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Rexford E Ballard |
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Professional experience |
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Profile |
Rex Ballard is an IT Architect in the Enterprise Application Integration Practice. The practice is responsible for providing project management, integration services, and e-business solutions including extensive technical expertise with multi-platform middleware solutions, enterprise application integration, application design and development, and project methodologies.
Rex’s qualifications include experience within the IT Industry since 1978. Consulting background includes experience in the following industries: insurance, banking and finance, telecommunications, and electronic media publishing and distribution. Rex also has been a leader in the commercialization of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and Intranet technologies. Rex is actively involved in the commercialization of Open Source technologies, including Linux, large scale distributed processing, and Enterprise System, Application Integration, Offshoring, and Web Services based Business to Business networks. |
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Career History |
02/1999 - To date International IT Products and Services Company, IBM Global Services, Morris Plains NJ, NJ, US Sr IT Architect Consulted for Clients, established requirements, and planned solutions. Led engagements, including Project Management, coordinated of IBM, Client, and 3rd party resources. Coordinated Windows, Unix, MQ, Security, Network, Websphere, and Mainframe teams. Implemented solutions, mentored, coached, and trained others within Client and IBM staff. Integrated systems using Middleware, including MQSeries, MQSI, CORBA, XML, and EJB. Provided for large multiple organization solutions. Part of the Websphere Business Integrator services offering development team. Part of the MQSFSE IGS Offering development team. Lead early deployments of Websphere Business Integrator for B2B environments. Rex has also pioneered technologies to support effective off-shore development and support teams. Rex has also implemented project accelerators based on Open Source technologies which improve the productivity of the implementation and testing teams. Rex has recently been integrating Tivoli Security solutions including IBM Tivoli Directory Services, IBM Tivoli Access Manager, IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, and IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator with IBM WebSphere, WebSphere Portal, and IBM WebSphere Business Integrator, including Message Broker, Interchange Server, and Process Orchestrator.
Technical Lead for Implementation – turning Design into Implemented reality. Often brought in as “Fire Fighter” – getting projects back on schedule or meeting aggressive deadlines. Provides mentoring and support for Open Source and Linux to Clients and fellow practitioners. Business to Business Integration between a manufacturer and many of it's customers. Engagements included Business to Business, geographic, and Inter-division integration solutions. Designed and led the implementation of remote operations and management subsystems. Engagements ranged from 2 weeks to 2 years to provide implementation strategy, support for follow-up provided by other members of the team, and full life-cycle support from initial solution design to production roll-out and post-production support. 09/1997 - 02/1999 Major Insurance and Financial Services company, Prudential Insurance, Roseland, NJ, US IT Architect Corporate Information Technology division in support of all other divisions including Banking, Securities, Real Estate, Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Mutual Funds, and Compliance Management. Introduced new technologies including CORBA, DCOM, Linux, ActiveX, Java Beans, and RMI. Was accountable for overall connectivity of 100,000 workstations, several thousand servers. Wrote proposals, reviews, participated in standards committees, and made presentations to committees and management. Identified and implemented emerging technologies, evaluation of vendor proposals, architectural analysis of proposals. Cost/Benefit analysis (ROI, ROE, TCO, Risk Analysis), including identification of competing technologies. Provide both tactical and strategic recommendations and guide their implementation.
