Atmosphere @ IRIS - Saeed Awad
Sr. Network & Security Engineer
7 March, 2021 by
Atmosphere @ IRIS - Saeed Awad
Ruba Daoud

  • Tell us about yourself. 
    I finished my Computer Science BSc in 3 years at University of Jordan, my friends used to call me a nerd back then, I was just someone who loved what he was doing and paid attention to details.  I like network security, Linux, virtualization and automation, I get more satisfaction in scripting tasks than doing them manually. I remember the first script I did 6 years ago for a long task “connect to 4 SAN switches, collect 28 different outputs and save them to different directories”, that task took us hours to be done. I did it manually the first 3 times then created a PowerShell script to do it for me. I created some scripts while working for IRIS, most popular ones are the SD-WAN migration script and the bulk L2TP VPN creation on Windows 7/10. I’m a firm believer in doing the things we want “sooner rather later”, as Paulo Coelho once said “One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you always wanted. Do it now.” 

  • Why did you decide to work at IRS Technology?
    I was working as an acting network team lead for an enterprise customer before joining IRIS Technology, I wanted to switch for a partner role so I did some interviews with some, my colleague back then told me that IRIS were looking for a network security engineer and told me how great IRIS is compared to the other partners, I’ve applied and was lucky to land an interview just in time, interview was hard but I’m happy and thankful I got chosen by IRIS management.

  • Tell me about your work position?
    Part of my role is to ensure smooth implementation, migration and integration of cyber security products into end customer networks.  Another part is the ongoing support which involves protecting customer networks from security threats and attacks which is very challenging.

  • How does this role contribute to larger company goals?
    IRIS is the leading company in the IT security space, my role and all other roles at IRIS contributes in remaining so.

  • What are some of the challenges or roadblocks one might come up against in this role?
    Hackers stole 500 million users' data from Yahoo back in late 2014, a small misstep on how accounts could have been protected caused such incident.  The continuous process of avoiding missteps, integrating technologies into end customer networks, reducing the attack surface is a challenge and a roadblock sometimes.


  • You've been at this company for a while. What keeps you motivated?
    IRIS Technology offer simple and complex security products to their end customers, having to keep up with both, integration between both, and the continuous learning curve keeps me motivated.  Also being part of a company that is on a continuous growth is a motivation by itself.

  • What challenges stand in the way of getting your job done?
    Working in an open area.

  • What do you like most about working in IRIS Technology?
    I get the chance to work with Enterprise and SMB customers, each have their own challenges, mentality and complexity. I like the learning curve and the continuous growth also.

  • What is something you'd be happy doing every single day for the rest of your career?
    I wouldn’t be happy doing something for the rest of my career, but I would be happy doing security consultation for most of my career; influencing customers to leverage security capabilities and solutions to shift and integrate security into their networks gives me joy.

  • Do you ever feel limited in what you can do? What’s standing in the way? 
    Of course, learning up to date topics and keeping up with current technologies is sometimes a limitation by itself, if you don’t keep up then you are left behind.


  • What are your ambitions for IRIS Technology?
    Remain the leading company in the IT security space.

  • What are you most excited about in this company's future?
    IRIS continuous growth is extraordinary, I don’t know what to expect anymore! I’m just excited to be there to see how the future will unfold.

  • Where do you see yourself in Ten years? 
    Security Consultant/Architect, provide consultation which include Infrastructure Security, Resiliency, Data Security, Network Architecture and Design, and User Access Management is something I enjoy I lot.

  • What is your greatest weakness?
    Instant gratification.

  • What is your greatest strength?
    Do you know that saying that goes by “Work hard in silence let your success be your noise”? What’s the point of saying I can do something if my performance is contradicting me? I’m a firm believer that we don’t have to boost ourselves by speaking too much about what we can do, people care about results.  Turning my weaknesses into strength is another strength that I have, in other words “instant gratification” is one of my strength.

  • How do your measure your success?
    My growth as a human being.

Atmosphere @ IRIS - Saeed Awad
Ruba Daoud
7 March, 2021
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