Blog
Technical notes, architecture thinking, labs, and practical lessons from the field.
29 Apr 2026
A practical, end-to-end walkthrough for connecting to Cisco's Cloud-Delivered Firewall Management Center (cdFMC) using REST APIs and Ansible — from generating an API token to running your first playbook.
27 Apr 2026
A practical comparison of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and SKILL.md / agent.md prompt-based agents for network and security automation engineers.
11 Feb 2026
An end-to-end lab guide for validating the SnortML (GID 411) machine-learning inspector on Cisco Secure Firewall — from FMC policy configuration to firing real SQL and command injection payloads from Kali.
28 Nov 2025
An architect's guide to the CCDE v3.0/v3.1 practical exam — domains, mindset, AI infrastructure elective, and mentoring strategy.
27 Nov 2025
From Copilot chat to real Cisco devices using MCP, pyATS, and CML — a practical architecture and lab guide.
26 Sep 2025
A practical starting point for building a Cisco automation lab using Git, APIs, pyATS, Ansible, and CI/CD.
02 Aug 2025
A brand-new, beginner-friendly lab for automating Cisco Secure Firewall IPS via the FMC REST API — auth, domains, intrusion policies, intrusion rules, alert destinations, and the Snort2 vs Snort3 limitations you need to know about.
16 May 2025
A beginner-friendly Terraform starter for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) — install, init, validate, and plan against the FMC provider before you ever touch a real resource.
02 May 2025
Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is accelerating agentic AI adoption by standardizing how models connect to tools and data through MCP servers. However, building and deploying a bring-your-own MCP server can introduce enterprise risk if security is not designed from the start. This article provides a practical framework for evaluating and hardening MCP servers before production. Why MCP servers are becoming a new attack surface MCP servers act as trusted bridges between AI runtimes and enterprise systems such as APIs, databases, command-line tools, ticketing platforms, routers, firewalls, and cloud resources.
25 Apr 2025
Telecommunications networks are rapidly evolving through 5G disaggregation, SD-WAN overlays, cloud-native cores, mobile edge computing, and API-driven operations. These changes improve agility, but they also expand the attack surface and increase operational complexity. Traditional perimeter security and periodic audits can no longer keep pace with dynamic traffic paths, ephemeral workloads, software supply-chain risks, and API-driven change. This article presents a practical operations-first approach to Zero Trust for telecom networks. Why telecom needs operations-first Zero Trust Modern telecom environments include distributed edge sites, high-throughput transport networks, cloud-native network functions, SD-WAN overlays, hybrid cloud integrations, API-driven controllers, and orchestrators.
29 Nov 2024
A strategic roadmap to achieving CCIE Automation, covering exam structure, preparation strategy, tools, and real-world experience.
17 Jul 2023
A practical roadmap to becoming an ethical hacker, covering fundamentals, tools, certifications, and real-world skills.