Joe Rust Email & Phone Number

Rancho Cordova

Provide consulting services for core network redesign and implementation for Fremont Bank, Fox Factory Racing, and Aerojet.

Jackson Rancheria has decided to out-source my position. I wish them the best of luck.Design, Build, and Maintain a flexible and fluid data network infrastructure that will sustain an ever changing casino environment.As server virtualization matured and we were successful at consolidating our server farm it became evident that a multi-channel 10Gig backbone would be appropriate for the data center infrastructure. The innovative Nexus offering from Cisco was the logical choice to build this infrastructure. Nexus 5000’s were deployed in the Data Centers to support this high-bandwidth backbone for the VMWare Hosts, and a pair of Nexus 7000’s replaced the Catalyst 6509’s (that had been eye-marked for a VSS upgrade) at the network core. Combining Nexus’ VPC feature with the Catalyst’s VSS has provided a truly resilient (self-healing) data services backbone that will support whatever the future brings (a VMView pilot is currently being thrown onto this network with very little concern of network resources).

Converging Data and Voice networks onto a single platform involves co-ordination between Telecomm and IT. My team provides this conduit between these two departments with completely different mindsets.Utilizing Cisco’s newly introduced VSS (Virtual Switching System) feature set in their Catalyst 6500 line (a feature that I had been prompting them for for years) , I was able to build a highly resilient network infrastructure in a newly built secondary Data Center. This newly built Data Center quickly became the primary location for all resources. VSS was also implemented at the access aggregation layers of the network to provide an addition layer of resiliency for gaming systems and back-office operations.This VSS infrastructure also provided the foundation for the extensive (long overdue) Nortel phone switch upgrade which now relies heavily on IP connectivity for the various switch modules distributed throughout the property (redundant core locations at the Casino, Hotel, Call Center, and Public Safety Building). VOIP was migrated at this time from a long running Cisco Call Manager pilot to a Nortel solution primarily to standardize ‘adds, moves, and changes’ for the PBX and VOIP systems.

Due to rapid growth and lack of network design experience the Casino had a network topology that had some serious issues. They had grown past the point where they needed a full-time network engineer to bring stability and high availability into their systems. They had been out-sourcing this service, but the business disruption of a quick design change would have been catastrophic (the casino industry is even less tolerant to network outages then the financial banking industry). The first couple of years I transparently re-arranged IP segments to build proper structure and resiliency to the network for applications that were not network friendly. I also redesigned the Internet facing edge to a secure DMZ to support their newly desired e-type commerce (Web Interface, Hotel Reservations, remote email access ...). This included using BGP to connect to diverse ISP’s for high-availability of these services.

Responsible for smooth operation of Trading Floor environments. Initially brought on-board to ‘stand-up for the network’. Re-designed large flat campus network into a modular core/distribution/access design, to bring reliability and redundancy into the network. Proficient with Cisco routers, Catalyst switches, Altega VPN concentrators, all routing protocols (except IS-IS). Team Lead/Manager for western region network engineering team.

With the NOS migration from Netware to NT, my primary focus became LAN/WAN technologies, Integrating AS400 systems (SNA) into a true IP network consisting of NT and Unix servers and leaving IPX in it’s wake. Proficient with Cisco routers, Catalyst switches, Lightstream ATM switches, ATM Campus backbone, VPN/IPSec, VOIP, Checkpoint Firewall, Network General Sniffer, 2nd level support for LAN support techs.