Authors

Tom Hollingsworth is a networking professional, blogger, and speaker on advanced technology topics. He is also an organizer for networking and wireless for Tech Field Day.  His blog can be found at https://networkingnerd.net/

Stephen Foskett is an active participant in the world of enterprise information technology, currently focusing on enterprise storage, server virtualization, networking, and cloud computing. He organizes the popular Tech Field Day event series for Gestalt IT and runs Foskett Services. A long-time voice in the storage industry, Stephen has authored numerous articles for industry publications, and is a popular presenter at industry events. He can be found online at TechFieldDay.com, blog.FoskettS.net, and on Twitter at @SFoskett.

Sulagna Saha is a writer at Gestalt IT where she covers all the latest in enterprise IT. She has written widely on miscellaneous topics. On gestaltit.com she writes about the hottest technologies in Cloud, AI, Security and sundry.

A writer by day and reader by night, Sulagna can be found busy with a book or browsing through a bookstore in her free time. She also likes cooking fancy things on leisurely weekends. Traveling and movies are other things high on her list of passions. Sulagna works out of the Gestalt IT office in Hudson, Ohio.

Zach is the Technical/Content Writer at Gestalt IT with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. A storyteller at heart, he loves being on the cutting edge of new technology and telling the world about it. When he's not working, he enjoys all things outdoors, music, and soccer.

Gestalt IT Staff posts are a collective effort, providing the best analysis and commentary from leaders in the fields of virtualization, networking, storage, and desktop engineering.

Greg Ferro is the co-host of Packet Pushers. After surviving 25 years in Enterprise IT with only minor damage, he uses his networking expertise for good in the service of others by deep diving on technology and industry. His unique role as an inspirational cynicist brings a sense of fun, practicality and sheer talent to world of data networking and its place in a world of clouds.

He blogs regularly at http://etherealmind.com and the podcasts are at http://packetpushers.net.

Ken is an IT infrastructure professional with over 15 years experience. His areas of specialty are the software-defined data center and cloud technologies. In addition to being a writer for Gestalt IT, Ken is an Event Lead for the Cloud Field Day and Tech Field Day series of events.

Chris M Evans is an independent consultant with over 20 years' experience, specialising in storage infrastructure design and deployment.

With more than 7 Years of IT experience, Devang is currently the Director of Technology Solutions and IT Operations at Computer Data Source, Inc. Devang has held several positions in the past including Sr. Systems Engineer, Sr. Network Engineer, Technical Support Manager, Director of Storage Support & Operations. He has been responsible for creating and managing worldwide technical support teams, technology solutions team, operations management, service delivery, pre and post sales support, marketing and business planning. In his current role Devang oversees multiple aspects of the Technology Solutions Group that works with various Multinational and Fortune 500 companies providing them infrastructure services. Along with various industry certifications, Devang holds a Bachelor of Science from South Gujarat University, India and a Master of Science in Computer Science from North Carolina A&T State University.

Massimiliano "Max" Mortillaro is a Partner & Principal Analyst at TECHunplugged.io. He's a former 5-star VMware vExpert, one of the re-founders of the Czech Republic VMware User Group and its former leader. He's an advocate for online security, privacy, encryption and digital rights. Like his name very wrongfully hints, Max is French and lives with his family in Prague, Czech Republic. Besides being a failed sportsman he is a general bon vivant and the impersonation of your average hobbit in full size.

Architect and Advisor for ATvisement, Arjan uses his 20+ years in IT to help consultants, engineers, and architects grow in this fast-changing world. Through his blog at TECHunplugged.io, this VMware vExpert shares his insights and IT experience.

Chris Grundemann is a passionate, creative technologist and a strong believer in technology's power to aid in the betterment of humankind. In his current role as Managing Director at Grundemann Technology Solutions he is expressing that passion by helping technology businesses grow and by helping any business grow with technology. Chris has been using technology, marketing, and strategy to build businesses and non-profit organizations for two decades. He holds 8 patents in network technology and is the author of two books, an IETF RFC, a personal weblog, and various other industry papers, articles, and posts. Chris is the lead research analyst for all networking and security topics at GigaOm and co-host of Utilizing AI the Enterprise AI podcast. He is also a co-founder and Vice President of IX-Denver and Chair of the Open-IX Marketing committee. Chris often speaks at conferences, NOGs, and NOFs the world over. Chris is currently based in West Texas and can be reached via Twitter at @ChrisGrundemann

Justin is Chief Analyst and managing director of PivotNine, a firm that advises vendors on positioning and marketing, and customers on how to evaluate and use technology to solve business problems. He is a regular contributor at Forbes.com, CRN Australia, and iTNews.

Jordan Martin is currently a Principal Consultant of datacenter technologies with a Cisco gold partner. He comes from a background in several industries including finance, healthcare, and most recently a global managed call center provider. He calls Allentown, PA his home but can frequently be found in various locations assisting customers in infrastructure upgrades and installations. Outside of work, Jordan is a proud husband and father of 3. If all of that wasn’t enough, Jordan recently completed the CCIE routing and switching certification ensuring his diminished relevance in networking for the foreseeable future.

