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Hank Preston

Principal Engineer

Learning and Certifications

Hank’s two passions are technology and theatre. Bringing them together drives him towards a borderline obsession on creating entertaining presentations, labs and demonstrations that breakdown complex technology topics for audiences. After spending several years working on and behind the scenes on stage productions, what started as a hobby turned to a profession when Hank entered the IT industry with a focus on web and database development and engineering.

Drifting from development into infrastructure engineering brought him to Cisco as a Systems Engineer, focusing on Data Center and Cloud Architecture for large enterprise customers.

And after six years as an SE, Hank has taken up the mantle of a Developer Evangelist with DevNet where he can focus full time on reminding everyone that technology can and should be fun to work with.

Hank holds a Master Degree in Information Systems as well as several certifications including CCIE R/S 38336 from Cisco.

Find Hank at:

twitter: @hfpreston

GitHub: http://github.com/hpreston

Articles

December 13, 2017

DEVELOPER

Automating Cisco ACI with Ansible Eliminates Repetitive Day-to-Day Tasks

5 min read

Jacob McGill is a network automation engineer at Network to Code, a network automation solutions provider that provides network automation training and professional services. He spends his time helping customers automate their networks using tools including like Python and Ansible. Jacob is also an Ansible developer who's written and contributed to many of the ACI modules that were released in 2.4. Feel free to reach out to Jacob at jacob@networktocode.com

December 13, 2017

DEVELOPER

With POAP You’ll Never Console into your Nexus Switches Again

3 min read

Ajay Chenempara is a senior network automation engineer at Network to Code, a network automation solutions provider that provides network automation training and professional services. Ajay is the lead instructor at Network to Code while also assisting with automation related projects. He's usually in front of customers helping them learn different tools, APIs, and technologies ranging from Python and Ansible to more complex CI/CD pipelines and how they can be leveraged within the context of network automation. Ajay can be reached at ajay@networktocode.com.

October 11, 2017

DEVELOPER

Part 2: NetDevOps Goes Beyond Infrastructure as Code

5 min read

In NetDevOps, it is standard to have a "Continuous Development" approach to network changes.  Proposed network changes are picked up by build servers which manage the progression from "Development" to "Test" and into "Production".  NetDevOps will mirror what is becoming commonplace in software development teams.

October 9, 2017

DEVELOPER

Part 1: Embrace NetDevOps, Say Goodbye to a “Culture of Fear”

4 min read

Network Builders focus on the care and feeding of the network, making sure it's available for the "consumers". The Network Consumers are the users of the network, and expect to treat the network like a utility - it "should just work".

August 9, 2017

DEVELOPER

Using CLI as Training Wheels with NETCONF/YANG

6 min read

Get all the details behind what we announced at Cisco Live! "Introducing an entirely new era of networking." Here's how you can get started, with Cisco DevNet.

June 12, 2017

DIGITAL AND SOCIAL

DevNet Uncensored @Cisco Live! What happens in Vegas Goes on #CiscoChat

2 min read

DevNet Zone Cisco Live US 2017 is nearly here, and we have planned SO much for the DevNet community. Even for those unable to make it to Las Vegas.