We’ve returned from our hiatus to discuss Cutovers along with the subpoena of an Amazon Echo, free music vs net neutrality, and false alarm Facebook alerts.

Newsy News

Amazon Echo recordings being subpoenaed in murder case

Free is illegal: Do “Zero-rated” services damage net-neutrality?

Facebook “Safety Check” activated by outdated news articles

Topic: Mentorship

What is a cutover?

When do cutovers typically happen and why do they happen at those times?

How to prepare for a cutover

Contact sheet (list of personnel involved and contact info)

Change plan

List of all equipment/devices being modified

Backdoor access information

Step by step changes followed by verification steps

Notes about each step and its purpose

Break up changes into independent phases to avoid complete rollback

* Documentation and diagrams

* Contingency/rollback plans

Other Links

Trailer for the movie “Passengers”

Trailer for the movie “Star Wars: Rogue One”

Kelly Slater Surfing with a Table

Our first ‘live’ show where we shoot the breeze on the happenings of Cisco Live US 2016 and what the attendees have been up to all week.

In this episode we dive into the pros, cons, do’s, and don’ts of mentorship; after we discuss Microsoft paying for forcing upgrades to Win10, Google’s new internet speed test, and Gartner’s self fulfilling prophecy.

Newsy News

Microsoft loses lawsuit over unwanted Windows 10 upgrade

Google partners with M-Lab to build an internet speed test

Gartner predicts “cloud-first” will become “cloud-only” policies by 2020

Topic: Mentorship

Why is mentorship important for IT engineers?

Who to mentor and who to be mentored by?

How can one benefit from being mentored?

How can one benefit from mentoring somebody else?

Group mentoring, forums, and other non-1:1 types

Tips for a mentor

Tips for a protégé

Other Links

Excellent mentorship blog post by Ethan Banks from PacketPushers

Never10: The Windows 10 upgrade killer written by Steve Gibson of GRC

Guest Juan Cruz joins us to talk about the new features of Windows Server 2016 and why we’re still waiting for it; all after we discuss the LinkedIN buy, Google Fiberless, and Chef’s new “Habitat”.

Newsy News

Microsoft announces acquisition of LinkedIN

Are you ready for Google Fiberless?

Chef announces “Habitat”: A wrapper to automate and mobilize applications?

Topic: Windows Server 2016

Why is the GA release so late?

Federation with non-AD identity management systems

GUI is an install-able feature

What are Storage Replicas?

Faster reboots with “Soft Restart”?

Automate your network with Network Controller?

Hyper-V Features

Nano Server (SWEET!)

Shielded VMs

Hot change memory and NICs on VMs

Storage Resiliency

Other Links

A closer look at Shielded VMs (video)

Plan a Software Defined Network Infrastructure (Network Controller) (Technet article)

Ten reasons you’ll love Windows Server 2016 #10: Nano Server (video)

The team is back to talk about the love/hate relationship with Change Management after we discuss Amazon’s new discovery service, an update on the 2012 LinkenIN hack, and how virtualization is over the hill.

Newsy News

AWS releases the Application Discovery Service to help you map out your apps

The 2012 LinkedIN hack is 15X worse than previously thought

Gartner calls server virtualization “mature” because…well…it’s a nicer word than “dying”

Topic: Change Management

What is change management and what purpose does it serve?

When is it in appropriate to use it and when it is inappropriate?

What effect will DevOps have on its use? Doesn’t change management fly in the face of continuous delivery?

Other Links

6 open-source change management database systems

The trio is back to talk about troubleshooting, how much fun it can be, and how to approach it, but first they share their widely respected opinions *scoff* about the ‘Race for the Container Space’, using DNA as your tier-4 storage media, and the promise of autonomous taxis.

Newsy News

Microsoft, Cisco, HPE love Mesosphere while VMWare and Pivotal are promising that a container platform is in the works

Microsoft making progress in the field of DNA-based data storage

GM and Lyft promise us self-driving taxis by the end of this year

Topic: Troubleshooting

What is troubleshooting?

Methodologies of troubleshooting

Choosing between the ‘fix’ and the ‘forensics’

Root Cause Analyses and their difficulties after the fact

Other Links

If you have been in a service desk role, you need to watch The Website is Down

@dpocoroba’s troubleshooting article on PacketPushers

 

John, Derek, Mike, and Steven are back to finish up the topic of Small shop design, but only after they review the weekly news: Goodbye Yahoo ;(, hello Openstack alternate to vBlock, and Google apparently fails at config automation.

Newsy News

Wanna buy Yahoo? Better get your bid in soon.

Google Compute Engine takes a sh*t when their config management software retracts all BGP routes from the internet

Red Hat and Quanta’s QCT partner to produce a whitebox and Openstack version of the converged infrastructure vBlock

Topic: Small Shop Design Part 2

Compute (Hyper-V? VMWare? Maybe KVM?)

Storage (FreeNAS and OpenFiler can be good options)

Collaboration (IM, Email, VOIP…)

Security (Just go find PacketPushers show 260 with Jay Swan)

In this episode, we bring in guest Steven Sedory to talk with us about network design elements and what options work best in small business scenarios.

Newsy News

Windows 10 to include user-mode Ubuntu code with NT kernel. Native bash in Windows.

Uber and DoD offer “bug bounties” to hackers who can find vulnerabilities

Oracle introduces “Cloud at Customer”. New trend for public cloud options?

Topic: Small Shop Design Part 1

Internet (Small or big pipe? Bigger if cloud is used a lot)

Core networking (Stack, Chassis, 10G?)

Wireless (latest and greatest? Or just good enough?)

Identity Management (Just use Active Directory. Save the headache)

Join us again as we talk about everybody’s new fascination with programming and why we need to learn it!

Join John, Derek, and Mike as we dive into the latest tech news and the world of infrastructure redundancy!