Dell Technologies APEX Cloud Platform Cluster Deployment

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Dell Technologies Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Dell Technologies

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Personnel: Michael Wells

Michael Wells, a Tech Marketing Engineer at Dell Technologies, discusses the APEX Cloud Platform and its deployment process for Microsoft Azure and Red Hat OpenShift. He explains that the deployment for both platforms involves a similar set of steps, such as node discovery, configuration settings, and network information. APEX Cloud Platform for Azure is built on Microsoft’s HCI OS as part of the new Premier partner tier, which allows for deeper integration and collaboration with Microsoft.

The deployment results in a fully configured cluster, an OpenShift cluster on one side and an Azure Stack HCI cluster on the other. The OpenShift cluster includes Red Hat Core OS, Kubernetes, and Dell SDS storage, while the Azure Stack HCI cluster uses Storage Spaces Direct, Hyper-V, and the Microsoft SDN stack. Both deployments include the APEX Cloud Platform Foundation software, which integrates with the cloud OS management experience.

Michael also discusses licensing, entitlements for advanced cluster management and security included with the OpenShift Platform Plus subscription, and the unique capabilities of the Cloud Platform Foundation software. He emphasizes that the APEX Cloud Platform family is designed to offer the same types of results and efficiencies across different cloud OSes.

Lastly, Michael hints at upcoming features, such as the addition of Dell SDS support for the APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, which will allow for greater scalability and storage independence.


Dell Technologies APEX Block Storage for Public Cloud Multi-AZ Storage Resilience

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Dell Technologies Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Dell Technologies

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Personnel: Kiruthika Gopal

Krithika Gopal, a Product Manager at Dell Technologies, discusses the deployment and resilience of APEX Block Storage, particularly in a scenario where one of the three availability zones (AZs) is taken offline. The demonstration uses SQL Server 2022 to illustrate the process, but the principles apply to any application.

The APEX Block Storage cluster is set up with six storage instances, two in each AZ. Krithika emphasizes the importance of verifying the system’s health before simulating an outage by shutting down all instances in one AZ. Using PowerFlex Manager, they browse block volumes and check the health statistics and metadata manager to ensure everything is connected and functioning correctly.

The simulation involves manually stopping two instances in one AZ through the AWS portal and observing the impact on the cluster. Despite a temporary dip in transactions per minute (TPM), the cluster remains online, and the application continues to function. The cluster demonstrates self-healing capabilities, as the rebuild process completes in under 30 seconds, restoring the cluster to a healthy state with four nodes.

Next, Krithika restarts the two stopped instances to observe how the cluster rebalances the workload. With all six instances running again, the cluster quickly returns to normal performance after a brief dip during the rebuild. This test confirms the resilience and self-healing nature of the APEX Block Storage cluster in the event of an AZ outage.


Dell Technologies APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage APEX Block Storage for AWS Deployment

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Dell Technologies Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Dell Technologies

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Personnel: Chad Gray

In this presentation, Chad Gray from Dell Technologies is demonstrating how to deploy the APEX Block Storage for AWS using APEX Navigator. He explains the process in four easy steps:

  1. Select Product, Cloud, and Region: Chad selects APEX Block Storage for AWS with Navigator, version 4.5.1, and chooses a region available in the US.
  2. Connect Cloud Account: He selects a previously set up cloud account that was added to APEX Navigator.
  3. Deployment Configuration: Here, Chad provides a deployment name, selects a performance tier (balanced or performance optimized), sets the minimum usable capacity and IOPS, chooses the availability level (single AZ or multi AZ), and decides whether to deploy to an existing VPC or create a new one. He opts to create a new VPC and inputs IP ranges. He also names a key pair for SSH access into the storage instances, which will be stored in AWS Secret Manager.
  4. Review Configuration and Deployment: Chad mentions that there’s a free 90-day evaluation license, and he reviews the AWS resources that will be deployed, noting that they will incur costs.

The deployment can be monitored through APEX Navigator, and the process takes around two hours to complete. The demonstration shows how APEX Navigator simplifies the setup of APEX Block Storage in AWS by automating the deployment, which would be more complex if done manually.


