The Fat Pipe - All Packet Pushers Pods

Today's Heavy Networking is a conversation with Tom Hollingsworth that ranges over a variety of provocative statements about the networking and technology industries, including "certifications are dead," "enterprise networking is dying," "BGP as a kitchen sink protocol is a bad idea," and more. Tom responds and discussions ensue.

On Heavy Networking, Tom Hollingsworth joins us from GestaltIT. Don’t know Tom?

I’ll describe Tom as a long-time network engineer and CCIE turned Scruffy-Looking Nerd Herder who manages many of the community IT events you know as Tech Field Day.

I’ve known Tom for many years, and had this opportunity to get his take on many things I’ve noticed going on in networking.

This episode, we’re going rapid fire reaction. I’ll pitch a statement (which I might or might not agree with) to Tom, and let him react.

Buckle up, everyone. We’re going for a ride.

Provocative statements include:

* Certifications are dead

* Enterprise networking is dying

* If you want an IT career today, it’s cloud or nothing

* BGP is the kitchen sink of routing protocols and that’s bad

* More

Sponsor: ExtraHop

ExtraHop is the enterprise cyber analytics company delivering performance and security from the inside out. ExtraHop offers complete visibility with machine learning to help you make quick, confident decisions about your IT environment. Explore the ExtraHop Performance Platform at extrahop.com/packetpushers.

Show Links:

Tom Hollingsworth on Twitter

Networking Nerd.net – Tom’s blog

Tech Field Day

LinkedIn has been working with IPv6 for years. On today's IPv6 Buzz episode, LinkedIn engineer Franck Martin discusses the technical and cultural challenges of adoption, explores why the company engaged with IPv6, and shares lessons to help others with their own deployments.

What exactly are Day Two operations for Azure Stack? Does your company have the skill sets to properly manage and support your newly deployed hybrid cloud infrastructure?

While Azure Stack is positioned as an integrated system, there’s a lot of planning and work required to be successful after the OEM turns the keys over to you.

Hence, the Azure Stack Operator, a role designed to help you maintain and support your newly deployed Azure Stack.

On today’s show we discuss what an Azure Stack Operator does, what’s expected from the role, and how to go from initial deployment to ongoing operations. My guest is Kristopher Turner, a platform architect with NTT Data Services.

We discuss:

* Azure Stack use cases

* Application migration and application modernization

* Comparing Azure Stack’s cost vs. DIY

* The Azure Stack Operator role

* Capacity planning and design considerations

* Patching and updating

* Support and incident management

* More

Show Links:

Azure Stack – Microsoft

Azure Stack Blog – Microsoft

Kristopherjturner.com

Kristopher Turner on Twitter

Ned Bellavance on Twitter

What exactly are Day Two operations for Azure Stack? Does your company have the skill sets to properly manage and support your newly deployed hybrid cloud infrastructure? Today's episode, with guest Kristopher Turner, examines all the things you have to account for when planning and then running this integrated system.

This week's Network Break examines Cloudflare's decision to drop 8Chan, analyzes Cisco's settlement of a security-related whistleblower suit the company fought for eight years, discusses a new VMware/Google cloud partnership, reviews the latest financial news from tech vendors, and more.

Take a Network Break!

Capital One gets breached, exposing credit card applications from 106 million people in the United States and Canada; Microsoft prepares to put Skype For Business out to pasture; and Google and VMware form a cloud partnership to let customers run VMware workloads in GCP.

A VXWorks vulnerability lurks in lots of older devices, Fortinet announces new NGFWs, and Cisco settles a security whistleblower lawsuit for $8.6 million.

Cloudflare reverses its position on 8chan and stops providing hosting and DNS services to the hate site, and we get financial results from Fortinet, Extreme Networks, and Arista Networks.

Sponsor: ExtraHop

ExtraHop is the enterprise cyber analytics company delivering performance and security from the inside out. ExtraHop offers complete visibility with machine learning to help you make quick, confident decisions about your IT environment. Explore the ExtraHop Performance Platform at extrahop.com/packetpushers.