Matt Garvin is an Event Coordinator and brings five years of event support and logistics experience to Tech Field Day for Gestalt IT. When not at work, Matt is probably playing some sort of game: most commonly board games, video games, or sports. Matt is also a Dad of 3, Cleveland sports enthusiast, and wannabe movie buff. Check out his super boring twitter at @MrMattGarvin.

As a 20+ year veteran in the Information Technology field, I've done quite a few different things. I've worked as an instructor, a technical trainer and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), systems administrator, IT manager, systems engineer, consultant, and Chief Technology Officer for a small start-up. I was also lucky enough to publish a few books on topics like VMware vSphere, OpenStack, and network automation. Currently, I work at VMware, Inc., focusing on cloud computing, open source, networking, and virtualization.

John has worked in the networking industry for over 20 years, and obtained his CCIE Routing & Switching in early 2001. A network engineer by day, he has consulted in the UK and USA for Internet and mobile service providers, financial, retail and other enterprise customers, designing, supporting and troubleshooting networks of all sizes and types. He now works in the enterprise space, enjoying knowing where he’ll be located every week and that he’ll be home for dinner.

John blogs at http://movingpackets.net/ where he shares his thoughts and experiences with automation, scripting, best practices, commonly needed solutions, technical challenges and whatever else interests him in the networking and technology arena.

Tech blogger and podcaster with 17 years’ experience covering IT, networking, security, and more.

I’m an IT professional with over 12+ years working in both the public and private sector within the UK. I currently work within the UK financial industry, specialising in infrastructure delivery and integration using products from a host of vendors including Microsoft, Citrix, VMware and EMC to name but a few.

I’ve had an unhealthy interest in all aspects of virtualisation since working on projects deploying VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 and Citrix XenApp. I have followed this up by achieving certifications in a number of these technologies and trying to find the time to continue learning about and spreading the good word of virtualisation.

Hope you find something interesting here at www.gestalit.com

Dan has spent the last 20 plus years in IT working for government, service providers, and VARs in a big country town called Brisbane. He's fascinated with things that go in racks and using technology to do business, rather than making business yield to technology.

I am a long time data center denizen who currently focuses on storage and storage related issues. I have worked on both sides of the fence, for vendors as well as being the guy who had to impliment what they sold me. Finally, I've managed teams of UNIX, Windows, and Storage Admins.

Ed Saipetch is virtualization practice lead and systems engineer. He has been and both the end user and value added reseller space with a focus on application infrastructure and web architecture scalability.

Ethan Banks, CCIE #20655, has been managing networks for higher ed, government, financials and high tech since 1995. Ethan co-hosts the Packet Pushers Podcast, which has seen over 1M downloads and reaches over 10K listeners. With whatever time is left, Ethan writes for fun & profit, studies for certifications, and enjoys science fiction.

Long time engineer and presales architect specializing in Storage, VIrtualization and Orchestrations in the cloud.

Paul is Technical Director at a long established UK based IT consultancy Gardner Systems. A technology enthusiast who likes to understand how technology impacts organisations of all types.

He shares his enthusiasm via his BLOG at techstringy.com as well as the Tech Interviews Podcast which can be found at podcast.techstringy.com

Also a member of the NetApp A Team, CRN-A-List, and newly appointed Veeam Vanguard 2018.

Cloud DevOps Engineer at RoundTower, 10+ years in the IT industry focused on all things data center, Blogger, vExpert, Hokie.

Evan is an Information Security Manager located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His previous roles have included Principal Solutions Architect and Senior Network Engineer. He has worked in information technology for over 20 years. His many projects have included video, voice, networking, email, and cloud technologies.

Evan is happily married, has three children, and a dog (a black lab). In his spare time, he enjoys gaming, advancing his technical skill sets, and spending time with his family.

Calvin Hendryx-Parker is the co-founder and CTO of Six Feet Up, a Python development and Cloud consulting company established in 1999. At Six Feet Up, Calvin establishes the company’s technical vision and leads all aspects of the company’s technology development. He provides the strategic vision for enhancing the offerings of the company and infrastructure, and works with the team to set company priorities and implement processes that will help improve product and service development. Calvin is the driving force behind LoudSwarm, a truly immersive virtual event platform that debuted in June 2020.

Calvin is the co-founder of the Python user group IndyPy, the largest tech meetup in Indiana with 1,900+ members. In 2017, he also founded IndyAWS, now the fastest growing cloud meetup in the state with 800+ members. In 2019, he got recognized as an AWS Community Hero by AWS experts.

Outside of work, Calvin spends time tinkering with new devices like the AWS DeepRacer, CircuitPython and Raspberry Pi. Calvin is an avid distance runner and ran the 2014 NYC Marathon to support the Innocence Project. Every year he and the family enjoys an extended trip to France where his wife Gabrielle, the CEO of Six Feet Up, is from. Calvin holds a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University.

