NETWORK CONSULTANT / PROJECT MANAGER

About Me

François Gerthoffert
3 Avenue Jean Monnet
92130 Issy les Moulineaux
FRANCE
francois@gerthoffert.net
Web: www.gerthoffert.net
(+33) 6 26 72 28 20
27 years old - Driving license

François GERTHOFFERT

Skills

Computer Networks

  • TCP/IP: IPv4, IPv6, DHCP, DNS
  • Routing: Static, RIP, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, NAT
  • Switching: VLAN, VTP, ACL
  • WAN: PPP, VPN, Frame-Relay
  • Manufacturers: Cisco (IOS), Nortel, Aruba, Motorola/Symbol, Bluesocket ...
  • Certifications: Cisco CCNA, CCDA, AWLANSE, BSCI (in progress)
  • Wireless networks:
           - 802.11 a/b/g/n: Study, installation, configuration, teaching.
           - Appliances: Cisco (WLC, ACS, WCS), Aruba - Airwave, Bluesocket, AirMagnet Enterprise, Trapeze, Symbol.
           - Audit and Consulting: Airmagnet (Analyzer, Survey, Handheld), VoWLAN
           - Site Surveys: Complex and specific site surveys.
           - Security - 802.11i: Radius (Microsoft IAS, Freeradius, Cisco ACS), PKI (Microsoft, OpenSSL).
  • Operating systems: Unix, Linux (everyday), Windows (all), MacOS X.
  • Security: Firewalling (Microsoft ISA, iptables, pfsense, m0n0wall), VPN.
  • User management: ldap, ADS, Samba, Novell.
  • Project Management

  • Manage project's perimeter.
  • Day-to-day tracking
  • Project phases: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring, Completion.
  • Manage and motivate a team (3-5 people).
  • Manage a meeting, a workshop, a training session.
  • Transmit information.
  • International Communication

  • English: Speak, Translate, Read, Write (TOEIC: 885).
           - Work: Nscglobal (London), Nov. 2007 - Sept. 2009.
           - Training periods and Study program: 12 months (WATFORD, LONDON, NEWCASTLE).
  • German: Speak, Read, Write - Basic level
           - One semester study program (ESSLINGEN), 3 months training period (LUDWIGSHAFEN).
  • Dutch: Read - Low level
           - One semester study program (BREDA).
  • Computing

  • Analysis methodology: UML, Merise.
  • Programming languages: Java, C++, C.
  • Websites development:
           - Languages and technics: Apache, PHP 4/5, Smarty, XHTML, XML, XSLT, CSS, AJAX.
           - Audit: W3C norms and referencing.
  • Databases: Oracle, MySQL.
  • Total DSIT (Contractor) (09/2009 - Today)

    About Total DSIT (Contractor)

    First French company (CAC 40 index), Total is a major worldwide company. The "Telecom Architecture projects (IP/PAT)" team of Total DSIT (Holding) is in charge of studies and projects governance for large international projects, working with various affiliates worldwide.

    Aspects of my job with Total:

  • Call for tender:
           - Documents (RFI, RFQ),
           - Review, Analysis, Synthesis,
           - Contractual negotiations (SLAs, architecture, ...),
  • Project Management:
           - Involved in all phases: initiation to delivery,
           - Drive meetings, workshops, training sessions
           - Planning and deployments organization
           - Associated documentation (meeting minutes, project costs, project plans, ...)
  • Studies:
           - Gather/establish business requirements,
           - Multiple cases (comparison, costs, recommendations),
           - Presentation of the results to Total management

  • Projects

    My work with Total is mainly focused on studies in an international environment working on 5 to 10 projets simultaneously. For confidentiality reasons only a few of them will be detailed here:

    Company: Total affiliate (African country)
    The project: Call for tender to renew South African domestic WAN
    - Project Management
    - Drive meetings and workshops, locally or remotely
    - Launch of a call for tender (RFI, RFQ)
    - Résults analysis, synthesis and presentation to the affiliate
    - Contractual negotiation
    - Planning and organization of the migration.
    - Documentations: synthesis, recommendations, project plan, project costs, ....
    Products: MS Project, MS PowerPoint, MS Visio, ...
    Length: 9 Months
    My opinion: Working mostly remotely on this project with teams with cultural and working habits slightly different than Europe implies to use structured and concised approaches.

    Company: Total affiliate (Sensitive asian country)
    The project: Integration of two affiliates into Total network infrastructure.
    Products: MS Project, MS PowerPoint, MS Visio, ...
    Length: 4 Months
    My opinion: This project, driven by both France and APAC teams was my first project in a "sensitive/critial" environment/country.

    Company: Total affiliate (France)
    The project: High availability study for a MAN link.
    Products: MS Project, MS PowerPoint, MS Visio, ...
    Length: 1 Month
    My opinion: ...

