Omar Siddique's Resume

Summary	Omar Siddique is a highly experienced systems and network engineer whose skills emphasize design, architecture, technical direction, and team leadership, including a broad understanding of how technologies interrelate and integrate. He has many years experience in academic, research, web-hosting, and ISP environments.

Relevant Skills and Experience	Operating Systems	Linux, Unix, Windows, MacOS. Installation, automation, customization with focus on Redhat and Ubuntu Linux, FreeBSD.
	Network Services	Extensive experience running and customizing all common network services, often at high-volume or 24x7 usage: SMTP mail service such as Sendmail, POP/IMAP service for mail-readers, HTTP/HTTPS web service. Infrastructure services such as DNS, DHCP, NFS, AFS, NIS, NTP, FTP, rdist. Spam-blocking with SpamAssassin and milters. NNTP, bootp/TFTP, mailing list software including Majordomo and Sympa.
	Networking	In-depth understanding of network topology and IP-based technologies. Expertise in administering and troubleshooting LAN hardware. Cisco IOS. Cisco Catalyst. Network programming. NAT, firewalls, load balancing, VLANs, STP.
	Security & Encryption	Experience translating security methodology into practice, including: firewalls, SSH, SSL/TLS, Kerberos, network & filesystem ACLs, public-key encryption such as PGP, system update schemes, various best practices. Security analysis including: system and application auditing, log processing, packet stream analysis.
	Web	Expertise w/ Apache httpd, Apache Tomcat, Drupal, "LAMP". PHP and Perl web programming. HTML, XML, CSS, RSS. Webstats. Javascript, JSPs.
	Databases	MySQL and PostgreSQL configuration, tuning, and management. Use of DBI/DBD Perl API and PHP database interfaces.
	Coding	PHP, Perl, C, Shell. Collaboration with developers. SQL. RCS/CVS/svn.
	Server Hardware	Intel, Sparc, MIPS architectures. Dell Poweredge and desktops, Compellent and EMC Clariion, Sun Sunfire/Enterprise, many other server & desktop platforms.
	Storage Technologies	RAID, hardware & software, various fault-tolerant storage. Data archiving. Many varieties of SAN, NAS, SCSI, SAS, SATA storage. NFS, Samba, SMB/CIFS.
	Misc. Hardware	Terminal servers, KVMs, UPS power backup. IP cameras, printers, many sundry peripherals.
	Other	Data Center management. Conducting technical training and mentoring. High availability systems. Scaling of networks & services. System monitoring tools. X11 windowing system, FlexLM license manager, Cumulus Digital Asset Management System. XML, Nroff, Postscript, and other markup languages.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, minor in History from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Work Experience

Technical Coordinator, A. James Clark School of Engineering,
University of Maryland, College Park

Oct 2002 - Present College Park, MD

UMCP is the flagship of the University of Maryland system, with over 30,000 students and many nationally ranked programs, including the world-class Clark School of Engineering.

Responsibilities:

I.T. services in the School of Engineering are provided centrally, as well as by individual units. The Technology Officer is responsible for operation of college-level computing resources, as well as possessing the end-to-end knowledge to act as a technical resource to other IT staff. Details:

Projects:

Technical Lead/Senior Systems Administrator, Genuity

Feb 2001 - July 2002 Columbia, MD

Genuity is a leading ISP with wholesale dial-up and broadband, VPN, managed webhosting, and connectivity offerings.

Responsibilities:

The technical lead on the Access team (wholesale dial-up and broadband) must take a primary role in resolving technically complex issues and mentoring junior staff, as well as shaping IT strategy. Details:

Operation of 150 server production network, consisting of radius, DNS, monitoring, DB, web, NFS, and log servers, running on SPARC (Ultra2, E420R, Netra) with attached FC RAID.
Ensuring operation of 250 Sun Ultra10 desktops dispersed in multiple locations. Coordinated team members to respond to hardware issues and user requests.
Provided technical expertise to development and operations groups.
Staged and deployed new server and workstation hardware.
Automated sysadmin tasks. Set up and troubleshot user environments. Built, tested, and configured open-source packages.
Diagnosed system and network load-related issues.
Served as rotating site-wide on-call tech contact.

