Apstra Situational Awareness with Jeremy Schulman

Derick Winkworth, Systems Engineer at Apstra, starts the presentation by framing networking as a data problem, focusing on providing tools that manage and automate the distribution of complex, interconnected data within networks. This data includes elements such as route tables, ARP tables, and interface information. Apstra aims to simplify the management of this data through innovative tools that can handle the immense volume and intricacies, which Winkworth compares to solving a challenging computational problem.

Jeremy Schulman, the Head of Customer Enablement at Apstra, elaborates on this concept by introducing Apstra’s solution for network situational awareness. He demonstrates how Apstra’s platform offers both a high-level Iron Man-style heads-up display and detailed telemetry views, providing comprehensive insights into network states. Schulman walks through a deployment scenario involving a data center with a spine-and-leaf architecture, highlighting how Apstra monitors and validates various network elements, such as BGP neighbor relationships and cable connections. He emphasizes that Apstra ensures continuous validation, akin to having CCIEs constantly verifying configurations and states, thus significantly reducing troubleshooting time and efforts.

During the demo, Schulman showcases the platform’s ability to detect and diagnose issues when hardware configurations deviate from expectations, such as swapping cables and the ripple effects on BGP sessions and routing. He discusses the broader implications of Apstra’s tools in enhancing network engineers’ capabilities by automating tedious tasks and providing real-time, actionable insights. This not only supports efficient network management but also mitigates the risk of manual errors, thereby ensuring the network operates as intended.