Dell Technologies APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage AWS Account Connection Demo

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Dell Technologies Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Dell Technologies

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Personnel: Chad Gray

Chad Gray of Dell Technologies presented APEX Navigator, a product designed to simplify the management of multicloud storage, particularly block storage for AWS. He discussed the product’s five focus areas: security, deployment, management, monitoring, and mobility. Gray emphasized the importance of secure access to customer AWS accounts and explained how APEX Navigator uses AWS roles and policies to access these accounts without the need for exchanging access keys.

During the presentation, Gray demonstrated how to connect an AWS account to APEX Navigator using a custom trust policy and permission policy generated by the platform. He also discussed federated login capabilities with identity providers such as Active Directory, allowing for single sign-on across Dell’s APEX and Cloud IQ services.

Gray mentioned that all the steps he demonstrated in the UI can be automated through APIs, and that Dell recently released a Terraform provider for APEX. He highlighted the availability of infrastructure as code examples for teams using tools like Terraform.

Lastly, Gray showed how to audit access and account management activities within APEX Navigator and within the AWS account using CloudTrail. He pointed out features like tagging sessions with job names and IDs, and passing the source identity of the user for better traceability of actions taken within the customer’s AWS environment.


Dell Technologies APEX Block Storage For Public Cloud Deep Dive

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Dell Technologies Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Dell Technologies

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Personnel: Kiruthika Gopal

Kiruthika Gopal, a product manager, presents the key features and differentiators of APEX Block Storage. The main points of differentiation include extreme performance, with millions of IOPS for a single volume; flexibility and scalability, with the ability to scale up to 512 storage nodes and independently scale compute and storage; multi-AZ durability, offering the option to deploy storage clusters within a single or multiple availability zones without requiring additional capacity; and hybrid cloud mobility, allowing seamless data movement between on-prem and cloud across regions.

APEX Block Storage offers up to one petabyte per volume, multi-AZ deployment without extra capacity penalties, thin provisioning, snapshots and clones without additional fees, and asynchronous replication with a feature called snap mobility.

The product also provides multi-AZ durability by spreading storage nodes across availability zones, offering protection against entire rack failures. This feature has been tested in on-prem environments for over a decade and is now extended to the public cloud.

Questions from the audience cover topics such as the upgrade process for new instance types, the potential for split-brain scenarios in multi-AZ deployments, the testing methodology used to generate performance numbers, and the orchestration of testing and recovery processes.

Kiruthika also discusses cost savings through thin provisioning and snapshot savings, and the scalability of APEX Block Storage, with deployments ranging from 10 terabytes to multiple petabytes. The pricing model is subscription-based, factoring in capacity and the number of storage nodes.

Finally, Kiruthika touches on the ease of deployment using Dell APEX Navigator, which can set up the necessary AWS infrastructure and deploy the software in four simple steps based on inputted IOPS and capacity requirements.


Dell Technologies APEX Block Storage For Public Cloud Overview

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Dell Technologies Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Dell Technologies

Video Links:

Personnel: Kiruthika Gopal

Krithika Gopal, a product manager at Dell Technologies, is discussing the features and benefits of Dell APEX Block Storage, which is part of Dell’s universal storage layer initiative aimed at bringing Dell storage to the public cloud. APEX Block Storage is based on PowerFlex IP, a software-defined storage solution that has been around for over a decade, known for its performance, scalability, and flexibility.

APEX Block Storage is available on both AWS and Azure through their respective marketplaces or directly from Dell. It aims to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for customers and allows for the deployment of high-performance, mission-critical applications in the public cloud. It also supports seamless data mobility across different environments and offers a unique Multi-AZ Durability feature to increase resiliency.

Krithika highlights the product’s ability to deliver 100x better performance compared to existing public cloud storage, based on internal testing. She explains that APEX Block Storage can scale up to hundreds of nodes, achieving millions of IOPS. The product is designed to not compete with public cloud providers but to enhance the customer experience by addressing needs not currently met in the public cloud.

