Available for engagements

Yakout
Esmat

Network, Cloud & Infrastructure Architect and Consultant — designing enterprise-grade solutions that perform at scale.

CCIE Certified 20+ Years Experience Azure Architect Auckland, NZ

Architecting networks
that never sleep

With over 20 years in enterprise technology, I specialise in designing and delivering complex network, data centre, and cloud solutions that stand up to the demands of government, financial services, and large-scale transport organisations.

Holding a CCIE certification and a track record across New Zealand's most critical infrastructure environments — including Auckland Transport, Westpac, ANZ Bank, and MBIE — I bring deep technical expertise matched with the communication skills to navigate Architecture Review Boards and gain stakeholder approval.

I run my own consultancy, delivering end-to-end architectural artefacts: from High Level Designs through to Low Level Designs, Reference Architectures, and Board-ready presentations.

20+
Years Experience
CCIE
Certified Expert
Gov
+ Enterprise Clients
NZ
Based in Auckland
Network Architecture
EVPN / VXLAN Spine-Leaf Fabric MPLS IP VPN BGP / OSPF / EIGRP SD-WAN Cisco Fortinet
Cloud & Data Centre
Azure ExpressRoute Hub-Spoke Landing Zones Palo Alto F5 / GSLB 100Gbps Fabric
Architecture & Delivery
HLD / LLD ARB / DRB Presentations Solution Architecture CAF Well-Architected DC Migration

Services & Capabilities

Focused on enterprise and government engagements where accuracy, security, and board-level communication matter.

Network Architecture

End-to-end enterprise network design including spine-leaf data centre fabrics, WAN strategy, and security zone architecture — built to survive Review Boards.

EVPN/VXLAN MPLS BGP Cisco

Data Centre Design & Migration

Greenfield and brownfield data centre transformations — from collapsed core to modern EVPN/VXLAN spine-leaf, single and dual DC designs, and live migrations.

Spine-Leaf DC Migration 100Gbps Dual DC

Azure Cloud Architecture

Azure Enterprise Landing Zones, hub-spoke topologies, ExpressRoute integration, and hybrid connectivity — aligned to CAF and the Well-Architected Framework.

Azure ExpressRoute Landing Zone CAF

Architectural Documentation

Board-ready HLDs, LLDs, and Reference Architecture documents structured for both C-level and engineering audiences — clear, precise, and approval-ready.

HLD LLD ARB DRB

IoT & CCTV Network Design

Large-scale IoT and surveillance network architectures — including MPLS IP VPN designs for thousands of endpoints across geographically distributed sites.

IoT CCTV MPLS Multi-VRF

Advisory & Review Board Support

Independent technical advisory for Architecture and Design Review Boards — including peer review of existing designs, risk identification, and gap analysis.

Advisory Peer Review Risk Gap Analysis

Project Portfolio

A selection of enterprise engagements across government, transport, and financial services. Client details anonymised where required.

PROJECT / 01

Public Transport EVPN/VXLAN Fabric

Government Transport Organisation · Auckland, NZ

Designed a greenfield spine-leaf data centre fabric using EVPN/VXLAN with multi-VRF architecture. Included a complex CCTV RTSP traffic routing solution bypassing Fortigate firewalls across segmented zones.

EVPN/VXLAN Spine-Leaf Multi-VRF Fortigate CCTV
PROJECT / 02

Dual Data Centre 100Gbps Fabric

Enterprise Transport Organisation · Auckland, NZ

End-to-end HLD and LLD for a dual data centre Cisco-based 100Gbps fabric with full Azure ExpressRoute integration, covering active-active failover and BGP policy design.

Cisco 100Gbps ExpressRoute BGP Dual DC
PROJECT / 03

Azure Enterprise Landing Zone

Government Organisation · New Zealand

Greenfield Azure Enterprise Landing Zone design with hub-spoke topology, Palo Alto next-generation firewalls, F5 load balancers, and ExpressRoute. Delivered full HLD aligned to CAF and Well-Architected Framework.

Azure Hub-Spoke Palo Alto F5 CAF
PROJECT / 04

IoT/CCTV MPLS IP VPN WAN

Large Transport Organisation · Auckland, NZ

WAN architecture for ~7,000 CCTV cameras and thousands of passenger information displays across geographically distributed sites — delivered as a full L3 MPLS IP VPN design with redundancy and QoS policies.

MPLS IP VPN L3 VPN IoT QoS WAN

Experience & Credentials

Over two decades across enterprise, government, and financial services in New Zealand and beyond.

// Work Experience
2020 — Present
Principal Network & Cloud Architect
Auckland Transport · Auckland, NZ
Leading network and cloud architecture across large-scale public transport infrastructure. Delivering EVPN/VXLAN data centre fabric, Azure hybrid cloud, and IoT/CCTV WAN designs.
Ongoing
Principal Consultant
Independent Consultancy · New Zealand
Providing architectural advisory, HLD/LLD documentation, and Review Board support to enterprise and government clients across NZ.
Previous
Senior Network Architect
Westpac · ANZ Bank · MBIE · Fidelity Life
Delivered complex network and data centre architectures across financial services and government — spanning WAN design, DC migrations, and hybrid cloud strategies.
Download Full CV
// Certifications & Education
  • CCIE
    CCIE — Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert
    Cisco Systems
  • AZ
    Azure Architecture (Placeholder Cert)
    Microsoft
  • BSc
    B.Sc. Biochemistry
    University (Placeholder)
// Engagement Models
Contract
Day-rate contracts for project-based delivery. Available for full-time and part-time engagements.
Consultancy
Advisory and documentation delivery for Review Board submissions and architectural assessments.

Let's work together

Available for contract and consultancy engagements across enterprise and government in New Zealand. If you have an upcoming project, a Review Board deadline, or need an independent architectural review — reach out.

Auckland, New Zealand