After an awesome four and a half years I have decided to leave ePlus. My last day was June 8th.

I have to admit, it was an extremely hard decision. Of the past half of a decade ePlus has provided unquestioned support for “crazy” ideas like using service provider technology in enterprise designs, or focusing on this new and crazy “Data Center” thing four years ago. Having support to explore and thrive on the bleeding edge of technology while working with some of the largest customers in the world made every day an adventure.

The most transformational experiment for me personally was implementing an overlay model in the western area. I have to thank the Area VP and corporate leadership for taking the risk and allowing us to transform the business from Voice and R/S partner to the top Data Center partner in the west. Trusting and empowering us with this change was a huge opportunity, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without that experience. Thank you.

Over the years as people have changed employers I have always said that teams span corporate boundaries. I hope that as I embark on my next challenge that we continue that tradition and keep in touch.

I can be reached by the following methods -
Linkedin     http://www.linkedin.com/in/colinmcnamara
My blog       http://www.colinmcnamara.com
Twitter        http://www.twitter.com/colinmcnamara
Facebook    http://www.facebook.com/colin.mcnamara1
yahoo im    op_colin_mcnamara
google chat  mcnamara.colin

Thanks again for everything, It has been a blast.

–Colin McNamaraSimilar Posts:

• About Colin McNamara
• Twitter Updates for 2008-06-05
• Resume – Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233
• Cisco releases Nexus 1000V virtual switch for VMware
• Reader question – Why are corporations looking for BGP experience?
• Cisco Storage Partners – California… a very small list

--Colin McNamara

Colin has left ePlus Technology

Are you a single or multiple CCIE who can present with confidence one minute, step to a whiteboard and do a design session and then  hop on a device and configure high end solutions the next?

Are you looking for an opportunity to work with the largest and most challenging enterprise customers in Silicon Valley, working with bleeding edge products and designs?

Do you want to work on a team with 18 CCIE’s nationwide, and 5 in this office alone?

If so, you are in luck. We are adding another senior engineering position to our enterprise sales team. If you have the traits listed above you just might be a great addition to the team.

A little background on ePlus -

ePlus is a national DVAR with 20 offices across the nation. It was founded in 1990 and is publicly traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol PLUS. We have 690 employees nationally, of which 160+ were senior engineers. You would be working in the Sunnyvale California office which has just over 50 employees of which 25 are engineers.

So do you have what it takes?

Sorry recruiters, this is for direct candidates only.Similar Posts:

• Darrel Hinshaw – New Triple CCIE [Storage]!!!!!!!
• Cisco Certified Design Expert – CCDE – officially released by Cisco
• Challenges integrating VMware into Cisco networks
• Resume – Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233
• Colin has left ePlus Technology
• Protecting the integrity of the CCIE lab – Verbal Interviews being tested

--Colin McNamara

Are you a kick ass engineer looking to grow?

I think Rick (5x CCIE) put it best in a company wide email earlier this afternoon  -

Please join me in congratulating Darrel in obtaining his Storage CCIE. There are only 24 double CCIES (RS/Storage) in the world, so he is probably about 1 of 15 or less in the world to hold all three.

What is everyone’s vote what is next in his career?  And, NO, you don’t have a say, Darrel

A) Service Provider

B) VOICE

C) CCDE

Thanks,

Rick Davis

ePlus, Senior Network Engineer

CCIE – Storage, Voice, Security, Service Provider, Routing and Switching (#5672)

Great job Darrel, everyone is really proud of you. and our apologies in advance to the wife for stealing you for choices A, B or C. (My vote is for C)

–Colin

Similar Posts:

• Updated CCIE numbers
• Cisco Certified Design Expert – CCDE – officially released by Cisco
• Passed CCDE written and Recertified my CCIE – Killed two birds with one stone
• About Colin McNamara
• CCIE Party 2008 Recap – Cisco Live Networkers 2008
• Are you a kick ass engineer looking to grow?

--Colin McNamara

Darrel Hinshaw – New Triple CCIE [Storage]!!!!!!!

