2
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation), Arlington, VA
Principal Solutions Architect, Since Apr 2013
Evaluated new technologies and application software’s on WINTEL platforms to determine feasibility and desirability of
•
incorporating their capabilities into client’s enterprise infrastructure to support TSA’s emerging technology initiative.
Researched and recommended design options and performed experiments to determine potential design feasibility for
•
application software’s with production workload.
Participated in the design and development of systems that will span the engineering disciplines of application software
•
adhering to client’s standards and regulations.
Worked on project life cycle from gathering requirements through design, implementation, and support to ensure the
•
implementation of appropriate technology in every stage.
Participated in various phases of the SDLC to perform QA/architectural review functions, and to ensure adherence to
•
Enterprise Architecture (EA) technology standards and project specific solutions architecture (i.e., design reviews).
Developed, maintained, and applied a variety of system models through the use of derived data from the engineering lab.
•
Participated and lead research and development efforts (proofs of concept, prototypes), as subject matter experts, when
•
introducing new technologies on Microsoft platform.
Facilitated communications between IS workgroups and business stakeholders for technical issues and/or major changes;
•
acting as the technical domain subject matter expert.
Provided technical expertise to propose level of effort estimates (LOE), work breakdown structures, and technical resource
•
planning for proposed and current work to support the Project Management Office (PMO) and Demand Management process.
Prepared technical reports including Design of Experiments (DOE), external interfaces, internal interfaces, component
•
qualification and product testing.
Developed solution architecture and implemented the solution for TSA’s TSIF technology/ hardware refresh project with
•
Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 2008 R2 Server technology.
Installed and configured a multi tier virtualization stack with VMware ESXi 5.1 and Hyper V 2.0 to support virtual Solaris
•
11.0 and Windows 2008 R2/ 2012 Servers at the TSIF facility as part of the technology refresh project.
Provided SME level assistance and troubleshooting on Active Directory Services, Windows Failover Cluster, File server,
•
Exchange Server, SCVMM Server and Hyper V 2/3 roles running Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 2012 operating systems.
Created Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Tier 2/3 to perform configuration and operational tasks on Active
•
Directory, SCVMM, Hyper V and Exchange Servers.
Led and worked with the project team to create Functional Requirements Document (FRD), Systems Design Document
•
(SDD) and the Requirement Traceability Matrix for Windows 2012 R2 image, Windows 8 image and Hyper V 3 project.
Demonstrated thorough understanding of government standards such as FISMA, FIPS and NIST.
•
Implemented STIG settings to each product or underlying OS and test these settings to ensure the project functions as
•
expected in a DISA approved environment as part of Windows 2012 R2 image and Window 8 image project.
Functioned as the point of contact to address and remediate the vulnerabilities in TSA’s Server and desktop operating
•
systems.
Provided analysis and design reviews to other department members to avoid duplication of effort in solving the same
•
application problems with different products.
Worked with third party vendors to develop software and/or integrate their software into client’s enterprise infrastructure.
•
Ensured SLA adherence by adopting corrective and preventive actions.
•
Created Request for Changes (RFC’s), Test Evaluation Master plan (TEMP) and defended the proposed solutions impact
•
to the systems configuration control board (SCCB).
Promontory Financial Group LLC, Washington, DC
Senior Technical Consultant, Aug 2012 to March 2013
Served as technology expert on delivering technological requirements such as Servers, Desktops, Local Area Networks,
•
Wide Area Networks, Data centers and backup services to meet business needs.
Created solution architecture, planned the development effort and built secure environments for various financial
•
institutions in a restricted access forest model on Windows 2008 R2 operating system.
Coordinated and worked with the Microsoft engineering team to create and release Product Requirements, Design
•
Specifications and Design Descriptions for Microsoft application servers.
Worked with the engineering team throughout the implementation of enterprise application servers in order to ensure that
•
products of the project are produced in a secure, efficacious and quality manner while keeping within established time frames.
Identified and scoped requirements for the future vision of the company.
•
Thomas Palathra
Page 3
Functioned as subject matter expert (SME) for Microsoft Active Directory Services, Exchange Servers, and SAN storage
•
and disaster recovery.
