David Paul Gerdes

mailto:dpgerdes@gmail.com

I bring many years experience of software development, network design, administration and automation utilizing bash, Python, Perl and Expect.

Network:

Programming:

Aug 2021-Present

I'm retired. I really enjoyed my career, the opportunities I had, the people I worked with, the places it took me. I am so grateful for it all. I have so many amazing memories. Blessings to each of you as well as you, reader.

Nov 2019-Aug 2021 Gas SCADA Specialist for Ameren Illinois (AEE)

SCADA Specialist. Member of small team responsible for all aspects of managing and maintaining Gas SCADA system and data. Developed custom python protocol implementation to log and trend remote device configuration and status. Windows Server 2012r2, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, Hyper-V, Ivanti Patch. Introduced GIT for document and SCADA configuration management. Interfaced with network, firewall, and cyber teams.

April 2014-Oct 2019 [ Retired ] Senior Network Engineer for University of Illinois Technology Services

Senior Network Engineer. Member of team responsible for network management tools, design and configuration of campus Nexus 7000 MPLS/VPLS backbone. Primary responsible for campus exit firewall Juniper SRX 5800 HA Cluster and lead a forklift replacement installing SRX 5800 and MX-480. Network automation and scripting. Perl, Python, MySQL, AWS.

March 2012-March 2014 Network Engineer for Champaign Telephone Company

Network Engineer. Designed and successfully deployed Metro Ethernet service provider network for CTC Fiber services utilizing their IRU on the Champaign Urbana UC2b fiber ring installation. Designed network using HP A5820-AF, A5800, A5500, A5120 RRPP. HP IRF, Cisco 6500 VSS. Deployed over 130 nodes on 18 intersecting rings with full path diversity. Developed tools for automatic device configuration and deployment as well as management portal for monitoring network health and capacity. Also built a network using Adtran TA-5000 / ETOS-1 10Gigabit ERPS Ring network.

March 2007-March 2012 Senior Network Engineer for Pavlov Media

Senior Network Engineer in ISP NOC. Responsible to ensure smooth operation of over 100,000 user ISP with over 200 remote and regional sites nationwide. Provide technical leadership and 3rd level support to NOC staff. LAN, WAN, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, IPv6, LRE, CMTS, VOIP, Bridgewave, Ubiquity, Ruckus, Mikrotik and Motorola Wireless, ACS, PIX, ASA, OpenNMS, MRTG, scripting including Perl, TCL, Expect, bourne shell, Python, Postgres, Graphviz. Developed numerous applications using primarily bash, Perl, Postgres, Expect to discover, monitor, visualize, configure and report on thousands of remotely managed devices including routers, switches, servers, firewalls, APs, backhaul radios, remote power and out of band management.

2008-2011 Owner Walkingstaff Software

Sofware Development. Developed and published iPhone game app Trafficjam.

Feb 2005-Dec 2006 Self Employed

Self employed investing and trading futures. Along with studying and trading various markets I developed a number of applications in various programing and scripting languages to provide tools for assisting and automating various trading systems and tasks.

Aug 2003-Jan 2005 R&D Network Design Engineer for Hewlett-Packard Company

Technical lead on HP Utility Data Center Network team. Provide technical R&D design for UDC 2.0 product line, consisting of redundant three tier Cisco network with 6509/MSFC as the Layer 3 core. Provide technical oversight and direction to team of software and network engineers, as well as providing recommendation and expertise to UDC architectural team. Occasional third level, 'buck stops here' response for customer support. Designed various algorithms and data formats for automating the administration of a very dynamic network environment in the UDC model. Technical advisor for software development of SNMP and CLI based drivers for modifying the state and topology of network as well as automating OS and configuration upgrades.

Apr 2001-May 2003 Network Support Contractor for Illinois Power Company

Full time contract position in network implementation and maintenance. Primary technical responsibility for 24 hour corporate network. Responsible for hands on implementation and maintenance duties. Fully redundant Layer 3 network. 6500/MSFC, 4006, 3640, 7500, 7204, 3900 token ring, 5300, 3000 VPN Concentrator. 3500XL, 3550, 2900XL, 2950. OSPF, BGP, DLSW+, TN3270, VOIP, QOS. Gigabit EtherChannel, Multihomed ISPs BGP, Checkpoint Firewalls. CSS11000. CWSI. MRTG. Developed various scripts to assist with monitoring integrity of critical services.

