After years spent focusing on personal technology, businesses are increasingly turning back to the enterprise. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is the poor economy. Individuals simply have less free cash to spend on gadgets and software, and the meagre profits are increasingly going into the pockets of a single company: Apple.

The corporate IT market is much more dynamic and competitive, with a few very large “superpower” companies discovering their power to drive purchasing decisions. If a supplier can create an integrated “stack” of hardware and software, they can push product purchases that might otherwise be overlooked or postponed. This is the main reason that enterprise IT acquisitions work so well: Where a small company must fight to sell their product, a large one can hitch it to a much more strategic sale and have it pulled along.

The old IBM model is the prototype, with that company once selling everything from office equipment to datacenter gear as well as the consulting and integration services to make it all work.

HP has spent almost two decades bulking up to become the new IBM, buying their way into open systems laptops, desktops, and servers (Compaq), networking (3Com), services (EDS), and storage (Compaq, LeftHand, Ibrix, and perhaps 3Par). HP has been remarkably proficient at executing on this enterprise plan: In talking to enterprise IT folks, I often hear IBM-esque sentiments regarding the new HP. They tell me they’re willing to give HP the benefit of the doubt when it comes to new technologies and products, buying on basis of the company’s reputation and ability to make everything work. This bodes well for the company’s post-Hurd future, and HP has the most-complete “enterprise stack” in the business.

But HP has a target on its back, pinned there by Dell. The folks from Round Rock believe they can be more efficient (and thus profitable) than HP in the same markets, and have been making moves to fortify their enterprise offerings. Dell was always more of a manufacturing than R&D business, but they have shown a desire to broaden their focus. Intrigued by the high-margin mid-enterprise storage business built from their EqualLogic acquisition and their success selling EMC storage, Dell is moving into the enterprise. They matched HP/EDS by purchasing Perot and have made smaller buys in storage (Ocarina, Exanet) as well as the big move for 3Par.

The next big emerging stack player is Oracle. The acquisition of Sun gave Oracle a strong hardware base to complement their command of enterprise software, and many expect further acquisitions. But Oracle is playing a different game than HP and Dell, focusing on the high-margin enterprise space and ignoring more competitive outlying areas. Many suspect the company might make a play in the network space (Brocade, Juniper, and F5 have been mentioned) but storage is possible as well. CEO Larry Ellison is a major investor in Pillar Data Systems, so many expect a spin-in here. But Oracle has the appetite for something much bigger, even EMC or NetApp.

Then there is Cisco, who have attempted to parlay their data center networking strength into a broader position. But Cisco’s halting moves into storage (Fibre Channel switching and SAN extension) did not displace the market leaders, and their server products (UCS) have not made much of a dent on HP, IBM, and Dell either. A solid partnership with EMC has delayed further forays into the enterprise storage market, and Cisco seems puzzlingly interested in low-margin access businesses (Linksys, Flip) and their Cius tablet.

There are other players in the enterprise space as well. EMC has diversified under CEO Joe Tucci, taking a dominant position in server virtualization (VMware) and making a strong enterprise security acquisition (RSA). But the many faces of enterprise storage remains EMC’s strength, and they seem content to partner with Cisco for a stack sale. Hitachi, NEC, and Fujitsu also offer varying enterprise hardware and software stacks, but their comparatively small sales presence in the US market limits their ability to execute. In the final analysis, only IBM, HP, Dell, and perhaps Oracle can claim to be enterprise IT superpowers at this point.

Image credit: Steam Engine by Stuck in Customs

© Stephen Foskett for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Meet the Enterprise IT Superpowers
Read more posts categorized as Featured, Networking, Server Virtualization, Storage

A detailed look at the Big, Hot and Heavy Ethernet Switches with a large crew to talk about their practical experiences on design, selection and performance of Cisco Nexus switches. The result ? We don’t think the Nexus switches are very exciting.

Due to people commitments we recorded a double length show which will be released in two parts. This is Part 2 and Part 1 was released next weekend.

What You’ll Hear…

• On the increase in 10GbE in the Data Centre and what’s driving that. And looking at why we aren’t comfortable with the HP Flex-10 networking module for their blade servers.
• We are planning on using IP Storage, after consulting with the Server team. The cost of FC doesn’t work for us, and FCoE still isn’t here.
• A look at transient traffic loads and how the deployment of VMware DRS changes the way our backbone looks. The importance of dynamic traffic flows to VMware and what we need to do to support that.
• We take a detailed and critical look at what Cisco doesn’t tell you about the Nexus 7000 – the bad things, the missing features such as QoS, MPLS and lack of value. Not to mention the generally underwhelming performance of the product. Also, it’s big, it uses a lot of power and runs hot.

You can find Jeremy Filliben at http://jeremyfilliben.com and @jfilliben.

