Welcome to our Featured Member Series. For August we have one of our amazing MVPs Michael_Saleem!
DevCentral: To start, please introduce yourself and tell our community a little bit about you. What you do and why is it important?
Michael: Hi. I’m Michael and I live in the United Kingdom. I am a husband and the proud father to two lovely children (although they can be quite a handful at times!)
I have been in the IT industry since 2013, working my way up from data centre operations to first line support and then into network security.
I’ve worked with the F5 BIG-IP for many years, along with technologies from Cisco, Palo Alto Networks and Citrix. One of the things I enjoy most about the job is dealing with problems that aren’t immediately obvious and working through them until I understand what’s actually happening.
It’s important because the environments I work with support real customers and services. Keeping them secure, available and properly maintained isn’t just about making a configuration change - there can be a significant impact when things go wrong.
DevCentral: As a Network Security Architect at Rackspace, what is your typical workday like?
Michael: There isn’t really a typical day, which is probably one of the things I enjoy about the job.
A day could involve investigating a difficult BIG-IP issue that’s been escalated to me, auditing a fleet of devices, working through CVE remediation, defining new operational processes or helping engineers troubleshoot something that’s gone wrong in production. Sometimes it’s a very specific technical problem; other times it’s looking at an issue across a large number of devices and figuring out how to deal with it consistently.
I also spend quite a bit of time automating things. If I’m doing something repeatedly across a large fleet, I don’t particularly want to do it manually. I’ll usually look at whether I can use Bash, Python or an API to make the process faster and more reliable.
My work involves a lot of troubleshooting and problem-solving. I like taking something where the answer isn’t immediately obvious and working backwards until I can explain what’s happening. If a customer requires a particular non-standard configuration, then I will perform testing in my lab to see if it is functional and supportable.
DevCentral: Can you give us a glimpse into your technical expertise?
Michael: My strongest area of expertise is F5 BIG-IP, particularly LTM and GTM, along with SSL and the wider application delivery stack. I’ve worked extensively with these technologies in large and complex environments, including designing configurations, troubleshooting difficult issues and carrying out migrations.
I’ve also got experience across other network security technologies including Cisco ASA and Firepower, Palo Alto Networks NGFW and Citrix NetScaler, which has given me a good understanding of how application delivery, networking and security all fit together.
Alongside the hands-on technology, I’m a strong believer in automation and repeatability. Once you’re managing a large environment, having a consistent and efficient way of doing things becomes just as important as knowing how to configure the individual technologies.
DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, how have they helped in your career?
Michael: I currently hold the F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA, BIG-IP) certification.
Earlier in my career I also held the F5 Certified Technology Specialist certifications for Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and DNS, although those have since expired.
The certifications have given me a structured foundation for understanding the F5 platform, but for me the real value comes from combining that knowledge with hands-on experience.
I think the two complement each other well. The certification gives you the foundation, while working with the technology in real environments teaches you how it behaves when things aren’t quite as straightforward as they are in the documentation.
DevCentral: How were you introduced to DevCentral and what keeps you engaged?
Michael: I was introduced to DevCentral through working with F5 technologies and looking for solutions to real-world technical problems. Like many engineers, I initially came to find answers to specific questions.
What kept me coming back was the practical nature of the information. You can find documentation for how something is supposed to work, but DevCentral often has discussions from people who have actually encountered the strange behaviour you only see in a production environment.
I still like that aspect of it. Sometimes I’m looking for a very specific answer, and other times I’ll come across a discussion about something completely different and end up learning something useful.
DevCentral: What does community mean to you?
Michael: For me, community is people being willing to share their experience.
Nobody knows everything, particularly when you’re working across a lot of different technologies. You can have years of experience with a particular platform and still come across a problem you’ve never seen before.
I’ve learned a lot from other engineers throughout my career, whether that’s through colleagues, forums, documentation or people sharing their experiences online. So I think there’s also an element of giving something back. If I’ve spent several hours figuring something out, I’d much rather share what I learned and potentially save someone else from having to spend the same several hours.
