Wide Area Networks

MPLS: How does it work?

andrenym00 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:09:34 -0400

It is in some ways similar to an internet based VPN (Virtual Private Network) in the setup... but very different as well.

MPLS in its root is a signal formatting that allows traffic to be tagged and prioritized. Ultimately, carriers either run MPLS over their IP network cloud or some maintain a separate network cloud for MPLS only. Either way, you connect into the cloud via whatever you need. Could be a T1 or bonded T1s for one location, full or fractional DS3 for others, etc.

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Cisco loses to Riverbed in WAN optimization bake-off

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:30:47 -0500

Being a self-confessed "Cisco fan" wasn't enough to convince Adam Rasner, director of corporate network services at Rayonier, to give Cisco the prize of consolidating locations at the forestry and real estate company. Instead, that contract went to Riverbed Technologies and its Steelhead WAFS appliance (compare products), according to a story in SearchStorage.com.

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RE: NetQos helps Cisco with performance

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:03:16 -0400

Hopefully Cisco will provide the same hooks in the WAAS code to the their other partners who make network performance monitoring software. Re: NetQos helps Cisco with performance. As a long time Cisco and SolarWinds Orion customer, I don't want to have to ditch my Orion Network Performance Monitoring software just because I am implementing Cisco WAAS. NetQoS was the first vendor and should get some reward for doing this, but within 6 months or so the other software partners should get the same capabilities.

1,000 free Cisco AcademyNetSpace Recognition T-Shirts available

Brad Reese — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:15:59 -0400

The first one thousand (1,000) participants who log on to www.AcademyNetSpace.com and submit a valid recognition nomination form will receive a Free Cisco AcademyNetSpace Recognition T-Shirt. Any registered user may select to nominate a student, alumnus, instructor or other Cisco academy personnel, a Cisco academy, or a Cisco partner organization for a recognition award. You may also nominate yourself for an award. The four Award categories are: 1. Career Recognition This award will go to students or alumni who are using the Cisco Networking Academy education for their jobs or career advancement, particularly in diverse and unusual industries, and to the instructors or academies who enabled them. 2. Education Recognition This award will go to students, instructors, or Cisco academies who have excelled in educational pursuits, leadership skills in and outside the classroom, and application of their education to other endeavors. 3. Extraordinary Contributions This award will go to the individuals, academies or organizations that have gone "above and beyond" in providing service to Cisco Networking Academy, with an emphasis on diversity in education and diversity in career opportunities. 4. Pioneer This award will go to the individuals, Cisco academies or organizations that have been innovators in fostering the development of Cisco Networking Academy, demonstrated great originality with their contribution, and achieved never-seen-before (or first-time-ever) impact on individuals and communities. View Cisco Networking Academy Online Recognition Program Terms and Conditions Get your Free Cisco T-Shirt today! http://www.BradReese.Com

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Have your Cisco story published on the Network World website

Brad Reese — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:54:24 -0400

Are you a retail Cisco customer? Are you a military Cisco customer? Are you an end user Cisco customer? Are you an enterprise Cisco customer? Are you a health care Cisco customer? Are you a government Cisco customer? Are you an educational Cisco customer? Are you a service provider Cisco customer? Are you a financial services Cisco customer? Please accept my invitation to have your Cisco story published on the Network World website. Call me toll free: 866-864-0506 or international 717-489-1521 Email: Brad@BradReese.Com We will shortly feature a package of stories around how readers got great deals on Cisco networking gear, view this blog entry for further details on that upcoming story. Appreciate the privilege to publish your Cisco story on the Network World website. Sincerely, http://www.BradReese.Com

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MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching)

Inbox — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:04:38 -0400

MPLS has its roots in Ipsilon's IP Switching, Cisco's Tag Switching, IBM's ARIS technology and a few other proposals to bring the sort of traffic engineering found in connection-oriented Asynchronous Transfer Mode and frame relay networks to connectionless IP networks.

The idea is to steer IP traffic onto a variety of routes instead of the single one discovered by an interior gateway protocol such as Border Gateway Protocol, to avoid congestion or failures, or to enable a particular class of service or guaranteed service level.

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RE: FCC may be told to tell truth

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:07:19 -0400

Excellent points! A closely-related topic is accurate reporting of broadband competition at the sub-zipcode level. I saw in a recent article about Verizon's FIOS service that my town has broadband competition. That's not true across all of our town. If you live in a modern development with underground services, Verizon won't offer you FIOS. Re: FCC may be told to tell truth.

RE: Bill Gates unveils school-technology initiatives

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:58:38 -0400

We in Africa needs help in like setting up Bill Gates Microsoft School. I am one of the aspirants how can I be helped to set up such a school in Ghana?

