Solutions Architect – Network | Cloud DevOps
Binary & Pixels | Wired Inclusive – Tanzania
Total des années d'expérience :15 years, 11 Mois
My role as a Solutions Architect entails a lot but not limited to: Managing the overall IT network elements and systems infrastructure (Linux, Windows servers, MS Active Directory 2012, Cloud presence, Routers, Switches & Firewalls) both local (Private/Intranet) and Inter-networks (Public/Internet) MPLS, SDN NFVi.
Create, generate and manage weekly system reports for management, oversee 3rd Party companies’ IT related projects and integrations. Liaise with vendors on outages, resolution and document RCAs. Plan, design and scale infrastructure needs as per needs and budget.
Cloud DevOps
- Architect, deploy and orchestrate AWS and GCP multi-cloud hybrid, public or private environments.
- Provision, deploy on/off-premises IAM, VPC, EC2, S3, Route-53, HA-LB, DB, GKE, Kubernetes (K8s).
- Use IaC (Infrastructure as Code) tools: Terraform and Docker containers for CI/CD of initial App setup.
- CI/CD and Automation tools: Ansible, Puppet, Chef for more configuration and Application orchestration
- Use Jenkins pipelines for Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) on app releases and updates
- Scripting: BASH, Shell, Python, Kubectl, AWS and GCP in-built CLI for administration and automation.
- Monitoring Cloud deployments with Nagios, Jira, Grafana, Prometheus, AWS CloudWatch, Stackdriver
Frontend Developer
• Design responsive websites with HTML5 and CSS3 in Adobe Dreamweaver.
• Create immersive and powerful graphics with Adobe Fireworks and Photoshop
• Knowledgeable in support practices, tools, issue tracking code/syntax error resolution.
• Digital Marketing for clients with Email, Social Media Platforms, Personal and Corporate Websites, Web Ads and SEM (Search Engine Marketing keywords based on relevance, traffic and competition)
Backend Developer
• Webmaster customer websites hosted web servers via C or S Panel interface. Deployment, integration, scale and admin LAMP stack (Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Python) for web services.
• Webmaster test cases via XAMPP, C or S Panel management, DB integration of MS SQL and MySQL
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Website, E-Commerce and Blogs search ranking improvement
Airtel Zambia Modernization 3G/4G Project IP plan and integrate Nokia 7750-SR with:
- Nokia 2G (Flexi BSC) interfaces (IuB, IuR, Gb, PAbis, AOIP) - (Huawei CX600/Cisco/Juniper).
- Nokia 3G (mcRNC) interfaces (IuCS, IuPS, IuR, and OAM to MPBN - (Huawei CX600/Cisco/Juniper)
- 3G (Ericsson/ZTE PS Core) integrations (IuPS-UP, IuPS-CP interfaces) both User and Control Plane
- Megamon IP support for both Flexi BSC and Nokia RNC towards Huawei CX600 core service routers
- Provide IP transport OAM support for above mentioned nodes to Airtel MPBN (CX600/Cisco/Juniper)
- Integrate ALU/Nokia 7750-SR in the core with MP-BGP, BGP, OSPF, VPLS and VPRN to the IPRAN
Apart from receiving the Service Routers on behalf of Nokia - Zambia and the customer (Airtel Zambia), deploying and integrating the Nokia 7750-SR (Service Routers) in various regions in Zambia, my role also involved but was not limited to coordinating with installers and supervising them for each site deployment, reviewing, highlighting, planning and editing proposed IP Plan Schemes in accordance to Airtel Zambia’s production network IP scheme to avoid IP conflicts and service outage.
I also reviewed BOM (Bill of Materials) and BOQ (Bill of Quantities) with regards to the Nokia 7750-SR (Service Routers) corresponding interfaces, cable and connector types requirements to all nodes (BSC/RNC), Huawei CX600 routers, Ericsson/ZTE PS Core, Megamon IP connecting to the 7750-SR Service Routers. Off course with all these considered, within the IP Planning and Network design phases we (Nokia) considered Scalability, Modularity, Availability and Reliability, Security, Open Standards, Network Performance and Management.
My job role entailed but was not limited to:
• Managing the overall IT network elements and systems infrastructure (servers, cloud presence, routers and firewalls) for both local (private/intranet) and inter-networks (public/internet).
• Create, generate and manage weekly system reports for management, oversee 3rd party companies’ IT related projects and integrations. Liaise with vendors on outages, resolution and document RCAs. Plan, design and scale infrastructure needs as per needs and budget.