Luckily we made it to the party without dying, ePlus is safe for the time being. It was nice to have Cisco show appriciation to their biggest chearleaders, and even better to run into your peers and share a drink.

The venue was nice, though I am sure in retrospect that the organizers now now that if you pack hundreds of nerds in a room with video games and beer, there is bound to be a line. The party itself did seem to die out pretty quickly, but I do have to thank the folks at Cisco for taking the time to put the vent together for us.

Next year, Cisco is on its home turf. I think I’ll be the first to put my vote into the suggestion box. My vote is for Conference Room “G” . Where ever it does end up, lets look forward to seeing each other again next year.Similar Posts:

• VMworld 2009 Schedule
• Weddings, Measles and Podcasting -
• It’s on like Donkey Kong – CCDE practical registration is open
• Cisco Live 2009 – Networkers class schedule
• Darrel Hinshaw – New Triple CCIE [Storage]!!!!!!!
• Witch fire in San Diego – Notes from an evacuee

--Colin McNamara

CCIE Party 2008 Recap – Cisco Live Networkers 2008

In the past couple years, VMware has changed from a product hidden in development and testing environments to a full fledged enterprise computing platform. It brings many benefits to the companies that implement it, however with those benefits come changes to the access layer of your data center. Your access layer is no longer a top of rack Cisco switch, or end of row aggregation chassis. It is now a virtual bridge that exists logically within your VMware ESX server.

This causes an interesting question to come up in many customers – Who is responsible for the configuration and maintenance of this Vswitch? At first glance most groups reference the port on the last Cisco switch as the division of responsibility between network operations and systems operations. This has worked well in the past for a three main reasons.

First, it divided responsibilities based on technical skillset. For example a network engineer understands spanning tree, trunking, routing protocols, firewalling. While a systems engineer understands file systems, databases and Linux and Windows operating systems.

Second, it provided for a interconnection point where standardized configurations could be applied by an operational group, versus complicated configurations that could impact overall network designs and require an architectural board review.

Third it provided for a clean hand off for troubleshooting. Both network and systems operations could agree on layer 2-4 functionality in an area that provided for detailed debugging on both sides.

Lack of a defined access layer

VMware ESX throws a wrench in this model. We no longer have this well defined edge at the access layer. The access layer now exists virtually inside a server. More specifically, it is a logical devices running in a Linux server. This presents a challenge because it requires cross over knowledge. Whoever is responsible for this integration has to be fluent in Linux systems administration , and also fluent in network design and operations. Frankly this is a rare skill set to come across, as it requires and engineer who has attained high proficiency in both systems and network engineering.

I see this fuzzy line of demarcation often as a failing point for many VMware integrations. Many times I see network operations teams not involved in ESX cluster design because its a “server” , and systems operations teams generally don’t have the networking skills necessary to design and implement an fully functional system.. The solution to this problem is education and collaboration.

The need for collaborative design sessions

The single most powerful element in a successful VMware integration is the creation of strong design documents. These are created by holding planning sessions where both your systems and networking leads hash out a strong design that takes both short and long term virtualization and network goals into account. Also, many times when people hear the word design, they think it is a high level Visio and a bill of materials. That is a just a fraction of the effort required. A proper design should cover everything from a 10,000 foot overview Visio down to protocol flow diagrams and configuration examples. By created a detailed design like this it is likely to bring up common issues such as 10 gig aggregation, trunking, VMotion security, layer two adjacency and layer 7 network service delivery on a white board instead of a production environment.

To create this detailed design, both your Network and Systems leads have to understand this product. VMware recognizes this is critical to successful implementation (and to further sales of their product) an offers the VMware Certified Professional certification. If you have the resources, I would recommend sending both your network and systems leads to this training at the same time. Having them attend training together allows them to leverage each others strengths and bring up questions specific to their network and their goals.

