Traditional video surveillance systems and IP networks go together like chunky peanut butter on a tuna fish sandwich. Jonathan Davis looks at the decisions Cisco Meraki made when it decided to build security cameras, fully aware of the classic problems. They weren’t content to increment on the existing solutions available on the market and add it to their dashboard. He got the full details at Meraki’s presentation during Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019.
Meraki’s Eye in the Sky
Meraki may be the last name you think of when it comes to security cameras. But the engineering effort put into their line of on-premises security devices is very impressive. Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at a couple of their new offerings that they showed at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019 and gives his perspective on how Meraki sees the world.
Meraki in the Middle – Smart Security Cameras
John Herbert got to hear from Cisco Meraki during Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019. The company detailed their new second generation MV security cameras, which John sees as a entering into a new market for the company. These fall somewhere in the middle between consumer cloud-managed cameras and high end centrally managed enterprise one. In terms of features and quality, Meraki’s cameras approach the high end, but with the same underlying cloud-managed simplicity with which it has approached wireless, switching and security. For John, the new lineup looks “really neat”.
Cisco Live 2019 – a Whirlwind of Networking Goodness
It was great to have Amy Arnold as a delegate at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019. At the event, NetBeez’s presentation really stood out to her. She’s long been impressed by the monitoring company, and with their recently announced integration with Cat9K switches, there’s even more utility in their solution. Overall it was a busy event for her, but one with a lot of networking goodness.
HyperConverged for Containers? Cool Concept!
While at Cisco Live US 2019, Matt Leib attended a few Tech Field Day Extra presentations. One was from Cisco, where they highlighted HyperFlex product using Kubernetes and the Anthos management platform. For Matt, the dream of true multi-cloud, with the ability to move actual containers from location to location, requires a proper management layer. This is what Anthos offers to users. He still has some questions about the approach, but HCI for containers certainly has a nice ring to it.
TechField Day Delegate at Cisco Live TFDx
Nico Stein is out at Cisco Live US this week, and attending Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. For him, it’s a perfect combination of community and technology to create real conversations. He’s looking forward to getting to know the delegates and seeing what interesting presentations are on tap.
Cisco Live! US 2019 and My TFD Biathlon
Jody Lemoine is in for a busy summer. He’s looking forward to attending Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US sessions, but he’ll also be joining us as a Security Field Day delegate soon after that event. The Field Day experience is all about creating dialogues that break down the traditional IT silos. Security Field Day might be a new experience for Jody, but we know he’ll bring a wealth of networking knowledge and insight to the event.
Device Validation Security in Service Provider Networks
At Networking Field Day Exclusive with Cisco’s Service Provider, Cisco went into some detail about their approach to Service Provider Security. A lot of what they presented on comes from the company’s recent acquisition of Skyport Systems, another former Tech Field Day presenter. For Tom Hollingsworth, this brings in sophisticated tools around device validation and trust. This gives Cisco better tooling for SPs, where the network itself is the target, rather than just the data on it.
Making Way for the New With Cisco
Planning to maintain code can be tricky. Tom Hollingsworth points out in this piece, sometimes code is quickly made irrelevant with bygone platforms while others, like COBOL, seemingly stick around forever. Maintaining your own code is challenging enough, but companies like Cisco have to deal with code from numerous acquisitions over time. After maintaining AireOS code for some time, Cisco is now finding ways to migrate to a more modern approach with modular IOS WLC code. Tom is impressed with this approach and think its a model of dealing with similar issues in the future.
Cisco HyperFlex: Designing an NVMe-based HCI Architecture With Reliability, Availability and Serviceability in Mind
Max Mortillaro attended Cisco Live Europe this year, and attended Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. There Cisco presented on their HyperFlex HCI solution, something that Max has written about already. After talking to the Cisco product team, Max digs into more architectural detail about the technology here.
Cisco Live – Network Building Blocks for IoT
Jasper Bongertz attended Cisco Live Europe this year, and also got to attend some Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. Cisco focused some of their time on introducing the delegates to their IoT switches and routers. These are ruggedized to survive a life on the edge, run the IOS operating system, and can be controlled centrally from Cisco DNA center. This last point was key to Jasper, as these devices will likely be put in insecure locations, where locking down who can interact with the device is key.
