Almond Au
IT Architect at IBM Global Services
- Location
- Toronto, Canada Area
- Industry
- Information Technology and Services
As a LinkedIn member, you'll join 135 million other professionals who are sharing connections, ideas, and opportunities. And it's free! You'll also be able to:
- See who you and Almond Au know in common
- Get introduced to Almond Au
- Contact Almond Au directly
Almond Au's Overview
- Current
-
- IT Architect at IBM Global Technology Services
- Solution Architect at IBM Global Services
- Past
-
- Part-time Faculty - School of Computer Studies at Georgian College
- Network Specialist at IBM Global Services
- Project Coordinator at Getronics
- Database Analyst at Ryerson University
- PC/LAN Technician at PC Gate Computer
- Manager at Lick's Homeburgers and Ice Cream
- Education
-
- Ryerson University
- Ryerson University
- Recommendations
-
5 people have recommended Almond
- Connections
-
260 connections
Almond Au's Summary
Almond Au is a Certified IT Architect with more than five years of versatile experience in pre/post sales solution design. He is competent individually and in cross-functional teams supporting the full project cycle from strategy to implementation.
Mr. Au holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Computer Science and Engineering and has in-depth knowledge of disaster recovery, network engineering, and virtualization; he demonstrates strong leadership potential and has compelling evidence of achievements with an integration focus on industry products including Microsoft, VMware, Cisco and IBM.
Specialties
Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Solution Design, High Availability, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Network Design, Network Administration, IT Security, Systems Design Architecture, IT Project management.
Almond Au's Certifications
-
Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
- Cisco Systems
-
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)
- Microsoft Corporation
-
IT Specialist - Systems & Infrastructure
- The Open Group / IBM Corporation
-
IT Service Management (ITIL Foundation)
- Examination Institute for Information Science (EXIN)
Almond Au's Experience
IT Architect
IBM Global Technology Services
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; Information Technology and Services industry
January 2008 – Present (4 years 1 month) Toronto, Canada Area
- Trusted advisor for internal and external clients to support the planning and design strategies of complex disaster recovery solutions in high availability, data vaulting, data replication, managed backup services, virtualization, cloud computing, and network engineering
- Strong experience in value propositions and cost analysis during pre-sales consulting efforts to model, evaluate, and integrate solution architectures to achieve aggressive technical and business requirements
- Strong project management skills in leading team engagements during requirements gathering, design explorations, due diligence, and solution builds
- Proven track record of accountability and reliability with quality assurance processes of pre-sales design, responses to RFPs, fixed price proposals, technical viability assessments, and financial cost cases
- Strong knowledge of enterprise infrastructure designs in different sectors (government, transportation, retail, manufacturing, insurance), security compliance audits, business impact analysis, technology recovery strategies, and multi-tiered system/network planning
- Participated in monthly coaching and mentoring of 2 junior staff members to give advice and guidance on career planning, skills development, and relationships building
Solution Architect
IBM Global Services
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry
April 2009 – Present (2 years 10 months)
- Planned and developed disaster recovery solutions for recovering IT hardware, software, applications and business processes
- Managed medium-sized (average $2 million) engagements, created the statements of work, coordinated project costing and advised on implementation procedures prior to transition for steady-state support
- Led the development, implementation, testing and validation of all capability investments related to network connectivity, rapid recovery and enablement of business opportunities
- Participated in Quality Assurance processes for pre-sales design, response to Requests for Proposals (RFPs), unsolicited bid for contracts, infrastructure projects and post-sales project tracking
Part-time Faculty - School of Computer Studies
Georgian College
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
2011 – 2011 (less than a year)
Taught Network Security (COMP2077) covering firewalls and VPN.
Taught OS Security (COMP2073) covering system policies and security management.
Network Specialist
IBM Global Services
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry
January 2008 – December 2009 (2 years)
- Managed the campus network infrastructure in supporting more than 100 Cisco switches, routers and network devices including 2900, 2950, 3550, 3560, 45xx, 65xx, 25xx, 26xx, 28xx, 7513, 7206, 3640, 3661, 3845, PIX525, ASA5520, ASA5550, etc.
- Led the design & implementation of an integrated solution for remote console access using Microsoft Active Directory, IIS Web Service, Cluster Service, Cisco ASA, Cisco SSL VPN and IBM FastT Fibre-Channel disks
- Led the network security project to achieve ITCS 104 compliancy; performed audit, reporting, mitigation and resolved all issues found
- Maintained and supported a campus network for disaster recovery and test exercises consisting of various IBM, HP, Sun, and Cisco devices
- Participated in meetings and conference calls to support more than 200 customers; created detailed documentation to capture topology, configuration and system interdependence
- Subject Matter Expert in all tasks related to planning, design, implementation and maintenance of the entire BCRS network infrastructure
Project Coordinator
Getronics
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; KPN; Information Technology and Services industry
July 2007 – December 2007 (6 months)
- Operations support on-site at St. Michael's Hospital, responsible for database management and reporting
- Reported relevant information about the IT asset inventory (procurement, usage & disposal)
- Revised asset management procedures in accordance with ITIL best practice for service support & delivery
- Coordinated and supported a web-based training program consisting of technical courses, preparation for certifications and language programs
- Participated in the testing and implementation of a major upgrade to the core-switch architecture; revised configurations to implement spanning-tree
Database Analyst
Ryerson University
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
September 2006 – July 2007 (11 months)
SQL reporting and batch/script updates to Oracle database. JSP front-end testing and back-end data verification.
PC/LAN Technician
PC Gate Computer
September 2004 – March 2006 (1 year 7 months)
- Assembled customized Intel/AMD computer systems to suit different needs.
- Resolved hardware errors; fixed component conflicts and incompatibilities.
- Performed network troubleshooting and diagnostics; corrected issues with DNS, Firewall or hardware connectivity failures.
Manager
Lick's Homeburgers and Ice Cream
Food & Beverages industry
June 2000 – August 2003 (3 years 3 months)
- Pioneered advertisement and marketing plans and increased product exposure in the local community
- Organized and prepared restaurant paper work
- Administrated inventory and control counts on all perishable & non-perishable items
- Coordinated floor duties and supervised staff to improve customer service
- Scheduled staff allocations and rotations
Almond Au's Education
Ryerson University
M.Eng., Computer Networks
2007 – 2009
Hands-on training and lab exercises involving Cisco equipment. More than 300 hours (and counting) of practical experience designing, configuring, and troubleshooting Cisco 25xx, 26xx, 28xx, 29xx, 2950, 35xx, 65xx; Windows 2003 Server, Red Hat Linux, and etc.
Advanced knowledge and theory in data communication, Routing/Switching, Wireless Communications, Network design/management and etc.
Final Project: Design & Implementation of a secured distributed network with fast convergence and LAN transparency using L2TPv3 over IPsec VPN.
Ryerson University
B.Sc., Computer Science
2003 – 2007
Additional specialization in Management Science (Project Management).
Final Project: Online Document Management System (CMS) using RedHat Linux, MySql, PHP & JavaScript based on AJAX paradigm and the Open-Source LAMP platform.
Almond Au's Additional Information
- Groups and Associations:
-
Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), 2005-Present Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2007-Present
-
- Honors and Awards:
-
-IBM Emerging Leader – Top Technical Talents, April 2010
-IBM Service Excellence Award, June 2009
-IBM Ovation Award - "Design and Install of Remote Console Solution", October 2008
Contact Almond for:
- career opportunities
- job inquiries
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
View Almond Au’s full profile to...
- See who you and Almond Au know in common
- Get introduced to Almond Au
- Contact Almond Au directly
