Matthew Simmons
Founding Partner
Matt has over 16 years professional experience in the Systems/Network Engineering field. He is well versed in many different operating systems including: Linux, Unix, Solaris, VMS, BSD, OS X, and Windows. Matt brings considerable experience in dealing with cloud computing, network computing, security procedures, storage networks, backups, and virtualization platforms.
- Expert in Server Virtualization.
- In depth understanding of System Architecture.
- Excellent communication skills.
Matt started his career working with computers early, with two research internships at NASA in the Summers of 1999 and 2000, while he was still in high school. The second of these internships was with NASA’s Earth Sciences Research Center involving the configuration and testing of a new cluster as well as research into network systems and topology in regards to performance and latency correlation.
After this, Matt went off on his own, starting and managing Digital Ribbon [Founded August 2000] to serve Fortune 500 companies. As Chief Technical Officer, Matt directed projects focused on computational exchange for research in aerospace, energy, and molecular science with a primary focus on the conceptualization, design, implementation, and management of the exchange and related technologies, as well as the corporate governance of the company and long term strategic planning. The company received numerous awards in technology fields during Matt’s tenure: voted Best Orlando Incubator Firm in 2000; selected by the LA Venture Capital Group as a company to watch; and appeared as the subject of a 451 Report on Cloud/Cluster computing. The company was also a gold research partner for Stanford’s Computational Bioinformatics research group and was a National Life Sciences computational research partner for 2004, 2005, and 2006.
During his tenure at Digital Ribbon, Matt consulted for Harrison Audio Consoles as an embedded systems engineer. Here, he designed an operating system for embedded meter screens, which had to run under a certain ambient decibel level for the audio work being done on the consoles. He also maintained server infrastructure for Harrison’s network, and participated in engineering and design planning for the next generation MPC5D console. Matt also wrote the operating system for the XRange DSP which would serve as a core for all future Harrison products. The custom operating system focused on kernel preemption inside of a symmetrical multiprocessing design for dedicated audio processing of 56 channels per stream of high quality 256-bit audio over a 1gigabit link.
After selling Digital Ribbon for a substantial amount, Matt consulted for the US Navy on design, architecture, and security for the their primary training portal through Global Business Solutions. He was responsible for the design and installation of new Unix cluster of systems and implementation of security systems in accordance with Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Department of Defense (DoD) policies and procedures. This was instrumental in a major upgrade of the education portal including network infrastructure and load testing for current production cluster, which currently supports all Navy personnel.
With the completion of the US Navy contract at Global Business Solutions, Matt went to Franklin American Mortgage. Here, he directed a newly created Information Security department, establishing processes to secure the organization from the increasing threat of information theft. Matt authored the security and operations policy for the company as well as implementing RADIUS with LDAP login for the newly installed and hardened wireless system. Matt also recommended course of action regarding the data retention and security sections of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements that applied to Franklin’s specific application and business model.
Already established as a Senior Systems Integrator strategic and tactical Information Technology infrastructure expert within the Department of Navy’s online learning system, Matt was an easy choice when the contract he was working on before Franklin American was again realized through a different company, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). At CSC, Matt defined and executed IT strategies and objectives to maximize short-term impact using existing systems and positions for scalability, saving the Navy money. During his tenure at CSC, he directed all UNIX projects at the Naval Education Training and Professional Development Center in Pensacola, FL. Responsibilities included all UNIX projects/systems on both NIPR and SIPR environments. As a result of the work Matt did for the Navy, he received letter of commendation for superior work in support of the Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) project upgrade successfully implementing worldwide platform changes with no user downtime.
At this point in his career, Matt moved to Daytona Beach FL to continue his master’s education at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and began developing and managing projects in the universities Unix Infrastructure team. Here, Matt lead a virtualization project virtualizing three datacenters and over 800 Unix and Windows systems. The resulting reduction of hardware saved the university nearly $130,000 a year in maintenance contracts ERAUalone. Matt also assisted ERAU in downsizing their Tier One datacenter space further reducing costs. He served as project lead for different systems integration projects including interfaces with other aerospace universities, federal aviation data sources and internal IT department. Specific experience includes support of the FAA NextGen project’s data needs and project management of Embry-Riddle’s Zeus supercomputer, which is used for computational fluid dynamics in support of advanced aerospace research.
While at Embry-Riddle, Matt worked closely with a local startup. This ultimately lead to the creation of a new company called Bird Deterrent Systems International (BDSI) with licensed patents for the cell phone industry. During the startup phase Matt was responsible for all work relating to the build out of a Unix based Internet of Things (IoT) network backed by Amazon Web Services. While at BDSI all programming and DevOPs were managed by Matt. The DevOPs environment consisted on remote device management, continuous integration using Jenkins, and auto deployment of new systems. Reporting and logging were centralized into a local OpenStack architecture. As a result of Matt’s work he was offered an equity share in the company in the Summer of 2013. When the product transitioned from proof of concept to production, Matt designed, laid out, and managed construction of a single printed circuit board. This circuit board integrated directly with an embedded UNIX system running Linaro.
BDSI relicensed that product to Independent Technologies in the Fall of 2014. Matt was brought on as Director of Engineering and Operations to consult in the transition and to provide product support and knowledge transfer. During his tenure at ITC Matt worked with a team of engineers to increase the ease of product construction in a factory assembly line. With his significant experience in IT platforms it made sense for Matt to consult on the overhaul ITC’s core infrastructure, servicing over 20,000 propane tank monitors in North America. In this facility Matt made recommendations on hardware, software, and overall architecture. ITC is in the process of implementing these design changes.
TECHNOLOGY SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE
Operating Systems: RHEL 3.x – RHEL 7.x, Ubuntu, SuSE, Debian, Solaris 9,10, & 11, Windows (all platforms), HP-UX 11.23 – 11.31,
AIX 5, Novel Netware, VMS, OS/400
Database: Oracle 9/10/11/12, MySQL, MongoDB(NoSQL), MariaDB, and PostgreSQL
Servers: Apache, NGiNX, JBoss, BIND, Sendmail, Postfix, NFS, Redhat Directory, LDAP, Radius, Zimbra, PXE
Cloud Platforms: Amazon Web Services, Google Compute, OpenStack. Rackspace Cloud
Languages: C, Fortan 77/95, BASH, SQL, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, CSS, HTML
Network Equipment: Cisco, Allied Telesis, Juniper, Netscreen, BlueCoat, BlueCat(IPAM)
Fabric Protocols: Fiber Channel, MyriNet, Inifiniband
Security: IAVAs, DoD STIGs, SecurityManager+, PKI, PGP, RSA DLP, Nessus, Wireshark
Storage Area Networks: Cisco Fabric Switches, Brocade Fabric, EMC(Clariion/Symmetrix), HP EVA(4500/9000), Compellent,
3PAR(7200/7400)
Server Virtualization: ESX 3.5 and vSphere 4/5/6, OpenStack (Cinder, Horizon, Ironic, Nova, Neutron), Citrix Xen,Redhat Xen,
KVM, Sun xVM, Oracle VirtualBox, Solaris Zones, Solaris LDoms, IBM HMC
Cluster Platforms: Globus, Oracle RAC , SunGrid Engine, Solaris Cluster, Redhat Cluster, Mohab, Boinc
EDUCATION
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL
Masters of Systems Engineering
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL
Masters of Business Administration Specialization: Aerospace Governance
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL
Dual Masters of Aeronautical Science Specialization: Space Systems/Aerospace Operations
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering Minor: Business Administration
