Michael Soto
Oxnard,United States
Summary
Proactive and goal-oriented Virtualization and Systems Administrator with over 5 years of enterprise IT experience, specializing in support for government and mission-critical environments. Expertise includes VMware vSphere, disaster recovery, enterprise storage, and secure infrastructure operations. Recognized for exceptional problem-solving skills, adaptability, and reliability in high-availability and time-sensitive settings. Committed to achieving operational excellence, ensuring security compliance, and driving continuous modernization initiatives.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Virtualization Administrator /IT Systems Administrator
New Directions Technologies Inc.
04.2022 - Current
- Led the design, deployment, and ongoing administration of a VMware vSphere 8.0 environment supporting 250+ virtual machines and 52 physical servers across four segregated networks.
- Developed, tested, and executed disaster recovery (DR) plans in coordination with government stakeholders, consistently achieving Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) of under 10 minutes.
- Implemented and maintained custom SSL certificates for vCenter Server, replacing default VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) certificates with certificates signed by a trusted enterprise Certificate Authority (CA) to improve security posture and compliance.
- Installed and integrated 20+ new physical servers into ESXi hosts, coordinating with government network teams to obtain IP assignments, configure switch ports, and troubleshoot connectivity issues to successfully onboard hosts into the vSphere environment.
- Planned and executed a full migration of Operations virtual machines using a new hardware-specific storage migration technique, enabling the successful migration of 20 VMs to new hardware with different CPU architectures and minimal to no downtime.
- Collaborated closely with the Modernization team to integrate ARMS virtual machines into the existing infrastructure, providing expertise in host migration, vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS), and resolving network and storage issues.
- Supported troubleshooting efforts by collecting and analyzing logs and working directly with Cisco personnel to resolve complex networking and storage problems.
- Migrated production networking from Standard vSwitches to vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS) across multiple ESXi hosts, enabling advanced features such as Network I/O Control, LACP, and port mirroring, while improving performance and manageability.
- Installed, configured, and maintained Fibre Channel Brocade switches and enterprise storage solutions including Broadcom/NetApp and Rubrik, ensuring optimal connectivity, redundancy, and performance within a SAN environment.
Systems Administrator – Break/Fix Support
New Directions Technologies Inc
04.2020 - 03.2022
- Provided hands-on break/fix system administration support for Windows and virtualized environments.
- Supported ESXi hosts and virtual machines through troubleshooting, patching, configuration changes, and recovery operations.
- Assisted with server provisioning, decommissioning, and infrastructure maintenance tasks.
- Responded to incidents and service requests, performing root-cause analysis and implementing corrective actions.
Civil Affairs Specialist
US Army Reserves
06.2014 - Current
- Facilitated key leader engagements to strengthen partnerships and ensure continued cooperation in support of operational goals
- Analyzed and organized classified intelligence to produce clear, concise reports for commanding officers, enhancing decision-making and operational planning
- Prepared and presented mission status updates and projected conclusions to inform command-level decision-making
- Assisted with preparation and deployment of IT assets for field training exercises, including imaging systems and ensuring all software, updates, and mission-critical applications were installed and functional
- Verified and managed user account access for training personnel, ensuring all participants had active network accounts prior to operations; coordinated directly via email and phone to resolve access issues
- Supported field network setup by configuring and connecting systems, testing for connectivity, and troubleshooting network issues under time-sensitive conditions
- Participated in teardown and reconstitution of IT assets post-training, inspecting and validating equipment functionality before return to home station
- Provided hands-on technical support in dynamic and austere environments, contributing to seamless communication and operational continuity
Education
Bachelor - AWS Cloud And Network Engineering
Western Governors University
Salt Lake City, UT11-2027
Skills
- VMware vSphere 7x / 80
- ESXi Installation, Configuration & Management
- vCenter Server Administration
- vSwitch & vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS)
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Disaster Recovery Planning & Execution
- Backup & Recovery Solutions
- SSL Certificate Management (Enterprise CA, VMCA replacement)
- Fibre Channel SAN (Brocade)
- Enterprise Storage: NetApp (Broadcom), Rubrik
- Resource Optimization & Capacity Planning
- Government & Secure Network Environments
Certification
- Comptia Security+ [May 25, 2021 - May 25, 2027]
Timeline
Virtualization Administrator /IT Systems Administrator
New Directions Technologies Inc.
04.2022 - Current
Systems Administrator – Break/Fix Support
New Directions Technologies Inc
04.2020 - 03.2022
Civil Affairs Specialist
US Army Reserves
06.2014 - Current
Bachelor - AWS Cloud And Network Engineering
Western Governors University