Mgr. MICHAL ARON, [email protected], LinkedIN, Brno @ Czech Republic

Who am I?

.. awkward motto

A person born too late to explore the Earth, too early to explore the Universe — however somewhat at the right time to challenge his mind.

.. beginings

As I neared the end of living under my parents' roof, I began thinking seriously about where I needed to go to pursue what I have been dreaming of.

My true passion was computer networks. The high school I chose ran a Cisco Networking Academy (CCNA track), the only program of its kind in our region. What initially felt daunting — largely due to my limited English — gradually became a genuine passion. Overcoming that first obstacle taught me it was entirely in my own hands: I focused first on vocabulary, then on understanding the underlying concepts. It worked. Step by step, everything began to make sense on the first read.

.. finding direction

I was on the path, but hadn't yet decided on the next step: move straight into production work, or go through a structured "build" pipeline first. In the end, the decision was straightforward — I was missing the theoretical foundation in informatics, so further study was the clear choice. The question was where, and the answer was Brno, the largest hub for IT careers in the region, home to countless events on emerging technologies.

Since I chose further study over gaining early work experience, I wanted to minimise the time it took. I weighed two options: a more practical but less flexible program at VUT, or the more theoretical track at Masaryk University. Not wanting to spend my final year juggling a full course load, I opted for the Master's track. That decision let me complete almost 100% of the Bachelor's program in the first two years — and then it happened: my last exam on a Friday, and my first job in the field starting the following Monday.

I sustained that pace — full-time work alongside ongoing studies — for three years, largely thanks to the university's remote study options. During that time, I also moved to a team doing more serious, challenging work.

.. a fresh start

After completing my degree, I found myself with a restless, unoccupied mind. Current position was far from personal satisfaction, so before long I resigned and moved into a role in the field itself — no one above you to hand over in case of experience limits, no one below you to delegate, just you. That kind of independence demands a different mindset, and it isn't for everyone. It also meant I could finally get hands-on: designing and implementing solutions with minimal supervision. At times it bordered on chaos — but it was the productive kind.

Some of the situations I found myself in were genuinely hardcore — tight deadlines, limited resources, and problems that didn't come with a manual. More than once the only way through was an improvised, slightly crazy solution cobbled together under pressure. There was rarely enough time to do things by the book, so I had to rely on critical thinking to cut straight to what actually mattered. That period taught me how to prioritise ruthlessly — to separate what was truly needed from what was merely nice to have — and how to deliver fast without losing sight of quality. It was madness, but it was good madness, and it shaped how I approach problems to this day.

.. the turning point

Later, I was offered the opportunity to shift my career path. I had been doing automation and scripting from the start, and management wanted to build a local development team within our IT department. I knew it would be demanding, but challenges are what keep me engaged, so I took it on. While still working as a network engineer, and starting from small learning projects, I spent four months of continuous, focused practice and delivered a standalone, end-to-end web application — built on Java 8, Hibernate, Spring, and AngularJS. Once management was presented the final prototype they offered me the position.

The project's purpose was to build an "automation system" that would unify the IT environment, reduce routine work, and resolve issues more directly and efficiently. Over time, this evolved into a broader vision: a single, unified information system. With the environment and data structures already in place, I began integrating external systems into it. Since it was a full local development the sky was the limit..

.. something ends, something begins

It was a productive period, and I learned a great deal — until the moment every NetSuite employee had quietly been dreading arrived. The stock had held steady for weeks, so it was really only a matter of time: Oracle acquired NetSuite, and those of us who valued innovation and forward momentum knew what that likely meant.

I don't regret any of it — it was a great run. If anything, I'm grateful that period gave me the motivation to fully transition into development and DevOps, setting the stage for the next chapter of my growth.


HOBBIES


Tech world: development, devops, sysadmin, networking, virtualization, automation, monitoring innovation.
Real world: kayaking, paragliding, hiking, volleyball, dancing, cooking, reading, exploring, traveling, traveling back, eating, exercising, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.

