David Hicks Email & Phone Number

Greenville, South Carolina, United States

Spartanburg, South Carolina

Spartanburg, South Carolina

● Responsible for all technical operations including system administration, network and telecommunications, database administration, storage and data centers

Spartanburg, South Carolina

● Manage a total of four teams in the performance of a wide range of technical operations, systems administration, storage, data center, and desk top support projects at the corporate office of a leading national payday loan provider, with responsibility for supporting more than 2,300 branches across 29 states● Oversee a yearly expense budget of more than $6.5MM and an annual capital expense budget of $6.75MM● Led the technical integration of three acquired companies’ resources into Advance America’s data centers and support model, including the total integration of a Delaware-based online company’s 100 virtual servers, generating annual savings of more than $36,000 in data center rental space and power costs● Designed and implemented a backup and recovery infrastructure for more than 500 servers at two remote data centers, reducing recovery times to fewer than 15 minutes for any server at the data center● Created the hardware infrastructure to support the company’s next generation point of sale system at all 2,300 branch locations, including architecting of storage systems to support web and application servers, transactional databases, and file storage for paperless operation nationwide

Spartanburg, South Carolina

● Supervised a team of four system administrators in providing comprehensive support for Windows, Unix, and Linux servers, as well as backup, recovery, and storage solutions ● Developed data center strategy affecting operations company-wide, with responsibility for evaluation and selection of two additional data center locations, designing all computing, storage, and network architecture, and managing the purchase and installation of more than $2.5MM in storage and network hardware ● Led the infrastructure support team in a major project to virtualize most of the company’s physical infrastructure, ultimately doubling the total number of servers and computing capacity without increasing the physical and environmental footprint and associated costs● Brought in additional staff, implemented a team-wide focus on automation to reduce build cycle time from a days-long process to an hours-long process, and required more extensive monitoring to evaluate trends, allowing for a more proactive, scheduled approach to adding capacity

Greenville, South Carolina Area

● Led teams of up to 20 system administrators, security specialists, and system architects in the design and delivery of enterprise-level technical solutions for clients such as ServiceMaster, Whirlpool, and Honeywell, including PCI and SOX compliance, server refresh, disaster recovery, and best practice review projects● Managed a team of seven patch management specialists in the development and implementation of a comprehensive strategy to patch more than 3,500 of Honeywell’s Windows and Unix servers monthly, allowing for the complete patching of the company’s entire computing environment in under 48 hours● Developed detailed security policies and corresponding technical configurations for Whirlpool’s computing platforms, ensuring compliance with relevant standards and providing standardized, repeatable processes for securing all computing platforms