HOWARD M. SMITH

 

Email:  hs6383@hotmail.comHome:  (817) 477-4105

Cell:  (214) 507-8707

 

A distinguished leader of information technology with expertise in a diverse range of technologies within multiple industries.  Demonstrated experience includes the ability to ensure IT implementations and procedures align with business objectives.  One of the rare examples of a leader who is not only able to formulate and deploy long-term strategic plans, but is also comfortable and adept at ensuring the chosen technologies work in synergy as expected.  Experience honed through years of work throughout the entire project life cycle to include initiation, planning, execution, and closure has led to the development of a very sound executive.  Specific items include, but are not limited to the recommendation and implementation of Storage Area Networks, IP networks, wired and wireless telecommunications, voice recording systems, web architecture, application security, network security, data security, disaster recovery/business continuity, capacity  planning, and high availability/fault tolerant operating infrastructures. This includes network engineering design, architecture and management of data, voice and VoIP, to include business process & strategy development, quality & productivity improvement and technology architecture & integration.  Well organized, results oriented individual with the proven ability to implement standards, procedures, and processes that improve business productivity in high pressure environments.  Solid management skills, capable of leading and motivating individuals to maximize productivity while forming cohesive team units.  Persuasive communicator, focused on building strong client relationships.

QUALIFICATION HIGHLIGHTS

 

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

 

HS3 Network Solutions, Mansfield, TXNovember 2010 to Present

Enterprise Principal Consultant

Assess, Plan, Design, Implement, and Manage Projects for highly available solutions for corporations ranging from Fortune 100 to mid-size organizations.  This role’s primary objective is to position companies for a path to sustained technology growth with the implementation of next generation networks while keeping in mind and developing seamless transition plans from the current 1 Gig networks to networks capable of 10G/40G/100G and beyond.  Planning encompasses all aspects of customer environments to include Data Centers and their associated power, cooling, structured cabling, etc. needs, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Geo-Redundancy, SAN’s, servers, application deployments, application and network security, as well as compliancy needs including, but not limited to, HIPAA, SOX, and PCI.  Successfully managed the strategy of technology acquisition and integration into customer environments.  Oversee all project budgets and implementations ranging from $1M to $500M while maintaining the ability to be an extremely hands-on team member as required. 

·  Redesigned a retail giant’s ecommerce network and security architecture to allow better performance and enhanced scalability utilizing equipment from Cisco, BlueCoat, Juniper, F5, Imperva, CheckPoint, Palo Alto, and other leading edge vendors.  Specific equipment deployed includes Nexus 7018 and 7010, Nexus 5548P, Juniper SRX 5800, F5 8900s, Viprion 2400, Viprion 4400, ASR 1000's, and many other next generation devices.

·  Managing security policies and implementing rules to allow access on ISG2000s, SRX3600s and SRX5800s, and creating VPN tunnels on the SSG520Ms with remote partners.  Protocols include VRRP for fault-tolerance, Port-Channeling/Trunking (802.1Q) for multi-vlan transport and higher bandwidth requirements, Zoning is used to define security levels, and policy rules will include source IP/network, destination IP/network, tcp/udp protocol and ports, and/or raw ip-ports, with the inclusion of the source and destination zones for the rules being created.  Routing protocols utilized include BGP, OSPF, and static routing. 

·  Design and troubleshooting of IP networks and associated security implementations

·  Design, development, testing, and maintenance of all data center enterprise systems to include integration and automation. 

·  Overseeing projects and consultant personnel in teams of 5 to 18 in size

·  Managed projects dealing with the implementation and upgrades of CRM and ERP systems utilizing SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, and Siebel

·  System Administration experience to include UNIX, Linux, and Windows servers with event and log analysis and correlation using Splunk

·  Experience with application testing tools such as Quick Test Professional, Load Runner, and others

·  Hands on storage solutions experience includes EMC, NetApp, Hitachi, and more. 

·  Automation tool experience includes BMC Bladelogic, Kickstart, and others. 