WORK EXPERIENCE

*
AT&T Brno
GSNI | Network Services


  • Dates (from - to): May 2018 - now
  • Position held: Senior Software Developer

Main activities and responsibilities:

Development and partially DevOPS of Software Defined Networking (SDN). Developing a portal, which acts as a proxy, to communicate with multiple systems not only on premise in order to operate the data-center itself from its initial setup through the live operation until service decommission. Those systems are various network orchestrators, microservicies, VMware managers. Opendaylight and others. Handling numerous data-center devices such as Switches, Routers, Firewalls, Loadbalancers.. Then the virtualization part as well. Along with SDN we utilize other non less important services like Asset Management, Change Management, Monitoring, and many others, whose are then exposed to the customer himself for the operation. System has integrated Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to handle multi-tenancy per the customer within the single instance. Here I take care about backend and frontend part as well as some microservices.

Other part is CI/CD of this project. We use the power of Docker containers using the docker-compose and Jenkins pipeline automation. Currently in the process of migrating into Kubernetes cluster to gain from automating application deployment, scaling, and management.

*
NetSuite (Oracle)
IT Global Infrastructure | Tools and Automation team


  • Dates (from - to): April 2016 till April 2018
  • Position held: Software Developer

Main activities and responsibilities:

Designing and developing information system for the IT department in NetSuite.

The idea is to provide a single web based system where the whole infrastructure is modelled into entities and is referenceable from the network using the exposed API. This is essential to allow other scripts/tools to integrate with my system if needed. Goal is to utilise common functionalities over the modelled infrastructure and automate what can be automated. Another main objective is to get rid of other third-party systems and replace their functionality. System is fully integrated with the AD. Internal services allow direct reference of users and groups pooled from the AD for sharing and notifying purposes.

Features: lifecycle of objects, dashboard, monitoring, event history, user scripting and SNMP pooling, scheduling and automating tasks, exporting, configuration manager, user password manager, change management and others.

Web Application:
RESTful web application where backend part is Java and frontend is JavaScript.
Backend – Java 8, Spring, Maven, Hibernate, PostgreSQL and others.
Frontend – Powered by AngularJS (JavaScript, jQuery, less/sass).
It is being hosted on Debian system under my management.

*
NetSuite (Oracle)
IT Global Infrastructure | Network team


  • Dates (from - to): November 2014 - March 2016
  • Position held: Senior Network Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities:

Working in IT department as a network engineer. Building, maintaining and troubleshooting company’s worldwide corporate network. Network consists of wired as well as wireless part. In addition to standard network protocols we work with real-time traffic as VoIP and media streaming. This position often requires to work with system and security departments at close quarters.

Our network is a multi-vendor environment. We are using mostly Juniper SRXs (in a cluster) for FWs. However, we still have some ASAs around. For a L3 standardised branch infrastructure mostly it is 3750s in a stack. For not-yet standardised (L2) part Catalyst 4500s, 6500s and 2960s. Alcatel Lucent Omni Switches 6900 in a POD for our data centres.

Since NetSuite’s network used to be in a very bad condition our main priority was to redesign it to mitigate network outages and fluctuation.

Main experiences in:

  • Integration of new companies (small to medium size).
  • Redesigning branches (different sizes).
  • Migrating branches to a new network infrastructure.
  • Data Center network setup and its maintenance.
  • Firewalls maintenance.
  • Load balancers configuration and maintenance.
  • Working in a LAB – testing fixes, new ideas and various implementations.
  • Others - ISP links activation, TS with vendor.

My side job is to provide tooling for our corporate network. I created a full-size business web application where I modelled our HW on the network along with multiple apps/tasks/activities which help us organise and perform work in the most efficient way possible. Apart from various automation It provides also monitoring and scripting interface for the network. Toll is being continuously developed.

*
AT&T Brno
Mobility | Packet Core Tier 2


  • Dates (from - to): July 2012 - October 2014
  • Position held: Network Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities:

Member of a team responsible for the core network of AT&T Mobility through which flows GSM, UMTS and LTE traffic. The network is composed of roughly 70 000 devices of which 70% are Cisco, about 20% Alcatel and the rest legacy technologies. The position requires strong understanding and troubleshooting skills with OSPF since the whole routing is based on multi-area OSPF. Other significant protocols on which I gained experience are: BFD, HSRP, STP, VTP, MPLS, QoS, etc.

Troubleshooting on trouble tickets. Providing technical support for the customers. Network life-cycle. Leading outage bridges. Creating technical documentation. Scripting and working on automatization. Creating desktop-based and web-based applications (ticketing system interface, reporting tool, automating tools, device inventory, correlation between systems, etc.).

