Tech Field Day Coverage
Our delegate panel includes independent writers and thought leaders, and we collect their coverage of the event, Tech Field Day presentations, and sponsoring companies here.
NETSCOUT AirCheck G2 v2.0
Mitch Dickey digs into the AirCheck G2 v2.0 update. This new firmware adds iPerf, captive portal support/testing, interferer identification, and packet captures to the already useful wireless tool. Make sure to check out their announcement of all new features in their video from Mobility Field Day!
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The Aruba 8400 Integrated Network Analytics & Automated Root Cause Analysis
Ethan Banks has a colorful way to describe the process of root cause analysis. “When goat sacrifices fail, deep human knowledge of a snowflake system’s specifics is required to sort through data, decide what is symptomatic as opposed to causal, and filter the information down to the root cause.” Luckily Aruba Networks’ 8400 chassis switch comes with a built in analytics engine as part of their base license. Ethan takes a look at how this specifically works on the switch and how it can be used to automate remediation as well.
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The Aruba 8400 Integrated Network Analytics & Automated Root Cause Analysis
Scale Computing Debuts HC3 in Google Cloud Platform
Scale Computing partnered with Google Cloud in their announcement to bring nested virtualization for their public cloud platform. Scale demonstrated this at Tech Field Day last week. Chris Evans looks at how with Scale’s HC3 Cloud Unity solution, the company is now able to offer Public Cloud as a DR location. Chris sees this fitting in with Scale Computing’s emphasis on simplicity offering organizations an easy path for low cost DR in a hybrid cloud.
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Scale Computing Debuts HC3 in Google Cloud Platform
The Aruba 8400 ArubaOS-CX Network Operating System
In this next installment looking at the Aruba Networks 8400 chassis switch, Ethan Banks looks how the switch interacts with ArubaOS-CX. The OS is highly programmable, supporting a well documented API in addition to a modular web GUI. Ethan takes a look at the extensibility offered by the system, the importance of the Linux kernal to the OS, and its design for resiliency.
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The Aruba 8400 ArubaOS-CX Network Operating System
Designing a Campus Switch with a “Carrier-Grade” Mindset
Kevin Myers looks at Aruba’s 8400 chassis switch and digs into how the company can backup their claim that it’s a “carrier-grade” campus core switch. Coming from a service provider background Kevin found this a rather tall order. However after learning more about the 8400, he found this was much more than marketing bluster. Indeed carrier-grade was an integral part of the core design and development philosophy of the switch.
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Designing a Campus Switch with a "Carrier-Grade" Mindset
The Aruba 8400 Hardware Highlights
In part two of his look at the Aruba 8400 chassis switch, Ethan Banks digs into the hardware of the device. The 8400 is built with redundancy in mind, which fits in with its campus core market. Aruba has designed it to offer a vaunted “carrier class” availability, with a service life to match. Ethan breaks down the unique ASIC used in the switch and digs into some speeds and feeds.
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The Aruba 8400 Hardware Highlights
How to Build a Datacenter with Skyport Systems
Raff Poltronieri starts off his Tech Field Day coverage with a look at Skyport Systems. They offer an on-site virtualization platform but managed centrally in the cloud via their SkySecure Center Cloud Management Service. This was developed around the idea that the cloud will win, but some on-site servers can’t or won’t make the transition. On-site infrastructure needs to move to be simultaneously less complex and more secure in these instances. Skyports cloud managed on-site solution does this by being architected from the ground up to be a hardened and secure platform.
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How to Build a Datacenter with Skyport Systems
The Aruba 8400 Chassis Switch. Yes, But Why?
For those that have been around networking for more than a little bit, switches are often hard to get excited about. When Ethan Banks found out that Aruba Networks would be announcing a new chassis switch, he was initially demurred by the seemingly innocuous product . But after attending their announcement, his mind was racing with the possibilities for this new piece of hardware. So much so that this is part one in an article series going into a deep dive of all its capabilities.
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The Aruba 8400 Chassis Switch. Yes, But Why?
Arista’s Programmability Strategy
Jason Edelman takes a look at the five components of Arista’s programmability strategy, as presented at Networking Field Day last month. These include EAPI, OpenConfig, NetDB Streaming, Turbines, and EosSdk. Jason breaks down each, weights the merits of the approach, and concludes with how he’d like to see Arista evolve their roadmap down the road.
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Arista's Programmability Strategy
NFD16 day two – Apstra
Apstra defines “intent” for their IDN solution as “the definition of the expected outcome”. After seeing their Networking Field Day presentation, Gian Paolo Boarina appreciated their ease of use, without sacrificing important features like robust configuration validation. Instead of merely backing up different device configuration throughout the network, Apstra has designed a “snapshot of intent” that generates configurations as needed to fit it. Its a powerful model, albeit one that calls for substantial trust.
