Michael Frans
Principal Network Engineer // Enterprise & Data Center Networking
Network architect and hands-on engineer with 20+ years designing, building, and operating secure, highly available enterprise and data center fabrics across LAN/WAN, MPLS, multi-cloud, and critical SCADA systems connecting to regional ISO energy markets.
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STATUS: Fabric compliance 100% verified via eAPI
Enterprise & DCOps leadership
10-yr core equipment longevity
800 users & 170 customer sites
VXLAN / Anycast VTEP spine-leaf
Executive Profile & Architectural Philosophy
High Availability // Zero-Trust Infrastructure // Resilient Fabrics
Network architect and hands-on engineer with over 20 years of verifiable success designing, building, and operating secure, highly available enterprise and data center networks across LAN/WAN, MPLS, public and hybrid cloud, wireless, network access security, and unified voice. Notably spearheaded the design and end-to-end delivery of an Arista EVPN-VXLAN spine-leaf infrastructure replacement backed by Git-driven Ansible automation. Proven background engineering mission-critical SCADA and corporate colocation environments interfacing directly with North American regional transmission operators (ISOs: ERCOT, PJM, SPP, MISO, NYISO). Acts as the authoritative escalation point for complex packet analysis, routing anomalies, and multi-vendor lifecycle integrations.
Energy Sector & SCADA
Engineered secure multi-context firewalls connecting corporate assets to power market operators under strict SLA constraints.
Automation-First Ops
Arista AVD orchestration, custom self-service web tooling, and declarative Git workflows to eliminate configuration drift.
Zero Trust Security
Cisco ISE 802.1X policy enforcement, Palo Alto HA with SSL decryption, and Gigamon packet aggregation for pervasive visibility.
Core Competencies
Engineered across Layer 1 physical fiber to Layer 7 policy
Architecture & Strategy
Routing & Switching
Security & Access Control
Cloud & Automation
Leadership & Vendors
Operations & Reliability
Technical Accomplishments
Turnkey Infrastructure Replacement on Arista EVPN-VXLAN
Architected and delivered complete legacy network replacement using modern Arista spine-leaf architecture running EVPN-VXLAN. Eliminated spanning-tree scale limits, enabled high-performance L2 workload mobility across leaves, and established multi-tenant segmentation for rapid service provisioning.
Multi-Site SCADA Architecture Connected to Regional ISOs
Designed and implemented resilient SCADA data center environments utilizing encryption over public transport with multi-context Cisco ASAs. Ensured deterministic, ultra-low failover connectivity into power-market balancing authorities including ERCOT, PJM, SPP, MISO, and NYISO.
Carrier-Diverse 10G DCI Ring with Cisco OTV & VXLAN Overlays
Engineered carrier-diverse 10 Gigabit Data Center Interconnect (DCI) ring bridging disparate data centers and corporate headquarters. Delivered seamless Layer 2 extension leveraging Cisco OTV and VXLAN overlays terminated cleanly as Anycast VTEPs.
Global MPLS WAN BGP Integration & Route Engineering
Integrated BGP across worldwide MPLS WAN deploying dedicated route reflectors, prefix lists, and route tagging for deterministic redistribution and path manipulation. Deployed Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) to achieve sub-second convergence and zero packet-drop failover.
Redundant Multi-ISP BGP Edge & AWS Transit Gateway IPsec
Constructed carrier-diverse internet gateways at primary offices and colos, shaping inbound traffic via upstream BGP communities. Established secure hybrid cloud mesh tying enterprise on-prem infrastructure into AWS VPCs through redundant IPsec Transit Gateway connections and DMVPN.
Enterprise Cisco ISE 802.1X Deployment
Instituted zero-trust network access control across wired switch ports, Cisco AnyConnect, corporate wireless, and guest portals. Implemented dynamic VLAN assignment, posture assessment, and sponsor guest management portals to secure device perimeters without user friction.
Palo Alto HA Clusters with Panorama & Gigamon Packet Aggregation
Engineered Palo Alto high-availability clusters managed centrally through Panorama using template stacking, dynamic threat intelligence, and inbound/outbound SSL decryption. Installed Gigamon network taps and matrix aggregators feeding DLP, LogRhythm SIEM, and deep packet analytics.
Arista Validated Designs (AVD) & Self-Service Web UI
Spearheaded fabric-as-code orchestration using Arista Validated Designs (AVD) and Ansible. Built custom in-house web portal enabling junior engineers to safely review intended vs. running config diffs, observe build revisions, and automatically sync changes with the production Git repo.
Enterprise SIP Migration & High-Throughput Wireless Bridges
Modernized legacy T1/PRI/FXO voice circuits into redundant, geographically diverse SIP trunks between data centers with Cisco CUCM. Built outdoor wireless point-to-point bridges and campus-wide Ubiquiti Wi-Fi networks providing reliable broadband access to remote facility yards.
Professional Experience
Senior Network Engineer / Principal Network Engineer
Design, plan, and implement highly available and scalable enterprise-class solutions including wired and wireless connectivity, WAN optimization, telemetry, security, and web/malware filtering.
