Arthur (Art) Abington

Enterprise IT Infrastructure Architect, Consultant

11809 E. Harvard Avenue, Aurora, Colorado 80014  (Denver area)

Email:  Art@AbingtonConsulting.com,  Office: 720-505-8066  Cell: 720-284-7470

 

Professional Summary

·  Focusing on IT Infrastructure projects for Microsoft, VMware, Cisco, and Citrix technologies including architecture, new deployments, upgrades, and migrations.  

·  30 years’ experience with directory services, servers, networking, storage, LAN, and WAN systems including administration, system management, and complex IT solutions.

·  17 years’ Enterprise IT experience includes the design and troubleshooting of multi-site environments encompassing Active Directory, Exchange email, email archiving, distributed file systems, application virtualization, server virtualization, SAN/NAS storage, backup solutions, and disaster recovery planning

·  12 years’ experience with VMware enterprise solutions including vSphere and vCenter using SAN and NAS storage solutions with high availability clusters, vMotion, patching, and upgrades.

 

 

Architecture and Project Experience Summary

·   Cisco Unified Computing (UCS), VMware 5.x, and NetApp storage design assessment and recommendation for a cloud based web application provider.

·   Datacenter virtualization and relocation project for a global provider of satellite operations and video delivery solutions.

·   Web server hardening and Web Application Firewall (WAF) implementation for a private cloud application provider.

·   Active Directory cross-forest trust and Exchange 2010 email migration for a national health care services company with 60 clinics.  Project includes Active Directory, DNS, Exchange architecture, mobile email, server virtualization, terminal server design, group policy, security, best practices recommendations, and implementation.

·   Active Directory best practices alignment and domain controller replacement project for a 65,000 employee global health care services organization with over 2600 clinics.  The project covered architecting, upgrading and remediating DNS, DHCP, group policies, GPS time sources, domain security, and Windows Server 2012 R2 DCs with DHCP Failover and IP Address Management (IPAM) server on 2012 R2 and vSphere 5.1.

·   Exchange 2010 design, implementation, AD best practice, and email migration for a national 1000 employee health care services organization with 50 clinics.  The implementation included a multi-generation Exchange co-existence architecture with Exchange 2010, 2007, and 2003.  The project provided for user mailbox migration with no downtime.  Also included in the project were upgrades to RightFax, Symantec Backup Exec and BlackBerry servers and decommissioning of 2007 ad 2003 Exchange.

·   Citrix XenServer 6.1 design and implementation for a high availability clustered virtual environment using multipath iSCSI SAN.  The project included design, setup and configuration of Tegile storage and design of the iSCSI network.

·   Enterprise level Exchange 2007 design, implementation, and migration for 3500 mailboxes with 6500 mailbox design capacity using clustered Exchange servers, Symantec Enterprise Vault, and Internet Acceleration Servers.   Included co-existence architecture with Exchange 2003, user mailbox migration with no downtime, and decommissioning and cleanup of Exchange 2003.

·   Enterprise level Exchange 2007 design, implementation and migration for 2400 mailboxes.  The architecture included designing, installation, and configuring a VMware 4 Enterprise platform using EMC fiber channel storage.  The project included migrating users from a POP3 ISP email platform with no user downtime.

·   Enterprise level Citrix XenApp 4.5 design, implementation, and endpoint deployment of the Citrix client for 1800 workstations and 2400 users.  The architecture included TS licensing server, two web interface servers, a Citrix Secure Gateway, 35 Citrix application servers, and a Citrix application packaging environment.

·   Enterprise level Active Directory design, consolidation, and migration for 22,000 users.  The project included combining three business units into one Active Directory structure, migration of servers and users from several NT 4 domains, and migration of users and server functions from Novell NDS 4 domains.

·   Enterprise level Active Directory design and migration of an 1100 user business unit divestiture from a larger company.  The project included designing and building a completely new datacenter with a new Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Cisco network gear, IBM Shark fiber channel storage network, and VMware cluster.   The project also included migrating servers, workstations, and user accounts to the new domain and moving a Citrix MetaFrame server farm to the new domain.