You can find Steve Rossen on @steve

You can find Ivan Pepelnjak at http://ioshints.info and on @ioshints.

IOS Hints Live – San Jose September 2010

You can book to join the event at ioshintsdatacenter.eventbrite.com/. There are only a limited number of seats at this unique event where Ivan Pepelnjak and Greg Ferro will both be available to discuss, review and develop your designs.

Feedback

Follow the Packet Pushers on Twitter (@packetpushers | Greg @etherealmind | Dan@rovingengineer | Ethan @ecbanks) and send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.  We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Show 17 – Big Hot and Heavy Switches – Part 2
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking

The Content

We talked briefly about MIMO antennas for 802.11n when used outdoors.

And then how to start learning about Wireless Networking. The most important thing to learn is a working knowledge of Radio Frequency and signal propagation.

The best place to start to learn is cwnp.com. It’s vendor neutral and highly recommended. Other recommended blogs and podcasts can be found at:

wlanpros.com

www.my80211.com

One of the best blogs is Jerome Henry wirelessccie.blogspot.com who is a Cisco Wireless CCIE.

And we touched on some common mistakes that people can make when they are starting out in wireless networking.

The Guests

Craig Schnarrs is at thewifiguy.net and @the_wifi_guy

Jeff Russell doesn’t have a Twitter account or a blog. Yet.

The Hosts

Jennifer Huber is @jenniferlucille and her blog jenniferhuber.blogspot.com

Greg @etherealmind and EtherealMind.com

Feedback

Send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.  We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Unplugged – Show 1 – Lugging That Damn AP
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking

A detailed look at the Big, Hot and Heavy Ethernet Switches with a large crew to talk about their practical experiences on design, selection and performance of Cisco Nexus switches. The result ? We don’t think the Nexus switches are very exciting, HP Flex10 modules are a problem, and so much more.

Due to people commitments we recorded a double length show which will be released in two parts. This is Part 1 and Part 2 will be released next weekend.

VSS & vPC – the real experience

We started with a look at the differences between Cisco’s Virtual Switching System (VSS) and their Virtual Port Channel (vPC) implementation of Multi-Chassis Etherchannel and what our preferences are for choosing and implementing. We like vPC both from a design and implementation perspectives but our experiences of VSS have been very poor and we don’t choose to use it in the Data Centre. In practical way we don’t like the way that VSS is conceptually the same as a stackable switch.

We also don’t have much time on the Catalyst 4500 because they aren’t used in our designs. Also, there are too many modules and Supervisors, and the technology is confusing. The lack of architecture information is poor.

Cisco Fabric Extender switches

We had a short look at the QoS implementation on the Cat6500, and expressed our dissatisfaction with the configuration and consistency of the implementation and some surprising tips on how to solve the QoS problem.

Service Modules

We discuss the use of Service Modules in the C6500 chassis and our experiences.

The Guests

You can find Jeremy Filliben at http://jeremyfilliben.com and @jfilliben.

You can find Steve Rossen on @steve

You can find Ivan Pepelnjak at http://ioshints.info and on @ioshints.

IOS Hints Live – San Jose September 2010

You can book to join the event at ioshintsdatacenter.eventbrite.com/. There are only a limited number of seats at this unique event where Ivan Pepelnjak and Greg Ferro will both be available to discuss, review and develop your designs.

Feedback

Follow the Packet Pushers on Twitter (@packetpushers | Greg @etherealmind | Dan@rovingengineer | Ethan @ecbanks) and send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.  We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Show 16 – Big Hot and Heavy Switches – Part 1
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking

As my friend Stu Miniman pointed out, a recent VMware video suggests the company is about to jump into networking in a big way. Dubbed “vFabric,” This new offering would be a generic hypervisor for virtual network devices, from load balancers to security appliances, and would presumably be integrated with the existing vNetwork Distributed Switch functionality. This appears to be more than just a generic version of what Cisco already uses for their Nexus 1000V!

Update: @SSauer points out that this is vShield, and posted some information here: A New Generation of vShield Security Products

vSwitch, vNetwork, vShield?

Most hypervisor products include an internal virtual network switch, but VMware’s ESX has multiple choices. The original “dumb” virtual Ethernet switch was augmented by vSwitch back in the ESX 3 days, bringing more-advanced configuration options.VMware improved and renamed the vSwitch in vSphere 4, creating the vNetwork Standard Switch (vSS).

But it was the introduction of vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) in vSphere 4 that really set VMware’s network capabilities apart. The champion of this field is Cisco, whose Nexus 1000V virtual switch extends their NX-OS datacenter networking OS right into the ESX world.

