Resume/Curriculum Vitae of Stephen Pierzchala

PLEASE NOTE: I am a Canadian citizen, and hold a US H1-B Visa.

Executive Summary

• Eight (8) years of experience identifying, isolating, diagnosing and resolving Internet performance issues. Six (6) years working directly with some of the world’s largest eBusinesses to develop their ability to define, achieve and maintain Web performance excellence
• Two (2) years of intensive experience developing materials for technical courses designed to encourage the understanding and effectiveness of customers in diagnosing and resolving their Web performance issues
• Member of a strategic Professional Services team delivering key performance benchmarks and advanced performance consulting services
• Author of several published articles on topics in the area of Web Performance. Writing samples can be found at WebPerformance and below
• Accomplished speaker and presenter on the topic of Web Performance, Caching, Web Compression, Browser Compatability and Performance Diagnostics
• Areas of Technical Interest/Expertise
  • Performance Tuning for Apache 1.3 and 2.x
  • Web Application Tuning
  • HTTP Optimization
  • Web Caching and Squid Proxy Server configuration
  • Web Compression for all Web platforms
  • HTML Optimization
  • MySQL Optimization — Server and Queries
  • Internet Infrastructure
  • Linux, both server-side and as an alternative desktop OS
  • Web Development using Apache 2.0.x, PHP/PERL and MySQL

Published Articles

2000-2003

Keynote Technical Training Manual

2002

Caching For Performance  CMG Journal, Number 106, Summer 2002

2003

Compress Web Output Using mod_gzip and Apache SitePoint, 18 February 2003
Compressing Web Output Using mod_gzip and Apache  ;login:, April 2003
Compressing Web Content  MeasureIT, The Online Journal of the CMG, April 2003
Compress Web Output Using mod_deflate and Apache 2.0.x SitePoint, 12 May 2003
Compressing Web Output Using mod_deflate and Apache 2.0.x DevArticles, 15 May 2003
Compressing Web Content with mod_gzip and mod_deflate DevArticles, 3 June 2003
Compressing Web Content with mod_gzip and mod_deflate SysAdmin Magazine, August 2003
Create a IP-Country Database Using PERL and MySQL DevArticles, 1 August 2003

2004

Compressing Web Content Linux Journal, 26 April 2004

2008

Industry Perspectives: Best Practices for Flawless Web Multimedia Streams StreamingMedia.com, 27 August 2008

Core Competencies

Web Performance

• Chief Performance Evangelist for WebPerformance, a informational site dedicated to advocating the use of existing technologies and improved site design to optimize and enhance Web performance metrics and processes
• Chief designer, developer, DBA, and manager of GrabPERF, the Blog Performance Monitoring service (a Technorati> service). Using a multi-agent measurement network, GrabPERF produces real-time Web performance information. Companies that use GrabPERF include:
  • Technorati
  • Automattic | Wordpress.com
  • Blogdigger
  • Bloglines
  • LANACION.com

• Expert at real-time and forensic analysis of Web performance data
• Advanced knowledge of the HTTP protocols
• Advanced knowledge of browser - Web Server interaction
• Improving the performance of the Apache Web server using:
• Optimized caching configurations for server content
• Deployment of content-compression solutions for static and dynamic Web content
• Optimized server-side control of persistent connections

Server/System Administration

• Development of Web sites using LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) technologies
• Expert at analyzing the protocols and structure of the Internet, including IP, TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, and DNS
• Installation, deployment and analysis of the efficiency of the Squid Caching Proxy Server in both home and corporate environments

Training and Seminar Presentation

• Technical presenter with excellent presentation skills
• Experience developing seminar materials for inclusion in single- and multi-day training sessions
• Experience writing technical documents for both technical and non-technical users