·  Experience with BMC Remedy change management tool. 

·  Experience with the implementation and migration of VM servers as well as UNIX servers and applications to include databases (Oracle/MySQL/MS SQL), SAP, SAAS, etc.

·  Adept at gathering technical requirements, working across multiple divisions of organizations, delivering technical solutions, and gathering end-user feedback on provided solutions and enhancing the solutions as required

·  Hands-on experience with virtualization technologies such as KVM, VMWare, Citrix, and others

·  Configuration and upgrade of Voltage SecureMail products

·  Configuration of F5 APM for remote access and NAC

·  Architected VOIP infrastructure for a nationwide organization to ease call center sharing and over-runs between regions and to reduce telecommunications overhead

·  Architecture and implementation oversight of all telecommunications functions for multiple clients to include dial-plans, trunk routing, preferred path routing and fail-overs, capacity planning, integration with multiple carriers to include AT&T, Verizon, AboveNet, and others

·  Hands-on application of SIP, ITU-T standards, compression algorithms, and related QoS requirements

·  Fine tuned retail ecommerce websites to achieve optimal performance.  This included front end off-loading, caching, web server configuration, middleware configuration, database tuning, and associated security

·  Proxy experience includes full and reverse proxies using technologies such as BlueCoat and Microsoft ISA

·  Strong familiarity with CSM (Cisco Security Manager) and associated security devices such as PIX, ASA, FWSM

·  Experience includes hands-on configuration of 3COM/H3C vendor hardware, Checkpoint Provider-1 Management Servers, and firewall conversions to include implementation of ACLs and VPNs

·  IDS/IPS experience covers many different vendors and flavors to include but not limited to Cisco, Juniper, and Tipping Point among others

·  Security design, configuration and integration at all layers utilizing port and mac address security, VRFs, encryption, VPNs, tunneling, tokens, authentication/authorization, edge and internal access controls, IDS, IPS, ASM (Application Security Module), custom iRules, server security configuration, and much more

·  Commissioned by Waste Management to convert infrastructure from Cisco CSS to F5 load balancers and implemented iRules and ASM to ensure PCI compliance

·  Redesigned and migrated an insurance industry corporation’s network infrastructure to a data center environment to alleviate power and performance issues being experienced at their corporate site.

·  Participated in SAS 70 audits from the technology perspective to prove adequate oversight of financial services in order to comply with GLBA requirements.

·  Participated in SOX audits and designed controls to ensure compliance utilizing COBIT framework and performing threat analysis

·  Designed and implemented PCI compliant solutions for retail and service companies utilizing penetration testing, application security, and custom scripting for applications

·  Architected and implemented solutions for global companies utilizing virtualization technologies such as ESX, Juniper SRX, Cisco Nexus, and associated environments to include VRF routing

·  Extensive experience with Cisco Nexus configurations to include 7Ks, 5Ks, 5500s, 2Ks, 1Ks, and the associated technologies to include VPC, NPV, FEX, etc. in virtualized environments

·  Projects include large scale design, deployments, and integrations with Neiman Marcus, Atos Origin/Siemens, Raytheon, AIG, IBM, HP, and other highly complex organizations

 

FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK of DALLAS, Irving, TXJuly 2004 to November 2010

Associate Director of IT

Plan, execute and support all IT operations for this $60 billion corporation. Successfully managed the strategy of technology acquisition and integration to include environmental equipment and services, storage area networking, backups, SLA's, IP networking, wired and wireless telecommunications, voice recording systems, web architecture, application security, network security, data security, high availability/fault tolerant operating infrastructure, alerting, monitoring, budgeting, forecasting, and procurement.  Responsible for improvement of service management using gap analysis techniques.  Oversee a $10 million annual operating and capital budget and management of 8 direct reports, while maintaining the ability to be an extremely hands-on team member as required.  This role reports to the Senior Vice President of IT and Operations.

·  Totally replaced and redesigned the enterprise computing environment using zone security principles to ensure Enterprise security and performance were optimized.

