CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Details:

Mr. Zaramuk “Zar” Shardan
June 19, 1976
Permanent Resident of Australia / Flat 3.01 29 Shelley St.
Sydney NSW 2000
(+61)415104935

http://www.zaramuk.com

Profile:

An experienced software developer with excellent analytical and problem solving skills, augmented with a substantial exposure to the systems administration. While being a true team player, require no micromanagement and constantly get the job done right.

Technical Skills:

Skill or technology / Years of experience / Skill level
1-5*
Programming languages
C++ (~5 years commercial, 12 total) / 12 / 4.8
Java / 1 / 3.5
SQL / 8 / 3.5
CORBA IDL / 2 / 3.5
XML / 2 / 3.5
XSLT / 1 / 3.5
HTML / 2 / 3
PHP / 1 / 3
Basic and Basic based languages / 8 / 3
UML / 1 / 2
Oracle PL/SQL / 1 / 2
80x86 Assembler / 2 / 2
Middleware technologies & web server software
CORBA / 2 / 3.5
COM/DCOM / 1 / 2.5
Apache web server / 1 / 4
Microsoft IIS / 1 / 4
Development environments and tools
Borland C++ Builder (1-6) / 7 / 4.5
Seagate Crystal Reports v7-9 / 3 / 4
MS Visual C++ 6.0 EE, MS Visual Studio .NET 2003, 2005 / 4 / 3.5
Together v.1 for Borland C++, v5 for C++ and Java / 1 / 3.5
VisiBroker for C++ / 2 / 3
Rational Rose 2002,2003 / 1 / 3
Borland JBuilder 3-7 / 1 / 3
Numega Softice / 2 / 3
Lotus Notes 4.6 (Lotus Script) / 1 / 3
Borland Delphi 6 / <1 / 3
Version control software
Subversion / 1 / 3
Borland Team Source / 1 / 4
Database servers
Oracle V 7.3.4 - 8i / 2 / 3
MS SQL Server 2000 / 3 / 4
MySQL / 2 / 3
Operating systems
Windows 9x,NT4,2000,XP,2003 Server, Vista / 8 / 4
Linux (as a server, mainly Red Hat, Mandrake) / 4 / 3
Other
VmWare Workstation 5 / 3 / 4
Networking
Ethernet - copper, fibre, WiFi, cabling, switches up to L2 / 7 / 4
TCP/IP - Addressing, DHCP, NAT, Routers etc. / 7 / 4
Hardware
IBM PC compatible / 12 / 4.5
* 1 = basic understanding - a bird's eye view (no such skills listed here due to practical irrelevance)
2 = minimal functionality - can use the tool/technology, but with heavy documentation/Google usage
3 = limited functionality - quite familiar with general use cases, yet still rely on the documentation substantially
4 = working knowledge – confident user, documentation is needed occasionally
5 = extensive knowledge - throughout expertise in this technology, documentation is rarely used

Working Experience

2004 - 2008 / System administrator, Chief of IT department (3 people) since 2005
Mercury-2 Ltd. Cherkessk, KChR, Russia www.mercury-alco.ru

Mercury-2 Ltd. is one of the leading producers of alcohol in Southern Russia. It is also a part of the Mercury holding – a well-known trademark in Russia.


Duties at Mercury-2 included:

1)  Efficiently communicate with superiors to ensure all the necessary measures and purchases in order to keep the IT infrastructure operational and improve it further.

2)  Install and administer operating systems, databases, firewalls other servers and workstations.

3)  Troubleshoot various software and hardware related problems.

4)  Automate routine activities such as backups and unattended installations.

5)  Minor programming – write new programs and reports or modify existing ones.

6)  Hardware and software upgrades, evaluate, plan, purchase.

7)  Assign tasks and responsibilities to the subordinates.

8)  Provide user support and training.

During the employment at Mercury-2, I introduced or achieved the following:

ü  Daily backup of all important corporate data.
The company had serious issues with reliability and performance of its computing infrastructure and data security. This was causing relatively frequent server or network outages and eventually resulted in a major data corruption. Previous systems administrator lost the job because of this incident. Logically, first steps were to implement reliable automatic backup measures and to fix the network and the server of the accounting department. All these measures resulted in tremendous decrease in server’s downtime and increase in working efficiency of users.

ü  Active Directory, DNS, DHCP
Next step was to introduce DNS and Active Directory to enable the required level of control over the network resources and user rights assignment. DHCP server was added to automate the management of IP addresses.

