Zeus Kerravala
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Zeus Kerravala
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128 Technology aims to fix the internet
After two years of being in stealth mode, 128 Technology came out of hiding this week and is making a bold claim—that they can fix the way the internet works.128 Technology is led by Andy Ory, former CEO of Acme Packet, another Massachusetts-based company that was headquartered only a few miles from where 128 Technology is located. Also, many of the current employees of 128 Technology are former Acme Packet employees.Other than physical location, there are a couple of other similarities between 128 Technology and Acme Packet. First, the names of the companies are equally non-descriptive of what they do. Second, and more important, Acme was one a pioneer in the session border control (SBC) market, which redefined how multimedia traffic moved across networks. 128 Technology is trying to do something similar with all network traffic.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Who speaks for multi-vendor environments?
In 1980, the final episode of one my favorite TV shows, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, aired. In “Who Speaks for Earth?” Sagan summarized the mess that has become humanity and the impending doom that will befall Earth if things do not change. The episode also provides alternatives to that behavior and offers a way to save Earth but begs the big question of who actually speaks for Earth to enable the behavior change.This is not unlike what’s happening in the data center today. It’s been well documented on this site and others that the data center is currently a mess. Data centers are built on repeatable building blocks, but configuration is still done manually. In Cosmos, Sagan gave the planet only a minuscule percentage chance of surviving if humans didn’t change their ways. Similarly, organizations must change the way they operate data centers if they are to make it in an increasingly digital world where speed is everything. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Who speaks for multi-vendor environments?
In 1980, the final episode of one my favorite TV shows, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, aired. In “Who Speaks for Earth?” Sagan summarized the mess that has become humanity and the impending doom that will befall Earth if things do not change. The episode also provides alternatives to that behavior and offers a way to save Earth but begs the big question of who actually speaks for Earth to enable the behavior change.This is not unlike what’s happening in the data center today. It’s been well documented on this site and others that the data center is currently a mess. Data centers are built on repeatable building blocks, but configuration is still done manually. In Cosmos, Sagan gave the planet only a minuscule percentage chance of surviving if humans didn’t change their ways. Similarly, organizations must change the way they operate data centers if they are to make it in an increasingly digital world where speed is everything. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Avaya IAUG is all about the Breeze, no troubles
This week the International Avaya Users Group (IAUG) is holding its annual event in Orlando. The IAUG is an independent user community, so even though the event was centered on Avaya, it was run by a group of customers and not the vendor. The theme of the event, “Engage” has been Avaya’s theme for many of its events over the past year, and it carried over into the user event. Gary Barnett, Avaya’s senior vice president and general manager of Engagement Solutions gave the day one keynote. In case you’re wondering what Engagement Solutions are, it’s really Avaya’s entire collaboration suite, which includes customer and team “engagement” solutions, as well as mobile application.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Polycom RealConnect makes multi-vendor videoconferencing easy
Videoconferencing and the enterprise have had a good old love-hate relationship over the past few decades. It’s kind of like what’s happening with Tom Brady and the NFL. Both know they’re better off with each other, but there’s so much historical pain that it’s hard to move on and give each other another shot.Enterprise video has come a long way over the past five years, but there are so many painful memories of how things were that many IT and business leaders don’t want to give video another chance. However, it’s worth taking another look. Complicated user interfaces have been replaced with easy-to-use touchscreens. IT no longer has to roll around carts and spend half the meeting time trying to dial the other side’s ISDN SPID. Quality issues have all but been resolved, and modern systems work fine now even over low bandwidth connections.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Arista launches Universal Leaf Platform
Last month, Arista Networks put the core router market in the crosshairs with it’s Universal Spine (http://www.networkworld.com/article/3049140/router/arista-takes-aim-at-core-router-market-with-universal-spine.html) system. This week Arista complimented this by announcing a Universal Leaf network platform powered by its new 7280R switch series. The products leverage the Broadcom Jericho chipset which is optimized for 100 Gig-E, deep buffers and routing. Arista has been one of the more aggressive vendors with respect to using a leaf-spine architecture to be the backbone of a modern data center, so it makes sense that it would try and push the evolution of both the leaf and spines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Arista launches Universal Leaf Platform
Last month, Arista Networks put the core router market in the crosshairs with it’s Universal Spine (http://www.networkworld.com/article/3049140/router/arista-takes-aim-at-core-router-market-with-universal-spine.html) system. This week Arista complimented this by announcing a Universal Leaf network platform powered by its new 7280R switch series. The products leverage the Broadcom Jericho chipset which is optimized for 100 Gig-E, deep buffers and routing. Arista has been one of the more aggressive vendors with respect to using a leaf-spine architecture to be the backbone of a modern data center, so it makes sense that it would try and push the evolution of both the leaf and spines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Is network fabric heading down the same path as ‘software defined’ and ‘stacking’?
