Professional Background

In the course of a 25-year professional career with a leading Systems Integrator and Value-added-reseller, providing advanced voice communications systems, cybersecurity, managed IT services, and network infrastructure solutions, I developed a thorough understanding and comprehensive working knowledge of the major components of the technology solutions ecosystem as a Senior Technical Solutions Consultant.  I've attained advanced and expert-level product and manufacturer specific certifications, as required, to completely understand and recommend the design, functionality, and inter-operability across four specific industry pillars to include:

Telecom and Voice Communications

• Responsible for account management, new system sales, investment protection, and applications integration
• Primarily worked with two of the industry's long-term top five market share leaders, Mitel and NEC
• Navigated the evolution of traditional PBX to VoIP, leveraging internet and network-based services to create operational efficiencies and reduce long-term expenses
• Developed optimum multi-site design engineering utilizing the shared services and centralized resource models
• Advanced Contact Center Specialist designing multi-media contact flows, skills-based and priority queuing, supervisor and agent performance analytics 
• Guided clients through the adoption of home-office tools utilizing presence/mobility, conferencing and collaboration, and remote office applications 

Cybersecurity

• Responsible for new sales and subscription-based agreement management of a suite of cyber solutions
• Primarily represented major industry leaders for Unified Threat Management (UTM) - Sophos and Fortinet
• Design and implementation of comprehensive suite of cyber solutions from the perimeter to the endpoint
• Advanced knowledge of Next-gen Firewall, malware detection and prevention, endpoint, and email protection 
• Working knowledge of penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, the NIST Framework, encryption, and regulatory/compliance standards
• Development of disaster recovery and business continuity plans utilizing multiple backup and storage methods  

Managed IT Services

• Responsible for sales and account management of extensive suite of subscription-based managed IT services
• Advanced knowledge of methods of threat prevention for malware, spyware, ransomware, and virus control
• Consistent updates of available patches to address and manage known vulnerabilities
• Advisement and consulting with additional measures of internal security of access protection - multifactor authentication, encryption, secure VLAN, VPN, SD-WAN
• Development of critical backup and storage contingencies to address recovery time and information objectives 

Network Infrastructure

• Complete understanding of structured network fiber and copper cabling standards as defined by BICSI 
• Layer 3 LAN/WAN network design requirements for Quality-of-Service standards and data prioritization
• VMWare Certified Sales Professional - virtual servers, applications, load balancing, and business continuity
• Sales and design of public address, wireless, broadcast paging, mass notification, and video surveillance systems
• Carrier and cloud-based services - Public/Private Internet, SD-WAN, SIP, MS Teams, and As-a-Service hosted applications
• Frame-room design and distribution standards including racks, enclosures, UPS systems, and cable management

As an Account Manager and Technical Solutions Consultant, it was required of me to completely understand all of the above and to adapt to emerging industry trends in each of the related fields.  I would work extensively with my clients to completely understand their business goals and objectives in order to design the optimal technology solution.  The project scope was then relayed to company engineers, technicians, manufacturer representatives, and partners to design, implement, and support a system that meets the highest industry standards using best-of-breed products and services.  In summary, I managed many large-scale clients with critical imperatives providing continual guidance and advisement to leverage their technology investments.  Please reach out to me via email at kyle@kbristerconsulting.com, or direct message on Linked-in, for further correspondence or to request a meeting.

Kyle Brister

Technology Solutions Advisor and Consultant