October 2013 – Present

Brandon Marcus LLC

Independent Contractor

Project: As the CDW cloud architect, I was asked to lead the effort for developing a cloud managed services practice based on hosting infrastructures and solutions in Microsoft Azure. I developed a 1 year roadmap for all cloud programs and capabilities developed internally by CDW to be sold to their managed services customers. I designed the functional capabilities and processes for CDW based on a strategy I was responsible for developing and selling to upper management. The project required that I lead a team of engineers and developers to build IaaS and SaaS solutions over the course of six months.  The notable accomplishments were to develop templated architectures and scripted deployments of new infrastructures for customers to be hosted in Azure and managed by CDW Managed Services. The processes automated routine onboarding tasks and improved the time to deployment allowing for scaling the business for the future. As a result, CDW was recognized by CRN magazine for “The 10 Coolest Managed Services Offerings Of 2015.”

Project: As the lead architect, I successfully completed the Office 365 migration project for the Hub Group. The project required consolidating three distinct IT infrastructures from previous company acquisitions into one. The IT architect role required collaborating with corporate and IT leadership to align business and technical requirements to the IT strategy. I designed and documented the future architecture and migration strategy and worked with the architecture committee for approval and sign-off. I also defined the operating procedures and defined the governance processes for the new hybrid cloud infrastructure. As the lead engineer, I built the new infrastructure to include Identity Manager as the meta-data directory for synchronization of user objects across three AD forests, Exchange 2013 and Lotus Notes. The cloud infrastructure leveraged Exchange, Azure Active Directory, Lync, SharePoint, ADFS and FIM.

Project: Consulted for a financial management and accounting firm (April 2014 – Aug 2014) as the lead solution architect on a global rollout of Office 365 and Windows Azure. The first part of the project included developing a share services web architecture requiring an improved cloud based design to move all applications from an on-premise datacenter to Windows Azure. The infrastructure design and implementation included the upgrading all hosted applications and a new implementation of Office 365. The project required developing a 1-year roadmap and redesign the web-services architecture for all hosted applications to be moved to Microsoft Azure.  As the lead architect I was tasked with traveling globally to sell the vision and plan across all member firm CIO’s to get budget approval before implementing the design.

Project: Consulted for Darling International as a subcontractor for Sogeti as the lead architect for their Office 365/Azure project. Darling acquired VION International in Europe and required expertise on consolidating on-premise infrastructures to Azure and to migrate two different Exchange and SharePoint infrastructures to Office 365. My role as the lead architect was to develop the architecture, migration strategy and consolidation plan which would be approved in front of the CIO based on the high degree of risk to the business given the acquisition has a contractually agreed upon date and significant financial impact if the merger was delayed. Also, I worked hands on with the internal Darling engineers along to provide coaching and knowledge transfer.

October 2012 – October 2013

Kellogg’s

Director Workplace Solutions / Principal Solution Architect

As the workplace solutions director, my primary responsibility was to manage a group of solution architects, developers and analysts responsible for user computing focused collaboration solutions. I also managed external vendors and contractors that provided in-sourced support for Kellogg’s collaboration infrastructures. I managed the budget for all new projects, developed the business cases for new solutions and was responsible for the financial analysis to support the business case for new projects. As the Principal Solution architect I was responsible for the three year collaboration roadmap for Kellogg’s digital collaboration and social strategy. This includes designing, implementing and managing the enterprise workplace solutions infrastructures that support internal and external SharePoint and social business initiatives.

Notable projects include designing Kellogg’s hybrid public/private cloud and on-premise hosted infrastructure leveraging Office 365 to support the global intranet, extranet and externally facing web properties.  Examples of hybrid infrastructures were multi-farm SharePoint infrastructures, social, web and mobile applications. Responsible for leading community and social development by leveraging social communities and developing the analytic strategy to measure social media use, engagement and ROI.

Also, responsible for leading the design and delivery team to execute on the roadmap to implement the strategy, restructure business process based on social business solutions. Updated the governance structure to support new processes and many internal SharePoint development projects.  As part of the SOA design I was responsible for leading the mobile application and web-services design of Kellogg’s sales force enablement project.

