Seattle, WA 98104

206-­588-­6337

Robert Nees

robertnees@gmail.com

Blog / Linkedin / GitHub

System / Service Engineer

DevOps • Service Engineering • System Administrator

A former cross-­platform commercial software developer now focused on systems engineering and automation within 24x7

enterprises, labs, physical, virtual and private/public cloud-­based infrastructures.

Adept at using prior programming, QA and build experience, along with in-­depth systems experience, to architect, deploy,

troubleshoot and maintain highly secure, fault-­tolerant, and scalable configurations.

Experienced in Global Cloud and Enterprise level front and back-­office deployments, ranging from help-­desk support, enterprise

application stacks, networking, system monitoring, asset management, revision control, ticketing systems, and performance

analysis and tuning on deployed architectures.

Software Patent

United States Patent #6,300,948: 2001 (Lead Architect / CTO of 2order.com )

"Methods and systems for user interfaces and constraint handling in configuration software"

Technology Snapshot

Operating Systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server and Desktop Editions (2003 – 2016 (Beta), XP – 10)

•

Linux: CentOS (RHEL), Amazon AMI-­based, Debian, Ubuntu

• Apple OS-­X Xserve and Client Editions (10.4 -­ 10.11)

Network Services:

• Microsoft Azure Cloud Services (Virtual Machines, Web Sites, SQL Server, Virtual Network, CDN)

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2, EBS, S3, RDS, CloudFront

• Akamai, LimeLight, ChinaCache, and private Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

• Microsoft Hyper-­V 2012 Server, VMWare ESX/ESXi, Xen Hypervisor

• Microsoft NLB, haproxy, Distributed File System (DFS), Global File System (GFS/2)

• Remote/Shared file systems via DFS, DFS-­R, SMB, CIFS, Samba, NFS

•

• Active Directory, OpenDirectory, LDAP

•

• PF, IPTables, pfSense, OpenVPN, PPTP/RAS, L2TP, OpenSSL, IPSec

• Exchange, POP, Sendmail, Postfix, Exim

• Nagios, Cacti, MRTG, RRDTool

• Windows Media Services (2008R2)

•

Storage Area Networks (SAN) and Direct Attached Storage (DAS)

IIS, Apache, Nginx (http and reverse proxy), Tomcat

Databases:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 / 2012 / 2014 / 2016 Preview / Azure

• MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle

Development:

• PowerShell 2.0 / 3.0 / 4.0 / 5.0

• C# via .Net, Mono, Xamarin (Xamarin.iOS / Xamarin.Android)

• Git, Subversion (SVN), Mercurial (HG)

• Bash, Python, ActionScript 3

• Selenium : IDE, Grid, WebDriver and Controller

• MySQL mysqlslap, Apache ap, httperf, sar/ksar (LAMP benchmarking and scalability testing)

Other:

• Microsoft internal tools including Gemini/Orca, Octopus, ENC/GLB (F5), MDS Charting/Queries, Azure/ECO Logging

• Windows Media and Expressions Encoder, Qumu Enterprise Video

• Compuware Corporation’s Gomez

• HP and Dell rack-­based servers, WatchGuard, Check Point, Soekris

• Symantec Backup Exec, AMANDA, Bacula

• Microsoft Office for Windows and Office for Mac, Google Apps for Business (Administration)

• Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer / C# based .NET Micro Framework (Hobby based development)

IPv4/IPv6 (including multicast), VLAN, DHCP, DNS, WINS, VoIP w/QoS

• Network Planning and Maintenance;; Optical Fiber/Fibre and Copper cabling

Robert Nees’ Resume

Professional Experience

Contract System Engineer / DevOps

Niteware Production, LLC., Seattle, WA: 2014 – 2015

Responsibilities:

Projects:

•

• Mobile and Cloud based planning and execution of the technical road map, product architecture, strategic research, and

hands-­on development and automated CI and production deployments

• Consultant in high availability and highly scalable Cloud-­based infrastructures

