Skills

Budget and cost-savings

I believe that every IT expense must align with a corporate business goal, and those purchase decisions must involve a thorough  evaluation of all relevant vendors in the industry. This approach enables IT departments to identify the best cost leader who can provide for all the needs in a project. In one example, I enabled an organization to cut costs by adopting a system integration model instead of a "cookie-cutter" approach when I built their IT infrastructure. While this initially involved a more hands-on configuration, the savings to our budget justified this approach and allowed us to have available funds for other projects that year.

Security-focused philosophy

Security in IT is a two-part process that involves technical and people aspects. I have helped companies become more security-focused through deployment of security infrastructure (firewalls, WPA2-Enterprise WiFi networks, security policies) and by providing cybersecurity awareness trainings to staff in the form of lunch-and-learns and eLearning platforms like KnowBe4.

Vendor Relations

The best vendor relationships are those that are understood as partnerships instead of purely transactional. One lesson I learned from a former boss was how a solid working relationship  could be developed with partners via simple acts of hospitality such as a friendly greeting or offering a cup of coffee to an account manager during an onsite visit. From my own experience, better relationships always lead to better results from vendors and partners.

I helped a company deploy its first digital asset management solution to organize its media assets. The project involved working with third party consultants to research and vet potential vendors, attending the Henry Stewart DAM conference in New York, and organizing the onsite demos with  our finalists. Once we had selected our DAM vendor, I was responsible for deploying the servers and SAN and working closely with their engineers and our DAM Manager to configure the DAM in accordance with our metadata model and upload our assets to it.

My 5 years of experience as an IT Manager has allowed me to be involved  with nearly all aspects of managing an IT infrastructure including servers, networking, storage, and Microsoft 365. My strongest area of sysadmin expertise is in server management, virtualization, and Exchange & SharePoint Online. Some of the projects I have completed include a P2V Hyper-V migration, network upgrade involving a WatchGuard firewall and Unifi access points, and implementation of Microsoft Teams and new SharePoint sites.

My focus in PowerShell is primarily around Windows Server management and automation. Some of my work is available on my Github page here: https://github.com/theitguy107

I've presented at SpiceWorld in Austin, TX three times since 2018 and enjoy talking about IT management soft skills and various technical topics. You can view some of my sessions under the Video tab of my website.