Brief Summary
I have over 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, most of which has been spent in networking/telecoms in the UK/EMEA and NZ/APAC. I have worked in varied roles such as technical consulting, network design and architecture, pre-sales support, operational support and software engineering. I moved to New Zealand in 2008, where I worked in several roles before returning to the UK in 2022.
My experience has been gained in a wide range of organisations, from start-ups, through enterprises and to large service providers and telcos. I have worked in both team environments and on an individual and independent basis. In recent years, I have also done a lot of my work in the public sector.
Though performing hands-on work is not as regular as it used to be, it has been a strong element in my previous work, when I gained satisfaction from performing proof-of-concepts before deploying to production environments. I first started working with Cisco in 1994, and with Juniper in 1999.
I very much enjoy customer-facing roles since no two customers are alike, and so the variety this gives is always a challenge that I am keen to take on. Taking part in technical discussions with customers forms a key part of being able to fully understand their requirements, which is essential to being able to deliver a successful solution.
Latest News and Useful Articles — Updated: 24 January 2025 —
FBI warrantless searches violate Fourth Amendment. [Ars Technica]
Developing and publishing a new IPv6 documentation prefix. [ForwardingPlane]
Defining IPv6 operating modes. [ForwardingPlane]
IPB167 - crossing the 50% IPv6 adoption threshold. [ForwardingPlane]
State of network automation survey 2024. [Packet Pushers]
Use BGP outbound route filters (ORF) for IP prefixes. [ipSpace]
Sturgeon's law - VRRPv3 edition. [ipSpace]
The Internet is rife with IoT botnets delivering record DDoSes. [Ars Technica]
The Ethernet/802.1 protocol stack. [ipSpace]
Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht. [The Register] [The Verge] [Engadget] [Ars Technica]
Why hasn't network automation been fully adopted? [Packet Pushers]
iBGP is better than eBGP. [ipSpace]
FCC mandate telcos must secure their networks from foreign spies. [The Register]
Spine-and-leaf fabric design. [ipSpace]
A more comprehensive news/article list can be found on my networks sub-domain here.
Click here for the latest full version of my CV, or find me on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).
rob (at) larsenconsulting (dot) net
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