• Automating a repetitive task: – Build application to automate a business process – Automate Palo Alto Networks NGFW deployment/configuration – Write a script to register IP addresses to Dynamic Address Groups – Build automated data pipeline for predictive modeling or machine learning (i.e. recommender system) – Leveraging CI/CD pipeline for automated builds and deployment (i.e. Jenkins, Travis) – Generated code leveraging Google Protocol Buffers or Swagger-code- gen
Texas at San Antonio, BA in Sociology – 2007: Del Mar College, AAS Computer Information Systems • Career – Developer Relations @ Palo Alto Networks, 2017 – Present – Professional Services @ Palo Alto Networks, 2014 - 2017 – InfoSec @ UTSA, 2012 – 2014 – … 6 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential
Services 5-day health check engagement • Problems: – Manual process that included only sample of devices (<=5) – Inconsistent collection and reporting methodologies – Not performed often enough, if ever • Goals – Continuous health, audit and best practice assessment of entire Palo Alto Networks deployment delivered by a web application 7 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential
and Confidential - Develop library that automates each check via Panorama and NGFW API - Store results in database - Build a web application that supports workflows around running and scheduling health checks, setting thresholds, adding devices, reviewing past reports, visualizing results, exporting to Excel - Classify and organize suite of checks/features already included in 5-day PS Health Check Engagement - Continue developing and improving supported checks and performance - Scale to >1000+ devices
redistribution of DAG registered-ip addresses across 2 or more Panoramas running in NSX • Problems – No built-in mechanism in Panorama or NSX for sharing DAG IPs between Panoramas – 1:1 limitation between NSX Manager and Panorama – Impossible to write policy that allows inter-availability zone traffic without ability to dynamically redistribute DAG Ips • Goals – Fully automated DAG synching between 2 or more Panoramas – Web application for visualizing/monitoring DAG synching and executing workflows specific to troubleshooting 10 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential
Proprietary and Confidential - Develop scripts that periodically poll Panorama for DAG source of record and track deltas. - Store source or record in database - Develop mechanism for replicating the source of record in all permutations - Build a web app that supports troubleshooting and monitoring workflows and visualizations - Explore Panorama API to determine best manner to derive source of record for each Dynamic Address Group - Continue developing and improving solution such that it can scale to 12 or more Panoramas and beyond
MSc in Predictive Analytics – 2010: San Jose State University, MBA – 2008: Arizona State University, BSc in Computer Information Systems • Career – Customer Success @ Palo Alto Networks, 2016 – Present – BizOps, Strategy, Finance, and BI @ Large “Antiquated” Networking Company, 2008 – 2016 12 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential
Finance • Problem Statement: – Lack of visibility to business performance – Manual workflow – Infrequent updates to metrics • Goal – Automate metrics and reporting for increased visibility – Get more eyes on the data to find more opportunities to optimize the business 13 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential
Confidential - Weekly Reports - Manual - Prone to human error - Manual distribution - Weekly Reports - Semi-Automated - Still had to manually populate raw data - Prone to human error - Manual distribution - Weekly Reports - Semi-Automated - Tied directly to DB - Limited custom logic - Still in “Excel Hell” - Manual distribution - Hourly Reports - Fully-Automated - Tied directly to DB - Highly documented - Scalable - Deeper granularity - Live dashboards (automated distribution)
Environment: – Customer Success Team – PS, Sales, Partners, and Customers • Problem Statement: – Lots of opinions about the definition of a best practice – No single source of truth – Manual workflow to measure adoption • Goals – Drive adoption of prevention best practices and educate customers 15 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential
the Boring Stuff”, “Think Python”, etc.) – MOOCs (i.e. Udacity, Udemy, Coursera, etc.) – YouTube (i.e. Corey Schafer, Sentdex, etc.) • Short Term Goal: Find a task that could be automated in your current role via scripts • Stretch Goal: Learn Full Stack Development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) 18 Palo Alto Networks Proprietary and Confidential