·  Developed and presented project proposals to the Board of Directors for budgetary consideration, evaluated vendor products, designed, architected and implemented the network infrastructure and more recently, the new VOIP infrastructure.

·  Negotiated pricing, managed project deliverables utilizing the ITIL framework and coordinated with multiple vendor teams to establish a new telecommunications environment with zero production downtime during the transition.  Selected Avaya in the VOIP telephony space based on head to head comparisons as Avaya was more feature rich, and more mature on the operating systems that were being evaluated.  Utilization of IPC for trading floor activity and the use of NICE for voice recordings.

·  Use of monitoring and correlation tools such as SCOM, HP Openview, Foglight, Splunk, CSA, and others along with the loading of management packs ands MIBs for additional monitoring support

·  Integration experience with Market Data Services such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters

·  Designed new data center, planned migration, and led migration team to accomplish the successful migration

·  Project Management of IP network configuration and IP network security projects for the Enterprise to include quality control, risk management, and capacity planning

·  Configured and managed the Blackberry Enterprise Server and associated Blackberry devices

·  Designed and implemented secure solutions for iPhone and iPad communications with the corporate environment in parallel with the Blackberry solution

·  Currently supporting Microsoft Exchange 2003 for messaging services with plans to upgrade along with utilization of VMware/ESX version 4.5 for Microsoft clients and Citrix for Apple clients

·  Extensive knowledge of Cisco products to include CatOS, IOS, Nexus, ASR, PIX, and ASA

·  SAN configuration experience to include Hitachi and NetApp LUN mapping, Cisco and Foundry/Brocade SAN switch zoning configuration, FCoE, Fibre Channel, and iSCSI protocol experience to include FCIP.

·  Selected the Aruba line of products for wireless networking because at the time of evaluation they were the current leader in wireless security and were also FIPS 140-2 level 2 certified.  Configured and managed the Aruba Wireless network and associated access.

·  Resolved application security issues with the use of F5 products and wrote custom iRules in conjunction with setup, configuration, and tuning of the ASM (Application Security Module) to allow financial projects to be placed into production before web application code had been completely corrected for security vulnerabilities.  Implemented security to meet PCI compliance standards.

·  Utilized data backup products such as Tivoli Storage Manager, Veritas Netbackup, and Symantec Backup Exec

·  Evaluated, selected, and implemented a Storage Area Network and site to site replication using Cisco/Hitachi/NetApp equipment.

·  Hands-on configuration experience in this role includes an exhaustive list of products from Cisco, Juniper, F5, Aruba, Avaya, NICE, IPC, Windows, Sun Systems, and others

·  Evaluated, selected, and upgraded the NAS and implemented ISCSI using NetApp devices. 

·  Established a complete web/E-Commerce Architecture including load balancing, firewalls, proxies, databases, SSL encryption, PKI, and SSL termination to enable our customers to securely wire up to a billion dollars without human interaction.

·  Selected and implemented internal and external DNS services to increase resolution speed and security.

·  Directed the complete replacement and redesign of the production data center using Cisco, Juniper, and other major vendors’ products without any impact to production services to ensure continued capabilities of the network and data center to facilitate new technologies including preparedness for 10 Gigabit Ethernet services.

·  Participate in audits to include assurance of SOX, SAS70, and ITGC implementations to ensure the organization is in compliance and adhering to best practices for internal controls and data security.

·  Aveksa Compliance Manager and tools such as Tripwire were used to aid and validate this audit process

·  Developed IT Security Program including incident response to ensure best practices for security principles and implementations are adhered to and to ensure adequate responses are documented within policy to handle any possible attempts to breach the environment. 

·  Familiarity with SAP Netweaver integration with .NET and provisioning tools such as Sun Identity Manager

·  Experience with .NET, WPF/WCF, SOAP, and SQL Server

·  Performed basic SAP Basis Administration to include working with transports, tables, and dealing with SAPGUI start up problems.