A real world example of this is the company I work for, Eplus. Last April forty of us, all senior engineers attended VMware Certified Professional training at the same time. The class was mixed up so there was an even distribution of CCIE’s, Systems Experts, and Storage Experts. Needless to say this presented our instructors with some extremely challenging questions, but more importantly it set the stage and created a venue for collaboration between these different practices within our own company.

Real world benefits

A great example of this model’s success this occurred last month. Rick and I were sitting in the engineering side of our Sunnyvale office, catching up on email after giving presentations at Cisco that morning and afternoon. In the bullpen behind us, one of the Microsoft architects was engrossed in a troubleshooting call with a large customer on the other line. It turns out a large systems vendor (who shall remain nameless) had been trying for a week to integrate the first ESX cluster into this network and just could not get the networking portion to work correctly. Our account manager received the call from a the customer, and asked the technical teams to step in to see if we could help out in any way.

The systems engineers were able to isolate the problem down to the network interconnections, but needed to bring in networking resources to resolve the problem. Rick and I were waved over and were given an overview of the problem and introduced us to the customer the far side of the call. We asked a few questions about the physical and logical architecture of their network and created a diagram of their network on the whiteboard. With this we were able to ask them to execute commands continuously isolating the problem domain until we found and resolved the issue.

Seven minutes had passed from the point Rick and I were waved over to the point the customer had a working installation. This allowed the customer to focus on moving their business forward instead of fixing a failed implementation. Three of us on the call had attended VMware Certified Professional training together. We had spent at a minimum 50 hours each creating a baseline of understanding in class, as well as many discussions in engineering meetings. The solution came in seven minutes not because of any one teams individual strengths, but because of collaboration. The systems engineers were able to isolate the problem domain very specifically. And as network engineers trained on VMware were able to quickly understand and digest the issues, and tie it together with our larger understanding of networks as a whole. Only at that point, when the team was able to leverage each others strengths were we able to address the problem so quickly.

There will come a point in the next few years where this fuzzy boundary between the “network” and the “server” is established again. My call is that this will coincide with Cisco finishing development of their Vswitch that will reside inside the ESX server. This switch will require both Cisco and VMware improve their design and integration guides for ESX which are both frankly lacking substance. Until those detailed architecture, integration and troubleshooting guides exist the key to successful ESX cluster implementation will be a strong cross trained systems and network teams that are collaborating on the next level of virtual network design in your enterprise.

Want to learn more?

Cisco – Integrating Virtual Machines Into Cisco Data Center Architecture

This is Cisco’s main design guide regarding the integration of virtual machines. You can use it as a decent high level overview if you are a network engineer who is curious how VMware ESX, or Xen servers for that matter will fit into your network.

VMware – Virtual networking Concepts

This VMware document goes between high level overviews and detailed descriptions. It is a decent resource for a network engineer, and provides an overview of ESX network features, however it misses the target for providing configuration examples.

Blog of Scott Lowe – Technical Lead for Virtualization at Eplus Technology

Scott is an engineer that works with me at Eplus Technology. He is based out of the east coast and covers servers, storage and virtualization. His blog is chock full of good of information. A recent post of interest was how to enable Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) on VMware ESX server network interface cards.Similar Posts:

• Cisco releases Nexus 1000V virtual switch for VMware
• Arista Networks – Their approach to cloud networking
• Cisco Certified Design Expert – CCDE – officially released by Cisco
• Cisco NX-OS 4.0 | Next Generation Internet Operating System
• Resume – Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233
• New features in VMware 3.1

--Colin McNamara

Challenges integrating VMware into Cisco networks

I was wrong, the Green Data Center is not about saving baby seals, it is about saving cold hard cash. Saving the world is just a nice side benefit.

That being said, saving cold hard cash is a very important discussion item in any IT Operations group as they are normally seen as a cost center. For them, a penny saved is literally a penny earned. Not only can you save money by not paying for power, but PG&E will actually has a budget to pay you NOT to use their power. Most people here this and get a puzzled look on their face. “why would the power company, who makes money on power, not want me to buy it from them?” The answer is that Californians use more power then PG&E can produce at peak times. When they have to buy it from another state it can cost them 10 times or more then they charge us. This is the reason why PG&E will pay you to use less. Each penny they give to the consumer for saving a watt, saves them 4 pennies (80% return on investment).

