Caesar Kabalan
Cloud Systems Engineer — W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
Profile
Caesar
Kabalan
Cloud Systems Engineer
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
Hello! I am Caesar Kabalan, a 29 year old resident of Phoenix, Arizona. I was originally born in the Phoenix area and went to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona for my Undergraduate. I graduated from NAU’s W.A. Franke College of Business with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis on Computer Information Systems.
I currently hold a Cloud Systems Engineer position at a global manufacturing company on their cloud services team.
Straight from the resume: Currently responsible for the planning, engineering, and implementation of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for a large global organization. Primary duties involve working closely with IT Architects and IT Leadership regarding strategy and timelines for the implementation of cloud services. Technical duties consist of working hands-on as part of a small team to implement cloud technologies including autoscaling, continuous integration/delivery, configuration management, and cross-cloud deployments all using DevOps practices. Founding member of a Cloud Enablement Services group aimed at assisting and easing the utilization of cloud resources by traditional infrastructure and development teams. Frequently meet with project implementation teams to evaluate cloud-readiness of new applications and general consulting around cloud technologies and capabilities. Additional responsibilities include writing and maintaining Software Quality Assurance documentation including System Design Specifications, Requirements Specifications, Test Procedures, and Build Procedures to document and test important capabilities of our cloud environments and deployments.
Cloud Systems Engineer ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
Cloud Systems Engineer ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
October 2016 - Present
Phoenix, Arizona
Currently responsible for the planning, engineering, and implementation of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for a large global organization. Primary duties involve working closely with IT Architects and IT Leadership regarding strategy and timelines for the implementation of cloud services. Technical duties consist of working hands-on as part of a small team to implement cloud technologies including autoscaling, continuous integration/delivery, configuration management, and cross-cloud deployments all using DevOps practices. Founding member of a Cloud Enablement Services group aimed at assisting and easing the utilization of cloud resources by traditional infrastructure and development teams. Frequently meet with project implementation teams to evaluate cloud-readiness of new applications and general consulting around cloud technologies and capabilities. Additional responsibilities include writing and maintaining Software Quality Assurance documentation including System Design Specifications, Requirements Specifications, Test Procedures, and Build Procedures to document and test important capabilities of our cloud environments and deployments.
Major accomplishments (recent first):
Major accomplishments (recent first):
- Developed multiple Jenkins pipelines to automate process and speed up developer/admin productivity. Built and contributed to pipelines for deploying AMIs, CloudFormation/SAM Templates, Ansible Playbooks, RightScale CATs.
- Integral in design and implementation of a cross-cloud deployment process across AWS, Azure, and on-premise VMware. Involved the deployment of a Cloud Management Platform, Ansible Tower, Ansible Playbooks, and Red Hat Satellite.
- Implemented AWS DirectConnect and Azure ExpressRoute to enhance the connectivity between our AWS VPCs, Azure vNets, and our on-premise network.
- Worked as part of a small team to architect and build our first Microsoft Azure deployment including Subscriptions, VNETs, ARM Templates, and PowerShell deployment scripts.
- Designed and implemented a robust provisioning system using ServiceNow, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Lambda, and Puppet to build Linux and Windows workloads upon request.
- Engineered a cloud-oriented Puppet Configuration Management implementation using r10k with continuous delivery for flexible management of EC2 instances.
- Worked as part of a small team to architect a mutli-account mutli-VPC AWS structure for highly flexible permission and network requirements.
- Evaluated and implemented multiple SaaS vendors including Datadog for system monitoring and CloudHealth for cloud governance/reporting.
- Architected and built first experimental AWS deployments primarily consisting of legacy PHP and Java web applications.
Deployment Technologies
- AWS CloudFormation
- Azure Resource Manager (ARM)
- SAM / Serverless Framework
- Jenkins Pipeline Libraries
- Ansible / Ansible Tower
- Puppet Open Source
- RightScale Cloud Management
- Git Source Code Management
Compute Technologies
- Amazon EC2
- AWS Lambda
- VMware vSphere
- Azure VMs
Application Technologies
- Amazon API Gateway
- AWS IoT Core
- AWS IoT Greengrass
Network Technologies
- Amazon VPC
- Amazon Route 53
- AWS Direct Connect
- Azure VNet
- Azure ExpressRoute
Data Technologies
- Amazon RDS
- Amazon DynamoDB
- Amazon S3
- AWS Backup
- AWS Snowball
DataCenter Systems Engineer ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
DataCenter Systems Engineer ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
November 2013 - February 2017
Phoenix, Arizona
Worked with a team of DataCenter Systems Engineers and Administrators responsible for designing and maintaining Enterprise DataCenter and Cloud Systems for a large global organization. Primary responsibilities included architecting, planning, provisioning, and maintaining hundreds of Linux systems consisting of database servers, application servers, and multiple high performance compute clusters. Other responsibilities included maintaining complex VMware environments and associated storage and networking environments, and managing parts of a larger Windows/Active Directory environment with the global Systems Administration team. Also led projects as relevant needs arose, including requirements gather, forming timelines, working with external vendors, and deploying global systems.
