DevCentral's Featured Member for August - Kumar
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 active folks. Samir Kumar Jha is his official name, but all his friends (of course, including us at DevCentral) call him "Kumar". He's our featured member for August, and we want you to learn more about this great member of our community. DevCentral: Please explain to the DC community a little about yourself, what you do and why it’s important. Kumar: First, I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity. Well, myself Samir Kumar Jha, am an engineer in Computer Science and currently work as Sr. Security Engineer in Accenture. I live in India. Started my Journey as Unix Network programmer and moved to Core Network due to interest. I have been actively working on F5 Devices, Juniper & Checkpoint Firewall for the last 9+ years and during tenure worked with various clients & different BIG-IP platforms. It’s always fun to learn new things, discuss with DC peers and keep the knowledge up to date. I love to play with iRules, SSL, SAML, F5 Policy, Ciphers, and HTTP. In my free time I like to study Network Security blogs (i.e. Google, Microsoft & Qualys blogs) and spend time with family. Hobbies: Love to play football, travelling and watching movie. DevCentral: You are a very active contributor in the DevCentral community. What keeps you involved? Also, can you tell us a bit about your handle, F5_rock? Kumar: Well, Devcentral is great learning blog to solve complex issues, share ideas with peers from across geographic and it doesn’t matter which time zone you follow. There will be always someone to help you and some sort of solution will be there in the forums. DC provided me with rich knowledge (especially LIGHTBOARD LESSON) in different LTM module, helped me to represent my customer. It’s a great forum to share knowledge and keep you involved in complex issues. I always read DC forum’s question multiple times and try to solve them my own way (thinking & visualizing). Sometimes I replicate F5 configuration in Home LAB PC to validate the iRule behaviour and share correct configuration/iRule/Script to DC members; which keeps me active. I am a fan of @Stanislas Piron and @Kai Wilke and follow his post/code and learn more on F5 product. Oh!! Initial days it was difficult to understand iRule syntax. I had kept my name “F5Killer” in the DC blog. Now I am good at writing iRules, iApps & bash scripting and helping other DC members. So, I have changed my DC handle to “F5_rock” but still i am in learning phase. DevCentral: Tell us a little about the areas of BIG-IP expertise you have. Kumar: I have been working on F5 BIG-IP Product for 9 years, beginning from version v4.x to v13.x Series. I got the chance to work with various customers (Retail, Aero-Space, Banking/Finance, and Cyber Security). I deployed all types of F5 BIG-IP hardware (Standalone & VIPRION). F5 Technology I Worked With: BIG-IP LTM, GTM, AFM, ASM, EM, iApps and iRules. My favourite F5 device is VIPRION with combination of LTM + ASM and love to play with iRule, Ciphers, iApps. DevCentral: You are a Sr. Security Engineer with Accenture. Can you describe your typical workday, how you manage work/life balance and the strong support of F5 solutions? Kumar: My typical workday starts with checking mails, client meetings and always ready for next action. Job profile of Network & Security Engineer is challenging. Daily work includes task provisioning, Project implementation, finding solutions and writing scripts to automate day-2-day BIG-IP tasks. We manage several Clients and keep their application/ infrastructure safe from attackers (i.e. Vulnerabilities, Bugs, DOS attack, Known issues etc.). F5 BIG-IP is the best product in ADC (Application Delivery Controller) industry with all the function and making life easier to integrate different enterprise applications. Before going to bed, I spend some time (around 20-30min) to read F5 RSS feed, CVE, light board lesson and known and unknown threats on F5, etc. DevCentral: Do you have any F5 Certifications? If so, why are these important to you and how have they helped with your career? Kumar: Yes, F5 certification program helps to get deeper understanding in various BIG-IP modules. A few months ago I completed Application Delivery Fundamentals (101) and I'm ready to go with next level of F5 certification. Apart of that, I have Azure Cloud, Checkpoint & Juniper Firewall Certifications. The F5 certification program is very practical and different from other vendors. Most important thing; you can directly apply what you have been learning. I already completed F5 LTM Essentials, LTM Advanced Certification in (2011). DevCentral: Describe one of your biggest BIG-IP challenges and how DC or iRules (or iControl/iApps/etc) helped in that situation. Kumar: DevCentral is a great source for me to learn and implement iRules, iApps configuration as per requirement. A few months ago I had a challenge, I guess not biggest but an interesting one; to get good Qualys rating for external applications and it was mandatory per PCI compliances. I have taken help of DC articles and solved the issue within the specified period of time. DevCentral: Lastly, if you weren’t an IT admin – what would be your dream job? Or better, when you were a kid – what did you want to be when you grew up? Kumar: My dream was to become a fighter pilot but later stages, it got changed and now I am Sr. Security Engineer. Thanks for the opportunities for being a featured member. Thanks Kumar! We really appreciate your willingness to share all of these great things with our community. This is a great community because of people like you! To stay connected with Kumar on other social media channels, here's his info: Samir Jha LinkedIn ID: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samir-jha-75b0b999/ Accenture URL: https://www.accenture.com/in-en/new-applied-now Accenture Twitter: https://twitter.com/Accenture Accenture LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accenture/
