The upcoming World IPv6 launch is stimulating a lot of conversation around IPv6 deployment and common deployment scenarios. People regularly ask “where’s my NAT,” which is something we have tried to address in architectural discussions in RFC 2993, RFC 4864, and RFC 6269. Margaret Wasserman and I have worried specifically about the implications of the multiplication of provider-independent addresses at the edge and the issues of multihoming, and described a model for IPv6 network prefix translation that we think addresses most of the issues and yet facilitates scalable multihoming without provider-independent addressing and the bloating of the route table it implies. Per-residential-customer multihoming is currently in use for NTT BFLETS in Japan.
My colleague Andrew Yourtchenko, whom many of you may know from IPv6 events, has a very different opinion about network address translation. If anything, he would like to get rid of it. Andrew has contributed to some 14 RFCs on the topic of transition and has much of value to say.
While I agree with Andrew on a number of issues, I don’t agree about the model in which one deploys a prefix allocated by each of one’s upstreams providers on each of the LANs in a network. I think that while we have reduced costs for ISPs in the smaller route table, we have significantly expanded the complexity faced by the edge network without giving them a benefit that they readily recognize. I agree with the end-to-end model and the ability to deploy new applications anywhere in the network, but I think that stateless prefix translation can meet those issues and help in managing the size of the route table. Andrew and I recently weighed the pros and cons of our different opinions and included our thoughts in this blog. What is your opinion on this topic? Read More »
In my previous post, I discussed 4 common Cisco IOS Software feature licenses for Cisco Catalyst 2K and 3K switches. I specifically concentrated on LAN Lite and LAN Base licenses for layer 2 networks. Today I’ll take a closer look at layer 3, IP Base and IP Services licenses. I’ll point out again that this post is not intended to represent or replace any Cisco documentation. Product information can change very quickly and use of this post is solely at the readers’ own risk.
For those of you who have used Cisco switches for a long time, do you remember the Cisco Catalyst 5500 switches with a Route Switch Module (RSM)? That was how layer 2 and layer 3 were put together within a single chassis – in a kludgy way. Those days are long gone. The Cisco Catalyst switches today feature powerful and integrated layer 3 capabilities. Layer 3 switching and routing are so close that they spark lots of fun discussions. Here, I’ll concentrate on the layer 3 switching capabilities of the Cisco Catalyst 3560-X and Catalyst 3750-X switches. Read More »
Cisco UPOE is a hit, ramping up to more than 1 million ports annualized run rate since its introduction last year. Read what IT World Canada and CRN have to say about the opportunities afforded by Cisco UPOE.
Beyond powering a wide range of devices with 60W PoE power, Cisco UPOE really shines when it is combined with Cisco EnergyWise. EnergyWise allows you to monitor and control the power consumption of devices connected to the switches. The combined EnergyWise and UPOE demo at Interop showed how you can use the network to turn devices on and off remotely to save power when the devices are not being used. In the following video, Rich Zavala, Technical Marketing Engineer, explains to Jimmy Ray from TechWise TV how he is powering a multitude of devices over Ethernet including LED lights and personal telepresence units, and how Cisco EnergyWise automates energy management for IT and non-IT equipment connected to the switches.
As we approach the much talked about World IPv6 Launchon June 6th, 2012 it is important to help as many as possible do what is needed to prepare their own Internet Edge to not only participate in the launch but also to ensure business continuity regardless of which IP version is used. Start now so you don’t have to rush your deployment at the end.
There are important first steps to take before you ever type the first command or click the first check box on a product. Important stuff like a gap analysis on what you can and cannot support as well as what your provider supports IPv6-wise, what your address plan will look like and other considerations. Luckily Cisco has either written a document or a blog on many of these topics. Recent blogs include:
Given that we are just shy of a month away from World IPv6 Launch, I wanted to blog on the top considerations for enabling IPv6 support on one of the most important components of any Internet Edge design, the Application Delivery Controller (ADC) or more commonly known as a Server Load Balancer (SLB).
Cisco WAAS Wins Best of Interop: Performance Optimization
I’m thrilled to announce Cisco AppNav for Cisco WAAS won the Best of Interop: Performance Optimization award. Cisco AppNav is a virtualization technology that enables customers to deliver high performance applications at scale from the cloud or enterprise data center. IT can use AppNav to address performance challenges created by bring-your-own-device (BYOD), Cloud, and Virtual Desktops. In the next several weeks, we’ll be announcing more details of this and a host of other Cloud Connectors. you can register for the big reveal here
This win is exciting as validation of our continuing commitment to innovation in WAN optimization. This caps off what has been an exciting year for Cisco WAAS and hints at some of the innovative technologies we’re launching in June. Read More »
The 2012 Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey, which includes participants from more than 1,300 IT decision makers in 13 countries, was commissioned to measure the adoption of cloud services by IT professionals globally, while examining potential challenges to their cloud migrations. Below, we take a deeper look at some of the positive, negative, and strange aspects to come out of the survey.
On the positive side, 73% of respondents felt they have enough information to begin their private or public cloud deployments. This leaves 27% who claim to feel more knowledgeable about how to play Angry Birds than the steps needed to migrate their company to the cloud. While Angry Birds is a fun game to play, this wan’t the strangest result from this research. Read More »
If you’re headed to CitrixSynergy this week, what do you hope to learn? You already know the big themes in technology these days – bring-your-own-device (BYOD), desktop virtualization, and cloud. What Cisco brings to Synergy are some great talks and demos that will help IT folks turn their VirtuBYODCloud initiatives into investments that will help them deliver flexible, efficient, and secure services to their users. You can also look at CitrixSynergy’s Tips For First-Timers which seems pretty good.
