Networking to solutions engineering, Chicago
DUSTIN
ALLEMAN
A decade in Cisco networking. I lead the technical relationship, translate it for whoever is in the room, and build the tools and labs to prove it out.
Why Cisco
Five years in, and I still geek out about this stuff.
The portfolio keeps getting bigger and smarter, from Meraki and Catalyst to the whole AgenticOps and Cloud Control direction, and I get to teach it, break it in my lab, and help customers actually use it. Moving into a Solutions Engineer role is the natural next step: same passion, pointed at the solution and the sale.
This page is built for one role: the internal Mid-Market SE seat.
The road here
Marine Corps to Cisco to the SE seat.
- 2013-2017U.S. Marine Corps, where it started
Cyber and network specialist. Learned to make mission-critical networks just work, under pressure.
- 2019CCNA and first network gig
Earned my CCNA at Mesa CC and moved into enterprise network admin at OneNeck across Cisco, Juniper, and Palo Alto.
- 2021Joined Cisco (Meraki)
Made it to the mothership. Routing, switching, and wireless for enterprise customers.
- 2022High Touch and started teaching
White-glove Fortune 500 support, and I started teaching CCNA at City Colleges of Chicago. Instantly hooked on the teaching.
- 2023FedRAMP team
Technical advisor for federal agencies on the Cisco FedRAMP cloud. Embedded-SE work, just without the title.
- 2024-2025Build everything
A homelab that runs like production, AI agents, automation. If I could break it and learn it, I did.
- 2025Cisco Live
My favorite week of the year. Ran into old colleagues, geeked out on the roadmap, came home with a list of things to try.
- 2026Next up: Solutions Engineer
CCNP in progress, degree wrapping up, and aiming squarely at the SE seat.
Cisco Live 2025
My favorite week of the year.
Keynotes, the World of Solutions floor, sessions until my badge died, and running into people I have not seen in years. I come back every time with a notebook full of things to lab and a fresh read on where the portfolio is going.
About
I'm Dustin. I've spent over a decade in IT: support, help desk, networking, engineering, infrastructure. It started long before the paycheck. I was the kid taking computers apart, breaking things and figuring out how to fix them. That curiosity turned into the career.
I did IT in the Marine Corps, carried it through a few companies after that, and these days I work on Cisco networking in a FedRAMP environment. I came up on the hands-on side: packet captures, escalations, enterprise gear. The goal was always to architect and solution networks, not just support them, and to build the tools I wished I had along the way.
So I build. Dashboards, AI agents, automation, a homelab that grew from scavenged gear into something that runs like production. A lot of it points at one goal: moving into a solutions engineer role, which is why so many of these projects are about proving a thing out and explaining it clearly. I also teach CCNA-level networking at colleges around Chicago, which is some of the most rewarding work I do.
Off the clock: Chicago lakefront skates, biking, anything outdoors, a Jeep with a permanent project list, and whatever the lab breaks that week.
Based in
Chicago, IL (remote)
Experience
10+ yrs networking, 5 inside Cisco
Certifications
CCNA, CWNA, Meraki Specialist, CCNP (in progress)
Education
B.S. Business Management, WGU (2026)
Teaching
CCNA instructor, City Colleges of Chicago
Service
U.S. Marine Corps veteran
Stuff I've built
Homelab + Hybrid Cloud
LiveA production-grade homelab bridged to the cloud. Proxmox and two-site Cisco Meraki, full observability, automated backups, and a private overlay to Hetzner.
Screenshot comingCCNP Study Bot + CML Lab
In ProgressA self-hosted study engine that drills me on the CCNP Automation blueprint, paired with a Cisco Modeling Labs environment where the labs actually run. Built to turn a cert path into daily reps.
MindMap
LiveA self-hosted, white-label AI workspace, and the platform behind my MadeForMeAI product. Every tool the agent touches becomes a node on a visual canvas, plugin-based and fully tenant-isolated, with one connector for thousands of apps.
AI Agent Ecosystem
LiveA tiered team of AI agents that monitors and troubleshoots my cloud and local infrastructure, escalating from read-only log analysis to SSH to me, with a shared memory brain (Cognee) so they coordinate instead of duplicating work.
Other projects
Network Design & Architecture
ServiceNetworking is the foundation the rest of my work is built on: secure, segmented, well-documented design, a homelab that mirrors the enterprise, and a dedicated Cisco Modeling Labs environment for the heavy scenarios.
netadmintoolbox.com
LiveA toolbox of network-admin utilities for engineers and students: subnetting, lookups, quick references, and guided troubleshooting in one fast site.