Zscaler Ace · Networking, Security, Zero Trust
I was born in a small village of around 3,000 people, where the world seemed large, distant, and mostly analog. Then, at some point, a computer arrived.
It was 1995, and someone gave me my first PC with Windows 95. From that moment on, something changed. I did not just want to use it. I wanted to understand it. Why did it work? Why did it crash? Why did installing Doom from floppy disks feel like a mission control procedure? And why did every problem somehow require one more reboot?
My first steps into technology were made of floppy disks, IRC channels, computer magazines, trial and error, and a lot of patience. There was no cloud, no AI assistant, no instant documentation generated on demand. There was curiosity, a command prompt, and the strong suspicion that if something did not work, it was probably my fault.
That curiosity eventually became a profession.
From Help Desk to Architecture
Like many people in IT, I started from the Help Desk. And I still consider that one of the most valuable parts of my journey. Starting from the bottom teaches you something that no architecture diagram can fully explain: technology exists because people need things to work. A printer that does not print, a user who cannot log in, a mailbox that does not sync, a VPN that refuses to connect at the worst possible moment. These are not small problems when they stop somebody from doing their job.
That bottom-up perspective stayed with me.
From there, I moved into networking. Cisco routing and switching, routing protocols, DMVPN, GRE tunnels, and the Sophos UTM world gave me the foundations I still consider essential. Before securing something, you need to understand how it moves. Before designing access, you need to understand paths, routes, dependencies, and failure points. Networking taught me that packets do not care about opinions. They either know where to go, or they do not.
Later, I expanded into systems: VMware, Windows Server, infrastructure operations, and the many practical realities of keeping platforms alive, patched, available, and understandable.
Security, Identity and Cloud
Gradually, my path moved deeper into security. Kaspersky, endpoint protection, Microsoft 365, Exchange Server, Exchange Online, and then the broader Microsoft Security ecosystem became part of the journey: Entra ID, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft XDR, Microsoft Compliance, and cloud identity management.
That shift helped me understand how modern security is no longer made of isolated tools. Identity, endpoint, email, data protection, compliance, detection, and response are deeply connected. In a cloud-first world, managing identities is not just an administrative task. It is one of the foundations of security architecture.
Networking taught me movement.
Systems taught me dependency.
Security taught me risk.
Identity taught me that access is never just access.
Compliance taught me that protection also means governance, visibility, and responsibility.
Cloud taught me that the perimeter did not disappear. It became more complicated.
Learning from Better People
During a career, you also need a bit of luck: the luck of meeting people who are passionate, generous with their knowledge, and significantly more competent than you are.
When a curious mind, hungry to learn, sits next to people like that, something important happens. You do not feel out of place just because the knowledge gap is wide. On the contrary, you understand that you are exactly where you need to be.
That gap does not scare you. It gives you direction.
I have been fortunate enough to meet people who raised the bar, challenged my assumptions, shared experience, corrected mistakes, and showed me better ways to think. Being close to competence, real competence, is one of the best accelerators in this profession. If you approach it with humility, you do not shrink. You grow.
Then I Found Zscaler
Then I found Zscaler.
For me, Zscaler is interesting because it brings together many of the worlds I have crossed over the years: networking, security, identity, cloud, user experience, and the broader Zero Trust model. It is not just a product to configure. It is a different way to think about access, trust, visibility, and protection.
September 2026
Becoming a Zscaler Ace
My application to the Zscaler Aces program was accepted.
If you have not come across it before, Zscaler Aces is a technical community built inside the Zscaler partner ecosystem. It gathers engineers, architects, and consultants who work closely with Zscaler on designing, deploying, and adopting the platform, and who are willing to share what they learn while doing it. There is no exam to sit and nothing to buy. You are put forward, your work is reviewed, and you are either selected or you are not.
In practice, membership means access to a private community group with sessions run by Zscaler product specialists and solution engineers, invitations to internal technical summits and regional events, early access to new training material and hands-on labs, and formal recognition as a Zscaler technical expert. The program runs a pre-sales track today, with a post-sales track being added.
Earlier on this page I wrote about the value of sitting next to people who are better than you. This is that, at a larger scale. Being let into a room full of them is not the end of a journey. It is the moment you realise how much more there is to ask.
I am aware of how a thing like this can read on a personal blog. A badge can very quickly become the loudest element on a page, and that is not why it is here. It is here for a plainer reason: it tells you where the notes on this site come from, and it puts me on the hook for their quality. Recognition is not evidence that I am right. It is a good reason for you to hold me to a higher standard when I am wrong.
So nothing about this blog changes. Same subjects, same mistakes admitted in public, same suspicion that the problem is DNS.
Why Zero Trust Navigator
This blog, Zero Trust Navigator, is inspired by a movie I loved: Flight of the Navigator. Not because this is a movie blog, fortunately for everyone, but because the idea behind it resonates with me.
In the film, a young boy discovers that the universe is much bigger than he imagined. He does not have all the answers. He learns by observing, listening, asking, and navigating something far beyond his original world. The spacecraft, Max, becomes a guide in that discovery.
That is very close to how I see technology.
The IT universe is huge. Security is even bigger. Zero Trust can feel like deep space if approached with arrogance. The only reasonable starting point is humility: assume you do not know enough, observe carefully, understand the context, and keep learning.
My Navigation Console
After almost 30 years around computers, networks, systems, and security, I still believe the best engineers are not the ones who pretend to know everything. They are the ones who know how to investigate, connect ideas, ask better questions, and keep a sense of wonder when something finally makes sense.
This blog is my personal navigation console.
Here I write about Zero Trust, Zscaler, secure access, cloud security, architecture, troubleshooting, and the lessons learned along the way. Some posts will be technical. Some will be practical. Some may include diagrams, field notes, and probably a few reminders that the problem was DNS all along.
Because in the end, whether you are installing Doom from floppy disks, learning from someone much better than you, or designing a Zero Trust architecture, the spirit is the same:
Stay curious.
Stay humble.
Keep navigating.