Riverbed announces new Steelhead Platform in CX/EX and Product in Granite
Today Riverbed is announcing what I think is their best product to date in Granite. They are also showing two other steelhead models today in the CX and EX. I had the chance to sit down and chat with Bob Gilbert of Riverbed to ask a few questions and learn a little more.
Please tell us about your background at Riverbed and what your current position entails. Read more
Cisco dumps the UMI Personal Telepresence very quietly.
Speaking with a friend who purchased the Cisco UMI Telepresence from Best Buy, I was made aware he cannot get service on the product. Also I was made aware that Best Buy had a fire sale on the product, selling them at a price of 2 for 1 not so long ago and then pulling the product from sale.
Vendor Inside Sales/Direct Sales vs. Partner/Reseller, who is getting the shaft?
A conversation with Bill Burns the CEO of Spirent Communications
This week we are chatting with Bill Burns the CEO of Spirent Communications in our executive conversation. I would like to thank my most favorite Global Public Relations Manager for Spirent Communications Sailaja Tennati, for working on this interview for me over the last few months.
Where is the market when it comes to your product technology and where do you still see growth? Read more
A conversation with the CEO of Ixia, Atul Bhatnagar
I have started our CEO conversations back up again after a short break. Today we are going to talk to the CEO of Ixia Atul Bhatnagar.
What is the state of the appliance testing market and do you still see growth? Read more
The new Cisco WAAS Appliances, a game changer?
Everyone has been waiting to see my reaction to the next generation Cisco WAAS appliances that were announced at Interop. Could these be the game changers that Cisco needs to compete with Riverbed and also stop losing deals to Blue Coat and Certeon? Well they are really pretty boxes, they have a lot of memory and a very big WAN card. But they are not what the doctor called for, sorry Cisco. Read more
A conversations with Yuval Baron CEO of AlgoSec
A conversation with John McAdam of F5 Networks
I am going to continue my series of conversations with industry CEO’s and today we have John McAdam of F5 Networks.
1. So why don't you tell us where you think the markets are at with [application delivery controllers] to start and then, do you still see growth? You can also include your other products. Read more
How is the Cisco 76% off Nexus sale going over with customers? Not well.
Over the last week I have received many emails about a story on the net. The story is all about Cisco giving Purdue University a 76% discount on the Nexus Product line. How they got to that number was a combination of Cisco math (discount, trade in on obsolete Cisco Switches) of which every customer by now is used to. The comments vary a great deal, I have listed them below and removed names.
"What does this say about Cisco list pricing if they give 76% off to a customer" Read more
A conversation with Vyatta CEO Kelly Herrell
Vyatta believes that networking hardware is old school and that its Layer-3 virtual networking stack can do it all while being cheaper and greener than traditional gear. In my ongoing series with industry CEOs, I talked with Vyatta CEO Kelly Herrell for his viewpoint on where his company fits into the market today.
Where is the market when it comes to network virtualization technology and where do you still see growth? Read more
A conversation with Jayshree Ullal CEO, Arista Networks
I decided to reach out to a few CEOs beginning with Jayshree Ullal, CEO of Arista Networks. I appreciate that she took the time to answer my questions. I hope it provides some perspective on the market, company and the CEO herself. Read more
Cisco and routing: Who says you can’t go home?
The last few weeks Cisco has been pressing their pitch that a network composed of a single vendor's network (Cisco's) is best for users. To me it looks like they are having to work very hard to come up with examples of happy users with nothing but Cisco, such as covered in this article: “Cisco again looks to debunk the multivendor network” Read more
SpamCop disrupts millions of e-mail accounts by blocking Yahoo e-mail servers
SpamCop has decided to block all e-mail coming from Yahoo servers, even if the e-mail is legit and part of Yahoo's business cloud services. On Monday I was replying to a email from a customer and a vendor, when I received the message below.