• Familiarize myself with Microsoft SharePoint, MS Projects and Active Directory management. Also issue tracking, troubleshooting, ticket management and escalation resolution.
• Provide end-to-end customer support on their network scaling, web server/website management and database (MySQL and MS SQL) related problems.
• Contribute to weekly and monthly IT management meeting with updates, KPI metrics and process changes feedback and/or improvements and provide a hands-on demonstration and Q&A coaching sessions with prepped presentations to team and customers alike. Handle Skype Calls and Chats updates of ongoing tickets
• Support, manage and protect a multi-vendor (Windows/Linux, Cisco, IBM, Dell, HP etc) MFS (Mobile Financial Systems) infrastructure (DB, USSD, SMSC, VAS, firewalls, routers, switches, Storage) under Airtel - Managed Services account. Enforce user privilege levels, password and firewalls/IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) rules and server hardening policies in accordance to company policy and guidance on network elements.
• Create, integrate and monitor 3rd party content provider client’s VPNs to our MFS such as banks (CRDB, NMB), manufacturing industries, Telecom Operators (Vodacom, Tigo, Zantel and Halotel), POS for businesses with Airtel Tap, Content Aggregators (Push Mobile, Starfish Mobile)
• Maintain rigorous change management with respect changes to Application requirements whilst performing daily BAU (Business As Usual) to ensure DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) and BCM (Business Continuity Management). Liaise with vendors on outages, resolution and document RCAs (Root Cause Analysis) for both Airtel and Mahindra Comviva top management and any other involved 3rd party stakeholders.
• Create and update the Hardware and Software inventory excel into a database. Contribute to daily, weekly and monthly IT management, KPI and process changes. Provide feedback and/or improvements with regards to customer care on support, NOC inputs and trends. Coached customer care on common L1 troubleshooting for new STK menus, USSD codes, MFS and Web Portal in relation to their frontend to MFS Servers, databases and APN provisioning systems.
• As a Customer Service Engineer - IP under Nokia’s Care (L2 - L3 support) section I handled numerous projects for its Managed Services contracts namely: Cell-C Sandton, South Africa - Project IP Customer Support Engineer (Jan 2013). Net-One Telecom Harare, Zimbabwe - Troubleshooting core IP network/traffic analysis on Wireshark protocol analyzer, provide RCA (Root Cause Analysis) to management and perform End User test cases (February - March 2013)
• NSN Care handles and provides multi-vendor support to escalated L2 - L3 issues from NSN Managed Services partners such as but not limited to: Vodacom, Cell-C SA, Airtel, Safari-Com and Net-One Zimbabwe (Africa based clients). I am within the RSO - IPT Transport team serving for the EMEA region mainly handling. CDN (Core Data Network) and MPBN audits, management and upgrades. IP network operations, troubleshooting, administration and maintenance.
Jan - April 2011
Vodacom TZ PaCo Upgrade - NSN Flexi’s and Juniper Networks Description:
• Integration of NSN PaCo (Packet Core) nodes (Flexi NS and NG) to Juniper Networks into the Core Data Network (Juniper EX 3500 switches and SRX 5800 firewall series).
PaCo Upgrade - NSN Flexi’s and Juniper Networks Integration of NSN PaCo (Packet Core) nodes, Juniper Networks into the Core Data Network (CDN). Install, configure and commissioning of Juniper EX 3500 --series switches and SRX 5800 series firewalls.
• Traffic integration of NSN Flexi NS and Flexi NG via Juniper firewalls and switching CDN, 4G video and data call testing, video streaming, web surfing and downloading. Verify data rates through-put for each test case is in line with set Nokia and Vodacom standards.
• Taking delivery of the EPC/LTE nodes on behalf of NSN and Support other Vodacom TZ’s CDN (Core Data Network) node elements - Cisco devices (Switches: 2950 and 3560. Routers: 1800, 2600, 3600 and 7200. Firewalls: ASA 5510) and Linux servers.
• Worked in the same capacity as my former job role in Zain after being outsourced to NSN with the addition to managing both of Airtel’s - Huawei 2G/3G - LTE (SGSN 9810, GGSN 9811 and CG 9812) and continued support for GPRS/UMTS Ericsson PS Core (SGSN R7-MKIV and Juniper GGSN J20/M20).
• Also, have working knowledge PCRF, (Policy and Charging Rules Function) and DPI (Deep Packet
Inspection) on F5 load balancers for Ericsson PS Core and operators’ 3rd party clients.
