fetching data from the beyond . . .

I’m Jon Schragal

tech business leader_

team builder_

problem solver_

morale booster_

mentor & skill advancement catalyst_

site reliability engineering champion_

devops-minded_

security-focused_

platform builder_

systems designer_

linux pioneer_

python hacker_

hobbyist maker_

About Me
About Me

I’ve got a varied technical and leadership background spanning software development, IT and most things in between. When it comes to software development, I’ve been writing code, whether for hobby, freelance or a 9-5, for 30+ years. I enjoy working with open source software and have been using Linux since kernel version 1.0.9 was minty fresh.

I thrive when I’m challenged with complex problems that allow me to leverage my experience, critical thinking and creative ideation skills to deliver best-in-class solutions.

See the footer of this site for my LinkedIn.

  • Leader: It comes naturally
  • Tech: Can never get enough
  • Passion for what I do: You better believe it
  • Wannabe DJ: Since childhood
  • Get in touch with me: Scroll to the bottom of this page
Knowledge & Skills
  • Strategic business leadership
  • Technical leadership
  • Team building
  • Recruiting & employee retention
  • Career & technical mentoring
  • SaaS & PaaS
  • IoT
  • DevOps & CI/CD
  • SRE & HA architecture/planning
  • Software development
  • Systems administration (on-prem, colo, public cloud)
  • Network administration
  • Systems architecture & design
  • Application performance monitoring
  • Security
  • Linux & FreeBSD
Experience
2023 - Present
SRE Manager - Edgio

My current role.

Details coming soon…

2021 - 2023
Sr. Director, Technology - Apex Supply Chain Technologies

Led the entire Technology team which included CloudOps, DevOps, SRE, DB Administration, InfoSec, core IT infrastructure, IT service desk and Embedded Software Engineering.

Details coming soon…

2018 - 2021
Director, Embedded Systems Software - Apex Supply Chain Technologies

Led the team that codes the T’s in IoT.

Details coming soon…

2014 - 2018
Manager, DevOps & SRE - Apex Supply Chain Technologies
  • Introduced DevOps and SRE concepts to the company and spearheaded the creation of this dedicated team.
  • Reduced operating expenses of the SaaS platforms by 85% while simultaneously improving application response time by 60-70% in < 2 years.
  • Reduced deployment time from 6-12 hours down to 2 hours max with a 20 min average.
  • Increased annual uptime from < 99% to consistently at or above 99.995%.
  • Brought Docker into the company’s tech strategy and went from initial PoC to running all but one production application fully containerized in < 8 months.
  • Working with the development teams, pivoted application architecture towards microservices and migrated from co-located infrastructure to public cloud.
  • Instituted an ITIL-based, department-wide change and incident management processes.
2012 - 2014
Senior Network & Security Administrator - Construction Software Technologies
  • Introduced Docker to the company and spearheaded the first PoC beginning in late 2013.
  • Architected, deployed and maintained Node.js and Redis server clusters.
  • Designed and implemented DWDM fiber-optic links to span Ethernet and storage networks between geodiverse data centers, thus unlocking active-active as a viable strategy.
  • Managed the company’s entire fleet of Cisco gear which consisted mostly of Catalyst switches, ASA firewalls and ISRs.
2009 - 2012
Systems Administrator - Construction Software Technologies
  • Managed a 24×7 SaaS infrastructure consisting of 400+ production servers.
  • Implemented and maintained an HA cluster of Citrix NetScaler ADCs with heavy utilization of the WAF, content switching, application load balancing and SSL offloading features serving content to 2000-6000 concurrent (human) users and sustained throughput of 200-450Mbps with 99.999% uptime.
  • Built a Postfix (with other OSS) mail server cluster that delivered 500K customer emails/day with <2% delivery failure rate and 100% uptime.
2008 - 2009
.NET SaaS Platform Developer - Construction Software Technologies
  • Supported and created various applications written in C#, .NET, Classic ASP, VB6 and JavaScript.
  • Worked with MSSQL 2000/2005/2008 databases.
  • Windows Indexing Service and SQL 2008 Full Text Searching backends.
  • SOAP web services.
2008
PHP & .NET Intranet Developer - The Ohio State University
  • Implemented a new university-wide SSO AAA platform. Main area of contribution was on the security aspects of various student intranet applications that integrated with the platform.
  • Also performed a PoC using .NET leveraging some of the tools available through the university’s partnership with Microsoft which ultimately became a the dominant stack/tool set after I moved on.
2004 - 2008
IT Coordinator - MQA Research
  • Administered and provided support for all web sites, phone systems, networks, servers and PC workstations.
  • Performed monthly, quarterly and annual customer satisfaction correlation analyses for some of the largest banks in the U.S. and compiled summary reports based on the findings.
2002 - 2004
Web Admin & Production Supervisor - Explorer Micro
  • Developed and maintained the company’s web site, backend E-commerce platform and eBay storefront.
  • Also oversaw our production and shipping departments to ensure orders went out the door on time and with the proper QC each day.
1998 - 2013
Entrepreneur / Freelancer (web & app development, systems administration, data center management, server hosting, colocation)

