Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month!
Oct. 3-7: All About Access Oct. 10-14: Helpers Behind the Scenes Oct. 17-21: Security Certifications Oct. 24-28: Scary Hack Stories Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month from all of us at DevCentral! Cybersecurity Awareness Monthis in October and is dedicated to helping individuals protect themselves online as threats to technology and confidential data become more commonplace. In honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we've got some security content on the docket for October broken up into four weekly themes: Oct. 3-7: All About Access We're always on the lookout for content about APM, OAuth, Zero Trust, SSO and all other things access related. Keep an eye our for auser authentication APM use case fromScheffandbowlermj. Andmomahdywalks us through how toselect Conditional Access Policies created at Azure AD. You want Modern Auth … for an app or client that’s stuck in the 2010s Zero Trust - Making use of a Powerful Identity Aware Proxy (Hands on lab) Leverage F5 BIG-IP APM and Azure AD Conditional Access Easy button Oct. 10-14: Helpers Behind the Scenes Keeping the internet safe from hackers and bad actors is hard work but somebody's gotta do it. This week we will profile people who work in security behind the scenes, including folks from the F5 SIRT team and F5 Labs. A Day in the Life of a Security Engineer from Tel Aviv Security Operations Center - Helpers Behind the Scenes F5 Labs - Helpers Behind the Scenes F5 Threat Intelligence - Helpers Behind the Scenes Oct. 17-21: Security Certifications Continuous learning is important but can also be difficult and time consuming.JRahmwill take you on his Security+certification journey as he goes through the course and takes the test. AndAaronJBshares his thoughts on security certifications. Certifications for security professionals Oct. 24-28: Scary Hack Stories In the spirit of Halloween we're using this week to tell scary hack stories instead of scary ghost stories! Keep an eye out for our scary hack short stories on the DevCentral Youtube channel, brought to you byAubreyKingF5. And Dan Woods joins our weekly DevCentral Connects livestream on Tuesday, October 25. WorldTech IT - Who Ya Gonna Call? Scary Hack Story Scary Hack Stories presented by DevCentral Be sure to check out these F5 webinars as well: F5 Cybersecurity SummitOctober 20, 2022 (On-demand) It’s Fall: Time to Bundle Up and Secure Your Distributed ArchitectureOctober 26, 2022 (On-demand) We're hope you enjoy everything we've got coming your way in October. Happy Cybersecurity Month and Happy Spooky Season (to all who celebrate)!DevCentral Visits BlackHat 2023 !!!
Once again,is headed to BlackHat in Las Vegas! Find the F5 Booth at Black Hat: A talk with Kara Sprague, Chief Product Officer at F5 Bots, AI, and Social Engineering with Dan Woods at Black Hat 2023 Quantum Cryptography with Keyfactor at Black Hat 2023 Check out PQC Labs educational resources here! MazeBolt's RADAR Dashboard Fighting security alert fatigue with Stellar Cyber App and Security teams working together with Venafi The API security journey with WWT Until next time, Black Hat! Once again,buulamis headed to BlackHat in Las Vegas! He's super-excited to hit the ground in the desert to meet up with the community and some F5 partners! He'll be bringing the experience back to you, right here, so bookmark this article for all the latest news! Find the F5 Booth at Black Hat: Looking for theF5Booth?Here it is! Check out the prize vending machine, Lego give aways, and the new Frankenstack plushies. 🎁 If you're at the show, keep your peepers peeled 👀 forbuulamwhowould love to say "hi!" A talk with Kara Sprague, Chief Product Officer at F5 Buu Lam talks with F5 Chief Product Officer Kara Sprague about F5 solutions, particularly around APIs and Multi-Cloud Networking, and what's in store for the future. 00:30 - What does the role of Chief Product Officer entail? 01:30 - Why API security has suddenly become so important in recent years? 03:40 - The exponential increase in API sprawl. 04:11 - Multi-Cloud Networking growth as a use case. 05:45 - F5 being able to deliver security embedded within Multi-Cloud networking architecture. 06:30 - What does the future hold for F5? Bots, AI, and Social Engineering with Dan Woods at Black Hat 2023 Buu Lam talks with Dan Woods (Global Head of Bot and Risk Management at F5) about bots and AI bring used to create social influence and enhance the damage of social engineering. 00:45 - Ticket bots and Sneaker bots 01:46 - Are businesses actually trying to fix this? 03:10 - Bots and AI being used to create mass social influence 06:10 - AI being used to greatly enhance the damage of social engineering Quantum Cryptography with Keyfactor at Black Hat 2023 Ted Shorter from Keyfactor talks about post-quantum cryptography, its impact, and how organizations can stay ahead of the curve. 