DevCentral: What’s a challenge have you encountered and how did community help you? (Does not have to be the DevCentral Community)
Michael: A recurring challenge in network security is troubleshooting problems that cross multiple systems. It’s very easy to look at an issue and assume it’s a firewall problem, a load-balancer problem or an application problem when the actual cause is somewhere else entirely.
I’ve had plenty of situations where the initial assumption about a problem turned out to be wrong. That’s where community is particularly useful.
Sometimes you don’t need somebody to give you the answer. You just need someone who’s seen something similar to say, “have you checked this?” That one question can send you down a completely different path and save a huge amount of time. I often find it useful to bounce ideas off my colleagues. Even when I have a good idea of what the problem is, talking it through with someone else can highlight something I’ve overlooked or give me a completely different perspective.
DevCentral: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received and how did it have lasting impact?
Michael: Don’t just fix the problem. Understand why it happened.
That’s probably had the biggest impact on how I troubleshoot.
When you’re dealing with a production issue, obviously the first priority is getting the service working again. But once you’ve done that, I want to understand what actually happened.
If changing a configuration fixes something, that’s useful, but I don’t want to stop there. I want to know why that setting made a difference, what caused the original behaviour, and whether there’s something we can do to prevent it happening again.
It’s made me much more interested in understanding the underlying behaviour rather than simply memorising fixes. Experience with configuring iRules has been helpful in this regard as you really need to understand what you’re trying to achieve and make sure you use commands that are compatible with the event you are using to avoid those dreadful TCL errors!
DevCentral: What is your favorite thing about the DevCentral community?
Michael: The willingness to help.
There’s a huge amount of technical knowledge within DevCentral, but what I particularly like is when people explain why something works rather than just giving you the command or configuration you need.
That’s much more useful to me. If I understand the reasoning behind a solution, I can usually apply that knowledge the next time I encounter a similar problem.
DevCentral: If you weren’t in your current profession what would be your dream job?
Michael: I’d probably struggle to stay away from technology completely. I’ve always had a tendency to want to understand how things work, so I’m not sure I’d be very good at a job where I couldn’t take something apart and figure it out!
Outside of technology, I’d probably choose something involving photography. It’s something I enjoy in my spare time, and I like the combination of technical knowledge and creativity.
Although knowing me, I’d probably spend just as much time researching cameras and lenses as actually taking photographs. I do occasionally suffer from GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome!
DevCentral: If you had your own entrance music, what would it be?
Michael: It would have to be Remember the Name by Fort Minor and Styles of Beyond.
I’ve always liked the song, but the message about putting in the work and building your reputation fits pretty well with how I approach my career.
DevCentral: If you could drop everything and travel to one place right now, where would it be and what would you do there?
Michael: I would choose the Philippines.
I’d want to spend a few weeks travelling around, exploring some of the islands, experiencing the local culture and eating plenty of good food. I’d rather take my time and properly experience the place than try to rush around and see everything in a few days.
I enjoy photography in my spare time, so I’d definitely bring my camera. I’d love to capture everything from landscapes and beaches to the wildlife and everyday life.
The Galápagos Islands and seeing the Northern Lights are also high on my photography bucket list, so if I could extend the trip a little further, I’d have a few destinations in mind!
And, of course, it would be a good opportunity to switch off from work for a while - no laptop, no Teams notifications and nobody asking me to troubleshoot anything.
DevCentral: Lastly, what inspires you?
Michael: I’m inspired by people who are genuinely good at what they do but never stop learning.
Technology is constantly changing, and there’s always another problem to solve or another thing to understand. I enjoy being around people who are curious, challenge themselves, and are willing to share what they’ve learned with others.
I’m also inspired by turning a complicated problem into a simple, elegant solution. That’s probably one of the things that has kept me interested in networking and security for so long - there’s always another puzzle to solve.
- Connect with Michael on LinkedIn
Thank you Michael for letting us spotlight you for August and being an exceptional contributor to our community!
