Ronnelito Castro - IT Infrastructure Architect, The First Group (Dubai)

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Work Background

The First GroupManager - IT Infrastructure and Cybersecurity

Apr. 2022United Arab Emirates · Hybrido Lead and Manage IT Infrastructure and Cyber Security Team, aligning goals and objectives to directly support business outcomes. o Established detailed KPIs, goals and objectives for individual members. o Carried out capacity planning for IT Infrastructure Operation. o Manage datacentre infrastructure, including setting up, monitoring and controlling the applications, services, servers, and networks on-premises and cloud. o Manage responses to security incidents. o Work with various IT functional groups to ensure Servers/Applications high availability and end-to-end system security in regard to data exchange between systems both internal and external. o Provide security insight and guidance to other functional groups to reduce unnecessary risk. o Provide practical security best-practice guidance to company-wide initiatives. o Research emerging technologies that can be beneficial for company’s computing environment. o Monitors and enforces security procedures. o Analyse impact of existing or proposed projects on the enterprise infrastructure to ensure projects are not compromising the security of the infrastructure or security policies. o Collaborating with systems, network, database, technicians on proposed projects to ensure high availability and security is maintained. o Promote and increase security awareness and training in the company. o Provide independent assessments of network security on an as-needed basis.

The First GroupInformation Technology Infrastructure Architect

Feb. 2019 - Aug. 2022Dubai, United Arab EmiratesSkills: Interpersonal Communication · Team Leadership · Computer Science · Communication

KEYRPTOLead Architect - IT Infrastructure

Oct. 2017 - Dec. 2019Dubai, United Arab EmiratesInvestor of the company and headed the IT Infrastructure department of KEYRPTO, a start-up company who developed Blockchain-based DApps, one of them is a Blockchain-based e-commerce platform utilizing Ethereum smart contract for transactions and payment. I was task to lead the infrastructure team to setup the cloud-based (Azure) infrastructure back-end of the Apps.

The First GroupInformation Technology Infrastructure Engineer

Dec. 2013 - Feb. 2019United Arab Emirates · On-site• Microsoft Azure – Azure Firewall, NSGs, WAF, Direct Routing, MS Defender, VMs, Vnets, VNet Gateways, Site-to-Site, Point-to-Site, Peering, Azure Site Recovery (ASR), Azure SQL, WebApps, etc. • On-Premises and Cloud-based Data Centre, Virtual and Physical, ESXi VMWare VCenter and Hyper-V Clustering, HP, DELL, IBM, Huawei HCI (Hyperconverged Infrastructure) Servers • SANs – Huawei OceanStor, HP 3PAR, IBM Storage • Disaster Recovery Solutions, Tape Backup Infrastructure, Azure Site Recovery • SCCM-Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager • AD, DHCP, DNS, Group Policies Management, Registry and GP editing • On-Prem and Cloud Infrastructure • Microsoft Azure Cloud Solutions, Google Cloud, Oracle and AWS • Kubernetes Cluster, Containers • Servers/Database, Storage, Azure Backup • Azure Active Directory – Hybrid • Exchange Office365 - Hybrid, integrated with Mimecast Email Security (integration and policies, Anti spoofing, anti-spam, URL protection, etc) • CITRIX NetApp System - full implementation and management • VEEAM Backup and Recovery - Virtual Machine and Data Backup Jobs, Tape Infrastructure backup, external repository (Azure/AWS) • Network and Voice • CISCO MERAKI Infrastructure (MR/MX) • SD-WAN, multiple uplinks/WAN • Firewall & Traffic Shaping, Layer 3 Rules • VLANs, Group Policies for Access Control • Huawei Wireless Infrastructure • CISCO, Avaya, and Huawei Layer 2&3 Switches • Configure, Install, Deploy, Maintain • Stacking and redundancy for High Availability • Layer 3 Core Switch level routing • Microsoft Teams, integration thru SBC gateways / PSTN • CISCO Unified CM PABX, AVAYA CM • PALO ALTO and DELL SonicWALL • NAC – Network Access Control, Aruba ClearPass • CCTV/Access Control Security Systems • Teramind Employee Monitoring System • Policy Enforcement • MS Defender, KAV, Sophos, TrendMicro • PRTG Monitoring, Manage Engine, monitoring Servers and Network Devices • MS Azure Intune • Android Enterprise • IBM Maas360

Dubai Summit Real EstateIT Solutions Architect

Dec. 2012 - Dec. 2013Emaar Business Park, Dubai- First time working abroad - Loved the challenges that came with it, - Worked with multi-national work environment. Had a change to work on Real Estate Development industry, with lots of remote offices. Worked as IT Specialist doing everything IT related after setting up the whole IT Infrastructure.

North Luzon Railways CorporationIT Specialist

Sep. 2009 - Dec. 2012Philippines- Everything from Support up to Network and Voice, and setting up and manage Data Center from scratch. - This is a government agency project, so I was fortunate to do more of social works and trainings, company building, work ethics and values, etc.

Luen Thai Holdings Limited (0311.HK)IT Infrastructure Specialist

May. 2007 - Jul. 2009Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone, Central Luzon, Philippines- Polo Ralph Lauren Manufacturing line - Started as Network and Voice Engineer, from analog telephony up to IP telephony. - Started my Server management and troubleshooting real world experience, used all the chances to learn and advanced my skills and knowledge on Data Center setup from Rack mounting up to OS and Apps management and deployment. - At the same time assisting IT Support Engineers and doing support when required.