Wesley Ferrell

Hi there! I’m Wes!

I am an accomplished IT professional with over 10 years of experience. I have a well-rounded background of infrastructure management and services including networking, system administration, server administration, virtualization, cloud technologies, and IT help desk. I am currently working at Blue Apron. If you have a role that you think I would be a good fit for please do not hesitate to reach out. I am always looking for my next adventure!

Recent Projects
AWS IAM Identity Center

Implement and configure the AWS IAM Identity Center, a robust solution that facilitates accounting and permission management across our diverse range of AWS accounts. The Identity Center is seamlessly integrated with Okta and employs SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) for streamlined group provisioning. By assigning permissions within defined permission sets, these privileges are subsequently provisioned to all relevant accounts. One key advantage of this approach, in contrast to traditional AWS IAM, is the centralization of permission management within a single "primary" account, with automatic replication to designated "secondary" accounts. This centralized approach has yielded significant reductions in user management tasks and ticket volumes, resulting in heightened customer satisfaction, as the process of determining appropriate group or role assignments is no longer subject to guesswork.

Internal DNS

Create and develop an internal DNS system for Blue Apron that is lightweight and automated. This implementation utilizes advanced routing protocols (BGP) to ensure high availability and fault tolerance across network segments. Additionally, these systems handle advanced DHCP operations (option82) to cater to network devices with specific requirements and limitations. With this solution in place, Blue Apron benefits from a seamless and efficient DNS infrastructure that improves network performance and operational efficiency.

Experience
2019-Present
Blue Apron 
Senior Site Reliability Engineer

  • Infrastructure Management – Own, monitor, and manage lifecycle of on premise virtual and physical servers (mostly Linux) hosted on VMware vSphere clusters through a multitude of tooling such as Ansible, Vagrant, Chef, Terraform, Docker, and other API’s. Manage and preform major version releases of underlying hypervisors as well as security patches.

  • Infrastructure Monitoring – Utilize the Prometheus suite to monitor onsite infrastructure, employing custom alerts, metrics, and metric exporters across our tech stack. These tailored components serve as triggers to promptly notify on-call resources, facilitating swift resolution of infrastructure issues and minimizing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).

  • Technical Steering and Guidance – Provide guidance to C-level executives and engineering directors as a subject-matter expert in infrastructure matters. This invaluable support assists in guiding the organization towards optimal and cost-effective infrastructure solutions, while mitigating technical debt and complexity. Additionally, frequently engaged by various teams and projects as an individual contributor, offering valuable feedback and suggestions on proposed solutions.

  • Identity and Access Management – Setup, configure, and maintain IAM systems with a specific emphasis on SAML and LDAP-based authentication for internal servers and services.

  • 2016-2019
    Blue Apron 
    Senior System Administrator

  • Infrastructure Planning & Procurement – Plan and forecast infrastructure needs and growth as the company scales. Maintain and retrofit existing systems and infrastructure to support day to day needs while new solutions are vetted and built out. Manage a budget of $500k to purchase new hardware, software, and SaaS application suites.

  • Infrastructure Management – Manage on premise and cloud infrastructure using Amazon Web Services and VMware vSphere. Services include internal IT tools, DNS, ticketing systems, human resource management systems, Splunk, JAMF Pro, digital asset management platforms, as well as the underlying VMware infrastructure. Chef is used for configuration management.

  • Network Administration – Manage, monitor, and troubleshoot interconnected office networks across seven locations. Setup and configure advanced networking technologies such as IPsec PTP tunnels to AWS infrastructure and RADIUS/NAP servers.


  • Client Management – Manage 2k+ end client workstations, 1.8k+ mobile devices, and 2.3k users using various directory systems and configuration management platforms such as JAMF Pro, LDAP, RADIUS, and Google Apps.

  • IT Development – Build, develop, and deploy internal tools using bash scripting, python, and ruby. Build integrations between applications and other tools using RESTful API’s.

  • SaaS & IaaS Management – Manage cloud applications and infrastructure services such as Google Apps, Box, Amazon Web Services, Jira, Confluence, JAMF Pro, and JumpCloud.

  • Mentorship – Mentor, train, and lead a team of 6 technicians. Encourage continued education and professional development. Offer career advice and guidance.

  • Technical Guidance – Advise and steer senior level leadership on technical solutions, infrastructure, and best practices to make educated business decisions.

  • Hiring and Recruiting – Responsible for interviewing and judging potential candidate’s technical competency and business acumen. Participate in round table feedback sessions and hiring strategy meetings.


  • ...

    2015-2016
    Rackspace Hosting 
    System Engineer I

  • Server Management – Manage and maintain servers that host business critical services such as Active Directory, DHCP, hypervisors, and client imaging systems. These services are built on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X infrastructure.

  • Virtualization – Virtualize in-house tools and systems using VMware ESX server, Hyper-V, KVM, and cloud technologies. Create virtualized development environments for software development teams who required high availability and ample resources.

  • Network Administration – Monitor and troubleshoot office wired and wireless networks and VLANs. Cisco and Aruba technologies. Utilize network monitoring suites such as Zenoss, Cacti, and Nagios.

  • Mac OS X Imaging & Management – Develop OS X images that are deployed across the company which include standardized security settings and default software offerings. Develop imaging scripts and tools to satisfy the company’s growing OS X needs and security concerns. Evaluate and implement Mac OS X management solutions to make client support more efficient and secure.

  • IT Development – Create web-based tools using LAMP and IIS technologies to assist help desk personal and engineers. Experience with Bash, PowerShell, and Python in creating scripts and tools for the automation of repetitive tasks.


  • ...

    2008-2015
    Rackspace Hosting 
    IT Technician I, II, III

  • Help Desk – Assist thousands of users in multiple remote office locations with various IT related requests. Experience with Spiceworks, LiveTime, and ServiceNow ticketing systems.

  • User Administration – Setup new user accounts and permissions for new employees and contractors.

  • Remote IT Support – Travel to remote offices to assess and address IT related needs and issues. This ranges from simple hardware tickets to infrastructure decommissioning and build out.

  • Process Management – Develop processes and procedures for handling various tasks and projects such as new hire on boarding, infrastructure decommissioning, inventory control practices, and user device policies.

  • Videoconferencing – Install codecs and related A/V hardware. Experience with LifeSize, Vidyo, Crestron, and Extron systems.

  • Vendor Management – Manage contracts and relationships with IT contractors and vendors.

  • Shipping and Receiving – Handle shipment and reception of IT hardware from vendors and remote offices.

  • ...

    2007-2008
    Rackspace Hosting 
    Software Developer I

  • Web Development – Implemented the Mail Migration Tool v2.0 utilizing PHP, MySQL, HTML, and CSS (LAMP).
  • Skills

    Certifications

  • Apple Certified Associate - Mac Integration 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10
  • Apple Certified Associate - Management Basics 10.8, 10.9, 10.10
  • Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) 10.8
  • Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) 10.8
  • JAMF Certified Casper Technician (CCT)
  • VMware Certified Associate 6 – Data Center Virtualization (VCA6-DCV)
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