The Cisco Nexus 1000V runs both the supervisor and Ethernet modules inside the virtual ESX environment

As illustrated above, the Nexus 1000v consists of two key components:

1. The Virtual Supervisor Module is an implementation of NX-OS on an ESX virtual machine, and provides the interface and configuration of the virtual network
2. The Virtual Ethernet Module runs at a lower level in ESX, replacing the vSwitch for networking between VMs

One can think of the Cisco Nexus 1000v as a specialized replacement for the more-generic vNetwork Distributed Switch. Both include plug-in vSwitch replacements and centralized management, and both implement more-advanced network protocols like private VLANS and receive-rate limiting as well as supporting vMotion. But Cisco’s 1000v goes much further, adding PortChannel, LACP, security and QoS, and advanced management features.

See this comparison of vSwitch, vSS, vDS, and 1000v as well as Rich Brambley’s vSS/vDS post

From a technology standpoint, the key to both vDS and 1000v is the ability to replace the core ESX vSwitch with a more-capable alternative. Now let’s turn to what VMware might be introducing next.

What Do We Know?

Howie Xu, VMware Director of R&D, released a video discussing his sessions at VMworld, entitled ”The Future Direction of Networking Virtualization” (TA8361). This video begins with a quick pan past Xu’s whiteboard (pictured below) and includes a discussion of the state of the art, vision, and product and technology roadmap for VMware’s networking-related efforts.

The part that really piqued my interest was later in the video, when Xu talks about creating a “networking virtual chassis or hypervisor” to allow third-parties to develop and roll-out advanced networking devices within vSphere. VMware has already steamrolled through the heart of server-based applications, making VMware-based virtual appliances as common an installation format as the DVD. Now the company is turning its attention to the network. This is huge!

Xu speaks of both a platform and a service to support this ”open extensible networking virtual chassis platform,” and goes on to suggest that it could be used by “networking security, load balance, application acceleration, IP address management, and performance management” products. The virtual appliance marketplace is already populated by the familiar names in networking, from F5 to Bluecoat to Checkpoint. Therefore, VMware must be talking about something much deeper and more advanced than merely encouraging the creation of more virtual appliances!

The core question is whether VMware is opening up the “green box” in my diagram above to run third-party applications and what level of system access they will get.

Consider this a vFabric pre-intro!

Then there is the name. The whiteboard prominently includes the words, “vFabric Intro” in the corner. Judging by the rest of the readable content, this indicates that this new technology will indeed be called “vFabric” as Stu speculated.

Update: It appears that vFabric is not the name of this virtual chassis (thanks, Stu and Howie!). Good thing, too, since the name, “vFabric” is a registered trademark of QLogic Corporation, for “computer software for managing computer hardware, namely switches used in networks.”

What’s Coming?

I’m more of a storage guy, so I rang up my friend Greg “Etherealmind” Ferro and ran some ideas past him. Greg and I talked about the needs of network-based devices, and how they differ from traditional server-based applications.

Greg suggests that vFabric will really assist vMotion

Networkers have been conditioned with the belief that custom silicon is the best way to achieve low latency and high performance for network devices. The same could be said of the storage world, where companies like HDS, 3PAR, and BlueArc pride themselves on their custom ASICs. But EMC, HP, and others are proving that Intel’s server-class CPUs and peripheral busses now have the guts to go head-to-head with custom silicon. The networking world is no different, with many newer companies basing their products around industry-standard hardware.

But deploying these systems in a virtual environment is more challenging. Can a virtual machine hypervisor prioritize threads for network devices? Can it handle the overhead related to networking operations in real-time? What happens in the event of a DDoS or network flood? Most network devices run real-time operating systems like VxWorks or QNX to ensure packet throughput, but virtual environments are notorious for “overflow” of I/O or CPU load between guest machines.

The whiteboard provides some hints as to how VMware will tackle these issues. First, we spot the term, “latency-aware queueing,” which suggests that a mechanism will monitor the hypervisor and alter the queues for virtual network devices as the load changes. As latency rises, the hypervisor can move workloads to different processor cores or even alternate hardware using vMotion. We also spot a reference to “non-blocking”, suggesting an asynchronous I/O mechanism will reduce the likelihood that one of these virtual network devices will have to wait for data.

Both of these technologies are hallmarks of real-time operating systems (RTOS), and are critical to the design of scalable hypervisors like VMware’s ESX. It is likely that the company is developing an advanced hypervisor environment for these specialized devices, an evolution of vDS and the API that allows the Cisco Nexus 1000v to run its Virtual Ethernet Module.

Stephen’s Stance

If our assumptions are true, then this is an exciting development indeed. If VMware exposes the “green box” in our diagram above to third-party developers, we could see an entirely new and more-powerful ecosystem evolve around VMware vSphere. Running virtual network devices in a quasi-real-time environment will enable even-greater integration and flexibility.

The Nexus 1000v has not eliminated purchasing of Cisco hardware, and vFabric will not destroy the larger network device market. But we expect wide vendor support for the concept, especially those involved in lower-end and remote-office applications. We would love to see Palo Alto Networks, Infoblox, SolarWinds, and Vyatta, to name a few, developing next-generation applications for vFabric. Virtualization-aware integrated networking shouldn’t be the sole domain of Cisco.