ü  Enhanced control over the user access to shared resources.
Previous enhancements allowed a more fine-grained control over the shared resources. NTFS permissions, user groups, and specially developed C++ application and batch files helped to automate this task.

ü  Internet gateway upgrade.
Internet access for the company was provided through a Linux router with a billing script developed by one of the previous employees. When we upgraded the router machine, I decided to keep it Linux, but used a more modern distribution that could work with the new hardware. I also used an open source billing system to remove unnecessary dependence on (now) external personnel. Internet traffic is quite expensive in the southern part of Russia. A transparent proxy based on Squid was added to save traffic. This measure reduced Internet expenses by approx. 20%, and allowed to track Internet usage.

ü  Air-conditioned dedicated server room, modern rack mount servers with redundant PSUs and UPSes.
I convinced the management that for a company of that size a dedicated server room with all associated facilities is necessary.

ü  Introduced WSUS server.
Further improvement of the computing infrastructure of the company included a WSUS server addition to the network to automate OS updates. Client PCs receive the address of sever via group policy.

ü  Introduced RIS server.
Recent growth of the company resulted in frequent addition of the new workstations to the network. A RIS server was added to the network to automate the tedious and time-consuming process of workstation OS and software installation. The Windows XP installation image on the RIS server was modified using DriverPacks to add support for the new hardware and eliminate the need to manually install drivers

ü  Wide adoption of the Gigabit Ethernet, including fibre optic segments.
Due to the growth of the network of the company, a need in long and fast links was identified. My knowledge in this field was largely theoretical. After some research, I selected and purchased all the necessary equipment and tools at the best prices in Russia without sacrificing quality. I successfully installed few links myself - FC epoxy connectors, SFP modules, 3COM switches.

ü  Careful selection of hardware components with the best price/value ratio,
Recognising the crucial importance of the hardware to the performance and the reliability of the computing infrastructure of the company, I always aim to purchase most reliable components. Sometimes I had to purchase servers and rare hardware or tools from suppliers located as far as 1500km from the office (Moscow, Russia) to ensure the best prices and good choice of equipment.

My personality and technical skills gained me a lot of respect from both users and superiors. As a result, I was promoted to the head of IT team of the company in 2005.

Jan-Mar
2005 / Development contract: Consumer Profile Database
JV Marvel Juice Co. Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

I completed this project in my free time while still working at the Mercury 2 Ltd.

Description: Marvel Juice Co. is one of the major juice producers in Uzbekistan. In the end of 2004, they decided to develop new questionnaire survey software to handle this task. It was a good opportunity to refresh my programming skills and earn some extra money. This was a one-man project – from requirements analysis to application packaging

Duties included:

1)  Analyse the task and create requirements specification.

2)  Design the software: Decide on user interface details, database layout etc.

3)  Implement the application.

4)  Test and fix bugs.

5)  Create HTML help manual.

6)  Create installation package.

7)  Provide some user support.

The application allows it’s user to:

ü  Define variable number of categories, questions, and answer choices

ü  Enter individual questionnaires into the database

ü  Export reports to the MS Excel.

The size of the application is approximately 7000 lines of code.

Environment and tools:

·  Borland C++ Builder 6

·  MS Access database

·  Wise Installation Studio 7.0

2000 - 2003 / Programmer
ASBT Ltd. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. www.asbt.uz

ASBT Ltd. is one of the leaders in the field of software development in Uzbekistan.


Duties at ASBT included:

1)  Design and code: software modules, subsystems, GUI and command line utilities. Create installation packages. Document created software.

2)  Some administration and software deployment/installation/configuration of our products and other products (such as DB servers/instances) they depended on.

3)  Manage PC hardware upgrades and Ethernet network deployment.

4)  Evaluate new technologies and products to assess their fitness for the daily usage in the production environment.

Projects completed:

2003 - ERP system for Semurg holding

Description:

In 2002, Semurg holding acquired ASBT Ltd. Management of Semurg later decided that there is a need for a custom ERP system for the holding.

Duties in this project:

ü  Design and implement an FTP client-dialler dll for the project

ü  Design and implement a software adapter for a serial barcode scanner

ü  Evaluate CORBA as a solution for the project

The dll is a mere wrapper around the MFC wininet API plus some FTP uploading and downloading logic.