Denny Cherry has over a decade of experience working with platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Hyper-V, vSphere and Enterprise Storage solutions. His areas of technical expertise include system architecture, performance tuning, security, replication, and troubleshooting. Denny has written several books and dozens of technical articles on SQL Server management and how SQL Server integrates with various other technologies.

I am self-employed consultant and writer based in New Zealand. Much of my work is communicating about how IT infrastructure works and what it means for IT professionals. Outside of work I’m datacenter and VMware focussed, having created the AutoLab which is a free tool to simplify the creation of a vSphere test or training lab.

Ned Bellavance is an IT professional with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He currently works as the Director of Cloud Solutions for a premier IT consulting company in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, specializing in Enterprise Architecture both on-premise and in the cloud. Ned holds a number of industry certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, and Cisco. He also has a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA with an Information Technology concentration.

Joep Piscaer is an IT architect with a focus on VMware virtualization, enterprise shared storage and backup products at OGD ict-diensten. As such, he designs and implements complex virtualization and storage and backup solutions based on VMware, EqualLogic, StoreVirtual 4000 and VSA, Nimble Storage, Nutanix and Veeam products. He specializes in tight integration of these building blocks, making day-to-day operations as easy as possible through a consolidated management interface and procedures.

After dropping out of a liberal arts college that focused on reading and discussing the “Great Books”, Becky accidentally found her way into an IT career. For 20+ years, she has held a number of roles in Dev and Ops, and the area in between the two. Recently, she both re-discovered a childhood love for writing and awakened a hero’s journey-kind of desire to encourage others to share their stories.

Pete started out as a PhD mathematician teaching college classes, only to eventually discover he likes computers better. He worked for Terry Slattery coding part of the CIsco IOS CLI interpreter, which grew into teaching network classes and consulting. He has been a CCIE for over 20 years, authored or designed several Cisco courses, while designing networks big and small. Pete is deeply interested in R&S, is getting over MPLS, loves doing network design, application troubleshooting, and is now learning all he can about various datacenter technologies.

Pete blogs whenever he can find time. His blog can be found at
http://www.netcraftsmen.net/resources/blogs/blogger/Pete%20Welcher/.

He is on LinkedIn and intends to be more active there.

Christian is a Marketing Intern for Gestalt IT. He is a very ambitious and energetic go-getter. He enjoys physical health, discussing sports, and is always looking for new ways and areas to grow.

I am a Systems Engineer with a focus on data center technologies. My passion is virtualization and performing amazing feats of technology!

Karen Lopez is Sr. Project Manager and Architect at InfoAdvisors. She specializes in the practical application of data management principles. She is a frequent speaker, blogger, and panelist on data quality, insights, and governance. Karen’s known for her slightly irreverent yet constructive opinions and rants on information technology topics. She wants you to love your data.

Thought leader with 15 years of IT experience, working with a wide variety of data platforms including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Hadoop and other data platforms. Extensive experience in cloud design and architecture, specifically focused on hybrid cloud models. Strong experience in clustering and storage. Frequent speaker at major IT conferences such as TechEd, PASS Summit, NoSQL Now, PASS Business Analytics Conference. SQL Server MVP, Dun and Bradstreet MVP.

Christopher Kusek is Xiologix’s CTO and manages the engineering organization. Christopher is connected to current and future trends; a strategist who comprehends complex business and technology problems uses his organization and leadership skills to solve them. An industry recognized expert Christopher is an EMC Elect and VMware vExpert, while also an accomplished speaker and author with five books published.

Mike has supported IT infrastructure and messaging services for 19 years for a variety of public and private sector enterprises. He has also held many titles during this time (Senior Systems Engineer, Infrastructure Architect, Security Engineer, Project Manager, Enterprise Architect to name a few) but has always focused on providing high-availability solutions to meet or exceed client requirements. Mike excels in high-pressure, break-fix situations, and strives to provide the highest quality technical documentation for his projects.

Gina is the Founder of Digital Sunshine Solutions, a consulting firm that helps companies with product marketing strategy, as well as tackling the issue of digital literacy. She’s an EMC, Dell, and VMware alum (along with a few startups!), and a vExpert.

Ather is a Solutions Architect and works for Rackspace. His focus is on all things related to cloud, technology, storage, virtualization and whatever comes in between.

Being in the industry for over 20 years, he feels ancient. If you feel that inclined, he can bore you with stories on how he used to manually park heads on a hard drive or bound protocols to network cards. Seriously though, he has designed, deployed and managed many enterprise environments, involving virtualization, storage, directory and mail services.

Girard Kavelines has over 15 years of experience as an IT Professional. Working in many different areas and roles from IT Helpdesk, Network Technician, Network and System Administrator, and IT Administrator. He is currently working toward achieving his CCNA, and then pursuing this CCNP. He blogs regularly at TechHouse570. For his endless work as a blogger Girard has been recognized as a VMware vExpert.

Andy has over 30 years of experience in high-tech industry giants. He worked on development teams at SCO, Sun Microsystems, VMware and NetApp-SolidFIre producing primarily storage and networking products. Andy is known for promoting simplicity and economy and has presented at numerous conferences, technology events and podcasts.