• GPRS Service Layer Engineer with Celtel and then Zain Tanzania, I oversaw and handled Operations and Maintenance, integration of BSCs/RNCs into GSN and performed HW/SW upgrades, system backups of Ericsson GSN elements (CGSN, GGSN, SGSN, GIS, Cisco GrX router), MPBN elements - (DNS, DHCP, Unix RADIUS-AAA, NTP server, Cisco and Juniper routers, Cisco and Extreme Summit switches, Juniper Netscreen and ISG Firewalls and F5 Web Accelerators and Load balancers).
• Provided 2nd line support to NOC shift engineers, perform O&M (Operations and Maintenance), integrations, deployment and system upgrades (SW/HW) of Ericsson GGSN and SGSN nodes to MPBN, GSN network nodes (CGSN, GGSN, SGSN, GIS, GrX router), MPBN elements - DNS, DHCP, NTP RADIUS or AAA servers, Firewalls, F5 Load balancers perform PCRF and DPI on the traffic).
• Network tools/sniffers (Netscout, WireShark, NetPerSec, SolarWinds, Cacti), troubleshooting of Ethernet/Fiber cables, AAA/PCRF/DSC/DRA, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS with a good understanding of GTP, DIAMETER, DNS, RADIUS-AAA, DHCP, SS7, NTP and MPLS protocol (Layer 2/3 VPNs and TE).
• Protected Ericsson’s PS Core and multi-vendor MPBN related network elements (GGSN Juniper J20/M20 router, Ericsson SGSN R7, GIS, Juniper NetScreen Firewalls, Cisco, Juniper Routers, Extreme Summit Switches, GrX, RADIUS, HLR, BSC, RNC) into Celtel, Zain and Airtel’s core DMZ.
• Facilitated and enabled end user (subscribers) to browse the internet via their mobile devices, modems/Wi-Fi routers connected to either laptops or mobile devices as per their subscribed bundles and APNs assigned on HLR to their corresponding profiles.
• Provisioned necessary custom APNs (Access Point Names) on Ericsson HLR to subscribers and 3rd
party customer’s VPNs (Banks, Manufacturing Industry, Government and Private sector).
• Executed cutovers and allocated SS7 timeslot upgrades to HLR (Gr interface), integrated both BSC (Gb interface) and RNCs (Iu interface) to the PS Core (SGSN) to GGSN (Gn interface), performed and completed all necessary UAT (User Acceptance Tests) cases.
• Deployed, managed, provisioned and optimized both Blackberry Internet Servers and Blackberry Enterprise Servers (BIS/BES) with the then Corporate Sales Department to facilitate our BlackBerry subscribers with not only Internet and MMS but also WAP services.
• Frequently contributed to weekly and monthly IT management meeting with updates, KPI and process changes feedback and/or improvements for L1 Customer Care Team on support and NOC (Network Ops Control) inputs and customer behavioral trends.
• Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure • Architecting with Google Compute Engine • Migrating to Google Cloud • Getting started with Google Kurbenetes Engine (GKE) • Deploy to Kurbenetes in Google Cloud • Create and Manage Cloud Resources: (Deploy VMs, use of Cloud Shell, run Containerized Apps in Google Kubernetes Engine, configure Networks and HTTP Load Balancers) • Perform Foundational Infrastructure Tasks in Google Cloud • Set Up and Configure a Cloud Environment in Google Cloud • Automating Infrastructure on Google Cloud with Terraform • Security and Identity Fundamentals • Deploy and Manage Cloud Environments • Virtual Machine Migration: (Assess, plan, migrate and modernize using CloudPhysics and StratoZone and then leveraging on Terraform’s Infrastructure-as-Code templates. Transform two-tier applications into a cloud-native workload running on Kubernetes) • Architecting with Google Kurbenetes Engine • Secure Workloads in Google Kurbenetes Engine • Optimize Costs for Google Kurbenetes Engine https://www.cloudskillsboost.google/public_profiles/34ea2ad0-0426-4bbe-8d5e6a74c48e0e8d
NCC International Advanced Diploma in Computer Studies (IADCS) - Equivalent to an Associate's Degree Majors in Business Management: Managing Business Projects and Business Management Majors in Internet Systems: Internet, Intranet Security and Internet Systems Administration Above are elective modules that I majored in apart from the compulsory core modules of the course (Database Design & Deployment and Enterprise Networking).