• Web to Mobile conversion: Architect and prototyped a Xamarin/Mono C# multi-­platform mobile device application

with Azure-­based cloud infrastructure

PlayScript: ActionScript 3.0 compiler based on Mono’s C# `mcs` compiler to support porting of Flash application to the

Xamarin platform (iOS and Android) and Windows Phone 8.1 platform

Support Engineer

Microsoft, Inc., Seattle, WA: 2013

(Contract position via Aditi)

Responsibilities:

•

• Provide 24x7 technical Tier 2 and 3 support of Azure services within the Microsoft Phone Services group required by

the group’s service level agreements with internal and external partners

Direct interaction with the Windows Phone Server ‘NOC’, Microsoft internal and external partners

• Deployment, administration and troubleshooting of world-­wide Azure based Windows Phone services included legacy

support of GFS based deployments

• Geo-­based traffic management of services (ECN/GLB), migration of global traffic to new versions, manual traffic

fault/failover to backup datacenters

• Network Traffic (ECN/GLB) Powershell based scripting to automate traffic migration, monitoring load pattern during new

service migration and WideIP statistics report exporting

• Ad-­hoc Powershell scripting to provide engineer support to Microsoft service engineers, developers and testers

• Patch maintenance of GFS-­based operating systems and application security

• Creation and ongoing updates of NOC/Tier 1 documentation of deployed services

• Responsible for creation and maintaining of TSGs, SOPs for NOC/Tier 1, deployments and patch documentation

• Daily reporting of escalations from the NOC during 24x7 on-­call rotations

• Weekly review of system outages and service disruptions and playbook updates for continued reduction of escalations

Projects:

• Creation of Powershell Workflow based cmdlets (and module) to provide automated service deployments to Azure to

replace the manual script execution, provide man-­hour reductions, and deployment error reductions on weekly service

updates and monthly milestone version releases

Systems and Network Administrator

Airgroup, Inc., Seattle, WA: 2012

(Contract position via Comforce)

Responsibilities:

• Security audits and patch maintenance reviews of the internal corporate data center virtual (ESX based) and physical

Windows based servers, ranging from 2000 to 2008R2

• Exchange and Ipswitch iMail Administration including Mobile Device configuration (SSL certificates, policies and

licensing for iPhone and Android phones)

• DBMS Administration including PostgreSQL 8/9, SQL Server 2005, 2008, & 2008R2 and SQL Server databases

running in compatibility level 80

• SAP R/3 DEV, QA and PROD Server and DBMS Administration

• Multi-­site SSL VPN Administration and new mesh configurations using WatchGuard, Check Point, and OpenVPN

Projects:

• Networking Administration ranging from adding the first set of VLANs to the network, adding additional subnets, DHCP

zoning, IP Address management, and HP switch configurations

• Email Backup System: Created a PowerShell modules using features such as Bit-­Transfer to archive, compress and

securely transfer mailbox accounts between a DMZ and an Intranet based archive file server

Robert Nees’ Resume

• SQL Server Maintenance Plans: Configuration and review of maintenance plans, standard and custom Performance

Data Collectors, local and remote backup scheduling routines of enterprise level applications, usage patterns, and

optimization opportunities.

• Email Platform Upgrade: Create virtualized environment to perform testing of major upgrade and conversion of over

1000 user accounts.

• SAN & SQL Server Performance Review: Collection and analyst of performance data to determine the throughput of a

new HP LeftHand P4000 SAN.

• SAP R/3 and SQL Server Maintenance Plans and Optimization: T-­SQL procedures and PowerShell scripting to

handle automatic maintenance of SAP databases and reporting.

• Performance evaluation and optimization of enterprise application: Deadlock determination and Compatibility level

review of a SQL Server database using Extended Events, Custom T-­SQL and PowerShell scripting. The database was

being used by a number of applications including a ‘blackbox’ Enterprise application, EDI add-­ons, an in-­house

developed ‘Extranet’ application and custom PHP scripts running on a Linux server and the deadlock debugging

evolved multi-­victim analysis on a live production system.