Cisco and Citrix have what some would call a special relationship. At Cisco’s booth [#202 in Moscone West] we’ll have quite a few great lightening talks showcasing how Cisco and Citrix technologies work together – from Optimizing Citrix HDX with Cisco WAAS to Secure Mobility for BYOD without Compromise. Here is the full theater talk schedule:
When I was younger and faced with a large problem, I tended to shy away from the problem and take other paths to avoid the issue in the hope that the issue either got smaller or ideally went away. I’m finding that as an adult, you cannot always do that. Some issues just will not go away no matter how hard you try to avoid them or how creative your excuses get for why they are not important right now.
Integrating IPv6 into your network is one of those issues. It is a large problem that impacts all areas of what goes on in the IT shop – network, security, applications, content, operating systems, etc. The key to making an integration successful is to make sure that representatives from all IT organizations participate and contribute to the project and to approach the problem by breaking it into manageable chunks.
Interop Las Vegas is next week. Over 100 sessions will take place, covering a wide range of IT challenges led by cloud, mobility and security. Padmasree Warrior, CTO, SVP Engineering & GM Enterprise Business of Cisco, will deliver the first conference keynote speech titled “Cisco Innovation: In It to Win It” on Tuesday May 8. What else can you expect from Cisco, specifically from Cisco switching?
Before I get to that, I’ll share with you a recent conversation that I had with a Cisco customer.
Steven Song: We are collecting customer feedback on Cisco switching.
Cisco customer: Sure.
Steven Song: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, how do you rank Cisco switching?
Cisco customer: 6.
Steven Song: Can you please explain?
Cisco customer: Cisco switches are extremely stable. I put them in and they just run and run. They perform way beyond my expectations. I can do a lot of things with them, like segmenting the networks for different user groups and controlling which business applications get higher priorities.
This weekend my little sis and I re-watched Best in Show. This 2000 gem from Christopher Guest is a gentle mocumentary of the personalities you’d find at a dog show. We got some laughs as we watched the dialog between the commentators – one who was supposed to be quite knowledgeable on dogs, and one who was clueless and said things like:
Now tell me, which one of these dogs would you want to have as your wide receiver on your football team?
I especially liked the above because it is pretty random and the response from the other commentator was great. I thought about it this morning since the NFL draft is tonight (go Niners!) and was thinking about Best In Show overall since we have our own competition coming up in a few weeks.
These days you hear a lot about convergence. Networking, compute, and storage technologies are converging in the data center. Wired and wireless networks are converging in campus networks. These converging technologies are being driven by a desire to make IT infrastructure more flexible and responsive to changing business and employee needs, and to use IT as a competitive advantage to deliver products and services faster to the marketplace.
These days, it’s nearly impossible to separate our work and personal lives. Network administrators likely feel this more than anyone as they try to help everyone in their organization use and onboard new smartphones and tablets. I experienced it this weekend while spending time with my cousin who came for a last minute visit from out of town. When he arrived we began to chat about the start-up he had been working for and discussed all of the potential challenges and risks that his former employer faced on the company network. I mentioned that Cisco had just run a Technical Deep Dive on Cisco’s Mobility Innovations for scalable and secure productivity.
After I mentioned the Cisco 3600 Series CleanAir Access Point and its ability to find and mitigate interference and to increase performance, his ears seemed to perk up a bit. “But,” he said “the challenge isn’t only high quality connectivity, it’s making sure that the network stays secure and that each user, whether they are connecting via wired or wireless devices, is granted the access they need to perform their job. No more, no less, and there should be no hassles for me.” Read More »
The 2012 North American IPv6 Summit was held in Denver, Colorado on April 9-12, 2012. As usual, it was an excellent conference with the largest attendance of any IPv6 event in North America this year. There were many excellent speakers who gave timely talks on the state of IPv6 deployment, gaps in the overall education within the end-user base as well as advances and limitations in vendor support.
I gave a keynote talk on “Enterprise Internet Edge Design for IPv6″ and afterwards I was approached by several enterprise customers who stated that they had great success using the Cisco Validated Design (CVD) options defined in our Deploying IPv6 in the Internet Edge CVD. This is great to hear but our work is not done yet. We still need to help customers understand the significance of deploying IPv6 in not just the network but throughout the enterprise. This is most evident in the lack of documentation by commercial off the shelf (COTS) application vendors who need to do a better job of helping customers understand the support for IPv6.
Layer 2 and layer 3 switching makes a fun topic for a lot of IT professionals. I often see interesting discussions about this subject. A more practical question from many of you, however, is how to choose a Cisco IOS Software feature license to meet your specific needs. Here I will take a look at 4 common Cisco IOS Software feature licenses for Cisco Catalyst 2K and 3K switches. A quick disclaimer before I go any further: This post is for information-sharing purposes only. It does not represent or replace any Cisco documentation. Product information can change very quickly and usage of this post is solely at readers’ own risk.
The four common Cisco IOS Software feature licenses for switching are:
LAN Lite: Enterprise EntryLevel Layer 2 Switching
LAN Base: Enterprise Access Layer 2 Switching
IP Base: Enterprise Access Layer 3 Switching
IP Services: Advanced Layer 3 Switching
International IT services provider Sycor was redesigning the networks for one customer who had 4500 employees spread across 80 branches in addition to a headquarters and many telecommuting and mobile workers. One issue they were addressing was that this customer was having problems with one of their web-based applications. This specific app was used by just one person at each branch, but was important to the customer’s business. So Sycor engineers tuned both the app’s website as well as the central database with which it communicated.
The solution they were considering was a dedicated data terminal at each branch to work separately but in parallel with the existing network deployments. And then the customer started having problems with more applications at more branches. Something had to be done.