00:40 - Post-Quantum Cryptography 01:00 - KeyFactor's PQC Lab: an educational resources 02:20 - Strategies for thriving in a post-quantum world Check out PQC Labs educational resources here! MazeBolt's RADAR Dashboard Matthew Andriani (Founder and CEO of MazeBolt) walks us through a demo of MazeBolt's RADAR dashboard--showing how vulnerabilities can be remediated, then re-checked with updated results within 5 minutes. Fighting security alert fatigue with Stellar Cyber SOC teams face alert fatigue and the burden of so many tools. Stephen Salinas shares how Stellar Cyber uses AL and ML to reduce the noise. This allows security analysts to use information gathered across all their security tools to reach conclusions quickly. For more coverage from Buu Lam at #BlackHat, check out the DevCentral overview here: https://community.f5.com/t5/devcentral-news/devcentral-visits-blackhat-2023/ta-p/319253 App and Security teams working together with Venafi Teamwork makes the dream work. Paul from Venafi sees app and security teams coming together to resolve conflicts by reaching the outcomes they want without getting in each others way. The API security journey with WWT Where are you at in your API security journey? David and Clint from WWT share their perspective, their education-focused engagement with customers, the importance of real world scenario training. Until next time, Black Hat! That's a wrap for DevCentral at Black Hat 2023! Buu Lam shares some takeaways and observations: API security dominating discussions Hybrid and Multi-Cloud is the new norm Frankenstacks are cool, look for them at future eventsHow to listen to the DevCentral Podcasts
Announcing the DevCentral Podcasts! DevCentral Podcasts After about 100 video live streams, we are now offering the DevCentral Connects live stream as an audio podcast. This can be found on all the main podcast platforms. Additional podcasts can be found under the DevCentral channel as well. F5's Office of the CTO shares "WebAssembly Unleashed," a podcast for architects, practitioners, technologists, and general Wasm enthusiasts. Watch the feed and join the hosts to dig into all things Wasm! DevCentral Connects on Apple Podcasts DevCentral Connects on Spotify To accommodate this format, I'll ensure that if there is ever any video content, it will be narrated such that the audio experience isn't missing out. Heavily technical content requiring following screen actions such asJRahm's Live Coding Sessions will be done in its own format, still via live stream video. These shows pop-up whenever Jason has an idea brewing in his mind so I suggest you subscribe to DevCentral on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook to get notified when he does go live. Hint: Join the DevCentral Connects Group hub to get advance notice of events like these! This Month In Security Podcast Be sure to check out AubreyKingF5on his Security collaboration podcast which is also available on all major platforms. This collaboration with F5 SIRT and F5 Labs is a must see listen if you want dive deeper into security! This Month in Security on Apple PodcastsDevCentral's Featured Member for February - Edouard Zorrilla
Our Featured Member series is a way for us to show appreciation and highlight active contributors in our community. Communities thrive on interaction and ourFeatured Seriesgives you some insight on some of our most engaged folks. DevCentral MVPEdouard Zorrillais our Featured Member for February! He's been helping many other members with some great tips so let's catch up with Edouard! DevCentral: First, please explain to the DC community a little about yourself, what you do and why it is important. Edouard: I am a Professional Engineer licensed in the Province of Alberta, Canada. I have been working in the IT industry for over 20 years now. I am specialized in the Network Security scope. That being said, I like working in the Network Security because keeping information safe it is important for organizations our communities as well. DevCentral: You’ve been an active contributor in the DevCentral community. What keeps you involved? Edouard: I find the community to be a good place to find answers and knowledge. There is also people with plenty experience willing to help other members and share their experience. DevCentral: Tell us a little about the technical expertise you have. Edouard: I have been working in the IT sector for over 20 years now, and in F5 Networks technologies for the last 10 years. DevCentral: You are a Network Analyst at ASEBP. 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? Edouard: My typical workday is basically to enhance the security posture at our organization. The F5 Infrastructure has proven to be very flexible and capable to meet our expectations. The pandemic has basically moved all employees working remotely, and now most of the staff continue working remotely using F5 security gateways to terminate the SSL VPN tunnel. DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career? Edouard: I have my F5 DNS certification recently achieved. Those certifications have been a factor to advance on my career while showing the employers that I am capable to support and manage their networks. That is why I now plan to challenge the BIG-IP ASM exam DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest Customer challenges and how the community helped in that situation. (Does not necessarily have to be DevCentral) Edouard: One of the biggest challenges we had was to provide a fast and secure VPN access when the pandemic broke. We had been able to accomplish those requirements using BIG-IP APM. 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? Edouard: When I saw the Star Wars saga, I wanted to build those star ships. That seemed to be very exciting. ---Thanks Edouard! The DevCentral Community really appreciate your willingness to share with our Members. Connect and Follow on Social: Edouard on LinkedIn ASEBP on LinkedIn ASEBP on TwitterDevCentral's Featured Member for December - Mohamed Kansoh
