Reese Podwys

Hickory, NC

Exchange/Lync/BES/Windows Engineer/Linux Sys Admin

I am result-driven IT professional with extensive experience in the engineering, administration, and support of information systems. I have in-depth expertise in the implementation, analysis, optimization, troubleshooting and documentation of LAN/WLAN/WAN networks and systems. I have a proven track record for diagnosing complex problems and consistently delivering and implementing effective solutions. I also have in depth knowledge of computer hardware and software.

12+ years of experience optimizing a corporation's existing infrastructure for maximum efficiency and increased user productivity. Monitoring and adjusting the performance of existing systems and continual survey of the current computer site(s) to determine future needs and goals. A top tier server engineer/administrator, able to troubleshoot complex problems reported by users and by automated monitoring systems.

Technical Expertise

Systems	Microsoft: (Legacy O/S’ and) Server 2003 & 2008, 2008R2, 2012r2, SBS (2003 - 2011), Vista, Windows 7, 8, Exchange Server 2003-2013, Lync Server 2013, Skype for Business 2015, O365. Apple OS X: (From 10 through 10.5.6). Linux: Ubuntu, Kubuntu, BackTrack, Kali, CentOS, Solaris, AIX
Hardware	Servers:  HP (Preferred Vendor), Dell (Second Preference) Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron. PCI, PCI-X, AGP (4-8), USB  1.1 – 3.0, RAID, Chipsets etc... Experience racking/stacking hardware, cable management/running new cable, patch panel, and all things hardware related from 4U blade servers, to single U units.
Software	Microsoft: Advanced knowledge of Active Directory, Terminal Services, DNS, DHCP, WDS, WSUS, Office (2000-2013). Symantec: Backup Exec v11d, 12 & 12.5, Symantec Antivirus / Endpoint Protection (Server, Client v9 through v11). Ghost. Virtulization: VMware (5.0-5.5), Citrix, VirtualBox (Sun Microsystems). Ticketing: Zendesk, Salesforce, Remedy, Footprints. Other: Avg: Managed Workplace (Level Platforms), AVG SSO, AVG ESS, AVG CloudCare.   Experience updating hardware bios, firmware across multiple systems supporting hardware/software raid.

Credentials/Certifications

Microsoft               MCP, MCTS-Vista, MCSA-Server 2012

CompTIA           A+, Network+, Security+, Participant in the COMPTIA CE (Continued Education Program).    

US DOD              U.S. Department of Defense Secret Clearance (ACTIVE)

 

Professional Experience

 

 

 

TekSystems – Hickory, North Carolina (Civilian Contracting/I.T. Support/Maiden Ops Team)               June 2015 – Current

Maiden Ops Team (Datacenter Operations Support)

June 2015 – Current: Apple (client): Datacenter Operations Support Team

·   Contract employee supporting Apple’s Maiden, NC Datacenter.  Coordinate with multiple teams to resolve hardware/software issues.  Work on SIRI/PIE team hosts to resolve hardware/software issues including accessing OOB (out of band, ie: ilo) for t-shooting/power management.  Coordinate closely with site services/remote sites teams to get hardware fixed in timely fashion.  Resolved anything from FSU (file space util issues), high cpu issues, services/processes not running or failed issues, backup issues (failed or missed backups), and managed backup tapes on weekends, sending tapes offsite for disaster recovery, Install backup/monitoring software, etc., high memory util issues, failed hard drive issues, MCE (faulty/failed ram) issues, kernel panic/bad kernel issues, etc.  Very comfortable accessing logs (ie: kern.log, dmesg, etc) to identify errors.  Support, BSM, Autosys, SAP, SIRI, PIE, Change Requests, etc.

 

 

The Select Group – Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Civilian Contracting/I.T. Support)                         April 2014 – June 2015

Exchange/Lync/BES/Windows Systems Engineer

April 2014 – June 2015: TDArx, Inc (client): Exchange/Lync/BES/Windows Systems Engineer