·  Developed Business Continuity Planning Policies and Procedures and performed annual policy updates for all of IT

 

 

Transoptics, Frisco, TXMarch 2000 to July 2004

Data Center Manager/Network Architect/Principal Consultant

 

Selected, procured, implemented, and maintained the corporate headquarters technology infrastructure. Consultancy portion of role involved working on projects that were performed as part of a team as well as solo engagements for many of the largest enterprise clients.  Managed the design, development, and implementation of complete solutions for customers to address enterprise wide problems related to their businesses. Managed the integration of hardware, software and customer processes. Worked with the customers in the strategic design process and translated business needs into technical solutions.

 

·  Management of a team of 12 direct reports

·  Principle Consultant for health care industry corporations with an emphasis on HIPAA and HIM operations.  Some clients included Spectrum Comprehensive Care, Texas Back Institute, private practice dentist and doctor offices, Arlington Memorial Hospital, Parker College of Chiropractic, and medical records processors

·  Primary technical resource for 75 Sun Solaris Servers and over 200+ NT/Window 2000 Servers in-house.

·  Designed and implemented corporate infrastructure including servers and installation and maintenance of Cisco routers and switches.

·  Load balancing experience utilizing Foundry ServerIron, F5, Alteon, and others

·  Provided installation and oversaw administration of Windows NT/2000/2003 .NET including Active Directory, Group Policies, DNS, Exchange 2000, SMS, IIS 5.0, and MS Outlook.  Administered 210 Windows NT and Windows 2000 Servers.

·  Designed and implemented Network Infrastructure for multiple data centers (WAN). Utilized MS Visio 2000 for network diagrams and MS Office 2000.

·  Set up high availability design and implementation with NT and Sun UNIX (E4K, E3K, E10K) including server load balancing, firewall load balancing, content filtering, VPNs, and clustering utilizing hardware and software from Cisco (6509, 7200, 2600, 3500 and Cisco Works), Netscreen, Foundry, Avaya, Extreme Network, Alteon, and Microsoft.  Used OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, RIP routing protocols.

·  Provided administration of Linux, Solaris (SUN), DEC, AIX and FreeBSD utilizing Dell, Compaq, and IBM servers, and Windows PCs including setup, configuration, networking, security, software loads, patches, and upgrades.

·  100% LAN/WAN availability to meet five nine SLAs and related network support including configuration and maintenance of switches and routers including Cisco and Foundry,

·  Design and implementation of multi-state VOIP networks with over 2000 users.  Provided troubleshooting and support of telecommunications system.

·  Development, implementation, and enforcement of network security procedures and policies with the use of token technologies, encryption such as DES and 3DES, SSL, IDS, firewalls, and more using hardware and software from industry leaders such as Checkpoint, Netscreen, Cisco, IIS, Apache, Weblogic, Websphere, and Intrusion Inc.

·  Maintaining IIS Servers, SQL 2000 server, Oracle, Access.

·  Experience with conversions from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000, Citrix MetaFrame, Windows Terminal Services, and Hummingbird Exceed X-Windows.

·  Implementation of a 700 TB secure fibre channel data SAN utilizing Tivoli Storage Manager for disaster recovery, SANcastle switches, and Brocade switches.

·  Supported and maintained Tivoli server and server data for Tivoli Storage Manager.

·  Utilize Sniffers for Network Diagnostics.

·  Monitor API communication levels.

·  Data backups using ArcServe.

·  Provide Oracle database administration and installation assistance

·  Utilized Veritas/Symantec NetBackup.

·  Configured and set up 3Com Stackable Switches.

 

 

SBC Communications, Inc./AT&T, Dallas, TXJuly 1997 to March 2000

Senior Manager

 

Planning and directing the work of a Tier 2 and Tier 3 technical support group for a 7 state region including the central region of the U.S. and a large part of the west coast area, while monitoring systems, engineers’ work, and customers’ concerns.

 

·  Management of a team of 20 managers and their subordinates

·  Experience with mid-range and mainframe servers including AS/400 and O/S 390

·  Tier 2 and tier 3 telephony troubleshooting

·  Designed and Set up Network Infrastructure. Utilized MS Visio 2000 for network diagrams and MS Office 2000.

