Eric C Sowa 3926 Jerusalem Ave • Seaford, NY 11783 • ericsowa@me.com (516) 690-9554

 

Summary

·   Accomplished technology manager and engineer, demonstrated success in infrastructure design, implementation and support. Motivated professional team player who possesses strong leadership qualities, organization, and attention to articulate details coupled with 20+ years’ experience in the retail services industry. Key characteristics include visionary, project manager, business analyst and enterprise architecture with a long record of containing costs and improving operational efficiency. Stand for innovation, ability to break down complex processes, and deliver on aggressive timelines.

·   Lead Infrastructure Manager across teams of resources to accomplish enterprise-wide projects and present statistics report to VP/Directors

·   Participated in short and long-term projects working both as a project leader, member of a project team and as a solo consultant.

·   Extensive knowledge of cloud, virtualization, storage, security, networking, messaging, database, and web server systems

·   Organized, take charge professional with exceptional follow-through abilities and detail orientation, able to plan and oversee projects from conception to successful conclusions.

·   Outstanding communication skills; interfaces effectively with upper management, vendors, staff, peers, and users.

·   Strong technical background with a solid history of delivering outstanding customer service, and a genuine commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.

 

Technical Proficiencies

Platforms/OS: Windows Server 2012 R2/2008/2003, AirWatch, Mail Gun, Cloud, Active Directory 2003/2008, F5/APM/LTM/Fire pass, RSA DPM, RSA Certificate Services, PowerShell, ADFS, Federation, Office365, DNS, SMTP, DFS, VMware vSphere 4 – 5.5 /ESXi/vCenter, Windows XP/7/8/8.1, XP

Employment History and Functional Experience:

 

Manager of Virtualization & Global Shared Technology,	November 2011 – Present
WeightWatchers International • NY, NY

·   Manager of 4 Lead system engineers, responsible for 24/7/365 architecture, implementation and support of virtualized production web and back office infrastructure servicing 3 million page views per hour at peak.

·   Design, implement and maintain enterprise-class customer facing, revenue generating, virtualized production environments consisting of IIS windows 2008 – 2012 web servers, and multiple vendor solutions for foundational applications such as ADFS Federation, RSA Key Management and Encryption, and Microsoft Active Directory Services.

·   Lead technician responsible for support of F5 application load balancing solution consisting of multiple, LTM appliances servicing 10+ customer facing, revenue generating web properties with uptime exceeding 99.995%.

·   Responsible for management and team implementation of the Public / Private and Cloud Services.

·   Administration of 3000+ virtual VMware servers and 300 ESX Servers supporting multiple international revenue generating web properties, e-commerce sites and back office system.

·   Lead solutions architect on AirWatch Mobile Device Management Project for both Retail and Corporate lines of business. Worked with the business to design and support both Shared and Dedicated SaaS MDM Cloud Infrastructure to support over 7000 IOS and android devices.

·   Lead technician responsible for architecture, implementation and support of F5 application SSL VPN solution for business continuity, partners, corporate and retail lines of business, consisting of multiple Big IP Edge Gateways  / APM & Fire pass appliances servicing thirty thousand + retail users, revenue generating with uptime exceeding 99.995%. Integration. Administration of RSA Authentication manager integration, providing a two factor soft and hard token authentication user experience.  

·   Responsible for capacity management, administration and operational support of services including VMware, Office365, AirWatch, Amazon, and Rackspace Public/Private cloud.

·   Responsible for task delegation, performance evaluation, project management, and peer review for team of Technical Leads and Systems/Storage Engineers.

·   Responsible for hardware and software procurement, including price negotiations to maintain budgetary limits.

·   Lead solutions architect on online, offline and back office projects, including but not limited to, data center design and implementation, capacity analysis and hardware and software recommendations.

·   Senior Lead solutions and IT manager of office 365 cloud, managing over 4000 users and mailboxes, Lync, One Drive, DLP and SharePoint Deployments. Cloud SSO Federation using Microsoft directory sync.

·   Managed all global Microsoft Primer Support relationships, Enterprise Licensing, as well as contract negations and budgets. Estimated cost savings of 1 million over 3 years.

·   Responsible for Global VMware ELA renewals and produced a cost saving of over 4 million over 3 years

·   Managed the design and implementation of a global self-service password / account unlock portal for over 30,000 global desk less field workers.