Great, PG&E saves money by giving it to me. How do I get this cash? Well there are a couple ways to get this.

1. Incentives for new buying new energy efficient servers
2. Rebates for moving to virtualized servers
3. Rebates and incentives for moving to thin client desktop systems
4. Audit teams for cooling and power if your Data Center is 10,000 square feet or more
5. Incentives for airflow control systems
6. Incentives for high efficiency UPS and power distribution systems
7. Technical services for cooling system evaluation (PG&E funded)

That is a pretty comprehensive list of how to get money from the power company, but you can save even more money buy not using the power in the first place. Not unsurprisingly this starts with the server.

First thing you can do, is virtualize, virtualize, and virtualize some more. For most people this means VMware. For others this may mean Xen, or Microsofts virtualization product. Whatever flavor you chose, the key message is to consolidate from many servers to few. A server sitting “idle” still pulls 50% of its max current. Now, howe many servers do you have that are just sitting there? My guess is a large amount. By virtualizing these servers, you allow them to be stacked onto high performance server that can be run at a higher utilization. This lowers the over all power utilization for your DataCenter. Another side benefit is that ever watt that you remove from a server, you get another watt removed from your cooling.

These same virtualization techniques can also be applied to your network devices, which account for 6 to 12 percent of your datacenters power draw.

Ask yourself a few questions

• ” Do I need 4 different firewall clusters?”. It is likely that these are leftovers from organic growth, and that you could consolidate them into virtual firewalls on a more efficient chassis (ASA comes to mind).
• ” Do I need to maintain physically separate infrastructure?”. There are technologies like MPLS, VFR-Lite, Virtual Switching and more that allow you to consolidate onto a shared network infrastructure, taking a service provider approach to providing transport in your network.
• ” Am I running old inefficient gear?”. Power supplies have increased in efficiency over the last few years. There may be a good return on investment for you to upgrade.
• ” Can I consolidate into larger chassis?”. Ask the question, which is more efficient – a closet full of 3560′s or a 4507? There is efficiency in scaling out.

I hope that reading this has caused you to ask some questions, and maybe look at the larger impact of your network operations on both the ecosystem and your operational expenses. With these questions in hand, you might want to talk to PG&E and your Cisco / HP parter about going “Green” in the data center.Similar Posts:

• Is your network ready for Cloud Computing with Virtual Infrastructure 4?
• Cisco’s Cloud Computing Offering
• Usability features in Cisco’s Nexus 7000
• Cisco introduces the C-Series Rack Servers
• New features in VMware 3.1
• Simplifying remote site security with Cisco’s new video surveillance modules on the ISR

--Colin McNamara

Moving towards a Green Data Center – Truth behind the hype

For the engineering perspective on this, the CCDE is equivalent  to the CCIE. However, the CCDE is focused on design and architecture rather then implementation. Where the CCIE (R&S, Voice, Security, Service Provider, Storage) is focused on implementation, the CCDE is focused more on the pre-sales design and architecture efforts. I am personally looking forward to the lab being released, as it provides a certification to validate the skill set needed to be an sales engineer on Enterprise accounts, or to be a network architect at an Enterprise corporation.

It is funny how small a world it is. Eplus (the company I work for) CEO – Phil Norton was quoted on Cisco’s press release -

“Certifications provide a stamp of approval that validates the quality of our organization’s employees,” said Phil Norton, chairman, CEO and president of ePlus. “The CCDE isn’t about operations; it’s about recognizing the value of network designers and honoring their core skills that provide a real value to our business and our customers.”

