My Story - Azure Cloud Application and infrastructure Architect

Joey Freyre

***** **** **, **** **** Beach, FL **412 • ****.******@*****.*** • 561-***-****

Technology

Leader- Innovator - Strategist - Team Builder – Harmonizer - Evangelist

with 25+ years’ experience in diverse technology stacks

Summary

Self-described “Technologist”, troubleshooting “Bloodhound”, innovative creator, and passionate leader. Reputation of consistent ability to quickly conceptualize, troubleshoot, reverse engineer, improve, or completely refactor any infrastructure or software solution. I quickly diagnose root cause, provide short-term workarounds (in the interest of business continuity), as well as long-term, thought-out, well-engineered and coded solutions to challenges and problems for any technology, business or people challenge I have been presented with.

Passion! I love my work, my teams, and my clients.

I love creating innovative, scalable, resilient, reliable, sustainable, cost optimized and consistently deployable solutions and systems from code to infrastructure (IAC). But also doing so while adhering to all pillars and best practices of a well architected framework across diverse environments. Leveraging “Out of the box” thinking, and strategies to accomplish business objectives.

Notably, I am not afraid to challenge traditional approaches and established patterns when appropriate, to cultivate passion, healthy environments, which has a domino effect leading to trust, growth, confidence, fearlessness, openness, tapping into our most powerful gift of imagination. In my experience this has always led to success (objective and subjective, regardless of measure), personally and professionally. This is also true fiscally and from a product quality perspective, asserted empirically by elevated levels of adoption. These facts have been consistent even when presented with the most challenging of objectives. The steeper the climb, the higher we go!

I have done everything from laying cable, designing, and building data centers, developing applications and solutions, to providing end user and customer support.

But my proudest and most satisfying moments are those that allow me to witness the growth and success of my teams and clients. Simply stated, nothing compares!

My Story

Throughout my career I have enjoyed the privilege of being exposed to a wide variety of technology, folks from all strata of society, and remarkably diverse environments and challenges. From the frigid depths under the arctic ice, scrappy start-ups, to multi-national fortune fifty organizations. “Go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want” (Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, circa 2008). In that spirit, I have put to task, operating on budgets ranging from shoestring to $100M+. The mission has not changed! The tactics do not change; therefore, your results do not change. Measurable, quantifiable, and most importantly dependable success. Valuable lessons learned, always adding to my tool chest, as one matures, more clearly witnessing the machinations of our industry, widely applicable regardless of situational circumstances.

Undeniably the path has been difficult, but I remain grateful for every moment. Along the way I have been blessed with knowledge and experiences primed and ready to use. They have enabled me to assemble a formidable skill set. Wide, yet deep, providing a fundamental, and granular understanding of the composition of top-level systems and boardroom tactics, their downstream dependencies, end user experiences, and most importantly their intrinsic synergy.

My Path

12/1997 – 03/2001:

My first day of boot camp and away from sunny Florida began my journey as a man. Stepping into the frigid cold of Great Lakes, IL, the first icy gust of lake affect chill hit my face and ran down the back of my neck. I thought I was going to die. Little did I know I was about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

The core values and principles (Honor, Courage, Commitment – a sailor’s creed!) instilled by example while serving in our United States Navy, are my guiding light. My beacon that has never failed to get me home. They will always take you home. Even when navigating blindly, certain of nothing, stay true to them and you are always certain, because of them and those serving alongside you. The impenetrable Phalanx is formed!

While on active duty I was blessed with amazing opportunities which informed all aspects of my life, even fatherhood. Who lets a 19-year-old kid take the helm of a Nuclear-Powered Fast Attack Submarine? Skipper did. I did not realize it then, but he taught me just as much about navigation, following orders, trust, and leadership as he did about being a father. After all that is in fact what we strive as fathers to instill in our progeny. A sense of self-worth, accomplishment, tolerance, gentleness, kindness, consistency, and duty. Perhaps these qualities may seem counterintuitive to some when envisioning a salty sailor in command of a warship, but nothing could be truer. It is America’s fighting spirit, which unifies us, gives us purpose and resolve, a common consciousness and narrative that is the stuff of legends!

To say that I am proud to have the privilege to don the uniform would be a profoundly understated utterance. But to say that I am grateful to my Nation and Shipmates cannot be overstated!

Anchors Away – while stationed in Groton, CT (Naval Submarine Base New London):

a.Aboard the United States Navy Submarine, U.S.S. Memphis, SSN 691(She was a “First Flight” Los Angeles class Fast Attack Submarine serving in the Atlantic fleet) I held two roles consecutively and operated, repaired, and maintained various systems including:

i.Nuclear Electrician’s Mate -EM3 (SU) Primary NEC N91T

1.Qualified on the Westinghouse S5W plant.

