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!
Assuring Your Service Level With Ixia IxProbe
Are you getting what you’re paying for? If it’s a car wash or a movie it’s easy to figure out. But what if it’s your ISP connection? Do you even know where to find that answer? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at the new IxProbe from Ixia that they showed off at Networking Field Day. This post examines how it can help you figure out if you’re getting your money’s worth out of your SLA.
Stopping vMotion Roulette With Virtana
Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at what Virtana presented at Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld US 2019 and how they stop the roulette wheel of vMotion movement. He found they offered a solution to be smarter about making decisions to move your VMs.
Rethinking Networking Architecture With Arrcus
Is your network stuck in an old way of thinking about architecture? Is it starting to affect your applications? Maybe you need to take a fresh look with something new. Tom Hollingsworth takes a look back at Arrcus at Networking Field Day and how their fresh perspective is changing the way we build networks.
Tackling Troublesome IoT With Fortinet
Is your enterprise experiencing an explosion of IoT devices? Are you trying to figure out the best way to secure them? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at a new IoT-focused solution from Fortinet that can help you out. Be sure to check out the full video from Mobility Field Day for all the details.
The Value of Virtual Networks From Tesuto
If you need to build a lab and don’t have the hardware or the horsepower to make it happen, you need something different to help you. Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at the Tesuto presentation from Networking Field Day and how it can help you meet your testing needs through the power of software.
AI and Trivia
Tom Hollingsworth didn’t get to attend Networking Field Day Exclusive at Juniper NXTWORK 2019, but definitely has thoughts about what was presented at the show. With Juniper making major investments and acquisitions in ML and AI, Tom considers how this will effect networking. In his mind, if algorithmic approaches can deal with troubleshooting, it’s definitely a technology he’s interested in.
The Name’s the Thing With Guardicore
Having trouble memorizing all the IP addresses in your network? Still trying to build security policies based on VLANS? Maybe what you need is to give a name to your pain with some labels and a little help from Guardicore. Tom Hollingsworth looks at what the company presented at Security Field Day in this piece.
Monitoring Cloud Network Traffic With ExtraHop
If you’re moving data to the cloud, you need visibility to ensure you’re secure. Tom Hollingsworth talks about ExtraHop Reveal(x) and how they can provide the visibility you need no matter where your data lives.
Meet the First #TFD Delegates: Tom Hollingsworth
Aruba Networks loves to interview the Field Day delegates before an event. In this post, they’re talking to Tom Hollingsworth, a former delegate and now Networking Field Day’s iconic organizer. They talk about the early days of Tech Field Day and how the event has changed over time.
Building Better Policies With Machine Learning and Edgewise Networks
Security is all about the policy. So why not leverage your technology to help you create it? Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at the Security Field Day presentation from Edgewise Networks and how machine learning is the key to building better security policies.
Fragmentation Free With Aruba’s Newest Switches
Aruba just launched a new version of AOS-CX and new switches. Learn more about both of these fantastic new solutions in this article by Tom Hollingsworth.
Malware Microsegmentation With Illumio
Are you worried that your patches are going to cause more problems than they solve? Wish you could just lock down the vulnerable systems until you know what’s going to happen? Tom Hollingsworth looks back at Illumio’s presentation during Security Field Day to see how microsegmentation can help you sleep soundly at night.
All-In on AI With Mist and Juniper
How will AI impact the future of administration of networks? Following his presentation at Mobility Field Day, Tom Hollingsworth sits down with Bob Friday of Mist, A Juniper Company, to discuss how software is going to change the tasks we do in our daily work.