Solution Architect, Systems Engineer, Windows Administration

Charles A. Windom, Sr.

*********@*****.***

VMware Corporation, Palo Alto, California

Sr Solutions Architect, Sr Technical Marketing Architect

Jun 2007 – Jan 2024

Sr Technical Marketing Architect/Sr Systems Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure Business Group

As part of VMware's Cloud Infrastructure Business Group (CIBG) the focus was on virtualization infrastructure, software-defined storage, software defined networking and application deployment on VMware's Cloud Foundation full stack Software-Defined Data Center and vSphere platforms to include vSAN. Products deployed and implemented were vSAN, vRealize Operations Manager, vSphere, vCenter, VMware Cloud Foundation, ESXi, NSX and Log Insight products.

Responsible for deployment, installation, configuration, trouble-shooting and managing all created solutions to be published as reference architecture. Installed and configured Dell/EMC VxRail Converged Infrastructure environment for the purposes of design, creation and management of Cloud Infrastructure and application solutions. Daily operations included testbed creation, updating server and device firmware, managing and trouble-shooting SAN, NAS software-defined storage (SDS), server hardware and components and all software products installed in my reference architecture infrastructure testbed environment. In addition, responsible for the creation of reference solution test plan to define the test to be developed and executed for reference architecture validation.

In my tenure at VMware, my many roles defined and developed best practices for deploying Microsoft Infrastructure and Applications starting with VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 and continuing with later vSphere and vSAN v8U2 platforms. Key part of a Solutions team that focused primarily on designing reference architecture, prescriptive guidance for the Virtual Desktop Solutions as well as business-critical applications, Software Defined Storage and Networking. Also included installed and configured various Linux distros to include RedHat, SUSE, Ubuntu, CentOS and Debian for the purposes of creating reference architectures deployed using the VMware vSphere platform. Supported Microsoft and other Tier-1 Business Critical Applications deployed on VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware vSphere and VMware vSAN platforms.

Provided thought leadership, competitive comparisons and S.W.O.T analysis to C-level executives and product engineering as compared to VMware popular and flagship products such as vSphere, vSAN and Vmware Cloud Foundation. Interfaced with product engineering to solve customer issues as well as provided consultation and guidance on the improvement of Vmware products.

Sr Solutions Architect/Systems Engineer, Competitive Team (Infrastructure Software Business Unit)

Responsible for designing and managing the Competitive MBU lab and equipment that used to perform competitor product teardowns. Through these product teardowns, competitive content was created that enabled the field consultants to compete in customer environments against the likes of Microsoft, IBM, HP as well as others. Presented live and webinar sessions on our competitor products on the back-end of operations, that enabled our product managers and engineers to create products that compete in the market more effectively. Reported to senior-level leadership regularly on competition strengths and weaknesses and VMware platform shortcomings with consultative advice on how to strengthen the product portfolio to better compete with our competitors. A significant portion of the Infrastructure Software Business Unit Competitive Team charter was also to interface with product engineering to communicate the shortcomings in our product portfolio and to assist with frontline customer product issues when they arose. Responsible for the acquisition, design, configuration and deployment of Azure Stack infrastructure for the purposes of competitive comparison to the VMware Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) product which eventually became VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). Managed the connection of Azure Stack to Azure public cloud. Presented company webinars and training on the strengths and weakness of the Azure Stack product versus the VMware product portfolio. Assisted IT Operations with the deployment of a second Azure Stack infrastructure environment for purposes of migrating and deploying Microsoft applications onto Azure Stack.

Sr Solutions Architect/Systems Engineer, Zimbra Platform Solutions and End-User Solutions

Responsible for working with partners to design solutions for the VMware View and VMware Horizon View and Horizon products. Responsible for the creation of several evaluator’s guides as well as Windows 7 and Windows 8 Optimization Guides used in customer’s environments for optimizing their deployments of Windows Operating System on the VMware Horizon View platform. Key advisor to Zimbra product engineering team on enabling Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) to run on VMware vSphere platform. Responsibilities also included installation and configuration various Linux distros to include RedHat, SUSE, Ubuntu, CentOS and Debian. Directly responsible for getting ZCS to run using the Network File System (NFS) as it was only supported on Fibre Channel storage. Responsible for the creation of the first vCOps for View and Horizon View Security Guides for the vSphere Horizon products.