2.In the months leading up to and during my first deployment I earned my “Fish” (Navy lingo for Submarine Warfare Qualification)

3.Qualified on the General Electric S6G plant.

ii.Conventional Electronic Technician’s Mate – ET3 (SS) Primary NEC 14CM

1.Cross rated to conventional Electronics Technician’s Mate

a.Operated, repaired, and maintained various pieces of equipment vital to ship’s mission

i.Communications (ELF, VLF, HF Ship-to-Shore, TT UGC-136, SSIXS)

ii.Electronic warfare and counter measures (ESM Stack WLR-8, BRD-7)

iii.Surface search and navigation, optical systems including the type 18 Periscope (SUBIS)

iv.Radar systems (BPS-15, BQS-15, SPA-25)

04/2001 - 05/2003:

While attending the New England Institute of Technology pursuing a degree in Computer Networking, I began my career in the IT field. I was provided an opportunity to work with JBM technologies

a.Field Technician/Installation Specialist, Florida Division

i.Installed structure networking cabling. Copper, and Fiber (yet it its infancy for on-premises deployments)

ii.Physical Access Control Systems (PACS)

iii.Installed WAN circuits of all types. Most prevalently copper T-type circuits

iv.Cable management and trunk lines for data centers and downstream aggregate data closets and racks

v.Installed and configured CCTV systems (analog)

06/2003 – 11/2006:

My next opportunity was with a large REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), Vornado Realty Trust. I took on the challenge with vigor and enthusiasm, capitalizing on every opportunity for exposure to new technologies. This further expanded my understanding of infrastructure, operational requirements, and tooling

a.Desktop Support Technician

i.Deployed, or replaced workstations, printers, telephones, and mobile devices (the “Blackberry” age was in full swing!)

b.Desktop Remote Management

ii.Deployed Altiris (A predecessor and competitor to the Microsoft “Systems Center” suite of products.

iii.Completed a total migration to Microsoft Systems Center unification of workstation and on-premises server infrastructure management.

c.Network Administration

iv.The Altiris project catalyzed my leap into network administration. Allowing me to mature my understanding of the full network stack, becoming proficient from layer 1-7(internet routing protocols, LAN packet switching and routing, subnetting, etc) up the chain to include my first exposure to how it all came together to provide a human usable “Application” or the Application/Presentation layer, sparking my interest in furthering my understanding of application development.

12/2006 -12/2007:

Confidently I took the next leap by joining a division of Emerson Electric, D.B.A ASCO Power (a provider of datacenter power control and distribution systems). I was extremely fortunate to find myself immersed in several projects that were fascinating and full of emerging technologies, enhancing my perspective, and understanding. This lunged me into areas well beyond those of a traditional network administrator

a.Senior Network Administrator

i.Managed an EMC CLARiiON CX 500 Storage Area Network (SAN)/Brocade Fiber Channel switches (FC)

ii.Performed all configuration changes and flare updates within SAN (Storage Area Network) environment

iii.Designed and implemented the companies first virtualization efforts using the emerging suite of products provided by VMWare known as ESX (a pioneer in Hypervisor technologies)

iv.Performed P2V (Physical to Virtual) migrations of more than 1100 BareMetal servers to our new virtual farm.

v.Deployed and maintained a small Citrix environment (15 hosts)

vi.Performed upgrades, migrations, and other administrative tasks, for RDMS database deployments (SQL, Oracle, etc.)

vii.Designed, implemented, and coordinated periodic testing of our backup and DR processes (BCP)

01/2008-11/2008:

Intrigued by the opportunity to better understand the “Application” world I took a brief detour on my journey to join Ernst and Young as an Application and Technical Support Specialist, serving in the firm’s central support hub for North America known as the “TAC” of Technical Assistance Center

a.Level III Technical Support Manager (Senior Associate)

i.This role was demanding and pushed me into unknown territory of remote application and end-user support

ii.Process discovery, optimization, and implementation

iii.Streamlined escalation process resulting in fewer abandoned calls and significant reduction of SLA/OLA breeches (>40%)

iv.Assisted in the implementation of a skills-based call routing technology and administratively

v.Defined and provided skills matrix

vi.Cross qualification requirements

vii.Overflow thresholds

viii.Deployed and provided agent training on phone system interface

ix.Developed my first piece of software in a custom integration into our ticketing and support system facilitating call pops, threshold alerts and reverse call campaigns for aging incidents approaching SLA/OLA breeches