Technology vendors love to grab terms that are hot and then overuse them to the point where no one really understands what it means any more. I understand the desire to catch a market trend and have the “rising tide” lift the vendors along with a number of others. But the overuse of terms tends to confuse buyers while they are trying to figure out what’s what.This is one reason why Gartner’s Hype Cycle has the phases it does. While I think some of the terms are a little silly, the fact is that the first upslope creates vendor overhype and then technology goes into a lull while users do their own research. Gartner If you’ve been around the network industry for a while, you probably remember the days when the term “stacking” became such a term. There’s some debate as to who invented stacking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Is network fabric heading down the same path as ‘software defined’ and ‘stacking’?
Technology vendors love to grab terms that are hot and then overuse them to the point where no one really understands what it means any more. I understand the desire to catch a market trend and have the “rising tide” lift the vendors along with a number of others. But the overuse of terms tends to confuse buyers while they are trying to figure out what’s what.This is one reason why Gartner’s Hype Cycle has the phases it does. While I think some of the terms are a little silly, the fact is that the first upslope creates vendor overhype and then technology goes into a lull while users do their own research. Gartner If you’ve been around the network industry for a while, you probably remember the days when the term “stacking” became such a term. There’s some debate as to who invented stacking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cisco’s evolution: Technology and branding changes over the years
From niche router vendor to all things networkingCisco’s new campaign “There’s Never Been A Better Time” urges everyone to consider how the network can solve the world’s biggest problems. The company is on a mission to change the world, but it didn’t start out that way. As Cisco evolved from a niche router vendor to the de facto standard for all things networking, so too has its message to the world. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Brocade Workflow Composer enables IT to move with digital speed
In several of my previous posts, I’ve connected the dots between digital transformation and the need for IT to evolve. IT professionals need new technologies, tools and processes to meet the demands of the digital era. This often requires a willingness to do things that were never the norm in previous technology eras.One of the biggest changes that IT must accept is the willingness to automate processes. Whenever I have spoken to IT professionals in the past, particularly network engineers, the reaction to automation tools has been somewhat tepid. As a former network engineer, I can relate. I want to control everything so that I know things are done correctly and everything is operating as it should.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Brocade Workflow Composer enables IT to move with digital speed
In several of my previous posts, I’ve connected the dots between digital transformation and the need for IT to evolve. IT professionals need new technologies, tools and processes to meet the demands of the digital era. This often requires a willingness to do things that were never the norm in previous technology eras.One of the biggest changes that IT must accept is the willingness to automate processes. Whenever I have spoken to IT professionals in the past, particularly network engineers, the reaction to automation tools has been somewhat tepid. As a former network engineer, I can relate. I want to control everything so that I know things are done correctly and everything is operating as it should.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why Bloomberg chose Vidyo to improve its video communications platform
Earlier this year, Vidyo announced that Bloomberg selected it to provide the enabling technology for Nexi, Bloomberg’s new global communications platform that enables the company’s employees to connect over video with each other and the rest of the world. So, I decided to dig a bit deeper into Bloomberg’s decision to use Vidyo and talked with the man responsible for the integration: Jeff Fairbanks, Global Head of AV and Media Technology, Technical Operations at Bloomberg. I asked Fairbanks if he could describe Bloomberg’s use of video and provide some historical context for why the technology is so important today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Software-defined networking touches every industry segment
There’s an inside joke in the software-defined networking industry that “SDN” stands for “still done nothing.” People say that because despite the tremendous hype around SDN, many customers remain confused about what it is, how to deploy it and what the benefits are. This is particularly true in the data center where the stakes are high and any kind of mistake can cost an organization millions of dollars.About 21 months ago, Cisco launched its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) solution and threw its hat in the SDN ring. In practicality, ACI is a much broader solution. It uses the principles of SDNs but deals with much more than the network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Software-defined networking touches every industry segment