My gut feel when I first got invited to the CCDE beta program was that this will become a requirement for the Channel. I think Phil’s statement cements that gut feel into a reality. Obtaining a CCDE will become similar to the CCIE – a check box that you must attain to work with the top VAR’s out there. This makes me extremely grateful that I was lucky enough to be invited into the beta group to be allowed first crack at this gem of a certification.Similar Posts:

• It’s on like Donkey Kong – CCDE practical registration is open
• CCDE Practical – Beta candidate deadline August 1 2008
• Cisco Certified Architect – Board examination above the CCIE and CCDE
• Are you a kick ass engineer looking to grow?
• Challenges integrating VMware into Cisco networks
• About Colin McNamara

--Colin McNamara

Cisco Certified Design Expert – CCDE – officially released by Cisco

CERTIFICATIONS / ACCREDITATIONS HELD

• CCIE – Cisco Systems Internetwork Expert #18233
• VCP – VMware Certified Professional
• CDCUCSS – Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist
• VSP – VMware Sales Professional
• VTSP – VMware Technical Sales Professional
• TSS – Cisco Technical Solutions Specialist, Data Center
• GCIH – GIAC Certified Incident Handler
• CCVP – Cisco Certified Voice Professional
• CSNSSS – Cisco Storage Networking Solutions Support Specialist
• CSNSDS – Cisco Storage Network Solutions Design Specialist
• CADCNSS – Cisco Advanced Data Center Networking Infrastructure Support Specialist
• CCIE Storage Networking
• RHCE v4/5 – Redhat Certified Engineer #804006368822511
• RHCT v4/5 – Redhat Certified Technician #804006368822511
• EMCPA – EMC Proven Professional Associate – Information Storage and Management
• NSCA – Netscaler Certified Administrator #2005072
• NACE – Network Appliance Certified Expert #12912
• NACP – Network Appliance Certified Professional #12017 – Data Protection
• NACP – Network Appliance Certified Professional #11985 – Storage Area Network
• NACP – Network Appliance Certified Professional #12911 – High Availability

Retired Certifications

• Cisco Qualified Specialist – IP Telephony Support
• Cisco Qualified Specialist – IP Telephony Design
• Cisco Qualified Specialist – IP Telephony Operations
• Cisco Wireless LAN Design Specialist
• Cisco Wireless LAN Support Specialist

PROTOCOL PROFICIENCY

EIGRP, OSPF, RIP, BGP, MPLS,  Spanning Tree, Rapid Spanning Tree, VPC, VSS, VDC, TRILL, Fabric Path, OTV ATM, RTP, SIP, H.323, LWAPP, RADIUS, TACACS+, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS FCIP, FCP, FSPF, NDMP 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, RBE, ISDN, SNMP

Virtualization , Parallel and High Performance Compute Platforms

VMware ESX, Kernel Virtual Machine, Xen, Platform LSF, Sun Grid Engine, Hadoop

VOICE and VOICE OVER IP

CallManager, Unity, ICS7750, PBX Trunking, SRST, Active Directory Integration, Extended Services, Call Detail Recording, Automated Attendant, Extension, Mobility, Asterisk, Callware and VSR VM.

HARDWARE

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) 6100, 2100, 5100, Nexus 7000, Nexus 5000, Nexus 2000 and Nexus 1000v switches, Catalyst 1900-6509 switches, 1600-7500 series routers, Cisco PIX firewalls, Cisco Load Balancers, Cisco

MDS , F5 Load Balancers, Netscreen / Juniper Firewalls, Cisco VPN3000 VPN concentrators, Cisco ASA Adaptive Security Appliances, Nortel Contivity VPN Concentrators,  Aironet Access Points and Bridges, Airespace LWAPP

concentrators. 3com TotalConnect racks, Ascend dial concentrators, Netscaler Load balancers, SSL accelerators, SSL VPN concentrators. Brocade Silkworm, HP Eva Storage

NETWORK MANAGEMENT

Nagios, Cacti, NTOP, IPswitch What’s Up Gold, BIG Brother, Spectrum Network Management, Kiwi Syslog,, MRTG , HP OpenView, Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection system,

Cisco Network Based Application Recognition, Snort IDS, Netscreen Firewall Manager, Unified Compute System Manager

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Redhat, Suse and Ubuntu Linux, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, NT4.0, BSD, Solaris, OSX

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

Consulting, Valued Added Reseller, Large Enterprise, Startup, Banking, Service Provider, Software Development, Manufacturing, Military

EMPLOYMENT

6/11 -  Present , Nexus IS

Director, Data Center Practice

Responsible for got to market strategy for Nexus IS, a national Cisco DVAR.