John Chambers was on fire during 2007 Cisco customer appreciation keynote

Brad Reese — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 04:36:33 -0400

If you've ever wondered how Cisco Systems vanquished its numerous competitors, look no further than the video featuring Cisco Chairman John Chambers delivering his keynote at the 2007 Cisco customer appreciation event, Networkers at Cisco Live! The man was simply on fire Subject title of the keynote: Phase II of the Internet: Collaboration and Web 2.0 View this amazing video featuring the keynote delivered by John Chambers http://www.BradReese.Com

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John Chambers would make a great U.S. presidential cabinet member

Brad Reese — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 01:51:28 -0400

In the above video, Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO - John Chambers, discusses his belief that he has a personal obligation to give back and participate as a future leader in the U.S. government. Although timing is everything, it is my opinion that John Chambers would make a great U.S. presidential cabinet member. John Chambers as a member of the next U.S. president's administration would bring operational excellence and superb execution to government. View video on John Chambers' political activism Do you think John Chambers is qualified to serve on the U.S. President's cabinet? http://www.BradReese.Com

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RE: Verizon enters India's long-distance telecom market

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 08:56:08 -0400

Company web site name

RE: Sharing a single DSL line between two computers

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 03:32:51 -0400

Thanks a lot for this valuable information.Cheers!!

John Chambers to give keynote at VMworld 2007 after buying $150 million of VMware stock

Brad Reese — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:26:27 -0400

VMworld 2007 offers three full days of conference activities, including more than 230 breakout sessions around 8 tracks and hands-on labs led by VMware technical and business professionals. Furthermore, Cisco Chairman and CEO - John Chambers, will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007. No doubt Chambers will touch on the subject of Cisco's announcement today, that it purchased $150 million of VMware Class A common shares as part of the upcoming Initial Public Offering - IPO of VMware. EMC Corporation currently owns more than 99.9% of VMware's outstanding common stock.

Related story: Network World - Cisco to acquire equity stake in VMware

The stock purchase was orchestrated by Ned Hooper - senior vice president corporate development at Cisco. VMware is expected to appoint a Cisco executive to its board of directors in order to represent Cisco's 1.6% ownership of EMC's total outstanding common stock. Following the IPO, EMC will own 26,500,000 shares of Class A common stock and all 300,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, representing approximately 87% of VMware's total outstanding shares of common stock.

View Cisco stock purchase agreement with VMware However, VMware Class B common stock will be entitled to 10 votes per share and the holders of Class A common stock will be entitled to only one vote per share, giving EMC approximately 98% of the combined voting power of VMware's outstanding common stock upon completion of the Initial Public Offering. In the quarter ending March 31st 2007, VMware total revenues grew 100% to $258.6 million from $129 million in 2006. 2007 net income in the same quarter grew 100% to $40 million from $20 million in 2006. What do you think of Cisco's investment in VMware? http://www.BradReese.Com

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Very flawed study: challenge/response is a dreadful idea

richij — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:08:53 -0400

Justin Mason and I have debunked this study and we question Peter Brockmann's motives. More at http://richi.co.uk/blog/2007/07/who-is-peter-brockmann.html Re: Linking good e-mail hygiene to business performance.

Cisco certified voice professional CCVP seeks new challenge

Brad Reese — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:59:58 -0400

With diverse experience in Cisco voice networks, Abeeb V.M., CCVP, CCNA, MCP, CIPTOS, is seeking a new career opportunity with a leading corporation in a high technology environment. As a Cisco IP telephony operations specialist CIPTOS, Abeeb is a dedicated Cisco VoIP network engineer, view resume.

Abeeb's previous job responsibilities: Deployment and management of Cisco Call Manager 4.x Configuration of Cisco router platforms 2800, 3640 and 2600. Configuration of Cisco switch platforms Cat3550 and Cat2950. Deployment of Cisco IP phones 7910 - 7940 and 7960. Installation, management and monitoring of call manager cluster. Configuring class of service and call admission control. Configuring call manager features and services. Configuration of call signaling protocols on voice gateways H.323, MGCP and SCCP. Configuration of voice gateways, gatekeepers and SRST. Configuration and installation of voice interfaces like E1 and T1 lines (CAS and PRI), BRI, FXS and FXO. View Abeeb's online resume http://www.BradReese.Com

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Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from KISS expound on technology during Networkers at Cisco Live!