Outside of high tech, Andy is involved in auto racing, auto restoration and hiking. His interests include travel, wines and food.

Andy is currently working on personal projects.

Nick currently works on the network planning and architecture team for a major international research network. He has also held Network Engineering positions at early regional broadband internet providers as well as at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. He has been involved in cybersecurity from the campus, enterprise, and service provider perspective, as well as the FBI, and has been involved in numerous software-defined networking projects over the last 8 years. Find him on Twitter @ForwardingPlane or his blog ForwardingPlane.net.

Barry is a passionate and energetic IT infrastructure and workspace transformation specialist turned business leader. As well as achieving many industry qualifications he has been awarded the VMware vExpert title every year since 2010, alongside other accolades. Barry prides himself on his work to help shape IT strategy and lead digital transformation strategies working closely with his customers.

Barry is co-owner of ComputerWorld Systems in the UK where he manages technical strategy, pre-sales architecture and marketing.

Outside of work, Barry is an active blogger, public speaker, community contributor and has co-authored several books surrounding End User Computing solutions.

You can check out Barry's "Tech Doodles" from industry conferences, including Tech Field Day at www.techdoodles.co.uk

Wireless Systems Technologist and Architect

A technologist at heart, Greg has spent the last 20 years supporting various information technology projects in both the private and public sector.

Network Greasemonkey, Packet Macrame Specialist, Virtual Pneumatic Tube Transport Designer and Connectivity Nerfherder. The possible titles are too many to count, but they don’t really mean much when I’m essentially a hired gun in the wild west that is modern networking.

"Don Joey" is the imagined CEO of a well-known company that ain't just about storage, got it?

I’ve been in the Information Technology (IT) industry for over 20 years, with most of my roles revolving around computer networking in some form or another (i.e., design, architecture, implementation, support, and troubleshooting). Other roles I’ve held in my career have been in sales, training, programming, desktop support and server administration.

Rich Tehrani is CEO of TMC, the media company behind TMCnet.com and the global ITEXPO #TECHSUPERSHOW, collocated with SD-WAN Expo. A well-respected voice in the technology space, Tehrani has been interviewed and quoted by The Economist, Boston Globe, Newsweek, WABC Radio, WMAL, New York Times, BusinessWeek, USA Today, The LA Times and CGTN.

RHCE – RedHat Certified Engineer

VCP5-DV – VMware Professional Datacenter Virtualization

VCAP5-DCA – VMware Advanced Professional Data Center Administration

VCAP5-DCD – VMware Advanced Professional Data Center Design

VCDX-DCV – VMware Certified Design Expert – Data Center Virtualization

Specialties: Infrastructure Architecture, Storage, Virtualization, Automation, Configuration Management

A.J. Murray is a Network Deployment Engineer for Red River. He has spent 15 years in IT as a generalist working as a Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, and IT Manager, covering Windows Server, Active Directory, and VMware Virtualization. He is now turning his focus to networking with a focus on Software-Defined network technologies, including SD-WAN and Data Center solutions. Additionally, A.J. writes articles on his blog, which can be found at blog.noblinkyblinky.com, and teaches courses as an Adjunct Professor at Champlain College. For his work as a writer/blogger A.J. has been recognized as both a Cisco Champion and VMware vExpert.

Enrico has 25+ years of industry experience in technical product strategy and management roles. He has advised Mid-Market and Large Enterprises across a numerous industries and software companies ranging from small ISVs to large providers.

Enrico is an internationally renowned visionary author, blogger and speaker on Storage. He has tracked the changes in the Storage industry as a Gigaom Research Analyst and contributor to the Register.

Based out of the south of the Netherlands, working with everything from datacenters to operating systems. I specialize in storage, back-up & server virtualization systems. Certified on a large number of Dell EMC products and constantly trying to find the time to diversify that list.

Outside of work, you can find me either on a snowboard, a motorbike or under water.

Russ White has more than twenty years’ experience in designing, deploying, breaking, and troubleshooting large scale networks. Across that time, he has co-authored more than forty software patents, spoken at venues throughout the world, participated in the development of several internet standards, helped develop the CCDE and the CCAr, and worked in Internet governance with the Internet Society. Russ is currently a member of the Architecture Team at LinkedIn, where he works on next generation data center designs, complexity, security, and privacy. He is also currently on the Routing Area Directorate at the IETF, and co-chairs the IETF I2RS and BABEL working groups.

Thom Greene is a cloud architect with over 14 years of experience designing and operating enterprise solutions. He specializes in assisting customers solve complex problems around workload migration, performance optimization, and capacity planning. His experience spans from Small Businesses to Fortune 50 corporations. Thom is a frequent contributor to vBrownbag as host and presenter and believes in training the next generation of technicians and contributors through mentorship. He has been recognized as a VMware vExpert and holds many vendor certifications from VMware, Microsoft, and Amazon. Thom blogs about technology at ThomTalksTech.com

Zoë Rose is a highly regarded hands-on cyber security specialist, who helps her clients better identify and manage their vulnerabilities and embed effective cyber resilience across their organization. Whilst retaining deep technical expertise, Zoë has developed extensive experience in designing and executing cyber security awareness programmes that help people become more aware of cyber threats. Zoë is a Cisco Champion and certified Splunk Architect, who frequently speaks at conferences and is quoted in the media, and most recently featured in Vogue Magazine.

