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.
Gestalt IT Live Blog – Cisco Live Europe Opening Keynote
Join Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day live from Cisco Live Europe in Barcelona, Spain! We will be live blogging the keynote address on Tuesday, January 29th at 9:15am CET. Follow along for the exciting announcements from Cisco!
You may say I’m a dreamer…
Al Rasheed has been to a few Field Day events stretching back into last year. For 2019, he’s very excited to see what’s on tap for Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe. He’ll be joining what he calls the “Dream Team” of delegates for the event (we’ll leave it to Al to tell us which one is Christian Laettner). He continues to be amazed at how participating in Field Day events has opened new doors and opportunities. We’re just glad to have such an insightful and knowledgable delegate around the table.
Cisco SP Nails It at NFDx
John Herbert was at our Networking Field Day Exclusive event with Cisco’s Service Provider business unit this week, and he felt their presentations were excellent. They delved into segment routing, zero touch provisioning, OpenConfig support for their IOS XR platform, and more. If you want to catch all the technical deep dives, full video of the event has been posted. Check it out!
Cisco SD-WAN: On-Ramp to the Cloud
Phil Gervasi always has his radar up to detect marketing FUD from IT companies. But at Networking Field Day last year, a lot of what he heard from Cisco about SD-WAN rang true. The category is hardly new, and Cisco’s acquisition of Viptela is 2017 validated it as an area of focus for the company. For Cisco, they tie mass SD-WAN adoption to cloud adoption, with an overall theme of how to on-ramp to and manage a multi-cloud topology. Phil runs through what they presented and how it enables that for organizations.
New Year, New Post, NFDx!
John Herbert is back on the blogging path in early 2019 and he’s excited! He’ll be starting off the year with a Networking Field Day Exclusive from Cisco’s Service Provider group. You can watch the event along with John on January 15th, or check out his coverage of what he saw afterward. We’re looking forward to both!
Should Cisco reinvent itself? Thoughts ahead of Cisco Live Europe 2019
Max Mortillaro will be attending Cisco Live Europe, and is looking forward to attending Tech Field Day Extra sessions at the event. In past years, he’s focused on Cisco Hyperflex, but this year he has a different focus. He’ll be looking to get more details on Cisco’s strategy this year, especially compared to some of the renewed competitors in their markets.
Cisco Champion 2019
We’re happy to see that Al Rasheed was accepted as a Cisco Champion for 2019. In this post, he directly sites the influence of attending Networking Field Day for this accomplishment. We’re just glad Al was able to attend the event, and we’re hoping to see him back in 2019.