Colin McNamara - CCIE 18233 , VCP, EMCIE, NCDA, GEEK » Nexus 7000

Cisco Nexus 4000 Blade Switch

colinmcnamara — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:28:32 +0000

Cisco’s vision of the unified data center took another step forward today with the announcement of the Nexus 4000 series blade center switches. This switch is another step forward in Cisco’s view of a true multiprotocol network.

What does this mean? In Cisco’s view of the world this means supporting the transport of Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet, iSCSI, NFS and CIFS in a scalable and dependable fashion.

What is the Nexus 4000?

The Nexus 4000 is the 5th release of the Nexus line of switches (counting the UCS 6100 as a release). This switch fits in the blade center form factor. It is intended to be used in the place of the Catalyst 3000 and 3100 series blade switches. It is a full featured Nexus switch, very similar to it’s big brother the Nexus 5000.

What protocols will it support?

In keeping with Cisco’s vision of a Unified IO platform in the data center the Nexus 4000 will support Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) (yes, they finally caved on the naming) as well as providing the same reliable transport of iSCSI, NFS, and CIFS that you get with the Nexus 5000.

What blade centers will it work with?

Cisco is playing close to the chest announcing what blade server vendors will support this product.

My initial gut reaction was that HP would not be supporting this product, however I just saw that HP is OEM’ing the Nexus 5020. It would make sense that they would support the Nexus 4000 in their C Class blade centers, though only time will tell.

IBM however has been very supportive of integrating Cisco technology, as well as OEM’ing the Nexus 5000 switch in their portfolio. I fully expect the Nexus 4000 to be supported in the IBM BladeCenter platform, though again I cannot confirm.

Dell also has resold Cisco blade switches, and although they do not OEM the nexus 5000 they have been large proponents of the Nexus solution and unification of IO workloads throughout their platforms.

Is it the same as a Fabric Extender?

The Nexus 4000 is not a Fabric Extender. What is the difference? A Fabric Extender is a really efficient multiplexer. While using a Fabric Extender the main goal is vast simplification. What you end up with is a dumbed down remote line card that provides simple, fast services to your access layer. This is great for most uses, however there are instances where you need to provide richer services. A full function switch like the Nexus 4000 is appropriate in this case.

What does it run?

The Nexus 4000 runs NX-OS, Cisco’s data center switching operating system. This is the fourth release of what was previously named SAN-OS which ran on Cisco’s MDS line of SAN switches. This operating system is shared between the Nexus 7000, 5000, 4000, 1000v,UCS Fabric Interconnect and MDS line of SAN switches. Now you can have a consistent operating system platform from your data center core, all the way down through your blade switches and into your virtualization layer.

When will it be available?

Just like when the 3000 and 3100 series blade switches got announced, we are going to have to wait on the individual server manufactures to announce support at their own pace. My gut feel says we will be waiting a couple months for units to get out, and for the vendor certification process to complete. Though with business picking back up, this product may get out sooner.Similar Posts:

--Colin McNamara

Cisco Nexus 4000 Blade Switch

Tags: CEE, certification, CISCO, Data Center, Fabric Extender, Nexus, Nexus 4000, Nexus 7000, NX-OS, switch, Technology, UCS

Identity aware networking using Cisco TrustSec

colinmcnamara — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:13:07 +0000

With all the fanfare surrounding the recent Nexus 7000 release I think many people have missed a significant new development in Cisco’s security portfolio. That new development is Cisco TrustSec. TrustSec takes the classic notion of access control based source and destination ip:ports and replaces it with a role and resource based methodology that fits quite nicely with security requirements driven by information assurance groups. It also brings link security on certain platforms using the 802.1ae protocol that encrypts high speed links at line rate without taking a performance hit.

Cisco TrustSec starts at the edge by negotiating a secure link if both hosts support it (802.1ae). This is similar to wireless encryption schemes, where a secure handshake is established and the L2 path become impervious to sniffing. This is user configurable, and to my knowledge the asics available to support line rate encryption are currently only on the Nexus 7000 blades.

The next step is to start 802.1x negotiations. For the people not familiar with 802.1x, it is a way of passing username / password information from your computer up into the network infrastructure. Once this is completed, the switch can not only utilise tools like NAC to place you into the appropriate quarantine, or access vlans, but it also know knows your identity.

