Being an Effective Interviewer

One challenging aspect of being an engineer is interviewing other engineers. The interview process is rife with various problems, including the discomfort of interviewing someone who you perceive as being a better engineer than you are, or figuring out how to draw out actual engineering skill versus simply finding out how much someone has memorized. Does that CCIE or degree on their resume really mean anything? What does an effective network engineering interview look like?

There are, of course, several different theories “out there.” For instance, some companies focus on giving candidates “real world” problems to solve, and checking with them several days later to see how they’ve done. This is potentially useful, but quite often I find my best work is done with a team, rather than by myself. Such systems seem to tend towards pitting the candidate against well known or well established problem sets, which can easily revert back to memorization skills, or towards difficult/obtuse problems. Either way, this doesn’t test the candidate’s ability to work in a team, or interact with others in solving difficult problems.

What about tossing other sorts of puzzles towards the candidate to see how they do? This also seems problematic Continue reading

Unwrapping Tangled Device Configurations – A10 Networks Edition

If you’ve ever tried to interpret an A10 Networks load balancer configuration, or some Cisco Modular QoS CLI commands, you’ll know that doing so involves following references to other parts of the configuration, inevitably ones that appear earlier in the configuration than where you are now, using a display pager which doesn’t support a back command to scroll up a page at a time. In short, it’s a huge pain. The same applies to Cisco ACE and CSM load balancer configurations. The modularity is beautiful and logical, but it’s a massive irritation to reverse engineer.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti Configurations

I work regularly with A10 Networks load balancers. ACOS (the A10 OS) has a CLI and configuration format that’s very similar to Cisco IOS. Looking at a particular vPort (A10 terminology for a particular Virtual IP (VIP) and Port combination) and trying to figure out which real servers are related to it is irritating to say the least. Here’s an example of the configuration in the order it appears when you view it:

ip nat pool pool1 10.100.1.1 10.100.1.126 netmask /25
!
health monitor checkstatus
   method http url /status expect code 200
!
slb server server1 1.2.3.4
   port  Continue reading

IEEE sets new Ethernet standard that brings 5X the speed without disruptive cable changes

As expected the IEEE has ratified a new Ethernet specification -- IEEE P802.3bz – that defines 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T, boosting the current top speed of traditional Ethernet five-times without requiring the tearing out of current cabling.The Ethernet Alliance wrote that the IEEE 802.3bz Standard for Ethernet Amendment sets Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 2.5G and 5Gbps Operation lets access layer bandwidth evolve incrementally beyond 1Gbps, it will help address emerging needs in a variety of settings and applications, including enterprise, wireless networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IEEE sets new Ethernet standard that brings 5X the speed without disruptive cable changes

As expected the IEEE has ratified a new Ethernet specification -- IEEE P802.3bz – that defines 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T, boosting the current top speed of traditional Ethernet five-times without requiring the tearing out of current cabling.The Ethernet Alliance wrote that the IEEE 802.3bz Standard for Ethernet Amendment sets Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 2.5G and 5Gbps Operation lets access layer bandwidth evolve incrementally beyond 1Gbps, it will help address emerging needs in a variety of settings and applications, including enterprise, wireless networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: MarkLogic: Can NoSQL databases support today’s enterprise?

Although I had a few problems with the original PR messages that invited me to meet with MarkLogic, the conversation with Gary Bloom, the company's CEO and president, was well worth the time.Summary of our conversation The following bullets are a quick summary to a complex and engaging conversation: The industry is experiencing several fundimental shifts in both the sources of data and how it is being used. The data is now coming from many types of end user focused devices, applications that combine the efforts of many systems that are housed all over the planet, neither enterprises nor end users will tolerate slow response times or failures, and older approaches that are based upon monolithic application and database design simply can't keep up. While it is true that things have changed in fundimental ways, older applications, systems and designs are not going away. They continue to support enterprise critical applications, but need help dealing with the tsunomi of data coming from everywhere. The state of the art in database architecture has shifted from a "shared nothing" design center to a "shared everything" center that can take advantage of local, virtual and cloud processing and data. Database design Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: MarkLogic: Can NoSQL databases support today’s enterprise?

Although I had a few problems with the original PR messages that invited me to meet with MarkLogic, the conversation with Gary Bloom, the company's CEO and president, was well worth the time.Summary of our conversation The following bullets are a quick summary to a complex and engaging conversation: The industry is experiencing several fundimental shifts in both the sources of data and how it is being used. The data is now coming from many types of end user focused devices, applications that combine the efforts of many systems that are housed all over the planet, neither enterprises nor end users will tolerate slow response times or failures, and older approaches that are based upon monolithic application and database design simply can't keep up. While it is true that things have changed in fundimental ways, older applications, systems and designs are not going away. They continue to support enterprise critical applications, but need help dealing with the tsunomi of data coming from everywhere. The state of the art in database architecture has shifted from a "shared nothing" design center to a "shared everything" center that can take advantage of local, virtual and cloud processing and data. Database design Continue reading

Microsoft pursues .Net development unity with .Net Standard

Microsoft is looking to provide "one library to rule them all." With .Net Standard, developers only have to master a single base library to reach multiple .Net platforms.The company on Monday shed further light on its plans for .Net Standard, which is intended to enable code-sharing between applications. .Net Standard features a set of APIs for .Net platforms to implement. It is intended as a replacement for Microsoft's Portable Class Libraries going forward, and will serve as tooling for building multi-platform .Net libraries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 reasons CEOs should be involved in hiring decisions

