Photo by Christina VanHorn,
UNH Human Resources

Networks. Hubs. Routers. Switches. Connectivity. Infrastructure. Circuits. Providers. Redundancy. The definitions of those words may not mean much, if anything to many people using personal computers. But in a working environment such as the University of New Hampshire where daily computer usage is not only "the norm" but in many cases vital, it takes people like Tony Bargardo who have in-depth knowledge of what all of those terms mean and how to keep thousands of computer users up and running at all times.

After graduating from UNH in 1997, Tony took a Data Analyst III position with Telecom. "I was a student here for 6 years," he says. "I used to joke that I wanted to start earning my tuition back. In reality my wife (Lise, a Library Services Supervisor in Technical Services) had been working here and she enjoyed it. I was looking to start a professional career and I happened to see the ad in the paper." Along with Tina Sbrizza, he created work orders for phone and data technicians. He then moved into an IT II position within Telecom and was later promoted again to an IT III and concentrated on Wide Area Network growth. Tony is now the WAN Services Manager in Telecom. Some of the responsibilities in his position are supervising Wide Area Network Engineers, designing and implementing new and existing wide area networks that connect all of the USNH sites (UNH Durham, Plymouth State University, Keene State College, UNH-Manchester, UNH Cooperative Extension, Granite State College), and overseeing the procurement and management of UNH Internet connections down to Boston. "In addition, I support and maintain all of the state wide circuits that connect all of these sites together to share data," Tony adds. "We also have a UNH Outreach program called the Granite State Distance Learning Network (GSDLN) that falls under my group. We provide internet and Video Conferencing services to many K-12 schools and non-profits in the state."

There are two distinct networks in the University System. The Local Area Network (LAN) is for all of the networking needs on the Durham Campus. This includes all of the buildings, offices and the entire cable infrastructure. The Wide Area Network (WAN) deals with moving data to and from the Durham campus, whether this is data to PSU or to Google. Tony started his networking job connecting remote sites to the Durham campus.

"At some point data needs to get to the Internet," Tony explains, "which can range from a simple email to students playing online games with other people all over the world. We have to purchase connectivity to the internet through a provider; much like someone pays the cable company at home for broadband. We do the same thing but on a much, much larger scale. We also design redundancy into the system so that if we have a problem with one carrier the traffic will continue over the backup and hopefully the end-users never notice. There is so much redundancy built into the internet today that it would take something catastrophic to actually take down the entire internet. The weak points are still the last mile. For us, the last mile is our Fiber optic run to Boston. Once the traffic gets to Boston and heads out it is pretty much going to make it. If something goes wrong in Boston, that single point can bring us down. This is why we are in the middle of a large upgrade program where we now have redundant links into the internet. It will hopefully keep us from having a single point of failure. Solutions vary from calling our providers every 20 minutes for updates on outages all the way to us having to troubleshoot our own equipment. That can mean replacing certain routers or switches or complete code upgrades. I think the two biggest failure or outage scenarios are 1) hardware failure and 2) malicious activity from inside or outside your network."

With that vast amount of data exchange happening between so many computers and going to and from such wide geographical areas it's no wonder that Tony see's his main skill as being the ability to multi-task. "I don't think there has been a single day where I have worked on a single item for the entire day," he says. "Customer Service is also extremely important. No one knows you exist in this job unless something is broken. This leads to the next skill - functioning under extreme pressure. One moment you could be cleaning up your email inbox and the next moment your phone won't stop ringing and you have thousands of people without Internet connectivity. You need to be able to focus on the problem at hand in order to get it fixed ASAP. Finally, communication skills - dealing with vendors, customers, and co-workers. This is a very team oriented group and we all rely heavily on each other so being able to communicate and work well with others makes the department run smoothly."

Tony's emphasis on teamwork is not surprising, and he's quick to mention the impact others have had on his work at UNH. "My manager, Doug Green, and my co-workers here in the Network Department have had a very positive impact on me. When I moved into the network department I did not know anything about networking. They gave me a shot to prove that I could do the job. They stuck me in a room with a couple of routers, some manuals and a few laptops and told me to make them all talk to each other. Three days later I actually got them all talking and from there they took me in and now I'm in charge of making entire campus's talk to each other. I have had nothing but encouragement from this group. Whenever I went to Doug and said 'I can't do it, I don't know how to fix this or make this work' he never let me quit and told me to keep working on it. I've always seemed to find my way to the end and the fix."

Green recalls, "Many of us noticed Tony's intelligence, good nature, and dedication. We shared a feeling that he would be a strong technical contributor and a great team member in Network Operations. We hired him into the network group in May of 1999. In the face of his limited technical knowledge and skills, he crammed significant research, training, and hands-on work into his first years here with us, and became productive quickly. What revealed itself early on were Tony's compassionate and gentle nature, and his natural talent for leadership and collaboration." Doug goes on to say "Tony is a rock solid colleague. He is easy to talk to, and great to work with. He has integrity. He is reliable and competent, and he cares deeply for his customers and for the quality of his service. We (the other eight of us in Network Operations) are all grateful to have him as a friend and team member. These things might sound cliché or high-minded, but this is Tony. He is a good man."

When asked what he finds most satisfying about his position, Tony says "I think knowing that I help support a major learning and information tool to all of the higher education facilities in the state is very satisfying. I could be doing this job for anyone but here I feel I could be helping in the education of the next Nobel Peace Prize winner! Seriously though, UNH has an incredible reputation in the research field and everyday the Internet becomes more and more important for this research and the sharing of information and I'm a part of that. I also enjoy the atmosphere here at UNH. I have access to some of the newest technology in my field and I get to use it and manage it for a company that encourages you to better yourself but also encourages you to take care of yourself too. If I was in the private sector I would be working 80 + hours a week and on call all the time."

When not maintaining the campus computer networks, Tony and Lise enjoy riding and training their two horses (Clover, an 11 year old Mare, and Keane, a 2 ½ year old part Arab/Saddlebred.) "They take up a good amount of time just riding and training," Tony explains. "Lise competes in eventing, which is 3 phases - Dressage, Stadium Jumping and Cross-Country Jumping. She has two trainers that she goes to for the different disciplines, MRF dressage in Nottingham and Hilltop Equestrian Center in Somersworth. I personally just ride western and go on the occasional trail ride. I also really enjoy mountain biking and road biking. I typically mountain bike on some local trails around my house but if I go out on an adventure I have 3 favorite places, Massabesic Lake in Manchester, Bear Brook State Park, and Fort Rock in Exeter. If I road bike it will be all over. I'll pick a direction and head one way for an hour then turn around and work my way back. I used to do a lot of road when we lived out in Barnstead. The hills out that way were great for keeping me in shape. I used to race in local events but the amount of time needed to train just to place in the top 50 was too much. Now I do it to commute or for sight seeing. I think the Lake region can't be beat. The whites are nice but the size of the hills really hurts so for a good all around experience, Barnstead/Gilmanton/Alton can't be beat."

In the summers, Tony also plays center field for an over 30 Baseball league. "I am in my 3rd year with the league and I even signed up for a Portsmouth league also," he says. "It's been an amazing time returning to a sport I never thought I would be able to play again when I stopped after leaving for college. We play in Milton, Rochester, and South Berwick for the over 30 league. The Portsmouth league is played at Portsmouth High and Leary Field. The Portsmouth league is an all wood bat league so it's proving to be a challenge."

Just one more challenge that Tony has hit out of the park!