Ethan Banks

Author Archives: Ethan Banks

Heavy Networking 560: Moving Big Data Sets From Far-Off Locations

Construction sites generate tons of data but often lack network connectivity. Today's Heavy Networking explores how one CTO has found ways to move huge data sets to HQ and the cloud using everything from Free Space Optics to LTE to consumer broadband. There are also stories about flying drones and robot dogs, and the operational impacts of SD-WAN. Our guest is Michael Shepherd, CTO of Rogers-O’Brien Construction.

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Heavy Networking 560: Moving Big Data Sets From Far-Off Locations

Construction sites generate tons of data but often lack network connectivity. Today's Heavy Networking explores how one CTO has found ways to move huge data sets to HQ and the cloud using everything from Free Space Optics to LTE to consumer broadband. There are also stories about flying drones and robot dogs, and the operational impacts of SD-WAN. Our guest is Michael Shepherd, CTO of Rogers-O’Brien Construction.

Day Two Cloud 083: Should Cloud Be A Public Utility?

Computing power is a vital part of modern life. Should access to that power be more equitably distributed? Is there a role for a public-utility-style cloud that could make computing more cost-effective and accessible to a broader number of constituencies? These are the starting questions for today's episode of Day Two Cloud. Our guest is Dwayne Monroe, a cloud architect, consultant, and author.

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Day Two Cloud 083: Should Cloud Be A Public Utility?

Computing power is a vital part of modern life. Should access to that power be more equitably distributed? Is there a role for a public-utility-style cloud that could make computing more cost-effective and accessible to a broader number of constituencies? These are the starting questions for today's episode of Day Two Cloud. Our guest is Dwayne Monroe, a cloud architect, consultant, and author.

The Dystopian Reality Of Human Data Trafficking

Amazon Alexa wants me to know that they celebrate International Data Privacy Day. I’m awestruck at the chutzpah of this claim.

Reviews of a Samsung smart television I’m considering express frustration at the crapware loaded onto the system because it is difficult to navigate and tracks viewing habits.

An app I need for my Mac immediately requests access to my Documents and Downloads folders for no obvious reason. Denying the request has no impact on the functioning of the app.

A phone app I use to help me track strength exercises wants me to share my data with the Health app. It won’t stop asking me about it, even though I’ve repeatedly denied the request. Why? It’s not just for my own well-being, I’m certain.

Garmin shares my workout data, all highly personal containing health & location information, with various third parties, and there’s no way to opt out if you want to use their hardware.

Twitter delivers customized ads, even though I had at one time opted out, at a rate of 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 tweets to my timeline.

Facebook rages against Apple for daring to require that apps hosted in the Apple store contain Continue reading

Heavy Networking 558: No Time For Hardware – The Case For NFV

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) transforms routers, load balancers, firewalls and other network devices into virtual instances that can be service-chained, spun up and down as needed, and are cloud-friendly. But if you're a hardware hugger or have been been burned by virtualization in the past, should you avoid NFV? Today's Heavy Networking guests want to change your mind. The Packet Pushers speak with Michael Pfeiffer, a Cloud Networking Architect for a VAR; and Brad Gregory, Senior Product Manager at Equinix.

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Heavy Networking 558: No Time For Hardware – The Case For NFV

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) transforms routers, load balancers, firewalls and other network devices into virtual instances that can be service-chained, spun up and down as needed, and are cloud-friendly. But if you're a hardware hugger or have been been burned by virtualization in the past, should you avoid NFV? Today's Heavy Networking guests want to change your mind. The Packet Pushers speak with Michael Pfeiffer, a Cloud Networking Architect for a VAR; and Brad Gregory, Senior Product Manager at Equinix.

Stable: GNS3 2.2.17 + VMware Fusion 12.1.0 + macOS 11.1 (Build 20C69)

Even with minor caveats, I seem to be in a better place with macOS 11.1 Big Sur versus macOS 10.15.7 Catalina. Big Sur is not a flawless experience for me yet, but I have hope it will become so as software makers have time to adjust to all of Apple's changes. And I'll take being able to run GNS3 labs without kernel panics as a big win.