Larry Smith is an experienced senior level professional. Well versed in virtualization, storage, compute, networking, security, automation, DevOps methodologies, BASH scripting, Python dabbling and many other areas.

Systems Engineer with 20 years of experience designing, planning, and implementing complex systems integrating custom-built and COTS applications.

Data networking professional since 1999, Jason Gintert started in the dial-up ISP world and spent time in the telecommunications service provider space for many of those years. Jason is Co-founder & CTO of WAN Dynamics, a managed and professional services firm focused on assisting companies to adapt to modern cloud connectivity models, and is also Co-founder & President of the Ohio Networking User Group and Technical Steering & Marketing Committee member of the Ohio IX. 

Professional consultant for over 10 years with 20 years in the IT industry, based in Cambridge, UK. I work with customers to design IT solutions that meet a variety of needs, including backup, virtualization, cloud storage, and containerisation. An expert in building and managing cloud services and professional services infrastructure. Experience working in all areas of business from sales cycle through to support. Able to communicate at all levels throughout the business and tailor messaging accordingly. Additional interests in Digital Ethics, Influencing, Marketing, Strategy and Business Processes. Outside of the technology industry, I enjoy all forms of gaming, ranging from classic table-top to online RPGs. I am also a keen cyclist.

Keith Townsend is the founder of The CTO Advisor LLC and is an IT management consultant with more than 18 years of related experience designing, implementing and managing data center technologies. His areas of expertise include virtualization, networking and storage solutions for Fortune 500 organizations. He holds a BA in computing and an MS in information technology from DePaul University.

Jim Czuprynski has 40+ years of professional experience in Information Technology, serving diverse roles at various Fortune 1000 companies before becoming an Oracle DBA in 2001. Oracle awarded Jim the status of Oracle ACE Director in 2014 and is a sought-after public speaker on Oracle technology, presenting often at Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle CODE, COLLABORATE, KSCOPE, Oracle Development Community tours, and Oracle User Group conferences around the world. Jim has co-authored four books on Oracle Database technology, and has written 100+ articles on Oracle Database administration and other topics, most recently at ODTUG TechCeleration. Jim speculates about the future of technology in his blog (Generally…It Depends) and he’s also co-host of the Beyond Tech Skills podcast.

Eric Shanks is a Senior Solutions Architect with over 15 years of data center experience focusing on hybrid cloud and automation. He has some of the industry’s highest distinctions including two VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX #195) certifications as many others across a variety of solutions including Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon Web Services, etc.

Adam Post is a solutions architect with over 12 years of experience in consulting and managed services roles, providing technical expertise to organizations across a wide range of industry verticals. He is experienced in virtualization, storage, backup, and cloud technologies and holds several technical certifications, including the VMware VCIX-DCV, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Veeam Certified Architect, and HPE Master ASE. He can be found on Twitter as @Semi_Technical.

Jonathan Davis (JD) works as a Wireless Engineer for an enterprise organization. He has 20 years of experience in IT across many specialties. He is a co-host and producer of CenterFreqs and blogs at subnetwork.me.

David Samuel Peñaloza Seijas works as a Senior Network Consulting Engineer at Verizon Enterprise Solutions in the Czech Republic. Previously, he worked as a Network Support Specialist in the IBM Client Innovation Center in the Czech Republic. David is an expert interested in all topics related to networks. However, he focuses mainly on data centers, enterprise networks, and network design, including software-defined networking (SDN).

Eyvonne Sharp is a network architect for a Fortune 100 healthcare enterprise. She's a co-founder of Network Collective, a bi-weekly video roundtable where network engineers talk about industry trends, challenging projects, and what it takes to do network engineering day-to-day. Before working in the enterprise, she spent 10 years working for small VARs and integrators in the SMB space.

You can find her on twitter @SharpNetwork and she blogs intermittently at http://esharp.net.

Senior Network Engineer with multi-vendor experience on routing, switching, wireless, security. Passionate about scripting and automation.

He blogs at https://www.ifconfig.it/

With 10 years and counting of working in the IT industry starting out as a school administrator to a System Engineer in the fast-paced cloud industry. Keiran has gained experience and skill from working with desktops and laptops right up to designing and implementing cloud infrastructure.

Jeffrey Powers covers consumer, enterprise, auto, and music technology, along with audio/video podcasting. His web brand – Geekazine.com – keeps you up to date with interviews, reviews, and much more. Geekazine LIVE! is the live stream, which can be seen on Twitch and YouTube, and covers events for many clients. Jeffrey is also one-half of Build Day LIVE! – an event covering Enterprise Day-One installations.

I am a full-time Sr. Network Solutions Architect for a leading Value Added Reseller in Austin, TX. My career in the IT industry has been on the customer side stretching over 20 years primarily in the enterprise space; financial, biomedical, and high tech sectors. Working at a VAR has been a wonderful experience as I get to work with the great people, help customers resolve their network issues, and prepare them for exciting new technologies.