Projects:

Coordinated the de-staging and break-down of much of the I.T. infrastructure during corporate downsizing.

Client Services Engineer, Digex

Apr 2000 - Feb 2001 Beltsville, MD

Digex is a leading "managed" webhosting company, with large corporate customers.

Responsibilities:

The Client Services Engineer was the technical liason on Client Services teams assigned to support "premier" webhosting customers. His role was to understand the customers' needs, and act as liason between Digex technical staff and the customer, understanding and translating technical needs into implementation details. He provided server and network analysis as well as troubleshooting support to the teams providing customer service for these large customers. Details:

Monitored site performance on Solaris and Windows servers dedicated to "premier" customers. Made recommendations to improve site performance and fault tolerance through system configuration changes and upgrades. Forecast system and site enhancement needs based on customers' business plans.
Acted as a technical resource to Client Services account managers. Provided one-on-one tutelage and mentoring for team members.
Helped diagnose customer issues. Worked with Digex Operations and Client Services account managers to ensure customer technical requests were completed properly. Analyzed recurring problems and worked with operations groups to identify solutions.
Acted as Client Services technical liaison during conference calls, meetings, and client site visits.

Projects:

Wrote and maintained a Solaris system profiling tool in Perl to summarize detailed system information and present it in a human-readable HTML format.

Senior Systems Engineer, Consultant, Cadmus Journal Services

Apr 1999 - Jan 2000 Linthicum, MD

Cadmus Journal Services is a publishing company with a web-based unit ("E-Doc") that specializes in online scientific journals including high-visibility titles such as Nature.

Responsibilities:

The Senior Systems Consultant was brought in to repair an overwhelmed system architecture at this ambitious dot-com. Consultant was tasked with stabilizing the environment and positioning it for future growth. Consultant would also perform day-to-day systems administration while helping to hire permanent systems staff. Details:

Managed 30 node network consisting of Solaris and IRIX systems. Network included web farm, as well as database and mail servers, development workstations, and NetApp NAS units.
Installed, maintained, and patched IRIX and Solaris operating systems, with heavy local customizations. Tracked and countered security vulnerabilities. Integrated third-party and commercial software.
Managed and maintained network services, including high-traffic web servers, as well as SMTP, POP/IMAP, DNS, NIS, NTP, NFS, and FTP servers.
Built, tracked, and maintained a body of open-source software and freeware.
Performed Sybase DBA and tuning.

Projects:

Rebuilt webserver farm, tripling the amount of deployed equipment. Upgraded application and OS software on all servers and workstations on in-use production environment.
Designed robust new webserver architecture for scalability and worked with management teams to ensure that the system would address foreseeable growth.
Wrote custom monitoring software in Perl and implemented FreeBSD-based console solution to ensure system availability.
Implemented Year2000 software updates. Assisted development team in Y2K testing and audits.
Performed TCP and server tuning to increase responsiveness during peak web-traffic.
Interviewed and made hiring recommendations for permanent new systems administrators.
Evaluated backup and data-recovery requirements. Chose and implemented Workstation Solutions' QR backup package.

Senior Systems Administrator, Raytheon ITSS

Jul 1998 - Apr 1999
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Raytheon ITSS provides contractors to NASA GSFC. Senior Systems administrator supported UNIX systems in the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics Computing Facility and in Goddard's Earth Sciences "Code 900".