Brad Reese — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:50:28 -0400

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the rock band KISS, who entertained the Networkers at Cisco Live! crowd Wednesday night July 25th, expound on technology and the current state of The Connected Life. A day in the connected life: The relevance and importance of technology has created a connected life that affects nearly every aspect of our daily lives, whether we are at home, at work, or on the move. Unrelated article but interesting nonetheless: TV Guide - Gene Simmons shares the secret to bedding 4,897 women http://www.BradReese.Com

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Cisco WAAS devices integrated with NetQoS are set to validate results of WAN optimization deployments

Brad Reese — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:02:31 -0400

Accurate end-to-end application response time measurement for WAN optimization is available in Cisco WAAS devices integrated with NetQoS. Cisco Wide Area Application Services WAAS Framework Diagram:

"This is a significant advancement in the WAN optimization space, because accurate response time data is essential to ensuring WAN optimization deployments are fully optimizing application performance for the end user, and no other WAN optimization solution offers this," said Dr. Cathy Fulton - co-founder and executive vice president as well as chief technology officer of NetQoS. "Current WAN optimization technologies obscure application response times through locally acknowledged TCP sessions, making it difficult to quantify the real benefits of a WAN optimization deployment." "NetQoS and Cisco have developed a truly end-to-end solution where application performance statistics are captured and reported from the end user to the data center."

Measure the impact of Cisco WAAS on network and application performance with NetQoS:

"Cisco WAAS integrates transparently within customers’ networks, and the management interface we have developed with NetQoS extends that transparency to performance reporting data, giving our customers accurate insight into how to best leverage our technology to maximize application performance and remote user productivity," said Dr. Issy Ben-Shaul - CTO of the application delivery business unit at Cisco. Using NetQoS Performance Center modules with Cisco WAAS will help enable IT organizations to validate the results of WAN optimization deployments and: 1. Identify and prioritize the network segments and applications that will benefit from a WAN optimization deployment. 2. Obtain before and after measurements for pilot testing of optimization. 3. Determine the impact optimization has on application performance and data volume across WAN segments and in the data center. 4. Troubleshoot problems after rolling out optimization. 5. Calculate the ROI of WAN optimization deployments.

WAN optimization breaks TCP sessions into three segments: This initiative was driven by 75 enterprise customers who approached Cisco and NetQoS about integrating WAN optimization and performance reporting metrics. What do you think of this initiative? http://www.BradReese.Com

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Cisco WAAS gets improved security, monitoring

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:23:29 -0400

Cisco added encryption and improved monitoring tools to its Wide-Area Application Services WAN-acceleration gear for speeding up branch-office apps.

According to a story by Network World's Tim Greene:

The company is introducing encryption of data as it sits on disks within its WAAS gear, making it impossible for thieves to make sense of the data even if they steal the drives. Keys for the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard security used to encrypt the data are synchronized by Cisco’s WAAS Central Manager to ensure that they are readily available.

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Marc Andreessen publicly thanks EDS and Cisco for his personal $138 million cash payday

Brad Reese — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:39:43 -0400

In his personal blog Monday, Marc Andreessen chairman and co-founder of Opsware, publicly thanked EDS and Cisco for his personal $138 million cash payday upon selling his 9,691,680 Opsware shares (page 13) to Hewlett-Packard. Related story: Network World - HP to acquire Opsware in $1.6 billion deal

"Today we have announced that Opsware is being acquired by Hewlett-Packard for more than $1.6 billion in cash, or $14.25 per share," said Marc Andreessen, chairman and co-founder of Opsware. "And now, I have some people to thank... a special shout out to our friends at EDS and Cisco, who have been simply amazing."

Also cashing out is former Cisco senior vice president - Mike Volpi, who as a director sitting on the board of Opsware is selling for $2.4 million cash his personal stake of 170,047 Opsware shares. Opsware Network Automation System - 4.0 provides configuration changes for all devices, integrating policy compliance and security info to Cisco RME. The Opsware CreekPath Suite for Storage Management - 3.3 has a module for Cisco MDS support that uses SNMP and SMI-S API access to discover and manage the Cisco MDS product. The product enables Cisco MDS management as part of a complete storage management product.

What are your thoughts regarding the propriety of a senior Cisco executive sitting on the board and owning a large stockholding in a Cisco partner technology developer? http://www.BradReese.Com

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RE: Satellite services and telecommuting not always a pretty mix

Mark Gibbs — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:36:11 -0400

Way back in 1997 I had HughesNet sattelite service and the biggest problem I found was one that wasn't really discussed in this story: Latency. Because of the enormous distance a packet has to travel you have to deal with latencies ranging from 200ms to 1.5s! This means that streaming and videoconferencing technologies probably won't work and VoIP is out of the question. [mg]

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