Faisal Khan is a blogger who loves to write about cutting-edge technologies and subjects related to networking, SDN, NFV and virtualization on his blog at http://telcocloudbridge.com. He has rich experience, working with multiple service providers and vendors in Middle East and Africa region. Currently, he works for a mobile operator in Saudi Arabia in the technology planning department.

Jed has been interested in computer networking since the days of dial-up, and even ran a very small BBS for a short period of time in the 1990s. He is currently a senior network engineer for a mid-size healthcare enterprise, and is interested in pursuing the path into service provider network design and operation.

An IT generalist with over 20 years of experience spanning multiple technology generations at different layers in the IT organisation. My passions are all about keeping things running with a minimum of complexity which has led me through all facets of the infrastructure, from micro scale to large implementations.

Currently focussed on the concepts of platforms, at the storage, networking and virtualisation layers including from identity management, directory systems, application development and deployment, networking, virtualisation and storage.

Cofounder of Rewind Technologies, a managed backup service based on Retrospect, back in the 1990’s

I am vendor-independent and do not have any commercial partner or reseller relationships. I do follow training and technology partnerships in order to ensure that I maintain abreast of technology changes and vendor best practices.

As a Canadian, I reserve the right to spell Virtualisation with an ‘s’ or a ‘z’ as the mood (and autocorrect) strikes me.

A technology junkie fascinated by all the nuts & bolts and blinking LED’s…constantly thinking of the added business value of all those flashy bells & whistles. That killer combo spiced with open and social character makes Markus an unrivaled technology professional with a rare mix of deep technical skills, excellent presentation abilities, and business understanding.

Jim Jones is a Cloud Architect at iland Secure Cloud specializing in enabling Backup and Disaster Recovery systems for our customers. Jim has over 18 years in the industry, holds certifications such as VCP-DCV, VMCE, and CCNAs in Datacenter, Routing & Switching, and AWS Solutions Architect-Associate and a MS in Information Technology from University of Maryland University College. Jim is a proud member of the Cisco Champions, Veeam Vanguard, and VMware vExpert communities and blogs at koolaid.info.

Craig has over 20 years IT experience working with SMB’s and Enterprise’s providing solutions within the cloud, virtualisation, storage, network and Microsoft stacks. Recent roles have involved hands on architecture and deployments up to enterprise and government sector clients. Craig holds certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Cisco, DellEMC, Huawei and Zerto, has previously been awarded VMware vExpert and is a Veeam Vanguard for the past 3 years. Craig is passionate about technology and thrives on a good challenge.

Keith Parsons is Managing Director of Wireless LAN Professionals, Inc. A gifted presenter, Keith is known for his wit and broad technical experience. He holds 68 technical certifications (11 Wireless) and has earned an MBA from the Marriott School of Management. He is author (or editor) of a 30+ technical publications and has developed nine technical industry and vendor certifications.

Mr. Parsons is a sought after presenter for a variety of technical conferences on the subjects of Wireless LAN and Network Security/Penetration Testing. He travels throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia in behalf of a wide variety of IT vendors, explaining their products to networking professionals.

Keith is on the CWNP and CWNE Advisory Boards – and is CWNE #3. For the past 10 years Mr. Parsons has focused on Wireless LANs, both in providing high-quality customized training as well as WLAN design and consulting services with a variety of global corporations.

Rob is an Infrastructure Administrator with Oilers Entertainment Group, who recently moved into their brand new arena, Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. An IT generalist with over 15 years’ experience in support and administration, with a strong focus on networking and virtualization, he has a wide variety of experience including Managed Services, Education, and Sports Entertainment.

I’ve spent my entire career performing various functions within the IT industry -- some at the same time. I got my start in a start-up, learning networking basics down to punching down and crimping cables. From there I actually spent a few early years as a PBX and voice engineer, before I began to branch out into project management as well.

For the past 10 years, Deirra has established herself as a subject matter expert in the areas of routing and switching, network monitoring/analysis and Network Design. As a lifelong learner with a hunger and passion for all things technology, she has also worked to expand her skill set into Security, Cloud, and Automation. In 2016, Deirra published her blog CCIE By 30 where she shares her experience in Cisco Networking, technical resources, certification study tips, career tips as well as reviews on industry trends.

Aaron has been doing networking for quite a while and has worked in several industries ranging from multi-billion-dollar payment gateways to critical Internet infrastructure. The breadth of his exposure includes experience in the architecture, design, implementation, and operations of routing, switching, firewalling, and load balancing.

I work with customers to solve problems around Data Protection and Disaster Recovery. I work with vendors as an analyst to help look through the customer lens to best serve the customer needs. Over the course of my career, I have diversified my capabilities across business and technology leadership. My areas of expertise include strategy development/execution, professional speaking, international business, technical sales, and technical evangelism.