    Nscglobal (11/2007 - 09/2009)

    About Nscglobal

    Nscglobal is a company created in the UK ten years ago. Nscglobal provides agility to world-class organisations through on-demand integrated communications solutions, and motivated expert people, across the world. Located in three different countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Spain), Nscglobal is mainly focused on helping the top 300 wolrd-class organizations.

    Aspects of my job with Nscglobal:

  • Pre-Sales:
           - Estimating project costs,
           - Scope of Works,
  • Project Management:
           - Involved in all phases: initiation to delivery,
           - Drive meetings, workshops, training sessions
           - Managed the customer during deployment phases
           - Related documents (Meeting minutes, Project costs, Project plan, ...)
  • WLAN infrastructures design:
           - High Level and Low Level architecture design documents (HLD, LLD),
           - High Availability (Aruba VRRP, Cisco WLC),
           - Distributed Architectures (Cisco H-REAP),
           - Pilotes (incl. user/customer acceptance testings),
           - Security (802.11i),
           - Captive Portals,
  • WLAN Migration in heteregeneous environment:
           - Infrastructure Audit (Airwave AMP),
           - Migration procedures,
           - Migration documents (incl. Design, Executive Summary, Procedures).
           - International Environement (180+ sites),
           - 1200+ Wi-Fi APs (Direct Impact: 14 000+ client devices)
           - Wireless SME,
           - 802.11i (integrated with Novell eDirectory),
           - Laptops, VoWLAN, handhelds ...
  • Trainings, presentations:
           - High Level Wi-Fi and security training,
           - Cisco WCS training,
           - Airwave AMP training,
           - Training material,
  • Internal Mobility Competence Center:
           - Internal Documents templates (HLD, LLD, Wi-Fi Site Surveys),
           - Detailed Wi-Fi site survey procedure,
           - Internal Training (Wi-Fi, Aruba Networks, ...),
  • Implementation of Wi-Fi products:
           - Cisco : WLC, WCS, LWAPP, H-REAP ...,
           - Aruba Networks : RAP, AP125 ...,
           - Knowledge transfert,
           - WIPS/WIDS (AirMagnet Enterprise),

  • Projects

    My work with Nscglobal has been focused on one major project with smaller projects for other customers spread over the whole period:

    Company: Mars
    The project: I've assisted the company to upgrade its WLAN infrastructure to the latest security standarts
    - Project Management
    - Meetings, workshops, training sessions
    - Design of the new WLAN Infrastructure
    - Integration with existing user directory (Novell eDirectory)
    - Pilots (5 sites, 12 Cisco WLAN controllers)
    - Knowledge handover to give the ability to Mars IS teams to deploy the solution by themselves.
    - I wrote documentations for the customers, the main objective of these documentations was to give them autonomy, they were willing to be able to do the rollout by themselves. Starting without any Wi-Fi knowledge.
    Products: Cisco WLC (4400), Cisco 1240 LWAPP (+ H-REAP), Airwave AMP, Cisco WCS, Freeradius, GNU/Linux (CentOS) ...
    Length: 18 Months
    My opinion: Mars is a global company with a massive WLAN infrastructure (1200+ standalone APs spread over 200+ sites). During a project of this size, the technical aspect of the project is overpassed by most important topics (such as project management). Training and written documentation is a key matter when more than 60 people are involved in the project. This project challenged and improved my organizational skills and my ability to document designs, procedures and to explain technical aspects to non technical people in an international environment.

    Company: Sungard
    The project: I've designed and implemented a redundant 802.11n draftv2 WLAN infrastructure and an AirMagnet Enterprise IDS/IPS solution. The main objective of this infrastructure was to provide Guest and private VPN access to visitor and employees.
    Products: 2x Aruba 3600 (VRRP), Aruba AP-125, Airwave AMP, AirMagnet Entreprise Server, Sensors and Spectrum.
    Length: 2 Months
    My opinion: This project with a key customer gave me the aibility to work with AirMagnet Enterprise and with the newly released Aruba pre-802.11n draftv2.

    Company: Sony SCEE
    The project: I've designed and implemented a partially redundant WLAN infrastructure aimed to be used by PSPs and PS3s and offering guest access service to visitors.
    Products: 2x Aruba 3400, Aruba AP 65 spread over 4 sites, Aruba MMS
    Length: 2 Months
    My opinion: High Availability was not the key aspect of this project, the customer was looking for a secured and centrally managed WLAN infrastructure. Finding the best answer to fit security constraints linked to end-user devices (PSP, PS3 ...) keeping in mind the overall security of the WLAN infrastructure.

