PEER L PLAUT

SUMMARY

Senior Virtualization Architect / Engineer with experience working with complex Citrix (CVAD and VDI), Microsoft 2019, and VMWare View provides the end-user with the best visual and audio experience possible. Significant work recently in USB redirection as more and more organizations want to get USB peripheral devices (microphones, scanners, etc.) to work in a virtualized world.

Using the entire Citrix product line, I have worked with huge farms (50000+ users, 5000+ Citrix servers, 54 sites, 16 countries, with 400+ published applications). Additional skills include Project Management, advanced Architecture and Design, Implementation, Troubleshooting, and Reporting Experience. I have written Powershell applications for management and support teams integrating Active Directory with Citrix product lines, creating tools that are simply impossible "out of the box."

I have successfully led teams to deploy a complete scripted server bare metal to application installation, creating one of the most dynamic and scalable environments available. This process allows management to make new acquisitions, bring new sites online, and integrate them into the current system in record time.

I have worked with VMware ESXi, Nutanix HCI, and Microsoft Hyper-V.

I led design teams in server virtual desktop lockdown using Group Policy Objects, eliminating unauthorized access to applications and allowing for specific peripheral devices using PID/VID. My Full Project Life Cycle experience includes pre-sale activities such as pricing, scoping, and proposal preparation.

Business Subject Areas include Healthcare, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Accounting, Transportation, Real Estate, Construction, Retail Sales, and Distribution.

TECHNICAL SKILLS & ENVIRONMENTS

Virtualization Platforms:

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenApp) v1912 LTSR / XenDesktop v7.x and all previous versions beginning with Winframe 1.6 Microsoft RDSH (formerly Terminal Server) 2019 and all previous versions beginning with Windows NT Terminal Server 4.0

Tools: Microsoft FXLogix App Masking, Citrix WEM, Citrix Provisioning Server, Citrix Machine Creation Services.

Op System: Microsoft Windows 2000/2003/2008/2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019 Server, NT Server/Workstation, Windows 11, Windows Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Win 95/98, DOS, OS/2, Novell Netware

Languages: PowerShell (advanced), PowerShell Studio (advanced), VBScript (ADSI, WIN32), Windows Script Host, HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, JAVA, SQL, Objectvision

Database: MS SQL Server 2000/2005/2008/2012 (Citrix Functions Only), MS Access 2.0-2007, Btrieve, Paradox, FoxPro

Internet/WWW: Microsoft FrontPage 2000/2002/2003, Data Access Pages (MS Access), ASP. (PHP Intermediate)

Hardware: Nutanix, VMWare, Microsoft Hyper-V. I primarily work at the OS layer for these platforms.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Old Dominion Freight Line, Thomasville, NC Sep 2018 - June 2022

Senior Virtualization Engineer

Old Dominion Freight Line was running a no longer supported version of Citrix XenApp and Desktop and Windows 2008R2 Server. Old Dominion hired me to stabilize the existing environment, meet with various stakeholders, and plan the upgrade to Windows Server 2019 and Citrix Virtual Apps 1912. I introduced Citrix WEM to increase logon and overall system performance. I worked with the desktop team to update the Lenovo Thin Clients to a single supported Citrix Receiver / Workspace base image. I had them switch from Citrix Provisioning Server to Citrix Machine Creation services so the infrastructure would be Citrix cloud-ready.

I worked to automate many previously performed manual operations with Powershell. Examples of applications I have created. A thin client “computer cleaner” to free up disk space on thin clients. This can be run remotely by the help desk. This application is also used for PCs and Servers. I created a Citrix User Space Management Tool to clean and manage user profiles on Windows-based thin client devices. My most recent app scans the network share where the user profiles are stored, looks that user up in Active Directory, and if the user is no longer employed, then moves that profile share to a backup folder where the folders are later deleted. Profile management is a big deal in the CVAD world. When I first got to Old Dominion, there were profiles in the GB size range, and those users could take 30 minutes or more to log on. I wrote a suite of applications to manage this where the Desktop data is copied to an easily accessible shortcut link on the desktop.

My logoff Desktop Sweep application preserved any .lnk, .url, and a few other file types on the desktop. The average desktop size now is less than 1MB. If a user copied a non-allowed file to the desktop folder, this file and any other not allowed files were copied to a known standardized folder on a user’s desktop. This is a huge win for data security and logon performance. I implemented a scheduled reboot sequence for Infrastructure servers. Storefront - once a month, each Storefront server is rebooted and local profiles deleted. A delivery controller in each data center kicks off each morning at 5:30 am the respective time zone and initiates an automated server reboot over the weekend (I did not write the reboot sequence script). I created three sets of infrastructure servers in each data center. All are load balanced. On the first Wednesday of each month, group 1 servers reboot. On the second Wednesday of each month, group 2 servers reboot, and on the third Wednesday of each month, group 3 servers reboot. These are just a few of the automation tasks I have implemented at Old Dominion Freight Line. Windows Infrastructure server updates were scheduled across two groups. Since there were three servers in each group in each data center, server two was updated and rebooted. This gave a server in each infrastructure group time to run with a new patch. If there was a problem, the environment could easily run on two servers while the issue was resolved.

