Nikhil Udupi

Core Deliverables:

• Managed end-to-end service delivery for global network/connectivity services across 34 countries.
• Develop and maintain a strategic roadmap for the Connectivity team, aligned with the business objectives defined by the Steering Committee and Management Team, ensuring timely delivery of key initiatives and measurable value to the organization.
• Actively participate in budget planning sessions and define financial requirements for upcoming Network and Security initiatives, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and optimal resource allocation.
• Coordinate and manage the RFA and RFP processes to support procurement and service expansion initiatives—ensuring alignment with technical requirements, budget constraints, and strategic delivery goals. Collaborate with cross-functional teams and vendors to evaluate proposals, assess feasibility, and drive informed decision-making.
• Proactively plan and structure team activities to foster seamless collaboration and timely delivery of business objectives—ensuring accountability and ownership without the need for constant deadline reminders.
• Implement process and procedural enhancements aimed at increasing team productivity and streamlining operations, resulting in greater efficiency and operational ease.
• Facilitate regular vendor meetings to evaluate service performance, ensure adherence to SLAs, and identify opportunities for continuous improvement in service delivery.
• Actively participate in Solution Design Authority (SDA) sessions to review and validate proposed technical solutions, ensuring alignment with service delivery standards, operational feasibility, and business objectives.
• Hire, manage, develop, and train staff while setting and monitoring performance goals. Conduct regular performance reviews and administer compensation to ensure alignment with organizational objectives and employee growth.

Other Responsibilities:

• Review and oversee Epics, Features, and Product Backlog Items (PBIs) within the Azure DevOps Agile framework to ensure alignment with delivery timelines, resource planning, and service quality objectives.
• Support engineers with troubleshooting, vendor co-ordination during high priority operational issues.
• Lead post-incident reviews to analyze root causes and capture key lessons learned. Drive the implementation of corrective actions to prevent recurrence, ensure stakeholder communication, and monitor continuous improvement initiatives to enhance service resilience and operational excellence

Overview of my recent projects:

• Enterprise DDI Solution Design & Governance Alignment
• Global WAN Transformation Strategy & Zero-Trust Implementation.
• Web Application Firewall (WAF) Rollout for External Threat Mitigation.
• Legacy Technology Decommissioning & Protocol Retirement Program.
• Cloud Proxy Strategy & Cost Optimization Initiative

• Plan and execute security projects, starting from scratch.
• Assess the customer's current network and security setup and provide a detailed report with remediation and recommendations, specifically on Azure and NextGen firewalls.
• Propose cost-effective usage of cloud resources and aligning with customers' requirements.
• Create a plan and propose security design solutions and project POCs.
• Manage and configure Palo Alto and Checkpoint firewalls, and secure the perimeter by applying appropriate, verified policies.
• Implementation and Management of security products, which involves Firewalls, Antivirus, Load Balancers, IPS, and web proxy for client environment.
• Effective configuration of profiles and VIPs on F5 load balancers to ensure security of hosted sites and applications.
• Manage and deploy east-west traffic policies and restrict them with strict filters defined by the business on Cisco ACI.
• Migration of on-prem firewalls and deployment of new Palo Alto firewalls in Azure cloud.
• Recommend improvements in security systems and procedures.
• Conduct security audits to identify vulnerabilities.
• Whenever my team needs, I also act as an architect and prepare RFPs for new projects and implementation tasks.

• Manage and configure Palo Alto and Checkpoint firewalls, and secure the perimeter by applying appropriate, verified policies.
• Manage and configure Citrix NetScaler and WebSense proxy for SSL traffic and filtering.
• Manage and configure Carbon Black and Symantec Endpoint, and ensure all endpoints are updated with the latest signatures.
• Monitored computer virus reports to determine when to update virus protection systems.
• Ensure all the endpoints are updated with the latest Symantec signatures.
• Coordinating and conducting event collection, log management, event management, and identity monitoring activities using SIEM platforms.
• Creation of technically detailed reports on the status of the SIEM, including metrics on items such as the number of log sources, log collection rate, and server performance.
• Create and develop correlation and detection rules, and perform all administration, configuration, testing, and integration tasks related to SIEM.
• Monitored computer virus reports to determine when to update virus protection systems.
• Migrated on-prem checkpoint firewall to Azure cloud successfully and integrated it into CMA for policy management.
• Manage and configure firewalls hosted on Azure cloud, and secure communication using cloud services.
• Create RFCs, assess risk, and evaluate the business impact, and implement changes.
• Follow the ITIL process to address service requests and change requests.
• Administered and prepared programs for IP addresses, developed network resources, and trained support personnel to provide Tier I support to end users.
• Present weekly and monthly reports about network security to stakeholders via interactive meetings.