*
AT&T Brno
Mobility | Software Integration


  • Dates (from - to): Jun 2011 - Jun 2012
  • Position held: Network Control Specialist

Main activities and responsibilities:

Performing software upgrades on AT&T mobility devices, responsible for the upgrade process and providing technical support to customers.

EDUCATION AND TRAININGS

EDUCATION

★
Masaryk University in Brno

Faculty of Informatics
/Master/


☆
Masaryk University in Brno

Faculty of Informatics
/Bachelor/


  • Dates: September 2009 - Jun 2012
  • Branch: Computer networks and Communication
  • Diploma thesis: Implementation of VoIP technologies into IP networks

◆
SPŠE in Prešov, Slovakia

The Secondary Vocational school of Electrical engineering


  • Dates: September 2005 - Jun 2009
  • Branch: Computer systems and Network technologies
  • Leaving exam: CCNA 640-802 certification

TRAININGS

2015
ALU Access switching training in Vienna provided by Alcatel Lucent.
ALU Core switching training in Vienna provided by Alcatel Lucent.

2014
Juniper JNCIE-SEC training in London provided by Juniper.

2013
Juniper JNCIA, JNCIS, JNCIP training courses provided by Juniper Networks.
Experience with SRXs as virtual devices.

2012
Cisco VOICE (CCVP) course at Masaryk University finished by Bachelor thesis.

2010
CCNP Route training at Technical University in Košice.

COURSES

Masaryk university:
C, C++, Java, CVOICE lectures and Bachelor thesis

Self learning & courses:
CCNA, CCNA Security, CCNP Route, CCNP Switch, CVOICE. Java, JavaScript, Visual basic, Linux, AngularJS, NodeJS.
Linux/UNIX, Debian/Ubuntu.

TECHNICAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

NETWORKING WORLD

Experience on mobility devices, mobile networks and components.
Cisco and Juniper Networks – routing and switching, security, VPNs (L3VPNs, L2VPNs, AToM), VRFs, MPLS, MPLS-TE, RSVP, OSPF, BGP (MP-BGP), EIGRP, BFD, RIP, SLA, QoS, HSRP, GLBP, VRRP, SVI, VLANS. Traffic engineering and high availability (MPLS). Firewall and policy configuration on Juniper. High availability on Juniper cluster.

Experience on the following platforms:
Cisco – 2900, 2950, 2960, 3550, 3745, 7200, 7600, 1800, 2800, 3800, 3850, 3750.
Juniper – SRX Firewalls 240, 650, 550.
ALU – Omni Switches 6900, (6250, 6450, 6850, 6860).
OpenGear - IM4200, IM7200.
Theoretical knowledge about Linux and experience as average administrator.

PROGRAMMING WORLD

Mostly web and console application for tooling and automatisation. From implementing simple stand-alone applications up to business applications with frontend, backend and business layer.

BACKEND:

Java EE 8/11, Maven, Hibernate, Python
Frameworks
Spring, Spring Boot, Spring Security, Spring MVC, Spring REST, JAX-RS, JavaFX, Node..

FRONTEND:

JavaScript, , Typescript, jQuery, CSS3, LESS/SASS
Frameworks
AngularJS/Angular, Vue.js, Node, Gulp, Cypress.

DATABASES:

MySQL, MariaDB, Postgres SQL, MongoDB.

DEVOPS/SysAdmin:

Docker, Docker-Compose, CoreOS, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Jira, Confluence, Azure, OpenVPN, Samba, GitLab, Nextcloud,..

VIRTUALIZATION:

• KVM – CPU/GPU Passthrough.
• VMware solutions – vSphere/vCenter. Mainly for emulating network equipment, creating virtual networks and experimenting with the virtualisation technology itself.
• Proxmox.

CERTIFICATIONS

Commercial exams or certifications:
CCNP Switch 640-813 (all valid through 02/ 2017)
CCNP Route 640-902
CCNA Security 640-553
CCNA 640-802
JNCIA JN0-102

Other certifications:
Certificate of Professional competence with electric appliances up to 1000 Volts.
First class Certificate City & Guilds Level 1 Certificate in ESOL International – B2.

CONCLUSION

General overview:


Networking:


Programming:


SysAdmin/DevOPS:


Frameworks: