Acquisition of TSO Logic to AWS Migration EvaluatorLead a project to make several security improvements to the application that were required for the acquisition by AWS to close; the most significant were changing application deployment to enable encryption at rest of our database, and encryption in transit of our logs.Solutions Architect staff needed visibility into the operational status of the collector application deployed inside customer's datacenter that was responsible for discovering and monitoring IT infrastructure. Issues with the software not being deployed correctly would cause delays and eat up a lot of time going back and forth with the customer to fix issues. I designed and built a rapid feedback system where the collector application would package all useful status information into a JSON payload and upload it to S3 hourly; this data combined with an Amazon Athena schema allowed staff to use SQL-like queries to quickly identify which customer's installations were having issues among the dozens of customers each staff member was responsible for, significantly reducing operational pain.Lead a project to split the monolithic application along business boundaries - one application for data collection installed inside customer's datacenter, and one application for analysis and reporting. This separation would allow each application to have an independent development/test/release cycle that would reduce the burden on developers and QA staff. I defined a JSON schema that specified the data contract between the two applications and built an application to process this data into the reporting and analysis application. This new tool reduced the time required to deploy the software with customer data from multiple days to less than one hour. For this project I also built a new suite of integration tests using Property-based Testing methodology; these tests in their 8 hour runtime automated what previously took several weeks of multiple QA staff to cover.

From cost reduction by turning off idle infrastructure to cost prediction to support cloud migration. Built an agentless data collector application with integrations into popular IT infrastructure vCenter, Hyper-V, F5, that could discover servers and use open protocols to collect utilization information. This data was fed into an algorithm that would determine whether or not a server was doing any work or if it was idle and should be shut down to reduce electricity costs. This reduced the electricity costs of a customer producing 3D animated television programs by 6-figures annually. Turning off idle IT infrastructure was not succeeding as a business, so the company pivoted to leverage the inventory and utilization data our existing application supported and built a tool to analyze and predict the cost of migrating infrastructure to the cloud. I designed a "matching algorithm" that factored provisioning (cpu, memory, operating system, storage) and utilization of a server and identified the cheapest compatible and performance equivalent cloud instance available. Lead the team in building this new idea for the business; identified core components - matching algorithm, cloud vendor catalog, processor performance catalog, new UI - and co-ordinated the team; within six weeks we had a working product. The business was invited to Amazon's annual Sales Kick-off event where internal AWS sellers and account managers meet to share knowledge about how to help customers migrate to cloud faster. Two weeks before the show, company stakeholders asked me if I could integrate software licensing (Windows, SQL Server) capabilities into the matching algorithm, as software license costs are a significant factor when migrating to cloud. Working closely with our product owner, I analyzed the rules for software licensing and built the feature in time for the show. This feature was a smash-hit, getting the company noticed and was a direct influence to AWS acquiring TSO Logic in 2019.

 Refactored the product’s codebase to loosely couple objects to make them unit testable. Built a support framework for mocking out common dependencies (ex. http context and session) that once in place, other developers quickly began using to write their own tests, growing the existing test suite from a couple dozen to over 330 tests. Took ownership of the build process; stream-lining it for quick continuous integration, taking only a couple of minutes per build (instead of >40 minutes) and maintaining all scripts and product installers. Automated static code analysis of all JavaScript code in the product so that errors could be detected quickly during the continuous integration build, instead of only during the full release build which takes a long time. Quickly learned JavaScript and the ExtJS framework and became the lead developer on the product’s web user interface.

 Real time monitoring of the Message and Reporting Server (MARS) was initially only possible by direct workstation access; I built a feature in my spare time that broadcast operational/debug messages over the network to multiple clients to eliminate that restriction (and received a bonus for it). Designed and built functionality for multiple MARS installations on a network to collaboratively determine which of them should take over operation when the primary one failed, ensuring redundancy and no system downtime. Wrote a suite of tests that automated validating a huge portion of system configuration in the database, automatically fixing problems where possible, and reporting to the tester what was wrong otherwise. Using ASP.NET and jQuery, created a web form that dynamically and asynchronously updated control values based on user choices to make data entry as rapid as possible for the end users’ most common task. Documented the installation steps necessary to get different projects’ environments installed correctly on a new developers’ workstation.

 Introduced version control (SVN), defect tracking (FogBugz), code coverage analysis (NCover), unit testing (NUnit), and code review practices to the rest of the team.  Setup a reverse integration development process, all development is done in branches and only merged into trunk after review. This process has caught many defects before they make it into the application. Designed the data access layer around the existing legacy database schema using Fluent-NHibernate, leveraging the C# compiler to help catch mistakes in mapped database entities. Built the administration tool in WPF using the MVVM pattern that allows end users to tailor data entry to meet their needs, customize validation rules, add/remove fields, and setup user permissions. Added the ability to synchronize end users’ data entry templates with report generation; when clients add new fields to their templates those fields become available to reports automatically, saving them a call to technical support. Provided feedback in the company hiring process; conducted telephone and in-person interviews of potential candidates; tested their programming skills. Updated the end user technical manual.

Custom home automation solutions- Created an RS232 to Ethernet bridge device (hardware design and C++ firmware) with UPnP support that enabled integration of non-Ethernet devices into the product.- Wrote robust, reliable, firmware in C for two PIC microprocessor devices.- Developed a C# (with portions in C++.NET) class library, including documentation and a test harness, for controlling wireless network configurations, power management, touch screen calibration, and hard disk write protection features of the devices running Windows XP Embedded.- Wrote a Windows device driver in C to query temperature, fan speed, and control the “watchdog” features of the hardware monitoring sensor of the products server PC.- Designed, prototyped, and moved into production five new Ethernet controllable devices for home automation systems. Including: - A radio tuner that was 50% cheaper to manufacture than its predecessor. - A device that, by emulating an infrared remote, enabled computer control of consumer electronics without RS232 (firmware in C); this increased the product’s compatibility with other consumer electronics.- Built custom operating systems based on Windows XP Embedded for three distinct devices which served as the platforms for the applications that ran the product.- Built firmware for proprietary AMX hardware to control consumer electronics by implementing RS232 communication protocols; software which is still in use today. - Wrote test harness applications in C# that emulated RS232 communication protocols to interact with my firmware and test how it responded to messages, allowing me to test my software when access to the hardware it controlled was not available.