With 20+ years of experience, ranging from developer, technical lead, architect, director, and IT executive, I have accumulated skills in all aspects of information technology design. Development, systems administration, data modeling and implementation, and site/application design--the bottom line is that I do this work because I like it, and I think it shows. Use the links to the left to explore my credentials and experience, and have a look at the online portfolio to examine a few case studies. For more information or to request an estimate for your pending IT project, use the contact form. I look forward to hearing from you!

How many times has this happened to you: You have a project you outsource to a contractor. There is good initial communication, but after the assignment is sent to the contractor, you then are forced to email, call, and IM repeatedly just to get a simple status update. Calls aren't returned, emails aren't answered, and you always end the project with everything you wanted not completed and a bad taste in your mouth.

Working with WSC, that will never happen.

We use a solid project management and support application, accessible both via the web and by smartphones that allows our clients to check in on the status of their project any time of the day or night.

Multiple users from the client's organization or company have logins, and the level of access for each person can be individually set.  Email reminders can be configured to be sent as well.

You always know where you stand when you use WebSpry for your IT needs.

Here you may read a quick list of operating systems, languages, methods, and technologies with which I have real-world, production experience. For clarification and expansion, please contact me and I will be happy to go into more detail and offer case studies.

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• DBA expert in MySQL and MySQL Enterprise environments, including clustering, as well as experience with Oracle, MS-SQL, DB2, and other DBMS environments
• Specific deep knowledge in the use of MySQL in standalone, master/slave, master/master and clustered environments (see below for a list)
• Database architecture and design in a variety of industries, systems, and environments
• Deep systems management and administration skills with Unix/Linux/BSD/ Solaris, Windows, and Macintosh systems, with a concentration in LAMP
• Expert level development skills in PHP, PERL, and Javascript, as well as various other languages for both UI, systems, web, and automation applications for 18 years; extensive use of source control both as a user and an administrator of SVN
• Extensive experience in modifying, creating plugins and modules, enhancing, and coding for industry standard content management systems and social platforms, such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla/Mambo, Drupal, JamRoom, Dolphin, PHPizabi, bbPress, BuddyPress, elgg, and many others.
• Two decades of practical, hands-on IT experience in a variety of roles
• Systems engineering and design in copper, fiber, and wireless networks
• Datacenter design, implementation and maintenance experience
• Over 16 years of intranet, extranet, and web application design, creation, and implementation experience
• Deep familiarity with document management applications, guidelines, and implementation, including Sarbanes-Oxley regulations
• Consulting work with healthcare providers and ancillary organizations
• A multifaceted background it leading and managing IT development teams and divisions
• Personnel management and recruitment, project budgeting and estimating
• Project management background, with projects of all sizes and scopes
• IT auditing methods and practices
• Full P&L responsibility, at the department, division, and company-wide levels
• Background and experience with ITIL concepts and guidelines
• Process architecture and design experience
• Ability to give clear, concise, and succinct presentations to corporate and board-level executives in an lucid manner

Here are a few of the many comments from past employers and colleagues regarding my work.  A full list of recommendations and endorsements may be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rlbyrd.

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 “Richard is an outstanding senior information technology director with clear vision, and a very impressive and effective management style.  He understands the principles of datacenter management, and takes his responsibilities to customer data very seriously.   He is also a delight to work with, and has an enjoyable sense of humor.”

--Eric Eaton, Manager, CTO, Behavioral Recognition Systems

 

“While I was Sr. DBA at SimDesk Richard's team provided support for my databases servers.   He always provided stellar support.  Specifically he had the ability to understand my requirements, aid in design and architecture of systems, accurately estimate the time it would take to implement, and execute as agreed.   400 characters is not enough to express how valuable Richard was to my team.” 

--Joe Moyle, Senior DBA, Paymetric

 

“I think the question begging more to be asked would be, "Why would you NOT hire this man?" Not only is his knowledge vast and frighteningly deep, his passion to continue that knowledge further accents his character. All this aside, Richard is a great guy to work with, with one hell of a sense of humor.”

--Matt Freitag, Senior UNIX Administrator, Internet REIT

 

“We hired only the best and the brightest.  Richard certainly fits into that category! He is one of the most caring, knowledgeable managers I have known.  His methodical approach to a project is a work of art! I highly recommend him without hesitation to any employer.”

--Pan Beatty, Director Human Resources, SimDesk Technologies

 

“Richard has the critical and focused thinking skills that ask the important questions, probing for real answers, not just "yes" answers.   His past work and life experiences in a variety of fields make him well suited to the roles he plays in growing companies as well as leading his people.   I have enjoyed working with Richard, his wry wit will sorely be missed.   I hope to work with him again soon.”

