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Hank Preston

Distinguished Architect

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Hank started his career in network engineering like many, by cracking open a CCNA book and learning all about subnetting, the OSI model, and CLI interfaces. He fell in love with the deceptive simplicity and elegance of network communication and TCP/IP and dove in head first. His journey was one that included many network designs (and debates about designs), miles of copper/fiber cables, late night change windows, and even later night troubleshooting calls (it’s always the network… even when it isn’t :-). Along the way he picked up certifications in routing/switching, wireless, and security, culminating with earning CCIE #38336 in February 2013 and later becoming the first Cisco DevNet Expert #20220001. After spending a couple of years exploring the world of “Cloud”, “DevOps” and “Applications”, the talk of SDN, automation and programmability caught his ears, and he decided it was past time to return to networking full time. Hank's day job is putting NetDevOps theory into practice as the Principal Engineer for Learning and Certifications at Cisco. Helping engineer and operate the platform used by engineers around the world to learn the skills to be better engineers when they operate their own platforms. It's kinda circular and meta.

Articles

December 12, 2025

2

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Two New Ways to Bring NetBox Into Your CML Networks

8 min read

Introducing the ready-to-go NetBox Server node for instant synchronization and the cml2netbox utility to sync CML with NetBox.

September 4, 2025

4

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Bringing Some Source of Truth to Your NetAI Agentic Playground

10 min read

What if an AI agent could access source-of-truth data about the network?

August 8, 2025

3

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Context Length: An AI ‘Nerd Knob’ Every Network Engineer Should Know

6 min read

Learn about context length and its role in AI optimization for network engineers.

July 25, 2025

1

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Creating a NetAI Playground for Agentic AI Experimentation

10 min read

Explore the technical aspects of agentic AI as an almost-autonomous AI-powered network assistant.

March 27, 2025

2

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Network Engineers: I Don’t Want to Be an AI Babysitter

9 min read

As AI transforms the tech landscape, network engineers should embrace AI as a resource, rather than their replacement.

February 24, 2025

6

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Navigating the AI Era as a CCIE

6 min read

Technical expertise remains crucial in an AI-driven world, with new insights and key updates for CCIEs to prepare for the future.

October 28, 2024

1

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Exploring AAA and TACACS Configuration with Cisco Modeling Labs

9 min read

Explore AAA, an essential topic found on many Cisco Certification exams. Go from concept to configuration with Hank's step-by-step guide, complete with downloadable CML topologies to suit your learning needs.

September 12, 2024

112

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CCNA: The foundation that built my IT career (can be yours, too)

6 min read

It's safe to say that I absolutely LOVE the CCNA certification.  It continues to change the lives of engineers worldwide, and I'm excited to be helping new engineers earn their CCNA certifications.

June 27, 2024

2

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An Artificially Intelligent Peer Reviewer Arrives

6 min read

How should network engineers be thinking about and using AI right now, and what to could they expect for the future? Here, we focus on one surprising use case that I found to be a bit exciting: Using AI to peer review your work. Buckle up, and let's check it out.