The discussion also covers the technical aspects of deploying APEX Block Storage, including the use of EC2 instances on AWS and virtual machines on Azure, as well as the integration with Dell Data Domain Virtual Edition for data backup. Additionally, Krithika addresses questions about the product’s performance, cost-effectiveness, software client requirements, and the six-nines availability claim.


Policy Assistant and Experience Insights with Cisco Secure Access

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Security Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Fay Lee, Justin Murphy

This presentation by Fay Lee and Justin Murphy, focuses on Cisco Secure Access and the integration of Generative AI (Gen AI) and ThousandEyes technology for enhancing security and user experience.

Justin Murphy introduces Cisco Secure Access, which is a cloud-provided security solution offering secure access to apps and the internet. It includes features such as proxy capabilities, data loss prevention (DLP), malware inspection, firewall, and intrusion prevention systems (IPS). He focuses on the data loss prevention aspect and the use of AI applications like ChatGPT by employees, emphasizing the need to monitor their use and prevent data leaks. Cisco has added an AI assistant to simplify policy creation, which can automate repeatable processes and reduce deployment time by about 70%. The assistant can create rules for different users and groups, and monitor and control access to AI applications, preventing the upload of sensitive data. Justin demonstrates how the AI assistant works through a live demo and a video, showing how it can block an employee named Jeff from uploading code to ChatGPT.

Fay Lee then takes over to discuss Experience Insights, a new feature in Cisco Secure Access powered by ThousandEyes technology. It aims to reduce the mean-time-to-response for user experience issues and is integrated into the Secure Access dashboard. Experience Insights allows administrators to monitor endpoint performance, network performance, and the performance of the connection from Cisco’s cloud infrastructure to the applications users are accessing. Fay provides a live demo of the Experience Insights feature, showing a map of connected users, details of their connection, and the performance of commonly used SaaS applications. She explains how administrators can drill down into specific user data to troubleshoot issues and how integration with ThousandEyes provides additional insights.

The presentation ends with a Q&A session where the audience asks about the capabilities and integration of the AI assistant and Experience Insights, the limitations of the ThousandEyes integration, and the possibility of integration with other Cisco products like Meraki.


Cisco Event-Driven Automation with Shangxin Du

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Cloud Networking Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Shangxin Du

Shangxin Du, a technical marketing engineer from Cisco’s data center switching team, discusses Event-Driven Automation (EDA) in network operations. EDA is a method that automates network configuration changes in response to specific events, aiming to streamline repetitive tasks and mitigate risks during network incidents.

Initially, Shangxin outlines how customers currently manage network configuration, using tools like Ansible, Terraform, Python, or SSH to automate tasks individually or through controllers like Cisco’s ACI for more centralized management. He also touches on the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD pipelines for more integrated change management.

Next, he discusses network observability, emphasizing the importance of monitoring the network for operational data, which is vital for understanding the network’s real-time status. He explains how Cisco’s Nexus OS supports streaming telemetry, and how ACI uses a centralized controller (APIC) to manage configurations and operational data.

Shangxin then introduces the concept of Event-Driven Automation, which combines configuration automation with monitoring to automatically respond to network events. This can help in automating low-risk repetitive tasks, remediating incidents, and enriching support tickets with relevant data for quicker resolution.

He provides a demonstration of EDA using Ansible Rulebooks, which define sources, rules, and actions based on network events. The demo includes two use cases:

  1. Auto-segmentation in ACI, where endpoints are automatically moved to the correct Endpoint Group (EPG) based on MAC address mapping.
  2. Auto-remediation in Nexus OS, where a leaf switch is removed from the forwarding path if multiple uplinks go down, to prevent it from affecting network traffic.

Shangxin concludes that EDA offers limitless possibilities, allowing any source of events to trigger any automation response, depending on the rules defined. He also answers a question about the possibility of implementing a low-code solution for EDA in the Nexus world, similar to what’s available in other Cisco solutions like DNA Center. He suggests that while it’s a good idea, the current approach is to use existing tools and infrastructure for automation due to the diversity of customer preferences and practices.