·   Managed the implementation of secret server to centralize password vaulting, to secure all organizational password assets 

·   Built business and trial requirements and evaluation of success criteria for enterprise class solutions and applications, such as monitoring, load balancing and database platforms

 

Virtualization Systems Engineering Lead,	February 2007 – November 2011
WeightWatchers International • NY, NY

Lead Systems Engineer with over 15 years of experience and possess an extensive skill-set with regard to Microsoft Platforms. Primary expertise is in the areas of VMware Virtualization technologies, Microsoft Server Design, implementation & Support. Designed, planned and executed multi-phase server consolidation project using VMware ESX Server software. Project goals included the decommissioning of physical servers, significant savings in annual operational expenses, increased availability and drastic reduction in server provisioning time.

 

·   Lead technician responsible for 24/7/365 architecture, implementation and support of production web and application environment servicing 3 million page views per hour at peak.

·   Design and implementation of enterprise virtualization strategy consisting of 2000 plus servers.

·   Analyzed VMware deployment to provide status of the health of environments and configurations

·   Designed and Deployed New High Availability upgrade for vCenter.

·   Lead solutions architect on online, offline and back office projects, including but not limited to, data center design and implementation, capacity analysis and hardware and software recommendations.

·   Responsible for production support based change control, including documentation, approval and execution within a multi-tiered, international web server, application and database server environment

·   Active Directory group policies management to reduce security issues and enhance user operations.

·   Created security polices in Active Directory; set up domains in the AD forests and child domains.

·   Planned and implemented domain controllers, global catalog servers, and DNS servers that integrated with Active Directory

·   Provide documentation and instruction for junior technicians and 24/7 NOC personnel

 

Virtualization Systems  Engineering Lead,	April 2006 – February 2007
Welcome Wagon /  Move.com • Plainview, NY

System Administrator for virtualization environment of over 180 dell desktop computers and 70 plus physical and virtual windows servers.  Responsible for architecture, design and implementation of server and networking components. Monitored network traffic and adjust system parameters to increase system performance. Trained other staff to use the program efficiently. Attended and played an integral role in department meetings. Provided solutions to customer’s equipment needs. Performed upgrades on existing server systems. Provided 24x7 on-call support for both server and pc enviorment. 

 

• Architected VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure environment consisting of 100 ESX Enterprise Servers. Introduced Virtual Consolated Backup solution with integration into EMC Networker to reduce backup time and licensing. Designed and build of over 1000 production and development virtual machines.  Managed and maintained VI virtual clusters for ideal server performance. 

• Administrator and Maintained EMC’s CX500 SAN, consisting of 50TB of mixed FC and ATA Storage. Sole person responsible for maintenance and configuration of brocade san switches. Integration of multi link trunk for redundant connections between blade benter and san backbone. Worked with EMC to provide call home functionality. Performance monitoring and tuning of entire san. Maintained and monitored storage area network for performace and uptime.

• Designed and Implempted Microsoft DFS file system for large scale file server migration. Created domain based root file structure for simplicity, server stability and portability. Worked with Developers and Graphic Artists in changing code links to dfs like structure. 

• Implemented group policy with home folders, department shares, Microsoft Windows Firewall and desktop lockdown.

• Provided internal Help Desk to resolve user concerns with specific applications, including Windows 2000/XP, Microsoft Office, and numerous industry specific applications. Wrote articles for and reviewed the Techie Tips, Tricks And News newsletter. Supported a migration roll out for file server and print server migration. Answered technical questions regarding software products and their requirements within related industries. Responsible for the repair and maintenance of printers, monitors, scanners and hardware. Played a key role in design of Symantec ghosting environment for deployment. Implemented Symantec Antivirus Corporate 10 to all servers and workstations. Implemented a centeralized antivirus quarantine system for virus detection and removal.

• Introduced SMS 2003 into the environment for helpdesk remote tools, software package deployment and reporting.

• Responsible for the backup and recovery of all Intel based servers utilizing Veritas Netbackup and EMC Networker  software using ADIC tape libraries. Backup and recovery of remote systems utilizing Recall offsite tape Vaulting for disastery recovery.

• Implemented IBM LS20 Blade infrastructure environment. Sole person in design of redundant san, network and ups power for the production environment.  

• Architected a redesign of EMC’s networker enterprise backup solution. Created and implemented a backup strategy to move from LAN based backup to solely san based solution. Cut backup time in half which increased production.

• Redesign of network backbone consisting of two 6509 Cisco core switch. Developed and implempted redundant multi link trunks between cores for added bandwidth and redundancy.

