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Resume

 

Chris Cato

 

 

Geneva, IL 60134

(773) 340-9238

 

Distant Horizon, Inc.
Homer Glen, IL 60491
Website Design and Hosting		 Technical Director
August 2001- Current

Responsibilities include:

  • Managing production hosting environment for 450 websites and 3,200 email accounts.
  • Managing 4 IIS web servers, 4 Microsoft SQL Server database servers (2000, 2005 and 2008), 2 mail servers, 2 web statistics servers, 3 firewalls, 3 DNS servers and related networking equipment.
  • Support for all desktop computers and software within the office.
  • Selecting, purchasing and installing all computer and network hardware in the office and at two datacenter facilities.
  • All regular and emergency maintenance including primary technical contact for all emergencies, 24/7/365.
  • Managing incident response to website, server and email security vulnerabilities as necessary.
  • Level 2 and up support for employees as well as customers.
  • Internal consultant for all technical issues and trouble shooting.
  • Advising on strategic business planning and technology.
  • Development of operational and project planning processes including policy and procedures.
  • Vendor selection and maintaining vendor relationships.
  • Solution design and implementation for client problems.
  • Managing the security of the company IT infrastructure.
  • Scripting server administration tasks as appropriate.

Accomplishments:

  • Designed, built and maintained internal system for identifying and mitigating “snowshoe” spam. System utilized custom scripts for analyzing mail server log files, database storage of SMTP transaction records, custom web-based reports and real-time-blacklist software.
  • Implemented a virtual server installation using Citrix XenServer and migrated 250 websites from physical servers to new Windows 2008 virtual servers.
  • Identified, evaluated, and implemented Windows based website control panel for company.
  • Designed and coded first e-commerce shopping cart solution for company which became the foundation for all subsequent e-commerce sites developed by the company.
  • Managed team of 3 to code all functionality for a new site for a prominent national outdoor and hunting goods retailer.
  • Roll out of new equipment at new datacenter in 2010.
  • Managed emergency move of all server and networking equipment after our co-location provider shutdown with no notice.
  • Managed emergency move of 150 websites and databases to a new datacenter and server environment when a damaged disk partition disabled a server.
  • Worked in project management role as well Technical Director during 2007-2008, directing programmers as well as graphic designers and data entry specialists.
  • Identified approach for importing and converting data for proprietary CMS and e-commerce systems.
  • Identified and helped implement changes necessary for compliance with PCI DSS on servers, network and internal applications.
  • Setup CVS and introduced source code control concepts to programming staff.
  • Setup and managed multiple Snort IDS sensors using a combination of Snort, MySQL, Apache and BASE.
Experimental Aircraft Association, Chapter 101Addison, IL

Consultant

February 2012

 

Redesigned aging organization website to take advantage of modern content management systems. A new site was built in the open source Drupal CMS using a design commissioned from a third party graphic designer. Content was transferred to new site and new features were put in place using Drupal plugins. New site was launched in February 2012 and premiered in a presentation to the Chapter.

 

RHI Consulting, IncChicago, IL

Consultant

May 2001 – July 2001

 

  • JavaScript development for DecisionQuest to support opening and bookmarking of new document windows in Adobe Acrobat 5.
  • Development of a web server application in PHP to create and electronically transfer XML documents to a partner organization based on input from a web form.

 

Innovative Internet Marketing SolutionsWallingford, CT 06492

Website Design and Hosting

Senior Technology Associate

September 1997- April 2001

 

Responsibilities included:

 

  • Coordination of other developers on client and internal IIMS work
  • Assist network administration staff in maintaining and troubleshooting IIMS servers and network applications including SQL Server, Sendmail, IIS, and DNS.
  • Provide recommendations on company policies and standards for application development.
  • Assist other developers in bringing their ideas for improved processes and applications to the larger development group.
  • Provide leadership on larger projects where multiple developers are needed.
  • Conduct weekly tech status meetings on work status and development technology issues.
  • Make recommendations to partners on technology and application development issues.
  • Attend website strategy meetings and provide feedback on technical aspects of sites.
  • Review code and design strategies of other developers and make recommendations on potential improvements.
  • Orientation of new IIMS application development personnel.
  • Coordination of initial uploading of a client web sites including technical review of applications, link verification, email and ftp account setup, web server setup including IP address allocation, and DNS modifications and updates.
  • Development of web applications for new and existing clients using ASP, Javascript, SQL, and MS Access.
  • Review of proposals to ensure technical feasibility.

