JOHN WEEKS
john@weeksweb.com
1082 East 100 South
Logan, UT 84321

SENIOR IT MANAGEMENT AND UNIX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
18 yrs. Unix and Linux Systems Administration; 14 yrs. Web Administration;
12 yrs. IT Project and Departmental Management; 11 yrs. Windows Administration;
Bachelors in Computer Science

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE - complete listings and details on following pages
OS - Unix - Solaris 10 thru SunOS 4.x, RHEL/Fedora Linux, HP-UX; NetApp; Windows XP- 95
Web - Apache, MySQL, HTML, CGI, Javascript, Dreamweaver, ColdFusion, PHP, IIS, stats reporting
Programming - Csh and Bourne Shell Scripting, awk, grep, sed, Perl, Tcl/Tk, Expect, C, C++, Java
Services - Ssh, firewall, backups, helpdesk, monitoring, proxy, ftp, console, remote administration
Core Unix - NIS, NIS+, DNS, TCP/IP, DHCP, NFS, LDAP, RAID, Autofs, sendmail, X11, Networking
Server Management - Clustering, high availability, virtualization, grid, provisioning, monitoring/reporting
Security - Prevention, detection, and remediation, patch installation, anti-virus, PCI DSS, spyware, spam

WORK EXPERIENCE
Independent Consultant and Entrepreneur - July 2004 - present
Dine-India.com - Website design and propagation for Indian Restaurants across the United States
New2Logan.com -  Community social networking for newcomers to Logan, UT
Knownet.tv - Local community broadcast access
Solar Winds Investments - Alternative Energy Research and Investment
Transparent Technologies - User Interface Design Principles and Strategies

Computing Systems Manager - Utah State University - August 2003 - Present
Redesigned IT Service based upon implemented metrics, satisfaction, and needs assessment.  Managed Carnegie Research I University Solaris, Linux, and Windows systems.  Chaired High Performance Supercomputing Administration Committee.   Maintained core infrastructure, instructional data services, historical satellite image repository for western US, and state climatologist.   Initiated budget redesign with maintenance support cost reductions of 61.8%.  Introduced, established, and renewed numerous standard support practices solidifying efforts of previous system managers.  Engineered internal open source LAMP based CMS collaborative documentation repositories.  Maintained 99.995% uptime across non-redundant system infrastructure.  Pursuing Masters degree in Business Information Systems.

Founder - Sites4Good.com- March 2006 - September 2007
Awarded community development grant to developed simple, self-service tools for non-profit organizations to establish and maintain a professional web presence.   Integrated best of breed open source Content Management Systems (CMS) solutions on Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) platforms to develop portable, ultra-low cost websites for non-profit and community centric organization to establish informative, and personalized web sites.  Developed standards for template interoperability across multiple sites and browsers.

Senior Unix System Administrator - Openwave (Phone.com) - May 2002 - August 2003
Directly managed 250 corporate DMZ and infrastructure Solaris, Windows, and Network Appliance systems servicing 4000 desktop and development systems.  Supported broad range of core IT services, corporate applications, and Openwave cellular gateways.  Significantly improved project management practices and reporting tools.  Stabilized infrastructure fundamentals.  Prepared readiness documents for service outage conditions.  Documented, deployed, and automated standard operating procedures.  Implemented monitoring, backup, NIS, and disaster recovery for infrastructure and engineering environments.  Trained staff on Solaris, HTML publishing, and organizational skills.

Senior Unix Systems Administrator - Ventaso - Oct 2001 - April 2002
Supported 24x7 ASP environment for sales and marketing solution provider utilizing BEA Weblogic and Oracle in a Solaris enterprise class environment interacting with Windows application components.  Architected engineering and QA image replication environment utilizing jumpstart with an automated Unix ‘ghost’ utility. Designed, installed, and configured backup solution and web-centric reporting packages.  Supported external, DMZ, and internal Solaris and Windows environments utilizing KISS methodology in designing simple, standard, secure, supportable, and reliable configurations that are well documented and communicated.

Sr. Solaris System Administration - Quintus Corporation- May 1997-March 2001
Hands-on support and management of complete corporate IT infrastructure in effectively merging three acquisitions leading to a highly successful IPO.  Project manager and supervisor for headquarters support staff.  Maintained 99.99% non-redundant uptime in 24x7 environment. Responsible for architecture planning, implementation, and support of infrastructure systems.  Lead technical advisor for internet and intranet architecture, tools, development, and reporting.  Mentored systems administration staff.

Senior Unix Systems Administration - Sun Microsystems - July 1990-May 1997

Provided internal server and desktop support for Sun’s largest engineering sites.  Project Manager and site lead for up to twelve system admins directly supporting 600+ users and 1500+ systems. Senior technical lead for backup standards, disaster recovery, and new product introduction teams.  Trained all levels of support staff.  Supervised site move team.  Position required a broad range of technical skills, an ability to interact with customers effectively, and a constantly improving level of service. 

