Ralph Bolton - Solutions Architect

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Curriculum Vitae

Overview

I am a Solutions Architect, able to find, diagnose and resolve problems in complex IT projects spanning multiple machines, technologies, vendors and operating departments. With proven Architecture and Systems Administration skills with Redhat Linux, Windows, networking, security and firewalling, I am able to work closely with anyone from technicians to senior managers to resolve issues. I own problems and work pro-actively and pragmatically until their resolution.

I am uniquely able to analyse complex situations, understand them, break them down into workable pieces and report to all levels of an organisation in plain language, understood by everyone, regardless of their technical prowess. Gifted with excellent judgement and broad experience, I am also able to direct decisions towards an optimal, practical and deliverable solution. Then also able to follow up and ensure actual resolutions are realised into production.

I have worked on large and massive scale media, financial and government projects providing service to large numbers of users. Such projects have been Apache, Java/J2EE, Websphere, JBoss or SAP based, predominantly utilising Oracle, MySQL, proprietary and mainframe back end systems.

Skills

Highly experienced solutions architect and Unix systems administrator. Competent to specify, set-up and maintain mission critical, high availability Redhat Linux systems, working in mixed vendor and highly complex environments (both 'big iron' and commodity hardware based). Able to diagnose and resolve issues transcending traditional skills discipline and supplier/client boundaries, owning problems, facilitating solutions and working with specialists in each area as necessary.

Uniquely talented at analysing complex situations and concepts, 'translating' them into plain language that is easily understood by all levels and disciplines of an organisation. Able to simplify difficult concepts without dropping details to effect resolution or progress. Then able to work with all levels and all departments of an organisation to actually deliver solutions into production.

Experienced systems manager, with good understanding of security, capacity planning and performance management. Also have experience of massive-scale online 'user management' by global DNS traffic control, network VIP control, system/site fail-over and 'tactical downtime'. Have worked in mixed vendor/technology environments consisting of Linux, Solaris, Windows and appliance based systems including Netapp NAS systems at financial, government and new media organisations.

Well versed in best practice systems administration with operational procedures, deployment policies, packaging, version control and change management. Experience in the creation and monitoring of Service Level Agreements, Quality of Service and systems availability metrics.

Fully conversant with numerous web and network technologies and applications, such as virtualisation, networking, firewalls, security and system hardening. Have worked with multi-tiered online systems consisting of Apache, JBoss, Tomcat, WebSphere, SAP, MQ Series, Oracle, MySQL and others.

Advanced Perl and PHP programming experience, mostly in web enabled tools and applications. Have thorough knowledge of system interactions over networks, hacker prevention and security. Have used, developed and maintained numerous applications in this area. Good understanding of Unix shell programming in Bourne Shell, Perl, Sed, Awk etc.

Knowledge of various miscellaneous technologies such as Windows (Server and Workstation), firewalls (CheckPoint, SonicWall etc.), Windows/Unix DNS, DHCP, printing (including IPP), SSL, Secure Shell (SSH), IIS, BackupExec, VNC, NAT, PGP/GPG, Solaris Jumpstart, NFS, NIS, SMTP, etc. Some Weblogic, iPlanet etc. OpenSTA, Load Runner and other load testing tools. Modest experience of SIP VoIP. Some knowledge of the physical aspects of IT, such as environment, cabling, safety etc.

Knowledge of Waterfall and Agile methodologies. Some project management skills, task, timescale and resource planning. Able to define, track and deliver on numerous tasks across numerous teams and resources.

A modest knowledge of French and German.

Full driving license.

Employment History

June 2007 – Present: Solutions Architect, Yahoo! (Permanent). Working in Service Engineering solving problems spanning responsibility boundaries across a number of properties including European Front Pages, Yahoo! Answers and Mail, as well as in back office services such as Yahoo!'s CDN, networks and traffic management.

As a hands-on technical team leader, have simplified, refreshed and redesigned numerous components of properties, most notably Yahoo! Answers. Have removed legacy, cleaned installations and effected application changes with Engineering and commercial teams to enhance performance, manageability, reliability and monitoring of systems. This has lead to a demonstrably lower operating cost and more flexible architecture with fewer user-affecting incidents.

Created a web based, and CI-integrated tool to analyse web pages and identify potential delivery cost savings. Identified, demonstrated and facilitated operational cost savings globally across Yahoo! in excess of $5,000,000/year. A part of this work produced a CI-integrated file optimiser for images, JS and CSS files. Both now in use in various Yahoo! properties' around the world.

Developed a means to correctly configure Redhat systems 'speedstep' feature on modern hardware to balance performance and power consumption (a problem affecting thousands of machines in Yahoo!). This tool was adopted by Performance Engineering for global deployment on affected systems.

Frequent participant in “Hack Days” (an innovation capture initiative), prototyping and demonstrating various ideas and suggestions.

Systems Architect and Stress Testing Technical Facilitator, Fujitsu Services (Contract). Providing technical guidance, interpretation and solutions facilitation to stress testing activities and providing architecture skills to a large, complex SAP based ERP project at a government department.

Managing Director, Pre-Emptive Limited (Self Employed). Developed and marketed a web search engine appliance product. Primarily performing sales and marketing activities, customer meetings, evaluations etc. and software development work, accounts and financial control.

WebSphere/Unix Administrator, Logica CMG (Contract). Working at a major insurance company customer site, performing various WebSphere and Unix related administration tasks.

Support Manager, Brokat/Cambista (Permanent). Brokat developed a pre-J2EE application server used to provide Internet banking services to early-adopter banks. Cambista later bought Brokat UK and sold a J2EE application for corporate and business banking.

Hired to provide support to financial institution customers on company products and developments (on and off site and helpdesk). Often working hands-on with 'snagging' issues during implementation/test of new multi-tier, multi-vendor, multi-technology solutions or during architecture design stages at customers including The Co-Operative Bank (smile), ABN Amro, GE Capital, Orbian, first-e, American Express and others. Managed support for the company, at one time managing two staff, supporting the business and customers including Post Giro, Steria and others. Also responsible for internal systems administration, implementing and running Unix and Windows systems, producing documentation, procedures, and working within budgets, managing suppliers etc. Heavily involved in creating support offering for the company (SLAs, Service Descriptions etc.), and supporting company users and developers during product R&D.

Internet Systems Specialist, Siemens Business Services. Managed and deployed firewalls and web access equipment for Siemens group companies and SBS customers.

Graduate Unix Systems Developer, Mitel Semiconductor. Responsible for company wide systems projects,deployments and site support.

Education

Hobbies and Interests

I run quite a bit (occasionally for charity), as well as rock climb, cycle and walk. I'm also a qualified ski instructor. Other than that, I'm often out with friends, pubbing/clubbing, or having curries/burgers etc.

Referees

Please contact me for current referee details.

This version of this document has been redacted. Please contact me for the full version.