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Tech Bytes: VMware’s vRealize True Visibility Suite Illuminates Dark Corners Of Your IT Stack (Sponsored)

On today's sponsored Tech Bytes podcast we discuss VMware's vRealize True Visibility Suite (TVS), an add-on that helps you understand transactions from the physical layer all the way through to the application layer. Our guest is Apolak Borthakur, VP/GM at VMware.

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Day Two Cloud 081: Abstractions Should Save Typing, Not Thinking

Today's Day Two Cloud episode is part one of a two-part show on abstractions. Hosts Ned Bellavance and Ethan Banks riff on the idea that "Abstractions are there to save you typing, not to save you thinking." The upshot? Abstractions don't eliminate issues, they just move them someplace else. And that has repercussions for design, development, infrastructure, and operations.

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Is Computing A Right?

Recently, the idea of a cloud computing service delivered as a public utility was pitched to me. The idea was that computing power made available to those who would otherwise be unable to afford it would be a societal good. For example, imagine an academic group that needs compute for a research project. Or municipalities that would benefit their citizenry by leveraging a cloud-as-utility.

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Heavy Networking 557: User Experience Is A Full-Stack Responsibility (Sponsored)

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) is the topic on today's Heavy Networking. IT folks tend to view user experience from their own particular area of responsibility--networking, security, app development--but the reality is there's a common set of data that IT should consume and understand. Sponsor Catchpoint joins us to discuss its DEM platform and how it measures user experience using metrics that are relevant across the IT stack. Our guest is JP Blaho, Director, Product Marketing at Catchpoint.

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Heavy Networking 557: User Experience Is A Full-Stack Responsibility (Sponsored)

Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) is the topic on today's Heavy Networking. IT folks tend to view user experience from their own particular area of responsibility--networking, security, app development--but the reality is there's a common set of data that IT should consume and understand. Sponsor Catchpoint joins us to discuss its DEM platform and how it measures user experience using metrics that are relevant across the IT stack. Our guest is JP Blaho, Director, Product Marketing at Catchpoint.

The Attention Economy And The IT Talent Dearth

In IT operations, finding talent is difficult. For years, there has been a shortage of folks who are capable of maintaining complex infrastructure. To be sure, some of this is geographical. And certainly, the rate of technology change makes it difficult to find people with specific product skills. Hard to find a Kubernetes expert with ten years of experience. ?

But I suspect there’s a couple of other things going on that, when combined, make the talent dearth even worse.

The Brutality Of Complexity

When I was studying for Novell Netware 3 (before directory services) certifications decades ago, there was a lot to know. Networking with IPX. Architecture of x86 servers. NLMs. Storage strategies. Mail systems. Whatever else was in those red books many of us had on our shelves.

Pre-AD Microsoft certifications were similarly challenging. Domain controllers. Backup domain controllers. File & print systems. User permissions and design strategies. The GINA. Networking with IP, IPX, and NetBEUI. Mail systems. IIS. So much more.

That was before the addition of directory services to Novell and Microsoft operating systems. Directory services changed the game for file, print, email, and more back in the day, and it put a major burden on IT Continue reading

Give The Network Designer That Came Before You A Break

When you take over a network as a technical lead, you often run into design elements that make you do a spit-take. They did WHAT? Really? Were they...stupid? Clueless? Stupid AND clueless? Maybe they were, but I argue that you should give those humans that came before you a break. You weren't there. You don't know what constraints they were operating under. Since you don't know those things, it's hard to pass fair judgement. Unfair judgement? Oh, yeah. All day long, and you can even feel righteous while doing so. Super smug.

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Heavy Networking 556: The State Of GNS3 For Network Labs

GNS3 is a tool for building virtual networks for labbing. Heavy Networking welcomes GNS3 co-founder and developer Jeremy Grossman and networking instructor David Bombal. We cover the state of GNS3 in 2021, including what GNS3 can do that maybe you didn’t know, and what’s on the roadmap.

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