Provided technical expertise to CTO and Director of Systems Engineering regarding the selection, engineering,
•
implementation and operation of a wide range of capacity planning, server and network monitoring tools.
Key responsibility for the identification and resolution of hardware and software technical problems and malfunctions
•
related to Server, storage, and network enterprise infrastructure.
Defined application standards and specifications; provided oversight for definition of product functionality to ensure that
•
appropriate parties are kept informed of client and company requirements and policies.
Researched technological advancements to ensure that information systems are continuously improved and aligned with
•
industry and company standards; designed and provided updates to standards to enhance company solutions.
Acted as a liaison between third party vendors and company to procure, develop and/or integrate their applications into
•
company products and ensured that applications are in accordance with company product standards and guidelines.
Influenced upper management for architectural changes and upgrades of various Microsoft technology solutions to
•
address performance, reliability, scalability, maintainability, supportability, business continuity, and business agility while
leveraging industry’s best practices.
Significantly contributed in technical design and architecture of new technology solutions on Microsoft platforms.
•
Shared responsibility to support new infrastructure solutions on Microsoft platforms to meet enterprise level requirements.
•
Demonstrated hands on experience in engineering, implementing, and managing Infrastructure tools used to monitor, alert
•
and automate IT processes using Whatsup, NetIQ, SolarWinds, GFI and Netmon.
Documented enterprise infrastructure systems build outs for reference and auditing.
•
Participated in the infrastructure and application auditing process conducted by independent auditors.
•
Functioned as a resource to pen testers for intrusion prevention, vulnerability and security scanning in the enterprise.
•
Communicated and ensured change control management team of infrastructure changes in production environment.
•
Participated in various IT projects intended to continually improve and upgrade the enterprise infrastructure.
•
Participated in the all phases of development across multiple projects; investigate interchangeability, replacement, cost
•
factors, and ease of manufacture.
Assisted in generating conceptual, logical and physical infrastructure designs, documents, testing analysis, test plans and
•
risk assessments to ensure sound architecture which meet client needs.
Designed, deployed and configured storage networks supporting EMC and HP SANs using Brocade 4800 Silkworm Fiber
•
Channel switches and DELL PowerConnect 5424 iSCSI switches.
Assisted client in defining strategic technology direction for solution and provided input in selecting business application
•
packages and vendors.
Assisted in increasing the productivity and effectiveness of the organization by defining standards, best practices and
•
promoting reuse as it relates to technology.
Provided technical expertise and guidance; participates in design reviews; validates technology approach and associated
•
work products on medium sized projects to ensure adherence to company guidelines. Conducts cost analysis studies to
determine feasibility of various approaches.
Assessed and recommended design and development activities to determine time for completion and appropriate staffing
•
and/or use of outside resources to reach goals.
Evaluated potential product improvements and recommend design modifications.
•
Responsibilities spanned from translating customer needs into solid system and subsystem requirements, managing those
•
requirements through the product life cycle and providing systems engineering functions through development, integration, test
and transfer to production.
• Assisted in identifying the technologies to employ based on price, performance, service agreements, and organization
constraints.
Investment Company Institute, Washington, DC
Senior Systems/Applications Architect, Sep 2009 to Aug 2012
Lead Systems Engineer, Mar 2004 to Sep 2009
• Served as technical owner and point of contact for all Windows domain specific solutions, in the Production environment.
Administered and managed lifecycle management of complex system architectures involving Microsoft centric operating
•
systems and applications.
Functioned as lead Microsoft SME and served as the system architecture authority within that scope.
•
Led system design activities and reviewed system designs to ensure that applications and database solutions will exhibit
•
high levels of performance, security, scalability, maintainability and reliability upon deployment.
Designed, built and maintained Institute’s Active Directory forest running on Windows 2008R2 platform.
•
Thomas Palathra
Page 4
Managed and supported all facets of Active Directory implementation encompassing Active Directory domain services,
•
Group Policy, Security, DNS server, DHCP server, WINS server, Certificate server and Information Rights Management server.
Architected the Exchange 2010 transition and implementation with high availability clustered mailbox Servers, load
•
balanced CAS and hub transport Servers in a multi site environment.
Advocated and spearheaded Institute’s virtualization initiative by designing, installing and configuring Hyper V 2.0 Server.
