DevCentral's Featured Member for March - Nikolay Dimitrov

Our Featured Member series is a way for us to show appreciation and highlight active contributors in our community. Communities thrive on interaction and our Featured Series gives you some insight on some of our most engaged folks. DevCentral Member and 2022 MVP Nikolay Dimitrov is our Featured Member for March! Let's catch up with Nikolay Dimitrov!

DevCentral: First, please explain to the DC community a little about yourself, what you do and why it is important.

Nikolay: 10 years ago I started working as a Network Engineer and after some time I also got involved in Network Security and after that Cyber Security.

I am happy that I was first a network engineer as in this way I had a good foundation with technologies that work between Layer 1 – 4 of the OSI model and after that I learned some web programming languages like PHP, Javascript. This helped me to start working with the F5 Big-IP Application Delivery Controllers devices as for the F5 systems a person needs a good foundation at all the layers of the OSI model and some basic understanding in web scripting.

DevCentral: You’ve continued to be an active contributor in the DevCentral community.  What keeps you involved?

Nikolay: I believe in teaching others and not just giving them direct answers to their questions and the F5 community gives me the ability to do so. This is the way I answer questions in the F5 community by providing information and even F5 official articles that have the answer.

DevCentral: Tell us a little about the technical expertise you have.

Nikolay: I worked with many technologies like DLP, Web Proxy, Endpoint Protection, Next Generation Firewalls, NDR/EDR, CDN, Bot Protections, Web Application Firewalls, DDOS system testing, Web Scanner testing, Ansible/Terraform automations and many others but my biggest experience is working with F5 systems like most of the modules of the F5 Big-IP ADC, BIG-IQ and irule scripts.

DevCentral: You currently are a consultant in the field of Cyber Security/Network Security. Can you describe your typical workday, how you manage work/life balance and the strong support of F5 solutions? How has the recent pandemic impacted your work?

Nikolay: Recently I decided to move on and I left the last company that I worked for as I want to be directly invloved in managing IT projects, related to the F5 technologies and NGFW. Because F5 has lab licenses, I have my own virtual IT lab on my computer that helps me to reserch and prepare for any F5 related IT projects and because I like F5, working with F5 does not stress me out. In my free time I go to the mountains, as in my country Bulgaria there are many mountains.

DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career?

Nikolay: I have the highest level of the F5 Certifications the F5 401 and 402 Security and Cloud Expert Certifications.

DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest Customer challenges and how the community helped in that situation. 

Nikolay: My biggest challenge was getting into scripting and working with iRules and F5 EAV External monitor bash scripts but the F5 community had many examples of iRules and bash scripts and I could have always asked a question and someone would help me.

DevCentral: Lastly, if you weren’t doing what you’re doing – what would be your dream career? Or better, when you were a kid – what did you want to be when you grew up?

Nikolay: When I was kid I wanted to be an astrophysicist or space commander that has his own space ship, somethink like in Star Trek.I still want my own Space Ship, so I can travel between the Stars but in the mean time till I get my space ship I am also happy working with the F5 systems as every F5 project makes me think and learn new things.

---Thanks Nikolay! We really appreciate your willingness to share with the DevCentral Community. Stay connected with Niokolay on social media:

• Nikolay on LinkedIn