Our Featured Member series is a way for us to show appreciation and highlight active contributors in our community. Communities thrive on interaction and ourFeatured Seriesgives you some insight on some of our most engaged folks. F5 Community MemberMohamed Kansohis our DevCentral Featured Member for December! He's been helping many other members with some great tips so let's catch up with Mohamed! First, please explain to the DC community a little about yourself, what you do and why it is important. Mohamed: Well Firstly, thanks for this appreciation. This is Mohamed Kansoh, I’m Egyptian and I’m 26 years old, I’ve earned my bachelor’s degree in “Communications and Electronics” from Faculty of Engineering Menufia University since 2019. After that I worked on myself by taking more online trainings in networks and security field to be more qualified in Labor market. I started my career at the beginning of 2020 at BARQ Systems Company where was my first time to deal with F5 Products and other security Solutions. I started working with Firewalls then F5 Technologies such as BIG-IP LTM and ASM which I have found it more interesting and powerful to know and work with Specially with troubleshooting in network and security issues. At BARQ SYSTEMS I implement new F5 projects from Scratch and support our customers in their technical issues until resolved. DevCentral: You’ve been an active contributor in the DevCentral community. What keeps you involved? Mohamed: Yes, I see that F5 Community as a third hand for anyone who works with F5 technologies. When I get stuck with issues with F5, implement a new service or have any concern, I used to search for an adequate workaround, I find the clue or ideal solution at F5 Community. Also, it’s not fair to see F5 users need help or have technical concerns and I know a proper solution for them and do not reply, indeed! it’s a disappointment to see issues or technical concerns with no answer or reply even if a reply as a matter of thinking out loud. F5 Community expands my scope of knowledge, I learn much from it specially iRules and technical Articles, F5 Community adds to me every day and it keeps me updated. F5 is the closest network solution to my heart and I hope to reach the expert level with All of F5 Technologies one day! I value it and its role in networking, especially with troubleshooting, Also F5 gives you a clear vision throughout your whole network. My word to our customers “if you want a rich, secured and a high-quality network, you must implement F5 to offload your applications.“ DevCentral: Tell us a little about the technical expertise you have. Mohamed: After almost 3 years of working experience in network and Security Field, I have got experience with: Routing, switching and network design. Multiple Vendor Firewall Solutions such as: Juniper SRX Firewall. Palo-alto Firewall. Fortigate firewall. General knowledge with Forcepoint. General Knowledge with Cisco FTD. Web Applications Firewall (F5 ASM). Application Delivery controller (ADC F5 LTM). General Knowledge with Global load balancing (F5 GTM). General Knowledge with Infoblox (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) “DDIP Certified”. General knowledge with Symantec ProxySG. (Forward Proxy). DevCentral: You are a Network and Application Security at Barq Systems. 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? Mohamed: In normal days, I engage with our customers who require to implement new services, have an issue, and need troubleshooting until it solved, start new projects from scratch (implementing, Configuring F5 appliances) till Lunching the targeted production services. Nowadays, I engage with “Telecom Egypt “Company one of the biggest ISPs Companies in Egypt, I support them in a project related to F5 Advanced WAF, I have finished the implementation and Configuration of F5 appliances and now it serves production services. In my free time outside of my work, I pass this time with my wife and my laptop beside me to check the DevCentral Community periodically. I want to see if anyone has inquiries or technical concerns and my wife sees what I do and how I’m happy when I help someone. She becomes thrilled when someone accepts my solution and she loves the right marks ✔! 