OpenFlow Might Lower CapEx While SDN Will Increase OpEx

A lot of people have talked extensively about OpenFlow making significant changes to the networking business. In particular, many writers have focussed on the possibility that OpenFlow enables a choice of using low cost network equipment instead of the expensive networking equipment that we use today.

Well, that’s highly unlikely.

Seth Godin on Offshore Call Centres Has Parallels With Offshore Network Operations

Seth Godin strikes a chord with how I view outsourcing network administration and network operations except that he is talking about offshore call centres being “scalable engines of annoyance”. That’s a brilliant summary of my experience when working with Service Providers using offshore operations. Or customers with outsourced network management.

Comment: John Chambers on Why Cisco Never Bought Skype — GigaOm

This article made me laugh. John Chambers is trying to rewrite history here.

Comment: Juniper Acquiring Mykonos Software

Couple of days back, Juniper announced acquisition of Mykonos Software. After reviewing the web site I find that I’m interested in this acquisition as signal of change.

Predicting What Will Be Big in 2012 – Part 1

Following from my predictions on what WILL NOT be big in 2012, finally, my predictions for 2012. Not early, but hey, the future never arrives on time anyway.

Will SDN/OpenFlow Be Used in the Enterprise ?

Following the OpenFlow/SDN webinar last week, Brad sent me this question:

What does your crystal ball tell you regarding industry acceptance? I can see the Google’s of the world needing this—but what about the average enterprise?

Here is my best effort at answering:

Is OpenFlow Open ? I Ask – Compared to What ?

I’ve always wondered whether the Open Networking Foundation is the correct caretaker of the standards process for Software Defined Networking. Recently, we’ve seen some questioning of the direction of those standards on OpenFlow, and, now that we are beginning to understand the concepts of controllers, Software Defined Networking these are good questions to ask. it shows [...]

Comparing Embrane and Nicira Is Pointless – They Are Different

Had a few conversations, and some articles, where comparisons are being made between Embrane and Nicira and wanted to point out that there are few similarities between these companies.

Predicting What Will Not Be Big in 2012

I’ve been working on making some predictions about 2012 and networking. I like to do this in the year of 2012 (not 2011 like everyone else) and I like to go further than anyone else and predict what WILL NOT be big in 2012.

Using Underscores, Hyphens or CamelCase in Naming Standards

I’ve been considering a small but vital problem in naming conventions in Networking. Namely, the use of underscores and hyphens in object names and devices. It’s a hot topic for argument when the time comes for corporate standards (and when Network Engineers have beverages in a public house). Now, I figure that there are three possible grammar options for making names – hyphens, underscore and CamelCase.