I am excited to share some great news with all of you. I have joined the Internet Society as the Technical Engagement Manager for the Asia Pacific region.
For those who are not familiar with me, let me introduce myself. My name is Aftab Siddiqui and I started my professional career as a support engineer back in 2005 at a small but rapidly growing ISP called Multinet Broadband in Karachi, Pakistan. That was the era of the broadband boom in Pakistan where everyone was deploying their own DSL infrastructure due to the lack of a wholesale model from the incumbent telco provider. After working there less than a year, I moved to one of the biggest ISPs Cybernet who was deploying the biggest broadband infrastructure catering almost all parts of the country.
I spent almost a decade at Cybernet, starting as a support engineer in the network operations center and left as the Manager of Network Operations and Projects in 2015. During that period I completed my projects and also participated in various regional and international technology events where I shared my experience and knowledge with the community, regularly participated in events like SANOG, APNIC/APRICOT, MENOG and ICANN. I also served in different roles in these organizations to develop and deliver programs to help and educate the community and still continue to do so.
In early 2015, I moved to Australia and joined system integrator Eintellego Networks as its Chief Technologist. Here I learned about Open Networking and Automation and became a big advocate of that, which you will hear about from me in future as well. If you’re interested you can watch a short YouTube video of me explaining Open Networking at last APNIC conference
As a member of the Deploy360 team in the Asia-Pacific region, I will engage with network operators, enterprises, governments, developers, manufacturers of consumer electronics, and other diverse users to encourage deployment of new Internet technologies. My experience in the region and extensive participation in almost all prominent NOGs and other related events will help me achieve this goal.
If you have any suggestions for me or for ISOC in general then share them with me next time you see me in any event in the region or around the globe, or simply reach out to me via email [email protected] or via Twitter @aftabsiddiqui