Resume

Mark J. Wicker

ABOUT ME:

Experienced IT Leader and Senior Network Engineer with ~30 years in the business –

I believe that the future of the networking business is in automation. Some people now call this “SDN” or “Software Defined Networking”. I have been doing this for the last 10+ years with my scripts to automate multi VRF “cloud” tenant builds in Data Center environments. Back in the beginning of it, there was no such buzz-acronym as “SDN”. My version of “SDN” was writing IP aware “here document” scripts with logic tied inputs to generate and automate the correct configurations of entire network environments so that they could easily be deployed (error free) in minutes instead of hours. When tied with the API’s of various IPAM and DNS solutions, these scripts became fully automated home grown “SDN” solutions.

Because of my unique Unix/Linux system admin background where I learned how to script and automate common, repeatable tasks combined with many more years as a Cisco Senior Network Engineer and as a Leader of a global network engineering team. – I believe that I am on the forefront of what it means to be called a Senior Network Engineer in this day and age. I adhere to this same rule under which I have mentored all of my teams under – “Network Engineering, in this day and age and in the future, means that you need to be a developer/coder first who has an in depth understanding of networking protocols, standards and architecture”.

Specialties: Cisco CCIE candidate for R&S and Security
IBM pSeries/AIX 5.3 Certified Engineer
Sun Solaris 8,9,10 administrator
Certified Novell Engineer

CERTIFICATIONS (Current and Past)

  • Cisco CCIE Written Passed (R&S and Security)
  • Cisco CCNP/CCNA
  • CheckPoint CCSA
  • IBM Certified Specialist – eServer P5, Pseries, AIX v 5.3
  • CNE, Novell NetWare 5®
  • Microsoft MCP

 

WORK EXPERIENCE  (~30 Years)

esri

380 New York Street, Redlands, CA

Employed: 12/2014 to Present

Title: Senior Manager, IST Network Services (3/2024 – Present)

Title: Manager, IST Network Services (11/2018 – 3/2024)

Title: Senior Network Engineer/Team Lead (12/2014 – 11/2018)

Responsible for leading/managing and working alongside (in the trenches with) a team of 9 Network and Firewall Admins, implementing complex network upgrades as well as day to day operations in a Cisco IP network environment. Responsibilities and projects include:

  • Architected a new redundant 100G data center network for a co-location using Nexus 9500, 9300, 3500, ASR-1001X routers and Palo Alto 7080 firewall chassis.
  • Migrated all remote offices from CheckPoint to Palo Alto firewalls
  • Upgraded legacy data centers from Catalyst switch architecture to Nexus 7K,5K,2K.
  • Enterprise CheckPoint Firewall Administration
  • Enterprise Cisco wireless network administration/troubleshooting
  • F5 LTM and GTM Load Balancer management/configuration
  • Pulse Secure VPN administration
  • Manages a large 26 building campus IP network
  • Architected and automated a secure multi-tenant data center network architecture
  • Developed web based tools from scratch to automate network configuration and provisioning for the team
  • Education and mentoring of team members
  • Troubleshooting complex network performance issues via packet capture and communication flow analysis
  • Worked with telco providers on multi entrance/path fiber connectivity to large campus
  • Works with/coordinates with global office support teams on remote office network builds/moves

Ticketmaster/LiveNation Entertainment

7060 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

Employed: 1/2012 to 12/2014

Title: Senior Manager, Global Network Engineering and Operations (1/2013-12/2014)

Title: Senior Network Engineer (1/2012-1/2013)

Managed a global team of 15.

Highly technical mentor and manager to all engineers and interfaces/collaborates with network architects and upper management to help design and execute complex network projects as well as prioritization of operational tasks.

Responsible for network design, projects and support across the globally co-located data center networks, WAN/MPLS and ISP edge networks around the world. Install and manage all DC firewalls and legacy load balancers. Work hand in hand with the core and web systems teams on building/provisioning/troubleshooting all levels of network issues and projects.

Projects:

  • Cisco Nexus 7k, 5k, 2k / ASA 5585 firewall virtualization/network replacement at all US colo’s. Installed and migrated the various cloud/customer physical network pods into this new virtualized Cisco infrastructure.
  • Cisco ACS 5 appliance rollout across the US colo’s. Installed and integrated new ACS appliances with existing legacy RSA infrastructure and migrated network devices to it for authentication.
  • Scripting/maintenance of network tools utilizing bash and perl. Built custom scripts for more easily generating repetitive network configurations as well as fixing/maintaining existing network mgmt tools.
  • Data Center decommission/migration in the US. Worked actively from a network perspective on this all inclusive, company wide initiative. Migrated subnets, equipment and firewall rules/policies from the colo being decomm’d to other, still active colo’s

Ventura Foods, LLC

 40 Pointe Drive, Brea, CA

Employed: 12/2010 to 1/2012

Title: Supervisor, Information Technology Services

Responsible for leading and implementing all IP network build-outs and operational support/troubleshooting of tier 3 and 4 network issues in a mixed Cisco and HP environment. Responsible for all SAN functions, IBM XiV and Brocade fiber channel switches. Responsible for all network and server monitoring tools. Responsible for backup server infrastructure (TSM servers and IBM tape libraries). 1 direct report.

Projects:

  • AT&T AVPN (MPLS)/AVTS WAN implementation at all remote sites and data centers. Developed router configurations, test plans, test scripts and implementation plan. Executed implementation and successfully cutover the entire company WAN from Sprint to AT&T with AVTS (DMVPN) backup.
  • SAN stabilization/standardization of all Brocade fiber channel switches. Analyzed, developed and implemented new standard configurations on both production fabrics. Also converted all XiV storage pools to thin provisioning and cleaned up badly allocated space. Day to day SAN operations such as zoning, creating new storage pools and volumes as well as mapping volumes to hosts.
  • WAN optimization POC utilizing Riverbed Steelhead, Cisco WAAS and Silverpeak appliances. Configured and installed devices into pilot sites and production data center. Implemented and developed/executed test plan on network before and after devices were activated.
  • Disaster Recovery site relocation and buildout. Relocated DR data center to AT&T co-lo. Built new DR network from the ground up with Internet and MPLS WAN connectivity. Built new DR test lab with out of band reachability and B2B VPN tunnel to co-lo using ASA firewall, simulating a remote site for testing purposes.
  • Performed supervisor role to direct report, Performance reviews, guidance, delegation of tasks, etc.

Mercury Insurance Group

555 W Imperial Hwy, Brea, CA

Employed: 11/2007 to 12/2010

Title: Senior Network Engineer

Responsible for leading and implementing all IP network build-outs and operational support/troubleshooting of tier 3 and 4 network issues in a mixed Cisco, Nortel, F5 Load Balancer and Nokia CheckPoint environment.

Projects:

  • Brea Data Center network infrastructure replacement utilizing new Cisco Nexus network infrastructure. Installed Nexus 7010 core switches and Nexus 5020 and 2248 server access switches. Configured 7010’s with multiple distribution VDC’s running EIGRP for route propagation between them. Installed dual router/dual MPLS.
  • Folsom Data Center build utilizing new Cisco Nexus network infrastructure. Installed Nexus 7010 core switches and Nexus 5010 and 2148 server access switches. Configured 7010’s with multiple distribution VDC’s running EIGRP for route propagation between them. Installed dual router/dual MPLS provider WAN running eBGP.
  • Installed new Aruba wireless network infrastructure utilizing Aruba 3400 and 3200 controllers with 46 AP’s.
  • Call Center VoIP implementation utilizing new Avaya VoIP enabled PBX equipment running on a Cisco IP network. Implemented Cisco 6509/3750 switch infrastructure to support VoIP. Developed and Implemented QoS policies for Voice over IP on MPLS and replaced legacy Nortel switches with Cisco PoE enabled switches. Implemented layer 2 QoS on Cisco 3750G stackable switches.
  • OC-48 SONET installation – Cutover all DS-3 and OC-3 WAN circuits from old OC-12 SONET ring to new OC-48 SONET ring.
  • Installed dual DS-3 SAN replication WAN with Riverbed Interceptors and 6050 Steelhead appliances to optimize the traffic.
  • New Mercury site build outs and existing site Nortel to Cisco conversions.

