To Centralize or not to Centralize, That’s the Question

One of the attendees of the Building Next-Generation Data Center online course solved the build small data center fabric challenge with Virtual Chassis Fabric (VCF). I pointed out that I would prefer not to use VCF as it uses centralized control plane and is thus a single failure domain.

In case you’re interested in data center fabric architecture options, check out this section in the Data Center Fabric Architectures webinar.

Here are his arguments for using VCF:

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SageDB: a learned database system

SageDB: a learned database system Kraska et al., CIDR’19

About this time last year, a paper entitled ‘The case for learned index structures’ (part I, part II) generated a lot of excitement and debate. Today’s paper choice builds on that foundation, putting forward a vision where learned models pervade every aspect of a database system.

The core idea behind SageDB is to build one or more models about the data and workload distribution and based on them automatically build the best data structures and algorithms for all components of the database system. This approach, which we call “database synthesis” will allow us to achieve unprecedented performance by specializing the implementation of every database component to the specific database, query workload, and execution environment.

For the want of a model

In the absence of runtime learning and adaptation, database systems are engineered for general purpose use and do not take full advantage of the specific characteristics of the workload and data at hand. The size of the opportunity for SageDB is the gap between such an approach and what is possible when designing a specialised solution with full knowledge of the data distribution and workload.

Consider an Continue reading

Cisco SP Nails It at NFDx

The Networking Field Day Exclusive one-day event with Cisco’s Service Provider business unit definitely exceeded my expectations, and I believe showcased a different approach to technology and their customers than we might have seen from the Cisco Systems of four or five years ago.

Segment Routing

The topic-du-jour was definitely Segment Routing, and Cisco delivered great presentations on both SR-TE (Segment Routing – Tunnel Engineering) with SR Flexible Algorithm, and SRv6 (Segment Routing for IPv6). 

SR FlexAlgo

SR FlexAlgo effectively allows a network to calculate metric- and constraint-based primary and backup paths on demand and in a distributed fashion. For example, a policy might be that traffic to a given prefix should follow the lowest latency path using only MACSEC encrypted links, or perhaps the lowest cost path while staying within a particular geographical region. Cool stuff, and while it won’t fix every problem, conceptually I can see this as a relatively accessible way into Segment Routing, and one which could deliver tunnel engineering in a way that would be highly complex or impossible using RSVP-TE and a constraint-based IGP calculation.

SRv6

I had not looked at SRv6 before, and it’s a fascinatingly different beast to regular IPv4-based Segment Continue reading

Spanning The Database World With Google

If relational databases had just worked at scale to begin with, the IT sector would be a whole lot more boring and we wouldn’t be having conversation a conversation with Andrew Fikes, the vice president and Engineering Fellow at search engine, application, and cloud computing giant Google who has been instrumental in the creation of many of its databases and datastores since joining the company in 2001. …

Spanning The Database World With Google was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at .

IDG Contributor Network: Zero trust: The transition from legacy to cloud-native

Enterprises operating in the traditional monolithic environment may have strict organizational structures. As a result, the requirement for security may restrain them from transitioning to a hybrid or cloud-native application deployment model.In spite of the obvious difficulties, the majority of enterprises want to take advantage of cloud-native capabilities. Today, most entities are considering or evaluating cloud-native to enhance their customer’s experience. In some cases, it is the ability to draw richer customer market analytics or to provide operational excellence.Cloud-native is a key strategic agenda that allows customers to take advantage of many new capabilities and frameworks. It enables organizations to build and evolve going forward to gain an edge over their competitors.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Zero trust: The transition from legacy to cloud-native

Enterprises operating in the traditional monolithic environment may have strict organizational structures. As a result, the requirement for security may restrain them from transitioning to a hybrid or cloud-native application deployment model.In spite of the obvious difficulties, the majority of enterprises want to take advantage of cloud-native capabilities. Today, most entities are considering or evaluating cloud-native to enhance their customer’s experience. In some cases, it is the ability to draw richer customer market analytics or to provide operational excellence.Cloud-native is a key strategic agenda that allows customers to take advantage of many new capabilities and frameworks. It enables organizations to build and evolve going forward to gain an edge over their competitors.To read this article in full, please click here

Reaction: Open Source

As long-standing contributor to open standards, and someone trying to become more involved in the open source world (I really need to find an extra ten hours a day!), I am always thinking about these ecosystems, and how the relate to the network engineering world. This article on RedisDB, and in particular this quote, caught my attention—

There’s a longstanding myth in the open-source world that projects are driven by a community of contributors, but in reality, paid developers contribute the bulk of the code in most modern open-source projects, as Puppet founder Luke Kanies explained in our story earlier this year. That money has to come from somewhere.