😄 She encourages me so much to help others. If there are no technical concerns in the community, I study to complete my F5 certification path or reading more technical Articles. I used to play Football when I was a child, but I have given up playing football at college ☹ but still enjoy watching football matches till now. Due to Covid-19 pandemic I have worked much more from home, maybe pandemic does not affect so badly with persons who works in IT field because they can proceed in their work tasks remotely. But it impacts badly with people in other fields which they do all of their work tasks physically with their hands. I hope safety for each one and hope the world to be cleaned from this Covid-19 pandemic. DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career? Mohamed: Yes, I’m a certified technology specialist in Advanced WAF, I passed F5 (101, 201, 303) exams, and now I am preparing for the rest of 3xx exams specially (F5 301a and 301b). Then I target to start studying F5 GTM, APM, AFM and BigIQ. Really, it’s a disappointment to see questions in F5 Community and I can’t reply or give any solutions related to (APM, GTM or BIGIQ), I still need to be more qualified in other F5 modules. To be honest, F5 Certification improves my understanding, knowledge and self-confidence, there is a noticeable difference in my quality before and after studying and taking exams. I do not think you can support strongly F5 without reading, studying, taking notes, working alone, searching, and organizing yourself in general. Certification has made a difference in my technical personality and self-confidence when dealing with our customers, even in my work promotions! I appreciate the certifications very much and my hope is achieving the expert level of certification path one day. “Sometimes technical certificates speak instead of you and give a very good impression about you!“ DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest Customer challenges and how the community helped in that situation. (Does not necessarily have to be DevCentral) Mohamed: I do not remember a specific challenge because DevCentral Community has helped me many times, but my biggest challenges were with iRules. With navigating Devcentral community, I can say that my level in writing codes has been improved by detecting my errors in them and solve them quickly. Sometimes you don’t find your technical needs in F5 articles, and you find it easily with DevCentral so I am grateful to this community which includes helpful people. DevCentral: 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? Mohamed: I aimed to be an engineer and I’m lucky to achieve my childhood dream which became my destiny, so I think that I am on the right way in my career and doing my best rather than thinking of another one. DevCentral: What are You a Force For? Mohamed:I am a force for my wife. I’m grateful to her and my parents as well. I am a force for rejecting racism and I believe in a decent life for all. ---Thanks Mohamed! The DevCentral Community really appreciate your willingness to share with our Members. Connect and Follow on Social: Mohamed on LinkedIn BARQ Systems on Twitter BARQ SYSTEMS on LinkedIn BARQ Systems WebsiteDevCentral's Featured Member for July - Sebastián Sierra Domínguez
Our Featured Member series is a way for us to show appreciation and highlight active contributors in our community. Communities thrive on interaction and ourFeatured Seriesgives you some insight on some of our most engaged folks. DevCentral Member Sebastián Sierra Domínguezis our Featured Member for July! He's been on a tear lately with helping other members so let's catch up with Sebastián! DevCentral: First, please explain to the DC community a little about yourself, what you do and why it is important. Sebastián: Good morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening to everyone, my name is Sebastián Sierra Domínguez I am a system engineer in love with F5 technologies. I live in Spain but I´m originally from Colombia, I packed my baggage more than 3 years ago and decide to leave my life in Colombia and start a new life in Spain one of the most remarkable decisions in my life. I started with F5 solutions since 2015 and from this day I never stopped learning new things and expanding my knowledge. In my free time, I like going to work out, cycling, jogging, playing basketball, roller skating, and other things that represent a good lifestyle, because we keep many times seated for a lot of hours working. DevCentral: You’ve been an active contributor in the DevCentral community. What keeps you involved? Sebastián: Well, DevCentral for me was always one of the best free communities with difference from other vendors, and I decided to keep involved because when you help other people, at the same time you are reinforcing your knowledge and creating new "a win to win", in many times I have to turn on an F5 device to test a feature and found a solution to help the community. and absolutely because this community around the years provided me always support and I think that this type of platform must keep working always and with the help of everyone we can make it's possible. DevCentral: Tell us a little about the