I wrote a blog back in August about how the economy wasn't that bad and good jobs were available. Well, I'm going to have to revise that comment....the economy is bad and will probably get worse.
Read more
Almost all of the users of your network will never be able to accurately judge the inherent quality of your network. Most will complain that they don't have a GIG port at the desk, which makes the network "slow". Few users will understand how network delay and TCP will incredibly decrease their transfer rate, regardless of their LAN port speed. Only the IT team will see all those great network templates you designed.
Read more
I read an interesting blog this week on Comcast's usage limits that went into effect on October 1st. The Comcast cap limits people to 250 GB of data per month. The Comcast FAQ doesn't say if it's download + upload or just download (since download is the bulk of the data), so I'll assume it's both for now.
Read more
Cisco is a brilliant company with very smart people. They know a lot about networking; all aspects of networking. But sometimes this knowledge gets converted to arrogance when these same smart people assume everyone outside of Cisco doesn't know networking.
Read more
I've written a lot in this blog about standards and network architecture. One of the key things you can do for your organization's success in addition to good, written standards is a proper team organization split between engineering and operations roles.
Read more
I traveled to Chicago last Wednesday to take the CCDE Practical Beta exam. Overall, it was a beta exam. It had some rough edges that need to be cleaned up before going live, but is on the right course.
Read more
The CCDE Practical Beta Exam is tomorrow (October 1st) in Chicago.
Wish us all luck!
Mike
CCDE Practical is a Go!
Sneak Preview of the CCDE Practical Exam
Clearing the Air on the CCDE Practical Beta Exam
CCDE Practical Beta Test Cancelled
CCDE Written Goes Live. I Passed. Can You?
Will Cisco's Master Architect Certification Test Leadership?
More Thoughts on Network Engineers and the CCDE
Separating Network Design and the CCIE
Took the CCDE Written Beta Test Today
Insight on the New Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) - Part III
Insight on the New Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) - Part II
Insight on the New Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) and Network Infrastructure Architect Certification
More >From the Field blog entries:
I have to admit, I'm impressed by Cisco's foresight for getting its technology inside VMware. If VMware is not a revolutionary change (close to it), it is certainly a fast-paced evolution for the IT infrastructure environment. Companies are building complete business models around VMware and IT organizations are developing news ways of operating in a virtualized ecosystem.
Furthermore, now that VMware is talking about taking over the whole DC, Cisco is wise to get in on the game. By placing Cisco IOS inside ESX, Cisco has guaranteed a place at the table and ensured its legions of Cisco engineers - the same people who buy Cisco products - a career path. That is a symbiotic relationship Cisco has to maintain. But, at this point, the Nexus 1000V is vaporware (unless someone has actually bought it??). So there are questions that need to be asked before the Nexus 1000V is more than a marketing success.
The first question is performance. The Nexus 1000V is not a Cisco switch that forwards packets in specialized ASICs for optimal performance. Now Cisco IOS is using software API calls to the ESX server to move packets, all of which relies on a general purpose x86 processor. The API calls should be interesting since API calls generally are limited and add extra overhead. From what I've read, Cisco does not have direct links into the ESX kernel, but relies on a the DVS API to provide networking services. VMware did an API to provide other companies the opportunity to provide the networking in ESX. Cisco may be the first, but I'm going to guess not the last. It will be interesting to see how Cisco optimizes the Nexus 1000V performance in this environment.
Read more
Conforming to the axiom that it's easier to join 'em than fight 'em, Cisco launched its first software based network switch this week - the Nexus 1000V - as an integrated component of VMware's ESX platform. I've written a few blogs about VMware, how it's a growing storm to traditional networking by bringing networking right into the server. This went to the heart of Cisco's business model: selling high-end LAN switches with lots of features to provide advanced networking features. With ESX's virtual switch, VMware was doing, initially at a very basic level, what Cisco has built a $40 billion business on. Cisco wasn't at risk soon, but it was probably not a good idea to wait around (just ask Microsoft about Google). So, Cisco jumped in, bought a small part of VMware, and got its networking technology inside VMware's software.
