Anuka Thakar

Monitoring as a Service (MONaaS):

• Designed, administered, and implemented monitoring tools to provide Monitoring as a Service to enterprise customers, ensuring efficient and real-time monitoring of their systems.
• Enabled proactive identification of issues, improving system reliability and reducing downtime for clients.

Service Selection and Testing:

• Conducted testing and proof of concept for new service offerings from various vendors, leading to the selection of effective solutions and products that met client needs and expectations.

Enterprise Application Design and Implementation:

• Designed and implemented enterprise applications and their network components that adhered to business specifications, followed best architectural practices, optimized performance, and ensured resiliency and security by design.
• Enhanced the efficiency and reliability of enterprise systems.

Alarm and Event Analysis:

• Analyzed trends of alarms and events, implementing self-healing mechanisms, alarm correlation, and noise reduction strategies.
• Reduced alert fatigue and enhanced the incident response process.

Infrastructure Management:

• Managed the entire lifecycle of infrastructure, including timely license renewals, support contract negotiations, hardware replacements, and software upgrades.
• Ensured the stability and security of the monitoring environment.

Budget Planning and Management:

• Developed annual OPEX and CAPEX budgets for projects and conducted monthly reviews to ensure financial objectives were met.

Documentation and Migration:

• Prepared design documents, scope documents, and Visio diagrams according to standard design guidelines, ensuring clear project documentation.
• Successfully migrated on-premises monitoring applications to cloud platforms, improving scalability and accessibility.

End User Support:

• Managed infrastructure upgrades and resolved end user hardware and software issues promptly, ensuring minimal disruption to daily operations.

Kubernetes and Ansible:

• Utilized Kubernetes and Ansible for infrastructure orchestration and automation, streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency.

Through these responsibilities and actions, I contributed to the delivery of reliable and efficient monitoring services to enterprise customers, optimized system performance, and ensured the security and scalability of monitoring infrastructure.

Reliability Achievement:

• Led the Tier 4 team in achieving a remarkable 99.999% reliability rate across our Managed Services, ensuring uninterrupted operations for our clients.

Proactive Monitoring Collaboration:

• Collaborated with cross-functional teams to implement proactive monitoring for our Telephony Infrastructure, enhancing the efficiency of issue identification and resolution.

Cisco Collaboration Service Maintenance:

• Took responsibility for the maintenance and reliability of Cisco Collaboration services within a hosted collaboration solution. This included Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connections, Cisco Expressway, Cisco Instant Messaging and Presence, Cisco Contact Centre Express, Nexus 7k, 5k, Netapp Storage, and VMware Virtualization.
• Ensured seamless and uninterrupted operation of these critical services, contributing to the success of our clients.

Documentation and Infrastructure Maintenance:

• Developed and maintained comprehensive documentation and diagrams for the infrastructure. This included voice/call flow diagrams, topologies, and contact information, facilitating transparency and ease of access to essential information for the team.
• Supported effective knowledge sharing and streamlined operations through organized documentation.

These achievements and responsibilities played a crucial role in delivering high-reliability services to our clients, ensuring the stability and efficiency of our telephony and collaboration infrastructure, and fostering effective collaboration among cross-functional teams.

• Provided support and troubleshooting for BlueCat DHCP/DNS and IPAM systems.
• Conducted software testing in a lab environment to ensure stable and reliable releases for customers.

In my role, I provided network support and troubleshooting for HSBC bank, focusing on the following collaboration products:

My responsibilities included:

• Offering support and troubleshooting for the specified collaboration products, ensuring their uninterrupted operation.
• Proactively monitoring the network infrastructure to prevent potential network degradation and maintain reliability.
• Implementing scripting to automate network monitoring processes, enhancing efficiency and responsiveness in network management.

In my role, I was responsible for addressing customer-facing network issues in the Unified Communication & Collaboration domain, with a focus on the following products:

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)
• Cisco IM and Presence
• Cisco Jabber for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android
• Cisco Unified Attendant Console (CUAC) Advanced and Standard
• Cisco Unified Communications Attendant Console (CUxAC)
• Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning (PCP)
• Cisco Emergency Responder (CER)
• IM and Presence Federation with Google and MS Lync
• IM Remote Call Control (RCC)
• IM and Presence MS Exchange integrations

My responsibilities included:

• Troubleshooting customer-facing network issues, regardless of complexity, across the specified technology subfields.
• Managing and resolving cases across the entire range of sub-technologies within Unified Communication & Collaboration.
• Addressing customer queries on Cisco Support Community and internal inquiries on TechZone, the internal forum used by engineers.
• Conducting product testing and documenting any identified bugs to contribute to product improvement efforts.

Network Administration:

• Administered on-premise servers, including Cisco UCS, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Certificate Authority, and various network devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, and wireless devices.
• Ensured the smooth operation and security of these critical components in the network infrastructure.

Solution Design and Implementation:

• Designed and implemented new solutions aimed at enhancing the resilience and efficiency of the existing environment.
• Played a pivotal role in optimizing the network's performance and reliability.

Pre-Sales Activities:

• Participated in pre-sales activities by gathering client requirements, designing proposals, and preparing Bills of Materials (BOM) to meet customer needs effectively.

Cisco VOIP/Collaboration:

• Designed and implemented Cisco Voice over IP (VOIP) and Collaboration solutions tailored to the specific requirements of customers.
• Ensured that the voice and collaboration systems met the high standards and demands of clients.

These responsibilities collectively contributed to maintaining a robust and secure network infrastructure and delivering customized solutions that met client expectations.