technical expertise you have. Sebastián: For the last 8 years, I have been working dedicated to F5 deployments with all the different modules in F5, BIG-IP LTM, ASM, GTM-LC, APM, AFM,BIG-IQ, and Advanced Protocols, but life was not beautiful always, I had a lot of works as technical support, SW and FW administrator, Linux operator, probably the best base to be a humble person who always listens to fist the customer and try to meet all their requirements. DevCentral: You are a Security Specialist atLogicalis Spain. Can you describe your typical workday, how you manage work/life balance and the strong support of F5 solutions? How has the pandemic impacted your work? Sebastián: At Logicalis I help our clients to develop and deploy F5 products to meet technology necessities, government requirements, security improvement, and many other use cases. I start my day with a good coffee from Colombia, I read my emails and prepare all the necessary meetings with my customers for the different projects that I have to meet, I deploy many labs, test a lot of configurations and probably this is one of the reasons that makes me participate constantly in the DevCentral community, I'm always looking to extend and improve the deployments with my customer to give the best customer service, one of my personal focus in each project. Covid-19 changed my life absolutely, before pandemic I always woke up early and prepare for going to the office, and now everything is different, work remotely is an amazing benefit, but trying to keep a good lifestyle when you are all day in the home is fundamental, balance your work and time for your self is not always easy but is important keep always in mind because personal time and family time is one of the most important things in life. DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career? Sebastián: I'm 401-CSE security and 402-CSE cloud around 4 years ago and I always re-certify my exams, it is important for my company for many customer processes, and of course, it is important for me because it helps you to differentiate from other candidates in interviews for example, and this was the key point that helps me to move to Spain with a work permit, so yes, it helps me to improve my life and my career opportunities and I only can to thank the incredible work from the Dr. KJ (Ken) Salchow and their amazing certification team. DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest Customer challenges and how the community helped in that situation. Sebastián: Well, I think that is difficult to determine what is the biggest customer challenge that the community helps me to solve. because I continue using the public F5 resources such as AskF5 and Devcentral to improve and solve many issues that I found in my customers day to day. and of course, I have to mention the technical support that provides F5, probably one of the best of all vendors, I always call F5 support when I have a critical issue, and in 80% of the cases I solving the issue with their help. DevCentral: Lastly, if you weren’t doing what you’re doing – what would be your dream career? Or better yet, when you were a kid – what did you want to be when you grew up? Sebastián: Becoming a system engineer was my second plan in life, I always liked machine function and mechanical engineering was my first plan but unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to study this career. And today I think that my knowledge allows me to use all the F5 modules to develop solutions that help to improve the security and functionality of my customer's applications, and in other perspectives, this is like building a machine taking pieces of software that makes a specific function. ---Thanks Sebastián! The DC Community really appreciate your willingness to share with the DevCentral Community. Stay connected with Sebastián on social media: Sebastián on LinkedIn Logicalis on Twitter Logicalis on LinkedInDevCentral's Featured Member for September - Pascal Küppers
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 Pascal Küppers is our Featured Member for September! He's been helping many other members with some great tips so let's catch up with Pascal!DevCentral's Featured Member for March - Thomas Dahlmann
Our Featured Member series is a way for us to show appreciation and highlight active contributors in our community. Communities thrive on interaction and ourFeatured Seriesgives you some insight on some of our most engaged folks. DevCentral MVPThomas Dahlmannis our Featured Member for March 2023! He's been helping lots of other members with some great tips so let's catch up with Thomas! Plus, his birthday is this month so let's all wish him a Happy Birthday! DevCentral: First, please explain to the DC community a little about yourself, what you do and why it is important. Thomas: I am an experienced (aka old) senior security consultant who is deeply passionate about technology. I have an insatiable curiosity and am determined to fully understand the inner workings of any technology I encounter. This curiosity has led me down many rabbit holes and taken up a significant