June 2010 – March 2012

Aon-Hewitt

Global Collaboration Manager / Architect

I started as an independent contractor for Hewitt Associates to lead a team of engineers responsible for moving the company away from all IBM technology to a greenfield Microsoft backend. As part of the Aon acquisition of Hewitt Associates, I was asked to manage a team of architects and operations engineers leading the effort to merge the two organizations collaboration infrastructures.  I lead the projects to develop enterprise solutions that integrate across line of business applications, systems and platforms. Other projects also included Aon’s migration of internal wikis, blogs, and SharePoint infrastructures; by hosting multiple farms on both on-premise and in Microsoft Office 365.  As the manager of the team, I was responsible for driving alignment of a global multi-year rolling collaboration roadmap and capital investment plans. Also drove the enterprise platform and framework to include internal portals, knowledge and document management with related business cases.

Responsible also for leading a SharePoint Portal Server knowledge management and development project; Including migrations and consolidation projects for SharePoint Portal Server for acquired companies Hewitt previously acquired. The architecture was designed for 60,000 users including external partners and customers. Responsible for meta-directory sync rules, directory design, plus claims based authentication integration for external access and federation. Infrastructure designs include both private and public cloud implementations where all systems are designed for site level fault tolerance and high availability.

The enterprise architect also develops the teams of engineers and operations personnel as recognized experts in current and emerging collaboration technologies and trends. Additional responsibilities include cultivating and maintaining relationships with business leaders and vendors to develop innovative collaboration solutions.

June 2009 – June 2010

Wells Fargo Bank

Contractor – Architect

Enterprise engineer for collaboration technologies.  Responsibilities include design of next generation messaging platform including integrating and migrating all collaboration technologies from Wachovia Bank to Wells Fargo Bank. Design requirements include a comprehensive platform for over 120,000 users across three datacenters for a 24/7 operation with a 99.999% uptime requirement. 

July 2007 – May 2009

Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Lead Systems Engineer

Lead architect for responsible for managing the unified collaboration team and infrastructure that included SharePoint Portal Server, Exchange Server, Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 R2, Cisco/Tandberg video conferencing and VOIP technologies.  As the lead architect I was responsible for managing the design and implementation for the acquisition of both the CBOT and NYMEX into the Chicago Mercantile Exchange organization. The project included merging most notably the SharePoint Server and Exchange infrastructures; including the Active Directory integration and migration with a 24/7 operation and a 99.999% uptime requirement. I designed the disaster recovery strategy and implementation plan that conforms to government regulated FIA requirements. Responsible for all global HD video conferencing technologies which integrate into both Exchange for scheduling and IM for desktop video conferencing. Lead on IM and Exchange integration to the Cisco PBX for unified communications integration allowing voice mail and telephone routing to the desktop.

February 2006 – June  2007

Lucent Technologies

Lead Engineer / Team Lead

Lead a group of collaboration operation engineers and consultants responsible for five datacenters globally and over 70,000 mailboxes.  Designed the SharePoint migration and upgrade. The architecture includes directory design, capacity planning, disaster recovery and high availability planning.

December 2003– February 2006

Brandon Marcus LLC.

Independent Contractor / Founder

Providing architecture review and re-design of major entertainment company's SharePoint and Active Directory migration from Lotus Domino/Notes.  The infrastructure design includes 99.99% availability requirement, recovery strategy, and complete migration strategy.

I was also a directory lead, responsible for designing and implementing (MIIS) Microsoft Integration and Identity Server (now Microsoft Identity Manager.)  MIIS was an integral part of the messaging infrastructure meant to facilitate directory-sync across multiple authentication forests into a single resource forest.

Working as an independent contractor for Brown Raysman where I designed the Exchange, mobility and Active Directory architecture including the migration. The architecture includes directory design, capacity planning, disaster recovery and high availability planning.

Working as an independent contractor for financial trading firm, providing enterprise architecture planning expertise and operational reviews. Architected and implemented SharePoint Portal Server infrastructure with a focus on DR build-out and processes. Business value delivered includes: increased enterprise operating uptime, improved server sizing methodology and technical guidance.

