---

Summary

A technology startup enthusiast and an avid blogger, I am a free software adherent with a deep interest in Computer Networks & Security. A graduate from IIIT-H, my first year was with Infosys Limited, after which I co-founded a technology startup Spinaxys Solutions where we worked in products ranging from SMS based personal profiling systems to bluetooth based proximity marketing solution. In addition to it, I managed the complete operational requirements of the startup. I currently lead the development of the open-source Collabsuite server, a product of Synovel where I am currently employed as an Application Architect. I also contribute regularly to free software by writing technical articles, patch submissions and handling Debian package maintenance.

Education

Certifications

 

Work Experience

• Synovel Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. - Application Architect, Synovel Collabsuite Server (Jun 2008 - Present)
  • Architect and lead developer of the Collabsuite Server
  • Deployed and setup Collabsuite at Customer premises, maintained Customer Support Systems and provided assistance to Customers
  • Hired and inducted new recruits
  • Conceived and implemented new strategies to help with product sales
• M/s. Spinaxys Solutions - Co-founder & COO (Apr 2006 - May 2008)
  • Involved in product prototyping and development
  • Worked as technology consultant on multiple projects
  • Set up and managed the complete operational infrastructure of the startup which included LDAP, mail, web, ssh, VPN, svn, wiki and project management.
  • Managed all the financial and administrative tasks of the firm
  • Hired, trained and evaluated trainee employees as well as mentored, and designed their complete course content
• Infosys Technologies Ltd. - Software Engineer (Jun 2004 - Sep 2005)
  • Handled real-time situations, and resolved production issues
  • Handled Change Requests which involved enhancements to the existing functionalities
  • Impact Analysis and Time Estimations
  • Prepared Business Requirement Document and Design Document
• IIIT, Hyderabad - Asst. System Administrator (Nov 2003 - Apr 2004)
  • Maintained RedHat Linux servers and firewall
  • Maintained user accounts and addressed general problems
  • Wrote small scripts like bandwidth monitoring tool

Projects

• Calendarserver Debian Packaging
  Patch contributor and currently Debian package maintainer for calendarserver and python-twisted-calendarserver. Initially, I started out by contributing patches to the Darwin Calendar Server, and building Debian packages for Synovel Collabsuite Server. After working on it for a while, I eventually took over the responsibilities from its former maintainer, Guido Gunther. http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=amaramrahul@users.sourceforge.net
• Collabsuite Server (Product at Synovel)
  Extending my work done as a consultant previously, I proceeded to convert the prototype into a full-fledged collaboration server. Running on Debian, the collaboration server integrates mail, instant messaging, and calendar services, and offers advanced features such as single sign-on (SSO), integration with Active Directory/CentOS Directory Server, and distributed services for scalability. I designed the product, evaluated and explored the features of various servers, integrated the various services, wrote the entire back-end for the remote web administration console in Python, and coded the first version of the web front-end for it in Dojo.
• Collabsuite Server Prototype (Consultancy at Spinaxys)
  Designed, and built a working prototype of a collaboration server. The collaboration server provided single sign-on using Kerberos and was aimed at integrating the existing open source servers used for collaboration viz. mail, jabber and calendar servers.
• Mpathy (Product at Spinaxys)
  Mpathy is intended to be a back-end platform for mobile commerce applications to categorize users into different profiles, based on their preferences, for future targeted marketing. For the prototype, I implemented the back-end communication layer using Gammu for delivering content and interacting with the users through SMS.
• Products & Services Manager (Project at Spinaxys)
  A web application with Javascript driven Excel like interface and functionality, which is used to store and display the products and services of a company. I built the application using .NET and Mysql.
• PDF Brander (Project at Spinaxys)
  A project for replacing the text in documents using the OpenOffice API, converting them to pdf, and later encrypting the pdf using the iText library. I also had to build a simple web interface for uploading the documents using PHP-Java bridge.
• SOX (Project at Infosys)
  SOX (Sarbanes Oxley Act) is an act in US which makes it mandatory for all IT companies to expose their financial assets. As a part of Microsoft's efforts for compliance to SOX, we developed a portal to cater to the SOX Business needs. The portal serves as the direct interface to all the SOX Users for their business needs. We developed the portal using ASP.NET and C#.NET and coded the back-end database objects in Yukon.
• IGMPv2 Router Testing Tool (Senior Year Project)
  The testing tool checked the standards compliance of IGMPv2.0's implementation on a router. IGMP protocol is used by hosts to join and leave multicast groups. I had to read RFC 1112 and RFC 2236 to understand IP multicasting and IGMPv2 protocol, and later implement and test the tool using Mrouted, a Linux based soft router. I implemented this project under the guidance of Prof. Shatrunjay Rawat, who is currently Systems Associate Professor at IIIT-H.

Software Skills

• Programming Languages: C, C++, Python
• Web: Drupal, PHP, Perl, Javascript
• Databases: Mysql, Sqlite
• Operating Systems: Debian GNU/Linux, Windows 9x/2K/XP

Extracurricular Activities And Miscellaneous Interests

• An active blogger for the past 7 years, mainly posting articles on technology, humour and administrative processes
• Strong believer in the concept of decentralization and user privacy, hence maintain my own email, instant messaging, and calendar servers
• Campaigned during bye-elections for Lok Satta, an Indian political party aiming for better governance and working for administrative reforms
• Actively participated in CTY (Catch Them Young) initiative of Infosys, a program to initiate school children into Information Technology
• Organizing committee member for IIIT-H Open House 2003 and 2004, an event to showcase the institute's technological innovations
• Member of the IIIT-H Lab committee for three consecutive years
• Guiding student assistants, and helping with setting up of a new IIIT-H alumni portal