Life and Goal Update
I have been studying more for the CCNP ENCOR lately. Doing more thought process on what I am studying and when. The CCNP ENCOR exam will be something that I do to re-certify for both my A+ and CCNA exams. It will also help me out with my goals. Working on more studying than original content lately and will be doing more reading.
There are some things that I am studying which includes the five-year goal of getting the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure. This is mainly the CCNP ENCOR certification which is the most common one after the CCNA. I am doing my study plan, in which I have completed more of the Udemy Courses and YouTube lessons. This has been somewhat easier than I expected as I completed the CCNP program of the Cisco Networking Academy back in 2009 with my B.S. in Computer Network Management.
Still want to do the Juniper JNCIA-Junos study, which I have the Migrating from the CCNA to the JNCIA-Junos training materials until February 2027. In addition, I am doing the Fortinet NSE 2 training and will complete it in a few weeks or so. Another training material that I am doing is the Cisco AIBIZ learning path on Cisco U. The JNCIA-Junos is the second computer networking stop on the way to my CCIE five-year goal.
AI Studies
I’ve been studying the AB-731 training on Udemy and think that I will go ahead and take the AI Transformation Leader certification from Microsoft. This and the AIBIZ from Cisco are the main focus of my studies in Artificial Intelligence so that I can build my skills on both the business and technology sides. For my AI studies, I was going to do the AB-900 however the training was easier, so I don’t want to get it for the $99 fee. It is also a foundational exam in which I have three foundational exams from Microsoft already.
Udemy and TryHackMe
Currently, on Udemy, I am on a 229-week streak and am also doing well on TryHackMe being currently ranked at 477 in the U.S. all-time, in addition I am ranked at 4071 all-country, all-time. I am a Titan with a score of 51328 points, completed 412 rooms, and have 60 badges. With HacktheBox, I am doing about the same, I haven’t done much because I am only doing the free modules. I am not as motivated with HacktheBox and will do more with TryHackMe because I am paying for a yearly subscription.
Follower Counts
I am doing somewhat better on the followers. I have 535 friends on Facebook, 79 followers on Instagram, with 105 followers on Threads. On X, I have 27 followers and on LinkedIn I am growing and now have 1,404 followers and 1,353 connections. There are some things that I can improve, and I will devote more time to X and other social media platforms other than just doing mainly the LinkedIn and Facebook social media platforms.
On TryHackMe, I have 88 followers along with my company page on LinkedIn having 24 followers. On my Facebook company page, I have 31 followers along with a Facebook community page having 7 members. I am including these counts at the beginning of each month and will be looking forward to adding any new followers.
Reading
I am reading a new book which is a Science Fiction book in the Forgotten Empire series which is Book 11 and is called Resistance. I will be doing a new post on LinkedIn that will show which books I have been reading. Doing this when I have read 30 books in total. I am behind my goal, however, I am studying at a good clip, so I am not worried about it.
The books that I have been reading are somewhat larger especially the ENCOR books. This means that I might come under my goal this year of 40 to 45 books. The way that I want to study is by using training materials like books in addition to courses on Udemy and YouTube. By reading these larger books I am getting the same or a similar amount of knowledge on IT systems and other things like Science Fiction and Coaching Wrestling books.
Conclusion
I will be doing more original content on this blog and will still post on Medium for my articles which I plan to do two per month. I am also doing a newsletter on the Medium site which will be at the end of the month. I am not worried about doing this anymore and think that I will allow you guys to sign up for the newsletter on the Medium site again. Working on setting up a content calendar for this to be better managed.
More focus on the Computer Networking side of my business will help me out in the long run. I am wanting to solely do Cisco, Juniper and Fortinet certifications until I hit 2028 or so. This will help with both Network Security and Computer Networking. Thinking about doing the AWS SAA exam to re-certify my AWS CCP in 2028 and should be doing the NSE 2 in some time as well. This will be before the NSE 1 expires in 2028.
New Part of the Journey
The journey that I am still on is something that was originally to get back into the IT industry. This was by sharing the things that happened along the way. I am going into more of a sub-journey along this path which is something that I have prepared for. The new sub-journey is a five-year plan to take and pass the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure exam. This plan includes reading other books and doing extra courses to get to the level of knowledge that is needed to pass this exam.
To do this, I will be mainly taking certification exams and other courses to broaden my skill set. I am planning on taking Cisco and Juniper exams to help me on this journey. The date that I gave myself to complete this is by September 21, 2031. This is the goal and I need to study and pass multiple certifications to achieve this.
The main thing that someone would do on this path is to get the CCNA and the CCNP Enterprise. I already hold the CCNA and am studying for the CCNP ENCOR. Another part of what I am doing is studying for and passing multiple Juniper certifications. The JNCIA-Junos is something that I am studying currently.
