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.
Back In The Saddle Of A Horse Of A Different Color
Do CCIE’s dream of CLI’s? For Tom Hollingsworth, he sees less value in keyboard based inputs of individual network devices, and now focuses on a more architectural level. He uses Aruba’s 8400 ArubaOS-CX as an example of a hard shift away from CLI, it’s still available under the covers, but the switch has been seemingly designed to require minimal keyboard input, while allowing for mass configuration and automation.
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Back In The Saddle Of A Horse Of A Different Color
A Thank You to Tech Field Day
Paul Woodward reflects back on the experience of his first Tech Field Day in this post. He found the three days of presentations surrounded by delegates from across the globe to be an exhilarating experience. We’re looking forward to seeing his thoughts on the presenting companies as part of #Blogtober!
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Inefficiencies of large systems
Inspired by DataCore Software’s Tech Field Day presentation, Keith Townsend reflects on the inefficiencies of large organizations, using Microsoft as an example. Microsoft is filled with skilled engineers, but often can’t be responsive to customer requests for giant projects like SQL server. This is where DataCore can come in with their I/O filter, which provides parallel streams to the storage sub-system, ultimately giving applications more I/O bandwidth.
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Inefficiencies of large systems
Seeing Tetration in action – NFD16
At Networking Field Day last month, Amy Arnold saw a presentation on Cisco’s Tetration. The platform uses machine learning to proactively create security policies based on current flow information. Amy was impressed to see that this not only has the ability to predict security policies based on current flows, but that the system can integration with services like Splunk or Phantom to communicate with devices to isolate traffic.
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Seeing Tetration in action – NFD16
Hybrid cloud platforms look to liberate VMware, Azure tie-in
In this piece, Cloud Field Day delegate Tim Crawford was quoted on what he saw on Rovius Cloud from Accelerite at the event. Tim find the solution, which is built on the former CloudStack platform, easier to use and manage compared to OpenStack.
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Hybrid cloud platforms look to liberate VMware, Azure tie-in
How to get started with OpenConfig and YANG models
Most people agree that automation is the way of the future in enterprise networking, but getting to that point is much more problematic. Brandon Carroll gives an introduction on how to do this in open networking environments with OpenConfig. This vendor-neutral approach uses the data modeling language YANG to create a single model for your automation. This allows admins to not have to dig into individual CLI interfaces for each network device. Brandon’s only drawback to this approach isn’t technical, but rather organizational. Once an IT staff embraces automation, the technical merits become obvious.
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How to get started with OpenConfig and YANG models
Security From The Ground Up With Skyport Systems
Making a system secure is a unique challenge unto itself. But having the option to historically verify that your system has remained secure requires a fundementally different approach. That’s what Skyport System did with their ground up architecture. This allows for a complete cloud management on-site servers architected to always be able to verify security. In this post, Matt Crape gives his thoughts on their solution.
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Security From The Ground Up With Skyport Systems
AirCheck G2 gets a v2
NETSCOUT dropped a big update for the AirCheck G2 in the 2.0 firmware update. This added iPerf testing and interference detection stood out as major additions of the release for Sam Clements. Sam’s big takeaway: The G2 is an overbuilt hardware platform and it’s refreshing to see that Netscout is taking advantage of that extra horsepower.
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G2… V2!
According to Brennan Martin, the 2.0 firmware update for the AirCheck G2 is a killer update. iPerf performance testing is the standout new feature, letting users check upstream and downstream throughput via a new accessory. The additional of a built-in web browser now lets you enter login credentials, making captive portals no longer something to dread. NETSCOUT added a lot of new features, make sure to check out Brennan’s thorough breakdown for all the details.
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The Aruba 8400 Switch is the Future of Enterprise Core Switching
In his look at Aruba Networks’ 8400 chassis switch, David Varnum sees it opening “a frontier to new ways we interact with core switching hardware.” The switch has all the speeds and feeds you could want in a modern piece of hardware, but David sees it shining with its ArubaOS-CX. Aruba developed the OS to be database-driven, leverage Linux, fully programmable, resilient, and supportable. Combined with an analytics engine built into the base license of the switch, David found it an impressive offering from Aruba.
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The Aruba 8400 Switch is the Future of Enterprise Core Switching
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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