Name: Jonas Fagerli Arentz
Role/title: Operations engineer
Where do you live (city): Hamar
Originally from: Hadeland
You originally came from Bluetree, which has now merged with Sicra. What are your thoughts on the merger and the transition to Sicra?
I am very much looking forward to the merger. Sicra is a great group that fits well together with us in Bluetree, and I think this will be a very good match both socially and professionally.
What do you work with, and which technologies do you use in your job today?
I work as an operations engineer and work primarily with Cisco firewalls, switches and routers, as well as Palo Alto Networks firewalls and Allied Telesis switches.
What does your typical workday look like?
The day usually starts with a technical meeting in the morning where we plan the work. If there are no clearly prioritized tasks, I solve tickets continuously as they come in.
What does success look like for you at work, and what motivates you in your day-to-day job?
Success for me is to master technology that I have rarely or never worked with before. I like cases that require full concentration and precision. Learning more is my biggest motivation, and I want to become confident in complex solutions.
What are you most looking forward to?
To get a Sicra.no email, and to pass the CCNP exam, which is a certification at Professional level.
While CCNA provides a basic understanding of networking and operations, CCNP documents more advanced and practical competence within design, operation and troubleshooting of complex network environments. The certification is achieved by passing one core exam and one specialization exam.
Which app or tool do you use the most?
I use SecureCRT the most, which is a very flexible and structured tool for secure and organized administration of network equipment and servers. It makes it possible to connect to multiple systems at the same time via SSH and serial, among other things, and is used in practice for configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting in daily operations.
Favorite quote
“A shepherd with no flock is just an idiot with a stick.” – Sylas, League of Legends (Riot Games)
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
There is a lot of nerding in the homelab, in addition to series and gaming.
In the homelab, I test and develop competence in realistic network and operations setups (Proxmox as hypervisor). Among other things, I use:
- Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) for network design and topology testing
- Grafana, Telegraf and InfluxDB for monitoring, logging and visualization of metrics
A fun fact is that I collect Pokémon cards, but only graded ones, professionally evaluated. The collection started because I liked the design of the cards, and has gradually developed further. My favorites are Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat #85 and Pikachu (JP) 227/S-P. Both cards are in the five figure price range in the collector market. The value varies based on factors such as rarity, condition, grading, and demand.
