2019 in review

Just realized that I haven’t blogged for the whole year. The blogging is a therapy for me and certainly considering so many changes – returning to this professional hobby is necessary.

So what happened since December, 2018:

• Google Cloud Certification – certainly getting there was an interesting experience, exam was different than any exams that I ever took before – which I really liked (maybe partially because I passed it?)

• Cisco Live in San Diego in June:






• San Diego is the place that certainly makes me feel great
• Keynotes, announcements and some of the sessions that I managed to attend certainly not as nearly exciting and interesting as my last Cisco Live event in 2010 – it seemed no one really understood why they are attending or presenting at the event
• Foo Fighters at the customer appreciation event – was the best concert I’ve ever been. Dave Grohl has crazy amount of energy that I’ve never witnessed before!
• Last day of the show – Avi Networks acquisition news came that completely derailed me for the rest of the year – as I never could predict to be VMware employee again

• Bangalore, India trip:

• In July I was presented with a unique opportunity to visit Avi Networks office in Bangalore
• It was my first visit to India, and it was an absolutely incredible experience to meet in person many of the exceptional Avi Engineers that have worked with my customers
• It was no cultural shock for me as many things in Russia are similar to what I could see in India. Friendly honking with no face expression was the newest thing for me

• Back to VMware:
• It has been two years and a couple of months since my departure from the company and it’s shocking to see all that changes
• It’s really great to reconnect with my old friends 
• Avi is still in the early stages of the integration and so far we all action as before – all together as part of NSBU (Network and Security Business Unit)

• Technical blogging – there is a draft list of topics that I’m planning to turn to a separate blog posts (most likely on Packet Pushers community site)
• Kubernetes and Security solutions
• Distributed systems paradoxes in SDN (was just published)
• Fingers crossed - it will much more to come!