Now the “network” is aware of your identity, a new level of granular security control can be deployed across your infrastructure. These security policies can map into “user x can connect to webserver y” instead of being restricted by ip and port. This allows you to utilize true roles based administration similar to what you use in your Windows and Unix file systems, but now you can do this across the network.

How is this done ? I like to think of this as a mix between dscp and mpls tags. Which in a nutshell means that when traffic enters the network it is tagged with a small amount of additional “identity: information which is retained as it traverses the network. This information can be used to augment or completely replace your current ACL based security controls in a way that enables you to more effectively comply with complex regulatory environments such as PCI, SOX, GLBA and HPPA.

Over the past few years we have learned how to leverage intelligence in the the network by utilizing tools like QOS, MPLS VPN’s, and many others. Expect to add Cisco TrustSec to your quiver of tricks to address the ever growing compliance needs faced by today’s network designers.

Learn more about Cisco TrustSecSimilar Posts:

--Colin McNamara

Identity aware networking using Cisco TrustSec

Tags: C, CISCO, Data Center, DC3.0, DESIGN, encryption, GLBA, HIPPA, HP, MPLS, Network, network infrastructure, Nexus, Nexus 7000, Sarbanes Oxley, security, SOX, switch, TrustSec, vlan

Featured on Network World – 20 useful sites for Cisco networking professionals

colinmcnamara — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:25:14 +0000

This morning I was featured as #11 of 20 in Network World Magazines 20 useful sites for Cisco networking professionals. Let me say thank you to the folks at network world for mentioning my little corner of the internet, and welcome to any readers that haven’t been to my site before. I hope that you find some my articles helpful, inspiring, or entertaining.

For new readers to this site, please you might enjoy the following articles -

Who is Colin McNamara ?

Usability features on the Nexus 7000

Overview of NX-OS 4.0 (the operating system for the Nexus 7000)

Why did I choose to get a CCIE in storage networking?

What does it take to pass the CCIE exam?Similar Posts:

--Colin McNamara

Featured on Network World – 20 useful sites for Cisco networking professionals

Tags: C, CCDE, CCIE, certification, CISCO, Colin, Network, Network World, networkworld, Nexus, Nexus 7000, NX-OS, NX-OS 4.0, storage

Usability features in Cisco’s Nexus 7000

colinmcnamara — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:57:31 +0000

Douglas Gourlay, Sr Director, Marketing and Product Management for Cisco’s Data Center Business Unit and writer of Cisco’s Data Center Blog commented on my celebrity sighting post (me and the nexus 7000). He asked two questions regarding my post about the Nexus 7000, and I feel that it best serves everyone to answer them here.

What useability enhancements do you feel are the most beneficial?

A separate, IP enabled, Management Interface. This has been a long time coming. The out of band management interface is very similar to a Ilo card in the HP world. it is effectively a supercharged console server that happens to site on the backplane of the sup engine. I am sure whoever pushed this feature through is going to get flowers one day from a Tech who DIDN’T lock himself out because the management interface was effectively a separate system.
Finally, a functionally USB Interface that I can transfer IOS (well, now NX-OS) images through. Everyone has a USB key nowadays, even my Grandmother has one, it will make life so much easier when I can have a 4 gig key with me that has most IOS / NX-OS versions and my common configs and just pop them right in.
The integrated Cabling system is CLEAN. I love that it forces you to reserve the appropriate space for cabling, and that there finally is the possibility to avoid the flying spaghetti train wreck we see so often in Data Centers.
Front to back Cooling. The cooling design is well thought out. I liked the fact that it draws from directly above the front floor and exits rear top.. This should help out in raised floor data centers that have a large temperature gradient as you move to the top of the rack. It also negates problem of having multiple 6500 chassis side to side and having warm air blowing from the exhaust of one 6500 to the intake of another 6500.
Fan Slots are now placed where it is IMPOSSIBLE to cover with cables. I would say 7 out of 10 times when I walk into a new customers Data Center I find that there are cables run directly over the fan tray with no slack. That is not a failure in design per say, but it could have been avoided. With the Nexus 7000 fan trays in the back the problem is solved before it is created.
Power supplies are in the back . FAR away from the data cabling. It never fails that 20 amp circuits get uncomfortably close to copper cabling. By moving the power supplies to the back side of the chassis, this becomes a mute point and we remove any shadow of a doubt about EM interference causing craziness in our cabling.
This one sounds really mundane, but a quick heads up grouping of status lights. In the past these were normally in a position where you had to squat down to see them, or they are obscured by cables. Buy putting them on the front of the cable tray assembly it ensures these will always be visible.

