e r i c d e n n i s . c o m -- my resume

Sep. 2006 - Present: Warner Bros. Advanced Digital Services (Burbank, CA)
Manager, Systems Engineering

Manage business relationships between WB ADS and its internal and external customers. Act as point of contact and subject matter expert for infrastructure requests and issues.
Manage business relationships between WB ADS and its hardware and software vendors. Negotiate product pricing, work with internal finance and procurement teams to procure necessary hardware/software, and coordinate product delivery.
Act as point of contact for internal groups to coordinate infrastructure additions and changes. Work with web serving, web development and application development teams to ensure optimal application design. Coordinate load and stress tests of ADS-hosted applications.
Manage a team of three systems engineers and one network engineer to provide enterprise-level systems and network infrastructure for WB ADS-hosted sites and applications. This team is responsible for 400+ servers, 50+ switches and 20TB+ of storage, housed in multiple US locations.
Maximize ROI for infrastructure investments by proactively ensuring that ADS systems infrastructure is performing at optimal levels and redeploying hardware where needed to handle all current and future load.
Ensure that the systems engineering team is trained on the latest technologies.
Ensure that other engineering groups are trained on all pertinent systems technologies.
Identify necessary hardware and software for various ADS infrastructure projects. Maintain relationships with vendors in order to procure necessary hardware and software.
Project planning and management for strategic infrastructure projects, such as:
- Server virtualization
- Server migration and data center expansion
- Infrastructure buildout, setup and migration for key sites, such as thecw.com, kidswb.com, essence.com and zuda.com.
Develop, implement and enforce systems engineering policies for all WB ADS systems.
Updated asset management system to track all WB ADS server, network, server software and storage assets.
Reduced engineering overhead by redesigning server configuration management infrastructure, linking it with asset management system.

Jun. 2001 - Sep. 2006: Warner Bros. Online (Burbank, CA)
Sr. Systems Engineer

Led a team of three senior engineers in designing and building the network and server infrastructure for The Matrix Online, Warner Bros.' first MMORPG offering. (The Matrix Online property was sold to Sony Online Entertainment in 2005.)
Assembled and managed a team of five full-time engineers to perform 24x7 administration for the 600+ servers that powered The Matrix Online.
Planned and managed the move of WBOL's internal server infrastructure to new offices with minimal downtime.
Developed custom web statistics generation and reporting tools for all WBOL-served web sites.
Developed web-based host and asset management tools to track all WBOL servers.
Administer the 200+ Sparc and Intel web, application and database servers that serve the majority of web sites for Warner Bros. properties such as harrypotter.com, looneytunes.com, and scoobydoo.com.
Administer all WBOL DNS, POP3, SMTP and IMAP servers.
Administer all WBOL Windows and Active Directory infrastructure.
Backed up Sr. Network Engineer for all network-related duties: primarily configuration, troubleshooting and deployment of WBOL's switches, firewalls and routers.

Nov. 2000 - Jun. 2001: ARTISTdirect, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA)
UNIX/Linux System Administrator

Administered the 50+ Sparc and Intel servers that power the majority of the ARTISTdirect online music network, which consists of high-profile, high-traffic web sites such as ubl.com, metallica.com, bjork.com, and imusic.com. Sun E450, E220R, Ultra 5, and VA Linux servers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego data centers provided HTTP, DNS, POP3, SMTP, and other services for millions of users daily.
Ensured the consistent uptime of the ARTISTdirect network by configuring and maintaining redundant Cisco PIX firewalls, F5 BIG/IP load balancers, Cisco 6509 switches, Cisco 7204 routers, and Cisco 3640 routers.
Installed and configured auto-akamaization filtration appliance for the ARTISTdirect network.
Implemented three-stage development environment for web site production staff. Wrote Perl scripts to automate synchronization between stages.
Developed custom ad server software with PHP/MySQL for use on the ARTISTdirect network.
Automated common server administration tasks to allow delegation to help desk staff.

Jul. 1999 - Nov. 2000: Comtelligence, LLC (Garden Grove, CA)
Manager - Internet Services

Installed, configured, and maintained BIND, Apache, Apache-SSL, Stronghold, Sendmail, SSH, FTP, POP3, IMAP, Radius, backup, and other services on over 25 BSDI Unix and Red Hat Linux servers housed in data center.
Implemented and maintained 24x7 monitoring for all servers. Responded to service notifications and alerts. Identified and eliminated service problems.
Developed web site and software components in Perl and PHP3.
Architected and implemented technical infrastructure for clients wishing to provide dialup access to customers.
Consulted for industrial clients on network design and implementation. Configured VPNs for certain clients.
Performed in-house computer maintenance and upgrades.

Aug. 1997 - Jul. 1999: HURLnET (Placentia, CA)
System Administrator/Programmer

Developed key software components and processes using Perl, SQL, Java and ASP.
Installed and configured FTP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Apache, Apache-SSL, Samba, Telnet, SSH, and other services on company's Red Hat Linux and FreeBSD servers.
Installed and configured company's proprietary software on customer-owned Sun, Intel, and Alpha servers.
Maintained company web site.