Hardware alone isn’t the key to longevity. We learned that lesson with the Voyager program. How do those lessons parallel with ASIC design today? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at the Barefoot Networks presentation from Networking Field Day 21. They extended this metaphor to their own use of software to extend their Tofino chips using the P4 programming language. While they might not see the same 50 year life span as the Voyager vessels, it’s an approach that can better adapt to business needs as they change over time.
NGINX Meshes Well With Others
What is a service mesh and how does it help containers? That’s exactly what NGINX went into during their recent Networking Field Day presentation. Tom Hollingsworth wades into the issue in this blog post. As a networking guy, Tom has had to adapt as the data center has changed over the years. The idea of a service mesh was one of the more recent concepts that Tom had to grapple with, and NGINX did a really great job during their presentation laying out what it is, and why it’s so important for the future of networking.
Exorcising Network Ghosts With VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer
Is your networking haunted? Or do you feel like problems are happening and you can’t find them? Who you gonna call? Tom Hollingsworth looks at how VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer can help you bust the ghosts that haunt your network and prove that the problems are floating around somewhere else. While definitely a spooky topic, luckily Tom found VMware’s presentation from Networking Field Day to be anything but.
A Measure of Automation With Juniper Networks
You may be automating all the things, but are you verifying and measuring the outcomes of your automation? You need to be sure before you move forward on your journey. Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at Juniper Networks Contrail Insights and how it can help you make sure you’re automating the right things. Juniper did a deep dive on Contrail Insights at Networking Field Day, showing how a journey to automation is a matter steps. For Tom, Contrail Insights might not be the most exciting step in that journey, but arguably one of the most important.
Cloud Rich Updates in Zerto 8.0
Is the cloud a part of your data protection strategy? Or are you hoping that your box of backup tapes can swim? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at the latest updates from Zerto in their 8.0 software release, especially those that focus on the cloud. He got to hear about them from our Tech Field Day coverage, where Zerto did a deep dive on their platform and latest release. Protecting data with the cloud isn’t an emerging use case anymore, it needs to be a vital part of any businesses data resiliency plans. Zerto 8.0 building a lot of features and sophistication to make that possible.
Dell EMC SmartFabric Director- Weaving a Tapestry of Green
Are you ready to build your digital transformation project? Need a new network to make it work? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at Dell EMC SmartFabric Director and how it can help you building out your next new project. He got to hear about SmartFabric Director at Networking Field Day, and thinks that it shows Dell EMC is on the right track for large existing infrastructures that are looking to make leaps toward digital transformation initiatives to get a handle on how to make that happen.
SD-WAN and Technical Debt
At a recent discussion with delegates at Networking Field Day, Tom Hollingsworth wondered why SD-WAN startups have been able to be so aggressive with innovating in the space, while established networking companies have struggled to keep up. This is endemic of the technical debt a lot of larger organizations carry. He considers something like Cisco’s IWAN, in many ways a precursor to modern SD-WAN. This ended up being complicated and hard to deploy because of many of the technology decisions that Cisco made years ago, resulting in both a software and hardware supply chain constraints on IWAN. Compare this to a startup, like the recent Networking Field Day presenter CloudGenix, who could design a solution around a desired functionality, rather than with a set of constraints inherited as technical debt. This SD-WAN example is just one way of looking at the role of technical debt in product development for large organizations.
Itential – The Network Glue You Need
How can you ensure your automation project doesn’t fall apart when you need to interface with APIs? Have you considered using the right glue to tie it all together? Tom Hollingsworth looks back at Itential’s presentation from Networking Field Day and how they are the glue you need to make automation happen. The company was founded to manage all the automation issues facing organizations today, by creating a standard interface to deal with the surfeit of API languages out there. Their Itential Automation Platform works with third-parties to build connectors that interface with the applications and devices on your network.
Moving Past the Edge With Aruba SD-Branch
How is SD-Branch different than SD-WAN? What features do you get that would make you want to implement one over the other? Tom Hollingsworth heard from Aruba recently at Networking Field Day looks at their implementation of SD-Branch and how it’s enabling IT teams to be more powerful past the edge. For Tom, we’re already living in the post-WAN world. The kind of holistic approach that Aruba takes with SD-Branch is what organizations need to get end-to-end control of their infrastructure.
What Is Closed-Loop Automation?
Tom Hollingsworth noticed that the term “closed-loop automation” was used a lot during a recent Networking Field Day event. This was presented as the desired end state for a lot of network automation efforts. In this post, Tom breaks down what is actually meant by the term. He contrasts this with open-loop systems, and lays out why closed-loop automation holds such allure. Overall Tom is excited at the prospect, but warns that running such an autonomous network means keeping on top of control systems to keep things running smoothly.
