Peter Farr - Consulting Principal

Professional Profile

My career in Information Technologies has spanned about 30 years. I possesses extensive knowledge of the business application of information technology in Manufacturing, Retail, Financial, Pharmaceutical and Service Provider markets. My background includes planning, designing and implementing high-availability enterprise services, including:

• Network and Systems Management and OSS policies, processes, tools, automations, procedures;

• IT Service Management processes, tools, procedures;

• Internet/Intranet/business services platforms and infrastructure;

• Security policy, process and systems design;

• Requirements identification and analysis, business case and cost justification, infrastructure architecture and design.

My background is in large-scale,mission-critical IT operations and I bring this experience to every project. Operational stability, sustainability, cost-effectiveness and flexibility are always key principles in my work.

I have a proven track record in highlighting and resolving issues in diverse, technical environments and coordinating team efforts for installations, upgrades, and problem resolution. I am frequently called upon to develop business requirements and functional specifications and to bridge the gap between technical and business areas. I possesses excellent interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills. I am goal-oriented, diligent, and resourceful.

Skill Set

Project History

• Subcontracted to provide Event Management expertise and support for our client's largest new professional services contract. Streamlined provisioning and administration processes, developed work instructions, improved testing methods and procedures, improved operational documentation. Took on responsibility for collecting requirements and designing Event Management solutions for the rollout of the end customer's IT infrastructure for their strategic projects. (Dec 2009 – Sept 2010)

  • Tools and Technologies: BMC Performance Manager, BMC PATROL, BMC Impact, BMC ProactiveNet, BMC Remedy

  • Customer: IBM Canada

• Architected and implemented an automated custom provisioning interface for a very large, multi-customer notification service for a global services organization. Worked with the client to develop an RFP for global SMS aggregation offerings, evaluate the responses and select a vendor. (Aug 2009 – Nov 2009)

  • Tools and Technologies: AlarmPoint, Perl, Apache/PHP, Web Services

  • Customer: IBM Canada

• Developed and implemented tools and processes for alarm suppression, enrichment, correlation and automated incident ticketing from BMC Impact Solutions to Remedy Service Desk for a major Canadian Pharmaceutical, developing custom rules, Perl-based ETL and interface tools to make use of CMDB, change, incident and asset data as well as external interfaces to diverse event sources. Identified business support requirements, single points of failure and developed mitigation measures. Increased overall system stability and performance through redesigned HA/distributed architecture. Interfaced event management systems with trouble ticketing and change management database, other point systems and tools. Upgraded AlarmPoint system to HA infrastructure. Customized AP Java client for enhanced interface to BMC Impact. (Jan 2008 – Oct 2008)

  • Tools and Technologies: BMC Impact Solutions, BMC Performance Manager, BMC Patrol, BMC Remedy Service Desk, Atrium CMDB, AlarmPoint, Perl, HP OpenView, SNPP/TAP

  • Customer: Apotex Inc.

• Authored a comprehensive high-availability ITSM Event Management Architecture for a major Canadian Pharmaceutical (Aug 2008)

  • Customer: Apotex Inc.

• Redesigned and transformed automated trouble ticketing (incident management) and event management systems using Netcool Impact and Remedy Service Desk for a National Telco's Customer Care centre, with event enrichment, suppression and ticketing decisions based on asset provisioning, incident and change data from interfaced OSS/BSS databases through custom Perl and SQL scripts. Improved and stabilized systems and interfaces. Improved overall quality, stability and utility for NOC Operations. Identified operational requirements and implemented appropriate solutions. Customized Webtop Java client for NOC interface. (Mar 2007 – Jan 2008)

  • Tools and Technologies: Tivoli NetCOOL, Tivoli Webtop, Tivoli Ominbus & probes, BMC Remedy Service Desk and CMDB, Perl, Oracle, Postgres

  • Customer: MTS/Allstream

• Designed and developed Business Intelligence reports, based on Crystal Reports and Crystal Enterprise, for Senior IT and Business Management for a major Pharmaceutical. Worked with business to identify data requirements. Developed and debugged business reports. (Aug 2006 – Jan 2007, Jan 2008 – Feb 2008)

  • Tools and Technologies: Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, MS SQL Server

  • Customer: Apotex Inc.

• Revitalized and drove the deign and implementation of an ITIL-based Asset Management (AssetCenter) system and processes for IT assets for a major Pharmaceutical, including high-level processes, wizards, scripts (AssetCenter and Perl), reports, Connect It scenarios, custom ETL tools and database customizations. Identified business requirements. Developed high-level processes based on ITIL model and senior management input. Lead design workshops with stakeholders. Worked with senior management and end user departments to develop detailed work instructions and automated workflows. Customized database and application to user specifications. Developed and delivered user, management and administrator training. (Mar 2005 – Mar 2006)

  • Tools and Technologies: HP AssetCenter, HP Connect-It, Peregrine Discovery Service, Microsoft SMS, Perl, MS SQL Server

  • Customer: Apotex Inc.