- Senior Escalation Authority: Direct escalation point for complex networking and telephony issues across 800 users spanning 8 primary sites (2 data centers, corporate HQ, 5 regional offices) and 170+ customer locations on Cisco ISR edge routers.
- Full Data Center Migration: Led the migration from Fibertown to a locally hosted data center from inception to production cutover, orchestrating internal teams, external carriers, and ISO balancing authorities.
- Greenfield Office & Colo Builds: Led the networking engineering team and security vendors from start to finish on the flagship EDF office build; coordinated multi-vendor engineering for the corporate data center at Digital Realty Houston.
- Azure Cloud Architecture: Coordinated internal architects and external cloud vendors on Azure network topology, VNet peering, and ExpressRoute integration.
- Carrier & Colocation Governance: Manage cellular relationships (AT&T, Verizon) for remote industrial sites and maintain rigorous audits across all data center cross-connects and transit circuits.
- Five Nines Track Record: Maintain an operational environment where most core equipment has sustained approximately 10 years of uptime with 99.999% availability targets.
Network Engineer
Engineered and maintained high-availability enterprise networking across 9 interconnected campus buildings serving approximately 1,000 corporate and field engineering users.
- Engineered inter-campus fiber connectivity, high-throughput wireless bridges, and edge routing.
- Implemented WAN optimization, granular web filtering, and proactive network health monitoring.
- Mentored IT junior staff through structured technical training seminars, presentations, and collaborative project management.
Systems Administrator / Network Engineer
Dual-role infrastructure engineer delivering systems and network administration across 5 nationwide offices supporting 400 users.
- Maintained nationwide wired and wireless networking, VoIP infrastructure, and WAN optimization appliances.
- Integrated virtualization clusters (VMware ESX, Oracle VirtualBox), proxy systems, and enterprise SAN storage.
- Enforced Active Directory domain policies, disaster recovery backup procedures, and security patch compliance.
Independent Technology Consultant
Advised SMB clients on infrastructure buildouts, disaster recovery, Active Directory integration, security camera surveillance systems, automated electronic door access controls, and custom database applications.
Technical Platforms Matrix
Production-tested enterprise vendor equipment
Data Center & Switching
Spine-leaf fabrics, modular chassis & access switching
- ›Arista 7280SR3, 7050CX3, 7050SX3, 720XP
- ›Arista EOS, eAPI Integration
- ›Cisco Nexus 9000, 7000, 5000, 2000 (FEX)
- ›Cisco Catalyst 6500, 4500, 3850, 3750, 3650, 3560
- ›PoE / UPoE / mGig (Multi-Gigabit)
- ›Dell Force10 & N-Series, Juniper EX2200
Routing, WAN & Voice
Branch routing, SD-WAN, optimization & telephony
- ›Cisco ISR 4000, 3800, 2900, 2800, 1900, 1800
- ›Cisco Meraki MX Edge Security
- ›Riverbed Steelhead WAN Optimization, Cisco WAAS
- ›Cisco CUCM / Unity & Mitel 3300 Voice Platforms
- ›Cisco WLC & Ubiquiti AirMax / UniFi Wireless
- ›Cellular Gateways, VSAT, T1, Metro Ethernet
Perimeter & Security
Next-gen firewalls, zero trust NAC & decryption
- ›Palo Alto 220 through 3260 (Active/Passive HA)
- ›Panorama Management & Template Stacks
- ›Cisco ASA 5545-X, 5525-X, 5516-X & ZBFW
- ›Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) 2.1, 2.2, 3.2
- ›Check Point Firewall Appliances
- ›Websense, Sophos, Barracuda Gateways
Monitoring & Visibility
Packet captures, flow telemetry & SIEM aggregation
- ›SolarWinds NPM/NTA & Network Atlas
- ›Zabbix, LibreNMS, WhatsUp Gold
- ›Gigamon Taps & Visibility Fabric
- ›NetFlow, sFlow, SNMPv3, Syslog
- ›Wireshark & tcpdump deep packet analysis
- ›Microsoft Visio Enterprise Architecture Mapping
Load Balancing & Storage
ADC, SAN fabrics & storage replication
- ›KEMP LoadMaster Application Delivery Controllers
- ›Dell Compellent & EqualLogic iSCSI/Fiber SANs
- ›Symantec NetBackup, Veritas
- ›Riverbed Whitewater Cloud Storage Accelerators
- ›Multipath I/O (MPIO) Optimization
Systems, Cloud & Code
Hypervisors, OS environments & scripting languages
- ›AWS (VPC, Transit Gateway, Route 53)
- ›Azure Virtual Networking & VPN Gateways
- ›Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE, Ubuntu
- ›Windows Server, Active Directory, GPO, RDS
- ›VMware ESX/vSphere, Proxmox VE
- ›Ansible, PowerShell, Bash, Python, PHP, SQL
Certifications & Compliance
Education & Foundations
Extensive career-long continuous hands-on laboratory testing, vendor immersion, RFC mastery, and production architecture leadership across enterprise network life cycles.
Connect with Michael Frans
Need an experienced network architect to spearhead data center spine-leaf deployments, automate EVPN-VXLAN fabrics, bridge multi-cloud workloads, or secure critical infrastructure? Let's connect.