What can we focus on now to make it a better platform?

One thing that worried me a little was the placement of the compact flash cards in the supervisory module. For those how haven’t it up close look at this picture of the chassis and look for the Grey cover midway up the sup modules in the center slots. Behind them are two flash cards, one for system partition extension, and one to dump log files into. Having these cards available are great features however I could see an operational process of security rotating out the log partitions, or more likely and engineer pulling the flash card after dumping some data for analysis to it, and then pulling the wrong card by accident. Having a simple strap (like the screw downs for power supply plugs) or something similar would go along way towards mitigating that risk.
Continue with the spirit of innovation that has defined Cisco over the years. Cisco has consistently came out with or acquired and integrated many great products that directly address the needs of the market place into the product line (MARS, ASA, AireSpace, TelePresence, MDS, ACE, Etc) but frankly the last GAME CHANGING product that set the industry on its heals and forced everyone to rethink how we utilize technology to accelerate business as a whole was the acquisition of Selsius and the introduction of VOIP as an enterprise class product to the world. I remember having the hair stand up on my arms from the excitement of going up against Avaya and Nortel back then and fighting that uphill battle, educating customers and peers about this “new thing called VOIP and how CallManager (now Unified Communications Manager) is your ticket towards productivity.
When we talk about the Virtual DataCenter, I/O Virtualization (FCOE) and VFrame Automation it is not just another incremental improvement of existing technology. It is a paradigm shift, a leap ahead, a GAME CHANGER. I get the same chills that I did when VOIP was new because I know that those are technologies that will force us to rethink how we approach computing and data systems. These technologies are to the Data Center what IP telephony was to the PBX, and Cisco is the only company with technologies and engineering know how in all the verticals necessary to pull this off.

Tags: blog, C, CISCO, communication, Data Center, DC3.0, DESIGN, enhancements, FCOE, HP, mars, mds, NDA, Nexus, Nexus 7000, NX-OS, Pic, Power, security, Technology, virtualization

Me and the Nexus 7000 last week at the Data Center VT

colinmcnamara — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:45:01 +0000

I spent the majority of last week at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters attending the Partner DataCenter Virtual Training. We spent three days going over new product releases, getting briefed and trained on new features as well as new products, as well as socializing with other engineers who focus on DataCenter technologies.

As with any vendor specific event, there is a mix of for public knowledge and for private consumption content, so I generally choose not to talk or write about subjects that may have been covered in the VT unless I can find some public documentation on that subject. So don’t expect to find any juicy pre-release information or gossip here. I don’t want to have the NDA police knocking at my door, and its just not cool to let stuff slip. So, I will generally avoid the subject.

What I can tell you is this – There is a lot of buzz about the Nexus 7000. It is a rocking platform, and we spent the majority of a day going over it. I can’t share much more then I did the night before the VT just yet (will wait till I get lab access to one) but I can share this.

Yes, most people are proud of their shots with Tom Cruise, or Oprah, Richard Stephens or BSD Girl. But I can Top that.. I have a picture of me and the Nexus 7000.

The DC Channels team was nice enough to take us down to the DataCenter and Network Applications (DNA) lab. Where the Nexus 7000 has taken its new throne. They allowed to ooh and ahh and poke and prod it. Weirdly enough, the one thing that struck most was the attention to detail that went into the physical design of this chassis. It is not only good looking, but has some super usability enhancements that really impressed me.Similar Posts:

--Colin McNamara

Me and the Nexus 7000 last week at the Data Center VT

Tags: C, CISCO, Colin, Data Center, DC3.0, DESIGN, DNA Lab, enhancements, NDA, Network, Nexus, Nexus 7000, NX-OS, Pic, san

DataCenter SVP Jayshree Ullal interviewed about the Nexus 7000

colinmcnamara — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:17:24 +0000

Tags: C, CISCO, DC3.0, interview, Jayshree Ullal, Nexus, Nexus 7000, Technology

Cisco NX-OS 4.0 | Next Generation Internet Operating System

colinmcnamara — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:05:25 +0000

The latest product to make its way from the storage networking arena into the data center networking arena is Cisco’s new NX-OS, next generation network operating system. Cisco has taken the highly succesful MDS line of switches, and expanded on their success by taking their core operating system – SAN-OS and expanding it to provide the operating platform for the new Nexus 7000 series DataCenter switching platform. NX-OS 4.0 takes your DataCenter to storage level availability by decoupling the forwarding planes. This allow “always on” upgrades, millisecond failure response, and 5 nines services levels that the converged DataCenters of today require.

