My name is Stace Branham and I have over 21 years in the Information Technology industry as a Systems Administrator, and I specialize in Microsoft Enterprise Messaging.
My main focus is Microsoft Exchange and I also have extensive experience with Microsoft Lync/Skype For Business.
I hope my blog gives you some great information on Enterprise Messaging tips, tricks and fixes. Feel free to poke around and leave some comments so I can better help you!
Resume
WORK EXPERIENCE
Microsoft (Contracted through Apex Systems)
Exchange/Active Directory Customer Engineer
05/2024-present
Exchange/Active Directory Customer Engineer
05/2024-present
- Plan and deliver proactive and reactive support for Exchange on-premises and Exchange Online environments.
- Provide customer support for primarily large government organizations.
- Create and lead product training and support courses and lectures for customers.
- Work with internal Microsoft support teams, account teams, product engineering and service engineering teams to ensure a streamlined and efficient customer support experience.
Baylor College of Medicine (Contracted Through Jupiter Group)
Lead Messaging Architect
06/2023 - 05/2024
- Manage Exchange 2013/2019/M365 Hybrid for 23,000+ mailboxes.
- Manage Teams environment of 24,000 internal users and 6,000 guests.
- Manage SharePoint Online and OneDrive of over 4 million files.
- Write and execute PowerShell scripts for system automation and management.
- Supervise and train junior team members as well as provide documentation for support.
Schott North America (Managed Services 2016-2021, Full-Time Employee since 4/2021)
Enterprise Messaging Architect, Messaging Team Lead (REMOTE)
05/2016 - 06/2023
- Planned, designed, and installed greenfield Exchange 2016/M365 Hybrid in a Resource Forest using MIM 2016 for Identity Management/DirSync, according to ITAR/DFARS regulations.
- Manage exchange environment for 2,500+ mailboxes with a 99.9% uptime.
- Led migration from Lotus Notes to Exchange using Dell/Quest migration tools.
- Installed and manage Skype for Business Enterprise Voice environment for 15,000+ global users.
- Write and implement PowerShell scripts for system automation, maintenance, and management.
- Supervise and train junior team members as well as provide documentation for support.
- Research and implement new technologies to support organizational goals and user needs.
Lamparth Consulting Inc.
Enterprise Messaging Architect, Messaging Team Lead (REMOTE)
05/2016 - 04/2021
- Consulted for 5 clients on Enterprise Messaging engagements, including primary client Schott (above).
- Designed, configured, and led migration from Exchange 2016 and Skype for Business to O365 Hybrid.
- Repaired misconfigured Exchange 2016 Hybrid and led Office 365 migration.
- Designed/deployed Teams Direct Routing using AnyNode Session Border Controller (SBC) for 2 clients.
- Managed Lamparth in-house Office 365 Tenant (Exchange Online, Teams, and Azure).
- Created custom documentation and implementation guides for 5 consulting clients.
Harris Computer Systems
Enterprise Messaging Administrator (REMOTE)
03/2014 - 05/2016
- Designed, built, and administered Exchange 2007/2010/2013 environment of 5,000+ mailboxes.
- Led cross-forest migrations of 50 new business unit acquisitions to centralized Exchange environment.
- Managed OCS 2007/Lync 2010/2013/Skype for Business Enterprise Voice environment.
- Instituted Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to prevent client data leaks.
- Supervised and trained Junior Network Administrators.
EDG Inc.
Senior Network Administrator
01/2013 - 10/2013
- Built and administered multi-site Exchange 2010 environment with an active/active Stretched DAG.
- Installed and managed multi-site Lync 2010/2013 Environment.
- Managed 70+ Servers and LAN Infrastructure of 700+ workstations.
City of New Orleans, through Geocent Consulting
Infrastructure Consultant
08/2012 - 01/2013
- Designed, built, and managed Exchange 2010/O365 Hybrid Environment for 8,000+ mailboxes.
- Led migration from Exchange 2003 to 2010 and Office 365 Hybrid.
- Designed, built, and migrated Lync 2010 on-premises to Lync 2013 Hybrid Environment.
- Performed 100+ eDiscovery and open records requests.
- Provided presales services and planning to other government agencies.
- Designed and upgraded SCCM 2007 to 2010.
- Managed VMware ESX and HP SAN infrastructure.
Texas A&M University Computing & Information Services
Senior Systems Administrator
07/2010 - 8/2012
- Designed and administered greenfield multi-domain Active Directory infrastructure consisting of 30,000+ users and Exchange 2010 organization consisting of 10,000+ mailboxes.
- Managed 800+ servers on Citrix XenCenter VMs and Xiotech Emprise 7000 SANs with 1PB+ storage.
- Assisted in migration of hosts and VMs from XenCenter to VMware ESX.
- Designed and maintained 8-node SQL 2008 R2 multi-site cluster.
Texas A&M University Student Counseling Services
Microcomputer/LAN Administrator
03/2006 - 07/2010
- Designed and built HIPAA compliant greenfield Exchange 2003/2007 and Active Directory 2003.
- Migrated Pegasus/Mercury Mail Transport to Exchange 2003 cluster and then to Exchange 2007.
- Administered departmental LAN with 32 servers, 93 workstations, 9 VDIs, and 4 network printers.
Texas A&M University Physical Plant
Microcomputer Specialist
08/2005 - 03/2006
- Administered GroupWise environment of 800+ mailboxes.
- Maintained network consisting of 700+ workstations.
- Supervised and trained student worker technicians.
John Womack & Co. P.C.
Network Administrator
09/2002 - 09/2005
John Womack & Co. P.C.
Network Administrator
09/2002 - 09/2005
- Designed and setup greenfield network of four Windows 2003 Servers, Exchange 5.5/2000, and a Linux Red Hat file server/firewall with 37 workstations using Microsoft Active Directory.
- Integrated Gigabit networking into LAN achieving an effective throughput of 700Mbps.
- Consulted for local city governments and public schools to provide migrations and server upgrades.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Business Administration
08/1999-05/2004
Texas A&M University-Kingsville
CERTIFICATIONS
A+ Certified
06/2003
Network+ Certified
09/2005
Exchange 2010 MCSE (Expired)
08/2013
SOCIAL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExchangeITup
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbranham/
