Wilson's VersaBlog

Learning to Interoperate

wilsonsrouter — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:50:32 +0000

A while back when I started writing this blog, I said I would be including some information about network interoperability. The first idea I hit on that I thought would be of interest to the majority of of folks was interoperability between Cisco and HP Procurve gear. With HP’s acquisition of 3Com (most especially the H3C and Tipping Point portions of 3Com) nearly complete, this probably will become even more important.

Lucky for you, I’m not the only one here who thinks it is a pretty interesting topic. We thought enough of it that we’ve just recently partnered with Class on Demand and produced a Cisco/ProCurve interoperability course that you can take from the comfort of your own desk!

The class is taught by John Lancaster, a colleague of mine for more than 5 years now whom I can say with no reservations is an expert in this particular subject matter.

I admit that I might be a bit less than totally objective… Frankly I think we have some the best teachers in the industry around here, but if you’d like a bit more of an unbiased opinion you can check out HP Procurve and Cisco networks getting along? on http://www.thevarguy.com. For information on the class and some sample video clips, you can hit up http://www.classondemand.com/IT/procurve_preview.

Cheers!

Wilson

Back from a long hiatus and the next best thing…

wilsonsrouter — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:09:17 +0000

So, through the combined machinations of work, the holidays and any number of other unforeseen circumstances it’s been a pretty long time since I’ve posted anything up here. Predictably, while I’ve been away from the blog, changes and interesting developments in the industry have continued at their normal breakneck pace.

It’s interesting to me that every couple of years, a new “killer app” comes along that everyone thinks is going to be the absolute “must have”. A couple of years ago, it was Network Access Control (NAC). All of a sudden, everyone and their brother had a NAC box or “solution” and there were small companies lead by some very sharp folks appearing out of the woodwork to show everyone how it was done. I freely admit that I was completely taken in by the promise of the network security panacea it was purported to be.

The problem is (as it is with pretty much everything) that NAC is one heck of a lot easier to talk about and sketch on a whiteboard than it is to actually implement in the real world. Add to that the constant struggle between network security and ease of use and it’s not all that surprising that the grand vision that NAC would sweep the world and solve everyone’s network security issues in one fell swoop never really materialized.

This is not to say that some people aren’t chugging along happily along doing one level or another of client integrity checking and access control, just that it is now a niche market and the idea that anyone who was serious about security would be doing it has never come to pass.

These days, it seems that the new “next best thing” is the idea of ”datacenter convergence”. I’m guessing that most of you have at least heard this term, but just in case, datacenter convergence is the name given to the effort to make everything in the datacenter (servers, storage and networking principally) communicate over one common fabric. Now, you might assume by my tone in the rest of the post that I’m going to react to this newest “best thing” with a healthy amount of skepticism and you’d be at least partially correct.

The difference here is that DC convergence seems like a technology that offers some real upside for those who go through the pain of implementing it. NAC always struck me a sort of a one (maybe two) trick pony. You force users to authenticate to gain access to the network (which is great) and you do some admittedly minimal checking of the machine for required/prohibited software and vulnerabilities (which sounds awesome but in the end can be more trouble than it is worth). In most cases what you ended up with was a slightly more secure network and whole bunch of annoyed end-users. On the other hand, being able to dynamically pull the exact VM I need along with the requisite disk/processor/storage resources from the pool of physical machines that I’m already using? Sign me up! The implications of this in terms of portability, power savings, and 24/7 availability are really very exciting. The trick is actually doing it, and perhaps more importantly, picking the vendors and partners to help you make it from the wishful thinking stage to a real implementation. Over the next few posts (which will not take 3 months to write, I promise) I’ll go through the myriad of challenges you will face and what the leading vendors are doing to convince you that their solution is the best one for you…

Alright Wilson…Get to the point, will ya?

versablog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:48:21 +0000

If you’ve stuck with me this far, you’re probably wondering where I am going with all of this. Well, I for one am a big believer in inertia…aka the bigger it is the harder it is to stop.