The Power of Communities – An Interview With David Penaloza Seijas
Your community defines who you are. But for some, the community is defined by who they are as well. In this video, Tom Hollingsworth interviews David Peneloza Seijas and discusses his role in Cisco Live, Cisco Champions, and Tech Field Day. The passion that David has for this community shines through the entire interview, and Tom really found him to be a beacon for new members to latch on to. David is definitely a champion that Tom wants to try to emulate with his own work in the Tech Field Day community.
Fast Friday – Networking Field Day 22 Thoughts
Tom Hollinsworth is a traveling man, organizing Networking Field Day and then heading out to RSA Conference in the same month. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t updating his blog. In this post, he shares a few short takes on networking, including how startups have the flexibility to not be tied to technical debt, the difficulties of product integration, why we haven’t solved the Wi-Fi registration problem, and why looking at CLI through the lens of nostalgia covers up the reality of modern network complexity. If you’re not subscribed to Tom’s blog, you’re missing out!
Does SPB Mean “Secure Path Bridging”?
The spanning tree protocol, or SPB, never really went away. But the landscape it was built to work in changed radically. Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at where SPB is now and discusses how the new steward, Extreme Networks, is positioning SPB to secure IoT and more in the data center and campus. He got to hear a deep dive on this during Networking Field Day. Get the background from Tom’s post, then be sure to dig into all of their video coverage from the event.
Answers at Your Fingertips With Forward Networks
After hearing again from Forward Networks at Networking Field Day, Tom Hollingsworth considers the implications of their Network Query Engine in this post. This effectively provides a way to ask the network for the answers by looking into the database of network configuration. This is vitally needed to provide reliability for critical cloud services, rather they relying on the old model of each networking standing as an island of configuration settings just waiting to cause unforeseen interactions. As network’s grow more complex at ever increasing rates, Forward Network approach lets admins find meaningful answers and solve this configuration conundrum.
Meraki Is Almost an Enterprise Solution
In the past, Tom Hollingsworth has not thought that Meraki was an appropriate wireless solution for the enterprise. But that perception seems to be shifting after hearing an update from them at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe 2020. They showed off how they are now adding in easier scaling with things like integrating rule groups into their firewall platform, something that’s critical for enterprise scale deployments. They are also testing native IPv6 support, which is a key signal to Tom they are serious about the enterprise. It’s a feature SMB’s generally don’t generally care about, but has been supported on Cisco’s IOS for years. Tom has been following the company for years, and thinks this signals they are almost ready to be a true enterprise-class solution.
Cisco Live Europe Reactions | Gestalt IT Rundown: January 29, 2020
Tom Hollingsworth was out in Barcelona for Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe 2020. As if organizing an international event wasn’t enough, he also co-hosted the Gestalt IT Rundown. This gave him an opportunity to give his live impressions of the show on their live stream. While the show didn’t have an headline product announcements that stuck out to Tom, he did think it gave a lot of interesting indicators about how Cisco is evolving their business and technology.
Priming Your Application Performance With Intel Application Device Queues
Consistent delivery is hard to pull off, whether you’re a delivery company or a networking company. With the help of the Ethernet team at Intel, however, you can accomplish some great things and set yourself up for success. After hearing from Intel at Networking Field Day last year, Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at Intel’s Application Device Queue technology and how it can help ensure consistent, reliable packet delivery. Intel is giving developers the power to enhance their networking consistency when writing applications and taking the power to make things more reliable instead of waiting for the network team to do it for them.
Captivating Wireless Connectivity With Cisco OpenRoaming
Authenticating to wireless networks should be fast and easy. But this often runs afoul of the traditional trade off between security and ease-of-use. In order to make that work, you need to build out the infrastructure to make it happen. Tom Hollingsworth takes a quick look at how Cisco is using their OpenRoaming technology to do just that, which the company presented at Mobility Field Day.
Testing the Whole System With NetAlly EtherScope nXG
Does your troubleshooting toolkit have a lot of unitasking devices? What if you could replace them with something that does all the work you could want? And what if that device was green? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at NetAlly’s EtherScope nXG to see how it can help fix your wired and wireless network in one shiny new package. The company went into some detail on the device at Mobility Field Day, after you check out Tom’s post, be sure to watch their entire presentation video.
Really Late Company Christmas Shopping
As he packed for Cisco Live Barcelona, our own Tom Hollingsworth noticed something of a post-Christmas shopping spree among tech companies this year. VMware VeloCloud bought Nyansa, Arista is buying Big Switch Networks, and Tom thinks more is on the way. What’s behind this Q1 shopping spree? Tom isn’t sure!