About Me

• Pushed and enabled deployment of 135 desktop computers in 3 weeks, keeping million-dollar SAP installation on track.
• Programmed custom billing program for trucking company streamlining and increasing accuracy of billing.  This system was actively used for 10 years.
• Key in moving small business IT infrastructure to a COLO environment with  20% cost savings and 95% increase in reliability
• Key engineer in migrating 4000+ user Infor ERP system to COLO location
• Designed and Deployed Lab Environment for a Startup Company including Active Directory, VMWare, SAN, Cisco ASA, AWS, and more.
• Manage help desk personnel.
• Key Person on ISO27001 Certification
• Video Resume https://bit.ly/ThomasNelsonResume

• Long term employment working in directing teams, utilizing networks, servers, software, cloud and systems. 
• Opportunity to expand skills and knowledge.
• Advancement Opportunities

Director of I.T.  / IT Manager

OpenMethods Inc, Tampa, FL. (Corp Office Kansas City, MO)

Last pay rate : $120,000 / Year

Reports directly to CTO

• Key person in ISO27001 Certification
• Deployed Intune, AdminByRequest, KnowBe4 in support of ISO Certification
• Ran FreshService ITSM Helpdesk
• Atlassian products, jira, confluence.
• Manage I.T. infrastructure of geographically dispersed employee base.    
• Deployed Lab COLO:  Stacking and Networking Switches including configuration of VLANs; Deployed storage systems including Dell SSD SAN and Synology NAS; Installed and Configured VMWare Clusters.    
• Authentication: Active Directory that synchronizes passwords and accounts with Office 365.  All users authenticate using AD from lab servers to VPN to Office 365.   NPS/RADIUS is used for access for management of devices,  Entra ID, SSO Authentication Migration
• Programming: custom Lab Management portal for checking out and requesting sets of lab servers.  This portal utilizes PHP and MySQL front end and AD authentication.  The back end of the portal has a custom controller using PowerShell and the VMWare PowerCLI plugin to manipulate the VMware system.   Moving forward with pointing the Lab system to manage AWS services and software deployments
• Developed AWS deployment tool from scratch using AWS PowerShell API 

12/2002 – Present
IT Contractor
Frank R. Close & Son, Sutter, CA.

• Managed the deployment of a SCO Point of Sale system connecting 7 locations via VPN. 
• Deployed windows server environment, intranet, corporate wiki, system monitoring. 
• Graphics design doing newspaper advertisement, trade show posters. 
• Created a public web site. 
• Relocated primary systems to hardened co-location site. 
• Developed custom inventory barcode management system integrating with POS system.  
• Upgraded POS to Windows Based .Net system.   

2/1992 – Present
Consultant
Nelson Computer Consulting.

Wide variety of clients, Law offices, Commercial Fuel Network, Doctor offices, Trucking Company, Auto shop. Wrote custom billing system for trucking company that was in use for ten years, IT support, Infrastructure improvements

06/2011 – 01/2016
Sr. Systems Engineer / Virtualization Specialist / QA

Reports Directly to CTO

Voice Print International, Oxnard, CA 

• Work with Q & A group on validating software deployments simulating customer virtualized environments. 
• Updating testing lab: adding new server rack infrastructure, building VLAN network to create a flexible infrastructure, 
• Deploying VMWare vSphere to create new test servers reducing build times from weeks to hours.    
• Setup SharePoint for company collaboration.

01/2008 –05/2011
Sr. Systems Engineer / Technical Project Manager Lead

PRIDE Industries, Roseville, CA. 

Reports Directly to IT Department Head

• Maintain primary business systems using key skills listed on the right. 
• Maintain VMWare and Hyper-V virtualization and Infor LN ERP System. 
• Lead on deployment of SharePoint Services. 
• Provide tier two support for the help desk. 
• Planned and implemented disaster recovery. 
• Responsible for 200+ servers supporting 800+ users and 4000+ employees.
• Manage projects from inception to scheduling labor (internal or consultants), testing, move to production.

9/1999 – 7/2001
Director of Research
eTotalSource.com, Yuba City, CA.

Internet startup company developing custom video training system for distance learning and CD delivery. Oversaw development of patent pending technologies.

10/1989 – 7/1999
Network Administrator
Motion Control Engineering, Rancho Cordova, CA.

Maintained Novell network, Windows servers, GroupWise email, SAP desktop support. Used Autodesk 3D studio to create custom animations for the marketing department for use at trade shows.

4/1987 – 8/1987
Programming Assistant
Honeywell, Phoenix, AZ.

Programming support for fuel control systems group for McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. Operated testing bench for programs on flight control system.

4/1985 – 8/1985
Programming Assistant
McDonnell Douglas, Long Beach, CA.

Duties Support development of aircraft simulation software for the MD-11 flight system. Programmed data gathering system for flight control system using Fortran 77

1985 American River College, General Studies, Sacramento, CA

1987 El Camino College, Computer Science, Torrance, CA

References:

Darrell Close, Owner Close Lumber  darrell@closelumber.com

Mike Mercadante, CTO (Retired)  mike@softouchllc.com

Virtualization, Windows Server, VMWare, AWS, Entra ID, SSO, Microsoft Intune, iSCSI, Storage, HP Blade Centers, HP Storage, Fiber Channel SAN, Microsoft Hyper-V, DNS, DHCP, Active Directory, Domain Policy, Visual Basic Scripting, PowerShell, SharePoint, SQL Server, Microsoft Clustering, Microsoft ISA/TMG, Terminal Services, Microsoft Office, Windows 10,11, MAC OSX, Linux, Exchange, WhatsUp Gold, NinjaOne, FreshService, PHP / MYSQL, Cognos BI, Crystal Reports, Infor LN ERP, Disaster Recovery, CO-Location, Networking, Routers, VPN, Point of Sale, Security Video Systems