It Infrastructure Data Center

Ben Lora

Baltimore, MD – 443-***-**** – ******@*****.*** – www.linkedin.com/in/ben-lora

Network & Systems Architect Manager

Network Design & Implementation - Management - IT Strategy

Network Architect

IT Infrastructure planning and strategy Development

Project Management

Vendor Management

Infrastructure Management

Infrastructure Architect

Data Center Architect

Cloud Architect

Disaster Recovery Design

Network Security Architect

DevOps practitioner

An accomplished leader and a passionate IT practitioner, highly skilled in developing innovative solutions to complex IT issues.

Proven ability to lead a progressive IT department and balance dynamic priorities while providing exceptional results.

Analytical, extremely adaptable professional with extensive experience evaluating existing IT infrastructure and developing highly innovative designs.

Highly skilled in designing and implementing network architecture in alignment with business, and end-user needs and long-term strategic planning.

Expert-level experience within all IT infrastructure components: Storage, Virtualization, Networking, Compute, Operating Systems, Security, Cloud, and Applications.

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Completely rearchitecting the Baltimore Police Department IT infrastructure significantly improving availability, resiliency, security posture, and manageability.

Designed a VPN solution and led the procurement of equipment and services required to securely allow remote access to all of the BPD workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was accomplished in three months.

Completely rearchitecting the IT infrastructure of AVESIS a national health insurance company significantly improving availability, resiliency, security posture, and manageability.

Design and implementation of a disaster recovery site (Data Center) using Cisco ASR and Nexus platforms for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Design and implementation of a disaster recovery site (Data Center) using Cisco ASR and Nexus platforms for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Design and implementation of a brand-new Data Center for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and formulating the migration strategy from the old DC to the new one.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Trigyn Technology, Inc 11-2019/2-2024

Director of IT Infrastructure Baltimore Policy Department/ Sr. Enterprise Architect (CONTRACT)

As the Director I was responsible for all aspects of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) IT infrastructure. My responsibilities included budgeting, project management, and leading the IT infrastructure team. I also serve as the senior Enterprise Architect responsible for designing and implementing new technology. I oversaw all IT infrastructure projects throughout all phases of the project life cycle from inception to completion & delivery. I serve as the principal strategist and visionary for the agency IT infrastructure directing IT vision, strategy, and development of the technology roadmap. Reporting directly to the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO).

Developed and negotiated purchasing contracts with leading IT vendors. These efforts led directly to millions of dollars’ worth of savings and a significantly more streamlined procurement process.

Implemented a comprehensive IT training program for all personnel and fostering an environment of continuous learning and improvement. Introduce DevOps methodology to the organization.

Created new standards and operating procedures for both the IT infrastructure engineering team and the helpdesk. Greatly increasing efficiency while producing predictable results.

Designed and implemented a comprehensive IT infrastructure monitoring framework for all layers of the infrastructure.

Architected a highly secure and redundant cellular network connecting all of BPD police vehicles. This new configuration allowed BPD to provide the same level of support/connectivity and management for the police vehicle as workstations physically connected to the network.

Completely re-architect of the BPD network, leveraging the new Catalyst 9K platform on campus and Nexus 9K in the data center. Redesign the LAN network into three tiers by implementing a core network layer. Introduced L3 routing at the access layer across all BPD locations. Deployed Infoblox clusters at various locations for DNS, DHCP, NTP, and IPAM services. Introduced extensive network monitoring and reporting capabilities.

Greatly improved network availability, and resiliency by leveraging OSPF and adding redundant physical links to both the WAN and LAN. Completely redesigned the OSPF topology. Designed and implemented a fully redundant ISP configuration without a single point of failure by leveraging BGP, different ISPs, and redundant Cisco ASR routers.

Deploy Cisco, DNA center as the monitoring platform for both wired and wireless infrastructure, as well as the automation platform. Completely automated the deployment of new network gear via DNA Center deployment template.

Deployed a brand-new wireless infrastructure across all BPD locations via highly automated means using the Cisco DNA center. Before this WiFi deployment, BPD had no wireless infrastructure.

Developed a cloud strategy for the BPD. A hybrid cloud design was implemented leveraging MS Azure (Limited).

SAN storage migration from an unsupported and deprecated platform using physical disk to a new Netapp SAN using SSD levering the NVMe protocol. This migration substantially increased application and database performance across the board. The project was executed with zero data loss and minimal downtime during the migration phase.

