Welcome to securenet-central.ca, a new Information Security posting site by myself, Trevor Corness.
A little about me – I’ve been in the IT industry for 20+ years, the whole time working as a Sales Engineer and Systems Engineer. I have always worked for a Systems Integrator, or Value Added Reseller, meaning I have worked directly with multiple clients rather than in a single environment for an extended period of time.
I began in 1998 with a keen interest in Routing & Switching, and Server Backends. By 1999 I had my Cisco CCNA and CCDA certifications, began my Microsoft MCSE certification on Windows NT 4.0, and was certified by Compaq at the time on the Proliant series servers upto the Proliant 7000.
I worked as a Systems Engineer beginning in late 2000 after completing all those Certifications for a Systems Integrator / VAR in the suburbs of Vancouver. My main duties included Checkpoint Firewalls, Windows Servers (both NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 at the time), HP Procurve and Cisco Catalyst Switching, Cisco routers, and Nortel Contivity VPN Concentrators for the likes of the British Columbia Provincial Government, Federal Government Agencies, and small business like a Print Shop, and some multisite businesses locally around Vancouver and throughout British Columbia. I continued this work with the same crew of coworkers, even though many of us transitioned to a new company by 2003; all the way until late 2017. In that time, I changed my focus as the market changed, and ended up concentrating on a few Voice over IP solutions mostly as the company focused more on our Telecom background than “Traditional IT”.
In 2004, I became Canada’s premier Systems Engineer and Trainer for an IP-PBX put out by AltiGen Communications. By 2009 we added ShoreTel Communications to the list and became Canada’s first ShoreTel Gold Partner. My main roles with the ShoreTel product line were Server support, System Design, Proposal Writing, and System Demonstrations; as well as being the “IP” expert supporting our 5 Telecom Technicians that came from a more traditional PBX background.
In 2005, in response to requests from one of my large AltiGen customers’ request, I helped them deploy a multisite FortiGate IPsec VPN and HP Procurve network. I had a friend that worked at Fortinet at the time, in Burnaby, British Columbia – just outside of Vancouver. My route & switch background, and familiarity with Checkpoint proved valuable in this endeavor. By 2010, I was deploying FortiGates and FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager, along with FortiAP Wireless networks for several SMB customers, mostly for connecting sites via IPsec to run their VoIP phone systems between sites.
In 2014, I was invited to the exclusive Annual Training “Xtreme Team Canada” by our local Fortinet Channel SE, and began my trip towards the larger Fortinet SE Community. In Montreal, Quebec Canada for a week, we dove head-first into technologies and strategies that were way over my head at the time – Sandboxing, Virtual Firewalls, Encryption Algorithms, Automation, WiFi Presence Tracking for Retail, Web Application Firewalls, and Load Balancers. With Voice over IP becoming commoditized by this point, I knew where my next focus would be – InfoSec!
After attending Xtreme Team Canada 2014, 2015, 2016 in Montreal, Niagara Falls Ontario, and Toronto – I was definitely hooked and diving deeper and deeper into the InfoSec landscape. My boss was onboard.
I returned from the 2016 event, to news that my bosses were retiring, and had sold their stake in the company. The new boss? From an IT background. But was looking to make a change. InfoSec wasn’t on his roadmap of “Interesting Products” it seemed. I stuck around for a year trying to convince him the opportunities – we were doing a large amount of business annually, given that I was the only employee even really trying to promote the product line. By late 2017, the decision was made that I wouldn’t be attending the Xtreme Team 2017 back again in Montreal that year, so the writing was on the wall. When a “Free Training” day was denied approval locally in Vancouver, I moved on.
That’s when I started where I am today, at SecureLinks – a Platinum Fortinet Partner with offices in Toronto and Operations here in Vancouver. We’re now one of the Premier Partners in Canada with only 6 employees.
Personally, I have obtained by Fortinet NSE5, NSE6, and NSE7 certifications in the 2 1/2 years since joining, and am currently preparing to write my NSE8 certification exam.
So – welcome to my journey. Hope we have fun, and learn lots over the years.
Trevor Corness
Sales Engineer – Western Canada
SecureLinks www.securelinks.net