Citrix WEM was used in a couple of different areas. Primarily there were services (executables) that would degrade performance on the overall server. Using WEM, these services could be shifted to a lower priority. While we mostly used Microsoft Active Directory, there were certain situations where we would need to use a WEM policy over a Windows policy to manage a particular problem. While waiting for the organization to transition to Crowstrike, we used Citrix WEM to control McAfee AV, which was loaded on each server.

FS Logix by Microsoft I created the AppMasking rules creating a seamless way to control end-user access to the application stack installed on the CVAD Server.

Netskope - The application batch file provided by Netskope did not work in an RDSH / CAVD environment. I wrote the Powershell Script for Netskope.

I created a lab environment, a Proof of Concept, User Acceptance Testing, and a Production environment (Machine Catalogs). The workflow is to work out in the lab any high-risk changes to the environment (i.e., upgrade from CU3 to CU4, etc.). Take lessons learned from the lab and apply them to the Proof of Concept environment for expanded testing. There is a single delivery group to get as many users as possible to test without the end users knowing of any upcoming changes to the PRD environment. After a week of testing the UAT machine catalog, the PRD machine catalog is updated with the latest image. When I arrived at Old Dominion Freight Line, they were on an unsupported version of PVS and XenApp. Using the engineering and design changes I brought to the organization, updates to the CVAD environment are completed in the production environment before personal computers in the environment are completed. (i.e., a switch from McAfee to Crowd Strike and Netskope is completed).

M*Modal, Pittsburgh, PA Sep 2012 – May 2018

Senior Virtualization Engineer

M*Modal was transitioning from an offshore dictation service organization to a front-end medical speech recognition company (voice to text dictation). The company struggled to get its software product into large healthcare organizations utilizing various virtualization platforms (Citrix, VMWare, Microsoft). I was the lead virtualization engineer for the implementation team. My initial task was to evaluate the software (Fluency Direct) and guide development steps necessary to get their product engineered to run in a virtualized environment.

Within six months of my hire, working with the software developers, development had a version ready to run in a virtualized environment. The next step was getting the new Fluency Direct product into the hospital’s virtualization environments.

Within the first year, I was transferred to the support department, emphasizing supporting the implementation team. We were a team of three. I provided detailed documentation on how to install our product on all virtualization platforms we supported using a format with instructions on the left side of the document and screenshots of what the process should look like on the right side of the document. These documents were used both internally and by customers.

My impact on the organization resulted in phenomenal sales acceleration at the enterprise level. We quickly scaled up the support organization from three to five, to seven to ten support engineers. When we reached ten engineers, we broke the group into two segments. The new support group consisted of L2 and L3 support. I was promoted to manager. I managed the L3 group while maintaining a 50% travel schedule. Our focus was on virtualized platforms, active directory policies, and the performance of our product in a virtualized space. The L3 group again grew to ten people, and M*Modal decided to move the group's management to Pittsburgh. Until this time, the entire Fluency Direct support organization worked from home.

M*Modal continues to build out its physical presence worldwide and staffing the organization from these strategic locations and was recently purchased by 3M.

Credit Suisse, Research Triangle Park, NC Nov 2010 – Aug 2012

Senior Citrix Architect/ Virtualization Engineer

I was Co-Lead Engineer- with a global team to design, engineer, document, and turn over to operations a new Citrix XenApp deployment based on XenApp 6.5, Windows 2008R2 X64.

The design was for four farms in four regions (AMER, EMEA, APAC, and Switzerland). Each area has its own farm, with failover (depending upon security and data requirements) to other regions should the user’s primary region fail.

This project was engineered to support up to 65,000 users worldwide, 24X7X365.

I developed and built automated scripts for XenApp6.5 utilizing PowerShell and standard MSI scripting tools.

oScript will Join or Create Farm based on pre-defined variables

oScript will configure XenApp server for Worker or Controller Role based on pre-defined variables

Lead Engineer- designed and engineered scripts to install additional core products (.Net, RDS, Desktop Experience, other runtimes)

All installation scripts are designed around the deployment requirements for Blade Logic.

The entire platform is hosted on VMWARE ESX servers, providing almost unlimited scalability and increased reliability.

This design will serve Credit Suisse's internal users, remote users as well as business partners. Security is paramount, so Smart Card authentication is a corporate requirement, both internally and externally. RSA Security will initially be allowed but phased out over time, with only Smart Card Authentication being allowed.

Design phase- Lead Engineer for a Credit Suisse Global Access Portal (CSGAP)

Design phase – Lead Engineer for a global XenApp, XenDesktop printing solution.