Cisco Secure Interconnection of Heterogeneous Fabrics (ACI and VXLAN EVPN)

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Cloud Networking Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Lukas Krattiger, Max Ardica

In this presentation, Lukas Krattiger and Max Ardica from Cisco’s Data Center Business Unit discuss new functionalities for Cisco Data Center networking. They focus on the secure interconnection of heterogeneous fabrics, specifically integrating ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) and standard VXLAN EVPN (Ethernet VPN) fabrics.

Max introduces the concept of the ACI Border Gateway, which is a device that allows for controlled connectivity between different leaf-spine topologies, enabling the extension of layer 2 and layer 3 connectivity in a controlled manner. The ACI Border Gateway operates in a standard VXLAN EVPN fashion to interconnect with VXLAN EVPN border gateways of other fabrics. This allows for the expansion of a network using either ACI or VXLAN EVPN fabrics within the same multi-fabric domain.

They also introduce the VXLAN Group Policy Option (GPO), which provides secure group segmentation within a VXLAN EVPN fabric, similar to the concept of SGT (Security Group Tag) discussed in a previous session. GPO enables microsegmentation and service chaining, allowing administrators to direct traffic through firewalls or other network services as part of a security policy.

Lukas and Max emphasize the importance of using a control plane to exchange group information, allowing for optimal traffic flow by applying security policies at the ingress leaf. This approach is more efficient as it avoids sending unnecessary traffic across the network only to be dropped at the destination.

The discussion also touches on the need for policy authoring and enforcement, which will be facilitated by software tools like Nexus Dashboard or Ansible playbooks, allowing for consistent policy application across ACI and VXLAN EVPN fabrics.

Throughout the conversation, they address scalability, resource management, and the benefits of using border gateways to abstract network complexity and control inter-fabric connectivity. They also mention the possibility of synchronizing policy across different network domains and the potential integration with third-party security management tools.


NIS2 Compliance with Cisco Industrial Security

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Cloud Networking Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Andrew McPhee

Andrew McPhee, a solution manager for industrial security at Cisco, discusses how Cisco Cyber Vision and Cisco Secure Equipment Access can assist with NIS2 compliance. NIS2 is a European standard that mandates cybersecurity measures for critical industries. Andrew explains the importance of NIS2 as a forcing factor for industries to implement security measures, which apply to a wide range of industrial verticals.

He highlights the need to understand the risk profile of devices on a network, manage supply chain security, handle vulnerabilities, and implement access control policies, including multi-factor authentication. Andrew emphasizes the role of Cisco Cyber Vision for deep packet inspection and asset visibility in operational technology (OT) environments, which helps assess vulnerabilities and risks. He also discusses Cisco Secure Equipment Access for remote access, moving towards a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) model.

Andrew demonstrates Cisco’s IoT Operations Dashboard, which facilitates secure remote access to network devices and systems. He explains how the dashboard can be used for both clientless and client-based access, with features like session recording and scheduled access for vendors. The demonstration includes an overview of Duo, Cisco’s multi-factor authentication platform, and how it integrates with Secure Equipment Access for identity verification and policy enforcement.

Next, Andrew presents Cisco Cyber Vision, which provides a risk analysis of OT networks through passive monitoring and deep packet inspection. Cyber Vision can detect changes in the network, create baselines, and generate security reports. It can also integrate with Cisco’s Identity Services Engine (ISE) to implement segmentation based on the zones and conduits model from the IEC 62443 standard. He explains how Cyber Vision can share information with ISE to assign devices to security groups and enforce policies.

Throughout the discussion, Andrew addresses questions from the audience regarding the capabilities, integrations, and potential applications of the technologies presented. He clarifies how Cisco’s solutions can be adapted to various network architectures and the benefits of implementing security group tags for macro and micro-segmentation in industrial networks.