•
Implemented and supported Symantec Enterprise Vault archiving and journaling technology for Exchange 2010.
•
Orchestrated architectural changes and upgrades of various Microsoft technology solutions including Active Directory
•
domain services, Exchange, SQL and virtual Servers.
Migrated and thoroughly documented the procedures to migrate from various environments to the latest versions of Active
•
Directory, Exchange, SQL, SCOM and Windows Servers.
Oversaw the design and implementation of Wintel quality assurance environment with VMware to cover application testing,
•
migration & design planning, performance testing, and team education.
Acted as subject matter expert for enterprise Microsoft products including Active Directory, Exchange and Hyper V server.
•
Accomplished responsibility to configure, administer and support new infrastructure solutions on Microsoft platforms to
•
meet enterprise level requirements.
Ensured technical solutions are designed for performance, reliability, scalability, maintainability, supportability, business
•
continuity, and business agility while leveraging industry’s best practices.
Significantly contributed in technical design and architecture of new technology solutions on Microsoft platforms.
•
Steered the design and administration of multi tiered muilti site Hitachi SAN arrays and Brocade fibre channel switches.
•
Performed as primary lead in designing, building and administrating backup and recovery plans for headquarters and
•
business continuity site with Veritas Netbackup on StorageTek SL500 library and Veritas Volume Replicator.
Analyzed and defined network requirements and workload, risks and vulnerabilities of major IT projects and ensured the
•
rigorous application of information security and information assurance policies in delivering network services.
Managed all aspects of projects, including project plans, scheduling, and task management from the planning and design
•
stages to the documentation, training, and transition stages.
Assessed and recommended design and development activities to determine time for completion and appropriate staffing
•
and/or use of outside resources to reach goals.
Created architectural blueprints, road maps, and similar presentations.
•
Provided broad technical leadership in area of expertise helping company set technical direction and course for future
•
programs.
Managed all aspects of projects, including project plans, scheduling, and task management from the planning and design
•
stages to the documentation, training, and transition stages.
Diligently conducted gap analysis and investigated the limitation of the existing product and thereafter re designed new
•
solution to meet the dynamic market requirements.
Participated and assisted with the technology budget process to include budget justification documentation and a break
•
down review of program expenditures.
Devised strategies for effectively implementing change management policies as directed by senior leadership.
•
Proactively involved in various technical aspects of the project including analysis of project requirements, technical
•
guidance, estimation, scheduling, and finally deliver solutions while focusing on competence enhancement activities.
Identified and developed requirements for the future vision of the company.
•
Experienced in coordinating, negotiating and motivating outside vendors in support of milestones and project deliverables.
•
Meticulously documented all enterprise infrastructure activities for reference and use through change management
•
process.
Effectively managed, supported projects and ensured SLA adherence by adopting quantitative monitoring/analysis
•
approach, implement corrective/preventive actions and timely communication to internal stakeholders/clients.
Responsible for design and development activities that includes leading, participating, or supporting Concept, planning,
•
design and execution stages such as Risk assessment, Prototyping, Concept validation, Implementation, Verification testing,
Desk reviews and Product validation.
Captured technical requirements and defined technology solutions; created the conceptual, logical and physical design of
•
the solution to ensure appropriate technology is acquired and implemented.
Federal Railroad Administration, Washington, DC
Site Manager (Contractor), Aug 2002 to Mar 2004
Recognized for designing, administrating and supporting agency’s initiative to build inhouse Active Directory domain on
•
Windows 2000 platform.
Orchestrated Active Directory and Exchange 2000 server migration from USi hosted server farm to agency’s datacenter.
•
Thomas Palathra
Page 5
Successfully designed and implemented Microsoft Cluster Server in an active passive environment.
•
Designed and implemented Compaq/ HP SAN, FC switches at agency’s server farm in addition to designing and
•
implementing disaster recovery and contingency plans at the agency’s DR site using VERITAS Replication Exec.
Deftly administered InterScan VirusWall and Anti Spam filtering apparatus running on Red Hat Servers.
•
Safeguarded agency email encryption for achieving compliance.
•
Developed standard services through service definitions and associated SLA’s.
