Christopher Cowan

Member of the Global Storage Architecture (GSA) development team. Ported, packaged, and integrated Samba/CTDB, Apache, openssh, and other open source tools, with a clustered file service utilizing openLDAP and GPFS, on the AIX server platform.

Helped maintain, and support a web-based, provisioning tool for GSA, based on Apache/CGI and perl.

Ported, installed and administered subversion, bazaar, git, and Bugzilla on AIX, to support the GSA development team.

Senior member of an Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) consulting team, at a DOD location. Supported multiple Tivoli environments, NetView, and Cisco Works, on the Solaris platform with Oracle databases.

Lead architect and designer for an implementation of IBM Tivoli Identity Manager (ITIM). Deployed system consisted of WebSphere Application Server, DB2 Databases, IBM Directory Server, and Directory Integrator running on Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

Technical lead for a deployment of the Magnum Technologies product suite (DiagnoseIT, Cap-Trend, Coordinator, and Advantage). Product was J2EE/Tomcat based and ran on RedHat ES with Informix databases.

Provided Systems and Database Administration for all of the systems mentioned above.

Managed technical support for the TimesN product, a Direct Attach Storage (DAS) Virtualization system, running on Windows 2000 and Red Hat Linux.

Responsible for the preparation and generation of product release notes, and user documentation components. Responsible for all QA performance testing.

Provided support, customization, and integration of the TimesN product with PVFS, MPI/ROMIO, IBM GPFS, and Sistina GFS.

Led team responsible for the evaluation, and analysis of tools, for 2ndWave's strategic business. Evaluation subjects included ESM, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence tools. The tool vendors included Tivoli, BMC, NetIQ, Cisco, HP, Micromuse, IT Masters, Tonic, ProActiveNet, Remedy, Peregrine, Aprisma, Business Objects, Cognos, SAS, Informatica, Ascential, and CA.

Held primary technical responsibility for the architecture and performance monitoring of 2ndWave's production infrastructure. Provided level 3 support for critical performance problems, sometimes necessitating on-site visits with customers.

Managed a development team of 12-14 employees and contractors, for the first year of 2ndWave's operation as an MSP. Responsibilities included all phases of development, and packaging for 2ndWave's MSP offerings (Tivoli, BMC, and ProActive Net) and the first two releases of the business intelligence system known as Vista Center. Vista Center was a web-based, Decision Support System for IT Management data. It included an Apache/Tomcat based, web application server, Oracle data repositories, and the Actuate reporting tool.

Worked with founding employees to help transform 2ndWave from a Consulting Services firm, into a Managed Service Provider (MSP), during its second year of operation. As a result of this change, 2ndWave achieved first round funding, and grew from 13 employees to 120 in a single fiscal year.

Joined 2ndWave as a Principal Consultant. Worked with multiple customers as a deployment consultant for Tivoli Management Framework and applications (DM, TEC, SD, Inventory, and NetView). Engagements involved working in both direct consultation and subcontracting capacities (EDS and SRA). Customers included a newspaper, the Orange County Register, a health care provider, Vencor, MicroAge, and the Detroit Public Schools. Maintained a 75-80% billing level, with consistently high levels of customer satisfaction.

Employed in the Business Systems Services division, providing consultation in the areas of architecture, design, deployment, and management of large scale, distributed systems and applications.

Teamed with Tivoli Professional Services personnel at Nationwide Insurance. Provided architectural and deployment consultation for an enterprise wide implementation of the Tivoli Management Environment (TME 10). Worked on the development of a custom application to assist Nationwide with their Y2K audit. Customer environment included Solaris, AIX, Windows NT 4.0, and NT WorkStation desktops.

Worked as part of a two-person team providing Tivoli consultation to the Associates. Deliverables included an architectural assessment and design recommendation, with subsequent assistance during the implementation phase.

Architected and recommended ESM solutions for a set of distributed, business applications at MCC Behavioral Care, Minneapolis, MN.

Worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) on three separate engagements providing consultation on DCE, DFS, and AFS.

Assisted the IT Operations area of CompUSA, Dallas, TX with the deployment of a large Encina based application, utilizing AIX servers and Wintel clients.

Provided DCE consultation and training to PrimeCo PCS, Dallas, TX. DCE was used as an enabling technology in an application for provisioning digital cell phones.

Worked on a team responsible for architecting, implementing and administering the AIX/UNIX based server infrastructure, at the IBM Austin Site.

Technically led the design of an automated fault management system, which was installed and operational for over 2 years, monitoring over 2000 attributes across 400 servers. System integrated Netview for AIX, SM/6000, Netfinity, GSC/6000, NWAYS, DCE Manager and Cisco Works.

Managed and administered a large AFS environment of 3 cells, with over 7000 customers. Designed and wrote tools to administer the filesystem. Assisted in the development of policies and strategy for the environment.

Co-architected and managed the DCE/DFS pilot for the Austin Site. Activity culminated in the delivery of a production system supporting 10,000 principals. Led implementation and testing of all products by both support teams and customers. Helped develop tools and policies for administering and managing DCE. Actively involved with peers from other IBM sites to set corporate direction for DCE usage.

Led project for the site-wide deployment of TME 10, Remedy AR and BMC Patrol. Designed and specified an architecture that integrated these technologies with the existing AFS, DCE and SystemView based infrastructure.

Responsible for the characterization and qualification of high performance, bipolar, logic components. Expert in developing and supporting software and systems for Computer Aided Design, Automated Test Control, Data Acquisition and Data Analysis.

Planned and implemented a distributed computing strategy for a diverse engineering organization of 250 people. Delivered and supported an environment which included multiple platforms (AIX, DOS, HP-UX, SunOS, MVS and VM) running TCP/IP on multiple medias (Token Ring, Ethernet, PC Net and IBM 370 Channel). All workstations were integrated into a Single System Image, using a combination of AFS, NFS and TCF.

Designed and installed two large mainframe RDBs (SQL/DS and DB2) for use as test data repositories. Developed automated techniques to perform data analysis and reporting, using SAS, AS and APL2.

Developed and designed software and systems for automated test control and data acquisition. Instituted source code maintenance and tracking methodologies for these systems, which grew to approximately 200-500K lines of C code. Trained and educated development personnel and end-users in the use of this environment. Developed and promoted quality management techniques to guide future development projects.

Promoted the use of Open Systems at IBM's East Fishkill site. Responsible for the procurement of the site AFS license. Co-wrote and installed an automated system for maintaining the DNS Namespace for the entire Fishkill Plant (over 2000 hosts). Provided UNIX and TCP/IP consultation to other organizations and departments on site.