Ben Thomas, Developer in Denver, CO, United States
Ben is available for hire
Hire Ben

Ben Thomas

Verified Expert  in Engineering

VMware ESXi Developer

Location
Denver, CO, United States
Toptal Member Since
February 1, 2016

Ben Thomas is a DevOps architect with over 10 years of industry experience specializing in AWS, VMware Infrastructure, and automation. Ben holds many industry certifications over several disciplines and has experience working with a diverse types of organizations both large and small.

VMware ESXiVMwareWindowsLinuxAutomationAmazon Web Services (AWS)Puppet.jsBashRubyRuby on Rails (RoR)JSONVagrantAnsibleMacOSSublime Text

Portfolio

Alliance Health
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Amazon, VMware...
Lightstream Managed Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ruby, Puppet, VMware
ViaWest
Cisco UCS, VMware vCloud, Ruby, VMware

Experience

Linux - 10 yearsVMware - 6 yearsVMware ESXi - 6 yearsRuby - 5 yearsAutomation - 3 yearsAmazon Web Services (AWS) - 2 yearsPuppet.js - 1 yearAnsible - 1 year

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Ruby, Ansible, Vagrant, Puppet, Sublime Text, Atom, MacOS

The most amazing...

...project that I have worked on was a project where I had the opportunity to work with a few NASA missions; I've always been a space geek.

Work Experience

Sr. DevOps Architect

2015 - PRESENT
Alliance Health
  • Transitioned and consolidated VMware environment while improving stability and security.
  • Architected repeatable and secure AWS solution for holding PCI and HIPAA information.
  • Architected and implemented Puppet based automation environment for use across the enterprise.
  • Mentored junior engineers and other teams on VMware and AWS best practices and design.
  • Deployed Kubernetes based docker cluster in AWS to increase developer productivity (in progress).
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Amazon, VMware, Ansible, Puppet

Cloud Architect

2014 - 2015
Lightstream Managed Services
  • Worked to design and deliver infrastructure solutions based on Amazon AWS infrastructure.
  • Worked to design and deliver automation solutions based on Puppet Open Source.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ruby, Puppet, VMware

Senior Cloud Engineer

2013 - 2014
ViaWest
  • Managed and maintained VMware vCloud Director installations for public cloud installation.
  • Managed and maintained multi-tenant vSphere infrastructure.
  • Worked with customers to troubleshoot and resolve any day-to-day issues.
  • Built several diverse lab environments to teach other engineers as well as research new products and tools.
  • Managed Cisco UCS multi-fabric environment with virtualized and bare metal workloads.
Technologies: Cisco UCS, VMware vCloud, Ruby, VMware

Datacenter Engineer

2013 - 2013
World Wide Technology
  • Designed and deployed solutions for various customers based on NetApp FlexPod design.
  • As a VMware Expert trained and mentored other members of the team on VMware technology.
  • Performed information gathering and preliminary design on complex multi-vendor solutions.
Technologies: NetApp, Cisco UCS, VMware

Sr. Technical Support Engineer

2010 - 2013
VMware
  • As an Escalation Engineer worked to solve complicated cases often involving multiple vendors and critical customer situations.
  • Provided back-line assistance to Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers.
  • Specialized in supporting customers in federal environments, often solving problems remotely.
  • Created Ruby On Rails based customer management tool for business critical support teams to augment and automate reporting on data from the salesforce.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, VMware

VMware Administrator

2009 - 2010
Raytheon (Subcontractor)
  • As a VMware engineer focused on maintaining the stability, reliability, and performance.
  • Implemented several isolated infrastructures supporting 3 spacecraft missions for NASA.
  • Implemented performance tweaks and design optimization as part of ongoing project operations.
  • Implemented VMware systems to update existing infrastructure and new infrastructure for future NASA missions.
  • Worked with project stakeholders to develop stable platforms to meet strict project requirements across disciplines.
Technologies: VMware

Systems Administrator

2007 - 2009
RNB Technologies
  • Performed Microsoft Windows administration tasks.
  • Performed administrative tasks on Sun Solaris and other Linux distributions.
  • Maintained BIND Authoritative and Caching DNS servers.
  • Maintained Postfix based Mail Relay servers.
  • Designed Enterprise class syslog system using syslog-ng.
Technologies: VMware, Linux, Unix, Windows

vOpenData

Application to allow people to voluntarily upload inventory snapshot from VMware based environment for public consumption. Project currently on hold.

Tools

VMware, Atom, Sublime Text, Puppet, Vagrant, Ansible

Other

VMware ESXi, vCloud Director, VMware vCloud, Cisco UCS

Libraries/APIs

Puppet.js

Paradigms

Automation

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MacOS, Amazon, Docker, Unix

Languages

Ruby, Bash

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Storage

NetApp, JSON

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring