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.
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.
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.
Cisco Intersight – A Transformative Evolution
At Networking Field Day, Cisco presented on release of Project Starship, now called Intersight. This is a cloud-based systems management platform to manage Cisco UCS and HyperFlex within one interface. All of this is designed with security in mind, while leveraging actionable intelligence from their customer base.
Cisco Launches Intersight: Cloud Managed UCS and HyperFlex
Cisco unveiled Intersight at Networking Field Day, their SaaS platform for unified UCS and HyperFlex management. Rich Stroffolino wrote up his thoughts on the announcement. For him, it shows a commitment by Cisco to services and expanding their customer base as their path to the future.
Looking Forward to Networking Field Day 16
Networking Field Day is coming up next week, and we’re happy to have Pete Welcher returning as a delegate. He’s getting to revisit a company he saw at a previous event, Apstra and their intent-driven networking solution. Overall, Pete is looking forward to the presentations and talking to his fellow delegates.
Cisco’s SD-Access: All The Pieces
Drew Conry-Murray gives his thoughts on Cisco’s SD-Access. SD-Access is designed to automate common networking tasks in a campus network and is an ambitious project, but Drew is optimistic. Here, he discusses the supported hardware, the new dashboard DNA Center, as well as three additional pieces: APIC-EM, the Identity Services Engine (ISE), and the Network Data Platform.
Cisco SDA – Moving Software Defined to the Access Layer
Brandon Carroll attended Cisco Live US and Tech Field Day Extra where he saw a presentation on Cisco’s “The Network Intuitive.” Here, he describes what Software-Defined Access is and how it works as well as what he thinks of Cisco’s plan. He writes, “Complex network functions could be simplified if Cisco truly delivers SD-Access in they way they’ve described it… this could be a turning point for Cisco where they have a serious opportunity to be leaders in software defined network.”
Not The Cisco of John Chambers Anymore
Based on his experience at Cisco Live US, Tom Hollingsworth discusses signs of a very different Cisco under new CEO Chuck Robins. Robins’ focus on software over hardware and a more hands on leadership style will lead to big changes within this iconic company.
The Dawn of a New Networking Era
Jon Hildebrand was at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US. From what he saw of the presentation from Cisco at the event, they all fit into what Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins talked about in his keynote: Scale, Simplification, Security. John sees these points at play in the develops Cisco has made with ASICs, specifically in their new Catalyst 9000 line. By providing programmable ASICs that can easily add new features over time, a policy driven Digital Network Architecture Center management dashboard, and offering threat analysis on encrypted traffic, Cisco certain seems to have aligned their products around those three principals.
TFDx at Cisco Live 2017 – Part 1 (Preview)
Dustin Beare went to Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US this past week. In this post, he gives a quick look at what he saw from Cisco at the event. This includes how the company is approaching ASIC design, the redesigned IOS-XE, which is now more container based for easier feature expansion, and a wide range of updates from the Cisco Digital Network Architecture platforms.
What I’m Looking Forward to at Cisco Live 2017
Scott McDermott is in Vegas and ready to take on Cisco Live. In this post, he shares what he’s looking forward to at the event. This includes a trio of Tech Field Day Extra presentations from Paessler, OpenGear, and NetApp.
NEW: The Podcast Domain and Other Fun Stuff at CLUS
We’ll be hosting a Tech Field Day Extra event from Cisco Live US next week in Las Vegas. Make sure to check out Cisco’s dedicated podcast space, the Podcast Domain! Sign up, and you can record your own content. Of course, if you can’t make it, make sure to follow along on our live stream!
Announcement: Tech Field Day Master Classes Live Online June 27
Tech Field Day Extra presentations are a great way to get focused technical discussion in the often hectic world of larger conferences and events. This year, Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US, things are getting even more interesting. Cisco will be feating Distinguished Speakers at the presentations, so make sure to check back for the live stream to catch every one.
Update: June 2017
Dustin Beare is deep in the throws of preparing for his CCIE exam in September. That’s not stopping him from getting excited for Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US. He’ll be getting a full firehouse of presentations from Cisco throughout the day, so make sure to check back with Dustin for updates. And here’s wishing him luck in September!
Programmable ASICs on Software Gone Wild
At Tech Field Day Extra with Cisco Live Europe, Ivan Pepelnjak sat down with Peter Jones, principal engineer at Cisco, for his Software Gone Wild podcast. In their wide-ranging discussion, they talk about why startups fail and NPUs vs ASICs. They then dig into a deeper discussion on the substantive differences and use cases for both. Overall it’s an interesting episode and well worth a listen.
To SD-WAN or Not to SD-WAN — and How?
Pete Welcher has been seeing a lot of competing SD-WAN solutions, including a lot from presentations at past Networking Field Day events. He runs down how to determine if these solutions are ideal for your operations. First, if you’re heavily investing in a lot of Cisco routers, just use IWAN. But for organizations with equipment coming to end of life or need ease of deployment without much more needed than routing and QoS, SD-WAN is worth a look. Make sure to read Pete’s piece for all the details.
3 Linux Foundation networking projects that your business needs to know
The Linux Foundation is home to a lot of interesting projects. A lot of these are projects started by private companies, but moved over to the Linux Foundation to help foster a more active community and development. Keith Townsend runs down three interesting ones for IT architecture. One that he saw at Networking Field Day last week was PNDA, which is a big data analytics project that came originally from Cisco. PNDA is designed to work across data centers, a scale out approach to big data. The Data Plane Development Kit came out of Intel, and helps improve networking performance on commodity hardware. Finally, he introduces Open vSwitch, which came from VMware by way of Nicira.
Cisco and Apple Agree: QoS Marking Is an Application Problem
Cisco and Apple announced the first fruits of their partnership at Cisco Live Europe. Ivan Pepelnjak wrote up his thoughts on the announcements. Overall, he was delighted to find that the two companies are letting admins bring QoS to apps on Cisco networks. He runs through some of the potential problems in the solution, but overall finds it well thought out.
Programmable ASICs in Cisco Switches
Jasper Bongertz attended his first Tech Field Day presentation while he was at Cisco Live Europe. At the presentation, he learned about what Cisco is doing with programmable ASICs, including their “Unified Access Data Plane”, which allows for encapsulation or decapsulation of packets dynamically without losing performance. Jasper also liked seeing support for Netflow directly in hardware. He thinks while it’s an important network management tool, its also vital for security considerations. Overall, he thinks Cisco has an interesting approach to making ASICs a little more flexible.