John M. Abbott
MCSE (WinNT/Win2K), MCDBA (SQL2K)

Send me email or see the short version of my resume

Overview of Experience

I have been working with computers for over 30 years.  I got my first computer programming job when I was in high school more than 20 years ago.  I have worked on every generation of PC since the initial IBM PC was introduced. 

During my time in the US Air Force, I was involved in computers—even though I was a fire fighter.  I developed a dispatch system, a system for maintaining training records and even worked on the development of a new hazardous materials system developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

Back in 1994, my primary profession became computers when I was hired by Donnelly Corporation to become a member of their fledgling helpdesk.  I developed scripts so the system was self repairing—even to the point where the “healing” process was monitored by another process to make sure it had not failed.  All of this led to my promotion to helpdesk supervisor.  Eventually my automation eliminated the need for a computer operator and I moved on to being a full time programmer in support of manufacturing.

My programming eventually took me into the world of the Internet and servers.  I won two Microsoft awards for my web development and implementation.  At this point, I moved over to the City of Holland to act as their web master and a network administrator responsible for their Windows network.

The natural progression was to move on to full time network support—which took me to Burke Porter Machinery.  There I was responsible for the network infrastructure, as well as the senior technician.  Since joining Burke Porter Machinery in 1997, I have been involved in a wide variety of projects and technologies in support of the network and desktop (including workstations and laptops) environment.  We were able to let our co-op position go unfilled after I developed standard, stable PC builds that we deployed using the Symantec Ghost infrastructure we put in place.

In short, my life has lead me through a variety of positions and technologies so that I feel comfortable in almost any computer related position and I thrive in environments where I can work with the customers (end users) to provide a solid end to end infrastructure from the desktop right on up.

Burke Porter Machinery (Jan 2001 to July 2004  and Sep 1997 to Nov 1998)

I was hired as the network administrator.  As such I am responsible for almost all aspects of the IT infrastructure.   I redesigned the poorly performing server and network infrastructure and made it work effectively.  I also implement VMware to reduce the number of physical servers and better segment functionality without significantly increasing cost.  I also redesigned, implemented and upgraded firewall, VPN and dial up.  Most recently I have been tasked with developing methods using web pages written in ASP and client applications written in Visual Basic .NET to extract information from our ERP system (Baan).

Microsoft Exchange

• I implemented digital certificates and RPC over HTTP for Exchange 2003 at Burke Porter Machinery.  The digital certificates allow us to encrypt all traffic between the Exchange server and the clients (HTTPS)—allowing for Outlook 2003 to safely communicate with Exchange directly over the Internet.
• I migrated Burke Porter Machinery from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003
• I implemented a third party (Postini.com), external antivirus/antispam.
• I implemented a unified Exchange infrastructure world wide.  This included hosting POP3 clients in England from our central server in Grand Rapids and failover of inbound SMTP traffic.
• I implemented a seamless integration of our SMTP based fax solution with our Exchange infrastructure.
• I upgraded from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000.  I also implemented an OWA front end server to handle web based traffic to and from the Exchange server.
• I migrated Burke Porter Machinery from Microsoft Mail to Exchange 5.5.

Active Directory

• Upgraded Active Directory at Burke Porter from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003.
• Consolidated our three separate domains world wide (US, Belgium and Germany).  I was responsible for designing and implementing the migration—including a custom migration tool to migrate the users and reconfigure the settings, including Exchange.
• Cleaned up a very poorly migrated Active Directory at Burke Porter.  There was a Windows NT 4.0 domain that was migrated to Windows 2000 Active Directory (by contractors during my absence).
• I migrated from Novell 3.11 to a Windows NT 4.0 domain.

Storage Area Network (SAN)

• Worked with Dell to upgrade our SAN by adding an additional 730GB of disk space to our existing infrastructure.
• Worked with Dell and EMC to implement a SAN for Burke Porter Machinery.  This included just over 1 terabyte of storage.  I worked with the technicians at Dell to spec out, design and then implement the SAN.

Antivirus Infrastructure

I implemented a multilayered approach to antivirus.

• All inbound messages are scanned at Postini.com using McAfee.
• I instructed the firewall to only allow inbound SMTP traffic from Postini.
• I also implement Trend Micro’s ScanMail for Exchange the Exchange server.
• I design and deployed Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition to all of our desktops.

Internet (Web Design and Infrastructure)

• I design and implemented a web based interface to our file server that uses a mixture of ASP programming, standard web shares and WebDAV.  This infrastructure allows users to securely access (HTTPS) any of the files on the file server and, using WebDAV and any Microsoft Office product, you can save the files back to the web server.

