The Aspen Mesh Story
Aspen Mesh is a team of experts with a history in network programmability and infrastructure. We built software that was an early version of service mesh before the term service mesh existed. Our history working with early releases of Istio came from our work with early versions of Kubernetes and the clarity of the value of service mesh due to our experience with containers and container orchestration.
About Aspen Mesh
Aspen Mesh is an internal incubation within F5 Networks, meaning that we get to move with the focus and agility of a startup, while benefiting from the expertise and heritage of a company that knows how to meet the needs of large, complex enterprises. It’s the perfect combination for bringing service mesh into the enterprise. We can advise on integrating Istio into existing systems to ease migration. We understand the constraints of enterprise systems and can help you navigate them.
Who We Are
Aspen Meshers come from startups and some of the most recognizable companies in the world. Our backgrounds are in different industries, working on a myriad of different problems. Our engineers are experts in Istio, Envoy and Kubernetes, and we can help you make the most out of containerized applications in the enterprise.
Our Idea
The Aspen Mesh team believes in the power of the open source community. We actively contribute to and participate in the Istio, Envoy and Kuberentes communities. We also know open source can be free like a puppy so we’re here to support you on every step of your microservices journey.
Our Approach
Aspen Mesh thinks the way cloud-native infrastructure is changing the way the world operates is a generational shift. We’re intent on driving more efficient and secure operations through a service mesh that is reliable and easy to operate.
Our Executive Team
Shawn Wormke, Incubation Lead
Shawn’s passion for building small teams focused on bringing emerging technologies to market drove him to co-found and lead Aspen Mesh. With two decades of experience building application networking and security products in companies like Cisco, LineRate Systems and F5, he had seen enterprises transition from hardware to software as they demanded to be more agile. As applications continue to evolve, he envisions a world where developers are unencumbered by infrastructure – and manageability, security and control the business demands are provided by a service mesh.
Andrew Jenkins, CTO
Andrew co-founded Aspen Mesh because he observed containerized microservices making communication resiliency ever more important, but also more challenging to build and manage at scale. His software and hardware engineering background is in communication and networking including building and standardizing the nascent Interplanetary Internet and adding core datapath programmability to LineRate, a successful Boulder-based startup. He loves the exhilaration of fixing the impossible bug.
Randy Almond, Director of Market Development
Randy is drawn to the intersection of people and technology and loves the thrill of building something from scratch. In the course of his career, he’s worked in product and marketing roles at a range of companies – big and small – from Twitter and Accenture to LambdaNet and Gnip. When he’s not talking to companies about eh security and observability of their microservices, you’ll find him skiing or playing soccer with his kids.
Neeraj Poddar, Chief Architect
Neeraj is a technical leader with a proven record of delivering outcomes in fast-paced and early-stage organizations. His passion for startups and solving complex distributed system problems led him to co-found Aspen Mesh where he leads the engineering efforts as Chief Architect. He’s an open source enthusiast and is currently Istio Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) member and Product Security Working Group Lead. When not working on technical challenges, you can find him playing racquetball, cooking or trying out new restaurants.
Zach Jory, Head of Marketing
Zach is a marketing leader with expertise in technology, SaaS and open source. Before Aspen Mesh, he worked at IBM in different product and marketing roles across technology sectors. When he’s not thinking about how a service mesh can solve microservices runtime challenges, his mind usually wanders to little blue lines filled with trout.
Mary Rado, Director of Engineering
Mary brings experience leading cutting edge teams that leverage open source solutions, create reusable frameworks and components as the foundation for software products, and drive initiatives to adopt new technologies and architectures. For service mesh—or any other technology—she believes every high quality solution must delight and exceed expectations. While Mary’s not leading our team of engineers, you can find her exploring the many beautiful hiking trails near Boulder.
Scott Hendrickson, Director of Data Science
Scott builds and leads effective data analytics and data science teams. He’s most interested in enabling clever problem solvers, technical experts and passionate story-tellers to address interesting business questions with data. He has a track record of contributing to data strategy and data product creation and evolution.
