Albert Salman

About Me

Work Experience

1. Systems Architect (Data Practice)

   08/2021 – Present

   EPAM Systems · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   SCRUM

   Technologies

   AWS Cloud (IaaS/PaaS services, AI/ML services, data&analytics services), terraform/terragrunt, Python, APIs

   Description
   Architecting, developing and implementing solutions on AWS cloud.

   Medical company’s data lake architecture team member:

   • Market research for data labeling products for Data Science;

   • MLOps solution development (SageMaker, MLflow, AWS MLOps framework, AWS Batch);

   • PII Data scanning solution development (market research, evaluate, then design and implement based on AWS Macie)

   • AWS Glue cost analysis based on config and metrics

   • Design and develop API to manage permissions in data lake (AWS Lake Formation)

2. Cloud Architect / DevOps Lead

   02/2021 – 07/2021

   Orion Innovation (formerly MERA) · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   SCRUM, DDD

   Technologies

   AWS Cloud

   Description

   Under NDA so no details.
   Architecting solution which address functional feature requirements and ensuring it to excel in all five non-functional “pillars” (Cost Optimization, Performance Efficiency, Operational Excellence, Reliability, Security).
   Leading and managing DevOps team for software development support, CICD, platform governance, infrastructure management and automation.

3. Customer Solution Architect

   03/2020 – 02/2021

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   SAFe (and Nexus/DaD/LeSS-aware), TOGAF/Archimate, SRE, Lean, Anything as Code

   Technologies

   Clouds, various technologies, XaaS, *-as-Code

   Description

   Developing complex solutions for customers based on various standards, technologies and applying required methodologies/approaches (waterfall-like, Lean, Agile), thinking strategically with customer-first mindset, ignoring hype/biased thinking/one-size-fits-all etc.

   Business, data and application architecture competencies constantly developed to support enterprise cloud adoption initiatives (using vendor cloud adoption frameworks), business digitalization (cloud, AI/ML, big data, CI/CD, BI etc) support for all scales of IT landscapes (legacy and modern application environments on any stage of SDLC), migration projects execution (on-premise to cloud, cross-cloud, on-prem to on-prem), seeking and evaluating upsale opportunities (products, services, projects) from provider to customers.

   Notable achievements/activities:

   • Business Agility by means of cloud adoption, digital transformation thought leadership, speaking business language whereas driving technical adoption;

   • Track evolving trends in cloud provider ecosystems, evaluate and create adoption strategy if feasible;

   • *-as-Code, Digital Twins, AI/ML, data exploration and visualization research;

   • SAFe and *-as-Code practices author in corporate libraries (namely Policy- SysOps- SecOps- Docs-as-Code);

   • SRE practices research (namely Chaos Engineering);

   • IaC audits and best practice advisory;

   • Docs-as-Code, TDD/BDD practices implementation for projects;

   • DevSecOps research and tool assessment;

   • Lean/DevOps practices evangelism;

4. Cloud architect / Service Architect

   01/2017 – 02/2021

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   Agile (Kanban, Scrum), Cloud Adoption Frameworks, TOGAF

   Technologies

   AWS/Azure/GCP/OCI public clouds, VMware/Openstack private clouds, ServiceNow

   Description

   Various IT governance, architecture, project management and ITSM competencies fall mainly in cloud adoption and hybrid cloud solution architecture, business agility support by means of applying Scaled Agile (SAFe, DaD/LeSS-aware) and Lean (DevOps) practices and methodologies as well as proven EA (TOGAF) and systems engineering (OMG, ISO etc), application modernization (for apps on any stage of SDLC), datacenter optimization and strategy development, disaster recovery / business continuity, information/data management, compliance management (GDPR, J-SOX, NIST, PCI-DSS, HIPAA).