Responsible for the creation of content and intellectual property for the virtualization of the Zimbra messaging platform. Created and presented virtualizing Zimbra on vSphere platform content as well as provided highly available configurations to customers through web casts, whitepapers, VMworld and VMLive sessions. Responsibilities also included working with VMware partners to design Zimbra reference architectures, messaging platform scalability solutions through using the Zimbra performance test harness and end to end solutions around the VMware and selected partners’ products. Traveled to problem accounts in support of resolving customer issues around the Zimbra product and product bugs. On the back-end of operations developed and refined processes and procedures on deploying and providing high availability for the Zimbra virtual appliance.

Sr Solutions Architect/Sr. Systems Engineer, Microsoft Infrastructure and Applications

Responsible for the creation of content and solutions intellectual property for the virtualization of key Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, SQL and SharePoint. Evangelized these solutions to customers through the use of web casts, lighthouse training sessions and customer road trips. Through these trainings, evangelism and one on one customer sessions, customers gained the confidence to virtualize their business-critical tier-1 applications on the VMware vSphere platform. Responsibilities also included working with VMware partners to design reference architectures and end to end solutions around the VMware platform and the selected partners’ products. Supported field efforts around virtualization by working with field consultants and their customers to provide prescriptive guidance on virtualizing applications, reviewing customer designs and trouble-shooting customers’ issues around application virtualization when required. Responsible for the creation and publication of various whitepapers and presentations around virtualizing Active Directory, SQL Server, Exchange and SharePoint Server on the VMware virtualization platform. Lead architect and key team member that consulted on design and implementation of the United States Army migration of 750K+ physical Exchange mailboxes to the VMware vSphere virtual platform thereby savings the US Military millions in hardware and software costs.

In working with VMware Information Technology, influenced the adoption of virtualized Microsoft infrastructure and applications which resulted improved efficiency, availability and major hardware cost reductions due to virtualization consolidation.

Interfaced with various product managers and engineering to ensure that features and enhancements, disaster recovery and high availability were incorporated into the vSphere platform to make the transition of virtualizing tier-1 applications easier for customers. Created solutions based on these features and enhancements as they pertain to tier-1 or business critical applications. Created a portable demo Microsoft Tier-1 Application environment consisting of Active Directory, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint and various other Windows Servers for tradeshows that saved VMware approximately 300K in equipment shipment and drayage fees a year. This environment was constantly used for all tradeshows and as a supplement for VMworld tradeshows. One of the principle team members for defining and implementing the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) used for validation of Microsoft infrastructure and Applications on various virtualization platforms.

Published author of “Virtualizing Microsoft Tier-1 Applications with VMware vSphere” published on 08/2010

Brocade Communications, San Jose, California 11/2006 – 05/2007

Sr Solutions Architect/Lab Infrastructure Engineer

Responsible for designing and implementing professional services solutions around the Brocade line of products to include Storage Area Network fabric upgrades, SAN implementations, SAN switch migrations and data migration solutions. Key member of a solutions team responsible for implementing a training program for the in-house Brocade Certified Solutions Consultants (BCSC) certification program. Attained Brocade certifications to include Brocade Certified Fabric Professional (BCFP), Brocade Certified SAN Designer (BCSD) and Brocade Certified SAN Administrator (BCSA)

Part of a solutions team that was directly responsible for the design, implementation and qualification of enterprise solutions for the emerging Brocade Professional Services group. Solutions testbed included Wide Area File Systems, SAN Health and San Life solutions and Brocade’s Data Migration solution using their DMM appliance. Designed, constructed and administered a proof-of-concept lab consisting of Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory, DNS, WINS, DHCP, various Linux distros, Solaris, Exchange v5.5, Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003 and various Storage Area Networking arrays to include the Hitachi Modular 9200V, 9500V, 9970V, HP EVA, XP, EMC Symmetrix, DMX, EMC VNX, EMC Isilon, NetApp and other Enterprise class storage class storage arrays and components. The lab testbed was utilized for the purpose of developing, testing and qualification of various Brocade solutions sets for the Professional Services unit of the company called the Brocade Certified Solutions Consultants (BCSC). Designed the Storage Area Networks in the Proof of Concept (POC) lab using Brocade Silkworm switches and Directors. Trained and mentored Brocade Solution Consultants in Brocade in-house services solutions to include SAN migration, SAN health checks and SAN trouble-shooting. Key part of the solutions team responsible for transitioning Brocade services from Channel-Based to Customer-Direct services through the creation of SAN health, installation, migration, switch and director installation and migration services.

