A-Game: When I discuss my A-Game it’s my go to hardware vendor for a specific data center component. For example I have an A-Game platform for: Storage SAN LAN (access Layer LAN specifically, you don’t want me near your aggregation, core or WAN) Servers and Blades (traditionally this has been…
Year: 2010
Learning from FaceBook’s failures
In the interest of honesty I’ll start this post by saying I’m not a fan of FaceBook and never have been. This is based on two major things: If you and I don’t keep in touch through email or phone there is a reason for that. I have no desire…
The Cloud Storage Argument
The argument over the right type of storage for data center applications is an ongoing battle. This argument gets amplified when discussing cloud architectures both private and public. Part of the reason for this disparity in thinking is that there is no ‘one size fits all solution.’ The other part…
FCoE initialization Protocol (FIP) Deep Dive
In an attempt to clarify my future posts I will begin categorizing a bit. The following post will be part of a Technical Deep Dive series. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is a protocol designed to move native Fibre Channel over 10 Gigabit Ethernet and above links, I’ve described the…
What the iPad means to cloud computing
Let me preface is by saying I am far from an Apple fan boy, in fact I would consider myself the exact opposite. I don’t like their business tactics (iTunes trying to force Safari down my throat for example) or their hardware lock-in for their laptops. I would never buy…
HP Flex-10, Cisco VIC, and Nexus 1000v
When discussing the underlying technologies for cloud computing topologies virtualization is typically a key building block. Virtualization can be applied to any portion of the data center architecture from load-balancers to routers, and from servers to storage. Server virtualization is one of the most widely adopted virtualization technologies, and provides…
The Organizational Challenge
One of the major challenges when looking into cloud architectures is the organizational/process shifts required to make the transition. Technology refreshes seem daunting but changing organizational structure and internal auditing/change management can make rip-and-replace seem like child’s play. In this post I’ll discuss some ways in which to simplify the…
Objectivity
I came across a blog recently that peaked my interest. The post was from Nate at TechOpsGuys (http://bit.ly/9PxZQV) and it purports to explain the networking deficiencies of UCS. The problem with the posts explanation is that it’s based off of The Tolly Report on HP vs. UCS (http://bit.ly/bRQW2g) which has…
Cloud Types
Within the discussion of cloud computing there are several concepts that get tossed around and mixed up. Part of the reason for this is that there are several cloud architecture types. While there are tons of types and sub-types discussed I’ll focus on four major deployment models here: Public Cloud,…
Post defining VN-Link
For the Cisco fans or those curious about Cisco’s VN-Link see my post on my colleagues Unified Computing Blog: http://bit.ly/dqIIQK. Related posts: Shakespearean Guest Post Data Center Bridging Exchange Inter-Fabric Traffic in UCS Server Networking With gen 2 UCS Hardware HP Flex-10, Cisco VIC, and Nexus 1000v