12/2008-11/2009:

A close friend and colleague, Ben Massin (Vornado Realty Trust) reached out to me with an opportunity to start a consulting practice working closely with Microsoft. Catalyzed by our work migrating to Systems Center. The collaboration would need a resource that was strong in the networking and identity spaces. My deep understanding and experience with MIM (Microsoft Identity Manager) and “Whale Communications” E-Gap appliances (later to be acquired by MS and then become the “Forefront” family of products IAG, UAG) would play a crucial role in our future success. This was the start of the next leg in my journey. I was fortunate to be offered a seat as a founding member of The SCE Group (SCE Consultants) currently known as “BoomID”

a.Director of Solutions Development

i.Focused on Infrastructure design, architecture, platform security, Identity (IAM)

ii.Provided expert analysis and consulting services.

iii.Lead all enterprise tier implementation efforts

2.Involving technical staff on the customers end to ensure knowledge transfer and training for long term sustainability and adoption (Value add proposition often clinching the deal)

iv.Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Microsoft Forefront Edge Security products.

v.Executed numerous POCs (“Bakeoffs”) going head-to-head against the likes of Cisco (ASA), Juniper, F5, etc. We converted nearly all to billable sales, and recognized revenue with full scale deployments.

vi.Designed and built multiple datacenters, some still in operation today.

vii.We served many verticals including the pharmaceutical industry, Healthcare, Financial Institutions, Manufacturing, Food, Heavy industry, and even Defense.

*Some notable clients including:

1.Coke

2.Honda

3.Lockheed-Martin

4.Estee-Lauder

5.Eli-Lilly

6.Pfizer

7.Electric Boat

8.Raytheon

12/2009-12/2010:

My work with SCE was in close partnership with the lead supplier of UAG/IAG Appliances in North America, Iron Systems INC. Based out of San Jose, CA. Microsoft was concerned by the support requirements for this platform and instituted a vendor provided customer support model as at the time there was no other license model to consume ForeFront.

Only Microsoft licensed OEMs could provide the physical appliances packaged with the product. Microsoft issued a finite timeline to the 2 US based OEM’s and made it clear their intent was to grant one OEM License, and the one chosen would need to demonstrate competence and effectiveness in both the support and deployment of the product. SCE and Iron Systems made a strategic decision to have me join Iron Systems as the company’s leader of their professional services and support organizations.

This was the inception of nAppliance in earnest with a targeted focus on the critical partnership with Microsoft and the stewardship of the ForeFront family of products. Our only creditable competition came from Celestix Networks. An organization that was comprised of several key former Whale Communications engineers with which I had extensive history and experience working with. A fact that gave them an edge as they were among the few which had the tribal knowledge of the product and its inner workings essential to achieving the goal.

By joining nAppliance the playing field was leveled. We were now both poised and on equal footing for the period of intense, spirited, but honorable competition that was to come. While there were a small handful of others, they had neither the manufacturing capability, nor the product familiarity required to mount a serious, creditable threat.

The existential battle that was to come proved to be a period of my career I look back on fondly and with immense pride. Both organizations fought and fought well. My team matured exceptionally quickly and came to truly personify our core principles.

nAppliance was awarded the coveted license. However, both teams were victorious and were distinguished in the execution of their duties, demonstrating professionalism, respect, and integrity throughout.

Unwittingly, our efforts had unintentional effects (a topic covered later). Our work had raised the quality and value of the product, developed efficient, powerful methodologies to get the job done. As a result, many organizations across the country (and some beyond) benefited from our efforts, a fact that speaks to the hard work and sacrifice of both teams. To this day I maintain those relationships and feel honored to have worked with them, despite being on different sides of a virtual “AOE” (Area of Operations).

a.Director of Professional and Support Services

i.Established professional services and restructured the support team.

ii.Effectively creating a multi-role unified front able to support and deploy, remotely and on-prem to suit the customers’ needs. In under a year, we were able to receive Microsoft’s approval and our OEM license was granted. To my knowledge no other OEM achieved this status before the product was refactored, reverse engineered and incorporated into disparate offerings now available on the Azure platform.

iii.Reduced overall operating costs by >20%

iv.Implemented “Value Mining” push knowledge closer to the customer

v.Historically highest number of first call resolutions

vi.Implemented Text/Chat based support allowing >30% higher volume of resolved issues while increasing total number of billable engagements, largely unsolicited. Our customers recognized that we had gone far beyond traditional support boundaries yet refused to give up.

vii.As a result of our fine tuning of implementation and support practices, and despite high volumes of booked engagements, individual tech, and engineer utilization rates reached their lowest point allowing for additional service offerings. This quickly led to the first (and only) “hosted” offering of IAG/UAG.

viii.Finally, we fully achieved our initial goals of delivering services with the same personnel providing unsurpassed continuity from pre-sales to support.

