The Fat Pipe - All Packet Pushers Pods

You’ve got to get to the cloud!  It’s a moral imperative, or at the very least it’s a corporate directive.

And on the way you’d like to embrace infrastructure as code, DevOps, and serverless: you know, all the cool buzzwords.

But how do you actually integrate those technologies into your day-to-day workflow? How do you create an initial environment, and how to you update that environment after day one? What was the glowing thing in the briefcase from Pulp Fiction? We’ll try to get to the bottom of some of these questions on today’s show.

In this episode, we’ll discuss some important points on day two adoption of cloud technologies. We’ll go through the challenges of making that transition from day one to day two in terms of training, adoption, and governance.

My guest is Mark Gossa, an infrastructure engineering lead for a London-based bank.

Besides the day one to day two transition, we talk about how his organization uses DevOps principles without creating a “DevOps team,” how to select a tool to automate Azure infrastructure deployments, and briefly discuss options such as Terraform and ARM templates.

We’ll also discuss how Azure DevOps can provide full end-to-end management from Azure Boards and Azure Repos all the way through to Azure Pipelines.

We’ll also have a brief chat about going serverless in Azure using Azure Functions, talk about the benefits and limitations, and explore Azure Durable Functions.

Show Links:

Mark Gossa on Twitter

Mark Gossa’s blog

Your host Ned Bellavance on Twitter

Azure Governance and Enterprise Cloud Adoption – Microsoft

Azure Functions – Microsoft

Azure Durable Functions – Microsoft

General Azure and Serverless information – MarkGossa.blogspot

Learn Terraform – HashiCorp

Learn Azure Functions and Azure – PluralSight

How to Provision Serverless Infrastructure Using Terraform and Azure Pipelines – HashiCorp

Datanauts 137: Automating Infrastructure As Code With Terraform – Packet Pushers

On today's Day Two Cloud we dive into the challenges of adopting and operationalizing a cloud deployment with guest Mark Gossa. We discuss how to incorporate DevOps principles and automation tools into the organization, examine tool options such as Terraform, and chat about going serverless.

On today’s Heavy Networking, we peer behind the curtain of Intent-Based Networking (IBN) with guest Phil Gervasi, who wrote a pair of white papers for the Packet Pushers' Ignition membership site. We discuss core concepts of IBN, including network abstraction, continuous validation, and automated remediation.

Intent-based networking is the latest in a long string of dreams and schemes to get meaningful, wide-scale automation into data center networks.

In broad strokes, intent-based networking, or IBN, sounds like magic: take high-level, human comprehensible business goals, run them through some abstraction layers, click your heels three times, and out comes the low-level configurations that are automatically programmed into the requisite devices.

For any network engineer who’s been burned by automation schemes in the past, this might sound too good to be true.

On today’s Heavy Networking, we peer behind the curtain of intent-based networking to find out if we’re actually dealing with a wizard this time, or just another pretender blowing smoke.

Our guest is Phil Gervasi, a network engineer and solutions architect. You may know him at Network Phil on Twitter or his blog networkphil.com.

Phil wrote two in-depth white papers on IBN for the Packet Pushers Ignition site. He did a lot of research and analysis, and today we’re going to pick his brains as we follow the yellow brick road to intent-based networking.

In particular, we dive into three main areas of IBN:

* Network abstraction

* Continuous validation

* Autonomous remediation

Sponsor: ThousandEyes

ThousandEyes gives you performance visibility from every user to every app over any network, both internal and external, so you can migrate to the cloud, troubleshoot faster and deliver exceptional user experiences. Sign up for a free account at thousandeyes.com/packetpushers and choose a free ThousandEyes t-shirt.

Show Links:

Packet Pushers Ignition

Phil Gervasi on Twitter

Network Phil

Intent-Based Networking – Concepts and Overview – IETF

Today's Network Break is all about cloud wheeling and dealing. IBM and AT&T ink a multi-billion cloud deal, but AT&T has also announced a cloud partnership with Microsoft. Oracle looks for ways to get back into the running for a fat Defense Department cloud contract, IBM announces its Q2 financials, and more tech news.

Take a Network Break! It was a week of cloud wheeling and dealing. And by the way, if you want to follow up with us on any of our commentary, you can do so here: https://packetpushers.net/fu/

IBM is spinning a multi-billion cloud deal with AT&T as justification for its Red Hat acquisition, while AT&T anoints Microsoft its “preferred cloud provider for non-network applications.”

Meanwhile, Oracle lost a court appeal, so now it’s trying a political one as it attempt to derail AWS as the anticipated winner of a rich JEDI contract with the U.S Department of Defense.