·   Contracted for Engineering and administration of Hosted Exchange environment (Exchange 2010 on Server 2008r2): completed all required tasks and stayed on for additional work beyond original contract end date.  Optimized dag groups and clustering best practices, spf, dns, etc on hosted exchange environment with 50+ corporate customers.  Hosted exchange load upwards of 3,000 messages per hour.  Also built out entire new (NOCDOC)(service) domain for customer and engineered, built and deployed internal and externally accessible lync 2013, exchange 2013 environments.  Federated communications between lync and exchange for full integration.  Lync 2013 environment engineered for meet, dialin, a/v, internal and external (to provide screen sharing, presentation/conferencing functionality to replace other paid on-line products like gotomeeting and fuze).  Lync federated with multiple different external and public providers to integrate more closely with partners and customers. VMware Administration (5.0-5.5): Deploy hosts and vms paying attention to host/disk space resources.  Engineering/Administration of smart host solution (pineapp/avg ess).  Active directory, dns, dhcp, and group policy engineering and administration.  Receive tickets for managed services customers for their exchange, lync, bes, and windows environments, and take action/make suggestions based on analysis of findings for optimization/reengineering of their environment to resolve root cause of issue, or to adhere to customer requirements/request.  Receive tickets for managed services customers for misc server issues, troubleshoot, perform RCA, submit change request, plan IBV, execute plan, verify resolution, and close ticket.  I have multiple recommendations from the contracting company, the customer, and all of the clients of the customer. (Engineering to me means that I’m performing all planning and paperwork ahead of time to include resources expected to be utilized for lifetime of machine, I’m submitting my plans to a CAB board, and deploying in a test or dev environment [if customer has dev environment] be it virtual, physical or hybrid, and after testing has been performed, I deploy to the live or production environment, and perform all post deployment testing and reporting, and continue to fully support/administer the system/environment until I’ve fully trained someone else on the administration of the environment, or until my contract has come to an end, at which point I will offer knowledge transfer and hand over all paperwork/documentation on the system/environment.  Administration to me means maintaining a system/environment after it has fully been built out, to include any and all software/hardware updates/changes/upgrades required.)

·   Managed (Engineered and/or Administered) the following environments:

o   Hosted Exchange (Exchange 2010, 3 dag member, high availability, accessible via autodiscover, activesync, owa) (Would perform bi-weekly maint to update host o/s, exchange software, dismount databases and clear log files and remount dbs to clear space and move mailboxes as needed to optimize performance.  I would interface directly with the customer in most instances, supporting mobile and desktop client setup, heavily automated via auto-discover.)

o   NOCDOC Exchange (Exchange 2013 co-located on single server with one edge server, accessible via autodiscover, activesync, owa)(Server 2012 environment)

o   SMART HOST: We utilized two different smart hosts internally: Pineapp and AVG Email Security Suite.  I also worked on multiple other smart host solutions depending on what our customers had.

o   NOCDOC Lync (Lync 2013 co-located on single server with one edge server, and reverse proxy for mobile access, and webapps server for smooth presentation experience with customers, federated with exchange for auto-archiving of messages, and federated with multiple other providers public, lync-online, and on-premise for direct contact and smoother integration.)

o   BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server): We had a few customers that required BES Server engineering/administration.  I migrated one customer from BES 5.x to the new BES 12.x and administered that environment until I trained one of the individuals at the customer site to administer it.

o   Public DNS (BIND DNS: Administered the bind dns environment, and any other customer public dns be it hosted by godaddy, namecheap, or any other provider, or migrate other users dns to our internal hosted public dns.)

o   Internal DNS (Microsoft DNS: Maintained internal/private dns environment for us and all customers.)

o   VMware: 5.0-5.5 (Deployed multiple hosts and vm’s, p2v’d multiple machines, vmotioned multiple machines to work on hosts, etc.)

o   Anti-Virus: We had Trend-Micro Worry Free Business Security when I got there, but the shop was primarily an avg shop, and we were given nfr for the avg av solution: AVG CloudCare.  I fully vetted out the AVG product, engineered the migration and executed the migration to AVG CloudCare.

o   Backup/Restore: I administered the barracuda backup appliances to ensure that all backups ran as designed and t-shot any issues with backup/restore functions.  Performed restores as needed.  Recently recovered a customer from possible disaster with crypto-locker type virus (cbt-locker) within 12 hrs of initial incident with zero data loss.

o   SSL Certificates: Any and all SSL Certs were managed by me (internal certification authority, and public/purchased ssl certs).  I made recommendations to move to wildcard certs to lower costs.  I would t-shoot/diagnose/resolve all cert issues).

o   ITFactor.com (hosted exchange domain), ARX.local (logon domain), and NOCDOC.com (resource domain) domains:  Fully engineered and built out NOCDOC domain from scratch.  Administer all factors of the itfactor, arx, and nocdoc domain environments.

o   Performed Exchange Migration (Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013, staged/hybrid migration) on customer environment (2 dag member, I had recommended that they expand to 3 dag member also).

