Build vs. buy is an often lamented and always hotly debated question in all aspects of IT, however, if one is able to truly look at all angles the answer is typically straightforward and can be rooted in one simple strategy: don’t reinvent the wheel.

Taking politics and putting them aside, what the new administration has been attempting to change with regard to internet privacy is something we should all be informed about. Wether you have a tin foil hat or don’t care, “knowing is half the battle”. The other half is doing - which I will also lend some brief insight to (sorta). What’s changing? Nothing yet (as of the time of this writing). What will likely change? The ability of your internet (mobile or not) to sell…

Since Network Field Day 9, I have spent more and more time mentally grinding on what Brocade is doing. I have been a pretty vocal critic of the foundry hardware and software platform since my first experience with it years and years ago. I found it to be lacking in completed features, Layer 3 functionality and general stability.
This is one reason that anyone reading this should take pause and think about the background this post is sourcing from and how much of a shift it is. I tend to be a…

With the recent announcement of Cisco Systems intent to purchase tail-f, proponents of a multi-vendor environment are waiting with baited breath to see how the networking giant will deal with support of competitor hardware and CLIs. Yang is here to stay, there is no doubt about that. As is netconf. Both of these are good things for the industry as a whole, having a standard way to communicate with network hardware [that isn’t openflow] is necessary and immeasurably useful. I’m not…

Many regular internet users are extremely upset about the recent proposed changes the FCC has opened for comments about the delivery and provisioning of internet services.  Watch this video if you’re unaware of the high emotions it has evoked: While these are proposed rules and are not in any way finalized, there is real concern that they may become law.  Where this is problematic is that it opens up the possibility of some real misuse, abuse or simple misunderstanding of needs and…

I firmly believe that blending disciplines is the way of the future in IT. I’ve rambled about it here at other venues and I’m vocal (some would probably say brash) about it on the twitters.  Be it Networking and System, Systems and Security, Programming and Networking, most of us that have been around any length of time already do it but now it’s happening out in the open and “DevOps”, a form of the hybrid IT worker, has seemingly become the BOTD (Buzzword of the…

OpenFlow is, of course, a hot buzzword.  It’s the newest, and in my opinion, the most innovative thing to hit data networking since dynamic routing.  The ability to programmatically, systematically and potentially dynamically control traffic at the flow level through a network is innovative, exciting and terrifying [to many network engineers and architects] at the same time.  Allowing applications to touch the network change behavior is something that many engineers are not terribly…

The SDN world is abuzz with the announcement that the OpenDaylight controller came from stealth mode today.  Why is this important?  Well, SDN and OpenFlow are fractured.  It is Mac vs. PC, Beta vs VHS, Coke vs. Pepsi all over again……multiplied by 100x and with a handful of players. Vendor zealots and brand loyalists will nearly always side with their camp.  Heck, even I have some biases of personal preference.  But at the end of the day, the greater good is always most important.…

OK, maybe they’re not totally dead, but they’re being demoted. To the mail room. During the course of my career I’ve always had at least some responsibility for firewall and security devices.  In those ~15 years, how these boxes are built and function has shifted.  From the perspective of my career, there were IOS ACLs (yes, I know, not a firewall), there was the IOS firewall versions and there were software packages such as gauntlet, checkpoint.  There was the Cisco PIX. One…

Last year, Networking Field Day was something that I’d heard of but wasn’t really aware of what is really was.  I occasionally looked at Twitter and saw the hash tags but did not know much about how it was set up or what it was about.  In fact, I actually thought it was supposed to be like the HAM radio field day stuff where you go out and build out an emergency network on the fly.  OK, I should have done more homework, admittedly. Fast forward 6 months. I’m working more and…