While at Networking Field Day 18, Tom Hollingsworth noticed that the topic of network analytics kept popping up. Here, Tom shares his thoughts on the importance of network analytics as well as how easy it is to get started when analytics integrate into so many platforms you are likely already using.
Independence, Impartiality, and Perspective
Tom Hollingsworth gives his take on what it truly means to be independent in the IT world, but instead advocates for impartiality. He argues no one in the IT market can truly be independent, so we should instead all strive to find impartiality in order to be good judges of the world around us.
Cisco’s Container Journey to the Cloud
In this piece, Tom Hollingsworth looks at the announcements from Cisco Live US 2018. What stood out to him was the prominence of a non-networking specific topic, the cloud. He specifically examines how Cisco took pains to show how they are aligned with Google’s vision of the cloud, and integrate that across their product lines.
Accessing Security Insights with SolarWinds Network Insight For Cisco ASA
Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at SolarWinds Network Insight For Cisco ASA, which he saw at length at Tech Field Day earlier this year. He looks at how this enables admins to analyze complicated access lists and determine exactly what they are doing, without a bunch of manual configuration.
Unlocking VXLAN with Mellanox
After seeing Mellanox present at Networking Field Day earlier this year, Tom Hollingsworth looks at how their hardware support for VXLAN could make the dream of fast, extensible and inexpensive ethernet a reality.
Extreme Networks SLX Platform – Extremely Easy Analytics
Tom Hollingsworth heard from Extreme Networks at Networking Field Day earlier this year. This piece takes a look at their SLX Platform, which simplifies the process of getting analytic data out of switches.
Wireless Thoughts From Aruba Atmosphere
Tom Hollingsworth recently got back from Tech Field Day Extra at Aruba Atmosphere. In this post, he shares some initial thoughts from the event, including how the Rasa Networks assets showing up in Aruba NetInsights, interesting security applications, and awesome demos.
Orchestration From the Top Versus Automation From the Bottom
Extreme Networks and Juniper Networks made an impression with Tom Hollingsworth after Networking Field Day in January. For him, the Extreme Networks showed why they lead the way in their bottom-up approach to automation. He then breaks down how Juniper distinguishes themselves with their top-down orchestration tooling.
Is ACI Coming For The CLI?
Based on what Tom Hollingsworth saw at Tech Field Day Extra presentations from Cisco Live Europe, the Cisco-based CLI may be in trouble. Tom’s takeaway is that Cisco wants to use their Application-Centric Infrastructure to introduce a standard set of terms that can be used across device groups. This new standard lexicon, combined with alleviating the need to learn Python, make it an interesting approach to finally allow for the CLI to retire on Cisco gear.
Legacy IT Is Not A Monument
In this thoughful piece, Tom Hollingsworth breaks down why legacy IT is not in fact a monument to behold in all of its read-only grandeur, but rather a pain point for an organization. Tom takes an IT wrecking ball to these ersatz icons.
Going Faster with 400Gbps Ethernet and Andy Bechtolsheim
How will we get to the 400Gbps Ethernet future? Tom Hollingsworth heard a talk from Arista Networks’ Andy Bechtolsheim at Networking Field Day on the topic. The talk delved into the challenges, politics, and opportunities of 400Gbps.
Architecting Container Direction with Nirmata
Containers may have a lot of advantages. But when it comes to using Kubernetes to orchestrate them, complexity starts to become a substantial issue for organizations. Tom Hollingsworth looks at Nirmata’s presentation from Cloud Field Day as a way to address this. They offer an orchestration layer on top of Kubernetes, that lets organizations spent more time working on their business intent, and less time learning configuration.
Keeping An Eye On Containers with Ixia CloudLens
Containers have a number of benefits in modern IT, but monitoring them can quickly become problematic. Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at Ixia’s CloudLens solution, a container monitoring solution built into a container! This allows it to be highly portable and easily configured with other containers for monitoring.
Unmasking Bad Actors with Gigamon
After seeing their presentation from Networking Field Day earlier this year, Tom Hollingsworth reviews Gigamon’s solutions for giving visibility back to your network. They do this via SSL Decryption, which can detect anomalies from a variety of sources. Tom also addresses potential privacy concerns of this approach in the piece.
Dedicated Wireless Troubleshooting Doesn’t Have To Break The Bank
Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at Mojo Networks’ unique approach to wireless analytics in this piece. This is achieved by adding a third radio to each AP to assist with monitoring and analytics. Tom thinks this is an ideal solution to get an ear on traffic without interfering with peak speeds.
Pluribus Networks Is the Definition of “Software Defined”
Tom Hollingsworth looks at how the value of software-defined networking can drive your network forward with Pluribus Networks. For Tom, SDN is about making the hardware less important than what running on top of it. Pluribus showed how their SDN platform can still provide differentiation on newer hardware.
Back In The Saddle Of A Horse Of A Different Color
Do CCIE’s dream of CLI’s? For Tom Hollingsworth, he sees less value in keyboard based inputs of individual network devices, and now focuses on a more architectural level. He uses Aruba’s 8400 ArubaOS-CX as an example of a hard shift away from CLI, it’s still available under the covers, but the switch has been seemingly designed to require minimal keyboard input, while allowing for mass configuration and automation.
It’s Probably Not The Wi-Fi
After Mobility Field Day, Tom Hollingsworth has one important takeaway, “it’s Not The Wi-Fi.” So often problems are blamed on the wireless network or firewall, etc. when that actually was not the case. Tom argues that the solution to this issue is accelerating the time to diagnose and resolve by involving professionals that manage systems that are actually down and telling users to make sure it is actually a wireless issue before proclaiming that its the wireless.
The History of The Wireless Field Day AirCheck
Tom Hollingsworth wraps up Mobility field Day by telling the story of the Wireless/Mobility Field Day AirCheck. Dating back to the first Wireless Field Day, exchanging the AirCheck is a long-running tradition. At the latest Mobility Field Day, Netscout surprised the delegates with a new and improved G2 AirCheck to continue the tradition.
