Hello, my name is Pat Allen aka Layer8Packet

I live in Pennsylvania, USA with my wife and two daughters. I’ve been in the IT/network space for 20 years with a heavy focus on Cisco. I’m a senior network architect in the financial/banking industry and have held multiple Cisco certifications (CCNA Route/Switch, CCNA Security and CCNP Route/Switch), also Palo Alto PCNSA, and Azure Fundamentals. I’m also 1/3 of the podcast Breaking Down the Bytes, which helps new people break into the IT industry. Look us up on your podcast platform of choice!

When I’m away from the screen, I like spending time with my family and recently I’ve gotten into model railroading and astrophotography

All that to say that the point of this blog is to track my CCNP Security studies and if it turns into something more, great! If you’re studying for any certs, please let me know, would love to chat about it and help where I can!