   Developing cloud architectures and integration solutions, ensuring solutions deliver functionality to stakeholders, excel in all five non-functional “pillars” (Cost Optimization, Performance Efficiency, Operational Excellence, Reliability, Security) and aligned with overall organization architecture and objectives. Customer engagement, identifying stakeholders across the organization and beyond (internal\external stakeholders and roles), their real needs (not only ones directly communicated, perceiving what is system of interest/using system/enabling system/systems in operating environment etc);

   Notable service development projects:

   • Service Architect: Hybrid IT services development (solution support, cloud management, cloud optimization (performance, cost), cloud security, DevOps services);

   Notable solution development projects:

   • Cloud Adoption and transformation architect (customer transformation and migration advisory methodology development, Cloud Adoption Framework development based on internal and vendor ones (AWS, Azure, Google), migration blueprint quality review);

   • Lead Architect, migration to Azure cloud (execution of discovery, assessment, planning, architecture and implementation, planning and supervision of migration);

   • Lead Architect, cloud-based data protection and management solution (solution development, service development);

   • Cloud Management Platform reference architecture development and market research/PoC (Hybrid Cloud: Azure Arc (for Servers, for Kubernetes, Data Services, API Management), Google Anthos, AWS Outposts);

   • OpenStack cloud Backup-as-a-Service data protection solution;

   • Traffic monitoring and visualization (ELK, sniffers for different platforms, collectors + open source code customization);

   Notable integration projects:

   • Azure Monitor to ServiceNow custom alerting integration using Azure Logic Apps, REST APIs etc;

   • Azure DevOps with ServiceNow Change Management integration for CD (release) pipelines (with plugin customization for own needs);

   • vRealize to ServiceNow alerting integration application developement (MVC app on Python Flask - using incoming and outgoing Web Services (REST APIs), ServiceNow Business Rules and Scheduled Jobs, custom integration watchdog mechanism);

5. Datacenter infrastructure lead (CTO deputy)

   07/2014 – 02/2018

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Technologies

   Azure cloud IaaS, Fujitsu compute, Extreme Networks (Brocade) and Cisco networking, Fujitsu and Netapp storage, VMware vSphere virtualization, Netbackup/Commvault data protection, Windows/Linux OS etc, HA clustering, Disaster Recovery solutions.

   Description

   Strong infrastructure systems architecture competencies being constantly developed for cloud solutions (Azure), multi-petabyte storage environments, heterogeneous backup & recovery, compliance and archiving, compute and storage virtualization, networking and network virtualization.

   Took part in IT infrastructure due diligence, solution architecture development, transition and transformation projects/programs.
   Leading technical teams’ activities in accordance with project management methodology and quality/costs/timelines agreed.
   Regularly in contact with C-level stakeholders and third party suppliers.

   CTO team member (CTO deputy).

   Developing, implementing and consulting on infrastructure solutions, ensuring all functional and non-functional (e.g. availability, scalability, security and compliance, data protection (RPO, RTO) etc) requirements are captured, realized in solution and proved to be in accordance with specifications. Capturing constraints, risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies (RAID) and maintaining RAID log throughout the solution delivery.

   IT roadmap development.

   Leading infrastructure optimizations to cut costs.

   Technical and risk estimation input to proposals, defining the approach for solution development and acceptance testing.

   Provide technical leadership, coordination and advice on complex problem troubleshooting and resolution.

   Notable achievements:

   • Infrastructure tower lead for 2 contract renewals (new solution designs, migration leadership etc);

   • Disaster Recovery Plan development from scratch (and contributing to overall Business Continuity Plan), lead technical coordination during several successful DR tests;

   • Datacenter cost optimization (15%);

   • Software licensing optimizations (30%);

   • New design documentation standard alignment with standards, templates’ tailoring;

   • Migration to new right-sized storage solution (as a result old oversized (so underused) solution replaced with 3 times cheaper one (TCO) solution);

   • EOL data protection solution upgrade to new hardware with optimized configuration (~1 rack replaced with 3 blades in each datacenter);

   • Retail application cross-DC migration with particular components’ redesign (~100 OS instances);

   • Supply chain planning application infrastructure design and implementation in own DCs (20+ heavy OS instances);

   • Dozens of smaller consulting and design projects successfully accepted by customers;

6. Pre-sales architect

   06/2014 – 02/2021

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Technologies

   Cloud technologies, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, storage and data protection/archiving/compliance, various OS platforms;

   Description

   Work in tight cooperation with pre-sales and sales to find out business and IT needs, provide solution consultancy, technical guidance, risk and cost estimations etc to close new deals on new RFPs and to ensure contract renewals.

   Constantly seeking and evaluating upsale opportunities (products, services, projects) from provider to customers.