There’s an inside joke in the software-defined networking industry that “SDN” stands for “still done nothing.” People say that because despite the tremendous hype around SDN, many customers remain confused about what it is, how to deploy it and what the benefits are. This is particularly true in the data center where the stakes are high and any kind of mistake can cost an organization millions of dollars.About 21 months ago, Cisco launched its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) solution and threw its hat in the SDN ring. In practicality, ACI is a much broader solution. It uses the principles of SDNs but deals with much more than the network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cisco engineers’ careers depend on the evolution of CCNA certification
Every decade or so the IT industry goes through some kind of major transformation. Each wave of IT brings with it new technologies that drive the need for new skills and make other skills less relevant.For example, I started my career at the very tail end of the mainframe era, so I knew a little IBM 3270 but my skills were deeply rooted in Unix and Windows. The company I worked for had a large team of IBMers that ate, breathed and lived Big Blue. None of those people accepted the fact that the world was changing and that it was time to learn new skills. Fast forward five years, and only a couple of the mainframe people were still employed at the company, and the Unix and Windows teams had grown by orders of magnitude.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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New F5 software addresses the needs of an increasingly digital world
Digital has become the way. Look through any business publication or trade magazine, and you’ll see a plethora of articles about digital transformation. A digital business is highly dependent on the underlying infrastructure to enable new services that can give it a competitive advantage. The underlying technology not only needs to seamlessly deliver the services, but also provide the highest levels of security, orchestration capabilities and many other requirements unique to this era of business. + Also on Network World: Why 2015 was the year of the cloud, and 2016 will be too +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Ixia’s CloudLens brings visibility to hybrid cloud environments
The digital business era has brought about many changes to IT. One of the biggest evolutions is the acceptance and usage of the cloud.Cloud computing’s path is similar to the one virtualization traveled about a decade ago. Early on, virtualization was used in labs and for non-mission-critical workloads. But as the technology matured and organizations became comfortable with it, usage exploded.The same thing is happening with cloud, and over the next few years, the industry will see more and more applications and services moved to the cloud. Hybrid Cloud: The time for adoption is upon us For most organizations, however, migrating to the cloud is no simple thing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Top 5 observations from EMC World 2016
Last week’s Interop conference in Las Vegas was filled with with news from different IT vendors trying to one up the competition—as is typically the case.Just a couple of miles down the Strip, though, a second conference took place: EMC’s annual user conference.EMC World happens annually, but this event was somewhat special because next year at this time EMC will be under the ownership of Dell. The conference is in the books now, and here are the most notable things I took away from it.1. Joe Tucci says goodbye. Joe Tucci and Michael DellTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cisco’s new campaign: ‘There’s never been a better time’ to be digital
Over the past 30-plus years, Cisco has almost single-handedly carried the flag for network-centric innovation. Its many brand campaigns along the way have told us that Cisco can “Empower the Internet Generation” and connect the “Human Network” and that “Tomorrow Starts Here.” Each of those branding initiatives was tied to a different era in networking. For example, “Tomorrow Starts Here” was targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT). Now that IoT is well underway, Cisco is changing its brand to be more reflective of the next wave in business: the “digital” era. This morning, Cisco’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karen Walker, outlined the thoughts behind Cisco’s new brand campaign of “There’s Never Been A Better Time.” Cisco’s tagline is supported by a number of use cases that explain what it is that there’s never been a better time to do. Below are a couple of examples that illustrate how “there’s never been a better time to make cities smarter” or “… to save the rhinos.” Along with the headline, Cisco provides stories and data points, quantifying the value of digitization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here