MICHAEL BALCOS

RESUME

Last update: December 4, 2024 (Manila time)

Professional Summary

• Talented and resourceful System Administrator focused on performance optimization and technical improvements with understanding of cost-effective decision making and usability
• Consistently responds to wide range of technical challenges with focused and creative approach
• 10 years in production environments
• Highly effective at problem solving and decision making

Experience

• Westcon-Comstor Philippines(July 2024-Present)
  Linux System Administrator
  
  JOB DESCRIPTION
  - Provide Tier 2 technical assistance and support for incoming service requests and help desk emails, ensuring timely responses.
  - Identify and resolve hardware, software, and network issues promptly, escalating to senior administrators or vendors when necessary.
  - Install patches and perform routine maintenance as required in support of security and maintenance requirements.
  - Monitor environment for system anomalies and performed root cause analysis as required.
  - Implement System changes following change control process.
  - Follow security requirements in accordance with company set Standards.
  - System reviews for auditing.
  
  POSITION REQUIREMENTS
  - Experience with Creating, modify, troubleshooting end user accounts, both local and AD on Linux OS.
  - Experience with REDHAT Linux and variant operating systems.
  - Proficient in shell scripting and Linux CLI environments.
  - Experience using shell scripting to facilitate repeatable processes.
  - Have a working knowledge of SELINUX and OS Firewalls and intermediate expertise in configuring and maintaining.
  - Review system logs for troubleshooting OS and application issues.
  - Have working knowledge of Ansible.
  
  
• CoreProc, Inc. (August 2020-June 2024)
  System Administrator
  -Monitor and ensure 24x7 availability of productions servers (such as LEMP servers and MySQL servers) and services (such as OpenVPN, Jenkins, iRedAdmin, and Zabbix)
  -Configure live, staging, and development servers and environments
  -Proactively escalate concerned departments of possible server and live service problems
  -Perform live application first level support
  -Coordinate with other departments for troubleshooting and problem escalation
  -Do database backups and restores
  -Develop and perform disaster recovery processes of data
  -Implemented Jenkins in order to improve development processes
  -Basic usage of Github
  
  
• CenturyLink Technology Singapore PTE LTD (June 2019-February 2020)
  Senior IT Engineer
  -Responsible for support and administration of all Unix Application activities. This includes planning, coordination, and implementation of all changes in Unix Application(GNU/Linux, Tomcat, Apache, PHP, etc.) including performance and tuning analysis, capacity planning, systems support and planning, application support, and software upgrades.
  -Review, approve and execute change requests to ensure successful change management.
  -Troubleshoot systems and network incidents to provide maximum availability and optimal Mean Time To Repair.
  -Responsible for ensuring positive customer relationship.
  -Ensure Operations Center has all documentation necessary to understand and support their clients.
  
  
• Key Discovery Consulting, Inc. (July 2017-March 2019)
  IT/System Administrator
  -Select, procure, and setup suitable IT hardware such as routers, switches, rack mounted NAS, DVR, and IP cameras
  -Provide technical advice
  -Provide systems such as network traffic monitoring tools(ntop-ng and iftop), backup, KVM virtualization, Squid proxy, Nagios, Hesk ticketing system for IT team, etc.
  
  
• CenturyLink Singapore Pte Ltd (formerly Savvis Singapore Co Pte Ltd), Singapore (December 2012-April 2017)
  Web Applications Engineer
  -Among the technologies I handle here are Apache, PHP, and Tomcat.
  
  
• Linkwise Technology PTE LTD, Singapore (March 2012-December 2012)
  Systems Engineer (Computer)
  -setup Fedora-based servers/systems known as Facility Monitoring Servers (FMS's) and FAMPs to the company
  -researched on OpenVZ should the company opt to run multiple FMS's in one machine
  -setup Nagios with XMPP and e-mail notification for the monitoring of company handled servers
  -troubleshoot and optimize further the existing servers handled by the company
  
  
• ProV International (August 2011-February 2012)
  IT Operations Engineer
  -Tier 1 and 2 monitoring and troubleshooting of Glassfish and Terracotta servers
  -Monitor and troubleshoot mostly Ubuntu Server setups
  -Configure Zabbix
  -Logs analysis via Splunk; make regular expressions intensive reports in Splunk
  -make Perl shell scripts when useful
  -monitor VPN and internet routes, and raise an alarm when a fail-over is needed
  -assist on server setups when needed
  