Show Links:

Capital One Announces Data Security Incident – Capital One

Capital One’s Capital Two Day – Last Week In AWS

Capital One Data Theft Impacts 106M People – Krebs On Security

What’s in your cloud? – Cloud Security – Medium

Seattle woman accused in massive Capital One data breach was skilled with computers but struggled in her personal life – The Seattle Times

Skype for Business Online to Be Retired in 2021 – Microsoft

VMware Cloud Foundation comes to Google Cloud – Google Cloud Blog

Google Cloud, VMware Form New Cloud Partnership – SDxCentral

Google Cloud and VMware collaborate on SD-WAN and Service Mesh integrations with support for Anthos – Google Cloud Blog

VMware – Google Cloud – VMware

CloudSimple: The Firm That Got VMware Workloads On Google, Azure Public Clouds – CRN

URGENT/11 Information from the Research Team – Armis Labs

Wind Rive...

400G Ethernet switches will ship by the end of 2019. We get under the hood of the fastest-ever version of Ethernet to find out how it works, the challenges of building the gear, differences between QSFP-DD and OSFP optics, and more. Our guests are Ray Nering and Lane Wigley of Cisco, the sponsor for today's podcast.

We’re going warp speed on Packet Pushers Heavy Networking: 400G Ethernet.

If you think 400G is the same thing as 100G, just faster, you’re sort of right…but also kind of wrong.

Joining us to explain the why, what, and when of 400G is Ray Nering, Product Manager; and Lane Wigley, Technical Marketing Engineer; both from Cisco Systems, our sponsor for today’s episode.

We discuss:

* Business and market trends driving 400G

* 400G use cases

* When 400G switches and routers will ship (the end of 2019)

* The role of standards bodies such as the IEEE and industry consortia

* Differences between QSFP-DD and OSFP optics

* The mechanical and electrical engineering challenges of 400G

* What 400G packaging will look like

* Next steps beyond 400G

Show Links:

High Capacity 400G Data Center Networking – Cisco Systems

Cisco Announces 400GbE Switches in Nexus 3400 And 9000 Families – Packet Pushers

Ray Nering – Cisco Interview at OFC Conference 2019 – YouTube

Ethan Banks and Drew Conry-Murray were delegates at a recent Networking Field Day Extra to hear from 128 Technology.

128 Technology makes a software router that runs on x86. There are a variety of software-based routers on the market. What sets 128T apart is how it does the routing.

For example:

* The 128T router is session-based and stateful

* It’s secure via policy, with a zero-trust posture

* Operators can set policies to determine the network path depending on SLAs and changing network characteristics

* The router relies on packet metadata and NAT to direct packets

* The router uses AES-256 or 128 to encrypt metadata in the first packet, and the payload in every packet in a session

Use Cases

The speakers from 128 Technology outlined several use cases for their software router:

* Routing/connectivity in locations with significant bandwidth constraints, such as satellite

* SD-WAN (including cloud traffic optimization)

* VoIP/call centers

* L4 firewall (not an NG or UTM platform, but you can do service chaining for the fancy stuff)

* “We’re going after the routing market. Not just the SD-WAN market.”

NAT Vs. Tunneling

The 128 Technology presentations go to great pains to explain that they don’t rely on tunneling or encapsulation to get packets from source to destination. By eschewing tunnels, 128 Technology claims several benefits:

* Efficiency gains of ~ 30% demonstrated (i.e. more throughput due to less tunnel overhead, matters more when bandwidth-constrained)

* Reduced risk of fragmentation / having to tweak TCP MSS or MTU

* If there is fragmentation required (metadata adds ~150-200 bytes of overhead depending on policy complexity), they will fragment/reassemble within their own fabric

Show Links:

128 Technology.com

Networking Field Day Exclusive with 128Technology – TechFieldDay

Networking Field Day Videos on YouTube

Event playlist

128 Technology Networking Platform Overview

128 Technology Service Centricity via the 128T Networking Platform Data Model

128 Technology Routing Protocols: SVR

128 Technology Routing Protocols: STEP

128 Technology Why Tunnel Free is Better and How We’re Different from Legacy Overlays