Duration: 21 minutes 17 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:44 sec: Sandeep, What is GBP and what problem is trying to solve.

Question 2 @ 4:28 sec: Mike, What are the architectural components associated with GBP?

Question 3 @ 5:41 sec: Sandeep, How does GBP contribute to an open SDN approach?

Question 4 @ 6:48 sec: Sandeep,What does GBP mean for security and governance?

Question 5 @ 8:51 sec: Mike, Does GBP offer a means to automate network configuration and change management? 

Question 6 @ 10:23 sec: Mike, One part of GBP is that it gathers the state of the infrastructure.  How does it accomplish this, is there a state database that’s created?

Question 7 @ 12:20 sec: Mike, Does GBP assist in the creation of an application dependency map that can be shared across multiple IT teams, such as storage, networking, servers/virtualization and application development?

Question 8 @ 13:41 sec: Mike, How are the policies that are created configured within the products that make up the infrastructure?

Question 9 @ 15:09 sec: Mike, GBP is being adopted by OpenStack and OpenDayLight, but how will it be implemented by the vendor community within products?

Question 10 @ 18:03 sec: Mike, How does GBP compare to other efforts such as:  Congress and ONOS?

Duration: 9 minutes 30 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:38 sec:  We start with a description of the VDX 6740 and its use cases.  

Question 2 @ 3:25 sec:  VDX 6740 Latency and Throughput performance test results. 

Question 3 @ 4:30 sec:  VDX 6740 IP Multicast performance test results. 

Question 4 @ 5:07 sec:  VDX 6740 10 and 40 GbE congestion test results. 

Question 5 @ 6:15 sec:  VDX 6740 cloud computing performance test results. 

Question 6 @ 7:44 sec:  VDX 6740 power consumption test measurements.  

Question 7 @ 9:00 sec:  Closing

Podcast Duration: 11 minutes 9 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:10 sec: Nick: Don, Lets start with a description of the NEC ProgrammableFlow SDN controller that is what is it, what’s new and what type of SDNs does it enable?  

Question 2 @ 3:34 sec: Nick: Don, OpenFlow 1.3 support was added to the controller, what new SDN designs with that enable?

Question 3 @ 6:05 sec: Nick: Don, I’d like to talk a bit more about your Top of Rack switches - which do the NEC ProgrammableFlow SDN controller support, all openflow 1.3 devices?

Question 4 @ 8:03 sec: Nick: Don, there are visualization features within the NEC controller, can you talk to that feature set? 

Question 5 @ 9:36 sec: Nick: Don, how do network architects and designers start to build SDNs with the NEC ProgrammableFlow controller?

T1: Understanding And Deploying Virtual Networks by: Srini Seetharaman, Technical Lead for SDN at Deutsche Telecom



T2: Getting Started with OpenFlow Deployments by: Brent Salisbury, University of Kentucky



T3: Integrating OpenFlow and OpenStack by: Rob Sherwood, Open Networking Foundation Chair of Architecture and Framework working group



T4: Understanding White Box Networking Architecture and Economics by: JR Rivers, co-Founder and CEO of Cumulus Networks



T5: Writing SDN Applications On Popular Controllers by: Matt Davy and Chuck Black, Tallac Networks

These tutorials and instructors were defined and hand picked by the ONUG board respectively who are sending their networking, virtualization and DevOps teams, so should you.  Here’s a 3-minute video on why you should enroll in ONUG Academy.    

Over the past two years NetScout has invested in Network Monitoring Switch technology, acquiring Simenna in 2011 and ONPATH in 2012.  This is the first in a two-part podcast series were Steven Shalita, Vice President of Marketing at NetScout discusses NetScout’s increased investments in the network monitoring switch business.  In this podcast we discuss network monitoring switch and fabric market attributes and dynamics.  In the second podcast Steve and I review network monitoring design options, service delivery and the implications that virtualization and Software-Defined Networking have on monitoring architectures.

This is the second of a two-part podcast series were Steven Shalita, Vice President of Marketing at NetScout discusses NetScout’s increased investments in the network monitoring switch business.  In this podcast we review network monitoring design options, service delivery and the implications that virtualization and Software-Defined Networking have on monitoring architectures.  The first podcast on network monitoring switch and fabric market dynamics can be found here.

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 9:50 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:35 sec: Jeff why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 4:42 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 3 @ 6:10 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 4  @ 8:08 sec: How does Glue Networks participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 12:38 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:34 sec: Howard why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 2:25 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 3 @ 3:56 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 7:38 sec: How does Netronome Networks participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 12:04 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:39 sec: Awais why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 5:23 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 3  @ 9:04 sec: How does PLUMgrid participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 11:39 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:43 sec: Mike why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 5:05 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 3 @ 7:49 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 9:17 sec: How does Cyan participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 14:44  minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:39 sec: Dante why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 5:01 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next 24 months that the open networking community needs to overcome?   How to insert and chain virtualized L4-7 services in cloud and SDNs?