01/1997 - 09/1997 Large Consulting Firm - National Practice, Madison, NJ, US IT Architect and Consultant Member of the Center for Systems Architecture. Performance Engineering team on a series of benchmarking and performance enhancement assignments. Houston, San Francisco, Rochester New York, Boston, and New Jersey. Led team for performance tuning of Web Servers for E-Commerce, Switching Systems for PDA/data collection systems, and Financial Services functions. Assignments range from 2-8 weeks in duration. Developed tools and sales-kits to support promoting the practice. 05/1996 - 11/1996 Major Publisher, Financial publications, McGraw-Hill Standard & Poor's, New York, NY, US Director of Electronic Distribution Led using hands-on project management and overall responsibility for distribution of all electronic products. Products included MarketScope, Stock Reports, feeds to numerous wire services and custom databases. Wrote specifications and utilities for these functions. Trained operations team in Internet technologies, including security, routing, and operations. Coordinated efforts with Clients and Vendors. Initiated Transition to Internet and World Wide Web. Coached other divisions in Internet adoption. Trained Network Administrators for transition from DECNet and BSC-3270 to TCP/IP and T1 Frame Relay. 01/1993 - 05/1995 Major Publisher, Financial publications, Dow Jones Information Services, Princeton, NJ, US Alliance Developer Program Manager Responsible for developing new distribution strategies including; Publish and Subscribe news feeds. Mainstream Satellite and FM distribution. CD-ROM distribution. X.25 multicast news feeds. Led the effort to put the first national brand publisher on the Internet. Introduced Web to management and staff. Provide support for new product development. Eventually managed 25 concurrent projects. Introduced Winsock, Trumpet (Winsock Implementation), Cello, Mosaic, and Netscape. 11/1991 - 12/1992 Independent Consulting, Consulting for IBM and Softronics, Kingston, NY, US Consultant Consulted for IBM and other client companies on projects focused on the commercialization of Open Systems and Open Source technology including the Internet. Projects included development of Remote Procedure Calls and multi-platform hierarchical storage management, adoption of Open Source Software and Software Reuse Strategies by IBM, and implementation of X11/R4 on IBM ESA Mainframes (groundwork for OS/390). Led development of "Internet For the Rest Of Us" package, including discussions, which led to Lynx, Opera, and Cello HTML browsers (predecessors of Mosaic and Netscape). 02/1990 - 10/1991 Large Insurance Company, Great West Life Assurance Company, Littleton, CO, US Senior Technical Specialist / Architect Responsible for technical infrastructure and architecture of 5 divisions, 100 Sun Workstations and Windows Personal Computers, 50 UNIX servers and 5 mainframes. Lead Development of system integration facilities. Recommended, Promoted, and Established Enterprise IT Standards. 11/1987 - 12/1989 Large Shipping Company, Federal Express, Colorado Springs, CO, US Senior Programmer Analyst Led the effort to make the "SuperTracker" (predecessor to PDAs) reliable and fault tolerant. Helped to design and implement strategic information systems that made it possible to predict and manage resource allocation in real-time (predecessor to Supply Chain Management). Contributions to my teams ultimately led to savings of $2 million/day. Led comprehensive evaluation of LAN/WAN strategies to integrate Mainframes, Minis, Workstations, and Personal Computers. Team efforts led to Malcolm Baldridge award.
07/1982 - 11/1987 Directory Services Provider to Telephone Companies, Computer Consoles (now Northern Telecom), Rochester, NY, US Senior Software Engineer Performed analysis, design, implementation, testing, support, and integration of directory assistance systems on proprietary systems based on IMS and on Open Systems based on UNIX and Intranet technology. Developed databases, operating systems, and applications for clusters of distributed processing systems of up to 1000 CPUs in fault tolerant (99.997% uptime) configurations. This work led to many of the standards now used on the Internet and Intranet. Part of a "special forces" unit dedicated to quickly resolving breakdowns resulting from capacities that doubled every 6 months. |
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Assignment History |
State Court System NJ Courts 03/2010 - 06/2010 Senior IT Architect Project Description: Create integration between hand-held PDT devices and IBM mainframes using Messasge Broker and Lotus Expiditer MQTT transport. This allowed reliable messaging from the PDT to the administration database, as well as the ability to search the mainframe for outstanding warrants, and the ability to send out alerts for such things as stolen vehicles.
Cable Network/Web Sales 09/2009 - 03/2010 Senior IT Architect. Project Description: Responsible for configuring high performance clusters, message queues, WebSphere Message Broker, and back-end interfaces to support high availability and high reliability using MQ Clusters and HACMP Fail-over capabilities.
Worked closely with client teams as well as IBM teams, including support from Software Group to resolve issues and deliver an effective solution that met a variety of different needs depending on various business conditions.
Also supported both Commerce Server team and Message Broker team - assisting them in configuring virtual machines. Also helped them configure their laptops to use IBM's Open Client Linux solution as the "Native" operating system to get better performance from Windows based Virtual machines used to connect to client network and systems.