Major Accomplishments:
Major Accomplishments:
- Architected and built the first Amazon Web Services cloud deployments focusing on Infrastructure-as-a-Service, automation, and scalability.
- Planned, automated, and executed the migration of hundreds of NAS shares from an Hitachi HNAS to an EMC VNX.
- Assisted in implementation of a second 250kw UPS + Generator to provide a redundant (active/active) power path to DataCenter equipment.
- Championed the implementation of SolarWinds Orion on multiple continents to monitor, analyze, and alert on server and network health worldwide.
- Implemented Puppet Configuration Management to fully manage 200+ previously independent Linux systems.
- Built extensive dashboard tools for public display and quick identification of systemic issues across VMware, EMC, NetApp, SolarWinds, Dell, and APC.
- Lifecycled High-Performance Compute Cluster including hardware, job scheduler, queuing system, analysis software, filesystems, and license servers.
- Heavily involved in maintaining and bringing several aspects of infrastructure into a qualified state to support business compliance with FDA regulations.
- Upgraded multi-vCenter VMware environment from ESX 5.1 to 5.5 with zero guest downtime (new vCenter architecture meant rebuilding from scratch).
Servers
- VMware vSphere
- High Performance Computing
- Microsoft AD / DNS / DHCP / Print
- SolarWinds SAM / NPM
- Nagios XI
Automation
- PowerShell
- VMware PowerCLI
- Puppet Open Source
Storage
- EMC VMAX
- NetApp FAS
- Brocade Fiber Channel Switches
Physical Infrastructure
- APC Power - UPS / PDU / ATS
- APC Hot-Aisle Containment
- APC InRow Chilled Water Cooling
- Racking / Cable Management
Other
- FDA Regulatory Requirements
Client Computing Engineer ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
Client Computing Engineer ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
May 2012 - November 2013
Phoenix, Arizona
Worked with a team of automation associates to plan, develop, and execute enterprise-wide software and configuration rollouts. Other responsibilities included scripting a variety of installation methods, third tier support, software development, and strategy planning. Also functioned as a Citrix Administrator focused on the deployment of software via Citrix XenApp as well as part of a project team focused on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Championed the implementation of a DataCenter monitoring solution: Nagios XI Enterprise.
Major Accomplishments:
Major Accomplishments:
- Provided excellent on-going third tier support to users, desktop support associates, and phone support agents.
- Extensive evaluation of multiple hyper-converged products (Nutanix and Simplivity) in comparison to existing internal infrastructure.
- Championed the implementation of a regional DataCenter monitoring solution for servers, services, and storage: Nagios XI Enterprise.
- Built dozens of deployment bundles for many different software applications, including those under strict change-control procedures.
- Upgraded global Novell Zenworks environment from 10.X to 11.3.2.
Client Management
- Microsoft Group Policy
- Novell Zenworks
Automation
- Windows Batch
- Microsoft PowerShell
Deployment
- Citrix XenApp
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Other
- FDA Regulatory Requirements
- Nagios XI Enterprise
DataCenter Intern ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
DataCenter Intern ~ W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
May 2011 - May 2012
Flagstaff, Arizona
Worked with a team of IT System Administrators in a FDA validated environment to continuously improve datacenter systems, infrastructure, and procedures. Wrote numerous small programs and scripts to automate repetitive administrative tasks such as username resolution, file metadata synchronization, and auditing. Extensively tested and assisted in the initial rollout of a contractor developed printer removal script via Novell ZenWorks. Assisted in imaging and configuring over one hundred laptops for field sales associates.
Software Developer ~ Northern Arizona University
Software Developer ~ Northern Arizona University
January 2011 - May 2011
Flagstaff, Arizona
Developed a grade feedback system for the purpose of allowing students to perform What-If analysis on grades. Process included gathering requirements, setting deadlines, writing the code, testing, receiving feedback, deploying, and documenting in an iterative way. GradeTrack was developed in PHP, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS for the W.A. Franke College of Business. Currently in use by 6 professors and over 900 students.
Education ~ Bachelor's Degree ~ Computer Information Systems
Education ~ Bachelor's Degree ~ Computer Information Systems
August 2008 - May 2012
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona
Completed a four-year degree consisting of a cross-section of business-related courses and IT-related courses. Business courses applied many aspects of accounting, finance, marketing, economics, and law to IT-related topics. CIS courses consisted of network administration, server administration, database development, and application development. Also maintained a high GPA (Dean’s List) while working during my last year of courses.
Education ~ Course ~ BizBlock
Education ~ Course ~ BizBlock
August 2010 - December 2010
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona
Completed an upper division business course that integrated marketing, management, and business communication topics. Learned and used concepts of effective teamwork. Developed, researched, and wrote a 94 page business plan with five fellow students. Prepared and gave a professional presentation on the business plan. Placed first out of ten teams in the course (approximately 70 students).
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