    Company: Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG)
    The project: I've assisted one of my colleague in the design and deployment of an Aruba 3400 WLAN infrastructure (802.11i, Captive Portal, VoIP).
    Products: 1x Aruba 3400, Aruba AP 65, Microsoft IAS, Cisco 7921G
    Length: 2 month
    My opinion: This simple simple deployment include the most common usages of a WLAN infrastructure. Corporate access using 802.11i + EAP-PEAPv0MS-CHAPv2, Guest Access using a captive portal with a VPN passthrough to for some users not registered within the AD and VoWLAN using Cisco 7921G wireless phones.

    Company: Cable and Wireless
    The project: WLAN security audit of a pilot prior to a rollout for one of their customer.
    Products: Cisco WLC, WCS, LWAPP
    Length: 1 Semaine
    My opinion: First project with Nscglobal.

    Bluesafe (04/2006 - 11/2007)

    About Bluesafe

    Bluesafe is a French company based in Paris specialized in the Wi-Fi domain for major french companies. Bluesafe can handle every step of the Wi-Fi migration/installation process from the Wi-Fi Site Survey to the final installation according to different customers constraints and different network infrastructure. Bluesafe is not link to a specific hardware manufacturer but with its strong knowledge of the market and its specificities, the customer will be guided to the best hardware manufacturer answering his needs and constraints.

    Aspects of my job with Bluesafe:

  • Wi-Fi Audit & Consulting:
           - Audit and proposal to improve Wi-Fi infrastructure,
           - Software: Airmagnet (Analyzer, Survey, Handheld),
           - Paperwork.
  • Wi-Fi & site survey courses (trainer):
           - Site survey courses,
           - Aruba Networks appliances courses,
           - Courses paperwork.
  • Wi-Fi Site Survey:
           - Complex Site surveys (more than 100 Access Points),
           - Specific Site Surveys to answer special needs (High Availability, VoWLAN, ...),
           - Responsible of the Site Survey process (maintaining and improving) within the company.
  • Wi-Fi appliances:
           - Cisco : WLC, WLSE, LWAPP, ACS, installation within major french companies,
           - Bluesocket : BSC & BVMS,
           - Aruba Networks : Aruba 200 - 6000, RAP,
           - Teaching and explanations about the solution installed,
           - "Hotspots" installation for short term events (Le Bourget Paris Air Show, ...),
           - Assisting customers to plan their new network architecture.
  • Technological foresight:
           - VoIP, VoWLAN,
           - Wi-Fi,
           - ACL (VACL, PACL, RACL).
  • Network products:
           - Firewall: iptables, Microsoft ISA Server 2004, ...,
           - Radius: Microsoft IAS, freeradius, Cisco ACS, Wired 802.1X, ...,
           - Switching: Cisco catalyst, Nortel, HP, ...

  • Projects

    I've worked on lots of different projects with Bluesafe, please find bellow more details about some of them:

    Company: Major French Aircraft and Defense company
    The project: I've assisted the company to build its new Wi-Fi architecture. Working with a network architect from this company my tasks were focusing on different topics:
    - I conducted VoWLAN-oriented Site Surveys, the objective was to plan a complete coverage of each location of the company to provide Voice over WLAN (VoWLAN) capabilities. The targeted Wi-Fi phone was the Cisco 7921G.
    - I assisted the company to test a lot of different scenarios and advanced features of the Cisco WLC controllers (such as LOCAL EAP, Mobility Anchors, ...). During the year this project has been extended to the wired part of the network. The objective was to provide the same kind of security than 802.11i. I've done testings on 802.1X, PACL, VLAN MAP, Per User ACL (sent through Cisco ACS), Guest VLAN, ...
    - I wrote documentations for the customers, the main objective of these documentations was to give them autonomy, they were willing to be able to do every appliance integration by themselves. Starting without any Wi-Fi knowledge.
    Products: Cisco ACS, Cisco WLC (3750G), Cisco 7921G Wi-Fi Phones, Cisco 1240 LWAPP, Cisco WCS, Cisco Switches (3560, 3750G, ...), Airmagnet Analyzer, Airmagnet Survey, Freeradius, Apache, LDAP, OpenSSL, GNU/Linux (CentOS), Squid, iptables, ...
    Length: Two months spread over one year
    My opinion: This project (which took me nearly two months spread over the whole 2007 year) was extremely interesting, it gave me the ability to analyse a deployment from the studying/draft process to the final installation and testing. For my company this project was initially a small Wi-Fi site Survey contract and has moved (by the addition of other projects) during the year into one of our major contract for the 2007 year (service + hardware furniture). The "pilot" of this project has been successfully deployed and the migration process has begun for the whole company.

