 "The difference between traditional IT and Cloud Computing is the ability to scale up and down in an elastic manner with your costs adjusting accordingly. This is utility computing delivered." - Ernest de León
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Ernest is a Solutions Architect who designs and implements secure virtualized infrastructures, private, public and hybrid cloud computing environments and dynamic datacenter infrastructures. These implementations center around VMware vSphere, Cloud Foundry, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, XenApp and XenDesktop.
Holding advanced degrees in Information Technology and Business, Ernest is a rare asset that understands the needs of the business as well as the deep technical issues that IT departments face. He has a natural talent in which he can explain difficult concepts easily to non-technical people as well as translate business goals and initiatives into robust technical solutions. Ernest is an expert in cross platform integration, platform migration and distributed application development. He has deep knowledge of many open source technologies and frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, Python on Django, LAMP, Snort IDS/IPS, Linux Forensics, Rule Based Firewalls, Samba, Multiple Hypervisors, Thin Client Deployment and OS Containers. For more information, please visit Ernest’s enterprise IT blog at The Silicon Whisperer. |
Cloud Computing
Expert in refactoring applications for cloud computing environments or to achieve application redundancy across dynamic datacenter infrastructures. |
Operating Systems and Applications
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Servers, Storage, and Networking
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VirtualizationVirtualization platforms from
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For those who scrolled down for more information, you're in luck! As you can probably infer from the long lists above, I consult regularly with clients that span various industries from Commercial through Banking and the U.S. Department of Defense. I travel around the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Western Europe to solve the problems of my clients. I work with large enterprise clients (Fortune 500) such as Apple, Inc., The New York Times, Starbucks, Smith & Wesson and many small and medium enterprises (SME/SMB). I frequently assist state and local governments as well as non-profits. It would be my pleasure to come on site, wherever you are, and ensure that your technology projects are successes. Nothing matters to me more than your success because in the end, your success is my success. While the bulk of the work I do revolves around the VMware product line, I am very well versed in the Citrix line and have implemented very large XenApp and XenDesktop farms, with over 10,000 clients consisting of PCs, iPads, Smart Phones and Thin Clients. In these implementations, I usually deploy a pair of clustered Citrix NetScaler appliances (physical or virtual) to broker external and internal connectivity. I also assist in the requirements gathering, architecture and design of these environments so that my past experience can lend insight with your solution. Along the same lines as VMware and Citrix, I am also a Microsoft Engineer with expertise in the entire Windows product line from NT4 through Server 2008 R2. I routinely perform Active Directory and Exchange Server migrations and upgrades for clients with user bases ranging from 50 end-users through 20,000 end-users. I have even performed these migrations and upgrades as my clients are moving from physical servers to virtual infrastructure (VMware, XenServer, Hyper-V, RHEV). It goes without saying that SharePoint Server installations and upgrades are also within my realm of expertise. If Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) in Server 2008 R2 is what you are looking for, I have deployed load-balanced farms with up to 20,000 users. These RDS implementations can be brokered via the RDS internal load-balancing, VDI front-end brokering (such as VMware View) or hardware load-balancing (such as F5 Networks or Citrix NetScaler.) If you are a pure Microsoft shop looking to enter the virtualization realm via Hyper-V, I have set up Hyper-V farms of over 500 servers, all managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager. If your plans involve a cloud strategy deployed atop the Azure platform, I can assist with that as well. If your company is web centric and/or simply wants to explore an infrastructure built on enterprise Linux and open-source software, my expertise with RedHat, CentOS, SUSE Enterprise, Ubuntu and Solaris can provide great insight and depth into doing this. From multi-tiered web architecture to scalable content management systems, the power of enterprise Linux is untouched. Most of the cloud as we know it runs on Linux as well as many of the high-powered storage and purpose built appliances in the hardware market. Understanding the underpinnings of the operating system that these platforms run on gives me unique insight into how well these platforms scale, integrate and perform within the enterprise. The IT market is undergoing a massive shift to the cloud and the future belongs to software. This does not, however, mean that hardware will fall by the wayside. On the contrary, hardware vendors are now attempting to embed and extend the software value within their product lines. The introduction of virtualized storage from companies like 3PAR has led to an explosion in the value proposition that the various software components of these platforms deliver. Companies like EMC and NetApp are doing the same with internal and external software offerings that increase flexibility and integration with both traditional infrastructure and cloud computing infrastructure. I work with all of the major hardware vendors across servers, storage and networking. Knowing how each works along with the strengths and limitations of each allows me to build strong hardware and software stacks that will perform as needed under immense load. Whether you are an IBM, Dell, Oracle/Sun, HP, EMC, NetApp, 3PAR, Compellent, Nimbus, Cisco, Foundry, Juniper, Blue Coat or F5 shop (or more likely a combination thereof) shop, I can assist you with any solution that you need. I would also like to note that while Apple OSX remains a small contender in the corporate IT space, the percentage of Apple devices in use is rising dramatically. I work with all of Apple's product line from Xserve through OSX Laptops and Desktops and iPad/iPhone. Connectivity via the iOS platform, whether Citrix Receiver or VMware View Client, is within my realm of expertise and something that I work with on a regular basis. I work with all versions of OSX from 10.0 (Cheetah) through 10.7 (Lion), PowerPC or Intel. Lastly, I would like to say that as part of my philanthropic efforts, I do provide a certain amount of guidance and services pro bono for non-profit agencies. If you would like to be considered for theses services, please submit your project information to the email address at the top of the page and I will reply as soon as possible. While I travel too often to take a permanent board position, I do provide guidance to several non-profit boards with respect to Information Technology. If your non-profit board is in need of this type of guidance, please contact me via the email address at the top of the page and I will reply as soon as possible. I appreciate the time you have taken to read all of this information, and I look forward to doing business with you in the future. |