Systems Engineer & Python Developer

Stripes39, Inc., Seattle, WA: 2011

Responsibilities:

• Administration of Amazon EC2 instances based upon internal user requests

Projects:

• EC2 based Auto-­Scale / Auto-­Heal Proxy Grid: Large scale scraping of Internet content via commercial and in-­house

toolsets that is based on Ubuntu, HAProxy, TinyProxy, and custom Python code. This demand based system allowed

auto-­creation and termination of AWS/EC2 spot instances across multiple AWS data center regions and accounts to

balance load, cost and data acquisition speed.

• AWS based Selenium based Amazon Machine Image (AMI): Configured and published a single custom image that

could be used to create a test environment of Selenium controllers (1 to N) and Selenium clients (1 to N) to scale a

testing grid to thousands of browser clients.

• EC2 LAMP Performance Testing: Performed an evaluation on a new in-­house to ensure that the data-­entry, that was

to be out-­source, would scale to thousands of concurrent data entry contractors (~10k users). This evaluation

instrumented the Debian based tiers via a Selenium Grid deployed on AWS EC2 for simulated browser experience

testing (1000 concurrent browser sessions), Python WebDrive test scripts, Python harness for multiple Selenium host

controllers, testing ‘guests’ running on hundreds of EC2 instances, while simultaneously using ‘mysqlslap’ with custom

written SQL feeds to find the areas of optimization opportunities and limits of the application. The evaluation resulted in

EC2 instance performance, using an AWS RDS instance or a custom RDBMS deployment, the application

responsiveness within the browser, public and private network traffic within AWS, Apache’s PHP configuration, and

PHP and SQL code reviews.

• EC2 based Marketing Email System: Created a disposable domain name based email MTA/relay system that was

complaint to SPF, DomainKey/DKIM, and Sender ID, and reverse IP DNS checks to increase the RIO of the SEO

marketing efforts. The “track to basket” was increased from ~24% to ~78% and “track to response” went from less then

10% to over 45% in marketing test campaigns conducted using the new system.

IT Systems and Network Administrator

Screenplay, Inc., Seattle, WA: 2011

Responsibilities:

• NOC style monitoring of on-­premise and co-­located production systems (Windows, OS-­X, OpenBSD)

• SQL Server and PostgreSQL maintenance, tuning, and on-­going support

• Exchange, Active Directory, Open Directory administration

• Content Management System (CMS) maintenance in Visual Studio / C# / ASP.NET

• Apple Xsan 2 administration on multiple Xserve controllers and DAS and Fibre2Scsi subsystems

•

• Provide end-­user support of all Windows XP/Windows7 and OS-­X based clients

• Conduct audits and patch maintenance of operating system and application security levels on all production and on

desktop systems

Interaction with Agile-­based development group for alpha, beta and production deployment

• Provide 24x5 end-­user and vendor support, 24x7 production support

• Documentation and revision control of deployed systems

•

Fiber and copper wiring additions and moves

Robert Nees’ Resume

Lab Operations Systems Administrator/Analyst

Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Group, Redmond, WA: 2010

(Contract position via Excell Data)

Responsibilities:

• Provide end-­user help-­desk and support for Microsoft, proprietary and 3rd party software on data center based

production systems and high security lab based systems within the Trust Worthy Computing group

• NOC style monitoring of data center and lab based systems

•

Installation, configuration, deployment and revision management of Windows 2008/2008R2 based virtual and physical

(Dell and HP) servers with DAS and SAN based storage including hardware troubleshooting

• SQL Server replication, log shipping and maintenance job setup and on-­going support

• Configuration and operational reviews of EMC CLARiiON AX4 and CX4 SANs and Brocade Fibre switches

• Powershell script development for automation of deployment, security and system monitoring

• Provide 24x5 end-­user and vendor support when required by the group’s service level agreement

• Documentation and revision control of deployed systems

System Analyst

Microsoft Streaming Media Group, Redmond, WA: 2010

(Contract position via Collabera)

Responsibilities:

• Upgrading and implementing streaming media application to a Hyper-­V streaming media infrastructure

• Provide 24x5 global end-­user and vendor support of live multicast streaming and Video on Demand (VOD) services,

including encoding and transcoding

• Conduct system wide audits and maintenance of operating system, application security, and version patch levels on all

virtual and physical servers

•

• Documentation and revision control of streaming media infrastructure

Projects:

• World-­wide Streaming and VOD Infrastructure Deployment: Deployment of a world-­wide virtual server based

multimedia streaming infrastructure located in 5 datacenters to provide live multi-­casted and Video on Demand (VOD)

services via the Microsoft global network.

