About Mike

What’s Mike Lossmann’s deal?

FAQs

How did you get into network engineering?

At an early age, circa 1987, my innate engineering mind was revealed at a McDonalds Playland in Astoria Heights, NY. While other children were playing inside the Grimace-shaped ‘baby jail,’ I was underneath it, trying to suss out how the contraption worked. Fast forward a couple decades, and I found myself hating being a systems engineer; more specifically, I hated working on Windows servers. So I pushed myself and learned everything I could about cutting-edge network technology, and I’ve never looked back.

What’s your involvement with FLNUG?

Along with co-leader Michael Wynston, we steer the Florida Networking User Group, otherwise known as ‘FLNUG‘ No matter what the specific agenda is for the local meetup, I consider myself the “panel punching bag”– I can take the hits, from networking friends or complete strangers, and stay upright through it all.
If you attend one of our meetups, whether at Coppertail Brewing or another local Florida brewery, you’ll find networking folks swapping ‘war stories’ as fast as they’re kicking back craft beers. Between the IPAs and APIs, the only thing flowing faster than the drinks are the unsolicited networking career tips!

What other interests do you have in addition to network engineering?

Collecting Funko Pops is a lot like drinking bourbon—both require a bit of shelf space and the willingness to embrace some guilty pleasures. You can catch me sipping a strong coffee while debating whether Roman Reign’s elbow drop defies aerodynamics, or just physics as a whole. Wrestling fandom keeps things exciting, while the joy of aeronautics keeps my feet on the ground (metaphorically, of course). And if bourbon and Funko Pops are involved, well, it’s just another day of carefully curated chaos in my house.

Hey, your voice sounds familiar. Have I seen you in something?

You probably have! But the closest I get to Hollywood in my line of work is explaining why the wifi goes down during a Netflix binge. Jumping between Twitch and YouTube, you can expect deep dives into network modeling, peppered with occasional product tangents. It’s a mix of nerdy charm and subtle chaos—because nothing says “I’m an expert” like fixing a network issue live on air, even if your boss calls you in the middle of the livestream.

Work Experience

March 2023 – Present

Forward Networks
Technical Product Marketing Manager

I am the product expert for our incredible marketing team! My days are filled with exciting activities, from being the ringmaster at conferences to hosting our bi-weekly live stream, “Demo Tuesday.” During this stream, I show off all the fantastic ways our platform can make network and security operations a breeze. I also get to create helpful webinars, video demos, and supporting blog posts.

February 2021 – March 2023

Ernst and Young
Technology Consulting Manager

As a Manager in the Technology Consulting practice at Ernst & Young, I help guide my clients through their technology transformation journey. This is from legacy networks into a secure, agile, software-defined, and cloud-first architecture while providing leading-edge industry knowledge and solutions

October 2018 – February 2021

Nokia
SD-WAN Solutions Architect / Regional Product Line Manager

I was a Solutions Architect for Nokia’s Nuage Networks SDN/SDWAN venture. I drove the SD-WAN business for Nokia’s Service Provider Partner Program, delivered presentations to executives and technical stakeholders, and worked with product management and marketing teams on customer concerns, feature requests, and go-to-market strategy

March 2017 – October 2018

Versa Networks
Principal Systems Engineer

I sold Versa solutions to extra-large enterprises in the eastern US. I was the primary technical resource for demo and customer interaction calls. I executed customer proof of concepts and provided on-site support during implementation.

January 2015 – March 2017

The Coca-Cola Company
Senior Enterprise Network Architect

My duties were to provide architectural guidance for the entire TCCC infrastructure. I collaborated with business stakeholders on new technology, enabling the organization to adopt a software-defined architecture.

October 2011 – January 2015

Viacom
Senior Network Engineer, Strategic

As Viacom’s subject matter expert for their global and hosting environments, I led the network team’s projects and provided support for live events like The Kids Choice Awards, The Video Music Awards, and the Movie Awards.

About Mike

FAQs

Work Experience

Forward NetworksTechnical Product Marketing Manager

Ernst and YoungTechnology Consulting Manager

NokiaSD-WAN Solutions Architect / Regional Product Line Manager

Versa NetworksPrincipal Systems Engineer

The Coca-Cola CompanySenior Enterprise Network Architect