 

Accomplishments:

 

  • Coordinated application development group in determining and documenting IIMS best common practices.
  • Began research, design, and development of IIMS work tracking tool that would allow company wide task tracking, monitoring, and assignment.
  • Established core principles of an IIMS application development methodology.
  • Created basis for a structured IIMS testing approach based on test before code principles put forth by Kent Beck, Martin Fowler, et al.
  • Redesign and rewrite of the IIMS shopping cart application. Primary goals were to make shopping cart setup, maintenance, and future development simpler by using reusable code and Server Side Includes. Results were a significant decrease in setup time and a minimization of ASP code in files to be edited by non-technical personnel.
  • Continued maintenance and development of shopping cart application including addition of order notification features, server-side data validation, bulk pricing features and improved error handling and error notification.
  • Research and development of script to process web, Real Server, Sendmail, and FTP logfiles to calculate bandwidth usage on a per client basis.
  • Script to calculate uptime by checking all mission critical services every two minutes and storing results in a database.
  • Extensive client interaction, including training and tech support on IIMS applications and services.
  • Assist in planning migration of over 150 client websites and IIMS internal network from 3 partial class C IP blocks to a full class C block.
  • Assisting in the administration of 6 Windows NT servers, including web, FTP, email, and statistics servers.
  • Redesign of matching game application for Brace-asaurus.com web site utilizing ASP and Javascript.
  • Maintenance of IIMS guestbook application.

 

B.R. Graphic DesignWest Hartford, CT

Consultant

July 2000 – September 2000

 

A redesign of the Countryman Ceramics web site called for a shopping cart to allow customers to make online purchases of Countryman s imported candles and ceramic gifts. A small budget helped us make the decision to use an off the shelf shopping cart supplied by the client s hosting provider. After modifications to make the shopping cart suitable for use with the layout, navigation, and products Countryman Ceramics wished to utilize, the redesigned web site launched and has allowed them access to a new market for their products via the Internet.

 

Connecticut Classical Guitar SocietyWebsite redesign

Consultant

June 1999 – August 1999

 

Complete redesign of the Guitar Society s web site from initial planning to rollout. Planning and recommendations on hosting arrangements. Site structure and navigation were chosen for maximum effect in search engines while maintaining ease of use and intuitive navigation for the web sites intended audience. Graphics were created in Adobe Photoshop using existing CCGS materials as a starting point. HTML was written using a minimum of code necessary for layout to simplify maintenance for CCGS personnel. Cascading Style Sheets were used where possible to simplify and minimize issues for handicapped browsers.

 

Bowling Green State University, Computer Help CenterBowling Green, OH

Graduate Microcomputer Consultant

May 1997 – August 1997

 

In addition to fulfilling role of Level 1 Help Center Consultant responsibilities included:

 

  • Prepare 1997 web-based presentations for new faculty and graduate students on University Computer Services utilizing HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and Javascript.
  • Create, maintain, and document BGSU PPP installation disks for Windows 3.1 using InstallShield.
  • Serve on Help Center teams to define appearance and procedures for making Help Center documentation as well as advise on suitability of Help Center software to meet the clients needs.
  • Advise on procedures for documenting the creation of Help Center software installers.

 

 

Bowling Green State University, Computer Help CenterBowling Green, OH

Level 1 Help Center Consultant

June 1996 – May 1997

 

Responsibilities included:

 

  • Provide level 1 support and trouble shooting for client base. Including phone, E-mail, and on-site support.
  • Supported platforms include Macintosh, Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 personal computers as well as DEC and SGI mainframes running Digital Unix 4.0 and Irix 6.2.
  • Supported software packages include Microsoft Works and Office, WordPerfect, Adobe PageMaker and PhotoShop, Unix utilities, and various network applications through PPP, Ethernet, and AppleTalk connections.
  • Trouble shooting new software installations, modem communication problems, network problems and basic hardware difficulties.
  • Responsible for Help Center documentation including writing and testing procedures for the implementation of PAP Password Authentication Protocol via the PPP protocol.
  • Transfer presentations for new faculty and graduate students from PowerPoint to HTML for use in Netscape Navigator 2.02 off of the campus backbone.
  • Prepare instructions and a basic installer for using Trumpet Winsock 3.0D for PPP access at BGSU.

 

Education

 

Masters of Music 1995-1997

BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY BOWLING GREEN, OH

Major: Master of Music in Jazz and Classical Guitar Performance.

Studies included research into computer generation of fractal music and computer assisted analysis of the serial music of Milton Babbitt.

 

 

Bachelor of Music 1989-1993

VALDOSTA STATE UNIVERSITY VALDOSTA, GA

Major: Bachelor of Music in Classical Guitar Performance

Qualifications

Experience with:

  • Windows 2008
  • Windows 2003
  • Snort
  • PCI DSS
  • SpamAssassin
  • Netscreen Firewalls
  • SonicWall Firewalls
  • Microsoft DNS
  • Drupal
  • WordPress
  • Citrix XenServer
  • VMWare Server
  • VBScript
  • Network Administration
  • Server Administration
  • Javascript
  • ASP
  • XML
  • Perl
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • IIS 7.5, 6, 5
  • CVS
  • SQL Server
  • Windows NT
  • Visual Basic
  • Linux (Ubuntu and CentOS)
  • BIND