John Rhymes Email & Phone Number

Remote

Establish IT department for Cogir Management USA, supporting 23 senior living communities in Washington and California. Replaced outsourced Tier 1 support services with in-house solution resulting in cost savings, improved end user experience, and reduced MTTR. Quickly ascertain current technology footprint and begin making scalable recommendations for repairs and improvements across the organization. Research and discover current telco services and expenses and provide recommendations for improving performance and reducing costs. Establish vendor / contract relationships to provide equipment and services across the organization.• Implement cloud-based VoIP solution as replacement for antiquated on site PBX and hosted VoIP phone systems at communities. Solution resulted in reduced cost and simplified, centralized management across organization, as well as inter-company dialing and congruent, centralized directory.• Replace antiquated HP switching with Meraki across all communities for centralized management and greater vision into local network; resulting in reduced time to diagnose and fix issues.• Replace SonicWall firewalls with Fortinet NGFW devices for increased security and future SD-WAN functionality.• Work in conjunction with HR to create job descriptions, interview and select new employees to grow IT team in both WA and CA from one to four people.• Plan, budget, and execute all technical aspects of community acquisitions for Cogir Management USA; Ranging from telco service / vendor selections to end point selection and deployment. Manage process and additional agency staff end-to-end, successfully supporting company in growing from twelve to twenty three communities.

Bellevue, Wa

Act as backup to IT Director during vacations or absences. Oversee day to day operations of IT Department. Collaborate with cross functional teams to manage and drive IT initiatives. Provide technical expertise and execute on technical responsibilities for multiple high visibility projects. Lead team through high severity operational incidents and take accountability for the outcomes. Ensure quality and success of projects and team performance. Tier 2/3 escalation point for end user support issues and mentor junior admins. Management of all physical and virtual backend infrastructure. Responsible for implementation, testing, security, and troubleshooting of network equipment such as switches, wireless access points, and firewalls for corporate headquarters and all communities.• Acquired, configured, and installed all network infrastructure (switches, routers, access points, etc.) and PC’s for flagship Newcastle and Mercer Island communities. Verified all systems up and available well in advance of staff and resident occupation within budget. Developed technology “template” for future community deployments based on unit count.• Engineered and executed all aspects of Corporate Office move while simultaneously switching Hypervisors (from Hyper-V to VMWare), as well as implementing enterprise back-end storage solution (Datrium) resulting in significant performance improvement and increased fault tolerance.• Research, implement, maintain, and train fellow admins on imaging solution, significantly reducing TTR and time to deploy end user workstations.• Key member of team responsible for network migration to MPLS and hosted phone system solution across 31 communities and corporate office.

Seattle, Wa

Manage day-to-day operations and vendor relations for the IT department. Train, mentor, and manage daily workflow for a team of four system administrators. Tier 2/3 escalation point for end user support issues. Other responsibilities include setup, administration, configuration, and troubleshooting of servers for internal corporate systems (File, Domain Controllers, SQL, SharePoint, VMWare, etc.). Duties also include implementation, testing, and troubleshooting of network equipment such as routers, switches, wireless access points and firewalls for Corporate Headquarters, CoLo Facility, and Warehouse. • Plan, manage, and executing build out of new 250k sq. foot warehouse facility to act as primary fulfillment center for Onlineshoes.com, Shoes.com, and ShoeMe.ca. Scope included infrastructure planning, equipment selection and configuration, vendor selection and management under a compressed timeline with a restricted budget in challenging physical conditions. Overcame numerous physical and vendor related issues to complete project on time and within budget.• Responsible for planning, managing, and executing Corporate Network Reconfiguration project in preparation for PCI Audit. Scope included re-design and implementation of network to meet PCI requirements, with a strong focus on network best practices to resolve performance and scalability concerns for future expansion. Scope included extensive security testing to ensure and document adherence to data handling requirements. Responsible for planning and managing vendors, resources, and timeline end-to-end.• Responsible for planning and executing CoLo infrastructure overhaul to allow for migration of critical services (e-mail, directory services, SQL, etc) to facility for increased fault tolerance and future flexibility. Responsible for equipment selection and purchasing, managing vendors, resources, and timeline end-to-end.

