Field Day delegate Al Rasheed is excited to be named Cisco Champion for 2020 and wrote this post to thank all those who helped him achieve this, including us here at Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day. He attributes Cisco’s notice to his participation in Networking Field Day 19 in 2018 and Cisco Live Europe last year. We couldn’t be happier to watch as people like Al achieve their dreams!
2019 Year in Review – Al Rasheed
Al Rasheed takes a look back at a busy 2019 in this post. It was truly a year of accomplishments, with new certifications and getting involved with more tech community groups. We were lucky enough to have Al as a delegate at several Field Day events throughout the year. We can’t wait to see him at more in 2020.
How Do You Provision a 500-Switch Network in a Few Days?
One of the interesting aspects of a IT event the scale of Cisco Live is that it has its own unique set of IT challenges. During a behind the scenes tour during Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2019, Ivan Pepelnjak got to ask how they created the network for the event in such a short amount of time. What he found was that provisioning a large campus network in a few days is easy and reliable as long as you do your homework and keep things as simple as possible.
The Avi Vantage
At Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe, Al Rasheed got to hear an excellent presentation from Avi Networks. They did a deep dive into their universal load balancing solution for on-prem and cloud workloads. Al was impressed to see how Avi Network separated their control plane and data plane, treating them both as software components that can run anywhere. This elasticity combined with advanced automation features made for a very interesting solution.
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.
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.
A Day in the Life of a Packet
Al Rasheed is back with another excellent write up from a Field Day presentation, this time focusing on what he saw from Forward Networks at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe this year. The intent-based networking company focused on their Forward Enterprise tier on the presentation, showing use cases for Application Team Self-Service and Change Window Assistance. Al was really impressed by how well prepared the presenters are, and agrees with Ivan Pepelnjak that the presentation was “awesome”.
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!
Forward Networks: Bringing Sanity to a Network Near You
Max Mortillaro isn’t exactly a networking guy, so it takes a lot for him to have a “wow” moment when hearing from them. That’s just what he got from Forward Networks during their presentation at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe 2019. They showed off their Enterprise offering, which builds on a free mapping tier and adds Verification, Prediction, Comparison and Integration features. You’ll have to check out their presentation for all the details, but Max found it very impressive.
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.
Time to say goodbye to Barcelona
Kim Pedersen had to write up a post as she was finishing up her first Tech Field Day Extra experience at Cisco Live Europe 2019. After the days of informative company presentations and delegate networking, it was tough to say goodbye to Barcelona. We’re looking forward to reading Kim’s deep dives into the presentations going forward!
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.
Tech Field Day @ CiscoLive Europe 2019
Cisco Live Europe kicks off this month, and we’ll be in Barcelona with Tech Field Day Extra presentations. Joining us around the table will be Kim Pedersen. It’ll be interesting to get a first time delegate’s experience at the event.
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.
2018 was a good and busy year ! Things I have done during the last year
Year in review posts are always a good time to take stock of accomplishments. Orhan Ergun took a look at 2018 and found he had a really busy year. For starters, he made the decision to open a company in Turkey. Other highlights included seeing students and friends pass their CCDE practical exam. In October, we were lucky to have Orhan attend Networking Field Day, where he got to hear from a variety of companies in the industry. We hope his 2019 is just as eventful!