Technical Release 1; released on time. Technical Release; 2 on schedule

My first task was to turn around a poorly deployed unfinished XenApp 4.5 farm designed for the four regions. In six months, the first release was completed, documented, and turned over to operations. Two additional minor releases of the build were requested. These were designed, engineered, tested, verified, and turned over to operations within two months. No subsequent requests have been made for this platform.

B/E Aerospace, Winston Salem, NC Oct 2005 – Nov 2010

Senior Citrix Architect/ Virtualization Engineer

Review of existing architecture

I led the discovery and documentation of the current environment in collaboration with Citrix Consulting, acting as B/E Aerospace resident subject matter expert.

Developed automated build for XenApp 4.5, Citrix Access Gateway, Netscaler

I co-developed a migration plan and deployment from MSAM to Advanced Access Controls with Citrix Access Gateway and Netscaler.

I introduced VMWare to B/E Aerospace. Before my hire at B/E, technical development used ghost to restore the environment, which took two hours each time you reverted to a working environment. Using VMWare reduced this to five minutes.

Our "Staging Environment (pre-production)" is responsible for implementing VMWare ESX " since this environment is not performance-oriented but the stepping stone to the production migration.

Responsible for implementing VMWare ESX, which is now in production for Domain Controllers, SQL servers, some Presentation Servers.

Used Microsoft Hyper V. I could blue screen the host and recommend not to use Microsoft Hyper V as VMWare has a Linux-based host environment.

I Used Citrix XenServer 5 in a limited pre-production role.

I reviewed CitrixConsulting'sg recommendations for virtualization and XenApp 6/Hyper-V/Provisioning Services roadmap and investigated other technologies which reduced cost and sped implementation times.

I led the team in scripted installs of over 150 applications Citrix Presentation Farm. This engineering resulted in a highly scalable on-demand application platform. Once scripted, two human actions of less than 15 man minutes could deploy a new server with the entire application stack.

Technology Solutions Group (Citrix Gold Preferred Partner) 1990-2005

Virtualization Architect

Partial Client List Includes:

Krispy Kreme

I turned around botched installs for Enterprise-Class clients.

I upgraded them to Enterprise Edition

Deployed Installation Manager for Scripted Deployments.

Designed Proof of Concept

Designed migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Built hot redundant sites

Consultant Citrix SME

Siemens- Westinghouse

Assessment only

Eastwind Airlines

Citrix Architect

Designed Proof of Concept

Organized migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Northern Hospital

Architect first Presentation Server Farm for the hospital

Deployed Installation Manager for Scripted Deployments.

Designed Proof of Concept

Engineered the migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Moses Cone Hospital

Architect first Presentation Server Farm for the hospital

Designed Proof of Concept

Designed migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Volvo Truck North America

Architect first Presentation Server Farm

Designed Proof of Concept

Designed migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Integrated North American Authorized Volvo Truck Sales and Service Centers

Consultant Citrix SME

Timken Ball Bearing and Manufacturer

Integrated Unix Citrix Farm with Windows Citrix Farm

Consultant Citrix SME

Kayser-Roth

Architect first Presentation Server Farm integrating Web Interface to Kayser-Roth Main Frame Application

This design allowed Kayser-Roth sales executives to provide real-time quotes and inventory for customers while on sales calls.

Designed Proof of Concept

Designed migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Luxfer International

Problem: Migrate from Winframe to Metaframe. Design a new farm that could be fault-tolerant and scalable on-demand.

Upgraded to Metaframe

Introduced Resource Manager

Introduced Installation Manager

Provided Citrix SME support to the Luxfer International Citrix team

Sara Lee Corporate

Architect first Presentation Server Farm

Introduced Resource Manager

Introduced Installation Manager

Designed Proof of Concept

I created a migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Sara Lee Corp Bali Division

Architect first Presentation Server Farm

Introduced Resource Manager

Introduced Installation Manager

Designed Proof of Concept

I engineered the migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

Sara Lee Hosiery Division

Architect first Presentation Server Farm

Introduced Resource Manager

Introduced Installation Manager

Designed Proof of Concept

I designed migration to the pilot phase

Expanded pilot phase to migration

Consultant Citrix SME

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

BA Economics Guilford College GPA 3.0 overall 3.5 Economics

Minor English

Minor Psychology

Current Certifications:

Citrix Password Manager Test Score: 100%

Citrix Presentation Server Test Score: 90%

Citrix Access Gateway Test Score: 98%

Citrix Presentation Server Support Test Score: 95%

Additional Skill Sets:

Microsoft Active Directory Group Policy Management

Citrix Policy Management

Powershell

Microsoft SQL

Microsoft SQL to Query Active Directory

Microsoft Active Directory Group Policy Objects

Citrix Edgesight Expert

Citrix Resource Manager Database (inside and out)

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