Proposals for various clients 06/2009 - 08/2009 Project Description: Evaluated RFP and RFQ requests and worked with IBM teams to provide solution design and pricing, especially for the integration portion of the design. Solutions included solutions based on WebSphere Process Server, FileNet, and JRules, with Integrations to SAP. Major Banking Institution Federal Reserve Bank 03/2009 - 05/2009 Sr IT Architect Project Description: Analyzed the viability of the Standard Cash Application and related cash applications. Identified the risks and provided mitigation strategies. Provided plans that would extend of the viability to 2014 if necessary. The bank intends to gradually replace these applications but wanted guidance in how to sustain them until the replacements could be rolled out into production. Worked with another architect and project manager and client subject matter experts to help identify information, provide rapid analysis, and respond to feedback from the client's team. Financial Information Services Provider Moodys Financial Services 01/2009 - 03/2009 Architect and Consultant Project Description: Provide support for Integration of FileNet and JRules using WebSphere Message Broker. This included working with specialists in both FileNet and JRules, including a great deal of "hands on" support, and even some strategic development effort.
WebSphere MQ was new to this client and in addition to the core integration effort, I was also asked to provide specialized training of the permanent support staff, preparing them to manage MQSeries, JNDI, and JMS configuration on Linux, AIX, and Windows servers. This included support for Development, QA, and Support systems, to the point where they were confident that they could manage the system on their own.
International telecommunications company 11/2008 - 12/2008 Senior IT Architect Project Description: Ericsson wanted to create a Next Generation Information System (NGIS) based on SOA, SOMA, and Virtualization, to replace their existing integration solution. This included a transition from SeeBeyond to WebSphere, including Message Broker, Enterprise Service Bus, Process Server and Services Repository and Registry.
My role was to interview the client, identify their actual needs, determine which products among IBM's offerings would best fit those needs, and to formulate a plan to deploy this solution based on their current and planned infrastructure and IT Architecture. In addition to the plan, I was also responsible for identifying and documenting risks, assumptions, and key architectural decisions identified during the interview process. This plan included support for an International deployment team as well as transition to an offshore support team.
In addition to winning this bid, the ability to demonstrate a clear plan for this type of migration also resulted in the successful signing of a substantial support contract.
A New Bank 07/2008 - 11/2008 Enterprise IT Architect Project Description: Provide leadership in developing architecture and infrastructure for a large banking system, including integration of solutions provided by several vendors providing industry specific solutions such as regulatory compliance, integration with ATM and Credit Card vendor networks, and exchanges (SWIFT, SAMA, SARIE, and FOREX).
Help management teams coordinate the efforts of these teams by providing up-to-date representations of the overall architectures and providing up to date gap analysis. Also helped to resolve overlaps and gaps as they were identified during high level and low level design phases.
Provide Infrastructure recommendations, sizing, and ordering information to provide optimal use of the available resources. This included infrastructure reccomendations for both IBM and non-IBM vendor products. Major Auto Manufacturer 01/2008 - 06/2008 Senior IT Architect - Integration team. Project Description: Designed and coordinated efforts to create and integrate a lead management system which helped capture leads from dealers, and manage those leads, and allocate incentives based on delivery. The goal was to turn more of the "Be Back" shoopers who might buy a different makers product, into a buying customer. This included leads generated via the Web, other Web vendors, dealerships, and the corporate call center.
This project required the integration of legacy systems, including Automotive Dealer (ADF) format, to an industry standard STARS SOA protocol using fully validated XML and SOAP transactions validated by DataPower. Transformations were generated in XSLT generated by Rational Software Architect and XML Spy.
Responsible for the infrastructure and system configuration details, as well as root cause analysis for defects during the testing phase.
State Government Agency 10/2007 - 01/2008 IBM Infrastructure Architect. Project Description: Bid and Proposal work. Coordinate with multiple vendors on the implementation of an SOA based solution to help coordinate and monitor health care in jails, prisons, and other correctional facilities.
Formulate hardware and core software requirements for the proposed solution, and coordinate the pricing and performance.
Though initially thinking in terms of P-Series, we were able to better match the requirements with a blade based solution, and were able to reduce the number of redundant components by using virtualization.
IBM won the bid.
Major international bank 09/2007 - 10/2007 Lead Architect Project Description: Bid and Proposal and Due Dilligence Review business requirements, formulate architecture, document architecural choices, price reccomended architecture and alternate solutions.
Client signed contract, accepted architecture, and chose one af the alternate (lower initial cost) solutions.
Solution based on SOA (WebSphere and SaaS components, ECM (FileNet and DB2 Content Manager), and support for Information Integrator. Federal Reserve Federal Reserve Bank 08/2007 - 09/2007 Lead Architect Project Description: Bid and Proposal for Architectural Review of BCS-3000 currency counting system, and it's interfaces to the rest of the bank's auditing and control systems.
