E31 - Marko Tisler at Extreme Networks

On today’s episode, George Barnes was joined by Marko Tisler, the Director of Product Management, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at Extreme Networks. Marko talks us through his start in the industry, his university degree, and the current projects they are working on over at Extreme Networks.

While studying at university, Marko had no specific plans on what he wanted to do thereafter or what area of Computer Science he wanted to work in. So randomly, he got a scholarship to do a CCNA with a company he was unfamiliar with. At the end of the training, they offered him a full-time job, but Marko was still studying at university in his second year at that time. He accepted the position and kept on studying whilst working. Trying to balance his studies with work resulted in his grades dropping slightly, however, he got that hands-on experience that no doubt set a solid foundation for where he is today.

Making that transition from a technical person to someone not so much on the tools, happened gradually for him. He went from a support role, looking at configurations and setups to a more consultative role, looking at networks, high-level and low-level documents on how to put the network together and then positioning himself in marketing.

Continuously growing his skillset and making his transition into machine learning and the AI space, the curiosity that drove him goes back to his high school days. One of the papers he wrote in college was about artificial intelligence and since then the interest always stayed with him but the industry, he was in never gave him the opportunity to use it.

One of the most valuable skills he learned through university was picking up a new subject and obtaining insight into it very quickly. If he could do it again, he would. Certifications are nice but they require a different mindset. Where certs are quite narrow, universities give you a wide breadth of knowledge.

Extreme Networks…

At Extreme Networks, they are taking companies that are considerably bigger than them and the advantage is that they have an approach to organisation.

Some of the projects they are currently researching now are WiFi 6E, which is the biggest thing that’s happened to the WiFi industry at the moment. They’re building a product called co-pilot which helps you in your day-to-day life. When you have an incident, you won’t have to wait for a phone call or email to come in, it will alert you!

The most important skill he thinks one should have in this field is data efficiency. You don’t have to be an expert but understanding the basic stats will go a long way. Basic Python is another, need to be able to do some basic Python scripting. Communication is general, being able to speak to people is key to being successful in this industry.

The ways he keeps his skills so current in several ways. He does a lot of research papers and watches a lot of YouTube videos on technology. He also encourages people to join social media communities. You collectively learn quicker when everyone shares their own views on the online communities.

Marko shares what technologies he thinks will have both a positive and negative impact on the future, make sure you don’t miss it, tune in now!