•
Monitored Active Directory and Exchange server health using Quest, HP OpenView and Microsoft Operations Manager.
•
Attained consistent 99% uptime by implementing disaster recovery and fault tolerant plan per SOW.
•
Authored and delivered “Email Systems and Configuration guide” with agency standards and regulations in designing and
•
building the domain and messaging services for FRA.
Managed the WINTEL systems development life cycle for system updates and new releases.
•
Accomplished responsibility for planning and conducting security accreditation reviews for installed systems from DOT.
•
Geared the activities for responding to systems outage and security incidents reported by Customer and Network
•
Operations center/ Security Operations center.
Developed plan to maintain the integrity of users’ vision as it evolves during detailed design and implementation.
•
Developed and instituted methodology and processes using enterprise architecture to maintain alignment between IT
•
initiatives and the achievement of mission outcome.
Competently established project schedules, met project budgets and directed the work of project team members.
•
Defined and implemented program and project plans to meet objectives, coordinated program and project activities, and
•
the estimated required level of effort.
Spearheaded entire project management activities with final accountability for project deliverables, stakeholder
•
management, client satisfaction, schedule management, requirements management and overall project team performance.
Steered work breakdown structures; decided deadlines and milestones for project phases. Defined action points for
•
teammates and followed them to completion.
Judiciously handled and provided contracting officer with technical response to deliverables on the support contracts.
•
Mentored and guided the team in planning and implementing migration activities.
•
PAST EXPERIENCE
Senior Systems Administrator, Information Dynamics, Dubai, UAE, 1999 –2002
Systems Engineer (OS/LAN support), Frontline Computers LLC, Dubai, UAE, 1998 –1999
EDUCATION
Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Computer Science and Technology), KVG College of Engineering, Sullia, India, 1991 1997
TRAINING
Preparing for Project Management Professional (PMP) approved by PMI
•
Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services: Hands on
•
Windows Server 2008 Administration: Hands on
•
Building an Exchange Server 2010 Enterprise Infrastructure: Hands on
•
Installing and Managing Exchange Server 2010: Hands on
•
Building an Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Infrastructure: Hands on
•
Installing and Managing Exchange Server 2007: Hands on
•
CERTIFICATIONS
Microsoft Certified Professional
•
IBM S390 Certified Professional
•
Compaq Storage Certified Engineer
•
CONVERSANT PLATFORMS AND SKILLS
• Windows Server 2012 R2/2012/2008 R2/2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server NT 4.0
• Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP
• Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 5.5
Thomas Palathra
Page 6
SQL Server 2008R2, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2000
•
IIS 6/7/7.5/8 Server
•
VMWare ESXi 5.1, VSphere 5.5, Hyper V 2012 R2 Server, Hyper V 2008 R2 Server
•
System Center 2012 R2 Server, System Center 2012 Server, Systems Center Operations Manager 2010
•
WSUS, Whatsup Gold, HP OpenView, Quest software, Nagios, Netmon, GFI
•
Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.x & 5.x, Good Technology, Airwatch MDM
•
Microsoft Cluster Server, VERITAS Cluster Server/ Volume Manager, VERITAS Volume Replicator, XOSoft WanSync HA,
•
VERITAS Netbackup, VERITAS Backup Exec, Symantec Enterprise Vault 9/10
•
Trend Micro ScanMail Anti Virus software, Symantec Endpoint Protection Suite, Sophos Endpoint Protection Suite, McAfee
•
HIDS, Tripwire Enterprise, Nessus vulnerability scanner, Symantec Endpoint Encryption Suite (SEE), BitLocker, WebSense
Cisco ACS VPN software, Webtrends Analytics Server, Webtrends Smart Data Collector Server
•
HP ProLiant Gen6/7/8 Servers, DELL PowerEdge R910/820/720/610 Servers, IBM Netfinity Servers, Sun Fire Servers
•
HP StorageWorks SAN, HP MSA 2000 SAN, EMC CLARiion SAN, Hitachi AMS 1000/500 SAN, DELL PowerVault NX3000
•
NAS, Brocade Silkworm fiber channel switches, Dell PowerConnect switches, Barracuda/ KEMP load balancer
StorageTek SL500 Modular Library System, Quantum SuperLoader Robotic Library
•
Contact this candidate