David Varnum is Network and Data Center engineer, architect, consultant and blogger. CCIE DC #45880. His focus is adapting business strategies with emerging enterprise developments in data center, security and virtualization realms. Prior to his current role, he served as lead engineer and consultant in both private and public sectors. David holds his CCIE in Data Center and is an MCSE+ and VMware Certified Professional. A Cisco Champion, he also blogs at overlaid.net and blogs.cisco.com

Ed Horley has spent over 20 years in tech, and is known as the “Crazy IPv6 dude”, co-chair California IPv6 Task Force, author (Apress and Pluralsight), blogger and occasional speaker.

Kati Lehmuskoski is an experienced senior advisor working on customer assignments. She has a background in IT as a project manager, supervisor, and business leader. Kati is a published author on digital transformation and is writing her second book on the topic. Her book project page can be found from http://www.underthehood.fi/ where she publishes interviews of leaders who have led successful digital transformation in their organization.

Systems Engineer by day and vCommunity agitator by night.

Former Ctera SE, VMware Italy PSO Alumnus. Sometimes an international civil servant.

8x vEXPERT and retired VMUG Italy Leader. Blogger at http://blog.vgeek.it.

Slowly and painfully refactoring his skillset for the modern era.

Chris Williams is a Multi-Cloud Consultant for WWT. There he helps customers design and deploy the next generation of public, private, and multi-cloud solutions, specializing in AWS and VMware. Chris is an active community leader, co-organizing the AWS Portsmouth User Group, and both hosts and presents on vBrownBag.com. He is also an active mentor, helping students at the University of New Hampshire through Diversify Thinking—an initiative focused on empowering girls and women to pursue education and careers in STEM. Chris is a certified AWS Solutions Architect Professional, an AWS Hero, a VMware Certified Implementation Expert, and a VMware vExpert. He also blogs about virtualization, technology, and design at mistwire.com.

Nico Stein is a AVP of IT at Signal Financial FCU, a Maryland based Credit Union with branches in MD, VA and DC. Originally started with IBM Germany, he has over 15 years of IT experiences, managing campus networks and critical systems. He has a passion for all things virtualized and tends to get excited about an ICMP echo reply. Nico holds a CNNA and numerous Microsoft certifications. You can follow Nico on Twitter @nicostein or on his blog https://nicostein.com/

With over 20 years in the networking industry, Jeremy Schulman is a technology pioneer and active contributor in the field of modern network automation with a background in software engineering, technical sales, and business development. He loves to build sophisticated network automation solutions that reduce operational risk, increase service velocity, and provide measurable improvements in network experience for the business.

Roger Lund is the Sr. Cloud Architect at Deltaware Data Solutions. He's also a Cloud and Container Guy, vExpert, and VMUG leader.

A Native Texan now living in the magnificent New York City, Tricia Howard is an artist gone rogue who ended up in the wonderful world of security. With a B.A. in Theatre Arts and interests ranging from Star Wars to Opera, she brings a unique and artistic perspective to the security world. When she’s not creating content, jigsaw puzzling, doing stand-up comedy, or protecting her Pomsky, Darth, you can find her at HolistiCyber. She is currently the Marketing Manager where she brings awareness to the nation-state threat across the digital landscape.

Terry Slattery is a Principal Architect at NetCraftsmen, an advanced network consulting firm that specializes in high-profile and challenging network consulting jobs. Terry is currently working on network management, SDN, business strategy consulting, and interesting legal cases.

He is the founder of Netcordia, inventor of NetMRI, has been a successful technology innovator in networking during the past 20 years, and is co-inventor on two patents. He has a long history of network consulting and design work, including some of the first Cisco consulting and training. As a consultant to Cisco, he led the development of the current Cisco IOS command line interface. Prior to Netcordia, Terry founded Chesapeake Computer Consultants, which became a Cisco premier training and consulting partner. At Chesapeake, he co-invented and patented the v-LAB system to provide hands-on access to real hardware for the hands-on component of internetwork training classes.

Terry co-authored the successful McGraw-Hill text “Advanced IP Routing in Cisco Networks,” is the second CCIE (1026) awarded, and is a regular speaker at Enterprise Connect and Interop. He blogs at nojitter.com and netcraftsmen.com.

I’ve been interested in software development and technology since the mid-1990s.

Over the last ~20 years I’ve been a self taught developer who has done freelance work and has now gotten into creating video courses around what I’ve learned along the way. I mostly write and make videos around web development and deployment topics.

Kevin Myers is a Global Network Architect with over 18 years of experience. He’s designed and built networks on every continent except Antarctica and is holding out hope that penguins will need Netflix one day. He specializes in design for WISP/wireline service providers as well as large enterprise data centers.

Darrel Clute is an IT Infrastructure Architect. Throughout his career he has been predominately focused on Network Engineering, but has spent equal amounts of time focused on Systems Engineering, primarily with UNIX based systems. Beyond his employment Darrel is also an advocate for Open Source software use in the enterprise as well as for by individuals.

Micheline is a lawyer turned network engineer and a regular contributor on the Cisco Learning Network. She has her CCNP in Route/Switch and passed the CCIE Data Center written exam and the CCDP. It’s not about moving the packets for her, she believes it’s about the human networking between engineers. Follow her on Twitter @MichyfishMurphy on Twitter.