Other Accomplishments

• I implemented VMware to reduce the number of physical servers required, which maintaining separation of our functions and physical integrity of our servers (in other words, the VMware server is running with solid server hardware, rather than using personal computers as servers)
• I recovered a heavily damaged Visual Source Safe implementation, literally rescuing millions of dollars of source code.  I am also participating in the Alpha testing for the Whidbey release of Visual Source Safe.
• I redesigned of our Intranet and developed a secure customer focused extranet.  I also extended functionality for remote user through a custom built web based interface to our main file server, OWA for Exchange and better dialup.

My time at Burke Porter Machinery was marked by a willingness and ability to work with a wide variety of technology, people and requests in order to leverage technology to get allow our users to get their job done in the manner they want and feel is most effective.  I have been able to come up with creative solutions with limited budgets, as well as implementing enterprise level solutions, like our SAN, when the budget was not a constraint.

Old Kent Bank (Jun 2000 to Jan 2001)

Exchange Administrator for Exchange 2000.  We were early adopters of Exchange 2000 working heavily with Microsoft to design and implement an email system capable of handling 10,000 email accounts in hundreds of locations around the country.  Among other things, I wrote a customer address synchronization utility to keep Groupwise, cc:Mail, Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 up to date, which allowed email to continue flowing between the systems.

Sun Chemical (Nov 1998 to Jun 2000)

Network/Desktop Support Technician.  Support of a network of 150 computers, including 10 servers.  Responsible for Exchange email, SQL and desktop applications.

City of Holland, Michigan (Jan 1997 to Sep 1997)

Information Services Coordinator.  Responsibilities include setting up a Windows NT network, e-mail and web site (Intranet and Internet).  Tools include Internet Information Server 2.0 - 4.0, Exchange Server 5.0 (using Exchange 5.0 client and Outlook 97), Systems Management Server 1.2 (SMS), Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, Microsoft Visual Studio 97 and Microsoft Office.  Completely designed and implemented the entire Internet and e-mail related solutions (on Windows NT Server with Windows 95 clients)

• I implemented Exchange 5.0 at the City of Holland and migrated them away from Novell Groupwise.
• I implemented a Windows NT 4.0 domain at the City of Holland that coexisted with the Novell 4.11 infrastructure.

Donnelly Corporation (Apr 1994 to Jan 1997)

Worked as a Programmer/Analyst in support of manufacturing and as HelpDesk Coordinator.  Worked regularly with Novell 4.xx.

Muskegon Central Dispatch (9-1-1) (Jun 1993 to Apr 1994)

Working as a Telecommunicator (emergency dispatcher).

Olsten’s Temporary Service (Dec 1992 to Apr 1993)

Working for Donnelly Grand Haven as a computer skilled staff assistant.

United States Air Force (Aug 1984 to Aug 1992)

Served as a fire protection specialist.  Also performed duties as safety officer, supply custodian, security monitor, computer operator, analyst and programmer. Served in the Philippines, Utah, Illinois and South Korea.

Served as chief tester and contributed to the programming in implementation of the Hazardous Materials Incident Management System (HMIMS—a computer system for tracking hazardous materials incidents).

Other Skills and Technologies

Internet (Web Design and Infrastructure)

• I have been working with web design and infrastructure since 1995.
• I have won two awards from Microsoft for my Web Design.  The most recent was Microsoft’s DHTML Behavior contest, where I was a grand prize winner (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndude/html/dude031899.asp).  The first was when I became a finalist in the “Activate the Internet” contest sponsored by Microsoft’s Site Builder Network (which later merged with MSDN).
• I have my own virtual web server available at http://abbott.ms/.

Certifications

• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Windows 2000
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Windows NT 4.0
• Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA) for SQL 2000.

Other

• Implemented a wide variety of solutions on Windows NT, Windows 2000 and more recently on Windows 2003 to include: Systems Management Server (versions 1.1 through 2003), SQL Server (6.5 through 2000), remote dial in, Intranet, Extranet, Internet web sites and much, much more.
• Programmed in Windows using Microsoft Visual BASIC, VBScript and others.
• Have written a wide variety of material, ranging from technical documentation for custom written software, to standard operating procedures, to short stories.
• Experience installing and troubleshooting Windows (all flavors).

Education

Personal Data

Born 27 Oct 65, married with 2 children.

References

Available upon request.