February 1999 - June 2003

Microsoft Corporation

Architecture and Strategy Consultant

(summary)

·                   Delivered architectural expertise throughout my career for over four and a half years at Microsoft to many major corporations across multiple business verticals as an Enterprise Architect with a focus on Microsoft’s email and collaboration technologies, such as SharePoint, Exchange Server and Active Directory.

·                   Lead a SharePoint Portal Server, knowledge management and sales portal rollout and development project, for Philip Morris; global implementation for 5,000+ sales personnel. Business value delivered by the project included: improved organizational sales metrics, improved document sharing, and team collaboration across geographic boundaries. This project used SharePoint Portal Server, SharePoint Team Services, and Windows Server.

·                   Provided architectural/technical leadership and executive management support for a large Beta Exchange server implementation project for MTV/Viacom. Also provided enterprise architecture planning expertise and project management office implementation guidance. Business value delivered included: reduction of enterprise operating costs, increased productivity and increased employee satisfaction. This project involved a joint team membership within the company to include operations, support, engineering, senior management and two people from Microsoft. The technologies used included Exchange Server, Internet Information Server, Windows Server & Active Directory, Windows XP and MS Office. Installation types include distributing Exchange Server in a Highly Available environment and across Inter-Organizational boundaries. This company also presented a Video Case study to the MEC 2001 audience.

·                   Architect for a large enterprise infrastructure of Microsoft Exchange Server for a large Publication company. Responsibilities include requirements gathering, conducting risk management and design sessions, as well as managing project plan and schedule. Responsible for defining project scope, managing resources, risk management and maintaining project schedule and project plan using Microsoft Project. Provided hands on technical guidance and knowledge transfer to both company and outside consultant resources.

·                   Architect for many high-available messaging solutions for companies such as ADP, AIG and Dow Jones. Lead an operational and technical review of their infrastructure to determine how to meet each company’s business requirements of a highly available messaging infrastructure with the need for improved disaster recovery and backup procedures.

May 1998 - January 1999

American International Group

Collaboration Specialist

Messaging engineer.  Lead the Exchange server upgrade and migration project (135,000+ users). Also provide enterprise planning expertise. Business value delivered included: reduction of enterprise operating costs, increased productivity and increased employee satisfaction. This project involved a joint team membership within the company to include operations, support, and engineering.

August 1997 - April 1998

Software Spectrum

Senior Consultant

Worked as a messaging consultant conducting implementation and migration projects. Developed expertise in migrating from various “legacy enterprise” messaging products to Microsoft Exchange Server; such as Lotus Notes and CC:Mail.

May 1996 - June 1997

Stream (Microsoft Corp Contractor)

Product Support Specialist

Provided enterprise product support to Microsoft customers on the following products, Exchange Server versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.5, Windows NT Server, Microsoft Mail, Schedule+. Worked as a lead support specialist where I was responsible for all escalated support cases and resolving critical server down situations.

Education

DePaul University     Chicago, IL

December 2014, Masters of Science in Information Systems

Clark University     Worcester, MA

May 1996, Bachelor of Arts

Skills

·              Microsoft Infrastructure Core Expertise: Azure, Office 365, SharePoint, Active Directory & Exchange Server, Lync Server, Forefront Identity Manager (FIM)

·                   Enterprise Collaboration Architecture, Design and Implementation

·              Microsoft Server Platforms: Exchange Server (All Versions), Windows (All Versions), Internet Information Server, SQL Server, SharePoint Portal Server and SharePoint Team Services

·              Development Platform: Java, C#, PowerShell, HTML, .NET, Active Server Pages (ASP/X), Visual Basic, XML/XSLT, Transact SQL

·              Enterprise Project Management Solution and Project Delivery and Implementation

·                   Project Management and Leadership: Microsoft Solutions Framework

·                   Effective Presentations: Presenter of both business and technical material

·              Technical Documentation Development: Functional Specification and Standards

Certifications

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer + Internet (MCSE)