My Journey
The journey that I am on already is more focused on the ultimate goal, which is to be a CIO, CTO, or CISO in my career. The career milestones that I want to do in this ultimate journey include the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, CISSP, CEH, PMI-ACP, GIAC Security Professional, and the CCISO certification. The path through the Network Security Engineer role is something that I am wanting to build my career on. I am focusing more on Fortinet and Cisco in order to accomplish this.
Cisco Certifications
The certifications that I have with Cisco include the CCST Cybersecurity, CCST Networking, and the CCNA. I am looking to take and pass the CCNA Automation, the CCNP ENCOR, CCNP ENARSI, CCNP ENAUTO, CCNP SPCOR, and the CCNP SCOR. These Cisco exams will help me get up to speed on the exam materials needed for the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure exam.
There are other exams that will be needed, as some more come out for these paths. The CCNP Automation, CCNP Service Provider, and the CCNP Security would only need one more certification each in order to pass those designations. I could also do more work on the wireless, design, and cloud specialist exams in order to get a better grasp of these topics.
Juniper Certifications
I am also looking to complete some Juniper certifications that include the JNCIA-Junos, JNCIA-Cloud, JNCIA-Design, JNCIA-SEC along with the JNCIS-ENT, JNCIS-SP, and the JNCIS-SEC. These exams should fill in the cracks and any gaps in my knowledge of computer networking. I am currently studying for the JNCIA-Junos and will be doing the Open Training on the Juniper Training website for these Juniper exams.
Other Certifications
I am looking forward to some other certifications that will help me out with my goals including doing some more Fortinet, ISC2, CompTIA, Microsoft and some more LPI certifications. There are some AI, Quality Management, and some Project Management certifications that I am also looking at getting.
Life Update
I have been doing more on my sole proprietorship to get some projects to work on for clients, I have a rate card and a booking system ready for clients. Having finished the training for the NSE 1, I am already working on the NSE 2 training material. Looking forward to finishing the AI Business Practitioner training from Cisco U. along with the AB-731 training for the AI Transformation Leader from Microsoft.
Working through my journey will allow me to accomplish the CCIE EI career milestone that I am wanting to achieve. For my ultimate goal this will help to stand out in the crowd and get better networking jobs or network consultant roles. I am doing good by the way and have been trying to get some contract or part-time roles as a network administrator or network security administrator. I am also looking to have some more clients for content marketing jobs.
Conclusion
This is my first life update and journey update for the first career milestone that I am preparing to accomplish. I will be doing more blog posts and articles and extending the word count through more information per piece. Looking forward to doing more over the coming months for my own original content and helping out my clients. This will also be for the Cisco and Microsoft communities.
I am still working on the Cisco Insider Champion and setting the groundwork for a Microsoft MVP. I am looking to expand my community building to these communities and will also be doing more on Reddit and Dev.to as well. Some of the Microsoft certifications that I am looking at doing include the AZ-104, AZ-700, and the SC-300. These will also help for the Microsoft Certified Trainer designation.
Update
I have completed some more certifications and have both the SEC0 from TryHackMe and today I just received the NSE 1 from Fortinet. This is part of a pivot towards a Network Security Engineer role. The role is essentially Network Engineering and Network Security, which are two of my specialties that I am wanting to do for a career.
I have some more experience with conferences and attended both the Microsoft Frontier Transformation Week and the SANS Cloud Security Exchange ‘26 in August. My firm, Aaron W. DeJong also has been updated to allow for clients with a new booking system and a new AI assistant upgrade. This will allow for me to take calls without having as much anxiety.
I am also studying more often and will be looking for a volunteer trustee role with a nonprofit in order to get more experience managing business affairs. The way that I am doing the trustee role will be by focusing more on governance, marketing, and fundraising. I am open to most trustee roles and will be doing volunteer jobs on Catchafire to get more word-of-mouth advertising.
Influencer Marketing
The following that I have on LinkedIn is somewhat good and I am at 1,351 followers and 1,305 connections. I am looking for more computer networking and network security connections. On Facebook, I am currently at 569 friends along with 79 followers on Instagram and 107 followers on Threads. I am not doing good on X and am at 24 followers. I do have a good following on TryHackMe with 83 followers and on Medium I am at 2 followers.
Blog
Doing blog posts will be something that I will do better on with just one channel going forward. This will be on aaron597.com. In addition, I have shut down the aaronwdejong.net website as it needed to be on an IaaS server for better security and management. The new website that I am still working on will be my main website that I will be doing for another domain that I have which is aaronwdejong.com.
I am also in the works for setting up my email security settings in DNS for a Gmail integration with
Conclusion
I am doing some more training for the CCNP ENCOR as well. This is something that I will be doing for about four to five months before sitting for the exam. I will be re-certifying my A+ and CCNA with the ENCOR exam. I am also more interested in quality management and will go through the Lean Six Sigma White Belt training and sit to pass the online exam.