EDUCATION
Bachelor's Degree Computer Information Science - March 1990 - UCSC
Certificate in Business Administration - March 1996 - U.C. Santa Cruz Extension

TECHNICAL SKILLS
Definitions for Experience Levels:
     Expert - Can teach a course on material, but haven't written the book, yet.
     Advanced - Extensive Hands-on experience with senior support role
     Average - Direct Hands-on experience and primary support role
     Competent - Limited hands-on experience and knowledge, may not have installed
     Familiar - Familiar with concepts and evaluation, may not have configured

OS - Expert in Solaris, Average in Linux, Windows, and NetApp, Competent in other OS:
Solaris 10 through SunOS 4.x, Redhat, Fedora, SuSE, HP-UX, Windows XP - 95, NetApp ONTAP

Core Unix Knowledge - Advanced in most areas, Expert in NIS and NIS+:
NIS, NIS+, DNS, BIND, DHCP, LDAP, NFS, automouter, RAID, SNMP, shell,
ssh, firewall, backups, helpdesk, monitoring, proxy, ftp, remote console, ALOM

Server Management- Advanced clustering, high availability, virtualization, grid, monitoring, reporting

Core Sys Admin Duties - Advanced skills - continuous responsibilities:
Third level escalation; Training peers and end-users; Documenting policies, procedures, and processes;
Installation, maintenance, tuning, troubleshooting, patch, and upgrade of core infrastructure systems

Staff Management - supervising systems staff, help desk, and backup operators, project and team lead.

Web Administration - Advanced in configuration and maintenance of medium-duty web sites:
Apache, Netscape, BEA Weblogic, IIS, NetTracker, WebTrends, HtDig, HTTP

Content Management Systems -Wordpress, CMS Made Simple, Plone, Joomla/Mambo, Xaraya, among others as well as several in-house solutions

Web Page and Tool Development -Expert to Advanced, frequently utilizing hand coding over GUI tools:
Mozilla, DreamWeaver, Homesite, Visual Page, Front Page; Paint Shop Pro, Adobe, and Shareware Apps
HTML, CGI, Shell, Cold Fusion, MySQL, Javascript, Perl, Java

Scripting - Advanced shell languages, Average C and C++ modify / compile / debug, Average in Perl:Csh and Sh - Bourne Shell, awk, grep, sed, Perl,Tk, ANSI C, C++; Source Control: SCCS, RCS, CVS

Security - Advanced manual hardening of HP-UX and Solaris DMZ and bastion hardening systems:
firewall, host, network, filesystem, intrusion detection, Anti-Virus, Ssh - Secure Shell, iptables, ipchains,
Fundamentals of security: OS, process, inetd, /etc files, filesystem, repair, remediation, and reaction

System and Network Monitoring - Average:
Nagios, Big Brother, MRTG, HP Openview, IBM Tivoli, What's Up Gold, BMC Patrol, SNMP

Backup Software - Expert in numerous tools, troubleshooting, monitoring, and reporting:
Veritas Netbackup, Backup Exec, Legato Networker, ufsdump, ufsrestore, tar, cpio, dd, rdist, tape libraries

System Software - Advanced to Average - Many software packages not mentioned here, please ask:
Advanced Jumpstart/Kickstart provisioning, ghost imaging, proxy services, anonymous ftp, and DiskSuite; Average Samba, MajorDomo, FlexLM; Expert helpdesk software suites

Remote Management- Xmanager, Hummingbird, Remote Desktop, VNC, Cyclades, Opengear

High Availability - BalanceNG, pen, IP load balancing, Roundrobin DNS

Clusters -Beowulf, perceus, warewulf, Sun clustering and grid products, mpich

Mail - Average to Advanced internal and external mail delivery:
sendmail, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, postfix, automated email distribution list management, news

Hardware - Average -Very comfortable performing all maintenance, configuration, installs, and upgrades:
Complete line of Sun sparc desktops to basic ultra enterprise class systems, PC Clones and laptops.
Familiar with high availability clusters and large scale Sun enterprise server concepts.

Windows Administration - Average - Frequently worked directly with senior Windows administrators:
BDC, PDC, DNS, DHCP, WINS, RAS, Print, Desktop OS / SW Installation
Standard Desktop Office Software, MS Project, Partition Magic, Ghost, etc.

