Cisco’s Very Big Conservation of Complexity Problem
Of all the tools in its ginormous account-control arsenal, Cisco holds solution “complexity” near and dear to its heart. Since its earliest days, Cisco has weaponized product complexity and applied it to pretty much everything from product design, to sales, and even to service and support. Examples…
Days of Cisco Past (1989) – a New Hope
Having clearly reached that “Get Off My Lawn!” stage of a 30+ year career in networking, over the next couple of months I’ve decided to share some unfiltered “insider” observations about how Cisco turned from its late 80’s IBM-killer roots, with its well-earned reputation as the liberator of…
Dating “Dos” and “Don’ts” from the IT Automation Survey
In my last post, I introduced Pica8’s new IT Automation survey. I discussed how the survey shows that digital transformation is driving IT’s focus on automation, especially how they manage automating remote sites. They are clear about their desired goals, and IT automation efforts are well…
Enterprise Automation 2020 Survey – Part 1
It’s clear that IT automation is happening at enterprises around the world. But there are lots of areas within IT. Which are organizations automating first, which are last, and what’s next on IT’s automation playbook? To find out, Pica8 commissioned ReRez Research of Dallas, Texas to survey 200…
Why We’ll Colonize Mars Before Cisco Understands Software
Over thirty years ago – ouch — I joined Cisco as its very first marketing hire, tasked with giving them a more professional image than “Stanford grad students run amok” in preparation for their IPO. But during my six-year posting, I also got to witness Cisco’s first attempt to build an actual…
Viable Open Networking Automation Solution Comes to the SLED Market
Automation is increasingly required to keep up with growing access network requirements, which are forcing organizations to add new switches and/or replace older switches with higher-capacity models at an accelerated rate. With precious few experienced network engineers and technicians in-house,…
A New Solution for SLED: Open, Automated White Box Networks
Operators of state and local government networks; K-12 networks; and higher education networks have long had to lean heavily on automation tools to deploy, configure, and manage their campus and access switching infrastructure due to the combination of multiple remote sites paired with lean IT…
Counting Up the Benefits that Leaf-Spine Architecture Brings to Enterprise Networks
If your network, like most, is growing in size and complexity, perhaps it’s time to consider whether the traditional three-tier network architecture has run its course. It’s becoming apparent that a flatter, two-tier leaf spine network topology can bring dramatic changes in the way we manage…
White Box Open Networking: A Cure for Your Regulatory Compliance Ills
Just about every major US regulatory requirement says companies must use software that’s fully supported by the vendor that sells it. Simply put, if you’re using software that is beyond its end of life, you’re not only posing a security risk to your company – you’re also out of regulatory…