Remote host said: 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [98.138.91.154] blocked using bl.spamcop.net; Blocked - see http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?98.138.91.154 [RCPT_TO] Read more
Winners of the Larry Awards for Best Presentations at Interop
Well it is time again for the Larry Awards that recognize the best presentations at Interop. This is the third year for the awards and they have grown into a life of their own. I watched some of the presentations many times over the three days to see different presenters or see if the presentation had changed. As always, research for these awards was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Read more
Interop 2011: Super fast switches everywhere
At Interop, I took a closer look at the HP optical backplane the HP Labs is working on and grew even more impressed. It was one of the biggest innovations I saw at the show this year. This will one day greatly speed up switches.
Here's a video I took of the device (you will need to turn your volume up all the way to hear the video due to server noise on the floor at Interop). The gentleman from HP Labs who was so nice to do the video was David Warren. Read more
Interop 2011: HP 8200 switch, a sad Startup Alley and too much cloud
Interop Day 1: Interop started for me with meetings and then the HP Media Event which was very good. The HP executives mentioned the HP Procurve 8200 switch on the show floor. It comes from HP Labs and has an optical backplane. Yes, that is very cool and we will get a video presentation of it in the morning. HP is really working hard to beat Cisco. Read more
Paradise Lost: How the Amazon outage set cloud computing back years, but helped Cisco
The New York Times said “Amazon’s Trouble Raises Cloud Computing Doubts.” I think that this is the best thing that could have happened for Cisco.
While the problem that effected AWS and its many customers is not a good thing at all and I feel bad for all of those companies, Cisco has an opportunity. Many customers who are in the cloud or are thinking about the cloud will be rethinking any decision now. Cisco has the opportunity to push the private cloud. Read more
How important will Interop be for Cisco this year?
When you go to Interop and you see other companies providing live demos of their products, do you wonder what is Cisco doing? Last year in Las Vegas I asked someone from Cisco why they have no live demos and just PowerPoint's at most stations. I was told that they decided to cut back on the budget for conferences. Read more
Chambers makes good on promise, drops Flip. Who or what is next?
The phones were ringing this morning after Cisco Systems made the announcement that it was discontinuing the Flip Video Camera business. Cisco will be laying off 550 workers and taking a $300 million dollar charge. It seems Chambers is serious about getting back to its roots of routing and switching, but the big questions is what or who is next?
Are customers getting the best of Cisco and causing its downturn in margins?
Cisco's eroding margins has been a hot topic for discussion in many circles, particularly between partners and customers. Since the Cisco stock conference call and its Q2 results announcement, many people have spoken up on the margins and profit loss. Read more
- About Putting Realism Into Your Network
Larry Chaffin Ph.D is the Chief Executive Officer/Chairman and founder of Pluto Networks, a Consulting and VAR partner specializing in WAN acceleration, VoIP, WLAN, telepresence and security.
Pluto Networks is a Riverbed reseller. Pluto was previously a Cisco reseller but in June, 2010, ended its reseller relationship with the company and is no longer a Cisco channel partner.
Pluto Networks specializes in the needs of small, large and enterprise companies by always giving them a great ROI on the products they sell. Pluto Networks has a presence in 23 countries around the world enabling all of its consultants to be virtual. Larry was a Judge at Interop for the Best of Interop Awards for 2009.
Larry has also co-authored all of the books listed below:
Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1,Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls,Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security, How to Cheat at Microsoft Vista Administration, Microsoft Vista for IT Security Professionals, Asterisk Hacking, 2008 VoIP and Video Conferencing, Infosecurity 2008 Threat Analysis and author of Building a VOIP Network with Nortel's MS5100, along with co-authoring/ghost writing eleven other technology books for VIOP, WLAN, security and optical technologies. Larry is currently working on a follow up to Building a VoIP network with Nortel's MCS 5100 Book as well as new books on Cisco Telepresence Networks, Practical VoIP case studies and WAN Acceleration with Riverbed.
Larry also has more than 29 vendor certifications and has been working on many others. Larry has been a principal architect around the world in 22 countries for many Fortune 100 companies designing VoIP, security, wireless and optical networks. He has expanded over time also to include application acceleration. Larry is working with worldwide company now out of Asia as a Special Assistant to the CEO and CIO as they go through organizational and network changes, helping them with strategic advice from his years of experience.
Pluto Networks is a channel partner of, LifeSize, Riverbed, Call Copy, Fastsoft and Symantec.
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