Accomplishments

• TBD

1/07 – 6/11, ePlus Technology

Consulting Systems Engineer – Data Center (10/08 – 6/11)

Transformed ePlus western region from a #3 and #2 ranked voice and campus partner to the #1 ranked Data Center partner in Northern California

Accomplishments

• Changed regional sales focus from technology silo’s to solutions based selling covering network, systems, storage and applications under one umbrella
• Developed and deployed go to market strategy for Cisco’s Unified Computing System resulting in significant competitive advantage in the western United States.
• Deployed the first Nexus 7000/5000/2000 architecture into production securing competitive advantage across multiple verticals.

• Increased Data Center revenues year over year in the worst economy in a century.
• Attracted and retained top industry talent.
• Leveraged unique technology positioning to win multiple key global clients.
• Partnered with business units inside of Cisco, resulting in key product enhancements as well as increased revenue for both ePlus and Cisco.
• Passed multiple certifications resulting in ePlus being able to sell and install EMC Vblock.

1/07 – 6/11, ePlus Technology

Senior Systems Engineer (1/07 – 10/08)

Accelerate Technical Sales, design and implement network, storage, voice and systems solutions for ePlus Southern California customers.

Accomplishments

• Changed regional sales focus from technology silo’s to solutions based selling covering network, systems, storage and applications under one umbrella.
• Established a trend of Advanced Technology account wins.
• Accelerated ePlus’s southern California sales by providing high-end engineering support.
• Integrated MPLS service provider designs into cutting edge Enterprise and Casino Gaming solutions.
• Filled PM and lead network engineer roles for large publicly traded company data center migrations.
• Created modular Cisco design / quote format and menu based hardware and services options to address rapidly changing customer needs.

9/05 – 1/07 ID Analytics

Lead Network Engineer

Lead team of four engineers, Define network and application integration architecture for large SaaS (financial cloud) analytics deployment , Leverage networking technology to increase security and availability, and decrease development and product deployment timelines

Accomplishments

• Led team of engineers responsible for all Production and Back Office systems in 2 offices and 3 datacenters
• Designed and Implemented ID Analytics Phase2 datacenter, processing 1.8 million financial transactions daily.
• Designed and Implemented Contents Switching and SSL offloading solution, enabled non-disruptive scaling of core products
• Integrated ID Analytics product with the largest card processors in the world – Equifax, Visa, TransUnion, etc.
• Designed and integrated centralized Fiber Channel and ISCSI SAN solution, increasing application speed and decreasing production database refresh times from 4 weeks to 1 week.
• Managed and maintained over 130 terabytes of storage
• Created lights out server imaging and deployment solution for remote datacenters
• Deployed and integrated monitoring solutions utilizing open source technology
• Created user emulation probes for real time application monitoring and trending of production systems
• Worked with development and Analytics to create structured Development and QA environments
• Spearheaded project to change Analytics / Informatics environment from “unix for workgroups” to high performance computing environment (HPC)
• Provide structured documentation to US Government and Corporate auditors
• Utilized project management skills for international rollouts

2/04 – 8/2005 Openwave Systems
Senior Network Engineer, Strategic Design and Integration Group
Provide technical leadership, Define network architecture, Establish standards and technical vision. Responsible for researching, developing, and architecting technical solutions to business needs.