Hiring is as much an art as a science. Bring the wrong talent on board, and it'll tank morale and impede performance; hire the right people, and growth will accelerate.However, finding just the right mix of skills, knowledge, experience and personality can feel like a herculean task, says Aytekin Tank, founder and CEO of online form builder JotForm, but for him, it's the most important part of his job.Tank says he involves himself in every hiring decision at JotForm. Google's CEO and cofounder Larry Page famously approves or rejects every one of the company's hires, too. Should your organization follow suit? Here are five reasons why your CEO should be involved in hiring decisions and two reasons they shouldn't.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What small business look for when considering SaaS

More and more, small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are turning to cloud-based software to help run their business. Yet many are hesitant to make the move, worrying about safety and cost. So what can Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers do to woo SMBs and allay their concerns? Here are eight suggestions on how to make your cloud offering attractive to a smaller business.1. Make sure your software is easy to use – and easy to understand. “Business owners and their employees expect [cloud-based] business apps and services to be as easy to use as their personal consumer apps,” says Ken Oestreich, director, product marketing, Cloud Services, Citrix. “Cloud services and apps need to be intuitive, so people can begin using them without training. The easier your apps and services are to use, the more people will use them, and since service revenues are based on usage, you want customers to use those services frequently and for extended periods of time.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google rolls out more low-bandwidth versions of its products

Google is rolling versions of popular products like YouTube and Chrome that are specially designed for people who do not have access to high-bandwidth internet. The products are first being introduced in India but are expected to be available in other parts of the world where low-bandwidth connections are prevalent.The company also introduced on Tuesday a set of tools, called Google Station, which aim to help partners set up public Wi-Fi hotspots. Google joined last year with Indian Railways and RailTel, a provider of telecom infrastructure, to offer Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations in India.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Realm broadens its mobile database offering with Object Server

Realm provides a database tailored for mobile applications. The most popular third-party database globally, Realm powers apps in use by over a billion users. Realm has focused on the mobile side of things and offers caching and synchronization services that are critical for the mobile use case.The company is broadening its offering today with the announcement of the Realm Mobile Platform, an amalgam of the existing database and a new product, Realm Object Server.Object Server deals with delivering live data synchronization between users. In practice, it uses live objects across both database and server, which update automatically in response to changes on either side. These objects are then integrated between the two ends of the chain, with data encrypted throughout the process. The use cases for this two-way synchronicity are obvious: Messaging and chat, live collaboration, two-way data syncing and offline functionality are all enabled by this.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Sage delivers a payments API. Because APIs are the key to unlocking the future

Until very recently, the accounting software industry was evenly split among the "big three" vendors: Sage broadly owned the U.K. market, Intuit the American, and MYOB the Australasian. Bit players rounded out the other countries not covered by these big three.But in the past few years, several innovative new companies have been founded with the stated aim of disrupting these big vendors. Most notable among them is Xero, but similarly FreshBooks, Kashflow, FreeAgent and others had a crack at the problem space.+ Also on Network World: 10 free tools for API design, development and testing +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ransomware roundup: Targeting servers and government, honoring Donald Trump and Voldemort

Security researchers have discovered more ransomware under development, namely one paying homage to Voldemort and another featuring Donald Trump, as well as one variant currently targeting servers and yet a different ransomware hitting government agencies and education institutions.Let’s start with the ransomware that has moved past development into actively locking up computers.DXXD ransomware targeting serversOn Bleeping Computer forums, there were reports of servers being hit with DXXD ransomware. After a file has been encrypted, “dxxd” is added to the end of a filename such as myimportantfile.jpgdxxd.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ransomware roundup: Targeting servers and government, honoring Donald Trump and Voldemort

Security researchers have discovered more ransomware under development, namely one paying homage to Voldemort and another featuring Donald Trump, as well as one variant currently targeting servers and yet a different ransomware hitting government agencies and education institutions.Let’s start with the ransomware that has moved past development into actively locking up computers.DXXD ransomware targeting serversOn Bleeping Computer forums, there were reports of servers being hit with DXXD ransomware. After a file has been encrypted, “dxxd” is added to the end of a filename such as myimportantfile.jpgdxxd.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ransomware roundup: Targeting servers, government, honoring Donald Trump and Voldemort

Security researchers have discovered more ransomware under development, namely one paying homage to Voldemort and another featuring Donald Trump, as well as one variant currently targeting servers and yet a different ransomware hitting government agencies and education institutions. Let’s start with the ransomware that has moved past development into actively locking up computers.DXXD ransomware targeting serversOn Bleeping Computer forums, there were reports of servers being hit with DXXD ransomware; after a file has been encrypted, “dxxd” is added to the end of a filename such as myimportantfile.jpgdxxd.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sponsored Post: ScaleArc, Spotify, Aerospike, Scalyr, Gusto, VividCortex, MemSQL, InMemory.Net, Zohocorp

Who's Hiring?

  • Spotify is looking for individuals passionate in infrastructure to join our Site Reliability Engineering organization. Spotify SREs design, code, and operate tools and systems to reduce the amount of time and effort necessary for our engineers to scale the world’s best music streaming product to 40 million users. We are strong believers in engineering teams taking operational responsibility for their products and work hard to support them in this. We work closely with engineers to advocate sensible, scalable, systems design and share responsibility with them in diagnosing, resolving, and preventing production issues. We are looking for an SRE Engineering Manager in NYC and SREs in Boston and NYC.

  • IT Security Engineering. At Gusto we are on a mission to create a world where work empowers a better life. As Gusto's IT Security Engineer you'll shape the future of IT security and compliance. We're looking for a strong IT technical lead to manage security audits and write and implement controls. You'll also focus on our employee, network, and endpoint posture. As Gusto's first IT Security Engineer, you will be able to build the security organization with direct impact to protecting PII and ePHI. Read more and apply here.

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