The result is the Nexus 1000V. The Nexus 1000V is a two-part software solution that replaces the VMware virtual switch inside the ESX sever. Now, instead of the virtual switch, NX-OS (and Cisco CLI) is providing networking inside the ESX server for virtual machines.
The 1000V does this by integrating with VMware's new DVS API which allows external agents to provide network services to ESX.
Read more
On the heals of starting my MBA a few weeks ago, I gave into the Dark Side this week and officially moved into management. Gone are the wonderful days of OSPF and BGP design, forever replaced with cost accounting, performance reviews, and marathon budget meetings.
;-)
Read more
A few weeks ago, NetworkWorld's Jim Duffy asked me to provide some comments on Cisco network management products. They were used as part of his expose on Cisco's network management challenges. In this article, in only the fourth paragraph, I read what has to be one of the silliest statements I've ever seen from Cisco:
"It's actually a good thing when network management is struggling, because it says that innovation is really happening at a fast rate," says Karen Sage, Cisco's director of product management for network management.
Huh? Care to restate that? Are you kidding?
Read more
Cisco held a fun event that ended recently with winners announced in The Cisco Home Networking Contest.
The rules seemed pretty simple. Send a diagram and description of your home network, and the most impressive (complex?) would be the winner. Two grand prize winners of the Best Overall Home Network were awarded: Iwan Eberhart, Frauenfeld, Switzerland and Andrew Ward, San Leandro, California, USA.
Read more
If you're thinking the economy is doing very poorly right now, I would argue that you have given in to the media and political hype. Are we experiencing record growth and prosperity? Obviously no, there are parts of the economy and country suffering right now, like housing, and banking. Those industries are suffering a 100-year flood like IT did in 2001 after the boom ended. But the rest of the economy, not so bad; particularly for professions and especially skilled IT professionals.
Read more
A couple years ago, I looked at my career and thought about where I wanted to be in 10-15 years. I was in the middle of architecting and building a new global network so what better time to think about what to do next. ;-)
Read more
A couple months ago, after attending the FutureNet conference, I wrote a blog about the impending Internet meltdown. In short, there are two problems afflicting the Internet:
Either of these could lead to Internet outages, brownouts, and changes in expected access in the coming years.
Read more
Cisco is doing a lot with their website these days, pushing a lot of Web 2.0 features and creating content aggregator sites, like the Cisco Validated Design Program (CVD) and the Cisco Design Zone for Data Centers and Data Center Assurance Program (DCAP). Since Cisco.com is so large, it can take too long to find things, even with the new search tool.
Read more
It's offical, the CCDE Practical Exam is a go. The first test will be offered in Chicago on October 1st. CCDE Beta Test participants are getting a $280 discount offer the standard price.
This should be interesting. The highest score during the CCDE Practical demo at Networkers last month was 24%. I'll put a dollar down that no one passes the during the first go-round.
Good luck. I'll see you there. :-D
Read more
My first reaction to Brocade buying Foundry yesterday was "hmmmmmmmmm". I was scratching my head as to why Brocade would want to jump into the highly commoditized LAN switching market, where Cisco dominates. What's the market differentiator? Why would I start buying LAN switches from Brocade all of sudden. Certainly they are having enough fun competing with Cisco in the SAN market, why jump into LAN switching? Juniper recently jumped into the LAN market and their sole differentiator was JunOS, not the hardware. So, what gives?
Read more
Michael Morris is a communications engineering manager at a $3 billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos, and developing large-scale routing designs. He has worked on networks at government and corporate organizations, including networks at two Fortune 10 companies. In his current role, he leads large-scale IT networking projects and develops and maintains architectural standards for data networks, storage area networks, IP Telephony, and security. Michael is a CCIE and has 11 years experience in networking and communications, including four years as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He has a bachelor's degree in MIS from the University at Buffalo. Recently, he was awarded the Network Professional Association® (NPA) Professional Excellence and Innovation Award for his work on network architecture, templates and enterprise MPLS design.
The opinions expressed in this Weblog are those of the writer and may not represent the opinions of Network World.
|
|
