About the Authors

Sadiq Memon, CCIE No. 47508, is a Lead Solutions Integration Architect (Automotive) with Cisco Customer Experience (CX). He has over 30 years of diversified experience in information technology with specialization and expertise in data center and enterprise networking. Sadiq joined Cisco in 2007, and as a Cisco veteran of over 13 years, he has worked with various large enterprise customers, including automotive, financials, manufacturing, and government in designing, implementing, and supporting end-to-end architectures and solutions. Sadiq was part of the Cisco Advanced Services Tiger Team during the early ACI incubation period. He has published a series of short videos covering ACI configuration on YouTube and has presented ACI/Cloud-related topics at Cisco Live! Sadiq was the technical editor for the Cisco Press book Deploying ACI and possesses multiple IT industry certifications from leading companies such as Cisco (CCIE, CCNA), VMware (VCP-DCV), Microsoft, and Citrix. Sadiq holds a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan.

Joseph Ristaino, CCIE No. 41799, is a Technical Leader with the ACI Escalation Team in RTP, North Carolina. He joined Cisco in 2011 after graduating from Wentworth Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in computer networking. Joseph started with Cisco on the Server Virtualization TAC team, specializing in UCS and virtualization technologies. He has in-depth knowledge of compute/networking technologies and has been supporting customers for over eight years as they implement and manage data center deployments around the globe. Joseph now works closely with the ACI Technical Support teams to provide assistance on critical customer issues that go unsolved and has been working on ACI since its inception in 2014. Joseph lives with his wife in Durham, North Carolina.

Carlo Schmidt, CCIE No. 41842, is a Data Center Solutions Architect. He works with global enterprises, designing their next-generation data centers. Carlo started at Cisco in 2011, on the Data Center Switching TAC team. In that role, he focused on Nexus platforms and technologies such as FCoE, fabric path, and OTV. In 2016, he migrated to the ACI TAC team, where he specialized in customer problem resolution as well as improving product usability. In 2019 Carlo decided to take his knowledge and lessons learned from his eight years in Cisco TAC to a presales role as a Solutions Architect. Carlo is based out of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.