  
• LWS Media, Inc.
  System Administrator (February 2010-July 2011)
  -setting up, maintaining, and monitoring of filtering (with NCSA authentication) and highly anonymous Squid proxies; created a Perl script to automatically update Squid blacklists
  -setup and maintain Openfire for internal instant messaging; I used Jetty for serving Openfire
  -setup, optimize, and maintain Apache servers for the development and production of clients' websites and/or Open Source web solutions; setup virtual hosts and SSL certificates in Apache
  -setup and maintain Varnish for reverse proxies
  -troubleshoot LAMP driven websites
  -provide support for LAMP developers (I can program procedural PHP, and I have a working knowledge of MySQL)
  -setup and maintain Subversion for the developers
  -setup, maintain and optimize MySQL
  -does procedural PHP development when asked
  -setup, maintain, and secure VSFTPD
  -setup, maintain and secure SSH
  -setup, maintain and do some development work in ResourceSpace for the Digital Assets Management needs of the company
  -setup, maintain and secure minimal CentOS servers(these are secured for the specific tasks they are needed for)
  -setup and maitain Nagios for network and services monitoring; setup and maintain SMS notifications from Nagios
  -setup and maintain Samba for the share file systems need of the company
  -setup and maintain a Bind caching nameserver for the internal Squid filtering proxy
  -shell scripting via Perl
  -DNS configuration for domains
  -firewall configuration in CentOS dedicated and VPS servers (this include port blocking/filterning, Network Address Translation, port forwarding)
  -used virtualization for testing
  -setting up web based open source applications
  -maintaining and setting up VPSes
  -assist developers in their needs that are related to servers
  -install Symantec Anti-virus for Linux real-time scanning in CentOS servers when ideal (such as Samba shares)
  -make shell scripts for an automated way of auditing images in websites for copyrights conformity
  -configure and maintain 3rd party Windows servers (mostly IIS related tasks)
  -simple setup, and maintenance of Sendmail
  -setup private or public networking on servers
  -setup, maintain, secure, and use lighttpd when ideal, and when machines are available (for instance, some ResourceSpace installations were served by lighttpd)
  -setup software RAID-1 and LVM
  
  
• LWS Media, Inc.
  PHP developer (October 2009-February 2010)
  -data mining jobs that are regular expressions and xpaths intensive
  -create a CLI PHP script for producing CSV reports
  
  
• Druid Solutions, Inc.
  Junior PHP programmer (April 2009-October 2009)
  -develop a CakePHP based SMS solution for groups and individuals
  -deployed CentOS and SMS Server Tools for an SMS gateway on a physical server
  -help develop CLI PHP scripts for the SMS services of the company
  
  
• OJT: September 2008-January 2009: UP Computer Center
  Computerized Registrar System development team OJT
  -Assisted in the development of PHP driven websites for streamlining operations in UP Diliman
  
  
• 1999-present: University Vicars Petron Servicenter, Q.C.
  -Developed, maintained, and administered a MS Access database solution for the accounts of the family business
  -migrated the MS Access database for accounts to LAMP; I also maintain and administer this currently
  
  
• 2001-present: Balcos Ventues, Inc., Cubao, Q.C.
  -stockholder

Education

• August 2005-January 2009: Informatics International College, Quezon City: BS Computer Science

Trainings

• January 2005-May 2005: Bluepoint Institute of Higher Technology: Certificate of Attendance for Total Linux course
• 2018: Rivan School of Technology, Inc.: Cisco Certified Network Associate with CompTIA A+ Training(Certificate of Completion)
• 2020: acloud.guru: AWS Certifified Solutions Architect - Associate 2018 Online Trainingi(Record of Completion)

Awards

• Special Thanks and Recognition (STAR) Award
  Isssued by Maxine Moreau, EVP Global Operations, Centurylink
  Apr 2016
  I was given this award for fulfilling a task required by our P&G client that required Perl shell scripting. In our team, I'm the only one who has sufficient Perl shell scripting skills for this task. Without the Perl scripts I made, the task will take an enormous amount of time and effort. Also, human error will be more likely without the Perl scripts I made.
• Most Valuable Team Player Award for FY16 Q2
  Issued by Gery Messer, Managing Director, APAC, Centurylink
  Jul 2016
  In addition to the STAR award I received for the Perl scripts I made for a P&G client task, I was also given this award for the same task.
• Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Academics and Leadership Awardee

Skills

• the use and administration of Linux distributions (especially Slackware Linux, CentOS, Zenwalk, Slax, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, and Fedora Core)
• setup and administration of CentOS, Squid, Openfire, Apache, Varnish, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Subversion, VSFTPD, OpenSSH, ResourceSpace, Nagios, Samba, Bind, iptables, lighttpd, and Sendmail
• basic Perl shell scripting
• PHP procedural programming
• VPS management and administration
• HTML and CSS coding
• extensive use of the Command Line Interface
• usage of the vi text editor
• upgrading, assembly, troubleshooting, and repair of IBM compatible personal computers
• setting up software RAID-1 and LVM in Linux
• remote administration of servers via SSH
• setup Open Source web solutions such as Wordpress, OpenCart, Drupal, Zend Framework
• setup CentOS on physical servers

Speaking engagements

• Software Freedom Day '08 in the National Computer Center(Robotics using Slackware Linux, stepper motors, and GCC)
• Software Freedom Day '09 in the National Computer Center(Serial programming using GCC)
• STI Cubao, February 2010 (FOSS and robotics)
• QCPU, February 2010 (FOSS, robotics, and the Arduino microcontroller)

Media presence

• Convergence program of Net25 where my mobile robot was featured in September 2008
• Quoted in the December 2008-January 2009 issue of Computer World Philippines magazine