Mohammed Aljifri

Responsibilities:
IT and Network Management
• Participate in definition of IT risks and serve as risk owner for critical systems contributing to risk mitigation and business continuity.
• Participate in the development and implementation of disaster recovery plans for Luberef.
• Identify current and future IT requirements of the organization and plan appropriate projects.
• Represent Luberef in cyber security related meetings with Saudi Aramco and other subsidiaries.
• Manage the process of renewal of application support subscriptions and contracts for hardware support for servers and storage systems.
• Serve as a member of the committee for hiring of new employees for IT and cyber security functions.
Projects Management
• Manage all projects related to information technology and security from identification of needs to final delivery to end users.
• Map and define IT/security needs of the organization, prepare proposals and requests for funds for approval of senior management.
• Draft scope of work of projects in coordination with concerned departments to collate requirements of stakeholders.
• Define targeted goals of the project, lead the evaluation of technologies in the market, selection of optimum solution and conduct proof of concept (POC) sessions.
• Manage the process of selection of partners for implementation of the technology and conduct sessions to explain scope of project to selected partner.
• Coordinate with procurement and contracts team for technical evaluation of vendor bids, award of contracts, participation in kick-off meetings and evaluation of high level and low level plans.
• Serve as the company’s focal point in preparation of the partner’s requirements which are outside scope of contract.
• Monitor implementation of the project, evaluate progress against plans and facilitate achievement of project milestones.
• Document changes to infrastructure due to the new implementation.
• Coordinate user acceptance testing of delivered services, prepare how-to documentation for team members and present the delivered services to the management and stakeholders

Key Projects:
Information Security
• Redesign of the network infrastructure incorporating 2-tier firewalls topology, forcing physical access to the server farm only through firewall and avoiding logical routing in layer 3 appliances to ensure maximum security .
• Initiatives to improve security including deployment of deep packet inspection in firewalls; deployment of decryption/encryption visibility for all sites and deployment of security appliances for advanced threat protection.
• Network access control system for employees, contractors and guests ensuring endpoint compliance with baseline for all endpoints like users’ computers, printers, IP telephones, card readers, network appliances, servers and switches.
• New firewall upgrade to comply with new national cyber security requirements and Saudi Aramco recommendations based on security assessment.
• Urgent project for upgrade of secure mobile access (SSL VPN) enabling remote users to work from home assisting operations during the Covid 19 pandemic; providing a safe and stable service with minimum acceptable security level.
• Upgrade project to replace redundant e-mail gateway appliances across sites to maximize availability of e-mail services and enable new security features.
• Implementation of 2-factor authentication and integration with several web applications like VPN, e-mail web access and accessing server consoles to protect and secure critical systems
• Configuration of baseline across all network switches as recommended by Saudi Aramco assessment and penetration reports.
• Establishment of logging system and NetFlow for network switches and security appliances.
• Upgrade of web security gateway for all sites and unification of policies with ability to decrypt traffic in the event of failure of SSL visibility appliances.

