Network engineer · builder · Chicago
DUSTIN
ALLEMAN
Over a decade in networking and IT. Off the clock I build AI tools, automation, and a homelab that runs like production.
About
I'm Dustin. Marine Corps IT, a few companies after that, and these days Cisco networking in a FedRAMP environment. I came up on the hands-on side: packet captures, escalations, enterprise gear. I also teach CCNA-level networking at colleges around Chicago. Everything below is what I build when the shift ends.
The long versionLess
It started long before the paycheck. I was the kid taking computers apart, downloading games and music, breaking things and figuring out how to fix them. Too many years of World of Warcraft, still a PC gamer. That curiosity turned into the career.
The goal was always to architect networks, not just support them, and to build the tools I wished I had along the way. So I build. Dashboards, AI agents, automation, a homelab that grew from scavenged gear into something that runs like production. A lot of it points at one goal: moving into a sales engineer role, which is why so many of these projects are about proving a thing out and explaining it clearly.
Off the clock: Chicago lakefront skates, biking, anything outdoors, a Jeep with a permanent project list, and whatever the lab breaks that week.
Based in
Chicago, IL
Experience
10+ yrs networking & IT
Certifications
CCNA · CWNA · Meraki Solutions Specialist
Education
B.S. IT, Western Governors University
Teaching
Instructor, Cisco Networking Academy
Service
U.S. Marine Corps veteran
Featured projects
All 13 projects →
PocketOps for Twenty
LiveA free iPhone and iPad app for self-hosted Twenty CRM, live on the App Store. Your server, your API key, no middleman. Built alongside the full CRM buildouts I do for small businesses.
MindMap
LiveA self-hosted, white-label AI workspace. Every tool the agent touches becomes a node on a visual canvas, so you can see what it is doing and why. Plugin-based, fully tenant-isolated, now running real paying customers with a live marketplace, public docs, and a CRM that shapes itself to each business.
Homelab + Hybrid Cloud
LiveA production-grade homelab bridged to the cloud. Proxmox and two-site Cisco Meraki, full observability, automated backups, and a private overlay to Hetzner.
AI Agent Ecosystem
LiveA tiered team of AI agents that monitors and troubleshoots my cloud and local infrastructure, escalating from read-only log analysis to SSH to me. They now share one Git-backed memory brain across every machine, so a lesson learned on one box is known everywhere, and I can drive any of them from my phone.
The Design Lab
Every project needed a front end. So I got good at making them.
14 sites shipped, 10 versions that lost, a style engine with 32 skins, and the process behind all of it.
Open the lab →Everything else
The rest of the site, in one place.
Latest writing
All posts →Talk shop, hire me, or just say hi
Email lands in my inbox. The phone line is my AI receptionist: play the setup game, or just say "sign up." :)