Design and built a brand-new Cisco Flexpod infrastructure and implemented a virtualization migration project to move existing VM’s and P2V physical servers to the new Cisco UCS compute platform

Architected a brand, new security framework that encompasses all of the BPD IT infrastructure, including IOT devices and police vehicles.

Designed and implemented a Cisco ISE infrastructure leveraging the following features. Profiling, 802.1x switch port security, Cisco Trustsec, TACACS+, and DNA center integration. This ISE implementation significantly increased BPD security posture. Additionally, this project in conjunction with the DNA Center project greatly increased the Help Desk's ability to Troubleshoot user-related network issues.

Designed and implemented Zero Trust framework primarily via the implementation of 802.1 switch port security, Cisco ISE profiling, and the deployment of the Cisco TrustSec framework across all of the BPD network infrastructure except for the data centers and police vehicles. This project enabled BPD to segment all IOT devices from the rest of the network thereby greatly increasing the security posture of the whole organization.

Futrend Technology, Inc Bethesda MD 3-2018/5-2019

IT Manager/Sr. Infrastructure Solutions Architect (CONTRACT)

Technical Scope: Project Management, Cisco, VMware, Netapp, EMC, Cisco UCS, WAN design, Disaster Recovery Design, Data Center Design

Responsible for designing and build-out of a new Disaster Recovery Data center for the National Institutes of Health federal agency. Leading a team of engineers directly responsible for the design, implementation, and support across all the tiers of a new DR data center including, Network, Storage, Compute, OS, Virtualization, DR Automation, and Data Center environmental’ s.

Divide Network Solutions Owings Mills MD 1-2017/3-2018

Sr. Infrastructure Solutions Architect (CONTRACT)

Technical Scope: Cisco, VMware, Netapp, Cisco UCS, Exchange Migration, PKI Deployment, DRaaS

Designed and developed storage solutions, VMware infrastructure for Exchange 2016 implementation and Pubic Key Infrastructure deployment. Designed and developed Disaster recovery as a Service and Co-Location solutions.

AVESIS Owings Mills MD 3-2012/1-2017

Infrastructure Manager

Technical Scope: Cisco, VMware Site Recovery Manager, Netapp, Cisco UCS, AWS, Cisco Wireless, MS SQL, Data Center Migration, Office/Data Center consolidation, VOIP

Principal strategist and visionary for company-wide IT infrastructure processes, directing IT vision, strategy, new technology innovations, and architecture & design operations across two data centers, supervising 20+ remote and in-person team members while reporting directly to the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). Oversaw multiple IT infrastructure projects throughout all phases of the project life cycle from inception to completion & delivery. Managed company network security posture across all infrastructure tiers.

Delivered multiple projects including network routing & EIGRP & BGP dynamic routing protocols, two Cisco UCS Domains across two sites with FlexPod solutions, an all tiers infrastructure-wide monitoring solution, a new Exchange 2010 solution, VMware Infrastructure 5.1, and key disaster recovery procedures using VMware Site Recovery Manager and Netapp SnapMirror. Perform migration from Active Directory 2003 to Active Directory 2012 R2. Implemented DevOps by streamlining the development pipeline and incorporating continuous delivery and continuous deployment methodology.

Directed operations to design and build new network infrastructure focused on utilizing Cisco Nexus 7000, 5000, 3500, 2000, Catalyst 2960, 3560, 3700, and 4500 Series Switches. Built Network Converged infrastructure for Voice, Data, and Storage and a 10GB network backbone located at the main Data Center.

Designed & Implemented an AWS migration to move most of IT infrastructure into Amazon AWS.

Expertise with the following AWS services EC2, Route 53, VPC, Directory Services, RDS, Direct Connect, Load Balancer, and Auto Scaling.

EMC CORP. Baltimore MD 1-2012/3-2012

Sr. Systems Architect (CONTRACT)

Technical Scope: Exchange 2010, EMC Vmax, and CISCO UCS

Conceptualized, developed, and integrated new Exchange 2010 system and high availability solutions. Completed Exchange migration project, from 2007 to 2010, integrating EMC Vmax and Cisco UCS Exchange 2010 server hardware.

Project Completion: completed contract and project ahead of schedule to provide cost-saving and efficient solutions.

