Daren Fulwell

I've been kicking around in networking for 25+ years, and I'm passionate about doing network design right. I blog about it, I contribute in communities about it, and I make videos with my buddies Malcolm Booden, and the #init6 crew about it [Check out my appearances on podcasts and videos]

I believe:

a) Everyone who does this for a living - cloud, on-prem, software-defined or not; architect, consultant, engineer or cable monkey - should know the fundamentals. Learn bridging, switching, routing. Understand signal propagation through wire or air, modulation and encoding. And know your history - RFC1925 rule 11 applies to everything. It all helps.

b) Certification is important to your career. It opens doors, lets people know that you are capable of reaching a certain "verified" standard (I'm involved with helping Cisco relate their cert programme to the engineer on the street via the CCIE Advisory Council). But it isn't everything - experience is. Use certification as a framework for learning, as a guide and a series of goals. Most important though is NEVER STOP LEARNING.

c) Always be looking for a way to help develop others. There may not have been an online community helping you along your learning path back in the day. It doesn't matter. Be nice and GIVE BACK. Mentor, contribute, Tweet words of wisdom. Anything.

I'm interested in:

a) All forms of networking technology, software-defined and otherwise. Especially automation and programmability. Check out #init6 for an initiative I'm heavily involved with, helping the network engineer attack the new world of automation head on;

b) Design methodologies - too many technology solutions are let down by poor interface or simple lack of functionality where it counts most

c) Using graphical forms to communicate ideas - diagrams, whiteboards, infographics, dashboards, video ...

And for completeness, I'm a CCIE #20443 and CCDE #2015::41.