• Played a key role in redesign on enterprise patch management. Implemented Microsoft’s WSUS system with domain based rules to control desktop and server patch management for SOX compliancy. 

 

Sr. Lead Systems Administrator	Sept 2002 – April 2006
Fortunoff • Uniondale, NY

Accountable on an enterprise level, for testing, analyzing, troubleshooting, and reconfiguring when necessary: servers, desktops, and laptops, for the Fortunoff Organization. Concurrently, responsible for administering, optimizing, and supporting internal LAN/WAN infrastructure, consisting of Windows 2000 Active Directory, 100 plus servers and more than 1000 Windows XP/2000 Professional desktops. Researched, recommended, procured, and implemented new hardware, and software, into the environment to increase efficiency. Monitored and supported internal network security, including adding/deleting users and shared permission. Analyzed and resolved network and server connectivity issues.

 

• Implemented Compaq Blade Server infrastructure environment.  Key player in design of redundant san, network and ups power for the production environment.

• Architected and manage over forty internal, Windows NT/2000 servers (connecting Windows NT/2000 workstations, Windows 9x, and Macintosh clients, printers, and terminals with remote access) through one Nortel Contivity IPSec tunneling VPN appliances via ISP with worldwide points-of-presence.
• Key Player in re-design of Fortunoff.com ecommerce site. Worked closely with senior managers and department heads with developing a secure DMZ environment for there ecommerce site. Worked with Scan Alert Monitoring to remove all system virunablities, and be certified for Visa and MasterCard.
• Administer MS Exchange e-mail system and Internet Information Server to meet all management, employee, and customer needs for corporate Web site.

• Implemented and managed a Black Berry Enterprise Server 4.0, with 20+ Nextel users, to communicate with our exchange 2000 environment and Microsoft active directory.
• Implement an Advanced Email Defense system. Working with MX logic, who provided us with a web based Multi-Layered Spam Filtering solution. Also included was a virus and worm scanning solution, and a customizable content attachment filtering solution? It also takes most of the daily administration out, by giving the user a daily spam report which reduced cost and admistrative duties.

• Cisco Aironet 350/1100/1200 wireless network implementation of 802.11b. Integrated PSC wireless handheld PDA/scanner, with a custom bridal registry application. Wireless site survey with Cisco aironet client utils and air magnet in two retail stores and five retail warehouses.

• Played a key role in design of LAN environment in over 20 retail locations and 6 warehouses, with CAT5e wiring, Fiber Installation, & telephone networking.

• Proven success delivering LAN/WAN/telecommunication connectivity, security peripherals, and multi-platform design of Internet- and client/server/database-related applications.

• Research and re-design of our Internal Purchasing System to work over a WAN environment. Citrx Metaframe XP was introduced to provide fifty concurrent WAN users with a web-based purchasing PO application.

• Administer and deploy Symantec’s corporate antivirus solution with five corporate servers and over 1000 clients. Developed system archature to monitor and control all users’ workstations from a centralized console. Reduced network bandwidth when deploying antivirus clients and virus definitions updates. 

• Implement and developed Hp’s OV Enterprise Backup solution Data Protector with our san environment. Developed tape retention schedule and worked with Iron Mountain off site tape storage.

• Implemented a on site color proofing print system with North American Color vendor and our in house advertising dept.
 

Lead Help Desk Specialist	Nov 2001 – Sept 2002
Fortunoff • Uniondale, NY

Member of team of three for analyzing, troubleshooting and resolving internal and external client’s desktop and laptop issues for this retail company. Configured, maintained, and customized images for each client and internal user, utilizing Ghost software. Inspected desktops and laptops prior to shipment, trained and mentored Junior Technicians. Gained an extensive knowledge of all computer models, including Compaq, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Dell.
 

• Second level support for 500+ Windows-based systems supporting 500 global users.

• Promoted to senior technician for the companies Macintosh environment.

• Proven expertise in supporting and troubleshooting hardware, software and networking issues.

• Successfully resolved customer issues regarding connectivity, peripheral compatibility, and standard software usage questions for products on the following operating platforms: Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 95, Windows 3.x, MS-DOS, and Mac OS.
• Provided an in house service of network wiring installation, throughout the company.
 

Education:

 

BFA Graphic Design – May, 1999: Long Island University, Southampton Campus, NY

 

 

Hobbies:
Craft Home Brewing

 

References Available Upon Request