·  Seven-state tier-2 and tier-3 support of broadband network operations including Frame Relay, ATM, Apache, iPlanet, SONET, network management and statistics collection, utilizing Newbridge NMS’s, HP OpenView, and server administration on 60 servers including Sun Solaris (E10K), HP-UX, AIX, Windows NT/2000, and Linux.  Administered 430 Servers (370 NT/Windows 2000 Servers and 60 UNIX servers).

·  Network design and implementation, LAN/WAN support, VOIP solutions, project planning and project management for major customer accounts, wireless site surveys (802.11b)  and implementations, and network and system security utilizing Checkpoint FW-1 and Cisco PIX firewalls, and other security tools.  Used OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, RIP routing protocols.

·  Software development for operations using AWK, NAWK, Korn Shell Scripting, and C.

·  Experience with SQL Server, DNS, SQL queries, data extraction, and data mining using Informix and Oracle.

·  Led migration, implementation, and integration of IT projects and data centers during the acquisition of PacBell by SBC

·  Provided remote administration vis SMS.

·  Monitor API communication levels.

·  Utilized Veritas Volume Manager with Sun UNIX Servers.

·  Utilize Sniffers for Network Diagnostics.

·  Configured and set up 3Com Stackable Switches and Cisco (6509, 7200, 2600, 3500 and Cisco Works).

 

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

Hardware: Compaq, Dell, Sun, IBM, Cisco, Cisco PIX, Nortel/Bay, HP, Luminous, Foundry, Intrusion Inc., Fujitsu, NetScreen, Nokia, 3Com, F5, SanCastle, Brocade, Qsol, Qlogic, Adtran, Xyplex, Polycom, V-Tel, Juniper, Avaya, Aruba

Software:  SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, Sybase, Windows NT4.0, 2000, XP, 7, 2003, 2008, Citrix, Tivoli, VERITAS, ARCserve, Linux, Solaris, Citrix, AIX, HP-UX, SCO UNIX, Novell, Checkpoint Firewall-1, Raptor Firewall, Gauntlet Firewall, Cisco IOS, Cisco Works 2000, HP OpenView, Kiwi, What's Up Gold, NetIQ, NAI Sniffer, MS Office, Project, Exchange 2000, Outlook, FoxPro, SPSS, Internet Explorer, FireFox, IIS, Netscape, Apache, Cisco Secure TACACS+, Radius

Skills:  TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, TFTP, DNS, HTML, SNMP, SSL, AWK, NAWK, Shell Scripting, Voice Networking, VOIP, Switching, Routing, Server Administration, SAN, NAS, WAN, LAN, Tandem, DHCP, WINS, Network Cabling, software communications products, senior level network design and senior level network support, Security and Intrusion Detection, HIPAA, HDLC, Frame Relay, ATM, ADSL, SONET, SNA, DLSW, DECnet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Ethernet, Fast EtherChannel, Token Ring, IPSec, HSRP, BGP, IGRP, EIGRP, RIP, RIPv2, VTP, OSPF, Spanning Tree, VLAN, PPP, DSL, ISDN, VPN, fiber-optic and CAT 5/6/6A cabling, network management, performance monitoring, network monitoring tools, network analyzers and sniffers, CSU/DSU, hubs, Active Directory, C and Pascal Programming, Fibre Channel, Load Balancing, RAID 5, Content Filtering, Capacity Planning, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Change Management

 

EDUCATION

University of Texas at Arlington - Computer Science Engineering

Louisiana State University - Electrical/Computer Engineering

Sun Microsystems – SunOS/Solaris and Networking Classes

Cisco - IOS Advanced Router Configuration, Aironet/Cisco Wireless

Networking, PIX Firewall Security, VPNs, SAFE Security, Voice over Technologies

Newbridge/Alcatel - Networking and Network Management Classes

SBC Center for Learning - Management Training

Global Knowledge – Project Management Professional (PMP) Training