#CiscoChampion

May 25, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

Cisco Live – It’s All About Networking

3 min read

We are just a few weeks away from what has become my favorite event of the year: Cisco Live. I’ve been attending Cisco Live consistently for the last several years and this year I will be attending as a NetVet for the first time. What has kept me coming back year after year and, this […]

May 22, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

Upcoming Technology Trends at Cisco Live

4 min read

Cisco Live in San Diego is right around the corner. It’s the place to be to meet with people, learn and to stay current with the technology trends of the industry. What are some of the upcoming technology trends to watch out for at Cisco Live. Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) There is a lot of buzz […]

May 21, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

Where to learn ACI

2 min read

I remember walking through Cisco Live last year in San Francisco and hearing all about ACI and the Cisco DevNet program. To be totally honest, I shrugged it off as just something that was trying to get hyped up and would not have any real impact on what I do. Well…that has changed over the […]

May 19, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

Importance of naming standards in Cisco Unified Communications Manager

5 min read

In network engineering I have learned that the biggest lie I tell myself is that “I do not need to write this down.” That being said, when you are in the heat of troubleshooting a production issue I really try to design my systems so that I can tell what the heck something does by […]

May 11, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

A Tour of Cisco’s Allen Data Center

4 min read

As a consultant I have seen many different ‘Data Centers’, from Co-location facilities, to in house and well thought out, to a dirty closet that no one was using. Douglas Alger gave us a tour of Cisco’s Data Center in Allen, TX about a month ago. I was expecting to be impressed and I was […]

May 7, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

To flow or not to flow?

4 min read

NetApp’s newest storage operating system, clustered Data ONTAP (cDOT), leverages a backend of Cisco Nexus switches for it’s cluster interconnect network. When configuring the switch/cluster ports for use with cDOT, the best practice is to turn flow control off as per TR-4182. In fact, that happens to be the recommendation for normal data ports as well. […]

May 5, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

So You Want to be a Network Engineer. Here’s Where You Should Start!

3 min read

First lets talk about what a Network Engineer is. According to The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. Retrieved April 27, 2015, from Dictionary.com website a Network Engineer is: “A high-level LAN /WAN technician who plans, implements and supports network solutions between multiple platforms. A network engineer installs and maintains local area network hardware and software, […]

April 29, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

SDN – A Cisco Champion’s perspective

2 min read

Software defined networking (SDN for short) is going to be an important technology that will change the way we do networking. But what is SDN today and even more important, what is it going to be? When you start reading about SDN as a network engineer, you ask yourself what your future job will look […]

April 20, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

4+1 Practices for Effective Lifelong IT Learning (Part 2)

6 min read

Happy with how you go about learning, or wish you could learn more, learn more quickly, and even just do it? Today’s post continues what was begun in the previous post, namely a list of good practices to consider to improve how you go about learning throughout your IT career. The previous post set up […]