Provided operational support for Tribune Publishing public-facing applications including web sites of its major newspaper markets. As team lead, helped build and maintain application environments as well as provide incident response and remediation.I took part in a major effort to migrate applications from in-house data centers to cloud providers including AWS. Key responsibilities included documenting and building cloud-based deployment processes for numerous applications, working closely with the development teams. I was also responsible for migrating certain applications to container-based solutions as that technology matured.Other responsibilities included application monitoring using both in-house tools and working with external vendors and application performance analysis and management.

* Responsible for management and security of production database and application servers, as well as network devices (firewalls, load balancers and traffic analyzers) at remote data centers. * Managed technical operations of corporate IT facilities, including headquarters and remote sites. * One of the lead engineers on project to virtualize the Operations, Software Development and QA environments by consolidation of physical machines onto a VMware cluster and an iSCSI-based (EqualLogic PS4000) storage back-end. The project also involved virtual-to-virtual migrations of Xen-based Linux and Windows VMs to the vSphere 4 environment.* Key team member on project to migrate and update large web hosting environment.* Updated corporate HQ network infrastructure involving inter-VLAN routing reconfiguration, replacement of core, management and access switches and upgrading to gigabit ethernet throughout the server racks, VMware cluster and SAN storage backend. * Supported development and business users (Ubuntu and Windows XP/7 desktops).* Responsible for configuration and management of internal LDAP directory.* Configured and maintained corporate knowledge management application (Atlassian Confluence) as well as the issue tracking and software development project management tool (Atlassian Jira). * Responsible for internal public key infrastructure.* Administered Zenoss to monitor Linux servers, network devices, Windows servers and databases. Wrote custom scripts and templates to extend core functionality. Other tools used included Nagios, GWmonitor and Cacti. * Responsible for backups using CA ArcServe, EqualLogic Auto Snapshot Manager, VMware Data Recovery and Linux LVM snapshots. * Supported mobile devices including iPhone and Blackberry.. * Responsible for maintaining critical services such as DNS, LDAP, DHCP and file services (iSCSI via NFS/CIFS gateways). * Maintained an Avaya IPOffice telephone system. * Provided 24/7 emergency support.

* Contract engagement with Symlabs S.A., a European software company specializing in Identity Management, LDAP proxy and Virtual Directory software. I performed Linux and Solaris systems administration, technical writing and web development, and participated in interoperability testing in conjunction with other companies working on the development of SAML and related federated identity protocols. * Other engagements involved Linux and Solaris systems administration, network management and MySQL / SQL Server database administration and architecture as well as application development for clients in the Chicago area.

* Co-founded a successful Chicago-based Internet development company, Web Design Group. In six years the company grew from two to nearly one hundred employees until it was acquired by Divine Interventures. * Responsibilities included managing all technical aspects of the company, including purchasing, configuring and administering server, network and workstation hardware and software (primarily Sun/Solaris and Intel/Red Hat servers and Cisco networking gear), data center operations and hiring additional personnel during the company's rapid growth. * Worked closely with clients including General Electric, Sram Corporation, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and many others, and was personally involved in the development of over 130 successful web application development projects during my tenure at WDG. In early 2000, sold stake in the company to practice independent consulting, drawing from the wealth of experience and insight I had gained, opting to return to more hands-on work rather than strictly management.

* Assisted in deployment of Novell messaging software on Sun Sparc 20 server hardware and Windows-based NFS implementation to all workstations. * Provided Windows server and PC support for the senior staff, accounting and legal departments. * Provided Macintosh support for the graphic design department. * Responsible for planning and implementing a wide area network connecting Continental's primary office properties in downtown Chicago and suburban locations.

* Responsible for managing approximately 30 Macintosh computers, LAN and associated prepress / print production hardware in the graphic design department. * Provided help desk support to staff.