 

 

 

TekSystems – Fort Bragg, North Carolina (Government Contracting/I.T. Support)                         January 2014 – April 2014

Systems Administrator

January 2014 – April 2014:  United States Army Special Operations Command (client):  Systems Administrator

·   Receive remedy tickets and process them as needed.  Active Directory Administration: User Accounts, creation, Computer Objects creation, Rights Delegation, AD Structure Management.  Microsoft Exchange Administration: Mailbox creation, Mailbox management, Distribution lists and Organization mailbox/calendar. Server Administration:   Maintain 99% availability of server resources and services, Maintain and preserve server integrity, security, and life cycle.  VMWare Administration:  Maintain server resources in virtualized environment, Virtualized server creation and conversion. Download and installation/remediation of IAVA and Cat 1 patches/vulnerabilities.  Monitor all nodes on enterprise network via Solar Winds/Orion and remediate/report.  Responsible for all server hardware, including but not limited to:  Full server builds, troubleshooting and fixing server hardware, racking and stacking servers, decommissioning, drmo, etc.  Worked on 24/7 (shift work) schedule.

 

 

 

ITT Exelis – Gardez-Goode, Afghanistan (Government Contracting/I.T. Support)                 January 2012 – December 2013

Systems Administrator

January 2012 – December 2013: United States Army (client):  Systems Administrator

•          Receive remedy tickets and process them as needed.  Active Directory Administration: User Accounts, creation, Computer Objects creation, Rights Delegation, AD Structure Management.  Microsoft Exchange Administration: Mailbox creation, Mailbox management, Distribution lists and Organization mailbox/calendar.  DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Management: Create static or dynamic reservations, Reserve blackout IP addresses for VIP’s, Manage private and public IP schemes assigned within the local site.  Server Administration:   Maintain 99% availability of server resources and services, Maintain and preserve server integrity, security, and life cycle.  VMWare Administration:  Maintain server resources in virtualized environment, Virtualized server creation and conversion. NetApp Administration:  Maintain and administrate NetApp SAN (Storage Area Network).  Backup Administration:  Ensure consistent backup of essential servers and data on a daily basis.  Download and installation/remediation of IAVA and Cat 1 patches/vulnerabilities via ps exec, gfi languard.

 

 

 

Insight Global/MSO/Phacil Inc. – Alexandria, Va (Gov Contracting/I.T. Support)              October 2011 – December 2012      

Systems Administrator

October 2011 – December 2012:  United States Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General (client):

Systems Administrator

·   Receive footprints tickets and troubleshoot various issues including but not limited to: AD password resets, creation of AD user and computer accounts, basic to advanced troubleshooting of any and all issues confronted with, set up DHCP reservations for and install network printers and workstations, troubleshooting of connectivity/internet/VPN/DNS/DHCP/firewall/user account/rights and permissions (etc) issues.  Troubleshooting and diagnosis of hardware/software/configuration issues.  Worked on a 99.9% uptime/disaster recovery process.  Created/updated SOP/WOP.  Purge old user accounts.  Re-imaging computers.  Fix/replace hardware.  Troubleshoot server issues.  Perform preventative maintenance on servers.  Support worldwide network.

 

 

 

 

Celerity Gov’t Services – McLean, Virginia (Government Contracting/I.T. Support)              October 2010 – October2011

System Administrator

September 2011 – October 2011:  United States Department of Labor (client): Systems/Migration Administrator

I worked on a Windows 7 migration team.  We did pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment for clients we were assigned.

October 2010 – September 2011:  United States Army (client): Systems Administrator

I worked on a team of Active Directory Specialists to migrate/consolidate the Army under one AD Backbone/Mitigate hardware necessary.  We are currently performing functional checks on iDRAC (integrated dell remote access card) systems installed by the army.  We are also traveling from Army base to base, collecting necessary data to set up a plan of action regarding the migration of all DCs and AD information/applications.

 

 

 

 

ITT Corporation – Djibouti, Africa (Government Contracting/I.T. Support)                   September 2009 – September 2010

I.T. Administrator

·   I supplied top tier I.T. support.  Any issue with any computer on base came through my office.

