The concept of a digital twin in network engineering moves beyond simple emulation, offering a comprehensive replication of a production environment’s topology for advanced testing and assurance, akin to what Google Maps is for the planet. Forward Networks elevates this idea by aggregating extensive configuration and state information to mathematically model a full-scale digital twin, blending data center, cloud, and campus networks into a searchable data lake for robust analyses. This transformative technology has proven indispensable in complex network scenarios, enabling professionals to visually trace paths, validate compliance, and predict the implications of network changes with an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy. Read more in this article by David Varnum, inspired by Networking Field Day 34!
Selector Is Evolving the Way We Operate Networks
David Varnum says, “Purpose-built vendor-neutral solutions like Selector are setting the stage for what’s to come with network observability.” Read his optimistic thoughts on the Overlaid website.
Brief: When to Consider Anuta Networks for Automation
David Varnum was at the Anuta Networks presentation at Networking Field Day in January and found their ATOM to be very impressive. Anuta Networks should be in the discussion, according to Varnum, opening new a new alternative in the build vs. buy question. Read David’s post and check out the Anuta Networks presentation on the Tech Field Day YouTube channel!
Evolved On-Prem Networking With Netris
David Varnum, a Field Day delegate, attended this past Networking Field Day where Netris showcased a cloud-like interface for your on-prem data center. David goes into detail on this will assit in deploying a Virtual Private Cloud network, with subnets, within seconds. Take a look at his thoughts here!
The Aruba 8400 Switch is the Future of Enterprise Core Switching
In his look at Aruba Networks’ 8400 chassis switch, David Varnum sees it opening “a frontier to new ways we interact with core switching hardware.” The switch has all the speeds and feeds you could want in a modern piece of hardware, but David sees it shining with its ArubaOS-CX. Aruba developed the OS to be database-driven, leverage Linux, fully programmable, resilient, and supportable. Combined with an analytics engine built into the base license of the switch, David found it an impressive offering from Aruba.
OpenFlow – Basic Concepts and Theory
In this post, David Varnum goes over some of the fundamental concepts of OpenFlow. He goes as far back as to distinguish the control plane from the data plane. David then goes into great detail about OpenFlow’s design and features. What inspired this deep dive into OpenFlow? At Networking Field Day in November, David saw a presentation from NEC on their ProgrammableFlow controller, a SDN product that uses the OpenFlow protocol. David found it “wildly impressive”, and wanted to get a better understanding of the protocol.
See in the Fog with Ixia CloudLens
David Varnum draws a great analogy. In a lot of ways, flying through cloud and managing cloud infrastructure and applications are similar. Both don’t seem to bad to navigate from the outside, but once inside, you lose perspective. This requires both a pilot and systems engineer to have precise instrumentation to properly navigate where they want to go. With Ixia’s CloudLens, David sees someone finally providing that instrumentation.
Apstra intends greatness beyond Sparta
Apstra has a really interesting pitch. What if instead of building your network around how each vendor’s node and appliance talked to one another and what capabilities it had, you could design the network the way you wanted it to work first, and use an abstraction layer to make sure all the individual pieces played nice with one another? That’s what Apstra is proposing with their Apstra Operating System (AOS). David Varnum gave it a look at Tech Field Day, and shares his enthusiasm for their intent-driven approach.
Forward Networks – Extraordinary Stuff!
Before November’s Networking Field Day, I was trying to find out anything I could about Forward Networks. They were in stealth until the week of the event, but I still thought I could find a few leaks or details about what they were up to, other than that they were a networking startup. Sadly, my Google-fu failed me, leaving me a blank slate for their presentation. As a delegate at the event, David Varnum was in much the same boat. To say he came away excited is an understatement. What Forward Networks does is make a complete and constantly updating model of your network. They do this by mathematically predicting every single location a packet can travel within a given network configuration. David goes into full details about why this is amazing, but the Forward Networks elevator pitch is pretty good: They’re doing for network mapping what Google did to web indexes.
802.11ac Wave 2 MGig and Ciscos 2800 & 3800 Series Access Points
802.11ac Wave 2, MGig and Cisco’s 2800 & 3800 Series Access Points