IP Fabric and NetBox Cloud – Better Together Demo

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: IP Fabric and NetBox Labs Present at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: IP Fabric, NetBox Labs

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Personnel: Alex Gittings

Alex Gittings, a solution architect at IP Fabric, presents a demonstration of a plugin that integrates IP Fabric with NetBox, a source of truth database for network automation. The plugin allows for the automatic synchronization of observed network state data into NetBox, which can be used to maintain an up-to-date source of truth for network automation purposes. This functionality is available for both the open-source and cloud-based versions of NetBox.

During the demo, Alex shows how a network discovered by IP Fabric can be imported into NetBox, including devices, interfaces, VLANs, VRFs, prefixes, and IP addresses. He explains that IP Fabric supports both cloud and on-premises versions of NetBox and demonstrates how to create an ingestion process to synchronize data from IP Fabric into NetBox. The plugin translates data from IP Fabric’s model to NetBox’s model using transform maps.

Alex also addresses questions regarding the plugin’s capabilities and limitations, such as its focus on the underlay network rather than the overlay, its ability to support various technologies, and how it can be used for compliance and change tracking. He explains that while IP Fabric captures snapshots of network state periodically, it does not support real-time monitoring, which means out-of-band changes may not be immediately reflected.

The demo concludes with a discussion on the potential for integration with other tools like Terraform and the challenges of maintaining a single source of truth for network state. Alex emphasizes the importance of aligning tooling with processes to ensure that the network source of truth remains accurate and effective for automation purposes.


Network Assurance in the Automation Ecosystem with IP Fabric

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: IP Fabric and NetBox Labs Present at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: IP Fabric, NetBox Labs

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Personnel: Daren Fulwell

Daren Fulwell, the Product Evangelist for IP Fabric, presented on how IP Fabric’s Automated Network Assurance Platform can transform network management. The platform is designed to proactively manage and measure networks, replacing manual documentation with interactive tools and providing an API for network intelligence. It works in conjunction with NetBox Cloud to enrich the automation ecosystem.

Fulwell discussed the challenges network operators face, such as dealing with complex, multi-vendor environments and the need for up-to-date documentation. He emphasized that traditional tools like SNMP monitoring and manual documentation are insufficient for modern network demands.

IP Fabric’s platform addresses these issues by collecting data on inventory, configuration, and state to provide a comprehensive understanding of the network. It then creates visual topologies and simulates traffic flows to understand network behavior. The platform uses snapshots to track changes over time and can flag issues for remediation based on predefined intent checks.

Fulwell also highlighted the importance of integrating IP Fabric’s API with other systems like monitoring platforms, ticketing systems, CMDBs, chatbots, and network automation tools to ensure up-to-date information and to validate changes in the network.

The presentation included a Q&A session where Fulwell answered questions about integrating network components, defining good and bad configurations, and potential impact analysis for network changes. He concluded by mentioning that while a complete digital twin of the network is difficult to achieve, IP Fabric provides the necessary oversight and intelligence to manage complex networks effectively.


NetBox Cloud as Part of a Modern Network Automation Architecture with NetBox Labs

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: IP Fabric and NetBox Labs Present at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: IP Fabric, NetBox Labs

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Personnel: Rich Bibby

In this presentation, Rich Bibby, a technical advocate with NetBox Labs, introduces NetBox Cloud and discusses its importance in network automation architecture. NetBox Labs, founded in 2023 in New York, is the commercial steward of the open-source project NetBox and has developed NetBox Cloud, an enterprise-grade, software-as-a-service version of NetBox.

Rich explains that a network source of truth is a representation of the intended state of a network, including devices, configurations, connections, and services. This intended state is distinct from the actual operational state, which is reported by monitoring and assurance tools. NetBox serves as a structured and cohesive data model, which is essential for network automation at scale. It eliminates the need for spreadsheets and disparate data sources, providing a single source of truth and accelerating network automation through its REST API and GraphQL interface.

NetBox Cloud offers push-button lifecycle operations, automated backups, single sign-on, and simplified plugin management. It is designed to be secure and compliant, and it allows for easy upgrades and integration with other tools. Rich also briefly describes the customer journey from documenting networks to full automation and presents a modern network automation reference architecture with NetBox Cloud at its center. This architecture includes operations teams, automation tools, and observability tools that together maintain the feedback loop between intended and actual network states.

