Michael Balasko

Michael Balasko

Interests: AI and ML, Networking (WAN/LAN)

Michael is a presales systems engineer obsessed with network engineering—particularly AI/HPC clusters, EVPN-VXLAN fabric design, and making sense of the Cisco/Arista/NVIDIA ecosystem. He thrives on untangling messy architectures and translating complex networking into something humans can actually understand (often with a laugh).

By day, he’s solving infrastructure problems. By evening, you’ll find him in his home lab tinkering with Unraid, LLMs, and GPU optimization—or off-roading with his crew in Colorado. He’s equally comfortable designing datacenter topologies, optimizing a media transcoding pipeline, or crafting something in Fusion 360, to keep his small 3D print farm happy.

When he’s not building something technical, he’s probably cooking, exploring wine and cocktails, or helping organize off-road events in the Denver area. Music spans the full spectrum: dance-punk, synthpop, EDM, classic rock—whatever fits the moment.

He prefers clear communication, practical solutions, and people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

Michael Balasko will join us as a delegate at Networking Field Day 41 on October 7, 2026!

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