TANAGER INC. Baltimore MD 12-2010/1-2012

Senior System Architect

Technical Scope: Exchange 2007 Organization, Exchange 2010 Organization, vCenter Server 4.1, and Threat Management Gateway 2010

Headed multiple designs and implementation projects focused on Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 Organization and high availability solutions.

Designed and developed storage solutions, VMware infrastructure for Exchange implementation, and Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) Firewall cluster aimed at providing secure internet access, web publishing, and email services.

Upgraded VMware 3.5 to vCenter Server 4.1 and configured and managed EMC Clariian storage operations.

SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE City, State 6-2010/10-2010

System Architect (CONTRACT)

Technical Scope: Windows 2008 SQL Server, Exchange 2010, vCenter Server 4

Completed several design and development operations including designing a Windows 2008 SQL server cluster, storage solutions for Exchange and SQL servers, and a migration strategy from IMAP4 email solution to Exchange. Additionally, designed and implemented a new Exchange 2010 organization and Exchange 2010 high availability solutions; upgraded VMWare 3.5 to vCenter Server 4.

INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS LLC Silver Spring, MD 10-2008/5-2010

Sr. System Architect

Technical Scope: EMC Clariian Storage, Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, vCenter Server 4, VMWare ESX Server, VMWare Virtual Center, Cisco 6500 Series Switches and 3900/7200 Series Routers, Data Center Migration

Designed and implemented several key process improvements including a 1000 Windows application migration strategy, a migration strategy from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 for over 16,000 users, and numerous high-availability solutions for Exchange, SQL, and VMWare ESX Server.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC. Annapolis, MD 8-2002/10-2008

Sr. System Architect/ Sr. Active Directory Engineer

Technical Scope: Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, SQL, Oracle, Active Directory, VMWare, HP EVA 3000 SAN and 3PAR Storage Solutions, Fibre Channel, iSCSI Storage Connectivity

Oversaw and orchestrated IT and network operations for technology utilized by over 7,000 users throughout Baltimore, managing operations across two Data Centers. Supervised and managed staff of 20+ engineers and system administrators. Designed and implemented WebSense Web content and a Microsoft Host Integration Server for mainframe connectivity with the city of Baltimore. Created and adopted a small disaster recovery site using SAN replication technology and a storage area network solution utilizing HP EVA 3000 SAN and 3PAR storage solutions with 800 TB total storage capacity.

Constructed and created a migration strategy from Windows NT to Windows 2000 Active Directory, from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003, and from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 for over 7,000 users; designed and implemented Patchlink Automated Patch Management security initiative for 6,000 desktops; developed virtual technology using VMWare ESX Server and VMWare Virtual Center on a SAN storage backend; utilized clustering, network low balancing, and EMC Legato to design high availability solutions for Exchange, SQL, Oracle, Active Directory, and VMWare ESX Server.

Utilized Brocade switches 2 and 4 Gb to develop and adopt SAN fabrics while directing and supporting SAN environment featuring five SANs and 120+ Fibre Channel ports. Engaged SAN replication technology to add a small disaster recovery area.

Additional Experience:

Lead Network Engineer/Network Administrator, PKW Associates, Curtis Bay, MD, 2001-Present

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCIES

Protocols:

TCP-IP, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, EIGRP, HSRP, VPC, MAPI, SMTP, SSH, TLS, UDP, ARP, ICMP, LDAP, OSPF, SIP, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, SMB, RIP, MPLS, BGP

Operating Systems / Software:

Windows Servers 2012, 2016, 2019 VMware ESXi 7, 8 Microsoft Hyper V, Cisco CLI, Exchange 2010, 2013 and 2016, Active Directory, Group Policy Objects, VMware Site Recovery Manager, VMware, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft SQL Server, SolarWinds Products, Cisco UCS Manager, Cisco UCS Central, Cisco UCS Director, Cisco ISE, VOIP, Cisco Firepower, Microsoft Azure technologies, Cisco DNA Center.

Hardware:

Cisco Routers, Cisco Catalyst switches, Cisco Nexus Switches, EMC Storage, Netapp Storage, Cisco UCS Servers, Cisco Hyper-convergence infrastructure, HP servers, IronPort, Fortinet Firewalls, Cisco ASA, Cisco Wireless Access Points, 3PAR storage, Dell Servers, F5

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, Baltimore, MD

Information Systems Coursework

Certifications & Training

New Horizons Computer Training

CCNA, MCP, MCSA, VCP

Contact this candidate