I'm a Systems Administrator in Columbia, Maryland. For the past nine years I have run server and cloud infrastructure at Berkshire Associates, a professional services firm where client security requirements shape nearly every technical decision.
On a three-person IT team supporting 80 employees, I own the work end to end rather than a narrow slice of it: Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and Group Policy; physical and virtual Windows and Hyper-V servers; Azure Virtual Desktop; and Office 365 administration across Exchange Online, Teams, Teams Phones, Intune, and OneDrive.
I patch servers and firewalls proactively, schedule upgrades off-hours so users never feel them, maintain backups with validated restores, and monitor systems so problems are found before morning. I also work directly with external auditors each year on SOC 2, run quarterly access reviews, and automate the repetitive parts of administration with PowerShell.
A small team teaches you that documentation and collaboration are not optional. On a small team, documentation is how anyone else covers for you, so I keep configuration and process documentation current and cross-train teammates on the systems I administer.
Get in touch
Email jess@jessums.com or find me on LinkedIn.