The highlights from this era are that I was contracted to do some custom application development work for Microsoft, started 2 successful businesses and gained a wide variety of experience.

  • Design, development and administration of custom LAMP stack applications for SMBs in various industries including construction, technology, software, retail, auction and medical.
  • CMS customizations and plugin development for WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal.
  • Web, email and file hosting services
1995 - 2001
The Years of Manual Labor

Worked full time (50-60 hrs/wk) during Summers and part time during the school year (10-25 hrs/wk) for a friend’s family business doing groundskeeping and routine maintenance for an apartment complex as well as other residential construction and renovation work. Although I have an intrinsic drive, this job contributed greatly towards my present day work ethic.

Education/Certification/Training
2020
Bitwig Studio Official Certification

Definitely not a standout student in this course, but I still scored a 96% overall and earned the certification (80% required to pass). More importantly, kept my wannabe DJ dreams alive.

2014
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEHv8) Bootcamp

One week long bootcamp. Stood out as a top student among the cohort. Was approached about a position as a civilian contractor to United States Cyber Command as a direct result of my performance.

2010
Cisco CCNA

Bought the official Cisco books and self-studied cover to cover. Took the two test path (ICND1, ICND2) to obtaining CCNA. Passed both tests with high scores, each on the first attempt. Total timeline from beginning of self-study to CCNA certification in hand was 2.5 months while working full time.

2000-2008
Bachelor's Degree, Computer & Information Science - The Ohio State University

Worked full time while taking classes part time for most of my university career. Took 2 credit years worth of master’s level business and MIS courses through the Fisher College of Business while simultaneously working towards my undergrad. Also co-founded, and subsequently sold my share, of two successful service businesses during this period. Now I look back in disbelief that I ever had the energy for all of this.

Spoken/Written Languages
  • English
    94%
    94%
  • Spanish
    33%
    33%
  • Any tonal language
    2%
    2%
Hobbies & Interests
Music

Music plays in at least one room of my house 24/7. Literally. I look forward to ‘new music Friday’ every single week and still lament the fact that new music releases were moved from Tuesdays. I really valued having those sonic discoveries to look forward to mid-week.

Photography

Something I enjoy quite a bit despite not making enough time for it in recent years. I mostly do landscape or portrait photography, and at one time in the distant past I even had a full 35mm black & white film and print processing lab in my basement.

Things with 2ⁿ wheels

Although I certainly wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to drive a 6×6 earth mover or an 18-wheeler big rig.

Sports

Hockey is my favorite, both to play and to spectate. I enjoy a wide variety of other sports as well.

Grilling & Baking

But not cooking. I’m impossibly bad at anything more complex than mac ‘n’ cheese from a box.

Gaming

Occasional gamer. Great for decompression while keeping that hand-eye coordination on point and honing critical thinking skills. (At least that’s what I choose to believe)

Contact info
Phone

phone_num

Email

email

Current Location

Cincinnati, OH, USA

Get in Touch

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