The day is probably not that far away where you as a network admin or implementer will go to work and find that at least some of the pallets of Cisco switches you were expecting for your new site or your site update have magically morphed into pallets of ProCurve switches or conversely the HP blade chassis you were expecting has suddenly become a Cisco Unified Computing System (Wow that’s a mouthful…I swear computer companies enjoy forcing us to use acronyms). In either case, you and all of your comfort and years of experience in configuring said computing/networking gear are stuck with the semi-unenviable task of trying to make it all co-exist somewhat peacefully.

in·ter·op·er·a·ble

Show Spelled Pronunciation [in-ter-op-er-uh-buh l, -op-ruh-buh l] Show IPA Use interoperability in a Sentence –adjective capable of being used or operated reciprocally: interoperable weapons systems.

In my opinion, the word interoperability gets thrown around WAY too much, however in this case the word fits the description. What you, and I, and every other network admin in the world wants is to design, install, support a network that meets the business requirements the money folks who sit in the offices with nice views give us, and to do it with the least amount of pain and suffering to our organization. Over the next couple of posts I’m going to attempt to take a few different core networking technologies and share our knowledge on how they are implemented using a combination of Cisco and ProCurve gear, and how you can get them all to talk the same language, or at least stay out of each other’s way.

My goal is help you all out as you begin facing requirements of blending HP ProCurve and Cisco networking gear in your environment. As we go along over the next several posts, please let me know if you have questions, want more detail, etc.

Wilson

Cisco and HP, where do they go from here

versablog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:46:49 +0000

Welcome back!

With introductions out of the way; let’s get on to the fun stuff, shall we?

File this one under “a new view into interoperability – the beginning of an HP & Cisco hybrid networking world.”

Back in December of 2009, Cisco Systems announced that it was expanding its data center business and getting into the server market with its own line of blade servers. As you might imagine, this came as quite a nasty shock to Hewlett Packard who had a pretty cozy relationship with Cisco in the enterprise data center space. Prior to that, a little known fact is that HP was Cisco’s single largest reseller of networking gear (HP was selling the stuff to their enterprise accounts).

The impact of Cisco’s entry into the server market is yet to be fully realized, however HP’s CEO Mark Hurd has already made a couple of organizational changes to become a stronger player in the networking space. The first change was to move ProCurve from it’s own division (at $1 Billion) to become a part of their much larger Technology Solutions Group (TSG) ($37.7 Billion FY07). The second change was to begin using their own networking products within their own data centers – basically the beginning of eating their own dog food, if you will. Recently, HP completed a data center consolidation project that replaced a Cisco designed network with a hybrid solution. Today, HP’s network core is still Cisco, but all of the edge ports in the data center are now ProCurve. Now, that was a significant move for HP!

On that subject, and if I may be permitted to smile with honor for a moment…we here at Versatile provided the ProCurve-Cisco interoperability training to HP’s own IT staff in all of their datacenters world-wide when they made the switch from a Cisco to ProCurve edge last year. It may not be as big a deal to some, however being chosen by HP to train their employees on their product to implement home grown switching products was a definite point of pride around here.

Back again soon.

Wilson

So… What the heck is Wilson’s VersaBlog anyway?

versablog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:45:30 +0000

Hello and welcome to the VersaBlog! With the collection of computing and networking talent we have around here, I’m not afraid to say that I was a bit intimidated to write the very first entry here. That said, my goal is to give you some valuable information that will help make your job and your life as a network implementer or admin a little bit easier.

To a great extent that is really the purpose and tone of this blog. Simply the musings of (for now, one) networking professional on the state of the industry, the new stuff coming down the pipe, like 802.11n and PoE+ and the older stuff that should still grab your attention.

Along the way, I’ll try to have a good mix of different types of information here; everything from product reviews if I can get my grubby little hands on some new stuff, to technology and implementation guides that will help you make everything interoperate, to updates on what I and the rest of guys here at Versatile Communications are doing on a day to day basis.

At Versatile Communications, we are and will take great pains to remain, vendor agnostic. At our best, we are the networking version of Switzerland. We’re here to give the information, help you successfully implement the best solution for your infrastructure and hopefully entertain you a bit in the process.

Cheers!

Wilson