   Marketing and sales materials development (cost models, service descriptions, battle cards, brochures etc)

   Understanding customers’ business and commercial issues and contributing key insights;

   Architecting the right solution (proposing creative solutions or alternatives balancing risk and complexity to meet customer’s requirements), building commercial and/or financial credibility of solution;

   Delivering input in a timely manner without compromising on quality;

   Estimating costs and risks, solution design/implementation efforts, possible service volumes etc;

   Customer engagement, identifying real customer needs (not only ones directly communicated);

   Having sector knowledge and business capability/function knowledge to earn credibility from customer;

   Service and technology domain expertise;

   Developing deep understanding of employer’s offerings to correctly map to customer requirements during RFP/RFI stages, ensure tailoring (and its viability/feasibility e.g. cost/quality/timeline implications) if needed to close the deal;

   Applying policies, processes, procedures;

   Notable pre-sales projects:

   • World-wide tyre manufacturer (initial + 2 renewals) and Car manufacturer retail in Europe (initial + 1 renewal) contracts renewal, helping Benelux bid team, taking part in contract alignment with new technical solution sold and old solution transformation/migration plan, cost estimations, risk estimations;

   • World-wide luxury product manufacturer (1 renewal). Transformation and BAU estimations in storage and data protection areas (SD, SoW), contributing to RAID log, risk mitigation analysis;

   • World-wide luxury wearables manufacturer transformation and BAU estimations in storage and data protection areas (SD, SoW) based on scattered and incomplete information, contributing to RAID log, risk mitigation analysis;

   • World-wide drug generics manufacturer, Russian branch, datacenter consultancy, contributing to definition of customers’ overall IT architecture;

7. Systems Architect

   08/2012 – 06/2014

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Technologies

   Storage, data protection, compute virtualization, HA clustering

   Description

   Design and implement compute, storage and backup infrastructure based on industry leading products from Fujitsu, Netapp, Microsoft, Veritas, VMware etc.

8. Principal Systems Engineer

   08/2008 – 06/2014

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   ITIL/ISO20000, ISO27001

   Technologies

   Data protection/management software, compute and storage, networking, various OS platforms, HA clustering, others

   Description

   Started as junior Wintel Engineer and gradually achieved Principal Systems Engineer position with a successful track of design, implementation and support projects for many European and several Russian customers:

   • The technical lead of engineers for virtualization, storage and data protection;

   • Solving complex problems in customer environments;

   • Building reporting systems for capacity and performance of technical solutions;

   • Constant improvement of the provided services (services), innovation activities;

   • Participation in the work of the sales team: evaluation of labor costs(tenders for supporting the customers’ environments);

   • Participation in the creation of a catalog of services and a detailed description of services for drafting contracts;

   • Administration of virtualization solutions (VMWare, Hyper-V);

   • Administration of FC / FCoE SAN (Cisco, Brocade) and FC-FC routing;

   • Storage administration NetApp, Fujitsu, HP, EMC;

   • Data protection administration Netbackup, Commvault;

   • Continuously consult and train colleagues.

9. Systems Administrator

   04/2007 – 06/2008

   Kazan State Technical University named after A.N.Tupolev · Kazan, Russia

   Working for Kazan State Technical University’s Internet Centre.
   Proxy, mail, AV server monitoring and operational support.
   Branch site network support.
   End-user support.

10. Occasional sysadmin

    01/2005 – 12/2006

    Small companies · Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia

    For the sake of completeness - occasional sysadmin, SEO-link-pusher-monkey, user support etc for small companies

Education & Trainings (worth mentioning)

1. Mastering Design Thinking

   11/2020 – 02/2021

   MIT Sloan School of Management · Online

   Studying end-to-end innovation product development (research, development, feasibility, viability, etc). Course link

    Click to show certificate

   

2. Reasoning and arguing

   09/2020 – 09/2020

   Business Speech · Online

3. SPIN sales

   12/2018 – 12/2018

   Business Insight · Kazan, Russia

4. COBIT 5 Foundation

   11/2018 – 11/2018

   Cleverics · Moscow, Russia

5. PRINCE2

   10/2018 – 10/2018

   Cleverics · Moscow, Russia

6. Risk management

   09/2018 – 09/2018

   GDC (internal) · Kazan, Russia

7. ITIL PPO (Planning Protection and Optimization)

   08/2018 – 08/2018

   Cleverics · Moscow, Russia

8. ITIL SOA (Service Offerings and Agreements)

   07/2018 – 07/2018

   Cleverics · Moscow, Russia

9. Developing Microsoft Azure Solutions (20-532, retired)

   10/2017 – 10/2017

   Microsoft · Kazan, Russia

10. Enterprise Architecture management based on TOGAF and IT4IT

    10/2016 – 10/2016

    Cleverics · Moscow, Russia

11. Specialist(Engineer), Technical Cybernetics & Informatics Faculty, Computing Machinery Software Development

    09/2004 – 09/2009

    Kazan State Technical University named after A.N.Tupolev · Kazan, Russia

12. Primary and High Schools

    09/1994 – 07/2004

    Ognivo&61&26 Schools · Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia

    Gone to dark side, fall in love with IT in high school: was a member of Pascal programming children’s club

