There plenty of things about participating on Twitter that are annoying. Photos of food, location message like “I’m at a cheap chain restaurant” eating the same food as everyone else or even “You got to the first level of $game”. But the worst things for me are Tweet Chats where people start randomly spewing out [...]
Rant: Everything at Cisco Is a “Game”
28th March 2013 by
Is everything at Cisco a game ? Cisco is changing the game, reducing complexity and making it simpler for enterprises to deliver and manage application delivery to users. Cisco ISR-AX is Now a Part of the Integrated Services Router Family!. Protecting Our Networks: It’s a Team Game Now! Cisco is changing the game for B2B [...]
Rant: A Better Cisco Software Experience (Licensing) for Partners (but Not Customers)
19th March 2013 by
Cisco customers can update their licenses using this handy portal. Sounds good ? Exciting ? No, not the person who bought the software license, the partner that sold you the license can update the licenses. You might have forgotten who is Cisco’s real customer, and it’s not the person who paid for products. Partners, the [...]
VMware’s vSphere Web Client Uses Flash ? That’s Pretty Weak.
12th September 2012 by
I have to agree in part with Trevor Potts at The Register and object to VMware’s solution to the vCenter client platform problem. He got to ask VMware why they are using Flash instead of HTML5 and he runs down the list of options. Java – too much versioning, not much customer love (ie none, [...]
Rant: Cisco Claims “We’re Listening” to Simplifying Cisco Software Licensing
4th September 2012 by
If this is the best that Cisco can manage when they are “listening” we have a huge problem with Cisco licensing strategy. Glam it up all you like, but this isn’t helping. It’s just ignoring us.
Rant: Lazy Documentation, NX-OS and Asking for Feedback
2nd July 2012 by
I loathe being asked to complete customer surveys and providing feedback because it happens so often. It must be fashionable among the MBA and marketing types because it never bloody stops. It sure feels like every vendor interaction these days involves taking a survey. I don’t think it will be long before a survey will need included in the PO acceptance process by some vendors & resellers.
Rant: Our Vendor Partners Dont Have an SDN Vision
19th June 2012 by
There is an old saying “A man with his eyes fixed on Heaven doesn’t see where he is going”. It’s an almost perfect description of how the major vendors are bringing Software Defined Networking to the market.
The consistent message from all the vendors and especially the Cisco, Juniper and Brocade is that there are “no use cases for SDN”. In the last three months, this has been a constantly repeated statement both publicly and privately. This beggars belief that vendors can’t see immediate needs that deliver long term gains.
I suspect that the root of this problem is the big companies want to solve big problems. And by solving big problems they figure that they can make big revenue. Alright, I get that. It’s understandable that large organisations need a constant revenue stream to feed the insatiable maws of their shareholders. However, the vendors re also missing the most real and immediate problem of networking today. Simply, Networking is too hard.
Vendors haven’t developed tools that keep the complexity of networking under control. Complexity can be reduced to this: “I don’t have big problems, I have lots of small problems.” You can have debates about addressing complexity and how to attack it, but it nearly always boils down to this: start small.
Rant: Platforms All the Way Down
23rd May 2012 by
I’ve just been forced to sit through a vendor presentation that had a lot of talk about their “platform” and how successful it’s been, and how valuable it is. When I pointed out that it was dependent on at least three other platforms, there was pause. Silence. The sales team, clearly, hadn’t realised this and it wasn’t part of the vendor briefing. I told them, it’s “Platforms All The Way Down”.
Rant: I’m Not Dumb – Expanding Acronyms and Third Person Nouns
4th April 2012 by
It is part of my professional life to write documents and whitepapers. I do this both for my $DayJob as a Network Engineer/Architect, and for my $NightJob writing whitepapers and articles for vendors and analyst firms. Over time of submissions, I’ve had my content reworked in ways that I don’t agree with. I think it’s time to recognise that the English language changes over time.
Rant: Screen Reading – Comparing Windows and MAC
29th December 2011 by
In the last couple of years, I find that I rarely use physical books to read something new. I recently started a new role that requires me to use a Windows 7 laptop and I’m finding it unreadable. Either there is something wrong with Windows or Apple have done something exceptional with screen displays.