    Company: Direction des Journaux officiels (French government)
    The project: I've installed a WLAN and a Workspot within the company, I've then taught the customer how to maintain its new Wi-Fi infrastructure. Finally I've written documentation about this installation and its maintenance.
    Products: Bluesocket (BSC 2100), Freeradius (authentication request on the Microsoft AD).
    Length: 5 Days
    My opinion: This small project (10 Access Points) gave me the opportunity to work for the french government, the company has used this project to test the reactivity and the dynamism of Bluesafe on this kind of project. Bluesafe has then won a contract concerning the installation of a workspot within one of the most important place of the french government, with more than 600 Wi-Fi accounts.
    Press: http://www.mag-securs.com/spip.php?article9150

    Company: GMF
    The project: I've taught the customer how to install and maintain Aruba Wi-Fi appliances according to their needs and constraints and I've written documentation about these topics.
    Products: Aruba 200, Aruba 800, Microsoft IAS, ...
    Length: 5 days (3 days teaching, 2 days writing documentation).
    My opinion: Such projects aimed to give autonomy to customers with their Wi-Fi infrastructure are very interesting. This kind of lessons usually provided to 3-5 people gave me the opportunity to work on my adaptivity to different people with different technical background, and really often no Wi-Fi background at all. The result of these project is quicly measurable by the ability of the customer to install their own Wi-Fi infrastructure by themselves.
    Press: http://www.reseaux-telecoms.net/actualites/imprimer-la-gmf-opte-pour-le-wi-fi-16923.html

    Company: Major French technical University (multi-site)
    The project: I've taught the customer how to install and maintain Aruba Wi-Fi appliances according to their needs and constraints and I've written documentation about these topics.
    Products: Aruba 2400, RAP, GNU/Linux, Freeradius
    Length: 9 Days (6 days teaching, 3 days writing documentation).
    My opinion: This project, similar to the GMF one, was a lot more interesting because the integration of the solution has a lot more problematics like eduroam (www.eduroam.org), remote Access Points (RAP), ... The three persons I was working with had strong technical background so we've been able to practice advanced configuration capabilities of Aruba controllers.

    Company: French public transport company
    The project: Lesson: How to successfully perform a Wi-Fi Site Survey (8 people).
    Products: Airmagnet Analyzer, Airmagnet Survey, Wi-Fi Site Survey Kits.
    Length: 2 days
    My opinion: The main objective of this project was not just to learn them how to work with technical tools, but also to give them a good Wi-Fi background and method that could be used for complex and big Wi-Fi Site Survey.

    Company: Disneyland resort Paris
    The project: Wi-Fi coverage of the whole resort park
    Products: Airmagnet Analyzer, Airmagnet Survey, Wi-Fi Site Survey Kits.
    Length: 20 days
    My opinion: The main challenge of this project was not the Wi-Fi site survey itself, organisation and methods were extremely important to successfully complete the site survey of nearly 150 different locations during the 12 days period planned within the park.

    Company: Multi-site company (1500 people)
    The project: Assist the company in the deployment process of their Wi-Fi infrastructure.
    Products: Bluescoket 400, Bluesocket 1100, Juniper Odyssey
    Length: One month spread over two years
    My opinion: This project gave me the ability to follow a customer during two years.

    Work Experience

    Total (contractor) Major Oil and Gaz company, working within the telecom project team. Total DSIT. Sep. 2009 / ...
    Nscglobal (UK) Network services and solutions for major companies. Nov. 2007 / Sep. 2009
    Bluesafe Company specialized in Wireless networks. April 2006 / Nov. 2007.
    Freelance Windows 2003 Server, Exchange, IPSec, ... January / April 2006.
    ACOMAX Net Publishing (UK) Creation of a web portal Internship, April / September 2005
    Prolongated October / December
    VINCI Bautec (DE) Study about installing Citrix within the company. Internship, July / September 2003

    Degrees and Certifications

    CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate (640-802) June 2009 Valid until June 2012
    Cisco Advanced Wireless LAN Design Specialist (642-586/650-621) February 2009 Valid until February 2011
    CCDA - Cisco Certified Design Associate June 2008 Valid until June 2011
    Computing and Networks International Diploma Sept. 2005 ISAIP ESAIP Group (Angers - France)
    Network Architecture and Engineering Diploma Sept. 2005 Avans University (Breda - Pays Bas)
    International project manager in computing and networks 2004 ISAIP ESAIP Group (Angers - France)
    BTS Computing and networks (BTEC - Level) 2002 La Joliverie (Nantes - France)
    BAC STI Mechanics (A - Level) 2000 Marcel Callo (Redon - France)

    Hobbies

    Computing activities

  • Ex-manager of Angers-Wireless (1901 law association).
  • Nantes-Wireless (1901 law association).
           - Instigator and co-writer of the Ebook project (802.11 - Wireless networks),
           - Instigator and co-writer of the Ebook-2 project (Build a community network).
  • Ex-Manager of LiLoLiPo (1901 law association).
           - Events to promote Linux and Free Software in Pont-Château (FR) - www.lilolipo.net.
  • Websites creation.
  • Sports

  • Kitesurf, Mountain Bike, Rollerskates, Funboard, Ski, Snowboard.