Apr 2000-Mar 2001 Independent Consultant

Various projects in software development, EMC Storage area networks and instructing CCNP modules. Clients include Franklin Electronic Publishers, United Airlines, Komatsu, Allstate, Aquarius Institute.

Aug 1999-Mar 2000 Lucent Netcare/INS

Network Services Engineer. Worked on various network WAN related projects, Customers included AT&T Global Network Services, and W.W. Grainger. Cisco 2500, 4500, 7500, Netpath CSU, ISDN, Frame Relay, Cascade Switch. Checkpoint FW-1 on Nokia 440 and Sun Ultra Sparcs, VRRP, ISP/Address space conversion, T3, DNS, SMTP, PacketShaper, Kerberos 5, Perl/CGI scripting, Router configuration archival, monitoring. Built and installed several SunOS 2.6 servers for firewalls and network appliances.

May 1997-Aug 1999 International Telecommunications Data Systems ITDS/Amdocs/Computer Science Corportation

Senior Technical Advisor. Responsible for design, installation and maintenance of LAN and WAN of Champaign site as well as primary for Internet connection, network services, 5300 and Checkpoint firewall. Designed, installed Cisco campus networks for three campus buildings and data center. Network conversion for corporate merge involving OSPF, ISP move, Firewall-1, SecuRemote, DHCP, Internal and External DNS, IP network re-addressing, SMTP, NAT.

Network Consultant. Responsible for design, installation and maintenance of LAN and WAN at 400 person location. Class B network, Bay Networks BCN, AFN, AN and ASN routers, Cisco 2501 and 4500. Designed and spec'd network upgrade using Cisco 5500, 7000 and 5300. 20 FT1s and DDS, PtP, Switched T1, Frame Relay, Site Manager, HP OpenView, Optivity, NetMetrix and LanProbe, Bay 3000 and 5000 Hubs, switched networks, VPNs, 10/100BaseT/F, HP Internet Advisor, Sendmail, DNS, DHCP, WINS.

1994-1997 Spyglass

Senior Network Engineer. Responsible for design and maintenance of LAN and WAN for four U.S. locations as well as Unix systems admin. Checkpoint Firewall 1 CCSE, DNS, Wiring/T1 installation, Cisco 25xx routers, 10/100BaseT switching, Pentascanner, HP Openview/Optivity, Scotty/TkIned. Unix: sh, csh, perl, Tcl/Tk

Manager, Software Engineering, Senior Software Engineer. Manager of Unix Products Team and Portability Team, developed 4 releases of Unix Spyglass Mosaic and Web Client SDK, which was licensed by Microsoft to become Internet Explorer. Worked on TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, Java, FTP, Async I/O, Motif, Image, SSL, Audio, SDI, porting API and responsible for Unix Products Configuration Management and build system. Integrated Java into Unix and Windows Spyglass Mosaic Web Browsers.

Owner of Penguin Software

In 1996 I developed the XWord Crossword program for the PalmPilot handheld computer. This shareware program was for several years the premier crossword program for the PalmPilot and has had excellent reviews. This program is available at http://www.roadkeel.com/penguin/

1985-1994 Construction Engineering Research Lab, Army Corps of Engineers (USA-CERL)

Principle Investigator, GS-12. Designed/developed next generation Vector GIS API. Oversaw staff of 3-5 people working on Topographic analysis, erosion modeling research, Environmental visualization, and analytic tools for vector Geographic Information System (GIS). Interactive 3D visualization system; water flow models; polygon overlay; vector GIS workbench. Received 1993 Best Technical Paper and Outstanding Achievement Award at GRASS technical conference. http://grass.osgeo.org/ Sysadmin for several Unix machines. Designed/developed the Army Commercial Activities Management Information System (ACAMIS II) a hierarchical database. Ported GRASS to 386 UNIX (wrote device drivers for graphics and mouse). Created the visualization research program at CERL.

1983-1984 USA-CERL

Student researcher. Designed/developed the Army Commercial Activities System (CAS), mandated by Army Regulation AR 5-20. Designed/developed online interface to census STF3A database.

1982-1984 Computing Services Office, University of Illinois Machine Room Operator

Vax 11/780, CDC Cyber, IBM 4341

1981-1982 Library Services, Eastern Illinois University Student Programmer

TEACHING:

I have taught a number of classes and workshops including:

EDUCATION: