I am Doug,
an IT Infrastructure Architect
based
in Atlanta.
About
I have a broad breadth of IT Infrastructure experience. I have worked in Telecommunications, Network Engineering, Security, Infrastructure Operations, Systems Engineering, and Infrastructure Management. Currently I am working as an Infrastructure Architect on the Southern Company.
Download Resume- Broad beadth of IT Infrastructure Knowledge and Experience
Experience
IT Infrastructure Solutions
IT Infrastructure Architect
November 2017 - Present
I worked on the project moving applications from the Atlanta Gas Light data center to our standard compute infrastructure, security framework, and implementation processes in the Southern Company data centers. I develop a new strategy with the Disaster Recovery Team where we fundamentally changed how the DR environments were setup, used, and verified.
Infrastructure Management
IT Infrastructure Analyst
September 2015 - November 2017
I participated in outlining the initial monitoring of Atlanta Gas Light applications, databases, and infrastructure prior to the initiating of the data center consolidation project. I conducted detailed evaluations of new products and capabilities: Nokia SAM, IBM Tivoli Network Manager, Moogsoft AIOps.
Systems Engineering
IT Systems Engineer
February 2008 - September 2015
I provided engineering to implement new applications and related upgrades. I sized servers, determine web farm load balancing, craft firewall rules, message-oriented middleware, and various application servers. I assisted business units with cost options, budget projections, and lifecycle management.
Infrastructure Operations Center
IT Supervisor
March 2005 - February 2008
Supervised a multidiscipline technical team (Tier 2) and the 24/7 network/telecommunications operations center.
IT Security
IT Analyst
October 2000 - March 2005
Created a vulnerability management program, facilitated the resolution of critical vulnerabilities, tracked and communicated metrics associated with the program. I formulated and facilitated the adoption of various security standards and the network connectivity policy. I worked on several security assessments with critical utility infrastructure.
Network Engineer
IT Analyst
October 1997 - October 2000
I worked on multiple projects involving network upgrades to network cabling, switched Ethernet, and replacing all the routers for Georgia Power for Y2K compliance.
Southern LINC
Engineering Analyst
March 1994 - October 1997
I was the analyst responsible for the Georgia hub in Atlanta. I spent time troubleshooting circuits, provision cross-connect switches, and maintain the cell sites in the metro Atlanta area.
Education
Kennesaw State University
Masters in Business Administration
2008
Southern Polytechnic State University
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Technology
1997
Georgia Tech Data Analysis Cohort
Certificate in Data Analysis
2020
Interesting Projects
Here are some of my favorite projects I have worked on in the past. Feel free to check them out.
Critical Risk Index
One challenge with vulnerability management is that it can be an opportunity rich environment. It can be difficult to set priorities when business units aspire to eliminate risk. Another challenge is being able to measure an attack profile with a sampling rate that can measure progress of your efforts. I leveraged a vulnerability scan profile that identified critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited across the network to compromise a system with the rights of an authenticated user. I communicated and had these priorities and worked to get them adopted by the department. With routine sampling of this information, we were able to share progress on reducing our attack surface and identifying efforts to give us the most benefit. We spent a lot of time working with different support groups to mitigate these vulnerabilities. This did not encompass the entire vulnerability management program, however, it did provide a high visible win for the IT Security organization.
Plant Control Systems
Initially plant control systems were an island, and the security profile was reflected in that reality. However, there is a lot of valuable information to be gained from these control systems on how plants are operated and opportunities to improve efficiency. To get access to this information, these control systems needed to be accessible from the enterprise network. In this project, I identified security vulnerabilities that needed to be addressed, implemented firewalls to facilitate secure connectivity, and finalized processes to maintain the required security profile. Security should enable business, not be an impediment.
Maximo Application Performance
When I came to Systems Engineering, the company was well on its way to implementing its Enterprise Resource Management applications with IBM being one of its pillars. At this time, the company had little exposure to Java EE and there were significant concerns about application performance. Tuning the Java heap settings in WebLogic did not produce any perceptible benefits. I worked with the application performance testing group to load test a development environment. We ran it through multiple ways of scaling the application environment with no improvement in performance. We discovered that the version of Maximo we were running used a version of Java that ran garbage collection single threaded. The servers ordered were Solaris T1. While good for transactional applications, the slow clock speed on the hardware threads would not meet our performance requirements.
Data Center Consolidation
I work for an electric utility that purchased a natural gas company. The department decided to merge the technology organizations and consolidate data centers. I worked to move applications from the natural gas company over to our main data center at the electric utility. This involved getting the application to work on our infrastructure, security framework, deployment models, and process/procedures. I really consider the project a misnomer, it was more of an application standardization project instead of data center consolidation.
1996 Olympic Capacity
Working for a new subsidiary will require you to be resourceful in new ways. As a new wireless provider, Southern LINC saw the 1996 Olympics as a unique opportunity. We had to expand base radio capacity for individual sites, script digital cross-connect provisioning, and review site configuration in a short window. Planning a big telecommunication cut is crucial.
Y2K Networking
With this project, we accomplished more than Y2K compliance. We were able to do lifecycle management on our routers, improve the consistency with device configuration, and completed changes in how we implemented routing protocols. I spend more time working on the capital accounting, property tracking, and general project management.
Sundar Pichai
CEO, Alphabet
“Wear your failures as a badge of honor.”
Jeff Bezos
Founder of Amazon
“If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.”
Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft
“Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.”
Tim Cooks
CEO, Apple
"You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem."
Get In Touch
I love to hear from you. Whether you have a question or just want to chat about IT Infrastructure, IT Security, or Cloud Computing — shoot me a message.