Bid was accepted. Bank to Bank Check Exchange Service Viewpointe 03/2006 - 07/2007 Lead Architect, Senior Architect Project Description: Primary responsibility as Lead architect to create high performance archive using clusters of databases to achieves 7,000 transaction per second performance on a 1 petabyte archive used to exchange check images between banks in compliance with Check21 regulations. Architecture included integration with established Information On-Demand Database/Tape archive libraries to access long term storage. Access included interactive access via WebSphere on Linux and bulk access using C++ Objects on AIX. Large Bank SunTrust 09/2005 - 03/2006 IT Architect Project Description: Primary Responsibility was to audit the current B2B architecture, identify the available documentation, and organize it and summarize it in a manner that would allow an offshore team to quickly identify the application, identify errors and issues, and contact the appropriate support teams. Systems included in the audit included MQSeries, DB2, WebSphere, WebSphere Business Integrator, and Infrastructure including networks, server configuration, and SAN configuration.. Missouri Department of Transportation 11/2004 - 09/2005 IT Architect Project Description: Primary Responsible for implementation of Portal security based on IBM Tivoli Directory Server, Access Manager, Identity Manager, and Directory Integrator. Provided support for MQSeries, DBA, AIX and Windows administration, provided accelerator tools to facilitate highly effective coordination between teams and team members, and provided mentoring in MQ, WebSphere, Portal, and LDAP for various team members. Project included coordination between multiple agency departments, multiple vendors, and multiple subcontractors. Financial Services Publisher Bloomberg 07/2004 - 11/2004 IT Architect Project Description: Primary responsibility was to train and support a team of developers creating a business oriented clustered solution for providing time-sensitive information to users and supporting reliable interactive support. This included support of the Portal Team, training and supporting teams to use MQSeries in multiplatform environment which included C, C++, Java, Solaris, Linux, Windows, and proprietary systems. Messaging systems were based on MQ including JMS and MQ-Base, along with XML parsers based on SAX2. This included distributed and coordinated updates of multiple distributed XA and direct (non-XA) systems. US Federal Government Agency 05/2004 - 08/2004 IT Architect and DBA Project Description: Primary responsible for the generation of tools to generate the DDL, Extraction and Load, Integration, and other support tools as well as support, training. In addition, Often assumed responsibilities for AIX administration, MQ administration, Network Support, Security, and coordination of these teams.
US Federal Government Agency 03/2004 - 05/2004 IT Architect and DBA Project Description: Assist and coordinate the configuration, integration, validation, and testing of over 40 Windows and AIX servers, including both secure and classified systems in both Colorado Springs Colorado and Annapolis Junction Maryland. Facilitate connectivity between the two sites to minimize the administration staffing requirements at both sites and to improve coordination between user teams at both sites. Large Insurance Company Zurich North America 08/2003 - 03/2004 Senior IT Architect - Technical lead Project Description: Manage and coordinate the establishment of large-scale real-time offshore connectivity solutions. This includes providing teams in Bangalore India with the ability to interactively develop and test on Client development and target systems. This included development tools for WMQ, WMQI, DB2, and interactive shell access as well as interactive access to mainframe development systems. Due to the demands of both environments, the solution required detailed attention to security, network connectivity, availability, automated recovery, and minimal operator intervention. Costs also had to be kept to a minimum to maximize the benefits of offshore development and testing. Large Manufacturer IBM 06/2001 - 08/2003 IT Architect Project Description: Provided complete architectural review of a Business to Business solution, focusing primarily on the gateway technologies between the manufacturer and various client companies, provided recommendations for implementation, platforms, security, performance, and availability as well as enhanced remote administration and diagnostic capabilities to minimize travel requirements. Led implementation efforts and trained developers, client operators and administrators in technologies. Solution included MQSeries, SecureWay, LDAP, MQSI, Websphere, Partner Agreement Manager, Tivoli, DB2, and administration servers. Platforms included Windows NT, Windows 2000, AIX, and OS/390. Coordinated the efforts of up to 100 people in various locations including UK, NC, CT, CA, CO, Canada, and India. Large Bank in Mexico Banorte 04/2001 - 06/2001 IT Architect Project Description: Review IT Architecture projects within the bank. Formulate an Integration strategy formulate a proposal.