Google shuts down Project Dragonfly, a censor-friendly search effort for the Chinese market; bugs in a server component highlight the vulnerability of tech’s extended supply chain, and Verizon and Ericsson  partner on a live trial of a microservices architecture on Ericsson mobility gear.

IBM announces Q2 financials, and Boeing and Ryan Air experiment with renaming the troubled 737 Max.

Get links for more details below.

Sponsor: INE

INE are the ‘experts at making you an expert’. INE is announcing a new, monthly All Access Pass subscription plan, which provides you with unlimited access to INE’s entire content library of over 14,000 of the best IT and Networking training videos for just $99 a month. Visit INE.com/packetpushers to get started.

Tech Bytes: AppNeta

Stay tuned after the news for a sponsored Tech Bytes conversation with AppNeta. We discuss how AppNeta combines network performance monitoring and synthetic testing to get a complete picture of the end user experience, and how customers use AppNeta to address the challenges of monitoring remote offices and cloud services. Go to AppNeta.com/packetpushers to find out more.

Show Links:

IBM lands AT&T contract worth ‘billions’ – Financial Times

IBM And AT&T Announce Multi-Year Strategic Alliance – IBM

AT&T announces cloud partnership with Microsoft 1 day after similar deal with IBM – IEEE ComSoc Technology Blog

AT&T And Microsoft Announce Strategic Alliance – AT&T

Judge dismisses Oracle lawsuit over $10B Pentagon JEDI cloud contract – TechCrunch

The Empire Strikes Back: Trump discovers $10bn JEDI cloud deal may go to nemesis Jeff Bezos, demands probe – The Register

Trump Expressed Concern About Pentagon Cloud-Computing Contract – Bloomberg

Amazon or Microsoft set to pick up $10 billion DoD cloud deal after O...

Today’s Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by AppNeta, delves into the challenges of monitoring remote and branch offices and applications in the cloud era.

We explore how AppNeta provides visibility and real-time insight into network performance by monitoring the end-to-end network path and capturing packets and flows.

AppNeta also leverages synthetic testing to give IT a more nuanced view of the user experience, and to speed troubleshooting and problem resolution.

We discuss how a customer used AppNeta to track down intermittent packet drops that affected application performance, identified the provider responsible, and shared evidence gathered by AppNeta to help the provider respond in a timely manner.

Our guests for today’s conversation are Sean Armstrong, VP of Product; and Adam Edwards, Chief Customer Officer.

Show Links:

AppNeta.com/packetpushers

AppNeta Blog

AppNeta on Twitter

AppNeta on LinkedIn

Remote work gets big vote of confidence at Facebook F8 Conference – AppNeta Blog

Avoiding IT “Blind Spots” at Remote Offices – AppNeta Blog

Today's Tech Byte podcast, sponsored by AppNeta, delves into how AppNeta provides visibility and real-time insight into network performance by monitoring the end-to-end network path and capturing packets and flows, and performs synthetic testing for an accurate measure of user experience.

On today's Heavy Networking, sponsored by InterOptic, we explore how to extend the life of your cabling plant as you grow to 100G Ethernet. We get very nerdy on cabling, modules, lasers, and more with guests Robert Coenen, VP of Business Development at Interoptic; and Alex Latzko, lead network architect at Server Central Turing Group.

On today’s Heavy Networking, sponsored by InterOptic, we explore how to extend the life of your legacy cabling infrastructure in the data center as you grow to 100G Ethernet, and the options available when you need to upgrade.

As organizations move down the path toward 100G, the higher data rates mean that old cabling might not be good enough.

It’s a fair chance that newer Ethernet speeds are not compatible with your existing cable, and now cabling costs become a factor in the selection of pluggable modules.

InterOptic works with customers on these issues and helps them select the right pluggable modules.

Joining us today are Robert Coenen, Ph.D., VP of Business Development at Interoptic; and Alex Latzko, lead network architect at Server Central Turing Group.

We discuss:

* How cabling affects your choice of pluggable modules

* Considerations for single-mode and multi-mode fiber

* Future-proofing for 25/50/100G

* Whether you need new patch leads

* Whether copper in the data center makes sense

* SFPs vs. GBICs

* Preparing for 400G

* More

Show Links:

InterOptic.com

How To Get Your Data Center Ready For 100G – Network Computing

Heavy Networking 431: Understanding Emerging Trends In Optics With InterOptic (Sponsored) – Packet Pushers

Show 360: All About Optics With InterOptic (Sponsored) – Packet Pushers

Robert Coenen on LinkedIn

Alex Latzko on LinkedIn