Question 3 @ 7:52 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 12:04 sec: How does Embrane participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 6:57 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:38 sec: Craig why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 2:30 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome? 

Question 3 @ 4:24 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 5:37 sec: How does Pertino participate in the open networking ecosystem?

The networking industry at an inflection point driven by IT business leaders taking greater control of their network infrastructure to lower operational cost and increase IT delivery flexibility.  Open networking promises to deliver greater control, lower cost and an injection of innovation not seem before in the networking industry.  To understand these dynamics, we are conducting a CEO podcast series with industry thought leaders and visionaries all of which are meeting with IT leaders at the Open Networking User Group or ONUG in Boston on Feb 13^th.  Guido Appenzeller, CEO of Big Switch Networks joins Nick Lippis for discussion on the state of open networking.  

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 8:45 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:25 sec: Guido why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 3:39 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome? 

Question 3 @ 5:47 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 6:54 sec: How does Big Switch Networks participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 18:02 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:09 sec

Question 1 @ 1:34 sec: Gregory why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 1:34 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 3 @ 9:33 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 13:39 sec: How does vArmour participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 13:08 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:38 sec: Jayshree why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 2:50 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 3 @ 7:12 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 9:52 sec: How does Arista Networks participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group here:  www.lippisreport.com/onug/register

Duration: 14:12 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:32 sec: Karl why is there so much interest in open networking from a customer point of view?

Question 2 @ 4:13 sec: What are the biggest industry challenges over the next twenty-four months that the open networking community needs to overcome?

Question 3 @ 8:36 sec: How do you see open networking evolving over the next three years?  What will networks look like?

Question 4  @ 10:10 sec: How does Vello Systems participate in the open networking ecosystem?

Duration: 15:26 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:03 sec

Question 1 @ 2:22 sec: 1) First would you like to add to my intro, that is what is Unified Access and what’s driving it?

Question 2 @ 3:02 sec: 2) What are the basic elements of UA from a product development point of view, that is where is Cisco investing to deliver UA?

Question 3 @ 5:07 sec: 3) Can you expand on the new 3850 product especially around the topic of virtualized WLAN controllers. 

Question 4 @ 7:08 sec: 3) How does UA address BYOD, Video and security trends?

Question 5 @ 10:52 sec: 4) How much does IOS 15.0 Infrastructure play a part in UA?

Question 6 @ 12:47 sec: 5) What do you expect the business outcomes to be for those that deploy UA?

Closing @ 14:41 sec: 5) Summary of UA and its impact on business process. 

Duration 12 minutes and 17 seconds:

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:27 What are the key architectural components that enable applications to call upon network resource within PureSystems.

Question 2 @ 4:45: What is Patterns and its main function?

Question 3 @ 7:21: How do clients build DOVE networks and DOVE networks build Virtual System pattern? 

Question 4 @ 8:58: What network infrastructure needs to be put in place before virtual system patterns can be created and what’s the main business benefit gained?  

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group hosted by Fidelity and the Lippis Report on Feb 13^th 2013 in Boston, MA

Duration 10 minutes and 05 seconds:

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:16: Let’s start with a discussion about Open Data Center Interoperable Network; what is it and what problem(s) does it seek to solve? 

Question 2 @ 3:37: What benefits will IT leaders gain as they start an ODIN journey.

Question 3 @ 5:13: Is ODIN an architecture and an approach to networking or a way for IBM to communicate to the market a set of product/service investments it’s making?

Question 4 @ 7:13: How does ODIN prepare a data center or cloud for elastic compute, storage and network provisioning of resource pools that can be rapidly partitioned into desired configuration?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group hosted by Fidelity and the Lippis Report on Feb 13^th 2013 in Boston, MA

Duration: 14:50 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:26 sec: Ross, lets start with the study.  What were the main findings about virtual teams? 

Question 2 @ 6:24 sec: Ross, there’s a lot of untapped productivity in today’s virtual teams.  One main problem is that people are using old tools like email, voice and conference calls while virtual and they are getting frustrated with them.  What are the new tools for virtual teams?

Question 3 @ 9:36 sec: Ross, Siemens’s approach to virtual team collaboration tools is called amplifyTEAMS.  What is amplifyTEAMS and how does it increase virtual team productivity?

Question 4 @ 12:55 sec: Ross, what’s the business outcome gain when organizations implement amplifyTEAMS?

Register to Attend the Lippis Report’s Open Networking User Group meeting hosted by Fidelity on Feb 13^th in Boston.

Duration 9 minutes and 32 seconds:

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:01 sec: Let’s start with a discussion about how Siemens is adjusting its product set to user adoption of mobile platforms and what changes you anticipate in user experience

Question 2 @ 3:05 sec: There’s a concept that Siemens calls “vibrant conversations” to describe the future of user experience.  Can you elaborate?

Question 3 @ 5:00 sec: Another Siemen’s concept in the area of user interfaces and experiences is “thought trail”.  What is it and how does it work?

