Lance Lofthouse

http://resume.lofthouse.org/

Objective

Prospect Ave Advanced Technical Services, Hackensack, NJ 07601

Independent IT Consultant
7/02 to present 

Started a successful consulting business doing 1099 contract work and direct billing for clients: Hudson River Park Trust, NY, NY - Gerald Kluyskens, NY, NY - Easco Boiler Co. Bronx, NY, –  Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ -Wholesale Lighting Services, Springfield, NJ- Associates In Chiropractic, Hackensack, NJ - Pace Electronics, Rochester, MN plus many other clients. The core of the work for these clients has been infrastructure upgrades where, over time the system de-evolved into the situation where there was a proliferation of Windows servers and did not stay current with technology. The core of this work consists of consolidating many single function servers into one or two high power, multi-processor, redundant, high reliability and scalable systems with managed storage processor based disk space. The OS is either Win2K, 2003 or SBS. Upgrade existing domain to the Active Directory based on DFS and a designed directory structure. Setup an internal Web based Intranet for employee information. These systems usually run WTS to minimize workstation upgrade issues and provide remote access. Upgrade the network from a hierarchal to a linear, switching backbone with GB server links and 100Base-T to the workstations. Replace existing tape backup systems with offsite, automated online, disk-to-disk backup. Install version control systems like GoBack and Netapp to roll back accidents, errors, upgrades and infections. Upgrade the firewall / security system and provide a DMZ structure providing seamless remote access via Webmail, VPN and RDP. Set up antivirus, bulletproof anti-spam and spy ware protection. Set up or upgrade high speed Internet and reprovision WAN tariffs to take advantage of new lower rates.  

Specialized Technical Experience

Platforms

Compaq / HP / IBM Servers, Workstations and laptops running all Microsoft operating systems and applications (Active Directory, 2000, XP, Exchange, WTS, RIS, Office, SQL Server), HPUX, BSD, Solaris, Linux and AIX

Storage Technologies

Compaq, fibre, RAID / JBOD (Compaq, Adaptec), SANS (HDS, Netapp, Brochaid, Mylex), NAS, robotics (Legato, Storagetek).a

Networking

WAN, LAN, Cisco Switches (8500, 5000. 6000) and routers, Ethernet, GB, ISL, VLANs with expert analysis using a NWG Sniffer.

Internet

Checkapoint, Nokia, SecuRemote, VPN, PIX, Nortel, Sonicwall, PPTP, SMTP, POP, load balancing, application switches, Nfuse, IIS, Netscape, proxies, DNS, dynamic DNS and ISP relations.

Facilities

All computer room support elements, UPS (Liebert, Best), AC (Liebert), Access control (HID, smart cards), all categories of network wiring and certification.

Programming

Perl, Kix, Forth, MASM, VB, NETBIOS, APPC, Named Pipes used primarily for system administration, tools and maintenance.

Other technological experience

Certified Microsoft Windows Support Engineer, IBM LAN Server Certification (OS/2, Communications Manager, DB2), Novell Netware, Microsoft LAN Manager, 3270 (SNA Server, Attachmate, Rabbit, Rumba gateways and emulators), Arcserve, Exabyte, Cipher, Synoptics.

Other Skills

Degree in Psychology

Specific Accomplishments 

Infrastructure Upgrade Easco 2005
Easco has been a client for three years. When I started as a consultant they suffered from years of neglect by several sub-standard consulting companies. IT was on management’s radar week after week and there were serious problems interfering with their business operations, their ability to do payroll, billing, etc. There were over ten, inconsistent, specialized servers. There was no backup system. Workstations were antiquated and had massive virus infections. Today, IT is not concern for management other than an occasion purchase. There are two Quad processor Dell 6000 servers running on a RAID system with combined storage of over a terabyte. The two servers do a disk-to-disk backup providing disaster recovery and a modest degree of version control. WTS to thin clients was implemented to bring the desktop cost down for the ordinary users while the more advanced accounting desktop is run on Dell workstations. A Proxim wireless link between the two buildings saves the cost of and outperformed the previously implemented T-1 from Verizon.

After some very bad experiences with JBOD and a company called Andataco I thought it best to research every available storage option. I spent a year meeting with vendors and consultants. I thoroughly familiarized myself with every aspect of SANS, an elusive concept at best. Eventually the concept of a storage processor emerged as the critical component. Here was the heart of SANS, being able to accommodate multiple gigabit fibre interfaces and separate them using LUN masking. HDS come out the winner in cost per megabyte while their technology was fully redundant and providing dual active processors. I put together an extensive report justifying the expenditure to management. The HDS system now provides over 5TB of storage.

D&B worked closely with Microsoft in the early adoption and development of Exchange. Active Directory is an offshoot of the Exchange Directory structure. The early architects of Exchange were originally on the D&B Exchange implementation team and went to work for Microsoft. The Exchange project spawned several other projects. At the time the company was primarily running OS/2 and Windows for Networks. A controversy developed over going to either Windows 95 or NT. I polled the users community and NT came up as an overwhelming favorite. A series of hardware upgrades took place and the company migrated to NT and being on a domain. A real SMTP server was needed to provide access to Internet mail. With the new OS and SMTP relay in place we went ahead with the Exchange migration and experience almost zero NDRs due to dirsync problems. The system has been up for six years and survived two divestments and one take over. Some users have over two gigabyte mail boxes. The Compaq servers are connected to a 2TB HDS storage system.

Without any management initiative I convinced the powers to be to create an Internet presence on the Internet for the company. I was one of the last individuals to obtain a Class C address for the company bee the introduction of CIDR addresses. My Internet handle is LL159. The original connection was via a proxy / fire walled connection from Sprint. At that time The WWW was in its infancy and gopher and telnet were the only interfaces. When D&B sold off Cognizant, which was later to become IMS Health, our relationship with Sprint dissolved and we choose UUNet as our new ISP. The connection was a four tier burstable T1 protected by Checkpoint FW-1 running on NT on a Compaq platform. The IIS Web Server and the SMTP relay were located on a DMZ, an idea advanced for its time, separated from the secure network by the firewall.    

I was the lead and designer of a new network backbone for the new building. The 8540 Campus switch was just introduced by Cisco. We were actually the fifth company to purchase these systems. Knowledge of VLANs, ISL and BVIs did not exist at that time. The new network had to incorporate the existing Token Ring network that evolved from the mainframe systems and switched Ethernet technology. The very mixed environment consisted of Novell, IBM LAN Server, Windows for Networks and 3270 emulators. I championed the implementation of a pure TCP/IP protocol solution running over Cat5 unshielded twisted pair instead of the IBM preferred Cat3. 100MB Ethernet to the desktop was provided by Cisco 5000 series switches up linked via ISL and gigabit fiber to the 8540s for routing services. The 8540s provided a non-blockinfsg backbone which was cross connected by fiber. The system was a showcase for Cisco and we were asked many times to provide references and allow prospective customers to tour the computer room.

Played a major role guiding the company in the migration to personal computers in the workplace that was entirely mainframe based. Joined the company when there were three personal computers and no network. Set up the company’s first server and SNA gateway and network.