• Coordinated health checks of all firewalls by manufacturers and implemented recommendations.
• Recommended network design infrastructure approach for the plant’s digital control systems in terms of security management.
• Deployment of web application firewall for online services to secure access to relevant servers.
SAP Applications
• Building of infrastructure to adopt SAP servers (production, quality, development, Sandbox, solution manager); Ariba servers (production, quality, development) and Fiori servers (production, quality and development)
• Preparation of VMware hypervisor and its management console, vCenters, vSpheres and allocation of specs for virtual servers
• Management of LUNs for SAN storage using VMware technology with latest patches and backup for new systems and daily changes; set up disaster recovery plan for the SAP system; configuration and management of Lenovo Managed Services to support SAP environment
Cloud Services
• Publishing web mail
• Secure Mobile Access covering SAP access, file share, Fiori, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP support, global traffic manager, bank transactions, mobile e-mail access, IP Telephone Express, link controllers.
• Migration of DNS zone file of the organization to on-premises from the ISP
IP Telephony
• Migration from PABX to IP Telephony: Definition of a robust plan covering all company requirements, providing alternative methods to maintain ordinary analog lines, ensuring quality, redundancy and high availability of the new system; upgrade of the existing system to be ready for migration to IP Telephony.
• Establishment of video conference infrastructure ensuring availability as per requirements.
• Expansion of system services to enable phone and instant messaging from internet to minimize cost of company mobile for key users, establishing fax system through this infrastructure; working with service provider for dedicated telephone range; definition and assignment of services for end-users
• Facilitated a Saudi Aramco joint venture in implementation of IP telephony by sharing lessons of the success story at Luberef
Network Hardware
• Restructuring of a complete Data Centre covering cabling, cooling systems, emergency power source, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), network hardware arrangement on racks, labeling, switches, network points for user rooms and analog lines. Implementation of communication media specs for fiber and UTP cables.
Physical/Virtual Servers and Storage
• Capacity planning for servers and storage systems; migration to new servers and storage LUNs
Disaster Recovery and Backup
• Configuration and monitoring of replication application for VMware environment among sites
• Design, implement and run drills for disaster recovery plans
• Upgrading and expansion of the backup system to provide multiple recovery media like disks and tape cartridges for all sites; conduct online and offline backups of systems; restoration of data from disks, tapes or import of cartridges to a second site.
• Delivered an invited presentation at an international event to share success story of the company in disaster recovery and backup
Network Administration
• Management of operations and maintenance of several systems including Windows Active Directory operation, Windows Server roles including DNS & DHCP, Windows file share cluster, storage and SAN switches zoning, IBM Domino messaging system, VMware administration, Veeam backup & replication, Cisco IP Telephony, VPN, e-mail security, firewall, global traffic management, network access control appliances, core and edge switches.

• Coordinated health checks of all firewalls by manufacturers and implemented recommendations.
• Recommended network design infrastructure approach for the plant’s digital control systems in terms of security management.
• Deployment of web application firewall for online services to secure access to relevant servers.
SAP Applications
• Building of infrastructure to adopt SAP servers (production, quality, development, Sandbox, solution manager); Ariba servers (production, quality, development) and Fiori servers (production, quality and development)
• Preparation of VMware hypervisor and its management console, vCenters, vSpheres and allocation of specs for virtual servers
• Management of LUNs for SAN storage using VMware technology with latest patches and backup for new systems and daily changes; set up disaster recovery plan for the SAP system; configuration and management of Lenovo Managed Services to support SAP environment
Cloud Services
• Publishing web mail
• Secure Mobile Access covering SAP access, file share, Fiori, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP support, global traffic manager, bank transactions, mobile e-mail access, IP Telephone Express, link controllers.
• Migration of DNS zone file of the organization to on-premises from the ISP
IP Telephony
• Migration from PABX to IP Telephony: Definition of a robust plan covering all company requirements, providing alternative methods to maintain ordinary analog lines, ensuring quality, redundancy and high availability of the new system; upgrade of the existing system to be ready for migration to IP Telephony.
• Establishment of video conference infrastructure ensuring availability as per requirements.
• Expansion of system services to enable phone and instant messaging from internet to minimize cost of company mobile for key users, establishing fax system through this infrastructure; working with service provider for dedicated telephone range; definition and assignment of services for end-users
• Facilitated a Saudi Aramco joint venture in implementation of IP telephony by sharing lessons of the success story at Luberef
Network Hardware
• Restructuring of a complete Data Centre covering cabling, cooling systems, emergency power source, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), network hardware arrangement on racks, labeling, switches, network points for user rooms and analog lines. Implementation of communication media specs for fiber and UTP cables.
Physical/Virtual Servers and Storage
• Capacity planning for servers and storage systems; migration to new servers and storage LUNs
Disaster Recovery and Backup
• Configuration and monitoring of replication application for VMware environment among sites
• Design, implement and run drills for disaster recovery plans
• Upgrading and expansion of the backup system to provide multiple recovery media like disks and tape cartridges for all sites; conduct online and offline backups of systems; restoration of data from disks, tapes or import of cartridges to a second site.
• Delivered an invited presentation at an international event to share success story of the company in disaster recovery and backup
Network Administration
• Management of operations and maintenance of several systems including Windows Active Directory operation, Windows Server roles including DNS & DHCP, Windows file share cluster, storage and SAN switches zoning, IBM Domino messaging system, VMware administration, Veeam backup & replication, Cisco IP Telephony, VPN, e-mail security, firewall, global traffic management, network access control appliances, core and edge switches.