·   Complete datacenter move from North Carolina to Denver for 250 servers and 4,000 user accounts, included moving VMware infrastructure and Exchange email.  The transition design provided continuous email for approximately 500 executives during the move.

 

Technical Skills

Virtualization: VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 and previous versions, vCenter, VMware clustering, Microsoft 2012/2008 R2 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Citrix XenServer and XenCenter 6.1, Citrix XenApp 6/Presentation Server, VM migrations between platforms, physical to virtual P2V migrations

Storage: IBM 3200 SAN, IBM/Brocade fibre channel switches, NetApp, Dell MD1000 RAID enclosures, IBM, QLogic fibre adapters, GBIC modules, fibre optic cabling, ISCSI, Microsoft Storage Server, Tegile Zebi storage systems with multi-path iSCSI.

UCS: Cisco Unified Computing architecture and implementation with VMware and NetApp

Web Server Security: Windows server hardening, SSL analysis and remediation, Windows Application Firewall (WAF) evaluation, implementation and configuration, Barracuda, Fortinet

Networking: Cisco Catalyst enterprise switches, VLANS, level 2/3 routing, ASA 5510/5505 firewalls, Cisco VPN, AreoHive Wi-Fi, TFTP backups

Servers: Windows Server 2012 R2, 2008 R2, 2003 R2, 2000, Windows Clustering, Redhat, Ubuntu Linux, IBM AIX, Solaris, Powershell scripting, DFS Distributed File System, DFS Domain Naming

Communications: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010/2007/2003, Exchange clustering, DAG, (Exchange 2013 lab), Microsoft Lync 2010, MS Unified Messaging, Microsoft OCS 2007 with PBX integration, Fenestrae FCS/Faxination server, RightFax fax server, Blackberry Enterprise Server, Avaya IPOffice, Avaya desk phones, Avaya One-X, VoIP, FoIP, Polycom

Network Directory: Microsoft Active Directory 2012/2008/2003/2000, DFS Namespace, DFS Access Based Enumeration, Novell Netware 5, DNS, DHCP, DHCP Failover, IPAM, domain consolidations, domain migrations

Server Platforms: Microsoft Server 2012 R2, 2008 R2, 2003 R2, DFS Replication, MS server clustering, Microsoft NLB, IIS 7, FTP, SQL 2008, SQL clustering, SharePoint 2010, print servers, file servers, file security, server shares, SAMBA, HP, Dell, and IBM server and storage hardware, ISA 2006 server, Barracuda Anti-Spam and Web Filtering, Websense email filtering

Oil & Gas Applications & Servers: Aries, ArcGIS, Petra 3.8, FlexNet License Server, IHS Field Direct, Production Explorer 4.2, PC Data Entry 4.2, Landmark LMTools license server, Peloton Wellview 9.0, SiteView 4.0, RigView 2.1

Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware: Management servers and client software for GFI Vipre, Symantec Anti-Virus, Microsoft Antigen, Microsoft Forefront, Trend Micro, Malwarebytes

Systems Management & Monitoring: AD Group Policy, WSUS 3.x, Spiceworks, Microsoft MDT 2010, SCOM, Cacti, MRTG, DameWare, LogMeIn, VMware Update Manger

Backup/Data Recovery: Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manger 2012/2010, Netbackup 7, Backup Exec 2012 and previous, TSM Tivoli Storage Manager, VMware Data Recovery, snapshot, VSS, shadow copy, Iron Mountain/Mimosa Nearpoint archiving, Symantec Enterprise Vault, Dell, IBM, HP, and Qualstar tape libraries, backup and recovery policies, procedures and disaster recovery plans, Iron Mountain and Cornerstone offsite storage

Datacenter & Co-lo: Liebert AC, TrippLite UPS, rack hardware, APC UPS, PDUs, Cat5e cabling, fibre optic cabling, patch panels, Hosting.com co-lo, ViaWest co-lo, Hosting.com co-lo

Change Management: Have utilized various corporate change management systems and understand ITIL processes

Compliance:  Experience working in Sarbanes Oxley and HIPAA environments and knowledgeable with infrastructure requirements for same

 

 

Professional Experience

 

Parsons Brinckerhoff

IT Infrastructure Consultant

October 2014 – February 2015

·   Data collection, assessment, and architectural design recommendations for Cisco UCS, VMware 5.x, NetApp 3240 and 3220 systems.

