Michael Rice

• Architected and shipped multiple versions of the RackN VMware integration, including a VIB-free Python agent for ESXi that eliminated VMware partner certification requirements and significantly improved deployment portability and enterprise adoption
• Designed and implemented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) workflows and pipelines, enabling customers to build highly customizable and repeatable infrastructure at scale
• Developed and published the Digital Rebar Python library to PyPI, providing customers a supported, programmatic interface to the RackN platform and accelerating workflow automation
• Built and maintain internal MCP servers — including ZenDesk and vCenter integrations — enabling the support organization to resolve tickets faster and engineers to rapidly iterate on vSphere-based content
• Developed reusable Skills for Claude and other LLMs, creating AI-powered engineering workflows that improve team velocity and reduce repetitive operational overhead
• Established customer support infrastructure using ZenDesk and PagerDuty, replacing a fragmented email-only process and enabling 24/7 support coverage with efficient on-call rotation management
• Enhanced the GoLang-based CLI tool to enable customers to gather comprehensive system diagnostics with a single command, reducing support resolution time

• Collaborated directly with customers to gather requirements and deliver custom solutions for OpenStack-powered private clouds
• Built custom solutions enabling customers to integrate external identity providers with Keystone Federation for SSO to OpenStack private clouds
• Developed custom Horizon dashboards, panels, and plugins to extend the OpenStack management interface
• Authored custom OpenStack Ansible roles and playbooks to extend Rackspace Private Cloud functionality
• Automated Ubuntu pre-configuration and Rackspace Private Cloud installation using Ansible playbooks

Aug 2012 – May 2015

• Redesigned the application stack for horizontal scalability using RabbitMQ, and built HostSystem automation with Grails and SSH
• Developed a Python application to collect billing data from vCloud Usage Meter and built an automated decommission process for HostSystems and VirtualMachines, eliminating a significant volume of non-value-add tickets
• Built Jenkins pipelines for automated Grails deployments and served as subject matter expert for Git and the vSphere API

Sep 2011 – Aug 2012

• Installed and configured OpenStack using early versions of the Rackspace Private Cloud; worked with the development team to improve the installer and troubleshoot Puppet manifests
• Created v1 of the automated provisioning system for the Managed Virtualization powered by VMware product, using Grails to integrate the CMDB with vSphere via REST
• Created a web application for the VMware Operations team that reduced manual work
• Built a web-based DeClone tool using Grails, Perl, and the VMware VIX library

• Consolidated ~100 physical servers across 3 locations down to 9 using VMware vSphere — from initial 3.5 deployment through upgrade to 4.1
• Replaced proprietary infrastructure (Cisco routers, InterTel PBX, legacy firewalls) with open source alternatives: FreeBSD/Quagga, Asterisk/FreePBX, and PFSense
• Implemented centralized configuration management with Puppet and full monitoring stack (Nagios/Icinga, SmokePing, Munin)
• Built automated tools in Python, Perl, and PHP integrating with VMware and Asterisk to eliminate manual operational work