Mahesh Kotla

About Mahesh Kotla

I work on Azure cloud networking. Virtual WAN, VNet peering, private endpoints…

Experience

1. Network Engineer

   AT&T

   Jan 2025 — Present · NJ, US

   Carrier-grade telecom environment — significantly more complex than typical enterprise. I work across network security, routing, cloud, and data center infrastructure spanning distributed sites, multiple data centers, and cloud platforms across regions.On security, I manage Palo Alto NGFWs including PA-5445 and PA-7080 series through Panorama — handling policy management, App-ID enforcement, and threat prevention across all regions. I also work with FortiGate with Security Fabric for endpoint quarantine and Check Point Quantum R81 for site-to-site VPNs. Zero Trust access is handled through GlobalProtect integrated with Okta MFA for secure remote connectivity.For data center, I work with Cisco ACI fabric integrated with VMware vSphere — managing micro-segmentation, EPG configuration, and east-west traffic control across multi-pod architectures. This includes Nexus switching, vPC configurations, and full L2/L3 connectivity within the DC environment.Cloud work covers AWS Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Azure Traffic Manager, and GCP Interconnect — supporting hybrid and multi-cloud connectivity across the environment. I use Python, Ansible, and Terraform to automate provisioning and configuration management, and manage Infoblox DDI via Grid API for centralized IP address management across all regions.On routing, I manage BGP and OSPF across Juniper MX960, Cisco ASR and Arista 7800R — tuning BGP attributes for traffic engineering at telecom scale. I deploy and manage Cisco Viptela and Versa SD-WAN on Catalyst routers to improve connectivity and application performance across branch locations.Day-to-day involves reviewing change requests, updating firewall policies, handling Tier-3 escalations, troubleshooting complex routing issues, reviewing Splunk alerts, coordinating with cloud and security teams, and writing detailed RCA documentation for high-severity incidents.

Education

• University of Bridgeport

  Master's degree