rickmur
Rick Mur

Rick Mur

About

CTO and cofounder of GNX. Network engineer since 2006, quad CCIE and triple JNCIE, living close to Amsterdam.

I have worked in networking since 2006, when I was 19. I earned my first CCIE in 2008, right after my 21st birthday, and went on to become a quad CCIE (#21946 in Routing & Switching, Service Provider, Storage Networking and Data Center) and triple JNCIE (SP #851, ENT #456 and DC #389).

My career has looked at networks from nearly every side of the table. I started as a developer of web and mobile apps, moved into engineering at a large mobile operator, spent 5 years as a consultant designing and migrating ISP backbones across Europe, and then joined Cisco and Juniper Networks as a systems engineer. Every one of those roles taught me something about how connectivity is bought, built and supported, and how much friction sits in between.

In late 2018 I cofounded GNX, where I am CTO. GNX takes that friction out for companies that need connectivity in many countries at once. I lead the technical side: our platform GNX+, our data and the engineering team behind it.

I live close to Amsterdam. When I am not working on GNX, I am most likely spending time with my son Senna, or opening a good bottle of wine.

Why this site

This is where I write in my own voice: commentary on networking and the internet, lessons from building GNX, and the occasional deep dive. The older lab notebooks and certification stories are still on the blog too. They carry a note that some details may be dated, but people still find them useful, so they stay.

Get in touch

There are no comments and no contact form here. If you have a question about a post, want to compare notes, or have a networking puzzle worth solving, email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on LinkedIn.

The views on this site are my own, not those of GNX or any former employer. The site sets no cookies and does not track you.

Career

  1. Today

    CTO and cofounder · GNX

    I lead the platform team behind GNX+, which quotes, orders and supports connectivity in 190+ countries, as GNX grows into a leader in global connectivity.

  2. 2021

    JNCIE-DC #389, my third JNCIE

  3. 2019

    Cloud Lead EMEA · Juniper Networks

    A second stint at Juniper, to bootstrap and lead the EMEA team covering the cloud providers.

  4. 2018

    Cofounder and CTO · GNX

    Started GNX to make global connectivity as easy to buy as anything else online.

  5. 2017

    Cofounder · PeakFactory

    My first own company, and the steepest learning curve I have had, most of it not about technology.

  6. 2014

    Systems engineer · Juniper Networks

    Talking to customers across Europe about where their networks should go next.

  7. 2014

    JNCIE-ENT #456, my second JNCIE

  8. 2014

    Systems engineer · Cisco

    A short stint on the vendor side.

  9. 2013

    CCIE Data Center, my fourth CCIE

  10. 2011

    JNCIE-SP #851, my first JNCIE

  11. 2010

    CCIE Storage Networking, my third CCIE

  12. 2009

    CCIE Service Provider, my second CCIE

  13. 2009

    Support engineer, then technical consultant · Telindus

    Architecture, design and night time migrations of ISP and mobile operator backbones across Europe. I led the service provider practice and spoke at events worldwide.

  14. 2008

    CCIE #21946 Routing & Switching (now Enterprise), my first CCIE

  15. 2007

    Network engineer · Legian Professionals, at KPN Mobile

    Changes, testing and out of band management in a mobile operator network of 850+ routers and switches. This is where networking became the job.

  16. 2005

    Developer · De Heer Software

    Planning tools in VB.NET and C#, plus the PDA apps and web services around them. My first job, and the reason I still enjoy building software.