amount of my spare time, but it has also been instrumental to where I am today. I joined the security industry as a trainee at IBM in 2000 which started my journey into the world of firewalls, vpn, antivirus (yes I’m that old), mail scanners and a lot more. It was a blast. I had my first encounter with F5 in 2006 and have never looked back. It really got into my blood stream. In comparison, other technologies seem trivial and uninteresting. The F5 technology stack gives an unpresedented visibility into what goes around in the infrastructure and especially what needs to be done about it to keep bad actors out and maintain production stability. I’m told that I laugh a lot and easy to locate in a big building. DevCentral: You’ve been an active contributor in the DevCentral community. What keeps you involved? Thomas: While the F5 software stack is undeniably impressive, it can also be a daunting challenge that feels like a vertical mountain waiting to be climbed. As someone who has bumped their head and picked up painful experiences along the way, I am determined to spare others from similar struggles. I am constantly learning from DC and consider it my go-to source for knowledge and inspiration. As a result, I feel a sense of responsibility to share my insights with the community. We all stand on the shoulders of others, and I find it incredibly fulfilling to help lift others up and empower them to succeed. DevCentral: Tell us a little about the technical expertise/learning history you have. Thomas: I think, like many others, my journey started with LTM. It was a good fit for me as an infrastructure individual coming from the switching, routing, firewall world. The logic around the proxy mindset gave me a better understanding of the lower levels in the protocols as well as the higher. The more I played around with iRules the more familiar I became with HTTP and its inner workings. It was also in those days when Firepass came around and introduced me to authentication on a whole new level. When Firepass became APM the toolset just jumped to a complete new level. In the good old days before cloud and CDN, BIG-IP GTM (now called DNS) and WAM had its prime time and I also had a couple of projects with delivering content closest to the client. Again, it was an experince which got me up close and personal with HTTP and how you could trick the browser to be smarter. One of the most difficult modules to get on the wire is BIG-IP ASM/AWAF. It took me a couple of months to learn how to use the tool but many many years to master the delicate process of convincing customers that a web firewall is worth the time and show them how to operate it without the struggle. Recent time has given us Shellshock and Log4j so it has become easier to exemplify the needs for protecting the webapplications. Due to the recent geopolitical situation DDoS has shown us how vulnerable we are without proper protection, and here AFM has shown why it is there. It is quite satisfying to watch a DDoS attack just being swept away without interfering with production. As the F5 environment becomes bigger and more complex, I have used more and more time on finding ways to automate and work smarter. This is why I started my Let's Encrypt integration automation scripts. A lot of time goes into this simple but important task and saving just a couple of minutes every day really counts. This scripting focus also talks natually into the way clouds work and how you fx operate thousands of domains in F5 Distributed Cloud. A lot of what is required of us today is simply too dynamic to be operated manually. Fortunately, the F5 software stack has consistently proven to be a reliable and effective solution for meeting these needs. DevCentral: You are a Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense. Can you describe your typical workday, how you manage work/life balance and the strong support of F5 solutions? How has the pandemic impacted your work? Thomas: My job is multiroled and besides working as a consultant I also have a dozen consultants reporting to me. So, a typical week is split between nursing my consultants, administrative tasks, interfacing with the business and helping out customers. When I work as a consultant my assignments are split into projects and ad-hoc tasks. Balancing all of these responsibilities can be a delicate task, as it is important to ensure that I don't burn out. Luckily I'm a soccer dad which forces me to clock-out and stand on the sideline of the soccer fields or shuttle the kids around the country for matches. There is nothing like mother nature teaching you about themodynamics of the northern hemisphere (freezing your extremities off) to clear you mind. To sharpen my F5 skills I have created my own mini datacenter back home. I run my own mail infrastructure and various other services. Most of these services are tied in behind some sort of F5 product, BigIP or NGINX. This forces me to be eating my own dogfood and is a perfect testbed for solutions my customers are looking for or I can build new crazy constructions for inspriation. It is simply the best