I’m Vikas Srivastava, Director of Technical Marketing at Zscaler, based in Columbus, Ohio. I’m a customer-facing trusted advisor and pre-sales solution architect with over 15 years of experience across hybrid cloud, security, data center, and network automation — working with large enterprise and financial customers at every level from the C-suite to the engineering bench.
I hold dual CCIEs (Data Center #42302 and Security #42302) and have spent my career at the intersection of deep technical work and customer evangelism — most recently focused on zero-trust architecture, AI security, and Zscaler’s platform.
Most of what ends up on this blog started as notes from a lab session or a problem I ran into at work.
What I write about
- Zscaler — zero-trust architecture, ZIA, ZPA, AI security, ZDX
- Cisco — ACI, NSO, ISE, IOS-XR/XE config guides, CCIE study notes
- Network automation — YANG, NETCONF/RESTCONF, Python scripting
- Cloud networking — AWS VPC, Direct Connect, hybrid connectivity
- Security — firewall design, identity, red teaming, AI threat modelling
- AI/ML — how machine learning intersects with network ops and security
Experience
Zscaler — Director, Technical Marketing (Oct 2025 – present) Principal Technical Marketing Engineer (Dec 2021 – Oct 2025)
Cisco — Systems Architect, Sales (Jan 2017 – Dec 2021) Technical Lead, OpenStack Cloud (Jul 2014 – Jan 2017) Consulting Engineer, UC/HCS (Dec 2012 – Jul 2014)
NetApp — Technical Marketing Engineer, FlexPod (Dec 2011 – Dec 2012)
Aricent / Cisco TAC — Network Specialist (Mar 2009 – Jul 2011)
Certifications
- CCIE Data Center #42302
- CCIE Security #42302
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
- AWS Certified Networking Specialty
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
- VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (VCP-NV)
- VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV)
- Mirantis Certified OpenStack Administrator
- NetApp Certified Data Management Administrator
- Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
- ITIL Foundation v3
Get in touch
The best way to reach me is via LinkedIn or Twitter/X. For anything else, use the contact form.