12/2010-06/2013:

An unforeseen byproduct of work at nAppliance, was its acceleration of Microsoft’s RE efforts of the product as noted above and sales of physical appliances dwindled at an alarming rate as customers quickly began to pivot their strategies, opting to go with the Azure based model. This led me to All State Capital based out of Pompano Beach, FL. A somewhat counterintuitive decision on the surface, but one that lead to a surge in ideas, and possibilities that I would work with leadership to materialize as I took on my next role.

All State Capital was not in the technology space. They were a finance institution specializing in funding for small to medium size companies. I helped leadership see the potential of the value-added proposition by shedding light on the fact they had what amounted to a “captive audience.” The missing piece of the puzzle was the methods needed to capitalize on this opportunity with a goal to provide not only funding but support and services offerings in a single transaction. This methodology served to deepen the relationship (stickiness) and increase revenue. Their support of this idea gave birth to a repurposed US Convergence. Aptly named as our primary mission was in fact the convergence of funding and technical consulting, creating a new revenue stream with limitless potential. This evolution of the business model required:

a.Director of Operations – US Convergence (subsidiary of All State Capital)

i.Helpdesk management and structure to suit what was a much less mature market as a Managed Service Provider (MSP)

ii.Break fix to MSP conversion (>75% conversion rate)

iii.Adding cloud services growing out book of business >35% in the first year.

iv.This growth continued until we achieved a landmark position of beginning relationships from the MSP into the finance org. This had not occurred previously

v.This improved the footing of the firm allowing them to expand operations geographically and in terms of markets. Historically serving the health and wellness markets, the company penetrated health care, real estate, heavy equipment, and other previously untapped markets and company growth continued

vi.This growth was substantial enough to require development of vendor relationship management as we initially had challenges with scaling quickly enough to meet demand.

vii.Accomplishing this goal requires the forging of key partnerships. Most notably Microsoft, Jive (Now GOTO connect), DataCore (SAN Melody/Symphony) Carbonite, Polycom, and multiple “Colos” (co-location facilities) as we established a steady stream of lift and shift operations.

06/2013-05/2018:

In the latter part of 2012 I realized I needed to hone my skills further by focusing on my ability to become a “trusted advisor” to my clients. I discovered a tangible need had materialized in the industry. One that I felt I could help fill. The profit motive, while being necessary, was no longer enough to provide me with the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I needed. I concluded this translated to a very potent desire to help shape and empower my clients to boldly take on and thrive in what at the time was a very dynamic and disruptive period in the entire industry.

“The Cloud” was truly coming into its own, and I realized most even seasoned IT techs and engineers were struggling to understand how to effectively leverage the power of cloud computing. How it could streamline operations (reduce toil, function as a true force multiplier), the value of shedding or transferring liability to cloud providers there by achieving their desired results.

The results cloud computing promised were beyond their grasp. Moreover, the ability to conceptualize a path to previously unimaginable levels of functionality, resiliency, and reliability as well as the various beneficial financial potentials (Robust ROIs, conversion of CapEx to OpEx, cost effectiveness and relative ease of consumption by way of dramatic reduction in complexity of the consumption/procurement model), in addition to the transformative impact of utilizing the power of technologies traditionally unattainable to small business due to their high cost and required skill sets, was a tall order without someone to shepherd and guide them. Someone to “teach a man to fish” so to speak.

These facts were so compelling to me that the following summer I took a major leap of faith and launched Cloud Right Now LLC, out of my home in West Palm Beach, FL. My mission statement was simple yet encompassed an unusually broad scope of operations. A significant challenge for a one-man shop, to say the least. However, this would prove a pivotal, career-defining moment in my professional development. CRN’s offerings included:

a.CEO and Principal Architect, Cloud Right Now, LLC

i.Cameras (CCTV/Surveillance), Servers, Phones, Routers etc.

ii.Onsite/Cloud PBX (Jive, Microsoft Lync/Skype) deployment or management (to name a few)

a.Avaya, Asterix, ShoreTel

iii.Remote and Onsite end-user support

iv.Break Fix

v.End User,” Train the Trainer” services and documentation

vi.Digital Transformation (Onsite to public and private cloud migrations)

vii.Complete migrations and systems deployment of multi-site, in some cases international, systems deployments as well as “Cloud Friendly Refactoring,” of home-grown solutions

viii.On prem management of switches, routers, AP’s, AP Controllers, etc.