© Stephen Foskett for Gestalt IT, 2010. | A VMware Hypervisor For Networkers?
Read more posts categorized as Networking, Server Virtualization

Following the career discussions in some of our earlier podcasts, and his recent Blog Post “So you Want to be a Network Consultant” Kevin Bovis got in touch with me to talk about what sort of skills an engineer needs. We decided to record the discussion and so you have even more Networking in your ears.

The Show

Kevin is the Technical Services Manager for a Cisco Gold partner Cisilion and manages a reasonable sized team of Network Engineers. Kevin is also a Cisco CCIE #1578 and is still currently certified.

Because Kevin manages a team of engineers and regularly interviews and hires engineer, those looking at their career progression should enjoy listening to the show.

Feedback

Follow the Packet Pushers on Twitter (@packetpushers | Greg @etherealmind and send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.  We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Runt Packet No 5 – A Technical Services Manager Speaks
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What You’ll Hear

This week, security author, trainer, conference speaker, and consultant Raven Alder adds her bright star to the Packet Pushers constellation.  Her wit and wisdom are joined by data center geek and repeat guest Josh O’Brien, along with regulars Greg and Ethan.  Dan was sidelined unexpectedly, but plans to be back next time.

• They say power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Pushers ponder this maxim as Chairman, CEO, and El Presidente Mark Hurd gets the oust at HP for certain indiscretions. Was he an extraordinary leader, or just a corporate figurehead?  Will HP’s stockholders miss him?  We think the board would have kept him if he mattered, indiscretions notwithstanding.
• Australian transportation giant RailCorp announces plans to migrate from ATM to IP.  A stunned silence ensues, and then we burst into discussion about why old equipment lives longer than it should.
• Cisco’s ACE Web Application Firewall gets two in the hat.  While no one mourns the passing of this unloved product, we wonder why Cisco opted to leave the WAF market.  Security strategy, where are thou? Thanks for the tip, Ivan.
• Raven disappears down the rabbit hole, and the Pushers follow her to Web Application Firewall wonderland.  This deep-dive discussion explains what a WAF is, who needs to deploy a WAF, where a WAF fits in a defense-in-depth strategy, common WAF deployment mistakes, and why you need Raven on speed-dial.

Feedback

Follow the Packet Pushers on Twitter (@packetpushers | Greg @etherealmind | Dan@rovingengineer | Ethan @ecbanks) and send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.  We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Show 15 – Saving the Web With Dinky Putt Putt Firewalls
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking

Greg has asked Doug Gourlay from Arista Networks to get his feet under the workbench and talk about Arista Networks. A reasonably new vendor to community, Arista have a unique approach to building Ethernet switches that are software driven for enhanced data centre management and better operation.

Arista Networks have interested me for some time because their hardware architecture is very different from traditional network equipment, with a focus on their EoS software platform being consistent across the entire product line. We didn’t have time to talk in more detail but either contact Arista to learn more about their product, or get in contact by leaving a comment or use the contact form, and I can schedule more time.

You can check out Arista Networks or follow Doug on Twitter at .

Follow the Packet Pushers on Twitter (@packetpushers | Greg @etherealmind | @ecbanks) and send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.

We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Runt Packet – Arista Networks and Data Centre Switching
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking

Jennifer Huber pulls up a chair at the workbench this week. Her experience and knowledge of in wireless networking is quite awesome.

Feedback

Follow the Packet Pushers on Twitter (@packetpushers | Greg @etherealmind | Dan @rovingengineer | Ethan @ecbanks) and send your queries and comments about the show to packetpushers@gmail.com.  We want to hear from you!

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Show 14 – Bum Bugling on Cisco Clean Air
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking

SolarWinds Orion fanboy Ethan talks to the Head Geek at SolarWinds, Josh Stephens.  The discussion is around Orion Network Performance Monitor v.10.  If you haven’t checked out Orion in a few years, it’s all grown up now.  Ethan’s implementing Orion NPM and loving it, and had a nice chat with Josh about the core Orion features.

Sure, it sounds like a softball interview, but frankly, the Orion product is working as advertised in Ethan’s experience thus far – it doesn’t suck.  Give the runt a listen, and leave your comments with the hard questions that weren’t asked.  Maybe we can get Josh back on for a tougher Q&A session.

• SolarWinds Orion NPMv10
• Josh’s SW Home Page (Josh in real life looks a lot like his cartoon avatar)
• Follow Josh on Twitter

© Etherealmind for Gestalt IT, 2010. | Runt Packet – SolarWinds Orion NPMv10 With Head Geek Josh Stephens
Read more posts categorized as Favorites, Networking