Specialized Software Vendorsfor Weather, Climate, Satellite Imagery, Remote Sensing, and GIS
ArcGIS, IDL, ENVI, McIDAS, LDM, R, SAS

Network - Advanced TCP/IP network configuration, Familiar with hardware configuration:
TCP/IP, LAN, WAN, firewall, basic routing, gateway, protocols, ifconfig, netstat, traceroute, snoop

Database - Basic installation, tuning, and scripting.  Frequently worked directly with site DBA group: Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL, RDBMS - relational databases

Philosophies- "Keep it Simple", "See past the problem to arrive at the solution", "If it's not a challenge someone has already done it",  "Simplicity differs from complexity based upon approach, understanding, and education",  "Transparent Technology = technology matured to a state of intuitiveness"

CAREER RECOGNITION Exceptional ratings on annual performance reviews. Published web tools article in SysAdmin magazine. Second place GUI support tools competition. Numerous Project Management Awards

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS Reliability and Dedication Innovation and Cost Reduction Zero Customer Impact under Aggressive Deadlines Cross Departmental Coordination

PROJECTS

IT Intranet documentation and development - Utah State, Openwave, Quintus,  Sun

Headquarters and engineering site moves of 200-1600 people - Sun, Quintus

Corporate backup architecture, deployment, and web based reporting- Utah State, Openwave, Quintus, Sun

Automated OS installation procedures - Utah State, Openwave, Quintus, and Sun

Disaster recovery planning - - Utah State, Openwave, Quintus,  Sun

Corporate IT Advisory Committee - Utah State, Quintus

Corporate operating system overhaul - Utah State, Quintus, Sun

Corporate internet / intranet design, deployment, and upgrade - Sites4Good, Utah State, Quintus
Server Architecture for Sun"™s largest building sites
Mergers of acquired companies infrastructure and web sites - Quintus
Help desk design and deployment, reducing average response times by 70% - Quintus

Training and QA facilities refresh procedure - Quintus, Ventaso

Centralize software, jumpstart, printer, and data servers - Openwave, Quintus, Sun
Deployed first ColdFusion CSS and template based beginning in 1998 at Quintus

Introduced Sun's first network based OS installation methods.

Y2K corporate early deployment pre-test, remediation, and publication - Quintus

 

SOCIAL ACHIEVEMENTS / ACTIVITIES

Finding time for family - Sarah, Steven, and Snook
Active Non-profit Sponsor - Humane Society, Habitat, Heifer, Community Writing, Stoke's Nature Center
The Chocolate Festival - Local Planned Parenthood Fundraiser - Board of Directors
Certified white water rafting guide - Friends of the River
Board of Directors Après Ski Club - Bay Area's largest ski and activities club.
Elected student government moderator - U.C. Santa Cruz

 

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Work Experience in environments ranging from a large 16,000 person corporation to a small 90 person start-up.  Such experience has imparted the expansive knowledge, leadership, and expertise of a large corporate environment with the direct business unit interaction and complete infrastructure deployment and maintenance of a small and growing start-up environment.

Frequently asked to lead numerous groups in need of dramatically improving customer satisfaction and system reliability with immediately recognizable service improvements as reported by management and the clients served.

I am a dedicated, responsible, detail oriented, communicator with the drive and desire to provide innovative and resourceful solutions to a wide array of situations.

REFERENCES - Available upon request

"Two Thumbs Up!" Siskel & Ebert Not really

"He knows lots of computer stuff if you don't see it here, ask him about it" Sarah Kerley Brain Surgeon, really

"John,... John who?" Thomas A. Brackey Rocket Scientist

                                  

"John is one of the most talented IT professionals in the business.  As a thought leader John's grasp of business knowledge and technology expertise have been crucial elements of preeminent change.  John is passionately focused on striding forward to achieve quantifiable success in overcoming inexorable challenges.  John's honorable and social nature as a cohesive leader is contagious in gathering successful energized individuals in an effective team confluence of fully involved and immersive activity. John's focused nature centers around the euphoria of endlessly achievable success." -Compiled Quotes from annual reviews and exit interviews

Technical Areas of Interest - Next areas of Study and expertise

Open Source CMS - Make professional websites as ubiquitous as email.  Bringing Content Management System solutions from the technically savvy to a broader audience seeking intuitive, robust, and creative design tools.  Develop and deploy universal, tweak-capable, and widget compatible template standards; an improved holistic WYSIWYG editing interface with component layers; and integration into peer-approved cost effective hosting and domain services.

Internals - Average, currently reading Solaris Internals by Jim Mauro and Richard McDouglas
Performance tuning, Paging, Swapping, inter-process communication, device drivers, inode, superblock

Veritas - Competent, established familiarity with similar tools but lacking specific command syntax
Veritas File System, Veritas Volume Manager, Veritas Cluster Server

SAN - Storage Area Networks - Familiar with basic principals, I am intimately familiar with numerous DAS, RAID, and NAS solutions from Network Appliance, EMC, Quantum, and reseller solution providers but have only evaluated and solicited SAN solutions.