System and Network Administrator / IT Manager

Pravda Studios, LLC, Seattle, WA: 2009

Responsibilities:

• Administration of Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, SAGE CRM and QuickBooks on Windows

2003/2008 based Servers

• Provide end-­user support of all Windows XP/Vista and OS-­X based clients

• Microsoft Response Point / Aastra Technologies VoIP phone system administration

• Maintenance of all software and hardware Licensing and Maintenance Agreements

• Media-­media creative asset management and disaster recovery

Fiber and copper wiring additions and moves

• Apple Xsan 2 administration on multiple Xserve based metacontrollers and multiple Promise VTrek and QLogic

Fibre systems used for multi-­media streaming, video editing and cross SAN file replication and disaster recovery

Installation, configuration and revision management of Windows 2008 server, Microsoft and vendor-­based software,

server and client OS based

• Conduct audits and patch maintenance of operating system and application security levels on all virtual and physical

servers with lab and data center environments

• Conduct system wide audits and maintain operating system and application security and version patch levels on all

Windows and Apple based workstations and servers

• Coordination of new employee’s computer systems, phone and application requirements

•

Projects:

• Load-­balancing and failover firewall: Configuration of WatchGuard Appliance and Cisco/Linksys VPN routers to

provide Internet firewalls, remote VPN access, load balancing of outbound traffic and hot failover between T1 and

Cable based Internet circuits.

• Multi-­purpose wireless network: Utilizing existing wireless access points provided a usage-­based reconfigurable

secure infrastructure to allow WPA/Radius, static WPA, and open portal access from single-­sign authenticated

corporate users and hardware, secure and unsecure wireless multi-­media devices, and public Internet usage by

event patrons.

•

IP Management: Re-­configuration and deployment of multiple public and private DNS and DHCP servers and

private physical sub-­nets to allow single-­point administration and management of all IP addresses.

Robert Nees’ Resume

Plant Maintenance / Machine and Tooling Technician / Machine Operator

(Temporary position via FlexxStaff)

Seacast Investment Casting, Seattle, WA: 2009 -­ 2010;; 2007 -­ 2008

Responsibilities:

• Maintenance of high and low voltage electronic/logic industrial machine sub-­systems

• Maintenance of digital and analog control systems for wax injection presses

• Maintenance and production setups of customer and internal tooling

•

Inventory production and control of ‘tree’ stock for part mounting department

• Production of customer specific wax investment parts

Projects:

• VoIP Network: Installation of network infrastructure for a Qwest Managed VoIP system to tie this site into the

corporate headquarters data and voice facilities.

System Administrator / Technical Festival Lead

One Reel, Seattle, WA: 2008

Responsibilities:

• Administration and installation of Windows, OS-­X and *nix servers used for e-­mail, file sharing, directory services,

enterprise application services

• Configuration and administration of Soekris based routers for mesh-­based 4 location WAN;; firewalls, routers, and

VPNs via IPSec and SSL

• Provide end-­user hardware and software support (Windows and OS-­X)

• Setup new employee’s computer systems (hardware and software)

• VoIP phone system support and programming along with VoIP connections to multiple company locations via

public and private networks

Projects:

• WaMu Family 4th: Installation and support of IT infrastructure at Gas Works Park prior to and during the July 4th

Festival;; Wireless WAN, LAN (wired and wireless), E911.

• Bumbershoot: Installation and support of IT infrastructure at Seattle Center;; corporate VoIP phone system, secure

fault-­tolerant WAN installation and configuration (dedicated and shared T1 and multiple ADSL circuits),

telecommunication vendor relations.

