Tom Hollingsworth just finished up the inaugural Security Field Day. As the organizer, Tom has some unique perspective, getting an inside look at both the presenting companies and delegates. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of takeaways from the event, but these initial thoughts by Tom are an interesting look at security from a more IT generalist perspective. The big thing here is that security isn’t about tools, it’s about embracing a way of thinking, and realizing that failure is a likely outcome over time.
Automating the Mundane with Silver Peak
Tom Hollingsworth takes a look at what Silver Peak presented at Networking Field Day. The SD-WAN company doesn’t just stop at basic SDN automation. SDN has long been used for automatic VLAN provisioning for ports, but Silver Peak showed how their automation can handle even more mundane tasks, like an RMA process. This takes it off the plate of admin busy work, and frees up productivity.
When Is It Not Always DNS?
During their recent Networking Field Day presentation, BlueCat Networks posited that DNS is unreliable because it was never designed to actually be reliable. Tom Hollingsworth looks at the security implications of this, and the merits of BlueCat’s unified DNS, DHCP and IPAM platform.
The Need for Security Field Day
The Tech Field Day event series has always tried to present a comprehensive view of enterprise IT. Our more specialized Field Day events were created to provider a deeper dive into the most important areas. We started with IT mainstays like storage and networking, but in recent years have added cloud and mobility-focused events to the calendar as those have become vital to modern IT. In 2018, we’re launching Security Field Day. Tom Hollingsworth makes the case why this has never been more vital in this post.
Presenting To The D-Suite
As an event lead with Tech Field Day, Tom Hollingsworth has a lot of experience hearing presenters talk to IT professionals, the “do-ers” in IT. He looks at the problem of treating these presentations the same as C-level audiences, who are more concerned with problems then technical details. The post provides a lot of great tips for speaking to this very specific audience.
Jack Daniel and Tom Hollingsworth Discuss Community and Security
Be sure to checkout this conversation between security researcher Jack Daniel and our own Tom Hollingsworth. They discussed the importance and challenges of building communities within the security field. They also discussed the inaugural Security Field Day event coming up this December.
Ookla Acquires Ekahau – The Future of Wi-Fi Design is Speedy!
Tom Hollingsworth examines the recent acquisition of Ekahau by Ookla. We last heard from Ekahau at Wireless Field Day 2, and Tom outlines how the companies platform and solutions have remained focused on helping wireless professionals do their job. From there, he looks at how Ookla can make use of the assets from the acquisition.
ARM Servers and End Times | Gestalt IT Rundown: September 19, 2018
Rich Stroffolino and Tom Hollingsworth discuss the news coming out of Mobility Field Day last week on the latest Gestalt IT Rundown. This includes a look at what Arista Networks is doing with the assets from Mojo Networks, as well as NETSCOUT’s business divestment of their monitoring tools portfolio.
A Matter of Perspective
Tom Hollingsworth considers the importance of perspective, and how the delegates around a table can shape a Tech Field Day presentation. This first came to mind seeing Aviatrix present their Cloud Routing solutions, first at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US, then at Cloud Field Day. For the networking focused audience at the first event, Aviatrix was interesting, but seemed to largely align how they expected networking to work when moved from the data center to the cloud. For the Cloud Field Day delegates, the networking Aviatrix showed was met with acclaim. Tom further saw this in action from Arista Networks, who presented at Mobility Field Day for the first time, discussing how they were integrating the recently acquired Mojo Networks.
The Cargo Cult of Google Tools
Tom Hollingsworth was inspired by LightStep’s presentation at Cloud Field Day this month, specifically CEO Ben Sigelman. Tom builds off of his point that most companies shouldn’t try to emulate the process of Google. His argument is that their processes aren’t better, just more scalable. Most organizations would be better server with more feature rich architectures.
Arista Is Finding Their Mojo In Wireless
Tom Hollingsworth writes about Arista Networks’ acquisition of Mojo Networks, a presenting sponsor at Mobility Field Day in 2017. Tom sees this acquisition as mutually beneficial as Mojo Networks gains the muscle they need to compete against Cisco and Aruba and Arista gains the wireless piece they needed to be super competitive in the campus connectivity market.
Becoming a Wi-Fi Superhero with Cape Networks
Tom Hollingsworth discusses Cape Networks, a presenting sponsor for Mobility Field Day in 2017, and their recent acquisition by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. Cape Networks manufactures and provides web-based services for client connection monitoring and in user experience giving you the ability to look at your network not from just the top down infrastructure view, but from the bottom up client perspective as well. Tom sees this acquisition as a step in the right direction for Aruba, and looks forward to what they have to offer in the future.
Arista Is Finding Their Mojo In Wireless
Tom Hollingsworth reports on the Arista Network’s acquisition of Mojo Networks. Mojo presented at Mobility Field Day 2 in July of 2017 about their products and innovating around security and software defined access points. This acquisition is looking to benefit both parties as well, as Mojo gains the muscle they need to compete against Cisco and Aruba and Arista gain the wireless piece they need to be competitive in the campus connectivity market.
Friday Musings on Network Analytics
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.