--Gary McNeel, Co-Founder, LightHouse Data Services

 

“One of the most talented leaders I've ever met in thought, action and speech.   Excellent skillset and highly respected among his peers in several fields.   Would welcome an opportunity to work with him again in the future.” 

--Mike Bitoun, Executive Administrative Director, Behavioral Recognition Systems

 

I've been using MySQL since it became a mature DBMS, and therefore use it in virtually every project I execute. Here are a number of areas within MySQL that I have deep experience which prove useful in business, ecommerce, and web application design and execution. For clarification and expansion, please contact me and I will be happy to go into more detail and offer case studies.

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• Deep usage of MySQL as a DBMS from version 3.23 forward
• MySQL installation utilizing source compilation, RPMs, and ports (BSD)
• MySQL optimization and tuning at source code level, including enhanced patching
• Experience in advanced MySQL configuration
• Daily work in database security, query optimization, full-text search indexing, de-normalization (where appropriate)
• Development and optimization of physical and logical design of MySQL database systems
• Database monitoring (usage and health) utilizing a variety of tools, including the MySQL Enterprise packages
• Daily usage of a variety of MySQL tools, including MySQL AB's own, as well as third-party packages
• Creating and execution of daily/weekly/monthly database backup/restore processes
• Design and implementation of complex database structures with optimal indexing and table design
• Frequent design and implementation of rollup tables to expedite web apps/reporting/database access
• Deep experience in the design and implementation of complex replication schemes, including master-master replication (multiple data entry points)
• Design, creation, and implementation of n-tiered development environments using 30+ database servers
• Development of application-specific fault-tolerant distributed database mechanisms
• Expert in utilizing crontabs to execute repetitive tasks in a clean, monitored, and repeatable fashion
• Expert in utilizing system-level utilities to create and summarize database activity for daily/weekly reporting both in detail and at the summarized level
• Heavy background in shell scripting (bash, csh, awk, sed, PERL, etc.)
• Daily usage and experience with large data sets (100M rows+)
• Data warehouse (OLAP) background

Here you may read a quick list of operating systems and technologies with which I have real-world, production experience. For clarification and expansion, please contact me and I will be happy to go into more detail and offer case studies.

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• Have served as senior systems administrator in various environments over the last 20 years with 50+ servers running Windows NT, 2000, and XP; Linux and derivatives
• Unix flavors with expert familiarity: RedHat Enterprise and RedHat Advanced Server, CentOS, Slackware, Fedora, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD
• Solid background in AIX 2.x and 3.x; Solaris; UNICOS (Cray XMP and YMP installations)
• Expert in installing, compiling, tuning, configuring and maintaining large Apache, IIS, Tomcat environments
• Years of installing and configuring servers from source, package, or portage systems
• Expert in creating automated processes to handle many system administration tasks
• Have designed, coded, and implemented both from-scratch and many open source asset control systems

As an IT Professional, one of your most important responsibilities is to ensure that your environment is a secure one in terms of protection from known vulnerabilities. To many organizations, this often means just making sure patches are applied. That is necessary, but patching alone isn't the complete answer, many problems are not resolved by patching. Critical security issues can be the result of accidental or negligent misconfigurations of some system component, poorly coded applications (especially web applications), the result of some past malicious activity, or any number of other factors.

Scanning and Security services

WSC can accurately scan, diagnose, and continually monitor your network using any number of tools. WSC is rated at the expert level or above on the following tools and methods:

• Nessus Vulnerability Scanner: security and auditing
• NMap: network scanning and auditing
• Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer: security and auditing
• Cacti: Bandwidth usage and monitoring
• Nagios: Continual monitoring, notification, and escalation
• Wireshark: Network sniffer and packet analysis
• Snort: Intrusion detection
• Metasploit: Scanning and testing code for possible exploits
• Operating system upgrades and patching
• Custom complies of base operating systems

Security consulting and hardening

Furthermore, WSC has deep experience in the securing of the standard suite of OS-level applications from attack, including the hardening and securing of Apache, IIS, Tomcat, sendmail, postfix, qmail, and many other applications. We can advise our clients on how to appropriately patch their existing codebase to prevent Denial of Service and other attacks, can secure firewalls, and configure networks for optimum, secure performance.

Monitoring services

WSC also operates a monitoring service for our clients: Let us know what servers, services, and ports you wish to have monitored--or ask us to find out for you--and how frequently you wish these services monitored (from 15-second to much longer intervals) and who you would like notified when there is an issue, and we'll handle it for you. We'll even take over the initial triage when something does go wrong and be your first responders. Using the industry-standard Nagios monitoring application, plugins, and custom bolt-on additions to Nagios, there really isn't any kind of monitoring situation we cannot handle from our secure datacenter.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and HIPAA Consulting