Systems Engineer

(Contract position via KForce Professional Staffing)

GeneTests within the University of Washington, Seattle, WA: 2008

Responsibilities:

• Administration of in-­house and datacenter based Linux and Windows servers used for e-­mail, file sharing, public

web applications, print services, firewalls and backup systems

• Maintenance of internal network (firewalls, switches, routers)

• Provide end-­user hardware and software support (Microsoft Windows and Apple OS-­X)

• Conduct security audits on Linux and Windows servers

• Documenting and revision of internal systems administration guide

• Configuration and revision management of server and network configurations and scripts

Projects:

• Fault-­tolerant public web Server: Reconfiguration of existing Linux-­based infrastructure and deployment of an N-tier

web application using hot spare failover of Linux based firewalls and load-­balancing of http services and Oracle

servers.

• ‘Real-­time’ Oracle replication: Synchronization of master and slave Oracle servers to provide multiple DBMS

servers to application stack utilized in serving browser based searches of genetic information using triggers, cron

jobs, rsync and SQL scripts.

Robert Nees’ Resume

System Administrator

Visible Technologies, Seattle, WA: 2006

Responsibilities:

• Administration of Windows servers used for e-­mail, file sharing and print services

• Maintenance of internal network (firewalls, switches, routers, VPN services)

• Provide end-­user software and hardware support

• Conduct security audits on local and remote data center based Windows servers

• Setup new employee’s computer systems (hardware and software)

• Phone system support and programming

Projects:

• Configuration and maintenance of remote data center based MS Active Directory services, VPN appliance, SQL

Server 2005, and Windows 2003 Servers

• Active Directory Installation: Setup and deployment of multi-­site Microsoft Active Directory services to allow

internal employees and vendors secure single sign-­on to remote development and production servers.

• Alternate Data Center Review: Perform technical review, cost analysis and transition plan on multiple managed

and non-­managed data center providers for capital asset and expense budgeting.

• Network Segmentation: Reconfigure existing network into multiple routed segments to isolate development traffic

and provide fault tolerant and load balanced Internet access across existing factional T1 and ADSL circuits

System Administrator / Software Developer

3Tier Environmental Forecasting Group, Seattle, WA: 2006

Responsibilities:

• Administration of Linux and Windows servers used for e-­mail, file sharing, VPN and print services

•

• Maintenance of internal network (firewalls, switches, routers)

• Provide end-­user software and hardware support (Windows, Linux and Apple)

• Configuration and revision management of server and network configurations and scripts

• Conduct security audits on Windows and Linux servers

• Corporate web site maintenance

Linux cluster management (Rocks based)

Projects:

• Hydrology forecasting web site: Development and deployment of a multi-­lingual Python based web application to

present hydrology-­forecasting data.

• Weather Map web site: Development and deployment of a Python based web application to display visual, time

sequenced radar weather maps.

• Employee VPN access: Setup and deployment of a multi-­authentication (id, password, and certificate) VPN to

allow local and international based employees to securely connect to the corporate LAN.

• Disaster Recovery Virtual Cold Spares: Create virtual machine images of mission critical application servers

(physical and virtual) to be used as cold spares.

•

Senior System Administrator / IT & Operations Director

Cleverset, Seattle, WA: 2005

Responsibilities:

• Administration of Linux servers used for e-­mail, file sharing and print services

•

• Provide end-­user software and hardware support (Windows, Linux and Apple)

• Configuration and revision management of server and network configurations and scripts

• Maintenance of internal network (firewalls, switches, routers, VPN services)

• Conduct security audits on Linux servers

• Setup new employee’s computer systems (hardware and software)

• VOIP phone system installation and support

Projects:

Installation and maintenance of internal network (firewalls, switches, routers, VPN services)

Linux Cluster Expansion: Configure and deploy 32 new server nodes in newly acquired data center space that

was joined to one of the existing in-­house clusters via FDDI.

• Employee VPN access: Setup and deployment of a multi-­authentication (id, password, and certificate) VPN to

allow local and remote Internal based employees to securely connect to the internal LAN, also provided WAN

connection to remote office over IPSec tunneled connection.

