The Story
I’ve spent the last four-plus years working as an L2 Helpdesk Technician at MSPs — which is a title that dramatically understates what the job actually is.
Managing infrastructure for 100+ organizations and 3,000+ endpoints means you don’t get to have a “this isn’t my job” mindset. You deal with network outages, security incidents, identity issues, firewall misconfigurations, and failed backups — often simultaneously, often at 2am, always with a client on the phone. That environment builds a kind of problem-solving breadth that’s hard to get anywhere else.
The flip side is that MSP work doesn’t always give you the depth that enterprise infrastructure demands. So I’ve been building it deliberately: a physical home lab with real Cisco gear, a cert path from CCNA through to Azure Solutions Architect, and a growing library of automation scripts that started as PowerShell MSP workflows and are turning into proper Python network tooling.
This site is where I document the build. Not polished retrospectives — the actual process, including the things that don’t work the first time.
What I Work With Daily
Networking — Cisco Meraki, Fortinet FortiGate, Ubiquiti UniFi, Cisco ASA 5516-X, VPN (site-to-site and remote access), SD-WAN, VLAN design across mixed environments.
Security — Huntress EDR, SentinelOne, Blackpoint, Kibana SIEM, Perch, Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access, MFA enforcement, incident response from detection through documentation.
Infrastructure — Windows Server 2016/2019/2022, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, Hyper-V, VMware ESXi/vSphere, Proxmox VE.
Cloud & Identity — Microsoft Azure, Entra ID, Conditional Access, Intune, Microsoft 365, Exchange Online, Hybrid AD/Azure join.
Automation — PowerShell (daily), Python (learning), Netmiko, ImmyBot, Rewst workflows, working toward Ansible for network automation.
The Homelab
Two servers — Dell PowerEdge R630 and HP ProLiant DL380 — running a two-host VMware vSphere cluster with shared storage, vMotion, and HA. Proxmox VE is in progress as an open-source alternative.
Physical network gear: Cisco ASA 5516-X and a 3750G switch stack for real IOS labs. GNS3 and EVE-NG handle virtual topologies.
The goal is to test everything on actual hardware before it ends up on this site.
The Cert Path
| Certification | Status |
|---|---|
| CompTIA A+ | ✅ Feb 2024 |
| Microsoft MS-900 | ✅ Apr 2023 |
| Microsoft SC-900 | ✅ Apr 2023 |
| Cisco CCNA | 🔄 In Progress — Target Jun 2026 |
| Microsoft AZ-104 | Queued |
| Microsoft SC-200 | Queued |
| Microsoft AZ-500 | Queued |
| Microsoft AZ-700 | Queued |
| Cisco CCNP Enterprise | Queued |
| AWS SAA-C03 | Queued |
| Microsoft AZ-305 | Destination |
Get in Touch
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeremiah-windle
- GitHub: github.com/windlej