David E. Acosta - IT Director
david.acosta@sparta.org

973.729.6191 ext. 277


Personal
Eclectic Geek born into geekdom at an early age by my mother with Star Trek....and continued the path into Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, etc etc. Home Theater Guru with over 300 Blu-Ray & DVD movies in my collection, 70inch HDTV & THX surround. Favorite Movie: October Sky, as I am an amateur model rocketeer and a big supporter of the Space program; both NASA and private ventures. BIG NJ Devils fan since day one...Giants & Mets round out the remaining grey hairs. Played soccer and football way back when and I skied the Alps in Austria a few years ago. My almost equally geeky wife Raquel, is a Office Manager for a local Doctor's Office.  No kids yet, but tons of nieces and nephews to spoil. I dedicate my love of geeky things and my positive hard work ethic....everyday....to my best friend and best man Gary, who passed away too young and too full of life.


Work Background
My 20+ year career has resulted in a technically diverse, solution-savvy support and management professional skill set that reflects a wide range of Information Technology experience. Eight of those years I spent directly supporting and consulting with K-12 districts with a hands-on troubleshooting and management style. I always try to maintain a positive focus on achieving proactive results while formulating and implementing technology utilizing simple infrastructure solutions. I spent two years working for an educational software company in NYC helping develop software and support options specifically for K-12 districts. While traveling across the nation supporting these districts, I found my current study in ITIL ( Information Technology Infrastructure Library ) matched many of the processes I developed and learned to use while working full time for a K-12 District. This shifted my focus to maintain or update my IT certifications to support this foundation and begin developing custom K-12 based ITIL processes. I completed my certification for the latest version of this worldwide IT management standard, and focused on technologies to consolidate and reduce K-12 costs.

Certifications:

CEVA-dea.jpg 2011 - Certified Enterprise Virtualization Architect - VMWare (CEVA)

ITIL-logo-dea.jpg 2008 - ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library Foundations v3 Certification

Technical Experience and Training Background:

- VMware 4.x ESXi/Vsphere
- ITIL Standards - HP Procurve switches and Wireless Systems
- Windows 7, Server 2008r2, 2003, 2000, 3.11 /XP 2003 MCSE update
- Apple OSX 10.6 & Server -
- CompTIA Linux+ - Windows NT4 MCSE
- AutoCAD - Microsoft Exchange 5.5/2000/2003/2007/2010
- CISCO ICND - CRM & Helpdesk Applications
- MS Office 2003 thru Office 2010 - Various Open Source applications on all platforms
- Citrix Environments - Hardware; 80286's through Apple/HP RAID servers
- Novell 6.5 Environments - VMware Environments
- Symantec Anti-Virus & Ghost Enterprise - Workspace Planning
- Installing Apache & Tomcat Servers - CAT5/6/Fiber Hardware & Cabling
- Installing PHP, mySQL/PostgreSQL apps - Beta Tester for Office 2007/Vista

Career Highlights:
Manager; Operations Team, Primedia Software-on-Demand, New York, NY; 2 Years
Based on my educational environment experience and quality feedback, I was recruited to expand the in-house customer support resources at this educational technology media resource organization with more than 15,000 users in 14 remote locations. Implemented ITIL based project management processes to support both local and customer IT infrastructure requirements. Scope of position was expansive which included product developmental direction and full installation, implementation, support, training, administration and management authority for:

-24x7 Support Operations Management -Project Management
-Research new technology solutions -LAN/WAN Network Services
-Salesforce & IT Helpdesk R&D -Troubleshoot hardware & software
-School District technology liaison -PC Desktop & Application Systems

Key Achievements:
- Headed the project to research a custom salesforce and customer support CRM/Helpdesk application. This application would be a one stop data resource for the admin, sales and support teams customized for the unique marketplace our product supported. Countless 3rd party CRM applications, either paid, hosted or open source were evaluated to provide the specifications to develop this solution.

- A client in Ohio, with over 3000 workstations in a Novell environment, was trained in processes, skills & techniques that would reduce their in-house support labor time & save them thousands of dollars in multi-discipline consulting costs. This unique training was based on techniques and skills that I have personally developed from my years of experience.


District Technology Coordinator, Waldwick Board of Education, Waldwick, NJ; 5 Years
Responsible for design, implementation & support of entire district IT, audio and video infrastructure. Coordination of technology integration into student curriculum with district education supervisors. Install, upgrade, maintain and troubleshoot hardware, software, and peripherals. Provide support & training of administration and instructional staff. Manage department budget, process equipment & software purchase orders. Provide technical input for various district infrastructure systems other than IT. Supervise student work study and summer work programs.

Key Achievements:
- Selected as a member of the Middle School Committee. Solely responsible for the design, management, implementation of the Fiber WAN/LAN, Audio/Video and IT infrastructure for the new Middle School and Elementary School expansion projects. This saved the district $150,000 in network engineering and labor costs for these projects.

- Worked with Video Production supervisor to design and install a custom non-linear digital video editing system for the new video production curriculum.

- Selected to trial a beta test of Software On Demand System for the educational environment, was one of only five national schools selected for testing trials. The company based this selection on my personal feedback, technical skillset & interpersonal skills. Implementation of this system would save the school district $210,000 in software licensing fees & thousands of hours of on-site deployment labor resources.

- Expanded the school district from 100 standalone workstations to over 700 networked workstations, 11 servers & 20 Cisco switches. 1800 users were supported by the systems I solely designed, installed, implemented and supported. This saved the district $175,000, over 4 years, in network engineering and labor costs.