·   Performed basic Help Desk functions including but not limited to: AD password resets, creation of AD user and computer accounts, basic to advanced troubleshooting of any and all issues confronted with, set up DHCP reservations for/install network printers, troubleshooting of connectivity/internet/DNS/DHCP/firewall/user account/rights and permissions issues.  Troubleshooting and diagnosis of hardware/software/configuration issues.  Worked on a 99.9% uptime/disaster recovery process.  Created/updates SOP/WOPs.  Purge old user accounts.  Single point of contact for IT Support for Capt. Banaji (Base CO).  I would frequently be requested to be on location (leave the Help Desk) to perform in more of a Desktop Support capacity/role.  Route Remedy tickets to necessary NA/SA/IA team if I didn’t have the rights/permissions to perform the task (I didn’t like to do this, and if I didn’t know how to do something, I would ask the appropriate team for suggestions and try again to resolve the issue using suggested methods prior to reassigning the ticket).  Re-imaging computers locally using Ghost, and later (after appropriate server upgrades were made) remotely using SCCM.  Fix/replace hardware.

·   When I first got on base, there was an excess of 2000 tickets.  I requested to be put in charge of the queue.  After working the queue for 2 months, I was able to bring the tickets down to the teens (this is while accepting and processing new phone calls and tickets), and keep the queue in that ballpark the remainder of the time I was deployed.  After being pulled off of the “queue manager” role, I would receive and process approx. 40-60 tickets per 12 hr shift (we worked 5 days a week, 12 hrs a day).

 

 

 

RP Computer Services – Walnut Creek, CA. (IT Support Company)                                                      May 2007 – August 2009

Personally Operated I.T. Company

I started this Bay Area, CA based company.  I did everything from advertising, to FULL support of all clients.  I had many personal clients, as well as a few small businesses (4-16 employees).  I handled all hardware sales, installation, configuration, and optimization.  I performed all documentation of work performed and billed.  I performed all billing and reconciliation. 

 

·   Provided off-hour and remote support when needed. Pager night or weekends.

·   Exclusively managed Active Directory, and Symantec Anti-virus solutions.

·   Coordinate, monitor, and troubleshoot system problems.

·   Managed and performed hardware installation, upgrades and maintenance on workstations, laptops, servers, networking equipment, handhelds, printers, multi-function devices (copy centers).

·   Managed all aspects of user accounts, including creation, deletion, with proper configuration and permissions.

·   Performed hands-on administration, monitoring, and troubleshooting of LAN/WLAN/WAN, resulting in optimum performance and minimal downtime. (Can base work off of 99.9% uptime scenarios.)

·   Coordinated with committees and executives in the efforts of correctly assigning priorities for IT related tasks.

·   Developed and updated documentation, informing users and administrators of vital information.

·   Supported offsite locations.

·   Full support and solutions for handheld devices within organization

 

 

Prime Exalia Technologies – Sacramento, CA. (IT Support Company)                                  November 2005 – May 2007

Technician, Network & Systems Administrator

I worked in the field with up to 16 different companies (accounts).  I was the single point of contact for all accounts assigned to me.  Accounts ranged from small businesses (6-8 employees) to larger corporations (75+ employees).  I personally provided 100% of the I.T. support for all accounts under me, from connectivity issues to application errors, to server builds and configuration.

 

·   Provided off-hour and remote support when needed.

·   Exclusively managed Active Directory, and Symantec Anti-virus solutions.

·   Coordinate, monitor, and troubleshoot system problems.

·   Managed and performed hardware installation, upgrades and maintenance on workstations, laptops, servers, networking equipment, handhelds, printers, multi-function devices (copy centers).

·   Managed all aspects of user accounts, including creation, deletion, with proper configuration and permissions.

·   Performed hands-on administration, monitoring, and troubleshooting of LAN/WLAN/WAN, resulting in optimum performance and minimal downtime. (Can base work off of 99.9% uptime scenarios.)

·   Coordinated with committees and executives in the efforts of correctly assigning priorities for IT related tasks.

·   Developed and updated documentation, informing users and administrators of vital information.

·   Supported offsite locations.

·   Full support and solutions for handheld devices within organization.

 

Education
 

Year(s)	School/Courses
1996 to 2000	Benicia High School:  Microsoft O/S, and Microsoft Office classes.
2000	Graduation: Benicia High School: 3.2 GPA