Nikolay Abromov blog

Sometimes you just need a good distraction, and I randomly got the urge to study for an exam;  something I haven't done in years. I decided to look into network security and started watching some CompTIA training videos, and...it was all a bit too familiar. Apparently the search continues.

Today I had a long chat with an old friend. We hadn't spoken in a while, and somewhere in the conversation I opened up about the burnout (I call it a burnout, not sure what exactly it is)  I've been struggling with. What surprised me was that it wasn't unique — he'd been through something similar a few months ago. We ended up talking for over an hour. After we hung up, I realised something that's been sitting with me all evening: I miss my old friends. I miss those conversations. The kind where you'd talk about the future, about the plans, about how we were going to go out there and kick some serious ass (not physically, of course). Those conversations were stimulating . They left you walking away with more energy than you started with, not less. You felt sharper, more ambitious, more sure of who you were becoming. It's the kind of thing that's easy to take for granted when you have it — and impossible to replace when you don't. Life pulls people...

I keep forgetting I have this blog. But today felt like the right time to write something - something a bit more personal than usual. I want to talk about burnout. A while back I was deep in a very large infrastructure project. What started as a technical role slowly turned into something much broader - I found myself handling bits of legal, commercial negotiations, RFP work, supplier discussions. A lot of moving parts. And somewhere along the way, I realised I was doing most of it on my own. The late nights started adding up. Long calls with suppliers making sure the bill of materials was right, checking the solution actually held together end to end, always that nagging feeling that something had been missed somewhere. It just kept going. And then something shifted in me. It's hard to describe. I'd never experienced anything like it before - burnout, anxiety, call it what you want - but it hit me in a way I really wasn't prepared for. I've always been someone who...

I previously used my Sony XM4 headphones for calls and initially found them versatile for multiple purposes. However, as my meetings extended to several hours, I noticed they became less comfortable. To address this, I upgraded to wireless headphones from Poly, which offer significantly improved comfort. While I don’t plan to use them for music listening, my initial impression is very positive.

  This is the first time I am writing something similar on my blog, but I find it being so relevant to what is happening at that point of time across the world. This post is about a person I never heard of until recently, e.g. Bertrand Russell. He wrote this so well written letter to British Pro-natzi party leader, and I think I could easily call that letter an art. I find myself in conversations with people and feels like exactly what is being described by Russell's letter.                  ------------------- Dear Sir Oswald, Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the...

It’s Tuesday, and it feels strange to say that today is my first day of being between jobs. There’s something unsettling about it. I’ve got four days off between my old position and my new one, and I’m trying to figure out how to make the most of it. The last time I switched jobs, I wrapped up on a Friday and started the new role the following Monday, which left me feeling completely drained. This time, I’ve learned from that mistake and decided to give myself a bit of breathing room (though with two little ones running around, it’s nearly impossible to do absolutely nothing—but I’m going to try!). I recently picked up an intriguing book called Crucial Conversations , which caught my eye while I was researching the Five Whys technique. Maybe I’ll take refuge in a coffee shop, enjoy endless chai lattes, and dive into it. Who knows ...  I’ll figure it out tomorrow. On a different note, I reconnected with an old friend today—someone I haven’t spoken to in a while but used to have the ...

Today marked my final day at Three UK . It was a short and reflective day. I didn’t plan a formal farewell – after all, it would have been my second one, and I preferred to keep it simple. My vision for the day was to spend some time with each team member and, of course, enjoy as many chai lattes as possible!  ;-) However, as life goes, several colleagues were on leave, and others were dealing with family matters. So, only a few of the people I work closely with were around. That said, I received a call on Sunday from one of the team, inviting me to lunch, which was a nice surprise. It ended up being a much better day than I had anticipated – a good note to end on.

Over the years, I had the privilege of working with some incredible individuals. Having a team that inspires you and pushes you to grow makes all the difference in the world. There were days when I’d go to work thinking, “I can’t believe they’re paying me to do something I would happily do for free!” It was a remarkable feeling.  Being part of a team where I could ask, “What do you think about X, Y, or Z?” and receive insights I’d never considered before was invaluable. My colleagues offered perspectives that challenged my thinking and broadened my horizons. Their support and camaraderie turned work into a place of continuous learning and collaboration. However, circumstances have changed. The supportive environment that once made my job so fulfilling is no longer the same. The dynamics have shifted, and that sense of inspiration and mutual growth has faded. It’s this change that has led me to the difficult decision to seek new opportunities. While I’ll always cherish the experienc...