Throughout the presentation, Rich also demonstrates the NetBox UI, showing how users can view site details, rack elevations, device configurations, and connections. He clarifies that while NetBox does not actively poll devices for their state, it can integrate with plugins and tools like IP Fabric to reconcile intended and actual states. NetBox Cloud does not require direct connectivity to customer networks, as it primarily interacts with other management tools.

Rich concludes by addressing audience questions about compliance, data validation, integration with existing tools, and the process for updating the intended state in NetBox.


Cisco Routed Optical Networking Automation

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Service Provider Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Jochen van Guyse, Pedro Do Vale Brites

Jochen van Guyse and Pedro Do Vale Brites from the automation team present a demo on routed optical networking (RON) and its automation. They explain the benefits of RON, which include simplifying network architecture by eliminating the need for separate transponders and reducing power consumption, space, and overall operational costs. They discuss the need for automation in RON due to the challenges it poses, such as the management of wavelengths across different teams (optical and IP networking teams).

The hierarchical controller architecture, which facilitates RON automation, is introduced. This architecture includes the top-level hierarchical controller, domain controllers for IP and optical networks, and the potential for integration across multiple vendors.

Pedro then demonstrates the system, highlighting the ease of setting up end-to-end IP links, including the provisioning within optical networks, and how to troubleshoot faults. He shows how the system can help operations teams by providing a single pane of glass view, correlating IP links with their optical paths, and simplifying fault management. The demo also covers inventory management, proactive maintenance planning through failure impact analysis, and historical data analysis for identifying trends in hardware failures.

The system is designed to fix inventory issues by relying on discovered data rather than user input, thereby serving as a single source of truth. The goal is to simplify operations for first-level network operations center (NOC) personnel by providing easy correlation of faults across layers and offering predictive maintenance insights. Some functionalities, like cross-launching into different domain controllers, are still in progress, but the main features demonstrated are generally available (G.A.) and currently shipping.


Automated Assurance with Cisco Crosswork and Accedian

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Service Provider Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Rana El Desouky Kazamel, Tom Footit

Rana El Desouky Kazamel and Tom Footit discuss the collaboration between Cisco Crosswork and Accedian, which is now part of Cisco, focusing on automated assurance for mass scale networks. Their goal is to help network operators monitor services, monetize SLAs, and deliver enhanced digital experiences. They explain how their solution provides a single pane of glass across multi-vendor and multi-domain networks, mapping services to network operations and enabling enhanced services.

They cover the end-to-end automation framework necessary for simplifying mass scale networks, including workflow definition, service provisioning, visibility, assurance, planning, and optimization. They emphasize the importance of intent-based assurance, which starts with the service intent and SLA metrics.

Tom details Accedian’s capabilities, including the use of sensors (probes) to generate test traffic and collect data for analyzing network behavior, predicting issues, and identifying SLA compliance. They also discuss how issues like fiber cuts can be managed and correlated with affected services, and how policies can be adjusted in real-time based on various constraints, including energy consumption.

Rana and Tom touch on integrations with other Cisco tools like Thousand Eyes for end-to-end assurance, and they demonstrate how their platform allows operators to drill down from a high-level view of network health to specific issues and devices causing problems.

Overall, the collaboration aims to provide network operators with the tools to proactively manage their networks, ensure service quality, and respond to issues efficiently.


Cisco Catalyst 9000 Cloud Evolution: Born Meraki

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Enterprise Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Alex Burger, Nico Darrow

Alex Burger and Nico Darrow from the Meraki Product Organization discuss the expansion of the Catalyst 9300-M portfolio and its integration into the Meraki Dashboard. The Catalyst C9300-M is designed to bring together Cisco’s hardware capabilities with the cloud management features of the Meraki Dashboard, offering flexibility and a unified platform for various customer environments.