The point of the article is a lot of companies that support open source projects, like RedisDB, are moving to a more closed source solutions to survive. The cloud providers are called out as a source of a lot of problems in this article, as they consume a lot of open source software, but do not really spend a lot of time or effort in supporting it. Open source, in this situation, becomes a sort of tragedy of the commons, where everyone things someone else is going to do the Continue reading

Research Brief: Successful Hardware Strategies for a Software-dominated World

Successful Hardware Strategies Download a copy of this research brief aimed at providing NEPs and SIs with a practical guide on how to add value to customers with innovative hardware strategies in a software-centric world, and how differentiation can be achieved in the face of commoditization.

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Why is Intel without a CEO after seven months?

Seven months ago, Intel got a blessing not in disguise when its CEO, Brian Krzanich, was forced out amid a sexual impropriety scandal. Since then, there has been near radio silence and not a hint of who could take the captain’s chair of this $50 billion ship.It stands in stark contrast to the CEO search at Microsoft, where one outsider name after another came up in the press, only for the company to go with the internal candidate, Satya Nadella, and no one would dare say that was a bad choice.Initially, the betting money was on Murthy Renduchintala, head of Intel's client group, to lead the company, but that talk has faded. The problem now, according to analysts I spoke with, is the board can’t make up its mind and the best people aren’t in the running.To read this article in full, please click here

Why is Intel without a CEO after seven months?

Seven months ago, Intel got a blessing not in disguise when its CEO, Brian Krzanich, was forced out amid a sexual impropriety scandal. Since then, there has been near radio silence and not a hint of who could take the captain’s chair of this $50 billion ship.It stands in stark contrast to the CEO search at Microsoft, where one outsider name after another came up in the press, only for the company to go with the internal candidate, Satya Nadella, and no one would dare say that was a bad choice.Initially, the betting money was on Murthy Renduchintala, head of Intel's client group, to lead the company, but that talk has faded. The problem now, according to analysts I spoke with, is the board can’t make up its mind and the best people aren’t in the running.To read this article in full, please click here

iPhone 11 Plus Wi-Fi 6 Equals Undefined?

I read a curious story this weekend based on a supposed leak about the next iPhone, currently dubbed the iPhone 111. There’s a report that the next iPhone will have support for the forthcoming 802.11ax standard. The article refers to 802.11ax as Wi-Fi 6, which is a catch branding exercise that absolutely no one in the tech community is going to adhere to.

In case you aren’t familiar with 802.11ax, it’s essentially an upgrade of the existing wireless protocols to support better client performance and management across both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Unlike 802.11ac, which was rebranded to be called Wi-Fi 5 or 802.11n, which curiously wasn’t rebranded as Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ax works in both bands. There’s a lot of great things on the drawing board for 11ax coming soon.

Why did I say soon? Because, as of this writing, 11ax isn’t a ratified standard. According to this FAQ from Aerohive, the standard isn’t set to be voted on for final ratification until Q3 of 2019. And if anyone wants to see the standard pushed along faster it would be Aerohive. They were one of, if not the, first Continue reading

Update on Latin America and Caribbean Workshop for Chapter Leaders

In July 2018, the Internet Society’s Latin America and Caribbean Bureau held another edition of the Workshop for Chapter Leaders. Besides discussing the challenges and opportunities of participation in their respective chapters, the 34 attendees began the implementation of several projects related to our 4 key issues of 2018. Starting 2019, I am glad to share with you the main results of these projects.

Participation showed a strong preference for Internet access issues. As a result, 10 of the 23 projects implemented were focused on Community Networks. Following our vocation in favor of the multistakeholder approach and the participation of the community, 8 of the projects took Internet Governance as a central theme. The remaining 5 projects focused on trust and security by focusing on Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet routing security through MANRS.

The results are inspiring, since they reflect the diversity of the Latin American and Caribbean region. In Community Networks, projects include a broad spectrum of related topics, ranging from the deployment and implementation of networks to the analysis and mapping of regulatory conditions to ensure such deployment. In addition, some of the projects focused on capacity building through webinars.

In terms of Internet Governance, awareness Continue reading

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