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Kamal Vyas is this year’s Professional Excellence and Innovation – Corporate Fortune X award winner. He has been working in the networking industry since 1997. Kamal works as a lead Network Design Engineer at NetApp where he is responsible for corporate Data Center and Global WAN Network architectural designs, solutions and standards. Recently, he and his team completed a six month project designing, testing, documenting and implementing a new POD 3.0 Next-Gen data center network architecture. Implementing cutting edge technologies, Kamal and his team not only delivered the project in a timely fashion meeting pre-defined requirements, but in many cases exceeded them. The entire project was completed under budget.
Interview with Kamal Vyas
Christine Carter, San Diego Network Professional Association
Kamal Vyas is this year’s Professional Excellence and Innovation – Corporate Fortune X award winner. He grew up in Mumbai, India and now lives in Santa Clara, California. He has been working in the networking industry since 1997. Experienced in all functional areas of networking including consultation, pre-sales, design, implementation and optimization of networking technology solutions. His expertise is in Data Center networking solutions including DC switching, FCoE, 10 Gig, Blade Centers, Big Frames, SAN storage, and virtualization.
Kamal says he was always interested in communication and network technologies. After completing his engineering degree in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, he went to work for a TCP/IP Network and LAN services provider. “Since then I have been fascinated with this profession and have never looked back”.
Kamal’s experience includes: Technical Practice Head, west coast region for Corliant (currently Accenture); creating a call center solution for HealthNet; supporting Online Networks as a Level 3 escalation engineer for Cap Gemini TSU (London); Design and Implementation of a Global Fortune 100 Large Investment Company in India; planning and setup of a lab and CCIE curriculum for a joint venture company in Fukuoka, Japan; and the design and implementation of a 300 POP MPLS enabling a large Carrier Network across the country for a leading Internet and Telecommunication services provider in Costa Rica.
Currently, Kamal works as a lead Network Design Engineer at NetApp, a $3.5 billion high-tech company. He is responsible for corporate Data Center and Global WAN Network architectural designs, solutions and standards. NetApp WAN and Data Center Networks have continuously evolved under his supervision.
Under Kamal’s leadership, his team worked for nearly 6 months designing, testing, documenting and implementing a new POD 3.0 Next-Gen data center network architecture. The project began with the compilation of high-level requirements. The team had to implement bleeding-edge technologies like VMWare’s VMotion and DDS and adhere to Next-Gen data center network requirements. The solution had to be designed to support game-changing technologies in the data center while keeping the cost lower than previous DC network installs. Kamal and his team not only delivered the project in a timely fashion meeting pre-defined requirements, but in many cases exceeded them. The entire project was completed under budget.
When asked if he would encourage others to join this profession, Kamal replied “I am excited about future of Networking. Having gone through so many enhancements and developments, the best is still to come.” He sees a dramatic evolution in the role of the network, becoming more of an intelligent and transparent infrastructure where “your services automatically find you and move to you”.
Kamal plans to finish CCDE certification and his MBA in the next five years. He thanks his wife, Aruna, their two month old daughter, Bhavya, along with his co-workers for “their support and encouragement as I continue to strive for professional excellence”.
Congratulations Kamal, for excellence in this project and in your career!