Nico elaborates on the benefits of using the Meraki Dashboard for configuration, visibility, and ecosystem integration. He highlights the ease of provisioning and management, including firmware upgrades and day-to-day operations. The discussion also covers the hardware announcement of 15 new switch models, including the 9300-X and 9300-L series, which offer features like 25 gig uplinks and UPOE+ (up to 90 watts per port).

They discuss the 9300-X as a new fiber aggregation switch with high port density and stack-wise capabilities. The 9300-L models are presented as a cost-effective alternative with similar features but targeted at smaller remote offices.

The conversation also touches on smart building convergence, with the 9300-X enabling the convergence of IT and OT networks through adaptive policy and smart power management. They explain how the Meraki Dashboard allows for monitoring and automating power usage and environmental conditions.

Finally, they address the ability to migrate existing Catalyst switches to Meraki management and vice versa, as well as simplified licensing options. The talk concludes with a discussion about adaptive policy for micro-segmentation, integration with Cisco security operations, and the potential for future developments in granular security controls.


What’s Next for Cisco Meraki Switching in 2024

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Enterprise Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

Personnel: Alex Burger, Brennan Martin

Brennan Martin and Alex Burger from Cisco Meraki discussed the upcoming MS17 firmware release for Meraki Switching platforms. The key features they highlighted include:

  1. Device Health: MS17 will provide detailed information on CPU and memory utilization, as well as switch and environmental temperature for each individual switch. This will help in understanding if issues are related to device performance or environmental factors, such as a data center being too hot.
  2. Remote SPAN and VLAN-based SPAN: These features have been highly requested and will allow traffic to be mirrored from selected ports or VLANs across the network to another switch.
  3. Dynamic Port Profiles: MS17 will introduce the ability to create automations for configuring switch ports based on triggers like CDP, MAC OUIs, and RADIUS responses, which will automatically apply the appropriate port profile when a device is connected.
  4. Radius Configuration: This isn’t directly related to firmware but will allow consistent configurations to be managed at the organization level, simplifying the process of setting up RADIUS servers and policies.
  5. Cloud PCAP and Packet Analysis: MS17 will offer cloud-based packet capture and analysis, allowing users to store, share, download, and analyze packet captures directly from the Meraki dashboard.
  6. MAC Block List: This feature will enable users to quickly block misbehaving clients, integrating with the same APIs used for wireless and MX products.
  7. Adaptive Policy: Introduction of adaptive policy on compact switches, allowing for in-line SGTs and micro-segmentation controlled through the dashboard, interoperable with other Cisco TrustSec-capable devices.
  8. Digital Optical Monitoring: MS17 will provide health metrics for devices plugged into the switch, such as TX/RX power, temperature, voltage, and current, with Meraki and Cisco optics supported initially. This will help in predicting issues before module failure.

The release is expected to be in beta in the second quarter and stable GA in the third quarter. The goal is to maintain Meraki’s simplicity while improving integration with other products and adding more advanced features.


Cisco Meraki and Catalyst Wireless – Better Together

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Enterprise Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco, Meraki

Video Links:

Personnel: Scott Irey

Scott Irey presented the launch announcement of Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Wireless, which is an extension of Cloud Monitoring for Catalyst Switching introduced about 18 months prior. Starting in April, users can access the early public beta release to onboard Catalyst wireless controllers. This release marks the first round of native integration with iOS XE, aiming to simplify network operations.

Scott discussed the primary goals of Cloud Monitoring, emphasizing simplification of operations, event monitoring, performance monitoring, and the introduction of new features such as configuration history and image upgrades for Catalyst devices. He also highlighted the ease of performing packet captures with the new system, which requires fewer steps compared to traditional methods.

Scott addressed the API-driven nature of the system, the plan to bring intelligent packet capture to the system, and the licensing structure, which includes Cloud Monitoring with DNA licenses, with the Advantage license offering additional client traffic analytics.

The presentation went into detail about the native integration of Meraki tunnel with iOS XE, the registration process for Catalyst devices, and the onboarding process, which involves claiming the device in the dashboard and deciding how to organize the APs. Scott also clarified that the APs only need to reach the dashboard during registration, after which all communication is through the controller.