Redmond, Wa

Manage day-to-day operations, yearly CapEx/OpEx budgets & vendor relations for IT department while acting as mentor/lead to other System Admins. Lead team through high-severity operational incidents and take accountability for outcomes.• Design, plan, & implementing large-scale server room remodel consisting of new fault-tolerant infrastructure (racks, cable management, power distribution, and UPS Solution). Plan and manage vendors, resources, and timeline end-to-end.• Design, plan, & implement infrastructure selection and setup of newly established UK offices (Nottingham and Dartford). Worked in conjunction with UK asset to bring offices online and provide site-to-site VPN connectivity to Redmond, LA, and between both UK Offices for domain, e-mail, and file services. Leveraged VMWare to provide a virtual server infrastructure for offices resulting in reduced hardware demand as well as ease of management.• Plan, implement, & manage WAN & ISP Provider change for Redmond and Sherman Oaks offices, as well as LA CoLo facility. Scope included evaluating multiple vendors and selecting based on price and service plan, as well as migrating from multi point-to-point environment to a Time Warner Telecom NLAN solution to provide inter-office connectivity. Successfully migrated all external services and site-to-site VPN’s to new ISP resulting in company savings while improving performance.• Responsible for engineering migration of CoLo facility resources to Amazon Web Services Cloud solution. Designed and implemented Virtual Private Cloud, as well as created cloud-based server instances (EC2) for migration of services. Generated detailed project plan outlining all impacted systems, as well as timelines for completion. Scope included retirement of antiquated systems, as well as removal of all equipment and closure of CoLo. • Selected as Quarterly Key Contributor by management for work during Redmond remodel in Q3 of FY 2011

Bellevue, Wa

Promoted to Sr. System Administrator 12/2009. Daily work included setup, administration, configuration, and troubleshooting of servers for internal corporate systems (Exchange, File, FTP, Domain Controllers, SharePoint, SQL, etc.) on and offsite hosting facilities. Troubleshooting, configuration, and testing of networking equipment such as routers, switches, and wireless access points. • Engineer and implement large-scale infrastructure upgrade including replacement, consolidation, and upgrade switching and routing equipment for performance gain as well as reliability. Responsible for equipment selection, accrual of vendor quotes for price/service comparison, and providing analysis report of vendor options. Responsible for managing infrastructure upgrades in preparation for new equipment and separate data / voice networks. Clean up and cable optimization completed during upgrade, as well as re-engineering internal IP space. Completed ahead of schedule with minimal end-user impact. Received recognition in the form of internal company award for efforts.• Engineer, implement, & manage Bellevue WAN / Internet Infrastructure Upgrade. Scope included vendor evaluation and selection, and migration from multi T1 environment to Metro Area Network. Successfully migrated all services and cancelled antiquated T1’s, resulting in company savings and improved performance.• Successfully implemented new wireless solution for Bellevue Office, resulting in greater stability, reception, and performance throughout Bellevue office. WPA2 Enterprise with RADIUS to ensure security, consolidated to one SSID for ease of use.• Implemented Network Monitoring System for monitoring and alerting of node as well as disk space thresholds and service status.• Lead role in infrastructure virtualization initiative. Reduced infrastructure costs as well as optimized use of current physical infrastructure. Leveraged VMWare to convert various systems from physical to virtual.

Redmond, Wa

Responsible for managing multiple contractors in providing all system break / fix and new system setup across multiple labs, consisting of approximately 2300 machines, ranging from desktop systems to rack mount servers with SCSI attached storage. Responsible for quarterly forecasting and budgeting for multiple test teams lab resources. Daily tasks include overseeing system build out to specification for various test teams, ranging anywhere from single, stand alone machine to multi-machine, cross-forest trust scenarios Responsible for maintaining all lab infrastructure such as file and SQL Servers, KVM/IP systems (Raritan and Avocent), as well as debugging systems.

Kirkland, Wa

Daily administration, configuration, and troubleshooting of data center servers for both internal corporate systems (e-mail, file, etc.) as well as high availability client hosting systems (file, database, terminal service, etc.) on a variety of hardware platforms. Duties also included installation, configuration, and testing of networking equipment such as Routers, Switches, and Wireless Access Points. Duties also include end-user help desk support functions such as hardware and software troubleshooting, repair, and deployment of desktop PC’s and laptops, as well as PBX administration.

Network And System Administration/Administrator - Cisco Networking Academy Program, A

Completed successfully with Cisco Network Academy Program Certificate

Associate Of Arts And Sciences (Aas), Information Technology, B