NETWORKING

Webex was the reason I decided to join Cisco.   The idea of transforming the workplace and re-imagining what it means to collaborate with others is what initially excited me about the product. As I watched a demo of Webex during a recruiting event at Cisco’s headquarters, I gazed up at the big Webex boards – fitted with all this new technology – and was in awe of how forward-thinking it was. I felt like I…

Microsoft has updated its Azure Stack HCI software, an on-premises version of its Azure cloud services to try and catch up with hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) leaders VMware and Nutanix. Hyperconverged infrastructure is where compute, storage, and networking are all tightly integrated on the same server in a cluster. The tight hardware and software integration makes it easier to deploy than having to configure the parts separately. Azure Stack HCI was launched in 2019 and is…

Hybrid networks, multi-cloud, Internet-of-Things, remote work and digital innovations are all driving more distributed networks and a much more expansive attack surface. The network perimeter that used to be so clearly defined now extends across a spectrum of enterprise facilities, branch offices, homes, other remote locations and multiple clouds.  The reality is that security needs to be on the LAN edge, WAN edge and cloud edge.  All edges must now be secured, but how do…

I’m lucky. I have decent cable internet to my home office. It’s not cable gigabit, which is not the same thing as real fiber gigabit, but at 300Mbps, it’s more than good enough. But, most people aren’t so lucky.  The FCC official broadband definition is a mere 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. Soon to be out of office FCC chairman Ajit Pai would like to have reduced that number to 10 Mbps in…

Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) has brought significant security improvements to Wi-Fi networks, particularly WPA-3Enterprise, which includes tweaks to make authenticating to the network more secure. One of these is has to do with 802.1x authentication that is used to determine whether Wi-Fi clients will be granted access to the enterprise network. The enterprise mode of WPA has always allowed you to give each user a unique username/password to login to the Wi-Fi or to…

The SolarWinds Orion security breach is unfolding at a rapid pace and the number of vendors and victims continues to grow. Each day brings new revelations as to its reach and depth. Of particular concern is the rate of infection and impact on government systems. In case you missed it, a backdoor was found in the SolarWinds Orion IT monitoring and management software. A dynamic link library called SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll, a SolarWinds digitally-signed component of the…

The SolarWinds Orion security breach is unfolding at a rapid pace, and the number of vendors and victims continues to grow. Each day brings new revelations as to its reach and depth. Of particular concern are the rate of infection and impact on government systems. In case you missed it, a backdoor was found in the SolarWinds Orion IT monitoring and management software. A dynamic link library called SolarWinds.Orion.Core.BusinessLayer.dll, a SolarWinds digitally-signed component of the…

The marriage of networking and security into the secure-access service edge stands to improve application performance, reduce infrastructure complexity, and protect sensitive data, and as such SASE is an attractive architecture for enterprises large and small. Due to the newness of SASE offerings, though, providers are still building and refining the features of their services, so available offerings are complex, often incomplete and require integration with customer organizations’ existing network and security architectures. Vendors of…

Hank and the Automation Trolley are here to help with your questions! As 2020 was wrapping up I got a great question in over email from a customer I’d been exchanging ideas on automation with for a bit.  It was just the perfect project and distraction to work on as I got ready to start my holiday break. The gist of the question is: We’ve a need to grab the IP table off our core,…

New tools and goodies under the tree After a long year of furthering the network automation space, the holiday season is getting into full swing and folks are starting to take their much-deserved breaks. The DevNet datacenter networking team is no different. But before I sign off for a few weeks filled with lots of coffee and unneeded desserts, I’d like to talk about what new tools and goodies you can use to occupy your…