·   Windows web server hardening and remediation, SSL/TLS protocols, and cipher suites for Microsoft IIS and WebLogic servers

·   Web application firewall (WAF)assessment, testing, and recommendations with Barracuda and Fortinet WAFs

·   Active Directory best practices assessment and recommendations

 

Echostar

IT Infrastructure Consultant

August 2014 – October 2014

·   Datacenter migration of application servers from two older datacenters in Colorado and Maryland to a new datacenter in Wyoming.  

·   Application discovery, migration plan design, capacity planning, vSphere virtualization of physical servers, and server migration via VMware replication to new datacenter.

·   Applications vary from single server to multi-server, clusters, SQL database dependent, and others.

 

Paladina Health (subsidiary of DaVita)

IT Infrastructure Consultant

March 2014 – June 2014

·   Design and implementation of Active Directory cross-forest trust and Exchange 2010 email migration.

·   Migration of AD accounts and Exchange from servers in a Dallas datacenter to new servers in a Chicago datacenter.

·   Best practice analysis and remediation for Active Directory, group policy, and DNS

·   Procedures and training for Outlook 2010/2013 and mobile device configuration for Exchange 2010

·   2008 R2 remote desktop services server farm design and implementation

·   WSUS server build-out and implementation using GPOs

 

DaVita

IT Infrastructure Consultant

December 2013 – March 2014

·   Analysis, design, and remediation for Active Directory Best Practices Alignment and domain controller refresh using Windows Server 2012 R2 physical and virtual servers.

·   Analysis and design for 2012 R2 DHCP Failover services managed by IPAM.

·   Analysis, design, and remediation of Windows Server DNS best practices

·   Analysis and remediation of Group Policy Objects

·   Designed and implemented virtual testing lab on VMware vSphere 5.1

 

Renal Ventures Management

IT Infrastructure Consultant

July - December 2013

·   Architected and implemented an upgrade and seamless migration from Microsoft Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 for 1000 users with no downtime.  The project included seamless upgrades to RightFax, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and Backup Exec 2012.

·   Implemented Citrix XenServer 6.1 and Tegile Zebi Storage Area Network (SAN) with multi-path iSCSI using dual controllers, dual switches, and four redundant paths

 

Ute Energy

Manager of Infrastructure

February 2011-April 2013

·   Built and managed the entire IT infrastructure including Cisco switches, P2P VPN with Cisco ASA, AeroHive Wi-Fi, IBM Storage Area Network (SAN) and Fibre channel switching, IBM server hardware, VMware VSphere 5.0 server cluster, MS Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory 2008 functional level, DFS namespace and replication, DNS, and DHCP

·   Performed vCenter 4.1 to 5.0 upgrade and host server upgrades

·   Built and maintained Exchange 2010 email, migrated email from BPOS, installed and configured SMTP anti-spam edge server, Barracuda VPX, and Blackberry Enterprise Server, managed associated certificates and firewall

·   Built and maintained a Private Cloud with SSL encryption for publishing Exchange 2010 email, SharePoint 2010, Citrix XenApp 6.0, and Citrix Access Gateway for access to applications over the Internet for PCs, laptops, iPads, and Android tablets

·   Built and maintained physical and virtual servers as needed for the latest Microsoft products including Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Active Directory 2008 functional level, Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, DPM 2012, SQL 2008

·   Installed, migrated and upgraded oil industry specific applications to new servers

·   Managed software licenses and maintenance subscriptions

·   Managed servers and client PCs with Group Policy, maintained updates with WSUS