Farmers Insurance Group / Zurich North America

4750 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

Employed: 3/2001 to 11/2007

 

2/2005 – 11/2007

Title: Senior UNIX Admin

3/2001 – 2/2005

Title: Senior Network Engineer

 

Title: Senior UNIX Admin

Responsible for building, installing operating systems and business as usual troubleshooting and support/administration of Sun and IBM UNIX systems. Hardware support included Sun E220, E420, E450 and Sunfire V240, V440 and V480 systems as well as IBM H70, B80, M80, S80 and eServer P650, P690 and P590/595 systems with virtualization. All systems connected to EMC SAN with Symmetrix and CLARiiON storage.

Software support included Sun Solaris v 7, 8 and 9 with Solaris Volume Manager (DiskSuite) as well as IBM AIX v 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 with dynamic LPAR. Authored Korn shell scripts to streamline administration processes utilizing dsh. Additional products supported on servers: Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) client, Tivoli (Candle) monitoring agents and EMC drivers/Powerpath.

Projects:

  • Jumpstart Implementation – Implemented Jumpstart server and created standard FLAR images for Sun infrastructure builds.
  • Service Center – built LPAR’s/hardware and installed AIX v 5.2 and 5.3 on 25 LPAR’s with Veritas Cluster and 10+ Sun V440 systems with Solaris 8 and 9 using Jumpstart.
  • Multi-Line Customer Data Mart (MLCDM) – built LPAR’s on HMC and installed AIX 5.3 on 15 AIX LPAR’s using NIM. Used vmo to tune for better performance on distributed UDB database servers.
  • eAgent expansion (100% adoption) – built hardware and installed Solaris 8 on 10+ Sun V440 systems.
  • NIM server implementation – rebuilt NIM server and wrote scripts to centralize admin tasks and automated process of taking regular mksysb’s from all servers/LPAR’s.
  • EMC migration project – migrated data on 25 AIX servers from older frame to new frame using migratepv
  • DST patch implementation – wrote and executed scripts to push out maintenance level updates and java patches for DST change simultaneously on all AIX servers/LPAR’s.

Title: Senior Network Engineer (Farmers Insurance Group / Zurich North America)

Responsible for highest level of network support across all technical areas of the 8000+ node Cisco network.  Responsibilities included project implementation, organizing resources, and troubleshooting post-implementation problems. Project implementations included provisioning/configuring new Cisco hardware and modifying configurations on existing hardware, documentation via Visio network diagrams and attending design meetings. Support included business as usual operations with IP/ EIGRP core network and level 3 troubleshooting/support of NOC staff.

Projects:

  • Agent SNA to IP network conversion – Converted agents from multi-drop SDLC WAN links to IP over frame relay/ ATM utilizing Cisco 1720 routers running IP/ DLSw across 7500+ locations.
  • Zurich Kemper Life Redundant Extranet – Implemented fully redundant extranet connectivity to Zurich Kemper Life utilizing BGP with EIGRP and DLSw through PIX firewalls.
  • Foremost Internet Redundancy/ Upgrade – Implemented dual DS-3 Internet connectivity utilizing eBGP with two different carriers for Foremost DMZ and STAR application.
  • eAgent network – Built and configured DMZ infrastructure for support of new eAgent application. Infrastructure included F5 Load Balancers with SSL termination, Cisco PIX 525 and 535 firewalls, Cisco 6509 switches and Checkpoint Firewalls. Configured advanced URI based load balancing and SSL termination pools on F5 hardware. Managed PIX and CheckPoint firewall ACL’s and NAT tables.
  • MPLS network – Designed and configured IP addressing scheme and eBGP routing strategy for ATT MPLS network connectivity. Wrote core and remote router configurations and implementation scripts. Instructed and mentored staff on conversion activities.

Compushare, Inc.

3 Hutton Centre Dr., Suite 700, South Coast Metro, CA

Employed: 4/1999 to 3/2001

Title: Senior Network Engineer

Responsibilities included on-site LAN/WAN consulting/support for our customers. Supported most IT equipment across all levels (Desktops, Servers, Switches, routers and firewalls).