Certification (worth mentioning)

1. Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate (DP-100)

   12/2021 – 12/2022

   Microsoft transcript (840263, albertsalman)

2. Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-303 + AZ-304)

   12/2021 – 12/2022

   Microsoft transcript (840263, albertsalman)

3. AWS Certified - Data & Analytics Specialty

   12/2021 – 12/2024

   Amazon transcript

4. AWS Certified Architect - Professional (2021)

   09/2021 – 09/2024

   Amazon transcript

5. AWS Certified Architect - Associate (2018)

   09/2018 – 09/2024

   Amazon transcript

6. Implementing Software-Defined Datacenter (70-745)

   09/2017 – Present

   Microsoft transcript (840263, albertsalman)

7. Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions (70-534)

   07/2017 – Present

   Microsoft transcript (840263, albertsalman)

8. VMware Certified Professional 6 – Network Virtualization

   03/2017 – Present

   VMware transcript

9. ITIL Foundation

   09/2015 – Present

   EXIN

10. VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization

    03/2015 – Present

    VMware transcript

11. Brocade Certified Network Engineer

    06/2014 – Present

    Brocade

12. Brocade Certified Ethernet Fabric Professional

    05/2014 – Present

    Brocade

13. NetApp Certified Data Administrator - Clustered Data ONTAP

    02/2014 – 02/2017

    NetApp

14. Microsoft Certified Specialist - Server Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center

    01/2014 – Present

    Microsoft transcript (840263, albertsalman)

15. SNIA Certified Storage Networking – Expert

    10/2013 – Present

    SNIA

16. SNIA Certified Storage Architect

    09/2013 – Present

    SNIA

17. Brocade Certified Fabric Administrator

    04/2013 – Present

    Brocade

18. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer on Windows 2003

    08/2009 – Present

    Microsoft transcript (840263, albertsalman)

Projects (recent and worth mentioning)

1. Lead Architect, Azure cloud migration

   01/2019 – 02/2021

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   Cloud Adoption Framework, PRINCE2, ITIL

   Technologies

   Azure public cloud (IaaS, PaaS), VMware private cloud, Openstack, ServiceNow

   Description

   Public cloud platform (Openstack-based) exit project with two target platforms (Azure and VMware-based private cloud);

   Execution of discovery, assessment, planning (technical leadership, driving customer decisions), architecture & design (lead team of architects), implementation supervision, planning and supervision of migration (lead team of engineers).
   Using MSFT cloud adoption framework and Azure cloud reference architecture.

   Notable achievements:

   • Switching to cloud IaaS and PaaS services, roadmap development for adoption of cloud technologies (Azure Logic Apps, API Management, Azure AD, Application Gateway, Load Balancer, Azure Firewall and NVAs, Storage and SQL services, Azure DevOps, Azure Automation, Azure Blueprints, Kubernetes services, etc);

   • Re-building service provider credibility by ability to execute datacenter exit project in short timeframes in multi-platform environment;

   • Building and using own infrastructure assessment and whole IT landscape visualization toolset (ThiTool);

2. Lead Architect, cloud data management solution

   11/2016 – 11/2017

   GDC (Fujitsu GDC) · Kazan, Russia

   Methodologies / practices

   TOGAF, PRINCE2, ITIL

   Technologies

   AWS/Azure cloud IaaS, Commvault data management software, Fujitsu compute and storage, Extreme Networks (Brocade) networking, Windows/Linux OS, HA clustering

   Description

   Project highlights:

   • No single direct customer present (due to cloud nature) so requirements were collected from industry standards and future vision, then evaluated with potential customers and detailed based on their feedback;

   • Customer requirements management and traceability control within the solution;

   • Multi-tenant data protection and management environment;

   • Development (Architecture Overview Document, HLDs/LLDs), implementation and consulting on data protection and management solution;

   • Leading team to deliver full solution;

   • Sales, marketing and service documentation development;

   • Roadmap development;

Interests