Nishal Ranchhod

Current

• Index Platform Support Specialist at FTSE

Past

• Systems Administrator at Volantis Systems Inc.
• Technical Consultant at Websense
• Systems Administrator at Bonsai – Promotional Merchandise

• Desktop, Server and Network technician at “Gestidata” (Publicis)
• Content Management / IT Assistant at Inofor / IQF

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Education

• Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Recommended

5 people have recommended Nishal

Connections

46 connections

Industry

Computer & Network Security

Nishal Ranchhod’s Summary

A technologist with very strong UNIX foundations specialising in network security and high availability systems running mission-critical database and application servers in highly transactional environments with stringent SLAs.

Nishal Ranchhod’s Specialties:

• Strong Unix and Linux knowledge in large enterprises
• Good understanding of the Windows 2000/2003 domains and services
• Windows and UNIX Directory Services (NIS, NTLM, AD, OpenLDAP and Apple Open Directory)
• RAID configurations and overall system optimization and performance analysis
• Hacker methodologies and tools
• Load balanced, failover configurations and performance tuning
• Hardware platforms: Digital Alpha, Sun Sparc, SGI, Apple Macintosh

Nishal Ranchhod’s Experience

• Index Platform Support Specialist

  FTSE

  (Privately Held; Financial Services industry)

  May 2008 — Present (1 year 7 months)

• Systems Administrator

  Volantis Systems Inc.

  (Information Technology and Services industry)

  June 2006 — February 2007 (9 months)

  Working in the managed services operations team alongside the development team, I was involved in the design and implementation of a three-tier network infrastructure. This new infrastructure is RedHat ES4-based, running on Dell machines. Various open-source software packages provide monitoring and redundancy in a high availability, large-scale UNIX environment hosting content management and adaptation services for customers such as eBay.

• Technical Consultant

  Websense

  (Public Company; Computer & Network Security industry)

  February 2005 — May 2006 (1 year 4 months)

  I have created special builds of UNIX software to deploy Websense across large worldwide enterprises where a variety of hardware and software appliances are used to interconnect remote offices.
  
  General role:
  
  • Analyse software, system configurations and network diagrams to identify, reproduce and diagnose reported issues and recommend corrective actions
  • Test different versions of the supported/unsupported Websense integrations in a lab environment, namely Microsoft ISA Server, CISCO PIX, Bluecoat, Cyberguard, Squid cache and other routing, firewall and content engine appliances running on Windows / Linux or Solaris operating systems
  • Assist customers onsite and field system engineers with complex issues until resolution, over the phone, email and Webex/SSH remote sessions
  • Create and maintain technical documentation and customer history
  • Beta testing new software releases and report product bugs for the development team to resolve

• Systems Administrator

  Bonsai – Promotional Merchandise

  (Consumer Goods industry)

  January 2003 — May 2004 (1 year 5 months)

  I was responsible for the set up and maintenance of the company's internal network, servers and software for high-volume mailing systems:
  
  Two HP and Fujitsu servers running Slackware LINUX on a switched network
  SAMBA as Primary Domain Controller and Backup Domain Controller with OpenLDAP authentication
  MySQL and Qmail server with Easy Mailing List Manager (EzMLM)
  Printing system controlled by CUPS in UNIX environment and shared across Macs and Windows PCs
  LINUX based ipchains firewall
  Local and remote management of this configuration via SSH and HTTPS tunnels

• Desktop, Server and Network technician

  “Gestidata” (Publicis)

  (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

  January 2002 — April 2002 (4 months)

  I was responsible for the administration and housekeeping of Compaq and HP servers running Windows NT4.0, Windows 2000 Server and RedHat Linux. As a contractor, my role involved working with a team to plan and implement software and hardware configuration changes at customers’ sites. I sporadically doubled as desktop support and hardware repair technician for G4 Apple Macs and Intel-based workstations and servers, replacing damaged parts or installing new hardware and backup solutions (RAID and Tape) as necessary for international media companies like the former Saatchi & Saatchi (BMZ), Publicis and others.

• Content Management / IT Assistant

  Inofor / IQF

  (Computer & Network Security industry)

  February 1998 — December 2001 (3 years 11 months)

  I was involved in the design process of the backbone behind the KRCP network (Knowledge Resources Centre Virtual Platform), developing efficient solutions for data processing and content management.
  I also had specific responsibilities in the following areas:
  Design and implementation of the content databases working inside the CRCvirtual.
  Helpdesk and coaching activities to instructors, education institutions and other partners of the KRCP network;
  Design and direct supervising of the “Best Practices On-line Community” for supporting network activities.