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 December 2025 —

• Denmark accuses Russia of cyberattacks.  [Schneier]

• The showers and baths keeping DC tech cool.  [BBC News]

• AI is rewriting how power flows through the DC.  [The Register]

• China turns on experimental heir to ARPANET.  [The Register]

• Deliberate Internet shutdowns.  [Schneier]

• Where are you? A look at GeoIP.  [Geoff Huston]

• IETF v6ops Working Group on Software Gone Wild.  [ForwardingPlane]

• Has Ansible team abandoned network automation?  [ipSpace]

• Chinese surveillance and AI.  [Schneier]

• Honeypots can help defenders, but also presents risks.  [The Register]

• IETF v6ops working group with Nick Buraglio.  [ipSpace]

• Simplifying SR-TE with mesh templates.  [Routingcraft]

• DNS security at SharkFest'25 EU.  [Weberblog]

• DNS security overview.  [Weberblog]

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

© Robert Larsen.  All rights reserved.