Introduction
In the data center there is more of a need for an east-west traffic architecture instead of the traditional three-layer north-south traffic architecture. This is where the spine-leaf design comes into play and a concept that works with the modern data center fabric design. Micro-services and container orchestration typically break the more traditional approach by requiring an overlay network and using VXLANs to segment across the underlay network.
Physical Topology
Traditional campus networking architecture consists of a Core, Distribution, and Access Layers. Within the spine-leaf architecture there are only two layers, the spine and the leaf. There are three rules when designing with this approach, leaf switches can never connect to leaves, spines can never connect to spines, and each leaf must connect to all of the spines in the topology.
Leaf switches act as the access layer in this topology along with the backbone being the spine switches. There are some disadvantages to the spine-leaf in which the scale is limited by the number of ports that a single spine switch has. This is a limiting factor; however, the benefits of east-west traffic patterns make up for this in more of a data center context.
Why the Spine-Leaf Architecture?
Traditional campus architecture is stopped by spanning tree which is something that comes into play by forcing 50% of the redundant links to be idle per VLAN. By having more of a spine-leaf design there is no more need for STP and layer three can be brought into the mix for better convergence times. With Rapid Per-VLAN Spanning Tree there are some more improvements to the original STP but these idle backup ports are still a drag on the networks performance.
Routing to the leaf switches unlocks the equal-cost-multi-pathing or ECMB. This is the technology that is used for edge routing cases. Having a topology that has nothing more than two hops away provides a reduction in latency and is beneficial for data center operations. There are some more types of architecture like the collapsed core where core and distribution are merged together and have an access layer.
Overlay Network
The overlay network is something that happens across the underlay network which are the physical devices and cabling. For the underlay network, there are routers and switches that the overlay network uses to transmit the virtual machines from one data center or server to another. The overlay network is something that uses VXLANs which are layer three VLANs essentially. The Virtual-Extensible Local Area Networks provide an overlay network segmentation to transfer virtual machines across the underlay network.
Layer three boundaries restrict layer two broadcasts and the way to use VXLANs then becomes available by encapsulating UDP with layer two frames. This bypasses the layer three boundary and the overlay network is usable. The control plane is then established by MP-BGP EVPN and acts as an overlay database to block flood-and-learn discovery overhead.
Conclusion
Spine-leaf architecture is needed to provide for east-west traffic in a data center for less latency where the traditional campus architecture has some bottlenecks in this approach. To make sure that you are getting up to speed with this architecture you would need to verify the underlay routing protocol. Then you would also need to audit subscription rates on the ports that a spine switch needs along with planning for an overlay mechanism like VXLANs.
This completes the discussion on the spine-leaf architecture. By providing more information about the spine-leaf architecture I encourage you to learn more with online courses, books or getting some lab time. When you get a chance try to set up a spine-leaf architecture on Packet Tracer and note where the traffic distribution works for east-west traffic. Compare this to another lab for the traditional campus architecture and note where the traffic distribution is more north-south oriented.
Threat Actors
Which threat actors are attacking is one of the fundamental questions that incident response attempts to answer when an attack is occurring. In order to answer this question, there are certain threat actors that we should know about. These include script kiddies, hacktivists, cyber criminals, nation state actors, and insider threats. The threats involved include defacement of websites, ransomware, DDoS attacks, and many others.
Script Kiddies
Script kiddies go more for bragging rights than anything and can use scripts that someone else has written. They are typically less sophisticated and have a low monetary value. An example would be a teenager that starts a DDoS attack using free tools or pre-existing scripts. Script kiddies are often low paid and are doing it for respect or bragging rights in the hacker subculture.
Hacktivists
These threat actors are more politically motivated and might do it for social or ideological reasons. The hacktivists are somewhat skilled but will more likely expose corruption, protest or make a political statement. Hacktivists could do something like website defacement or leak corporate data to the public.
Cybercriminals
These threat actors are more in it for the money with direct financial gain in mind. They may attack more illegally and tie themselves to organized crime. This could be something more like ransomware or phishing campaigns to get credit card information. There are also attacks that include individuals that turn to hacking for financial gain.
Nation State Actors
The Nation State Actors are usually the most well-funded. They may attack other groups or organizations and attack more for espionage or geopolitical reasons. These are highly structured and government-backed groups. There are some nation states that get a good portion of their government funds by sponsoring hacking groups like North Korea.
Insider Threats
Insider Threats are where the attack comes from within a group or organization. These are more rooted in sabotage or revenge. The insider threats could be current or disgruntled employees or contractors that have more data about the company network and may use this knowledge for personal gain.
Conclusion
While threat actors are out there, knowing which way they are attacking is something that will remain a question for incident response. The threat actors seem to evolve just like the technology that they are using evolves. These threats can be mitigated and the knowledge of them should help you in your IT journey. With threat actors, you can study them by using the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Study well and be a lifelong learner.