• Implemented new storage array technology in a HP/UX-based high availability imaging infrastructure for a regional Healthcare Centre (Jul 2004 – Aug 2004)

  • Tools and Technologies: HP/UX, HP HBA, Hitachi storage array

  • Customer: Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences

• Diagnosed and corrected high-impact problems with a major Bank's Tivoli NetView/AIX-based network management infrastructure. Convened and moderated meetings with client and vendor support staff. Performed root cause analysis of problem symptoms. Identified and corrected design and configuration flaws.

  • Tools and Technologies: AIX,Tivoli NetView/6000, Tivoli MLM, NetView/MVS

  • Customer: Toronto Dominion Bank

• Instructor for sections of the Telecom Management Certificate course conducted by the University of Toronto, Professional Development Centre (2001-2002)

• Assisted a software development house with the installation and support of their AIX-based WebSphere development infrastructure

  • Tools and Technologies: AIX, IBM Web Sphere, Oracle

  • Customer: Intelliware

• Designed and implemented a highly available global IP Service Management infrastructure for a multi-national aerospace company headquartered in the U.S. (Sep 2000 - Jan 2001)

• • Tools and Technologies: Solaris, Lucent QIP, ISC BIND and DHCP

  • Customer: United Technologies (Pratt-Whitney, Sikorski, Otis Elevators)

• Designed and built a distributed Internet Services infrastructure, including automated provisioning, monitoring administration and incident and change management, security policies and devices, for a national greenfield CLEC based on COTS and custom (shell script, C and Perl) code on a fault-tolerant Sun platforms (six regional nodes with multiple clustered servers and storage arrays per “node”) with inter- and intra-site load balancing

• • Tools and Technologies: Solaris, Sun cluster, Sun storage array, Oracle, Cisco PIX, NOCOL, SNPP/TAP

  • Customer: Norigen Communications

• Designed and implemented comprehensive system and network management (OSS) solutions for several major Telcos and Financial institutions using OpenView and/or Tivoli products, custom Perl and UNIX shell scripts, as well as a multitude of other point tools

  • Customer(s): ATT Canada LDS, Sprint Canada, clearNET, Cogeco, Rogers Shared Services, SunLife, United Technologies (Pratt-Whitney, Sikorsky, Otis Elevators)

• Designed and built an Internet Services infrastructure, including automated provisioning, monitoring, administration, change and incident management, and security policies an devices, for a national ILEC using fault-tolerant Sun platforms with intra-site load balancing and redundancy and EMC storage back end

  • Customer: ATT Canada LDS

• Designed and implemented CA Unicenter-based network monitoring platform for a major Call Centre

• Developed and implemented security policies, processes and devices at several financial institutions and service providers

• Conceived, created and managed a Systems Integration practise at a mid-sized Consulting firm to approximately 60 staff and 30% of the net business at an International consulting firm. Responsibilities included pre-sales, business development, HR responsibilities including interviewing, hiring and firing, strategic planning, engagement and relationship management.

• Supervisor of the TD Bank's IP network support group (Ethernet/Token Ring, ATM, Frame Relay and ISDN), including internal and external firewalls and load-balancing devices; responsible for administration and customization of the NetView/6000 based management platforms, including suppression and automation of network and system events.

• Responsible for driving early (circa 1982) mainframe network management and automation efforts using tools such as NCCF and NetView/MVS, developing custom automation code (event suppression, enrichment and actioning)

• Implemented SNMP-based network management tools for TD Bank's national IP network, including TAP- and SNPP-based contact automation code.

• Migrated IP network management tools from HP OpenView to integrated mainframe/distributed NetView-based platforms

• Supported TD Bank's SNA and IP networks in various roles from System Programmer to Manager

• Mainframe console operator responsible for the availability of TD Bank's core systems

Education and Certifications

• ITIL Version 3 Foundation 2009
• EMC² Storage Architect EMC² 2000
• Certificate (Computer Systems) Ryerson 1984
• Advanced Moving Water Canoe Instructor, Paddle Canada, 2010

Employment History

Volunteer Activities

• Canoeing instructor at Mountain Equipment Co-Op's Paddlefest 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010

• Communications Director and Member of the MWWP Facilities committee for Whitewater Ontario 2009, 2010

• Coached boy's baseball (house league and AA) in the Royal York Baseball League 1999 – 2006

References

Available upon request.