Accomplishments

• Designed Openwave’s new Pacific Datacenter Networks, with 900 production, and 2000 development servers.
• Designed Openwave’s Pacific Shores Campus Networks, and Showcase Datacenter.
• Responsible for hardware acquisition budget of 1.7 million dollars
• Established ISCSI IP based SAN infrastructure with DR components in 4 major datacenters worldwide
• Promoted from the ranks, moving from running our VOIP phone systems, to Network team lead, to Senior Network Engineer in the Strategic Design and Integration team.
• Active and engaged member of multiple boards covering design review, change control, and security
• Negotiated with Cisco and SBC regarding datacenter purchases saving $906,000 off list price.
• Renegotiated Cisco support saving Openwave nearly $600,000 over our three year term
• Established improved data center controls, allowing Openwave to pass Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) audits
• Wrote and ran multiple RFP, RFQ, and RFI’s
• Utilized project management skills for international rollouts
• Managed, Piloted, and Installed new wireless systems for our Customer Briefing Center
• Responsible for 6 VOIP clusters around the world
• Recipient of multiple awards recognizing dedication and quality work.
• Attended continuing training for security management (CISSP)

2/03 – 1/04 USMC Reservist activated in support of Operation Enduring Freedom
Information Services Coordinator
Implement and maintain Tactical Data Networks, Provide consulting services to hosting units. Maintain Microsoft Exchange servers in both tactical and garrison environments. Perform security audits and remediation. Train support personnel.

Accomplishments

• Performed Disaster recovery of routed ATM LANE environment for Marine Corps Air Station Yuma enabling over 3000 users to resume work (awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for that event)
• Performed security audit and created a security and performance remediation plan for MCAS Yuma
• Provided project management and security audit skills to 3^rd Marine Air Wing Yuma server support teams, managed server security audit, security remediation, and SMS rollout.
• Designed and implemented Nagios network monitoring system at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
• Implemented Norton Antivirus server for MWSS 473
• Provided training on to data teams from MWSS 473, MCAS Yuma Station IT, and 3^rd Marine Air Wing Yuma server teams.

12/02 – 2/04 2 Cups Solutions, Pleasanton , Ca
Principal Consultant
Founded 2 Cups Solutions to provide cutting edge Voice, Data, Wireless and Security services to clients in the San Francisco bay and Fresno areas.

Accomplishments

• Implemented WAN failover solution at two City of Hayward fire stations.
• Implemented email and web solution for Express Mobile Notary.
• Developed and implemented business plan focusing on State and Local Government contracts.

2/02 – 12/02 ExtraTeam, Pleasanton , Ca
Senior Systems Engineer
Design, Installation, Configuration and Maintenance of network systems consisting of Cisco CallManager, Unity, Cisco Secure ACS, LEAP secured wireless, Aironet, Cisco routers and switches, PIX firewalls, and VPN3000 concentrators. Integrating all systems with Active Directory. Performed VOIP feasibility studies. Managed the entire business cycle including sales, design, installation, training and maintenance.

Accomplishments

• Integrated CallManager voice system with Active Directory
• Recovered a failed CallManager implementation at Phase 2 Strategies (PR firm for Logitech). Implemented CallManager with up to date hardware and software, upgraded Unity up to reasonably current levels. Brought up remote office in Phoenix utilizing SRST.
• Implemented City wide wireless network integrated with active directory for the City of Hayward
• Implemented VPN Concentrators in conjunction with multiple levels of firewalls for City of Hayward and Hayward PD to meet CLETS requirements.
• Implemented network configuration management system responsible for the city of Hayward.
• Implemented new wan for Livermore Pleasanton Fire department moving fire stations from isdn to T1 and Gigabit fiber lines in conjunction with moving the location for the network core.
• Designed and implemented IPSEC based wan for Universal life resources, allowing nationwide secure remote office connectivity while minimizing wan connection costs.
• Designed CallManager based VOIP system for a 27 site school district
• Provided emergency support to Fire and Police agencies across the bay area
• Performed security remediation for a large bay area company
• Participated in large switched network cutover from 7500 to a 6509 with flex-wan modules for Stanislaus County.
• Achieved technical certifications for ExtraTeam to become certified under both the Wireless and IP Telephony revised specifications.