·   Deployed, standardized, and managed client PCs and laptops using Microsoft

·   Deployment Toolkit (MDT) server

·   Configured and managed the Avaya IP Office phone system, end user phones, and cell phones

 

Critigen

Senior IT Consultant/Enterprise Server Engineer

January 2010-February 2011

·   Supported the AIMCO Windows server environment including VMware cluster, Exchange, Citrix XenApp farm, Faxination fax servers

·   Performed several vSphere ESXi virtual server implementations and physical-to-virtual server migrations for High Sierra Energy

·   Migrated Citrix Xenserver virtual machines to VMware without interruption of service

·   Designed and implemented a comprehensive desktop fax solution using Fenestrae FCS 2010 (formerly Faxination) including Fax over IP (FoIP) for AIMCO to upgrade, consolidated and migrated a three-city environment into a single datacenter solution without interruption of service

·   Implemented an enterprise Symantec NetBackup 7 solution for High Sierra Energy for Windows and Linux servers. The solution included application specific backup technologies for Exchange, Oracle Financials, MS SQL, Active Directory, and SharePoint.

 

 

Aimco

Enterprise Server Engineer

August 2009-January 2010

·   Moved entire datacenter (200+ servers) including multiple Exchange servers and 8 node VMware cluster from Greenville, SC to Denver, CO

·   Re-architected VMware ESX cluster and network configuration to fix broken HA and vMotion

·   Designed and implemented a solution to provide continuous AD, Exchange, and Blackberry functionality without interruption of service during the datacenter move

·   Remediated Active Directory (AD) problems including site and replication redesign for nation-wide AD supporting 12 regional offices and 1000 properties. Provided AD authoritative restores of AD objects

·   Performed Exchange storage group recoveries, restores from tape, Exchange storage group remediation, and Exchange backup redesign and remediation

·   Upgraded Backup Exec platform from 10d to 12.5

·   Provided Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 support (XenApp). Built SQL 2005 server

 

Statera

Senior Infrastructure Consultant/Architect

January 2007-August 2009

·   Designed and built VMware ESX cluster capable of supporting approximately 200 virtual servers for Bolder Community Hospital (BCH). Trained personnel and prepared documentation on VMware deployment and administration

·   Provided Active Directory 2008 architecture design including DNS, DHCP and upgrade of Domain Controllers to Windows 2008 consisting of four main sites for BCH’s hospital and medical service campus, 2400 users, in Boulder, CO

·   Designed and built an Exchange 2007 infrastructure for 2400 users including ISA server for OWA, ActiveSync for smart phone, and RPC/HTTPS for Outlook Anywhere for BCH. The system included and Exchange Edge anti-spam server

·   Designed and implemented Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 infrastructure with Citrix Secure Gateway, 2 farms, 40 application servers, and an application packaging environment for 2400 users for BCH. Trained administrator on Citrix administration and Citrix best practices.

·   Implemented a clustered Microsoft SQL 2005 solution for BCH

·   Designed and implemented a new email system for Information Handling Services (IHS), Englewood, CO, to serve 6500 global users in 50 locations world-wide using Microsoft Exchange 2007 CCR clustering and load balanced front end servers. The implementation included Symantec Enterprise Vault email archiving and load balanced MS ISA 2006 servers

·   Migrated 3500 user mailboxes from St. Louis to Englewood for IHS.

·   Provided Active Directory design and migration plan for Marine Resources Group, Seattle, WA, with locations spanning the country from the US east coast to Hawaii. The migration plan consolidated four separate AD forests into one.