• Development Revision Management Server: Setup and deployment of a master revision management server for

the local software development group, provided secure Internet replication to a remote development group and

local client replication for disconnected development activities.

Robert Nees’ Resume

IT Engineer

Isilon Systems, Seattle, WA: 2004 -­ 2005

Responsibilities:

• Administration of Windows / FreeBSD servers for Exchange, AD, file and print services

• Administration of FreeBSD servers used for web hosting, email, and DNS

• Maintenance of internal network (firewalls, switches, routers, VPN services)

• Setup of new servers for installation in-­house and for deployment at co-­location hosting facility

• Conduct security audits on Windows and FreeBSD servers

• Provide end-­user software and hardware support

Projects:

• Blackberry / T-­Mobile roll-­out: On-­site installation and support of the Blackberry Enterprise services, end-­user

training and support of Blackberry desktop client and T-­Mobile Blackberry-­based cellular phones.

• Wireless network: Utilizing open-­source firmware on commercial hardware and Microsoft-­based authorization

implement a highly secure and inexpensive 801.11 network.

• Corporate web site: Working with the marketing department provided content;; perform HTML/CSS conversion,

review and approval staging, and live deployment on a daily level.

Owner / Chief Technology Officer

Xtreme Reality Machines, Seattle, WA: 2002 -­ 2004

Responsibilities:

•

Projects:

Planning and execution of the technical road map, product architecture and strategic research

• Consultant in high availability and highly scalable hardware infrastructures

• Compression appliance: Architect and prototyped the platform to provide asymmetrical lossless high-­ratio

compression of multimedia content over standard Internet protocols.

Chief Technology Officer / Director of Corporate Technology / V.P. of Software Development

Primus Knowledge Systems, Seattle, WA: 1993 -­ 2001

(2order.com;; BTSquared, Inc.;; B.S.D, Inc., Atlanta, GA)

Responsibilities:

• Staff education pertaining to software development practices and emerging technologies

•

• Prepare technology roadmaps for the various product lines

• Responsible for planning the investments in the technology infrastructure

•

• Chair the technology committee that includes the senior architects and developers

Hiring and management of software technical team

Projects:

• BTSquared PRT (Parameters, Rules & Tables): Design and develop a UNIX and Microsoft Windows-­based

software product that is an integrated module to the Symix MRP system.

• 2order Configuration Designer and Interactive Selling System: Architect, manage development and participate

in programming of a Microsoft Windows-­based interactive product configuration application and quotation system.

• 2order Net Marketplace: Architect and manage the conversion of the 2order client-­server product suite into a

scaleable and highly available e-­Commerce Internet-­based product line.

Senior Systems Analyst / SPC Engineer / Radiographic Process Engineer

Amoco Torlon Products, Atlanta, GA: 1986 -­ 1993

Responsibilities:

• Administration of UNIX and Novell servers, IPX/SPX and SNA networks

• Implement statistical process control (SPC) programs on the injection molding and machining processes

Projects:

• ERP, EDI (and AIAG bar coding): Implemented first EDI system within corporate division.

•

Specialized Technical Services (STS) Engineer

Circuit City, Atlanta, GA: 1985

ISO 9000 Certification: Member of the ISO 9000 team and became a certified plant ISO 9000 auditor and

participated ISO certification process.

• Primus/2order Merger: Manage the technology integration on the two company’s product lines within Primus’ $90

million merger of 2order.com.

Planning and execution of the product architecture and strategic research and development

Robert Nees’ Resume

Responsibilities:

•

Projects:

Installation and maintenance of data and voice networks, on-­line point of sale terminals, telephone/PBX switches,

alarm and antenna systems

• New store construction: Participated on the IT infrastructure construction and successful opening of the first four

retail stores in the Atlanta market.

Diagnostic Programming Engineer

N.C.R., Peachtree City, GA: 1983 -­ 1984

Projects:

• Automated RAM Test: Designed and programmed the automated high speed testing of the RAM cards in the

DecisionMate personal computer

Education

Penn Technical Institute;; Associate Degree in Electrical Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA: 1983