Cloud & Network Security
- SASE
- ZTNA
- FWaaS
- Secure Web Gateway
- DNS Security
- IPS
- RAVPN
- VPN — IPSec / SSL
- TLS
- Traffic analysis
Field Dossier — Cloud Security
Chris Baker
Cloud & network security specialist.
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
- Focus
- SASE escalation & diagnostics
- Tenure
- 14+ yrs — Cisco, Sophos
- Status
- Open to opportunities
01
Profile
Cloud and network security specialist with 14+ years of escalation, technical support, and customer-facing experience at Cisco and Sophos.
I specialize in diagnosing high-severity issues across SASE platforms — ZTNA, FWaaS, secure web gateway, DNS security, IPS, and RAVPN — and in bridging engineering and support to drive root cause to resolution. I build diagnostic and lab tooling in Bash, Python, and JavaScript, author internal documentation that scales team capability, and run mentoring, training, and technical interviewing programs.
I apply AI-assisted development workflows (Claude Code, Anthropic API) to accelerate tooling, log analysis, and documentation.
What motivates me is the full loop — taking a difficult technical problem to a deeper understanding of the product, then scaling that understanding across teams through documentation, labs, and hands-on teaching.
02
Capabilities
Cisco Products
- Cisco Secure Access
- Cisco Umbrella
- Cisco ASA
- Meraki MX
Firewalls & Gateways
- pfSense
- Sophos UTM
- Cisco ASA
- Sophos Web Appliance
- Sophos Email Appliance
Identity & Access
- SAML
- SSO
- Active Directory
- LDAP
- IdP integration — Okta / Microsoft Entra ID
Logging & Detection
- Splunk
- Snort / IPS event triage
- Log analysis
- Packet capture — Wireshark / tcpdump
Scripting & Automation
- Bash
- Python
- PHP
- JavaScript
- Expect
Operating Systems
- Linux — Alpine / RHEL / Ubuntu
- FreeBSD
- Windows Server
- macOS
Cloud & Virtualization
- Azure
- AWS
- VMware
- Docker
Networking
- TCP/IP
- DNS — BIND / MS DNS / Unbound / DNSCrypt
- Routing & switching
Web & Mail Infrastructure
- NGINX
- HAProxy
- Postfix
- MS Exchange
AI-Assisted Development
- Claude Code
- Anthropic API
- LLM-driven diagnostics & docs
Practice
- Technical documentation
- Training & mentorship
- Technical interviewing
- Escalation management
- Incident response
03
Experience
May 2023 — Present
Cloud Security Escalation Specialist
Cisco · Vancouver, BC
- Own high-severity escalations for Cisco Secure Access — driving root-cause analysis across ZTNA, FWaaS, web filtering, IPS, RAVPN, and DNS security.
- Built and operate a cloud-based lab used by support and engineering to reproduce the most technically complex customer issues in isolation.
- Develop diagnostic tooling in Bash, Python, and JavaScript; run regular log analysis in Splunk and Grafana for escalations.
- Author the internal technical documentation used as the primary reference by engineering and support; run interviews, onboarding, and mentoring.
- Integrate AI-assisted workflows (Claude Code) into tooling, log triage, and documentation to multiply team output.
Dec 2021 — Apr 2023
Senior Tier 3 Technical Support Engineer — Cloud Security
Cisco · Vancouver, BC
- Subject matter expert on Cisco Umbrella escalations; resolved the most complex technical issues facing the support organization.
- Built customized test environments and diagnostic scripts that became standard tooling for staff training and issue reproduction.
- Partnered with Development on bug fixes and enhancements; delivered training and conducted technical interviews.
Dec 2016 — Dec 2021
Tier 3 Technical Support Engineer — Cloud Security
Cisco · Vancouver, BC
- Handled escalated cases across DNS security, secure web gateway, and proxy components.
- Created Umbrella test environments in ESXi and Azure used company-wide for training and reproduction.
- Wrote support scripts and internal documentation; partnered with Development on bug fixes and product improvements.
Mar 2015 — Dec 2016
Tier 3 Technical Support Engineer — Email Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Subject matter expert for Sophos Email Appliance and PureMessage Unix; handled cases escalated from Tier 2 teams worldwide.
- Worked directly with Development on bug fixes, enhancements, new-feature testing, and release planning.
- Authored internal and public-facing knowledge base documentation; trained and mentored Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers.
Apr 2013 — May 2015
Support Engineering & Technical Account Management — Web & Email Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Provided tiered support (Tier 2 → Tier 3) for Sophos Web Appliance, Email Appliance, and PureMessage Unix/Exchange — appliance config, Unix/Linux back-ends, AD integration, DNS, and traffic flow.
- Served concurrently as Technical Account Manager for large enterprise customers — health checks, incident response during critical outages, and cross-team coordination.
Nov 2011 — Apr 2013
Technical Support Engineer — Endpoint Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Supported the enterprise Sophos endpoint suite — admin server components on Windows Server with MS SQL, and clients across Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix, NetWare, and NetApp.
- Created scripts and knowledge base articles to streamline support delivery.
04
Open Source
Active open-source contributor — network and DNS security tooling, home-automation platform integrations, and upstream library fixes, primarily in Python, PHP, and Shell.
Project specifics, repositories, and GitHub profile available on request.
05
Education & Certifications
Network Administration & Security Professional Program
BCIT — UBC Joint Program · 2011
Graduated with Distinction. Coursework in ESXi virtualization, Active Directory, Postfix/Dovecot, pfSense, Cisco routing & switching, FreeBSD, and Windows Server — with strong standing in security theory and applied practice.
Certifications
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA Linux+
- CompTIA A+
- Cisco CCNA
- Linux LPIC-1
- Novell Certified Linux Administrator
- SUSE Linux Professional
- MCITP — Enterprise Administrator (Server 2008)
- MCITP — Enterprise Desktop Administrator (Windows 7)