Hitachi Data Systems, Santa Clara, California 11/2005 – 11/2006

Solutions Architect/Infrastructure Engineer (GSS-MARC)

Responsible for the design, implementation and qualification of Hitachi/IXOS Enterprise Content Archiving solutions to include email archiving for file system, Exchange and Lotus Notes as well as archiving for compliance solutions. As Lead Architect, managed a team of five technicians responsible for the design, construction and administration of a proof of concept lab and testbed consisting of Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory, DNS, WINS, DHCP, AIX, various Linux distros, Solaris, Exchange v5.5, Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003 and various Hitachi Storage Area Networking (SAN )arrays to include the Hitachi Modular 9500V, Enterprise 9900V and TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform class storage arrays and components for the purpose of testing and qualification of various Hitachi storage management software and solutions sets for the Professional Services unit of the company. Responsible for the design of the Storage Area Network from the ground up using Brocade Silkworm and McData switches and Directors. Subject matter expert (SME) on the Hitachi Data Retention Utility Software. Lead the recovery of a corrupted 1TB Exchange database for the Information Technology department that prevented loss of data critical to the daily business operations. Rehired as Contractor to continue array software testing after reduction in force (RIF).

Taos Mountain, Santa Clara, California 12/2004 – 11/2005

Senior Technical Consultant (Staff)

Responsible for consultation of Information Technology infrastructure design and implementation to include Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory and Exchange 2000/2003 to various C-level client base consisting of user bases ranging from 50 to 10000+ users. Consulted on the design and implementation of Network Attached Storage and SAN solutions consisting of HP StorageWorks, EMC Clarion, Windows Powered NAS Clusters and IBM ESS technologies. Directly responsible for mentoring, learning path and career development of the consultant base in the field to include the assessment and career path training through the performance of Technical Interviews (TIVs). Created and enforced enterprise-wide documentation to include standard operating procedures for the Taos professional client base. Designed and implemented enterprise-wide policy-based desktop management.

First Franklin Financial Corp, San Jose, California 12/2002 – 09/2004 Supervisor, Datacenter Operations

Responsible for the design and implementation of enterprise infrastructure to include Windows Server 2000, Microsoft Exchange v5.5 and Active Directory to a 1500+ user base consisting of local corporate and remote branch offices. Managed an IT staff of 4 employees focused on deployment and administering a mixed Citrix Meta frame and Meta frame XP farm consisting of 35 Dell 2650 servers. Inventoried and migrated all servers to include Dell Intel Based as well as Sun UNIX based servers to a newly designed datacenter. Created server build documents as well as Standard Operating Procedures documents. Advisor to Senior Vice President on matters of hardware/software acquisitions as well as yearly IT budget. Designed and implemented SAN and Network Attached Storage systems consisting of NAS storage as well as Brocade switches. My staff was responsible for the day-to-day administration, operations and trouble-shooting of user’s application and operating system issues. Responsible for design, administration and management of SAN storage consisting of DELL/EMC storage.

Siebel Systems, Inc., San Mateo, California 06/2000 – 11/2002 Lead Architect/Infrastructure Engineer

Responsible for the design and implementation of business-critical Information Technology infrastructure to include Windows 2000 Servers and Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 to a 10000+ user base consisting of local corporate and remote branch offices. Designed and implemented Network Attached Storage systems consisting of Compaq and IBM SAN storage and NetApp NAS storage servers as well as Brocade and McData switches. Responsible for the day-to-day administration and trouble-shooting of users’ application and operating system issues. Responsible for training and mentoring technical staff. Designed and implemented Altiris Rapid Image Deployment systems using Symantec Ghost and Altiris Rapid Deployment Solution Technologies for the purposes of streamlining and standardizing server builds. As the lead architect, my team with EMC storage and software consultants designed and implemented a global clustering solution (EMC GeoSpan clustering) in support of corporate business continuity and disaster recovery. The solution consisted of Brocade, Cisco, McData switches, EMC Power Path, SRDF, SYMCLI and EMC GeoSpan hardware and software products. Lead architect and key team member that consolidated and migrated 6 smaller satellite datacenters located mostly in California to one large centralized datacenter consisting of 5K+ Windows Server, Unix/Linux servers and NAS/SAN storage and one business continuity site in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lead architect responsible for the design and deployment of 100+ terabytes of SAN/NAS storage consisting of NetApp, IBM and HP enterprise storage to 22 remote branch offices resulting hundreds of thousands of dollars savings in consulting and implementation fees that would have been required to operationalize these SAN/NAS units.

