Keith Hands
Systems Architect/Senior Engineer at Peters & Associates (Acquired by Ascend Technologies)- Claim this Profile
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Topline Score
Bio
Credentials
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VCA-DCV
VMwareDec, 2015- Oct, 2024 -
ITIL Foundation Certification
-Nov, 2015- Oct, 2024 -
CCP-N
CitrixMay, 2017- Oct, 2024 -
Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA)
CiscoMar, 2020- Oct, 2024 -
CCNA - Routing & Switching
CiscoSep, 2016- Oct, 2024 -
CCENT
CiscoJul, 2016- Oct, 2024 -
CompTIA A+
CompTIA -
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA
Experience
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Peters & Associates (Acquired by Ascend Technologies)
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United States
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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1 - 100 Employee
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Systems Architect/Senior Engineer
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Oct 2018 - Present
Ascend Technologies is a leading provider of managed IT services. ⌨ Learn more about our services at: www.teamascend.com As Systems Architect, I am accountable for managing a suite of infrastructure upgrades, IT solution deployments, application integrations, Cloud migrations, and technology initiatives that enable clients to optimize resource utilization, strengthen overall security, and enhance productivity. Among my accomplishments, I have: ➥ Served as chief resource and trusted advisor for clients; trained client-side teams in new and existing systems and IT applications. ➥ Acted as extension of clients’ IT Departments; conducted infrastructure and application audits to identify and resolve compliance, security, depreciation, and functionality issues. ➥ Presented a range of IT solutions for clients at the management and executive levels, including: Cloud and on-premises infrastructure solutions, application integrations, and upgrades. Communicated a compelling value proposition to catalyze sales. ➥ Defined certification requirements and training goals for clients’ IT staff and management teams. ➥ Migrated dozens of Microsoft 365 and Azure client environments. ➥ Project managed critical infrastructure upgrades (including server and networking upgrades) across hundreds of devices. ➥ Developed an automation plan and IT policy that enabled a client to operate efficiently despite a truncated team of 3 IT staff for 600+ employees. Contributed to $500K+ in cost savings for the client. Show less
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Sharp Electronics Corporation USA
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United States
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Information Technology Consultant
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Apr 2018 - Oct 2018
Worked for the Z-Lan Partners IT consulting division of Sharp Electronics, which was purchased shortly after starting there. Worked for the Z-Lan Partners IT consulting division of Sharp Electronics, which was purchased shortly after starting there.
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John Drake & Associates
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Greater Chicago Area
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Senior IT Consultant
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Oct 2016 - Apr 2018
I joined John Drake & Associates in 2016, where I led a suite of customer engagements to deliver comprehensive IT services. Some of my key contributions include: ➥ Managed a range of IT infrastructure redundancy projects for multiple clients, resulting in lower downtime and 15% reduced operating costs. ➥ Led a suite of Office 365 migration projects, VMware environment upgrades, and integration projects. ➥ Managed client vendor contracts and participated in vendor negotiations. ➥ Supported and configured Windows Server 2008 to 2016 environments, including Azure migration and hybrid configurations. ➥ Configured, deployed, and maintained hosted and onsite applications and databases. ➥ Performed network audits to identify and remediate security gaps. Show less
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K2 Services
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United States
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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200 - 300 Employee
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Technical Manager
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Nov 2015 - Oct 2016
As Technical Manager, I was responsible for leading a 12-member engineering team to manage a range of technology projects, optimize core IT infrastructure, deploy and operationalize state-of-the-art tools and technologies, close security vulnerabilities, and mitigate IT obsolescence and interoperability risks. Some of my additional contributions include: ➥ Developed IT policies and SOPs that are standardized, scalable, and informed by industry best practices. ➥ Assigned workloads and responsibilities for engineers. ➥ Periodically troubleshot and resolved operational issues. ➥ Held team members accountable to a high standard of performance. ➥ Participated in junior engineer performance reviews, interviews, hiring, and releases. ➥ Updated and maintained internal documentation systems. ➥ Authored tools and scripts for repetitive tasks to generate 15-20% time savings for the team. ➥ Delivered a highly differentiated customer experience; scaled the client retention rate by 10%. ➥ Streamlined new hire onboarding cycles, going from 6 to 4 months. Show less
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Master Solutions
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United Arab Emirates
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Financial Services
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1 - 100 Employee
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Senior IT Consultant
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Nov 2013 - Sep 2015
I joined Master Solutions in 2013, where I managed a suite of infrastructure upgrade and modernization projects including networking, server, and application upgrades. Some of my additional contributions include: ➥ Enhanced overall productivity by ~50%. ➥ Managed a number of warehouse wireless upgrade projects; increased inventory accuracy and reduced administrative overhead by up to 20%. ➥ Introduced auto fulfillment capabilities and created redundancies to mitigate site failures for IT groups. ➥ Drove a 2-4% reduction in downtime per site. Show less
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Education
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2014 - 2022
Indiana Wesleyan University
Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems, Business Administration, Management, and Information Technologies
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