Large Insurance Company Amica Insurance 02/2001 - 04/2001 IT Architect Project Description: Provided complete architectural review of several divisions and formulate an architecture to integrate the various divisions using combinations of MQSeries, MSQI, with some DCOM or CORBA to enable superior transactional integrity. Developed integration solutions and led performance enhancement efforts. Large Insurance Company MetLife 05/2000 - 12/2000 IT Architect Project Description: Provided architectural design for implementation of integration between Client Company and financial information provider. Solution involved a combination of CICS, CORBA, XML and MQSeries using Java RMI/IIOP, SAX, and DOM. Led the implementation of the solution and integration into the client enterprise environments. Coordinated with teams in NYC, Colorado, and Florida. Large Telephone Company Qwest 01/2000 - 05/2000 IT Architect Project Description: Provided architectural review and proposal for integration of Telephone company systems including IMS and UNIX systems to an external web or MQSeries based interface for Pressler Act Compliance allowing other carriers to offer combined services. Cable company and Telephone Company Alaska Communications Compnay 06/1999 - 12/1999 Lead Architect Project Description: Provide complete architectural review of the customer service infrastructure and design architecture for providing secure integration of the two companies to comply with the Pressler Act. This allowed the both companies to sell both cable and phone service, and to request service from the other company without giving away marketing information. Used primarily MQSeries, C, Visual Basic, COBOL, and C++ including templates and tools from IBM including support packs and Intellectual Capital structured for reuse. Led the Implementation team including both IBM and Client resources. Trained client staff in operations, diagnostics, technical support, and security procedures. Large Insurance Company CareFirst BCBS 05/1999 - 07/1999 IT Architect Project Description: Provide complete architectural review of health insurance, provide recommendations for integration and HIPPA compliance based on preliminary specifications based on MQSI. Implemented proof of concept and framework for implementation by IGS team. Large Wireless Telephone Company AT&T Wireless 03/1999 - 05/1999 IT Architect Project Description: Provide complete architectural review of supply chain including network, infrastructure, platforms, security, and middleware as well as applications. Formulate a recommendation for architectural enhancements, and a budget and schedule for implementation. Recommendation was accepted and successfully implemented by an IGS team. Tools used included MS-Office, Structured Interviewing, GS-Method tools, MQSeries, Windows NT, UNIX, PICK. Met with teams in Minniapolis, Seattle, Oklahoma City, and Dallas.
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Key Skills |
Rex is an Enterprise Architect with hands-on experience in both breadth and depth across the industry and the ability to translate this experience into solutions for Corporate Enterprises, Government Agencies, on large-scale, high performance projects. Rex also communicates well and effectively with the various cultures and experts to insure effective cooperation toward cost-effective, reliable, and workable solutions.
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Key Courses and Training |
Train by regularly taking on “Stretch” assignments and taking on subprojects which require self-training, additional skills, or pioneering of new technologies. The average is about 1000 hours/year since 1976, in addition to regular assigned tasks. This keeps Rex pushing the envelope of technology and bringing new technologies to the corporate enterprise.
Formal corporate courses in Project Management, Engagement Management, IT Architectures, Design methodologies, and numerous IT development products. Training in Unix, Database, Network, Windows NT, and mainframe, including programming, administration, and architecture.
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Education |
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Qualifications |
CEUs (160 CEUs) in Leadership Training Landmark Education, US Thesis Title: SELP, ILP, TMLP, Wisdom, Seminars - Leadership, 2007
OMG in Certified Master Architect Object Management Group, US
IBM Certification in Certified IT Architect IBM, US
BA in Business Arapaho Community College, US
Bachelor of Arts in Music/Theater/Business Loretto Heights College, US |
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Languages |
English Fluent Spanish Good |
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Publications |
Rex Ballard: 7,000 articles on Internet Commercialization 1991 to 1997, in: online-Newpapers Mailing List, to 8000 print and on-line publishers, 1991 Rex Ballard: 8000 articles on commercialization of Linux and Open Source Software. 1997 to current, in: usnet newsgroups, blogs, feedback, numerous, 1997 |
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Membership in professional Organizations |
International Executive Guild Regular IEEE Regular Who's Who (Strathmore, Madison, Kipling, Windsor) Lifetime American Registry of Outstanding Professionals Regular Madison Who's Who IT Professional of the Year |
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Other
job-related |
Ham Radio Operator since 1968 (WA0WMY) |
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