Vinay Akula

Experience

1. Senior Network Engineer

   Bayer

   Nov 2024 — Present · Whippany, NJ, US

   Designed, deployed, and managed Palo Alto firewalls series, Panorama) with URL filtering, SSL decryption, App-ID, Threat-ID, and IPS features.•Configured and supported Fortinet FortiGate firewalls for VPNs, NAT, security policies, and high-availability clusters to protect branch and data center networks.•Designed secure cloud interconnects by implementing firewall rule baselines, route filters, and monitoring integrations for AWS environments, ensuring compliance and consistent policy enforcement.•Deployed branch WAN optimization and traffic engineering strategies, integrating SD-WAN with QoS policies and DIA breakouts to improve SaaS performance and reduce MPLS dependency.•Led migration from ASA and Checkpoint firewalls to Palo Alto and FortiGate, ensuring seamless transition of NAT/PAT, ACLs, and IPsec VPNs.•Configured and optimized Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers (5500/9800) and Aruba Wireless solutions (ClearPass NAC, AP provisioning, SSID segmentation).•Designed and enforced Zero Trust access with Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), reducing reliance on legacy VPNs.•Engineered Cisco ACI fabric with tenant isolation, ANPs, micro-segmentation, and telemetry integration for proactive threat monitoring.•Built standardized automation templates and monitoring dashboards using Cisco DNAC APIs and NDFC telemetry, enabling faster troubleshooting and reducing MTTR across campus and data-center networks.•Migrated legacy load-balancing platforms (ACE, NetScaler) to F5 LTM/GTM, configured SSL offload, iRules, Wide IPs, and DNS delegation.•Automated firewall, SD-WAN, and ACI configurations using Python, REST APIs, Ansible, and Terraform, reducing manual errors and deployment times.•Supported ITIL-driven Change, Incident, and Problem Management using ServiceNow, ensuring SLA compliance.•Performed proactive network capacity planning, forecasting bandwidth utilization trends and recommending upgrades to ensure scalability.

Education

• Vignana Bharathi Institute of Technology

  Bachelor's degree

• Saint Leo University

  Master's degree