Responsibilities:

The senior Systems Administrator was responsible for the functioning of a diverse network of servers and workstations. He was responsible for maintaining a high state of functionality to enable the Space Flight Center's scientists' to do their groundbreaking research. Details:

Managed 130 node network of Solaris, IRIX, Digital UNIX, and HPUX systems. Network included NetApp NAS units, web, mail, and login servers.
Installed, maintained, and patched operating systems including local customizations. Tracked and countered security vulnerabilities. Integrated third-party and commercial software.
Managed and maintained network services, including Mail/POP/IMAP servers as well as Web, NTP, NFS, and FTP servers.
Monitored and responded to technical user helpdesk email.
Built, tracked, and maintained a body of open-source software and freeware.
Diagnosed hardware issues and performed necessary maintenance.
Wrote tools in perl and shell to automate sysadmin tasks.
Operated backup system using Workstation Solutions' QR software.

Projects:

Designed and implemented site system security audit. Created and implemented baseline per-OS security profiles compatible with the Center's scientific mission. Installed and operated scanner software to probe for deviations from the baseline. Ran crack password checking package.
Designed the site's first custom Solaris Jumpstart network installater. Used custom Jumpstart to methodically upgrade Sun systems to Solaris 2.6, resulting in the most consistent, up-to-date Solaris environment the site had yet experienced.

Senior Systems Administrator,
University Computing Services,
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Jan 1995 - June 1998 Baltimore, MD
July 1998 - Dec 1999 on as-needed basis

UMBC is a state university with particular strength in technical curricula such as computer science, engineering, and biology. Campus computing facilities are centrally run by University Computing Services.

Responsibilities:

The senior Systems Administrator was responsible for the functionality and upkeep of core systems and network services, along with associated public labs and applications. He was reponsible for charting the future infrastructure growth and preserving the University's cutting-edge technological placement. Details:

Managed 150 node network consisting of SGI IRIX systems. Network included web, mail, computational, and login services for 20,000 user base. Provided tier-2 support and services for staff running an additional 100 IRIX and Sun Solaris systems.
Installed, maintained, and patched IRIX and Solaris operating systems with heavy local customizations. Tracked and countered security vulnerabilities. Integrated third-party and commercial software.
Managed and maintained network services, including high volume Mail/POP/IMAP servers as well as Web, DNS, NIS, NTP, and FTP servers. Managed and tuned high-demand NFS servers.
Maintained "24x7" availability for systems and services.
Supervised and trained junior systems staff. Directed system operators. Served as escalation resource for all systems issues.
Monitored system and network related helpdesk email. Responded to escalated issues.
Diagnosed machine hardware problems, performed server hardware maintenance.

Projects:

Programmed tools in perl, C, and sh to automate repetitive tasks, such as mass disk-quota manipulation, user additions and deletions, generation of statistics from logs, and a homegrown service and system monitoring package for the use of operations staff.
Designed scheme based on NFS and rdist to maintain consistent software installations for all systems.
Built, tracked, packaged, and maintained a body of open-source software and freeware, including GNU and X11.
Monitored and troubleshot load for multi-user systems. Tuned uniprocessor systems to handle 200-300 remote users each.
Planned and implemented regular additions and mass removals of user accounts and data.
Installed and operated campus-wide Majordomo electronic mailing-list software with over 400 mailing lists.
Designed tape backup solution based on AMANDA software and multiple backup hosts/drives.
Configured and ran first and second generation WWW servers including Apache, CERN, and Netscape. Used analysis tools to generate web usage statistics and monitor performance. Configured and maintained first generation RealMedia Server. Created and maintained web content. Wrote CGI programs for dynamic web content.
Installed and operated first-generation websearch engines: Harvest, Infoseek, Webglimpse.
Planned, supervised, and implemented the move and reconfiguration of 50 IRIX workstations in one building into the role of web-surfing stations in another. Designed an evolutionary system layout for new lab workstations, maintaining customized UMBC end-user look-and-feel on a major new OS revision while revamping system organization and back-end infrastructure. Performed installation and roll-out of new system layout on 60 SGI Indy workstations to replace the original 50 systems.
Installed and configured Oracle 8.

Personal

US Citizen. Speaks casual Spanish. Knows good food and wine.

References

References available upon request.