Samuel Cook

leaylam.com.au · Brisbane, QLD 4000 · +61 476 984 193 · [email protected] · Portfolio

Graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Information Technology from the University of Southern Queensland. Currently working for a growing networking company based in Brisbane. Previous experience in the information technology and mining sector prior to tertiary study. Knowledge attained during studies combined with past and present professional roles allow me to excel in a range of sectors and positions.

Having recently completed the CCNA 200-301 Exam, I am now starting my journey to CCNP. My current employer has provided me with an amazing opportunity to be involved with a more experienced team. This will hopefully provide me with the knowledge to progress into completing my CCIE. My previous industry experience allows for fast learning and adapting to new environments, specifically when utilising Active Directory, Exchange, Windows Server and Azure environments. Currently working among a fast paced project orientated team allows me to refine my time management and teamwork skills.

Experience

Network Operations Specialist

Health

Provide network assurance to projects that interact with the operational network.

May 2023 - Current

Technical Consultant

IPTel Solutions

Design, deploy and troubleshoot Meraki switching and wireless networks for various customers. I have undertaken Meraki deployment and support training during 2022 and been involved with creation of logical and physical network and wireless designs for existing Meraki deployments as well assisting with configuration of new Merkai deployments. Performed Meraki network reconfigurations to align sites with a traditional networking architecture, including replacement of MX devices and configuration of newly deployed MX devices into HA mode using VRRP.

Created logical and physical designs for Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series and Cisco AireOS Wireless Controller networks to assist with migration of wireless controllers. Performed migration of Cisco AireOS Wireless Controllers to Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers that leveraged Cisco ISE for wireless NAC. Undertake upgrades of national ISE deployment for customers outside of standard business hours. Perform troubleshooting wireless issues alongside customers and with Cisco TAC assistance.

Create and update high level and detailed network design documents following feedback from various client project and network teams for a brownfield 3‑tier MPLS campus network. Develop migration strategies for various network systems with peers to incorporate a collapsed core into a new MPLS network. Assist with development and execution of network test cases prior to network deployment. Work with various vendors to understand their respective technologies and how they utilise the network. Work closely with customers to develop rack elevations for campus and floor distribution rooms. Develop and maintain a campus IP schema with input from various customer streams, ranging from building management systems, security and biomedical equipment.

Leverage Ansible, GitLab and Netbox to create and maintain switch configurations for implementation stages within projects. Troubleshoot edge devices during implementation phases alongside edge device technical teams such as End User Computing and Unified Telecomunication teams to ensure project completion timelines are satisfied.

February 2022 - May 2023

Wireless Engineer

IPTel Solutions

Designing Wi-Fi for warehouses, hospitals, offices, universities and large industrial sites for companies across Australia. Using software modelling tools such as Ekahau to provide accurate Wi-Fi designs and creating high quality Wi-Fi Markup plans for cabling teams to utilise for installation. Flexibility within the Wireless Engineering team has allowed me to create a knowledge sharing platform from which the team can contribute and use for learning.

Exposure to creating Wi-Fi Markup plans using Visio has identified the importance of presenting data in a clear and concise format, especially for cabling teams and management teams.

Undertaking several wireless related projects from designing wireless, including Access Point-on-a-Stick (APoS) surveys to validate designs, reducing the risk for customers. Completing wireless validation surveys (completed after standing up a WLAN) and confirming Access Points placements were suitable. Undertaking diagnostic wireless surveys to determine issues with an existing wireless design, all using the Ekahau Sidekick with Ekahau Pro to analyse captured data and determine appropriate adjustements to wireless networks.

March 2021 - February 2022

System Admin Level 2 Support & Desktop Engineer

Mach Technology (acquired by CustomTec)

Working as a service support team member of a Managed Service Provider (MSP) primarily servicing Brisbane based businesses. Regular client onsite visits to complete hardware installations and modifications inlcuding work with routers, switches, servers and client endpoints. Assisting with training and documentation for other staff.

Management of the Solarwinds RMM for client endpoints, with a goal to automate resolution of endpoint issues and further assist with troubleshooting issues quickyl for other support staff.

Assist with deployment of Wi-Fi networking solution across stations for a major Australian agricultural company. This required ensuring all devices (Mikrotik and Ubiquiti) were configured correctly for deployment onsite, with testing to ensure the pre-configured system would work as expected after delivery to the remote sites.

February 2019 - March 2021

System Administrator

Shire Networks

Team member of a Managed Service Provider (MSP) that primarily focuses on providing support to local government organisations. Managing ESX hosts and the virtual machines for clients. Additionally manage backups for clients with Veeam software.

Identify projects for clients and move through different stages of projects together with clients and overcoming issues for clients along the way. Understand a combination of products and recommend the most suitable for client needs.

March 2018 - February 2019

Junior Front-End Developer

The Dining Philosophers

Team member of a small software development team as part of studies at USQ. The team was asked to design and create a web based image organiser for a client. Based on client specification product goal was to create a web-based image browser as well as an image metadata editor that would utilise server side program and a database and provide client side rendering using modern libraries.

The software was to provide the ability to load and browse a directory of images and allow editing of image metadata. This was to utilise a database. SQLite was used as the database, PHP was used for server side commands. The project was accepted by the client after a small development period. Agile methods were used during development to provide flexibility for client changes.

July 2018 - October 2018

Wireless Systems Engineer

Sitech Construction Systems

Working primarily with Rajant wireless mesh technology and the design and implementation of Rajant mesh networks. This included troubleshooting network issues in both ethernet and wireless, analysis of healthy and unhealthy networks to determine optimisation options.