One feature that is new, and frankly extremely exciting is Virtual Device Contexts. Each virtual device runs with its own process, vs the use of tagged differentiators in technologies such as VRF-Lite. This provides for paravirtualized management instances, and clear lines of delineation for both software and hardware for a resource that can be shared between different groups within an enterprise.

Chassis that run NX-OS will support In Service Software Upgrades (NSSU) to allow operations groups to upgrade operating systems with zero downtime. This is accomplished through a combination of modular software architecture, and the decoupling for the control and forwarding planes.

One of my favorite features in SAN-OS is the embedded is fabric analyser. This is a tool that can sniff management traffic without having to plug in a sniffer, or provision a span port. You can dump in real time to a tcpdump like interface in the command line, output to a local file, or map to the ip of a wireshark instance that layer 3 access to the management port. Cisco again has taken the best of SAN-OS and bundled it with NX-OS. You will be able to remotely span management traffic without having to set up rspan, or trudge down to the datacenter to set up a sniffer.

Now, your router can call home right now so that is not a totally new feature. Smart Call Home was released recently into IOS. But that still doesn’t stop it from being a great feature. This allows you to configure NX-OS powered devices to mail an xml formatted troubleshooting email to TAC, and / or your support staff. This has been proven to drop the average time to resolution from 16-30 hours to 6 hours.

Now the drum roll…… All IP routing features are VRF aware. This has been a point of contention with me for a while. As Cisco and the market in general has embraced virtualization as an answer to pressing business concerns of leveraging shared infrastructure, while retaining security controls segregating disparate environments technologies such as MPLS and VRF within the datacenter have become more and more prevalent. That is great, however it never fails that the feature you need at that moment always seems to be coming out in the NEXT IOS release. With Cisco NX-OS 4.0 this is no longer a question.

Now, if I was a CIO and I was reading about all these new technologies that Cisco was pushing with NX-OS, I would frankly be cautious, and rightfully so. The thing is, most of these features are not new, they have been in use, and in production under the most stringent uptime conditions in the world – storage networking. They have been tried and tested on Cisco’s MDS line of storage networking switches. So get comfortable, get educated, but most importantly get on board for DataCenter 3.0.Similar Posts:

--Colin McNamara

Cisco NX-OS 4.0 | Next Generation Internet Operating System

Tags: , C, CISCO, Data Center, DC3.0, device contexts, Instances, mds, MPLS, Network, Nexus, Nexus 7000, NX-OS, NX-OS 4.0, Power, Router, san, security, storage, switch, Technology, virtual device, virtualization

Cisco Nexus 7000 DataCenter switch released – Welcome to DataCenter 3.0

colinmcnamara — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:19:42 +0000

Data Center 3.0 has arrived with Cisco’s Nexus 7000 Data Center switch. I hope I am not to sensational in saying this, but the Data Center as you know it has changed drastically.

Highlights of the the Nexus 7000′s features are -

15 Terrabit per second backplane
Support for 40 and 100 gig ports in the future
Seperate control and data planes
link layer encryption
front to back airflow (FINALLY available in a non NEBS chassis)
Lossless non blocking fabric (VOQ enabled)
Fibre Channel, Infinaband, and Ethernet blades in one unified platform
Cisco Data Center Network Manager (MDS Fabric Manager on steroids)
Virtual Device Contexts (Network Systems virtualization, the next level past VRF route tags)

You can learn more about this switch in upcoming articles, and at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9402/index.htmlSimilar Posts:

--Colin McNamara

Cisco Nexus 7000 DataCenter switch released – Welcome to DataCenter 3.0

Tags: C, CISCO, Data Center, Data Center Network Manager, DC3.0, device contexts, encryption, Fibre Channel, mds, Network, Nexus, Nexus 7000, NX-0S, Pic, switch, Technology, virtual device, virtualization

Resume – Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233

colinmcnamara — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:24:24 +0000

Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233 – (858) 927-4515 – colin@2cups.com

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

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

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