Scott then demonstrated the onboarding process, showing how to claim a controller and add it to a network in the dashboard. He also discussed the limitations of the current system compared to native Meraki devices, the strategic positioning of the Meraki dashboard compared to DNA Center, and future capabilities like configuration management and software upgrades.

The presentation concluded with an overview of how the Meraki dashboard pulls data from iOS XE data stores and the possibility of integrating AI-driven solutions in the future.


Centralized Management Distributed Enforcement with Cisco Secure Connect

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA 2024

Appearance: Cisco Enterprise Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live EMEA

Company: Cisco

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Personnel: Akshar Patel

Akshar Patel, a product manager for Cisco Secure Connect, presented information about Cisco’s Secure Connect and how it provides a true unified SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) experience at scale. He introduced the concept of SASE, which combines networking and security into a unified platform, and explained the evolution of SASE from disjointed components to integrated multi-vendor solutions, and finally to single-vendor unified solutions like Cisco Secure Connect.

Secure Connect is built on two platforms: Meraki SD-WAN and Umbrella SASE solution. The architecture is designed to connect and secure branches, remote access users, and ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) methods. It enables secure access to resources on the internet, on-premises, or in public/private clouds.

Akshar focused on branch connectivity and cloud security functionalities, emphasizing the firewall aspect. He highlighted the simplicity of onboarding branches to the Secure Connect platform and the ability to handle large numbers of sites quickly. The demo showed how Secure Connect integrates into the Meraki dashboard, allowing users to connect sites to regions and verify connectivity.

He addressed concerns about latency and bandwidth, explaining that Secure Connect optimizes traffic within the data center and between regions. The solution provides guaranteed bandwidth per uplink per site, and prioritizes traffic based on quality of service (QoS) policies.

Akshar also discussed cloud security functions, including DNS inspection, cloud firewall with IPS inspection, and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) for deeper inspection. He introduced a centralized management interface for global policy enforcement, allowing users to define rules once and apply them across multiple branches and the cloud.

Finally, he addressed questions about API access, licensing, egress charges, and traffic analytics, indicating that Secure Connect offers detailed reporting and control over traffic and policies.


Broadcom Thor 2: High Performance Ethernet NIC for AI/ML

Event: Cloud Field Day 19

Appearance: Broadcom Presents at Cloud Field Day 19

Company: Broadcom

Video Links:

Personnel: Hemal Shah

The large scale of AI/ML cluster requires high-performance networking solutions. In this talk, we will provide an overview of Broadcom’s high-performance Ethernet NIC for AI/ML clusters. Hemal Shah, Distinguished Engineer and Architect, will describe RoCE and congestion control features of the NIC, a reference AI/ML cluster architecture based on Broadcom switches and NICs, and benefits of end-2-end networking.

Shah begins with a discussion of the importance of high-performance networking for AI/ML clusters. He emphasizes that as AI/ML workloads increase in complexity and scale, networking becomes crucial for efficient job completion times. Shah provides an overview of Broadcom’s Ethernet NIC (Network Interface Card), which is designed to meet the demands of AI/ML clusters.

He explains that AI/ML clusters require networking that can handle large amounts of data and support high-speed, low-latency communication between nodes. Broadcom’s NICs and switches are designed to work together to provide end-to-end networking solutions that address these needs.

Shah outlines the key features of Broadcom’s 400 gig NIC, including:
– Support for RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and congestion control, which are important for AI/ML workloads.
– The ability to handle 400 gig bi-directional line rates with low latency to ensure rapid data transfer.
– PCIe Gen 5 by 16 host interface compatibility to maintain high throughput.
– Advanced congestion control mechanisms that react to network congestion and optimize traffic flow.
– Security features like hardware root of trust to ensure only authenticated firmware runs on the NIC.

Shah also discusses the reference architecture for an AI/ML cluster that incorporates Broadcom switches and NICs, designed to scale to thousands of GPUs and provide robust networking capabilities. He concludes by highlighting the importance of end-to-end fabric management for operating large-scale networks effectively, which includes automation, performance monitoring, and diagnostic capabilities.


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