ix.PACS (Physical Access Control Systems

a.Brivo, Kisi, Ubiquiti

x.Wireless Infrastructure

a.Meraki, Ubiquiti, Aruba

xi.Training videos and documentation libraries

xii.Onsite Desktop Support and deployment

xiii.“Lift & Shift” to complete systems re-architecture

05/2018 – 06/2024:

Admittedly, I underestimated the toll my journey as CEO of CRN would have on myself and my personal obligations, health etc. While I was being fed professionally by my work and saw amazing transformations in part due to my efforts, I also understood the operational tempo I had maintained for 5 years was simply stated, unsustainable. I began a search for a new role. My criteria were quite simple. A sense of purpose and meaningful work, a sense of family and support, and an environment where I would be free to do what I do. Innovate, encourage, empower, cultivate positive environments where knowledge is shared, and benefits all involved. I was so fortunate to find an organization with a noble mission and sense of purpose. Anthology Inc, formerly Campus Management Corporation, welcomed me to the family. An ISV amid a transition to becoming a SAAS provider of a Multi-Tier, ERP solution targeted to higher education clients (aka a SIS, or Student Information System).

Initially my role was not well defined. I found this to be an opportunity rather than a hindrance. It afforded me an opportunity to observe, analysis, and identify the critical pain points that most quickly needed attention. All the while continuing “business as usual.” I found bountiful opportunities to mentor members of various teams and unleash amazing potential in quite simply amazing people. People that were not just committed and diligent, working tirelessly day in and day out but people that loved deeply, genuinely cared about their fellow teammates and the clients we were so fortunate to serve. I worked to show them how to see beyond the staff but straight through to the real benefactors of our efforts, the students! To correlate in meaningful terms how our work directly impacted the trajectory of countless lives (age agnostic). How these were real people seeking personal improvement, advancement, and ultimately a better life by LEARNING! To demonstrate how our daily operations were invaluable to them. Every morning, we showed up was another day we had to help those people live their dreams!

a.Director of Cloud Technical Support and Operations (international Cloud Technical Support teams tier 1 - 3)

i.2 Direct and twenty indirect reports

ii.Cloud single escalation point

iii.Executive liaison, providing direct interface and engagement with executive team enabling timely, informed decisions

iv.Worked closely with the Vice President of Client Services

v.Accountable for all customer escalations, RCAs etc.

vi.Collaborated with Development and Architectural teams utilizing acquired skills:

1.Identity (Authentication and authorization) as well as IAM of Azure resources

2..Net

3.C#

4.HTML, CSS, and various scripting languages

5.Razor and Blazor (significantly more reliable and predictable than more traditional tech)

6.Azure (most notably but not limited to) IAAS, SAAS, PAAS, Data Storage and Analytics including ADX (various use cases including APDEX consuming APM telemetry) Data warehouse, lakes, and ADF

7.ServiceNow

8.Azure DevOps

9.Citrix NetScaler, VDA, Storefront, Identity modules

b.Director of Cloud Initiatives (Reporting to Vice-President of Cloud Operations)

i.Daily operations of US based Cloud Initiatives and SRE teams

ii.Five direct reports

iii.Conceptualize, design, and implement modernization initiatives on our path to true Azure SAAS multi tenancy.

iv.Firsthand engagement on all corporate cloud-based (Azure, AWS) initiatives.

v.Conceptualize, design, and implement corporate migration of all customers from IAAS/On-prem modalities to Multi-Tenant Azure SAAS solution (Cloud Offering)

vi.Accountable for adoption of modern DevOps practices during the development cycle (vs “DevOps post development” strategy)

vii.Daily exposure to key Azure technologies such as Azure Key Vault, Azure DevOps, ARM Template deployment

viii.PaaS (Web apps) pipeline design and deployment

ix.Azure Storage (Blob, SMB, Tables, queues)

x.Implement targeted coding practices following Microsoft best practices specifically aimed at intrinsic consumption of the Azure infrastructure offerings

1.Implementation of Azure Dev Center and its constituent components Azure Dev Box and Azure Developer Environments

2.Microsoft software defined networking (SDN)

3.Azure Active Directory/Entra identity platform

4.IAAS

a.vNet

b.vNet integrations

c.Virtual WAN

d.vNet routing

e.Zero Trust

f.Azure Entra/AD application proxy

5.PaaS connectivity

a.vNet integration

b.hybrid connections

c.private endpoints

6.Azure Service Bus based solutions

xi.Maintained critical role as executive liaison, providing direct interface and engagement with executive team

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