Cadence Design Systems, San Jose, California 06/1999 – 06/2000 Principal Systems Engineer/Infrastructure Engineer

Responsible for overseeing all administration, maintenance and trouble-shooting of a 3000+ user base of Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows9.x and Unix users. Designed, Implemented and maintained the sales force automation infrastructure using Microsoft SQL and Pivotal Relationship technologies. Lead systems engineer for all corporate mergers and acquisitions entailing mail and messaging infrastructure as well as firewall and Virtual Private Network (VPN) design and implementation.

As lead systems architect, managed, trained and mentored a technical team of 3 focused on infrastructure and application migrations and consolidations. Directly responsible for the design, implementation and administration of a Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange mail and messaging infrastructure. Lead architect responsible for the migration and integration of corporate mergers and acquisitions into the existing Cadence enterprise infrastructure to include database, email and directory services migration into the Cadence Design Active Directory.

Key member of two-man team that designed and implemented the Solaris/Windows imaging environment in use at Cadence using Symantec Ghost and Solaris Jump-Start technologies to enable the UNIX and Windows operations group to quickly deploy Solaris and Windows workstations. Designed, deployed and administered the Microsoft Systems Management (SMS) infrastructure. Lead systems architect for the management and implementation of the Compaq Alpha to Compaq Intel Microsoft Exchange server migration team to move a 4000+ user Exchange cluster off Compaq Alpha cluster to an Intel-based Compaq ProLiant cluster.

Digital Equipment Corp/Compaq Computer Corporation, Sunnyvale, California 11/1992 – 06/1999

Sr. Solutions Architect/Systems Engineer

Designed and implemented custom business solutions for the Services Business Unit. Some of these business solutions included Firewall design and deployment using Digital AltaVista, Axent, Symantec and Netscreen Firewall technologies as well as Microsoft Exchange Server v5.5 and Outlook client design and deployment. Designed and deployed solutions around Windows NT Server, Microsoft Exchange 2000, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Professional. Lead and mentored the team that designed and delivered Windows NT/2000 workstation images on various x86 hardware platforms. Designed and implemented various High Availability solutions for Compaq Professional Services customers. Supervised six operators, four systems programmers and two systems field engineers. Created command procedures written in Digital Command Language (DCL) to simplify the Daily tasks of the operations staff and to warn of potential system problems. Resolved PC hardware/software problems related to improper configuration. Designed and implemented a hardware and software testbed consisting of pc server, pc desktops and Digital Alpha systems used for develop and testing end to end solutions for the deployment of the California State Automation Child Support Systems (SACSS) to include building and deploying a Voice Response Unit using SCO Unix. Created deployment solutions for desktop and laptop configurations consisting of Windows 9.x and Windows NT/2000 Workstations. As a Microsoft Tier-1 business partner, managed the Digital Equipment Corporation site ZVO in Sunnyvale, CA. for Microsoft Active Directory beta-test that was part of multiple sites within the Digital Equipment Corporation organization.

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

Author of “Virtualizing Microsoft Tier-1 Application on vSphere 4” from Sybex publishing

Ubiquiti products switches, aggregator switches, flex switches, Wi-Fi access points, UniFi

Dell-EMC VxRail v7.0 – v8.0 Deployment, Management

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) +Internet

Microsoft PowerShell, VMware PowerCLI

Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack and Azure Stack HCI

Brocade Certified Fabric Professional (BCFP)

Brocade Certified Solutions Architect (BCSC)

Brocade Certified SAN Architect

Brocade Certified SAN Administrator (BCSA)

ASE (Compaq Accredited Systems Engineer)

Microsoft Windows 2000 Academy Training

Microsoft SQL Server v7.0 – Microsoft SQL Server 2019

Microsoft Exchange Server v5.0 – Exchange Server 2019

Microsoft Systems Center

VMware vSphere v4.0 - v8.0 U2, VMware vSAN, VMware NSX-T

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4 – 5.0

Veritas NetBackup Datacenter v4.5

Microsoft Systems Management Server v1.2

Windows NT Server v4.0 – Windows 2022 Server Web, Standard & Enterprise

Windows NT Workstation v4.0 – Windows 7, Windows 10 & Windows 11

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