·   Provided Exchange 2007 design and migration plan to consolidate seven email systems into one Exchange organization. Received Microsoft’s quarterly Customer Satisfaction Award for the project

·   Provided a best practice design for Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization and completely rebuilt the company’s virtual infrastructure for Goodfellow Bros. construction company in Wenatchee, WA. Migrated existing VMs to the new platform

·   Performed physical to virtual server conversions including Windows 2008 Domain Controllers, certificate servers, Microsoft Server 2008 Terminal Servers including a TS Gateway and TS Broker

·   Built virtual servers for application servers including SQL 2008, SharePoint MOSS 2007, file & print services, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Forefront and WSUS. Received Microsoft’s quarterly Customer Service Award for the project

·   Implemented Hyper-V virtualization for Dean Evans & Associates, Denver, CO, migrated physical server to the virtual platform, published a Microsoft Technology Case Study on Hyper-V implementation

·   Performed Active Directory assessment and prepared a remediation plan for Quark Software headquartered in Denver, CO, with approximately 3000 employees in four countries spanning Europe, US, and India. The new design included AD sites, replication links, DNS, DHCP, and WINS

·   Provided Active Directory assessments and designs, Exchange assessments and designs, and migration plans for numerous companies in the Denver and Salt Lake areas in including TransMontaigne Group, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Deseret Management, CoorsTek, TestAmerica, and Land Title Guaranty

 

 

Department of Energy Western Area Power Administration

Senior Engineer

November 2006-January 2007

·   Implemented a VMware Server platform and created virtual machines. Documented installation and trained co-workers on administration of same

·   Supported Windows server systems, WSUS, system builds, etc. Provided troubleshooting assistance as needed

·   Implemented a new Citrix Presentation Server 4 server farm with Web Interface server and published basic applications

·   Documented installation and trained co-workers on administration of same.

 

Insureworx

Senior Network Engineer

July 2006-November 2006

·   Installed VMware servers and configured virtual systems for application development support

·   Implemented and supported iSCSI SAN using NetApp storage system and provided operational support for Windows and UNIX systems

·   Integrated Exchange 2003 Enterprise Server with parent company after merger to provide message integration and calendar free/busy support

·   Installed Citrix Presentation Server 4 and provided application development environment for offshore developers

 

Sage Hospitality

Network Engineer

April 2006-July 2006

·   Provided server support for Sage Hospitality

·   Upgraded Active Directory forest and domain from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 Native Mode and resolved domain trust issues with AD domains at hotels

·   Resolved email and AD issues related to DNS

·   Implemented calendar resource scheduling for Exchange server (conference rooms, projectors, etc.)

·   Upgraded Exchange 2003 Standard server environment to Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition

 

 

Magellan Midstream Partners

Senior Systems Engineer

July 2003-April 2006

·   Architected and built a new Active Directory infrastructure with DNS, DHCP, WINS for a spin-off from parent organization

·   Built-out a new datacenter, installed servers, performed server migrations, Citrix farm migration, application migrations, and end-user computers to new AD forest and domain

·   Implemented VMware infrastructure on IBM blade servers and fibre channel SAN

·   Designed and implemented a new Citrix Metaframe XP server farm for 1,100 internal users and 900 external customers including the implementing Citrix Secure Gateway and Citrix Web Interface

·   Worked with Sungard to prepare Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans for Windows servers and performed recovery exercises at offsite data recovery centers.

 

 

Williams Energy

Senior Systems Administrator

August 1997-July 2003

·   Supported Novell and Windows servers, server builds, system updates for a multi-city computing environment with upwards of 1200 servers

·   Implemented and supported Citrix Metaframe server farms

·   As member of the enterprise architecture team, provided critical insight and guidance in designing the Windows 2000 Active directory for 5,000 user accounts

·   Consolidated several NT domains to the new AD structure

·   Migrated several large Novell networks to Microsoft Active Directory and decommissioned the Novell infrastructures

 

Education and Certification

 

B.S. Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota

 

ITIL v3 Foundation

VMware VCP 4.1

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Enterprise Messaging MCITP

Microsoft Windows 2008 Server Pro MCP

Microsoft OCS 2007 MCP

Iron Mountain/Mimosa NearPoint Email/SharePoint/File System Archiving Certified Installer

Citrix XenApp 5 / Presentation Server 4.5 CCA

Fenestrae Communications Server 2010 Certified Installer

Cisco CCNA

Others including A+, MSCE, MCITP, Novell CNE