I Once Caught a Fish This Big!!
Tech Field Day bon vivant Al Rasheed was at Cisco Live Europe this year, so naturally he was invited to be a delegate at the Tech Field Day Extra presentations being held at the same time. There he got to hear from Cisco about developments with IoT networking, and what the company is doing to protect this massively expanded threat surface. For Al, these kind of solutions are vital, but just as importance is to consider if the convenience of an IoT device is worth the security risks in the first place.
A Glimpse at Two Approaches to Segment Routing
Networking Field Day Exclusive with Cisco Service Provider provided a unique opportunity speak to an even more specialized audience than a typical Field Day event. Ethan Banks certainly found it interesting. Cisco went into detail about hardware support for Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6), as well as support in IOS-XR 6.1. Cisco seems to be driving this standard, with a message around network simplification. Be sure to get Ethan’s full take in the piece.
Policy Enforcement an End to End Game
Dominik Pickhardt was at Cisco Live Europe this year, where he was also a delegate for Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. During one of the sessions, he got a deep dive from Cisco on their policy offerings. This isn’t siloed to one product or service, but rather showed a consistent strategy across their entire portfolio. This allows for administrators to maintain scalable best practices as their infrastructure grows.
Tech Field Day in Barcelona
Orhan Ergun joined us at Tech Field Day Extra a Cisco Live Europe in Barcelona this year. At the event, he got to hear presentations from Cisco on their Cloud ACI release, as well as visiting booths from companies that presented at past Networking Field Day events. Just as important was the networking he did with the other Field Day delegates at the event, whether it was trading technical expertise, or simply sharing stories from the IT trenches. We’re looking forward to having Orhan at more events in 2019!
NFDX – Cisco IOS XR – ZTP
Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) was one of the focuses of the recent Networking Field Day Exclusive with Cisco Service Provider event. In this post, Larry Smith digs into some of the ZTP features built into Cisco’s IOS-XR. He outlines why this is the networking platform that excites him most from the company, namely that it provides a ton of possibilities.
Cisco Live Europe 2019 Barcelona
Gian Paolo was at Cisco Live Europe last month. At the event, he got to network with new contact and old acquaintances, learn about ACI’s embrace of the cloud, the latest with Cisco’s SD-WAN, and get involved with DevNet. But he also can’t wait to watch the videos from Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe. He’ll be catching up on them on his lunch breaks in the coming weeks, be watch along on all the presentations too.
Multicloud : The Buzzword We’ll Keep Hearing in 2019?
Max Mortillaro breaks down the idea of multicloud. It’s a potent buzzword in IT, but who is actually doing it? He looks at some of the stated reasons organization investigate multicloud, the common paths to getting there, and the inevitable issues that arise from the reality of it. He was intrigued by what he heard from Cisco at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe, even if their presentation on Cisco CloudCenter took a while to tease out the really valuable aspects for IT professionals. It made him stop worrying (a bit) and embrace the possibilities of multicloud.
Tech Field Day Extra @ CLEUR19 Recap
Cisco Live Europe is an event big enough that it’s tough to encapsulate in any one post. That’s why it’s great to have smaller, more focused looks, especially when it comes from Ivan Pepelnjak. He wrote up a posting looking at what he saw from Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe. Cisco touched on automating Meraki deployments, new AWS-focus Cisco ACI features, HyperFlex updates, and more. Be sure to read Ivan’s thoughts on what he saw, and watch the presentation video for yourself.
Cisco HyperFlex 2019 Edition: Mixed Feelings
Max Mortillaro attended his fourth Cisco Live Europe this year, and also got to hear presentation at Tech Field Day Extra at the event. All that time has proven Cisco’s commitment to HyperFlex, which received important updates at the event, including improvements from a security and usability perspective, certification of SAP HANA, one-click upgrades, NVMe and more. Max remains convinced that Cisco has a compelling story around HCI, but he still has some questions about the overall strategy.