way of learning how it all works. Now looking back at the previous 2-3 years of Covid I feel a lot has changed and a lot stays the same. The nature of the pandemic has forced us to think differently, and for some to brake habbits. For some it is now possible to be working remotely which was unheard of before. This flexibility has really given possibilities and made the world a bigger place. It has also shown to me that I really need to be close to people and I how much I thriwe in a crowd. I feel we lost out on a lot of oppotunities because of the distance and people were harder to reach. Nothing beats a room with a whiteboard and a lot of coffee. I think were are slowly finding a new balance between interacting physcially and working remotely. DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career? Thomas: Yes, I'm a 401 CSE. There are two specific reasons as to why I hold this certification. First one is to keep our partner level, we must hold a certain amount certified consultants. The second one is to prove to customers that I can more than spell to F5. You become more trustworthy with this badge. I have always been in the partner channel so certifications were mandatory. What I have come to realize is that being forced to prepare for these certifications actually gets you through documentation you otherwise wouldn't have. Everytime I do this I pick up new knowledge, niche or sometimes groundbraking. So it isn't all bad. DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest Customer challenges and how the community helped in that situation. Thomas: Recalling all the times I've frantically searched for a small detail that ultimately saved the day is a challenge. However, it's often those little things that make a significant difference. I see the big strength of the community in that you always have access to a solution, part of it or inspiration for it. This ubiquitous access to knowledge for everyone is what sets F5 apart from all others. If I shall highlight a single event I think I will select a situation where one of my customers was suffering from DDoS attacks that we needed to fix - fast. A search on DC gave me a skeleton for an iRule. Our requirements where somewhat more demanding than what we could find, but by giving us the inspiration the iRule grew from 20 lines to beyond 600. This iRule is now in my standard toolbelt against DDoS and is slowly expanding everytime attacks comes in or the customer environments changes. It has proven its worth and is now protecting numerous customers in different industries. A true testament to the power of the community. 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? Thomas: When it comes to my career path it has always been easy - something with IT. Observing others as they struggle to find their way, I feel immensely privileged by how effortlessly my own journey has unfolded. I don't think I have ever dreamed of being anything else, boring I know. Should I have chosen another path, I think I would have chosen a military career. Ironically, when I look at my daily life today, I can't help but feel that I chose a non-kinetic military path, as I find myself entrenched in protecting customers from cyber attacks. ---Thanks Thomas! The DevCentral Community really appreciates your willingness to share with our Members. Connect and Follow on Social: Thomas on LinkedIn Thomas' Website Thomas' Mastedon Handle Orange Cyberdefense on LinkedIn Orange Cyberdefense on TwitterRSA Conference 2022 - That's a wrap! Here's what you may have missed
RSA Conference is one of the biggest conferences you can attend in our industry. It was last held in person in February 2020 with 36,000 attendees, although previous years saw numbers around 45,000 attendees. In 2021, it was held virtually and everyone has been excited to get back to an in-person event in 2022. This year, the show floor had a great amount of energy! I reconnected with many old friends and I met many people for the first time in person, having only seen them online otherwise, whether co-workers or other industry friends. Some common discussions happening around the F5 booth this year were: What's new with F5? and filling them in on Distributed Cloud and WAAP What are you doing for Fraud? What are APIs and how do you protect them? What is your approach to Zero Trust? These themes guided some of the videos thatPSilvaand I created during the week. We realize not everyone can attend the event so we wanted to document the event as best we can and share the experience with viewers. We even tried using a 360 camera to create a VR experience for everyone. And we also pulled off a Live Stream from the show floor! Below is all of the main videos we created for the week. We created some additional Bonus Content that is geared towards the members of the DevCentral Connects Group as well - please join the group in order to see that feed. Some of the shorter content will just end up on our social accounts so be sure to follow us there as well. Peter: LinkedIn / Twitter Buu: LinkedIn / Twitter Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!
