Why Do You Need NAT66?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years since I wrote my most controversial post ever. I get all kinds of comments on my NAT66 post even to this day. I’ve been told I’m a moron, an elitist, and someone that doesn’t understand how the Internet works. I’ve also had some good comments that highlight a specific need for tools like NAT66. I wanted to catch up with everything and ask a very important question.

WHY?

Every Tool Has A Purpose

APNIC had a great post about NAT66 back in 2018. You should totally read it. I consider it a fair review of the questions surrounding NAT’s use in 2020. Again, NAT has a purpose and when used properly and sparingly for that purpose it works well. In the case of the article, Marco Cilloni (@MCilloni) lays out the need to use NAT66 to use IPv6 at his house due to ISP insanity and the latency overhead of using tunnels with Hurricane Electric. In this specific case, NAT66 was a good tool for him to use to translate his /128 address to something useable in his network.

If you’re brave, you should delve into the comments. A Continue reading

Rogers Breaks Ice on Canada’s First 5G Deployment

Google Cloud Woos Enterprises With Premium Support

CenturyLink Nabs Interior Department’s $1.6B IT Contract

Wi-Fi 6 into 6 GHz = WiFi6E. But not 5G but is 5Ghz.

Remember WiFi6 was making naming easier. Except when it isn't.

The post Wi-Fi 6 into 6 GHz = WiFi6E. But not 5G but is 5Ghz. appeared first on EtherealMind.

Announcing the Cloudflare Access App Launch

Every person joining your team has the same question on Day One: how do I find and connect to the applications I need to do my job?

Since launch, Cloudflare Access has helped improve how users connect to those applications. When you protect an application with Access, users never have to connect to a private network and never have to deal with a clunky VPN client. Instead, they reach on-premise apps as if they were SaaS tools. Behind the scenes, Access evaluates and logs every request to those apps for identity, giving administrators more visibility and security than a traditional VPN.

Administrators need about an hour to deploy Access. End user logins take about 20 ms, and that response time is consistent globally. Unlike VPN appliances, Access runs in every data center in Cloudflare’s network in 200 cities around the world. When Access works well, it should be easy for administrators and invisible to the end user.

However, users still need to locate the applications behind Access, and for internally managed applications, traditional dashboards require constant upkeep. As organizations grow, that roster of links keeps expanding. Department leads and IT administrators can create and publish manual lists, but those become Continue reading

Why multicloud security is your next big challenge

Companies deploy an average of three to five different cloud services. With an increased emphasis on security and regulatory compliance, the capability to manage these disparate systems is crucial.

Why multicloud security is your next big challenge

Companies deploy an average of three to five different cloud services. With an increased emphasis on security and regulatory compliance, the capability to manage these disparate systems is crucial.

Why multicloud security is your next big challenge

Companies deploy an average of three to five different cloud services. With an increased emphasis on security and regulatory compliance, the capability to manage these disparate systems is crucial.

SASE as Described in Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking

Removing Unnecessary Complexity

Recently, I’ve been working to remove unnecessary complexity from my work environment. I wouldn’t say that I’m going full-on minimalist (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I was beginning to feel like maintaining this complexity was taking focus, willpower, and mental capacity away from other, more valuable, efforts. Additionally, given the challenges I know lie ahead of me this year (see here for more information), I suspect I’ll need all the focus, willpower, and mental capacity I can get!

When I say “unnecessary complexity,” by the way, I’m referring to added complexity that doesn’t bring any real or significant benefit. Sometimes there’s no getting around the complexity, but when that complexity doesn’t create any value, it’s unnecessary in my definition.

Primarily, this “reduction in complexity” shows up in three areas:

1. My computing environment
2. My home office setup
3. My lab resources

My Computing Environment

Readers who have followed me for more than a couple years know that I migrated away from macOS for about 9 months in 2017 (see here for a wrap-up of that effort), then again in 2018 when I joined Heptio (some details are available in this update). Since switching to Fedora on a Lenovo Continue reading

Kernel of Truth season 2 episode 15: 2019 retrospect and 2020 predictions

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Click here for our previous episode.

In this episode, hosts Brian O’Sullivan and Roopa Prabhu are joined by Kernel of Truth podcast guest pros Pete Lumbis and Rama Darbha. The group looks back at 2019, discussing what they learned from the year and then move on to their 2020 predictions. Want a teaser? Automation was a hot topic in 2019 not just on our podcast but with our customers. It’s become less of a “nice to have” and more of a “need to have.” If you’re hungry for more 2019 retrospect and 2020 predictions, be sure to listen to this jam-packed podcast.

Guest Bios

Brian O’Sullivan: Brian currently heads Product Management for Cumulus Linux. For 15 or so years he’s held software Product Management positions at Juniper Networks as well as other smaller companies. Once he saw the change that was happening in the networking space, he decided to join Cumulus Networks to be a part of the open networking innovation. When not working, Brian is a voracious reader and has held a variety of jobs, including bartending in three countries and Continue reading

Automation Solution: Data Center Fabric with Tenant Connectivity

I always tell networking engineers attending our Building Network Automation Solutions online course to create minimalistic data models with (preferably) no redundant information. Not surprisingly, that’s a really hard task (see this article for an example) - using a simple automation tool like Ansible you end with either a messy and redundant data model or Jinja2 templates (or Ansible playbooks) full of hard-to-understand and impossible-to-maintain business logic.

Stephen Harding solved this problem the right way: his data center fabric deployment solution uses a dynamic inventory script that translates operator-friendly fabric description (data model) into template-friendly set of device variables.

Addressing 2019

ETSI Drops 2 MEC Reports Into a Red-Hot Market

Will SD-WAN Solve IoT’s Toughest Questions?

It’s the end for Windows Server 2008 support

This week's Patch Tuesday marked the end of the line for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2). No more fixes will be issued for the two aged operating systems, unless you purchase a pricey extended service license.On the Windows 7 front, Microsoft has done a good job getting Windows 10 deployed through its aggressive (perhaps too aggressive) upgrade program. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 now accounts for 65% of the worldwide desktop Windows market share, and Windows 7 is down to 27%. RELATED: What to know before upgrading to Windows Server 2019To read this article in full, please click here

It’s the end for Windows Server 2008 support

This week's Patch Tuesday marked the end of the line for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2). No more fixes will be issued for the two aged operating systems, unless you purchase a pricey extended service license.On the Windows 7 front, Microsoft has done a good job getting Windows 10 deployed through its aggressive (perhaps too aggressive) upgrade program. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 now accounts for 65% of the worldwide desktop Windows market share, and Windows 7 is down to 27%. RELATED: What to know before upgrading to Windows Server 2019To read this article in full, please click here

IoT roundup: IoT shifts focus to SMBs, standards movement and the sea

The internet of things for small businesses gets a bounce thanks to Arduino and Sprint, potential movement towards standards-based IoT emerges and catching some IoT news from the sea.

Daily Roundup: Verizon Leads New 5G Group