Jarett is a Senior Solutions Architect based in PA, focusing on Storage, Databases, VMware, & Cisco Datacenter products. He has 20 years of industry experience, such as Oracle, CSC, Planalytics, and others.

Jarett enjoys learning about new technologies, one of the crazy guys who takes cert exams for fun. He has every letter of the alphabet covered except Z (pending).

When his nose isn’t in a PDF or in my lab, it’s probably behind a camera, shooting archery, blogging, geocaching with his kids, or learning about locksport.

Chris Porter is an Infrastructure Architect working for a bank in central London. He writes about technology and the tech community, mainly in relation to VMware and AWS.

Ex-System Admin, now owner of Textrovert, focusing on technical content: writing, podcast, and videos. VMUG Leader in Denmark, vExpert, Veeam Vanguard, and Psychotherapist.

Phil is currently the senior network security engineer at a pharmaceutical company in upstate New York. Before working in internal IT, he worked for Cisco partners where he honed his skills and developed a love for continuing education. Phil also teaches Cisco networking and Windows Server courses at a local community college and has a passion for helping others become better engineers. Follow him on Twitter @network_phil and read his blog at www.networkphil.com

Scott McDermott is an enterprise network engineer and blogger with over 20 years in IT and a background in multi-platform system administration. He wears lots of hats, but is particularly fond of wireless networking and network design. He enjoys a good packet capture, mentoring others, and passing certification exams.

I have been working in the IT industry for more than 15 years. Passionate about technology and what we can do with it to make our lives better. Focusing lately on IT Security and Datacenters.

Rowell Dionicio is a network engineer at a large private university in the Bay Area. He blogs about wireless technologies and network engineering. Rowell also hosts a weekly podcast about wireless network engineering at http://www.cleartosend.net. In his spare time, he enjoys photography and being with his family watching movies.

Joshua C. E. Fidel is a Principal Solutions Architect, Office of the CTO, at Advizex. With 25 years of experience in Information Technology, he has worn every black/grey/white hat from desktop support, system/storage/network/virtualization admin, DBA, implementation engineer, to designing solutions for global Fortune 500 companies. In his free time he raises 3 kids, practices his jisei, and cooks good food. You can find him on twitter.com as @jcefidel and on his blog at thevfidel.com.

Joshua Williams is a Wi-Fi architect working for a solutions integrator in Oklahoma. He spent nearly fifteen years working in various IT management and network engineering roles with entities ranging from public school districts to Fortune 50 energy companies. He holds multiple technical certifications in wireless from CWNP and manufacturers. His professional passion is helping customers creatively solve problems with technology–particularly when they involve wireless networking.

Richard is a network engineer with over 8 years of experience and multiple industry certifications. He is currently working for a large non-profit as a network engineer where he is responsible for their network infrastructure.

A wireless engineer specializing in all things mobility. From web apps to location services to WLAN design/deployment, I am constantly and consistently on the cutting edge of what’s coming next. With over a decade of experience as a systems engineer managing wired and wireless IP networking, virtualization environments, applications, and web infrastructures with a strong background in retail, healthcare, and higher education I have a wide range of skills across multiple enterprise technologies.

With over 20 years working in the IT industry I have had varied sub careers. My first decade was as a programmer, developing applications in CASE tools for major corporations in Asia. There was the obligatory dotcom involvement in a start up. For the last decade I have worked in the systems integration space as a consultant. Today my focus and passion is on Cloud and virtualisation. I spend my time doing strategy, evangelism and architecture.

Business Architect for NetCraftsmen, CCIE #9566, Cisco Champion, Cisco Press author, basic network geek

I’m Scott Bollinger / @kfalconspb, and have been an IT professional for over 25 years. Half that time, in a Fortune 50 financial corporation, and the other half with small/medium size businesses.

Hank Yeomans, CCIE No. 21174 is currently the Senior Network Architect at HubSpot. He is Involved in the planning, architecting and implementation of solutions from service provider to small enterprise, in both wired and wireless domains as well as firewall security. Lover of automation, sources of truth, learner of python, and enabler of business.

Andy Thurai is a technology influencer and a thought leader who focuses on emerging technologies such as Cloud, AIOps, AI, ML, DL, Edge, IoT among others. He is a trusted advisor to many start-ups and enterprise C level executives. He is a consultant, advisor, technology strategist, keynote speaker, podcaster, and writer. His specialty is selling complex technologies in a much simpler manner to CxO level by demonstrating the value proposition.

Adria Romero is a software engineer at Lakera, a Zurich-based startup with the mission to make AI technologies transparent, safe, and trustworthy. Previously, he was part of the Triage team, a leading healthcare startup in Toronto where he built AI systems for dermatology. He is the author of several AI in healthcare publications, patent inventor, and host of ProductizeML, an ML-in-production course. He graduated in Electrical Engineering at UPC Barcelona, and he’s currently pursuing the Master of Computer Science at Georgia Tech.