IT Infrastructure Manager
Abu Issa Holding
Total years of experience :17 years, 4 Months
Led the IT team managing Infrastructure, Operations and Support of a global, diversified organization with a network of production and commercial branches worldwide. Internationally recognized partner for growth and in exploring the possibilities of innovative new business.
Implement and manage a secure, compliant, robust, reliable, scalable, and efficient infrastructure to support overall corporate operations. Direct IT infrastructure support strategy and operations globally, ensuring 99.9% uptime and reducing incident response time by 25%. Conduct POC, recommend improvements and manage IT operations within budget, achieving 10-15% cost savings through strategic vendor negotiations and successful bid proposals.
Key Achievements:
• Incident and Crisis Management:
• Successfully led duties during major incidents, conducted post incident reviews achieving a 90% reduction in downtime and minimizing operational impact.
• Developed comprehensive IT policies and procedures, reducing operational and security vulnerabilities by nearly 60%.
• Datacenter Upgrade and Green Initiatives:
• Planned and designed a datacenter upgrade following local civil defense regulations incorporating FM200 fire suppression system, implementing proper cooling solutions, and achieving a lesser carbon footprint.
• Led a project upgrading all servers to Windows Server 2008 → Windows Server 2012 R2 → Windows Server 2016 and some servers to Windows Server 2019
• Migrations and Consolidation:
• Designed and executed IT Infrastructure strategic plans for legacy core systems (Oracle EBS, Microsoft Exchange Server) migration, achieving drastic reductions in maintenance costs and nearly 30% improvement in system performance Added load balancers, WAF(F5) to enhance high availability and security.
• Migrated all physical servers hosting applications and database to virtualized environment using Microsoft Hyper V and IBM Power VM Hypervisor respectively, attaining high availability and reducing power consumption by 35%.
• Managed IT Infrastructure acquisitions and mergers, resulting in a 90% reduction in intra-company access issues.
• Successfully designed and led project upgrading MS Exchange 2010 server to MS Exchange 2016, migrating mailboxes and all related resources.
• Led a successful project to consolidate backups using Microsoft DPM, achieving almost 60% improvement in data security and ensuring compliance at remote sites.
Member of the Technical team of the startup IT Solutions provider partnered with Microsoft, Apple, Riverbed and other storage and access control products.
Plan, implement, and manage robust network infrastructures. Configure and troubleshoot a wide range of network devices, including routers, switches, firewalls, and security appliances. Manage network protocols, IP addressing, and VLAN configurations. Conduct network assessments and implement solutions to enhance efficiency. Contribute technical proficiency and proactive problem-solving skills to a dynamic IT team.
Key Achievements:
•Designed and executed project to replace legacy servers, resulting in a 90% improvement in server performance and operational efficiency.
•Researched, evaluated, and managed a project involving migration from legacy phone system to AVAYA integrated IP telephony system, reducing project costs by 20% through effective vendor negotiations.
•Assisted in the design, upgrade, and migration of MS Exchange, achieving seamless transition and improved email system performance.
•Managed the project replacing unmanaged MPLS site-to-site VPN connectivity to ADSL managed site-to-site VPN using SonicWall VPN appliances for almost 100 sites, reducing connectivity costs by 500%.
•Attained Microsoft Certified Partner status, resulting in a 5% increase in business from Microsoft-related services.
•Evaluated, designed and executed project to host and manage 60+ domains, websites, manage their DNS and 1000+ mailboxes on Rackspace.
Member of the IT team of a high-end luxury Retail/ Department store with multiple stores in the country.
Support, configure, and maintain corporate network and on-premise servers. Install and integrate new server hardware and applications, continually monitor for necessary updates, ensuring optimal network performance. Provide end user support for client desktops and applications. Install, configure, and troubleshoot network devices, reducing system downtime by 20% through proactive maintenance. Assist IT department with upgrades and projects, contributing to a 15% increase in project efficiency.
Key Achievements:
•Performed all server upgrades from MS Windows Server NT, 2000 to Windows Server 2003.
•Performed server backups using Veritas Backup Exec (then Symantec Backup Exec), reducing the risk of data loss by 90%.
•Installed VPN connectivity to remote offices using bundled ISDN dial-up connection using Cisco routers
•Conducted switch configurations backups, reducing RTO by 95%.
•Documented network configurations and procedures, reducing onboarding time by 30%.
•Administered Windows servers, reducing system-related incidents by 40%.
•Maintained infrastructure licensing, achieving a 5-10% reduction in licensing expenses.
•Provided technical training, reducing user-related support requests by 5%.