The barcode scanner adapter is a COM server application that translates bytes received from a barcode scanner via serial port into keystrokes. It can be accessed and configured using its tray icon.

Although promising, a pure object-oriented CORBA based solution turned out to be overkill for this particular project. As the evaluation progressed, it become obvious, that the work can not be carried out in a reasonable time, given the number of developers familiar with the technology (in fact, one). In the situation when CORBA solution yields no spectacular benefits for this project, compared to the standard ASBT’s combo – Power Builder application and Oracle database, the project manager decided to drop the CORBA solution.

Environment and tools:

·  Borland C++ Builder 6

·  Microsoft Visual C++

·  VisiBroker for C++

·  Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 server

2002 - Archive tracking system for Ministry of Finance, Uzbekistan


Description:

The purpose of this system is to serve as some kind of index to the vast archive of documents of Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan. Generally, it is a moderately complex client-server application. My efforts in this project were mostly directed at the user management subsystem and multilingual support implementation. More detailed description of this project can be found on my webpage at www.zaramuk.com.

Duties in this project:

ü  Design, code, prepare for the deployment

Environment and tools:

·  Borland Delphi 6

·  Interbase 6.0

·  Borland Team Source

·  Windows NT 4.0 workstation, Windows 2000

2001 - Marketing Information System (MISys) for UzBAT

Description:

“Marketing Information System” (MISys) for British American Tobacco Uzbekistan (UzBAT) is used by trade-marketing, sales and planning departments of the company. The system also exchanges data with the legacy CS/3 database used by the production department. A detailed description of this project is available on my web page at www.zaramuk.com.

Duties in this project:

ü  Porting and support of the replication subsystem from MMS (see below) to MISys

ü  Design and implementation of the data exchange layer between the new MISys and legacy CS/3 database

ü  Design and implement a CGI application that returns a chart in form of a picture.

ü  Design and implementation of some utility Java classes for the applet-RMI server part of the project

Environment and tools:

·  Borland C++ Builder 5

·  Borland JBuilder4

·  Oracle 9i

·  Lotus Notes (indirect, through OLE objects)

·  Windows 9x, Windows NT (4.0), Windows 2000 advanced server

2000 - Media Merchandising System (MMS) for UzBAT

Description:

MMS is a project for the brand-marketing department. Its goal is to organize and keep track of various marketing activities such as product promotion actions and linked events. This system allows its users to plan and allocate funds for the marketing activities. Initially MMS supposed to be a distributed system, since UzBAT had a division in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. However, later that office was closed and this functionality became redundant.

Duties in this project:

ü  Design, programming, implementation and support of the replication subsystem of the MMS

ü  Design, implementation and support of active Lotus Notes document forms

ü  Other misc. duties

Environment and tools:

·  Borland C++ Builder 5

·  Lotus Notes 4.62 (Lotus Script, OLE objects)

·  Sybase PowerBuilder 6

·  MS Access

·  Windows 9x, Windows NT (4.0)

2000 – Automated Trading System for the Currency Exchange of Uzbekistan

Description:

This system automates currency-trading operations. Users can monitor the situation on the Currency Exchange in the real time. This was one of my first projects at ASBT that involved some substantial programming activities.

Duties in this project:

ü  Implementation and maintenance of the oracle stored procedures

ü  Maintenance of the deployment SQL scripts

ü  Other misc. duties

Environment and tools:

·  PL/SQL with TOAD 5

·  Oracle 8.0.5

·  Windows 9x, Windows 2000 Server

1998 - 2000: / Self employed as general hardware/software specialist

PC assembly for the private customers and development of small programs. Self-education.
The main reason for this was that I did not have a residence permit in Uzbekistan at that time and as a result could not find an official job.

Education:

1993 - 1998 / Tashkent Electro-technical Institute of Communications, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Department of the Computers & Digital Communications
Master of digital communications
Bachelor of digital communications

Referees:

Apchar Patova

Chief Financial Officer

Mercury 2 Ltd.

+ 7 87822 10645 (Russian only)

Diana Tlisova

Interpreter

Mercury 2 Ltd.

+7 87822 61886 (English speaker, can translate for Apchar Patova)

Semen Godes
Director General

ASBT Co. Ltd.
+998 71 135-4564
+998 71 135-4634
Generally Russian speakers, but might call someone who speaks English.

A scanned image of the Letter of Reference by Semen Godes is available on my web site in the Downloads section.