Configuration of 3G/4G gateways for use with Trimble GPS base stations for use on Trimble OmniSTAR network. Review existing servers (Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012) and Active Directory and the network and make recommendations.

January 2014 - March 2015

Support Analyst

Glencore Coal Assets Australia

My time at Glencore allowed access to varying projects and disciplines within the Mining and IT area from setting up virtual machines to managing cable installations. This position provided me with skills that I have built on and refined.

Some of the regular tasks I performed included managing users and groups with Active Directory and Powershell, SOE deployments using Alitris Deployment Solution (6.9), setup and management of physical and virtual servers (Hyper-V), creating and managing Exchange users and groups, setup and management of network and switches additional to troubleshooting issues with site network (copper and fibre) and phones (POTS and VOIP).

While at Glencore I was part of a rostered on-call service with rotation every 14 weeks and was based between two regional sites, Rolleston Coal and Oaky Creek Coal.

Projects I have been involved with were assisting with the deployment of a wireless mesh network (Tropos) at Rolleston Coal, intiating NTFS permission changes throughout a site that included meetings with departments to understand ideal file structures. Network installations at site and the management of contractors involved.

December 2012 - December 2013

Graduate IT Engineer

Xstrata Coal Queensland

The graduate position gave me opportunites to cover different aspects of the first level IT support. Beginning with Standard Operating Environment and the deployment of SOE builds to user computers and servers, Deployment of approved software packages and investigation of unapproved packages. Standard Desktop support and on-call roster every 7 weeks for Xstrata Coal Queensland. Creating new users for the site using Active Directory, Exchange 2007 and Powershell.

April 2011 - December 2012

Mine Planner

Newlands Coal

Running schedules in XPAC and Primavera planning software, Bi-monthly forecast development and longwall production, Producing graphs and diagrams for commercial team used in Joint Venture meetings.

June 2008 - April 2011

Mine Surveyor

Newlands Coal

Responsible for all surveying at mine site, Underground and surface during rostered days on (7/7), Surface set-outs with Leica survey equipment, Underground surveying with Leica survey equipment, Weekly measures of development and longwall, Updating mine plan weekly, Maintaining all statutory mine plans, Responsible for training new graduate surveyor.

November 2007 - June 2008

Graduate Surveyor

Newlands Coal

Maintaining continuous production in development panels, Surface set-outs with GPS, Underground set-outs with traditional survey methods, Weekly measures of development and longwall, Update mine plan weekly for use throughout site, Update and deliver monthly plans to critical personnel around site.

November 2005 - November 2007

Student Surveyor

Pike Mirls McKnoulty Group

Standard Lot Subdivisions, Measuring up site Leases, Building and Volumetric Format Plans, Cadastral Surveys.

June 2004 - October 2005

Education

Bachelor of Information Technology (BITC)

University of Southern Queensland
Majoring in Networking and Security with a Minor in Computing
February 2016 - November 2019

Bachelor of Spatial Science (BSSC)

University of Southern Queensland
Majoring in Surveying
February 2002 - November 2007

Toowoomba Grammar School

Senior Certificate
January 1999 - December 2001

Skills

Key Traits
  • Great Communication
  • Work well independently & with teams
  • Solid work ethic
  • Professional deameanor
Programming Languages & Tools

HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery, Debian, AWS, Visual Studio, Trello, VIM, Confluence, Windows, Git, Apache, PHP, Bitbucket, Bootstrap, Slack, PostgreSQL

Other Skills
  • Experience with Microsoft Azure, AWS CloudFront, S3 & Elastic Beanstalk
  • Veeam Backup Software, Avamar, Ubiquiti, Netgear and Cisco Switches and Routers
  • Skills with Powershell and Bash Scripting
  • Solid understanding of DNS and DHCP
  • Active Directory, Exchange (Hosted and Online), Postfix & Dovecot, PDQ Deploy
  • Hypervisors - ESXi, VMware and vCenter, Hyper-V, Proxmox
  • Storage - Lenovo SAN, Dell SAN, EMC SAN, Synology NAS, Lenovo NAS

Interests

At the beginning of 2020, my partner and I started a project to convert our shed into a granny flat. Having recently purchased the property before COVID-19 lockdowns, we wanted to provide accomodation options for family and friends in this time of need.

Having previously assisted a friend with renovation work towards the end of my Bachelor studies in 2019, this was a wonderful opportunity to learn more skills outside my comfort zone and test the strength of the bond with mt partner.

When at home I enjoy learning and exploring different technologies from back-end to front-end which allows me to keep close to advancements in different areas. I recently replaced my hypervisor VMware lab with a Proxmox lab to expand my knowledge with the KVM hypervisor. I am constantly reviewing security principles and stay up to date with security vulnerabilities through weekly podcasts by known security experts and Twitter. Maintaining a home lab allows me to test and work with technologies that are not part of my current day to day duties at my current employment, providing me with opportunities to move into new roles.

Training

  • Cisco CCNA
  • Experience with Ekahau Pro (Windows 10), Ekahau Survey (iOS) and Ekahau Sidekick
  • Experience with Windows Server 2016
  • 3CX Basic and Intermdiate Certified Engineer v16 - 2020
  • Rajant Wireless Certified Engineer (Wireless Mesh System) - 2014
  • Veeam Engineer Training - Backup Software
  • VMware Engineer Training (ESX and vCenter)
  • Ubiquiti Wireless Training
  • Sohpos and Webroot Engineer (End Point Security)
  • Bachelor of Information Technology (2020)