Work with clients to identify 5-10 year data center strategies, incorporating future state modeling of power and space requirements, as well as comparative financial analysis of different scenarios.

In a newly created and short-lived position at Netflix, I focused on addressing typical issues affecting global construction projects (i.e. discrepancies between design and build-out of power distribution and low-voltage systems) by working to develop a global trusted network of low-voltage designers and installers. I also reviewed telecom design and construction documents and made recommendations for MDF/IDF closets, low-voltage cabling, and power distribution. At Netflix I had the opportunity to learn about studio-specific design requirements.

When I decided to move back to New York, I chose to focus on infrastructure. What I love about infrastructure is the feeling of building something, of completion: Designing a space well; the fun of overcoming construction challenges, the satisfaction that comes when all of the pieces come together.Where Oxy had 120 WAN sites, NYU had 500+ MDF/IDF closets and I learned about the challenges that come with aging buildings, perpetual construction, and a massive LAN (with all of the associated UPSs, cabling and HVAC systems).I built or refreshed sites in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Shanghai and Tel Aviv and planned and managed projects to refresh switches, UPSs and cabling across campus. I was a member of the team evaluating NYU’s future data center strategy and worked on teams building, expanding and decommissioning data centers in New York.

A year later I went to work at Oxy as a Network Engineer, where all of the skills I had picked up came together. I was an SME for routing & switching, data centers, and network and change management. I designed and built data centers in Houston, Dallas, and Buenos Aires. When Oxy eliminated their third-party NOC, I deployed HP Network Node Manager (NNMi) and developed operational procedures. I investigated and resolved complex issues with route redistribution, spanning-tree, MPLS backdoor routing and WAN acceleration, often facilitating cross-functional troubleshooting. I provided networking guidance to IT staff in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia) and was Functional Coordinator for Network Operations staff in the U.S.

EnronOnline was acquired by UBS and became UBS Warburg Energy (UBSWE). Stunned and shocked, we divested UBSWE from Enron. I implemented Alteon load balancers to create a high-availability mail server network and deployed ISS RealSecure IDS and tuned attack signature policies. After 18 months, UBS closed the Houston office and I took advantage of the opportunity to take time off, travel, and decide what I wanted to do next.

EnronOnline (EOL) was the first real-time, online, global commodities trading platform. I joined EOL as a Network Architect at the height of the organization’s success, when there was no inkling of the collapse that was to come by the end of the year. GRE tunnels and IPSec VPNs were new and I expanded on my previous experience by defining standard connection methods for counterparties, along with SLAs and technical guidelines. Today, we take online transactions for granted, but at this time it was brand new and losing a transaction mid-stream due to network latency or outage was a challenge. I performed a POC of load balancing hardware from multiple vendors and selected the optimal platform for EOL.Before the collapse, we were in the midst of designing primary and backup data centers, using DNS and BGP to operate them concurrently and minimize the client impact in the event of a failure. I learned about IP Multicast and navigating Enron’s strict change control process.As a member of a cross-functional architecture team, I worked closely with a highly skilled set of UNIX Sys Admins, DBAs, and Application Developers. This fostered my ability to later facilitate collaboration in multidisciplinary teams.

The industry continued to evolve and transform, as did I. Token Ring and FDDI hubs were replaced with Ethernet switches. Imagine working with an 8-slot, modular...hub! It was exciting to go to Cisco RTP to perform a POC of the Catalyst 6500 switch. Incredibly, this chassis is still in use in the world today! The results of that POC led to new global standards for the bank. It was here where I learned about structured cabling and building data centers, again with a great teacher. We managed our own T1 network with IDNX multiplexers until we replaced leased lines with Frame-Relay. I was introduced to network monitoring tools: NAI Sniffer, NetScout probes, MRTG, Cisco LMS, and Fluke testers. I wrote custom automation tools, too, with Perl and Expect. I also learned the importance of change management, communicating with end users, and clearly defining the relationship and demarcation point with counterparties.

What an amazing time to enter the networking industry! Though I started as a UNIX Sys Admin, I moved into Network Administration as technology began driving change. In the time I was at Pencom, the company grew from four sites to nine and networking was metamorphosing into the industry as we know it today. PPP and modems were replaced by Frame-Relay; hubs evolved into switches, and Catalyst switches with VLANs allowed for increased security and stability. Allocating RFC 1918 address space conserved IP address space; static routes were replaced by OSPF. I read Internet Routing Architectures (Sam Halabi, 1st ed.) cover-to-cover and implemented BGP with multi-homing. I had amazing mentors here who shaped the future of my career. Here, too, I discovered that I had a knack for troubleshooting and project planning.

Performed QA testing on OpenIngres RDBMS. Tinkered with UNIX.