Fundamentals of MPLS LSPs

One of the items that often trips folks up with MPLS is the concept of label switched paths or LSPs. We’ve talked about them extensively before in many of the blog posts here and I’ve described them a couple of different ways. Many people look at an LSP as a sort of unidirectional tunnel. In fact, most network diagrams aiming to describe an LSP often show it just as that – a tunnel. It’s an easy thing to visualize especially when you start talking about nested tunnels or LSPs inside of LSPs, but I also think it can be rather confusing. This becomes even more confusing when people start talking about end to end LSPs or how a service label is the same end to end as traffic traverses an LSP. What does that mean? Where does an LSP start or stop? Is it really a tunnel? How far can an LSP reach? What if we run different label distribution protocols? In this post, and perhaps the next, I hope to address these questions as well as talk about how we can solve some of the common problems that are often encountered with LSPs.

So let’s dive right in and Continue reading

Cisco’s Kip Compton on How to Manage Application Complexity

Verizon Fuses 5G Mixed Reality Advancements to The Edge

Network pros react to new Cisco certification curriculum

Software skills are set to play a more prominent role in Cisco’s network engineering curriculum. The company is launching a new coding-focused certification track, as well as giving its existing certifications a major revamp to address software-defined networking (SDN), automation, the Internet of Things, and other emerging technologies that are changing the job requirements for today’s network professionals. "They’re not trying to turn network folks into developers, but they are certainly trying to make it easier for us to do our job," says Dan Groscost, solutions architect at Computer Design & Integration, an IT services firm based in New York, N.Y. Groscost holds a Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification, and he’s in the final stages of his Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Route/Switch certification.  To read this article in full, please click here

Network pros react to new Cisco certification curriculum

Software skills are set to play a more prominent role in Cisco’s network engineering curriculum. The company is launching a new coding-focused certification track, as well as giving its existing certifications a major revamp to address software-defined networking (SDN), automation, the Internet of Things, and other emerging technologies that are changing the job requirements for today’s network professionals. "They’re not trying to turn network folks into developers, but they are certainly trying to make it easier for us to do our job," says Dan Groscost, solutions architect at Computer Design & Integration, an IT services firm based in New York, N.Y. Groscost holds a Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification, and he’s in the final stages of his Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Route/Switch certification.  To read this article in full, please click here

Red Hat Shields IBM’s Woeful Q3

Locked Up By Lock-In

When you start evaluating a solution, you are going to get a laundry list of features and functionality that you are supposed to use as criteria for selection. Some are important, like the ones that give you the feature set you need to get your job done. Others are less important for the majority of use cases. One thing tends to stand out for me though.

Since the dawn of platforms, I believe the first piece of comparison marketing has been “avoids lock-in”. You know you’ve seen it too. For those that may not be completely familiar with the term, “lock-in” describes a platform where all the components need to come from the same manufacturer or group of manufacturers in order to work properly. An example would be if a networking solution required you to purchase routers, switches, access points, and firewalls from a single vendor in order to work properly.

Chain of Fools

Lock in is the greatest asset a platform company has. The more devices they can sell you the more money they can get from you at every turn. That’s what they want. So they’re going to do everything they can to keep you in their ecosystem. Continue reading

Weekly Wrap: AWS Makes It Rain, Extends Credits to Open Source Projects

Learn Scrum and Six Sigma and prepare for your PMP exam with this $29 bundle

Whether you’re interested in managing a team or you just want to better communicate your goals with your colleagues, project management skills will come in handy. Many people learn how to manage a team on the job, and while hands-on experience is invaluable, learning a structured approach to project management will make your team much more effective. If you want to learn the skills necessary to keep your team running at peak efficiency, this $29 bundle is for you.To read this article in full, please click here

Usage-based billing with NetFlow and sFlow

The post Usage-based billing with NetFlow and sFlow appeared first on Noction.

You Cannot Have a Public Cloud without Networking

Listening to (some) industry evangelists you would believe that there’s no future in being a networking engineer. After all, all workloads will move into the cloud, and all clients will connect through a universal 5G network… but even if that utopia eventually comes true, you can’t get away from the laws of physics (and the need networking infrastructure).

TL&DR: our new online course will help you master the shiny new world. You can register right now or keep reading ;)

Delta Lake Project Raises Linux Foundation Flag

VMware tightens Amazon Web Services cloud integration

VMware has taken another step to integrate its virtual kingdom with Amazon Web Services' world with an on-premise service that will let customers automate database provisioning and management. The package, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) on VMware is available now for customers running VMware vSphere 6.5 or later and supports Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Other DBs will be supported in the future, the companies said.To read this article in full, please click here

VMware on AWS gets an on-premises option

VMware has taken another step to integrate its virtual kingdom with Amazon Web Services' world with an on-premise service that will let customers automate database provisioning and management. The package, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) on VMware is available now for customers running VMware vSphere 6.5 or later and supports Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Other DBs will be supported in the future, the companies said.To read this article in full, please click here

VMware tightens Amazon Web Services cloud integration

VMware has taken another step to integrate its virtual kingdom with Amazon Web Services' world with an on-premise service that will let customers automate database provisioning and management. The package, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) on VMware is available now for customers running VMware vSphere 6.5 or later and supports Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Other DBs will be supported in the future, the companies said.To read this article in full, please click here

VMware on AWS gets an on-premises option

VMware has taken another step to integrate its virtual kingdom with Amazon Web Services' world with an on-premise service that will let customers automate database provisioning and management. The package, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) on VMware is available now for customers running VMware vSphere 6.5 or later and supports Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Other DBs will be supported in the future, the companies said.To read this article in full, please click here

Verizon Picks Lanner to Built Next-Gen uCPEs

Ericsson Bribery Settlement Bogs Down Q3 Earnings

Three-way merger creates major new cloud solutions provider

Three major digital infrastructure providers have announced a merger that will create a solutions powerhouse, with the real winners being their channel partners, Dell and Cisco.AHEAD, Data Blue, and Sovereign Systems announced plans to merge their firms, creating a company with around $1.3 billion in revenue and a wide range of skills. All three firms specialize in modernizing digital business infrastructure and assisting enterprise clients transition to cloud computing, but each has its own area of specialty, and those areas complement one another.AHEAD specializes in enterprise service management, DevOps, monitoring and analytics, and security. Data Blue covers managed services and provides deep networking expertise. Sovereign Systems specializes in cloud, VMware, and ServiceNow expertise. While all three firms operate in multiple industries, the combined company will be especially deep in healthcare, insurance, and financial services.To read this article in full, please click here

IT Career Roadmap: Infrastructure software manager

A new and growing title in IT, infrastructure software manager is becoming a vital role for organizations, especially those embarking on digital transformations.