I recently listened to a conversation on Packet Pushers that really got me thinking. In the past, I’ve seen a similar pattern in large transformations where organizations adopt the “Big Rock” approach—going all in on a single, massive solution to address their needs. Each time, it didn’t deliver the expected results. So why does this approach keep getting chosen? Is it driven by cost-saving measures, the desire for streamlined management, or is there something else at play? Of course, the best-of-breed approach has its own set of challenges—like managing multiple vendors or integrating different systems—but doesn’t it offer a safer path for better business continuity and outcomes? It allows for flexibility and adaptability, which are crucial in today’s fast-changing landscape. While it’s not without its headaches, it seems like a more reliable bet in the long run. Link to the talk . 

I’ve always been the type of person who enjoys a good challenge—whether it’s figuring out a new skill or diving into something I have no idea about. Recently, my latest obsession has been cloud-native programming. I got involved in a project that’s all about acquiring cloud-native applications for telecoms, and it felt like the perfect excuse to push my limits. Now, let’s be clear—I don’t code every day. I don’t even get the chance to write code as often as I’d like. And when I do, it takes me a minute to remember how things work.  Here’s the thing—I know I’ll never be a “proper” programmer and I’m not trying to be. But that doesn’t stop me from pushing myself. My goal is simple: keep learning, keep getting better, and see how far I can take it. One thing I’ve discovered along the way is how much I love Golang. I’ve dabbled in Python, but Golang just clicks for me. It’s that sweet spot where things make sense and don’t feel as clunky. It even helped me have some solid technical con...

I truly enjoyed the last IPv6 Council meeting in London. It's always interesting to hear about the other people experience with a technology, in this case.. IPv6.  There were quite a few people giving a presentation and how they IPv6 deployment is going, so that was interesting!   I personally have been pushing the IPv6 agenda and I consider myself as an IPv6 advocate, because I understand the business need for it, and most of the people I have deployed carrier-grade NAT (large scale), and I also remember when I took the last IPv4 range from RIPE.  I guess, I will finish this post with - if anyone is interested in IPv6, the IPv6 Council London is free, and it's quite interesting! Link: https://www.ipv6.org.uk/

I got this fantastic opportunity to deploy new clouds based on Arista Networks VXLAN fabric. The solution included Arista CloudVision (known as CVP), AVD and of course, the Arista switches. The first thing I was impressed with was the simplicity that Cloud Vision brings on the table for both deployment of new configurations and visibility.  We were waiting for the hardware to arrive, and all we got was the CVP installed and ready, so we did a bit of work e.g. getting the configlets ready and when the hardware arrived we plugged all the optics and connected the fibres. In that moment one of my colleagues who didn't have experience with Arista decided to go around and check for any obvious errors, so he did not find anything than just couple of links require fibre change, not a big deal. On the next day, we start exploring what can be observed via CVP, and we found it actually start reporting packet drops/ and errors via the telemetry that is supported via Terminattr telemetry agent ...

It's been almost 2 years since I joined Juniper's SD-WAN "Contrail Service Orchestration" project and I am a bit sad leaving some great people behind and it was a tough decision but I couldn't spent enough time with my family.  I will definitely miss my time with Juniper Networks. 

always wanted to do more coding and I was doing some of the basic challenges on hackerrank recently and I am so disappointed in myself; I haven't written anything for a while and now struggling.

wow, it's been more than a year since I joined this new opportunity working on service orchestration project for SD-WAN and it's great, as I am doing a bit more hand-on work. I kind of missed the 'console' if I can use that expression.. :)

Hello, I didn't write many posts this year... again.. anyway, something that triggered me to write this post was an article on LinkEdin about  "Corporate culture".  I couldn't find the article so I can post it as part of this post, which I am sorry about! :( I haven't think much about what happens of my working environment when new people join the organisation but recently I found myself being one of the quite few old employees of the company I work at - wow, however, back to the topic - number of new people joined from different other companies, some of them were quite pro-active, other quite pro-passive - other negatively pro-active and then I found myself coming in the office and people don't even respond to 'Good Morning' and start wondering what happen with the fun to work with other people and corroborate on different technical challenges.  I assume everyone had one of those days when was asking himself on the way to work - "what happene...

I would like to introduce a new IT term.. "BaaS", to those who are familiar with the cloud terminologies like Infrastructure-as-a-Service or Software-as-a-Service, this is nothing a like :) -  it actually means two things "Bullshitting-as-a-service" and "Bullshitting-as-a-skill".

These two are Philip (left) and Adriana (right) - born on 15/05/17. Of course the photo is now almost 5 months old but they are truly amazing babies! 

I remember when the Vol 1 of the Juniper MX book came and it was one of the best books I've seen for a specific vendor and product and now there is Vol 2, which I just start reading and finding it at least on the same level as the Vol 1 if not better (e.g. a great reading)

Hello, I was asked few times if I know Amazon AWS and I of course I heard of it but never used it. So, I start looking what it is and everyone who have a day of experience dealing with VMware ESX will pick it up very quickly.