7/01 – 2/02 Infobond Inc. Burlingame , Ca
Network Engineer

Responsible for engineering duties in a leadership role. Integrated legacy PBX’s using VOIP technology. Used Quality of service to ensure VOIP service levels. Support legacy voice over IP and voice over Frame Relay technologies. Upgrade from legacy voice integrations to state of the art VOIP integrations. Create project plans and act on them.

Accomplishments

• Cut over evergreen lines shipping terminal from legacy 3com equipment to VOIP enabled Cisco routers and switches. Accomplished all work during Union stand downs.
• Contracted to Openwave, Inc. to run Remote Access while the engineer was on leave. Ran Remote Access for 5 weeks, resolving DSL RLAN issues and IPSec issues, while reducing trouble ticket backload to manageable levels. Assisted other engineers when needed.
• Implemented Cisco 6509’s to replace aging core network of a Benchmark Capital (bay area investment firm).
• Diagnosed and resolved VOIP issues that were stopping call center rollouts for Embarcadero Systems (a large bay area shipping company).

03/00 – 7/01 Knapp Publishing Corporation, San Ramon, Ca
Network Systems Administrator

Responsible for day-to-day operations of e-commerce data center, and wide area networks Performed DNS changes for both internal and external networks. Designed, piloted, and implemented network changes. Installation configuration and maintenance of NT, and Windows 2k file, print, and web servers

Accomplishments

• Improved service levels from 90% to 99.99%, enhanced security and increased bandwidth were benefits derived from implementing a state-of-the-art web hosting data center
• Implemented a network monitoring system to document, report, and notify of network status.
• Designed and implemented ISDN failover of Frame-Relay Network.
• Designed, piloted, and implemented network changes.
• Replaced NT servers with Linux based servers, integrated with the Windows network

01/98 – 03/00 DKA Computers Inc. Clovis, Ca
Manager Information Services (01/99 – 03/00 )

Ran day to day operations of a large valley ISP. Worked with systems manufacturing to bundle client software with all new PC’s. Partnered with local ISP’s to provide access numbers across the valley.

Accomplishments

• Managed web development, and professional services
• Moved web hosting from IIS on Windows NT to APACHE on Linux based servers, drastically increasing site availability
• Produced a forms based web application to configure custom systems online.
• Designed and implemented an IPSec based WAN connecting 3 stores point of sales systems.
• Managed corporate office and data center relocation project.

Senior PC Service Technician (01/98 – 01/99)

Provide on call service. Staff PC help desk. Provide direct customer systems support while maximizing company revenues. Configured all servers ordered from manufacturing.

Accomplishments

• Responsible for all day to day service activities for a 13 million dollar company. Management of 4 team members. Directly responsible for customer satisfaction
• Implemented hard drive imaging system, decreasing both warranty costs and turnaround time
• Installed and configured SCO Unix reservation system for National Park service, Kings Canyon
• Deploy Citrix Winframe Systems, Windows NT 4.0 Systems
• Designed, implemented inventory tracking database, reducing required stock on hand by $40,000

MILITARY

1996 – 2004 UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE
Have held U.S. Government security clearance – Secret

EDUCATION

Ongoing professional education

Sans CISSP + Track

University of Oklahoma extension – Fire Science

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--Colin McNamara

Resume – Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233

Colin is best known for providing designs that incorporate disparate technologies under a shared virtualized infrastructure. He is a proponent of both network virtualization and the utilization of service provider technologies inside enterprise networks to support the security delivery of Voice, Video, Storage and Real Time Application traffic over shared network infrastructure.

He resides in the San Ramon (San Francisco Bay Area) , California with his Wife and two kids. And is active in multiple boards and organizations, including -

• Cisco Partner Technology Advisory Board
• Consortium of Internet Technology Experts

He can be contacted via information found on his CCIE Resume page . by contacting him via Linkedin or at colin@2cups.com

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--Colin McNamara

About Colin McNamara