Howard Boyd Email & Phone Number

Durham, Nc, Us

Work in a collaborative Engineering role as a member of a multi-disciplined team responsible for the design and/or implementation of global technical computing solutions that support over 100,000 users. Design and implement technical solutions that have strong financial implications to the business. Meet with stakeholders to define technical deliverables based on business requirements and act as technical lead for infrastructure compute solutions. Implement new technologies to deliver less… Show more Work in a collaborative Engineering role as a member of a multi-disciplined team responsible for the design and/or implementation of global technical computing solutions that support over 100,000 users. Design and implement technical solutions that have strong financial implications to the business. Meet with stakeholders to define technical deliverables based on business requirements and act as technical lead for infrastructure compute solutions. Implement new technologies to deliver less complex and more stable and automated solutions to satisfy application hosting requirements. Document infrastructure solutions according to ITIL and ITSM standards. Act as technical liaison in communication with business units, industry peers, and third-party vendors. Perform root cause analysis of technical issues to eliminate service degradation or outages. Show less

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Area

Converted from contract worker to full time employee. Provide day-to-day maintenance and support of Mission Critical server infrastructure that supports commercial business including 44 worldwide manufacturing sites which have strong financial implications to the organization. Responsible for the Administration, Support, Maintenance, Troubleshooting, Automation, Monitoring, and Configuration of the Enterprise Compute environment that includes over 1000 servers running AIX and RHEL.

Perform AIX and Linux administrator contract work for a large pharmaceutical company. Provide 24x7 support of an SAP validated environment running on pSeries hardware. Responsible for obtaining server backups using Veritas Netbackup and an ADIC tape library. Perform periodic DR restore tests. Environment consists of a large number of printers that are business critical. Frequently work with clients to resolve printing issues. Triage support tickets from Remedy ticketing system and resolve… Show more Perform AIX and Linux administrator contract work for a large pharmaceutical company. Provide 24x7 support of an SAP validated environment running on pSeries hardware. Responsible for obtaining server backups using Veritas Netbackup and an ADIC tape library. Perform periodic DR restore tests. Environment consists of a large number of printers that are business critical. Frequently work with clients to resolve printing issues. Triage support tickets from Remedy ticketing system and resolve client issues via change management (Chameleon, Pandora, and ServiceNow). Show less

Provide support for AIX servers running IBM WebSphere Application Server software. Monitored servers for potential problems and helped resolve application related issues. Perform successful migration of customer’s WebSphere Everyplace Access (WEA) environment. Performed AIX OS and application software related patching to keep software up to date and remediate security vulnerabilities.

Provide support for the customer’s WebSphere Application Server (WAS) environment. Took on the technical support lead role of a new client’s WebSphere Everyplace Access (WEA) environment. Installed IBM’s WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager (WECM) software on AIX servers located behind firewalls in a DMZ. Configured the WECM software to enable remote wireless users to access the client’s intranet via a secure VPN environment. Setup DHCP addressing scheme to allow remote users to access… Show more Provide support for the customer’s WebSphere Application Server (WAS) environment. Took on the technical support lead role of a new client’s WebSphere Everyplace Access (WEA) environment. Installed IBM’s WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager (WECM) software on AIX servers located behind firewalls in a DMZ. Configured the WECM software to enable remote wireless users to access the client’s intranet via a secure VPN environment. Setup DHCP addressing scheme to allow remote users to access backend resources running on the client’s intranet. Installed LDAP (IBM Tivoli Directory Server) on AIX servers to allow application users to authenticate and access the application. Installed the WEA application (WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Portal, IBM DB2 UDB, and IBM DB2 Everyplace) on AIX servers to create an application server environment for a custom Java based wireless application. Monitored system for performance and integrity and made improvements as required. Show less

Hired as an FTE based on my work as a contract employee. Responsibilities increased while continuing to support the client’s primary Java based application running in a WebSphere application server environment. Acted as technical lead for the project to upgrade the RS/6000 hardware, AIX OS, and WebSphere application server environment. Recommended and sized hardware based on developer’s specifications. Benchmarked and tested application load to ensure proper sizing and tuning of the hardware… Show more Hired as an FTE based on my work as a contract employee. Responsibilities increased while continuing to support the client’s primary Java based application running in a WebSphere application server environment. Acted as technical lead for the project to upgrade the RS/6000 hardware, AIX OS, and WebSphere application server environment. Recommended and sized hardware based on developer’s specifications. Benchmarked and tested application load to ensure proper sizing and tuning of the hardware and OS. Performed a successful annual Disaster Recovery test of the client’s WebSphere Application Server environment. Implemented a new web-based application utilizing SSL communication between the application and IBM HTTP Server. Show less

Hired as a contractor to install and configure WebSphere Application server in a clustered application server environment. Installed WebSphere Application Server on RS/6000 systems running the AIX v4.3 operating system. Setup IBM’s load balancer application to load balance a custom Java based application. Primary responsibility was to ensure the AIX servers and applications were available 24x7. Was proactive in implementing any WebSphere and AIX related software updates to the client’s… Show more Hired as a contractor to install and configure WebSphere Application server in a clustered application server environment. Installed WebSphere Application Server on RS/6000 systems running the AIX v4.3 operating system. Setup IBM’s load balancer application to load balance a custom Java based application. Primary responsibility was to ensure the AIX servers and applications were available 24x7. Was proactive in implementing any WebSphere and AIX related software updates to the client’s infrastructure. Updates were installed and tested in a development and test environment and then integrated into the production environment. Show less

Maintainedand supported a 400+ user network that included several Novell file servers, NT workstations, and Sun Ultra 1 systems. Responsible for the administration of the network systems and the end user workstations and user support.

Hired to design and support the Center’s Wide Area Network which included multiple Novell NetWareservers, an IBM RS6000 running AIX and a Sun SPARC 20. Responsible for loading medical data sets on the Unix servers for researchers to use in SAS analysis.

Designed, implemented, and maintained both small (5 user) and large (250+) user networks. Primary responsibility was to install network products sold by DILAN and to train end users and client’s network administrators on the products and their use.

Member of a network team that managed and supported DukeNet, Duke’s wide area network. Was responsible for providing LANs access to DukeNet and for diagnosing and solving Wide Area Network problems.

Responsible for maintaining the LAN for the Libraries at Duke. Duties included installing network hardware and software to support the LAN and diagnosing and repairing problems reported by library staff.