Systems Engineer at Akamai Technologies
Greater San Diego Area
- Current
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- Systems Engineer at Akamai Technologies
- Past
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- Information Technology Manager at ParAccel, Inc.
- Systems Administator at Motricity, Inc.
- NOC Operator at Time Warner Cable
- Broadband Technical Support Representative (Tier III) at Time Warner Cable
- Technical Administrator at Dream Machine, Inc.
- UNIX Systems Administrator at Allegiance Telecom (Hosting.com)
- Senior Tier II NOC Technician at Allegiance Telecom (Hosting.com)
- Education
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- Palomar College
- Jones/NCTI.com
- Recommended
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13 people have recommended Nick - Connections
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120
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Nick McLaren’s Summary
Network and Systems Engineer with software development ability and solid experience with NOC environments. Always learning and confident in my ability to adapt to new situations and technologies, I thrive on new challenges.
Nick McLaren’s Specialties:
Internet systems/network support and engineering, online community management, PHP web development, etc.
Nick McLaren’s Experience
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Systems Engineer
Akamai Technologies
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; AKAM; Internet industry)
October 2008 — Present (10 months)
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Information Technology Manager
ParAccel, Inc.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)
January 2007 — October 2008 (1 year 10 months)
- Provided strategic IT planning and support of company objectives helping to receive a high valuation and raise $20 million in B-round VC funding
- Managed a small team of IT Engineers responsible for design, deployment, maintenance, and support of >60 employees
- Lowered cost of ownership by 20% by standardizing desktops and laptops
- Facilitated vendor contracts and equipment acquisition
- Streamlined major project planning and execution through implementation of the Agile Development "Scrum" method of project management. Received "Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)" certification.
- Substantially increased productivity of a workforce distributed across three offices through the implementation of a Vignette Collaboration cluster for improving information sharing, communication, and collaboration
- Promoted from position "Senior Network Operations Engineer" after 6 months of designing, building initial IT infrastructure during Round A funding period with < 25 employees. -
Systems Administator
Motricity, Inc.
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)
July 2006 — December 2006 (6 months)
(6 month contract)
Worked with a small team of highly-skilled system administrators building out, maintaining, and supporting multiple mission-critical Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server clusters handling Game Community API, License Management, and SMS services for many major cellphone carriers.
- Built, maintained, and supported the following services: Apache 2.x w/ PHP and mod_perl, MySQL 5 cluster w/ replication, load balancing via Cisco Local Director, mod_rewrite/mod_proxy-based reverse proxy
- Developed new web-based administration tools w/PHP
- Created Redhat Package Manager (RPM) packages of internally developed code and performed/documented subsequent
- Utilized Kickstart to automate RHEL operating system install and configuration
- Maintained hardware/software asset inventory
- Authored detailed documentation of complex procedures and educational technology guides on the internal Wiki website -
NOC Operator
Time Warner Cable
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; TWC; Internet industry)
February 2005 — June 2006 (1 year 5 months)
Provided first-line Network and Systems surveillance and Event Management support for Time Warner Cable of New England Broadband Network Services as a member of the Network Operations Center Team. Facilitated and coordinated the flow of communications between the NOC and internal Time Warner Cable groups, as well as external vendors and third party Voice, Video, and High Speed Data (HSD) partners.
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Broadband Technical Support Representative (Tier III)
Time Warner Cable
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; TWC; Internet industry)
January 2004 — February 2005 (1 year 2 months)
Provided support and troubleshooting of advanced Cable, High-Speed Data, and VoIP services for the Maine/NH area.
Highlights include but not limited to:
· Performed daily trouble ticketing, network event tracking and management from receipt of initial report to final resolve, and root cause analysis whenever possible.
· Demonstrated ability to master a variety of advanced diagnostic data-analysis tools and set an example on using them as part of a proactive network management and support model, at a time where reactive troubleshooting was the norm.
· Independently fielded incoming phone calls and tickets from end users and lower level support staff on a large variety of technical issues, either resolving myself or setting the appropriate path to resolution and monitoring the progress until completed. -
Technical Administrator
Dream Machine, Inc.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Games industry)
October 2001 — October 2003 (2 years 1 month)
Worked to pioneer and develop a successful PC LAN Gaming Center business within the already successful chain of Dream Machine arcades.
Responsibilities included but not limited to:
· Acted as the authoritative source of all technical matters relating to the business, which included LAN PC Gaming, Game Server Rental, and Gaming Events
· Built out 3 additional stores across New England and the complete rebuild of the hub store's network in Portland, ME.
· Fully supporting and maintaining the communities of each store, including forums and in-game support, lending to the friendly environment we were trying to promote.
· Managed and maintained all computers in company, including general software administration and security on both PC game clients, general workstations, and critical business servers -
UNIX Systems Administrator
Allegiance Telecom (Hosting.com)
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; ALGX; Telecommunications industry)
August 2001 — October 2001 (3 months)
Worked with a small team of admins to provide UNIX support/maintenance to over 200 datacenter-hosted shared, dedicated, and managed servers.
Essential Duties:
- Installed, Supported, and maintained all UNIX-based Core and Dedicated/Managed servers and services in the production and test environment 24x7 including on-call pager rotations for 99.9% server uptime.
- Working to develop national Server Monitoring Standardization across several integrated ISPs
- Continuing training of Tier 1 support staff -
Senior Tier II NOC Technician
Allegiance Telecom (Hosting.com)
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; ALGX; Telecommunications industry)
June 2000 — August 2001 (1 year 3 months)
- Responsible for all day-to-day connectivity and engineering support from core to CPE within the company's Cisco-powered WAN and Data Center.
- 24x7 network monitoring with HP OpenView NNM and other tools
- Troubleshooting network connectivity and root-cause analysis in a routed and switched environment (T1-OC48, DSL, Frame-relay circuits)
- Various Cisco IOS configuration and troubleshooting (interfaces, routing, BGP, access-lists, route-maps, etc.)
- Analyzing traffic trends across our Backbone
- Provisioning replacement Customer Premises Equipment for DSL, Frame-relay, Ts
- Assist other engineers in performing scheduled maintenance, turning up new circuits, moving traffic, etc.
- Handled vendor contact for open tickets on circuits (Verizon/MCI)
- Supported DNS (BIND) and hundreds of virtual websites (Apache, IIS)
- Provided training for both Technical Support Reps and NOC technicians
- Traveled to Dallas, Texas and provided training during NOC integration efforts
Nick McLaren’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
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