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3 things infrastructure pros need to know about nested virtualization on Google Cloud
Keith Townsend reviews Google’s announce support for nested virtualization, which lets you run a hypervisor within a hypervisor. Keith outlines why this would be needed, and uses an example from Scale Computing running HC3 for disaster recovery inside Google Cloud as a use case. Keith saw this from Scale at Tech Field Day last week, be sure to check out the video of the announcement for more details.
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3 things infrastructure pros need to know about nested virtualization on Google Cloud
Cisco Gives SP Customers Programability Features in IOS-XR
At Tech Field Day last week Brandon Carroll found that Cisco has made big strides in network programmability with their IOS-XR using OpenConfig. Instead of forcing customers into using Cisco Works, Brandon thinks this could open up network programmability to a new market.
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Cisco Gives SP Customers Programability Features in IOS-XR
The Gravity of Mathematics: Summary of Tech Field Day at SDC 2017
For decades, technology companies made sustained investments in pure mathematical research. In this post, Dr. Rachel Traylor outlines how mathematical research had very real impacts on the development of storage. This includes queuing theory, information theory, statistical process control, error correction codes. She makes the case that it would be a mistake for modern storage companies to not continue this investment.
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The Gravity of Mathematics: Summary of Tech Field Day at SDC 2017
Commentary: Returning to Fundamentals in Tech
Dr. Rachel Traylor joined Tech Field Day as a delegate last week. Hearing from the presenting companies, she was struck at the difference in approaches between mathematicians and engineers. The former are much more deliberative before proclaiming a solution, whereas the latter often don’t worry about a solid foundation before moving to a solution. In SkyPort Systems, Dr. Traylor found a company bucking this trend, building their solution from the ground up to embrace security principals on a zero-trust model.
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Commentary: Returning to Fundamentals in Tech
Meeting of the Tech Minds – Tech Field Day at Riverbed
Michael Sheehan of Riverbed gives a preview of their Tech Field Day presentation. They focused on how their SteelFusion and SteelConnection solutions can help centrally manage the modern distributed enterprise without losing any business agility. They particularly focused on applications for edge locations. Make sure to watch their full video coverage for a technical deep dive.
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Meeting of the Tech Minds - Tech Field Day at Riverbed
Intent-Based Networking: What is it?
Apstra’s Sasha Ratkovic posts about what exactly is intent-based networking, based on their recent presentation from Networking Field Day. He reviews why organizations should be motivated to implement IBN, defines what Apstra specifically means by “intent”, and outlines how such an adoption can fundamentally lead to more agility and availability for your network.
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Intent-Based Networking: What is it?
Pluribus Networks… Wait, where are we again?
Although he had followed the company for a while, Chris Marget appreciated an update on Pluribus Networks at Networking Field Day. While he appreciated the company’s use of Solaris to back Netvisor switching OS, the introduction of Netvisor on Linux is a welcome addition. It allows you to manage network devices using specific protocols through a single device via their Netvisor Fabric. One of the other standouts was Pluribus Networks’ “fantastic telemetry and flow analytics capabilities”.
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Pluribus Networks... Wait, where are we again?
Accelerite salvages good tech from bad execution: A CloudPlatform story
Joep Piscaer reviews how Accelerite acquired CloudStack and turned it into a key component to their overall cloud offering. This includes Rovius, their Managed CloudPlatform offering, with CloudPlatform serving as a Apache CloudStack based Cloud Orchestration platform in a box. Joep thinks it’s an interesting approach to acquire yesterday’s tech and applying it successfully to today’s problems.
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Accelerite salvages good tech from bad execution: A CloudPlatform story
X-IO Announces ISE 900 Series G4
X-IO released their ISE 900 Series G4, an upgraded all-flash array. The new product packages in ISE hardware and software features, an now adds individual hot-swappable drives and Performance-Optimized Deduplication. Dan Frith finds it a compelling product, and appreciates X-IO positioning it as offering a feature rich AFA for a good price.
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X-IO Announces ISE 900 Series G4
Preserving and managing intent using Apstra AOS
Apstra’s AOS is a platform to allow network engineers to design a network based around an intended purpose or function, rather than muddling with an existing architecture who’s original intent can only be guessed. Amy Arnold points out that AOS simply isn’t a tool for building an initial configuration, but also a way for making revisions in a controlled manner, while documenting intent. This takes intent out of the realm of a network engineers thoughts, and forces it to be explicitly stated in a single source of truth.
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