Eric Baugh dragonsys.org
Windows · Citrix · VMware · Cloud

30+ years keeping critical systems running.

I'm Eric Baugh — Lead System Administrator at Experian, where I lead the Windows, Citrix and VMware support teams across North America, APAC and LATAM. Thirty years of building, hardening and automating the server infrastructure businesses actually depend on.

View my experience More about me
Windows Server AWS & Azure Virtualization Citrix PowerShell Automation UNIX / AIX
99.999%
Uptime engineered into server projects
30+
Years in the IT industry
15,000+
Endpoints supported across the globe
7,000+
Users served day to day
Where I've done the work Experian McKesson Cameron Rowe Computers
What I Do

Infrastructure that holds up under pressure

Most of my career has been spent on the systems nobody is supposed to notice — because when they're built right, nobody does.

Infrastructure Engineering

Windows Server builds, clustering, Active Directory and Group Policy, IIS and Apache web tiers, and enterprise hardware from HP, IBM and Dell — designed with room to grow, not just room to run.

Automation & Cloud

Server automation, reporting and patching through BMC TrueSight with NSH and PowerShell, and Citrix migrations into Azure and AWS built with Terraform — repeatable work turned into unattended, documented builds.

Virtualization & Citrix

VMware ESXi and vCenter, Hyper-V, Citrix virtual apps and desktops, and disaster-recovery environments built on VMware SRM and Symantec NetBackup — so an outage is an inconvenience, not an incident.

UNIX & Mixed Environments

IBM AIX administration on RS/6000 hardware, plus HP-UX, Solaris and StorageTek tape silos. Heterogeneous shops don't scare me — I grew up in one.

Process & Documentation

Strict change and incident management, runbooks that a colleague can actually follow at 3 a.m., and process documentation kept current rather than written once and forgotten.

Leading Teams

Team lead for three support groups — Windows, Citrix and VMware — and the go-to SME when something lands that nobody else has seen. I'd rather understand what a customer is trying to accomplish than hand the ticket back.

How I Work

Build it once, build it right, document it well.

Uptime isn't luck. It comes from planning for the failure you haven't had yet, scripting the task you're about to do for the fiftieth time, and writing things down so the next person doesn't start from zero.

Maintenance is inevitable. Unplanned downtime shouldn't be.

Read the longer version
Windows Server & Clustering Expert
Virtualization (VMware / Hyper-V) Advanced
Cloud (AWS & Azure) Advanced
Citrix Advanced
Server Hardware & Deployment Advanced
PowerShell & Scripting Proficient
Documentation & Process Proficient
UNIX / IBM AIX Experienced
Toolbox

Technologies I've lived in

Platforms

  • Windows Server 2003 – 2012 R2
  • Windows Server Clustering
  • Active Directory
  • Group Policy
  • IBM AIX 4.x
  • HP-UX
  • Solaris
  • Windows NT / Novell

Cloud & Infrastructure as Code

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Terraform
  • Bitbucket
  • VS Code
  • Cloud Migration

Virtualization & Continuity

  • Citrix
  • Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops
  • VMware
  • vCenter
  • vSAN
  • Vblock
  • VMware SRM
  • Microsoft Hyper-V
  • Symantec NetBackup
  • StorageTek Tape Silos

Automation & Deployment

  • PowerShell
  • BMC TrueSight Server Automation
  • NSH
  • VBScript
  • Perl
  • Batch
  • Windows Deployment Services
  • Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
  • Windows Post Installer
  • Ghost
  • WSUS

Web & Application

  • IIS 6 / 7 / 7.5 / 8
  • Apache
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • HTML & CSS
  • JavaScript
  • CGI

Hardware & Storage

  • HPE
  • Dell
  • Cisco
  • EMC
  • Hitachi
  • IBM System x
  • IBM RS/6000
  • Sun Ultra / Blade

Documentation & Collaboration

  • Confluence
  • Visio
  • Excel
  • Bitbucket
Career

A long run at two very large companies.

Sixteen years at McKesson, working up from PC support to systems engineering, followed by a decade at Experian. Long tenures, in environments where mistakes are expensive.

Full experience
  • Nov 2015 — Present
    Lead System Administrator
    Experian · Remote
    • Team lead for the Windows, Citrix and VMware support teams; primary Citrix and VMware SME for North America.
    • Windows and virtual environments across North America, APAC and LATAM.
    • Migrating Citrix to Azure and AWS using Terraform.
  • May 2007 — Apr 2015
    Windows Systems Engineer
    McKesson
    • Installed and supported Windows Server across a nationwide server estate.
    • Built DR environments on Symantec NetBackup and VMware SRM.
  • Aug 1998 — May 2007
    Network Specialist · Analyst · UNIX Admin
    McKesson
    • Nine years across desktop, network, UNIX administration and web development.