Projects:

  • Fireside Thrift Cisco Switch conversion – Designed and implemented new, redundant Cisco campus network utilizing Cisco 4006-L3 and 3548 switches. Migrated from old Bay Networks infrastructure to new Cisco infrastructure. Implemented CiscoWorks Campus Manager to manage all new switches.
  • Mechanics Bank Internet Infrastructure upgrade – Implemented CheckPoint firewall and ISS IDS to secure T1 Internet connection. Implemented VPN remote client connectivity via CheckPoint firewall.
  • Commercial Bank of San Francisco infrastructure upgrade– Lead project engineer responsible for managing conversion from Novell Netware 3 to Microsoft NT 4 Servers as well as 200+ desktop hardware / OS upgrades. Also implemented Cisco WAN with ISDN backup infrastructure.
  • Eldorado Bank Netware 5 and IPX to IP conversion – Lead project engineer responsible for creating project plan / procuring hardware and implementation of server infrastructure conversion from Netware 3 / 4 on IPX to Netware 5 over IP. Project involved travel to 25 remote sites to perform individual conversions and Novell desktop client upgrades. Cisco router infrastructure was also upgraded and ISDN WAN backup strategy was implemented.
  • Eldorado Bank cc:Mail to GroupWise 5 conversion – Lead project engineer responsible for managing and implementing installation of new GroupWise 5 server POA and MTA infrastructure/client software and Also implemented GroupWise Internet connectivity using GWIA and GW-WebAccess server.

Creative Computer Consultants Firm

12722 Riverside Drive, Suite 101, Valley Village, CA

Employed: 8/1997 to 4/1999

Title: Network Engineer

Responsibilities included business as usual on-site LAN/WAN consulting/support for our customers. Supported most IT equipment across all levels (Desktops, Servers, Switches, routers and firewalls). Equipment supported included Cisco and ACC routers, Novell Netware servers and PC desktops with Windows 95/98.

Customers:

  • Autry Museum of Western Heritage
  • Industrial Bank
  • The Buckley School
  • Sports Chalet
  • Hilton Hotels

MW PC Services

13617 Via Del Palma, Whittier, CA

Self-employed: 9/1994 to 8/1997

Self-employed. Responsibilities included desktop PC builds and small Microsoft server implementations. Installed LAN’s for small business clients. Setup LAN Internet access via ISDN and T1 connections.

Customers:

  • Gabriel Container Company
  • Satir Gonzalez Photography

GENERAL SKILLS

  • Advanced Enterprise IP routing and switching
  • OSPF, EIGRP, RIP and BGP
  • Carrier level WAN technologies (SONET, MPLS, VRF)
  • Legacy WAN Technologies  (ATM, Frame-Relay, ISDN)
  • Cisco Nexus 7000, 5000, 2000 series switches (NxOS)
  • Cisco 2800, 3800, 7500 and 7200 Series Routers w/ IOS 12.0-12.4
  • IBM AIX 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 / eServer Pseries hardware
  • Sun Solaris v7,8,9,10 / Sun V240, V440, V880 and Legacy 450 hardware
  • Linux and BSD Unix
  • Cisco 4000, 6500 Series LAN Switches with CAT OS and CAT IOS
  • Cisco IGX WAN Switches, DS-3, OC-3
  • Cisco PIX/ASA Firewalls and VPN’s
  • CheckPoint Firewalls
  • F5 BigIP Load Balancers
  • Riverbed Steelhead and Interceptor WAN optimization
  • 802.11 b/g/n Wireless technologies (Aruba Wireless 3400, 3200 controllers and AP’s)
  • IBM Host and Midrange System Internetworking (DLSw)
  • Administration of Veritas Cluster service
  • Internet Technologies
  • Novell Netware 3.x, 4.x, 5.x
  • Microsoft Windows 2000, 2003 Pro and Server
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server and Workstation 4.0
  • Microsoft Desktop OS (Win 95/98/XP/Vista, Windows 7)
  • PC hardware

REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

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