DevCentral's Featured Member for April - Mihai Cziraki
Our Featured Member series is a way for us to show appreciation and highlight active contributors in our community. Communities thrive on interaction and ourFeatured Seriesgives you some insight on some of our most engaged folks. DevCentral MVPMihai Czirakiis our Featured Member for April 2023! He's been helping lots of other members with some great tips so let's catch up with Mihai! DevCentral: First, please explain to the DevCentral Community a little about yourself, what you do and why it is important. Mihai: I am a Data Center Network Senior Design Engineer working for _VOIS – Vodafone Intelligent Solutions. I have been working with load-balancing/ADC for the last 8 years (with some gaps). I started my career 15 years ago as a Network Support Engineer. At some point, I started working with F5 LTM and really enjoyed it. Since then, this has been my favorite part of my job. At some point, I wish this would be all I do, ‘playing’ with these types of devices and technologies. The other part that I discovered in the last years is Automation (Ansible,Python). In my free time, I like spending time with my family(I have 2 kids), traveling, and cycling (Road and MTB) DevCentral: You’ve been an active contributor in the DevCentral community. What keeps you involved? Mihai: I really like helping people. One, because when I started working with F5 BIG-IP LTM, I found help in this forum, and Second, because I feel I need to pass on the things I've learned. It also helps me reminding things that I have not used for some time. DevCentral: Tell us a little about your technical expertise. Mihai: I started as Support Network Engineer focusing and on routing/switching, then moved to firewalls and load-balancing/ADC. I’ve worked with BIG-IP LTM (no other modules unfortunately) and then moved to Citrix Netscaler. I really like working on deploying new applications/services using these devices. Next, I was(still am) into Network Automation. I started with Bash, then Ansible, and now Python. Now I am working in DC Network Design and sometimes this involves BIG-IP LTM devices. DevCentral: You are a Senior Design Engineer at _VOIS. Can you describe your typical workday, how you manage work/life balance and the strong support of F5 solutions? How has the pandemic impacted your work? Mihai: Since the pandemic, I’ve been working only remotely and I’ve started to like it. It gives me more time by not having to travel to the office. For almost 2 years I have been working at _VOIS – Vodafone Intelligent Solutions. “_VOIS is a global, multi-functional organisation, a Centre of Excellence for Intelligent Solutions focused on adding value and delivering business outcomes for Vodafone. “ On a normal day, the first thing I do is getting my daughter to school. When I get back, I start working. I am involved in multiple projects, so I am checking every day what I can do for each project. Sometimes I work on only one project for days, other times I can do small bits on multiple projects. When I have time I check the DevCentral forum to see what issues have 0 answers. If I know how to help or have an idea, I test it in the lab environment I have at home. (I have an Intel NUC with Vmware ESXI installed and an Eve-ng VM where I have an LTM with 2 web servers in the backend.) I check the forum several times per day. Sometimes I find interesting problems that someone has already answered and that I don't know how to solve, but I'm learning from them. Working in Network Design, sometimes I get a network design that involves an F5 device usually, but we also have other vendors. These are my favorites. Usually, they are about the topology and what features they can use for the solution or an app. So I have more of a consultant role. I don’t do implementations or operations anymore. I miss working with irules/profiles, setting up virtual servers for challenging web applications, securing an app etc. (But I have my lab for this) After my job schedule ends, I pick up my son or my daughter from school/kindergarten and spend some time with both of them. DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career? Mihai: After 7 years of working with load-balancing technologies, last year I decided to give it a try and get a certification. So I got F5-CA, BIG-IP. I did it because I had time and I wanted to remind myself of some things I have forgotten by not using them. I believe that experience with a technology beats a certification. That’s why I was not keen to have one. Even now I feel that I have to take the next level certification because the current one does not reflect my experience with these technologies. DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest Customer challenges and how the Community helped in that situation. (Does not necessarily have to be DevCentral) Mihai: It is not a Customer challenge but more an internal request to upgrade to a new OS version. It was back in 2015 when I was struggling to convert HTTP classes back to irules, because HTTP classes were getting deprecated. Doing it manually would have taken me quite a lot of time. So I opened my first DevCentral request. One of the members helped me with a regex command to convert a file of HTTP classes to an irule. Here it is : https://community.f5.com/t5/technical-forum/http-class-to-irule-conversion/td-p/242504 The DevCentral MVP member is: StephanManthey Thanks again! 🙂 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? Mihai: I really love what I am doing and I am happy that I have a job that I like. But if I really have to choose something else probably it would be something about cycling. Maybe a bike shop/service or a bicycle travel agency. ---Thanks Mihai! The DevCentral Community really appreciates your willingness to share with our Members. Connect and Follow on Social: Mihai on LinkedIn Mihai's Blog Mihai's Github _VIOS on the Web _VIOS on LinkedIn