Question 4 @ 6:43 sec:  There’s one last concept I want to explore and that’s “unified domains” for presence, messaging, contact and directory integration within OpenScape UC Mobile? What is unified domains and how does it work.

Question 5 @ 7:47 sec:  The coolest feature of OpenScape UC Mobile is Call Swipe; can you quickly describe?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group hosted by Fidelity and the Lippis Report on Feb 13^th 2013 in Boston, MA

Duration 16 minutes and 20 seconds:

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:22: Renato would you like to add anything to my virtual network overlay discussion in the intro that’s unique to IBM?

Question 2 @ 4:46: What is DOVE, a switch, software, etc?

Question 3 @ 7:42: How are IBM’s virtual network overlays created and managed?

Question 4 @ 9:59 How are virtual networks transported over the physical L2/3 network?  Does IBM support hybrid mode?

Question 5 @ 11:59: There are multi-tenant clouds, hybrid clouds and large-scale private clouds or data centers that would benefit from virtual network overlays.  Which use cases does IBM see as virtual network overlays offering the most value today?

Question 6 @ 14:29: How do IT business leaders start to implement IBM’s virtual network overlay?

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group hosted by Fidelity and the Lippis Report on Feb 13^th 2013 in Boston, MA

Duration: 13 minutes 17 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:52 sec: When you say that Avaya Aura is now virtualized, what does that actually mean, what is virtualized?

Question 2 @ 4:37 sec: While it may be obvious for some; let’s start with a discussion about the motivations to virtualize Avaya Aura.  What’s the key value proposition for customers and partners?

Question 3 @ 8:27 sec: There are new go to market models for partners with Avaya Aura Virtualized Environment, can you describe them and their implications for Avaya’s reach?

Question 4 @ 10:53 sec: How do existing customers take advantage of Avaya Aura Virtualized Environment as well as new prospectus?  

Register to attend the Open Networking User Group hosted by Fidelity and the Lippis Report on Feb 13^th 2013 in Boston, MA

Duration: 23:16

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:09 sec: Chris, let’s start with a discussion about why the UCC market has not been deployed as widely as many industry observers anticipated?

Question 2 @ 4:12 sec: Chris, how do UCC offerings need to change to make UCC more appealing to enterprise buyers?

Question 3 @ 8:21 sec: Chris, how does the people and team approach to UCC manifest in terms of products and services and what are the anticipated business outcomes?

Question 4 @ 17:04 sec: Chris, are we entering into a new productivity period where smart IT business leaders will seek to measure personal productivity gains made through individual centered UCC? 

Duration: 21 minutes

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:01 sec: There are several discussions taking place in the industry around software-defined networking concepts. What is Cisco’s strategy to address these?

Question 2 @ 5:04 sec Is Cisco ONE a response to the ONF or is it a set of capabilities your customers are asking for?

Question 3 @ 7:10 sec: Can you elaborate on the individual offerings under the Cisco ONE framework – onePK, SDN/OpenFlow and Overlay virtual networks? What products will Cisco offer here and how can customers consume them?

Lippis Analysis @ 11:23 sec:

Question 4  @ 13:54 sec:Cisco ONE offers different capabilities for different markets such as hyperscale data centers, cloud providers, enterprises, universities and service providers.  Which parts of ONE will each of these markets use, why and when?

Question 5 @ 17:37 sec: What do you expect the business outcomes to be, and how do you see the dynamics evolve around network virtualization and cloud computing environments, as the landscape seems to be changing quite rapidly.

Duration: 22 minutes and 37 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:36 sec: Gary, would you like to add anything to my virtual network overlay discussion in the intro that’s unique to Cisco?

Question 2 @ 3:45 sec: What are some of the misperceptions that most need to be cleared up?

Question 3 @ 4:42 sec: Gary, you and I talked before about a network virtualization stack early this year, and now the conversation appears to have shifted to this virtual overlay concept. Are these really the same things that Cisco has been talking about for a while? Or what’s different and what’s behind the evolution?

Question 4 @ 7:11 sec: There’s a lot of discussion in the industry now about the virtual switch being a key strategic battleground going forward, and that presumably extends to virtual overlay infrastructures overall. We know that VMware acquiring Nicira gives them an overlay story as well that could lead to competition with Cisco specifically in this area. Is this a “battleground”, and if so, what makes Cisco’s approach different or unique?

Question 5 @ 16:23 sec: Lets talk use cases.  When do you go from a physical network to a virtual one, when do you need overlays, and what are the applications that are going to be built on top of these new SDN API’s?

Question 6 @ 18:19 sec: Which use cases does Cisco see as virtual network overlays offering the most value today? 

Question 7 @ 20:59 sec: The perception is that a lot of this SDN stuff is really out in the future? When and how do data center architects start to implement Cisco’s virtual network overlays?

Duration: 13 minutes 28 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:09 sec: Phil lets start with the Cisco controller and OpenFlow agents.  What functionality will the controller have and which Cisco switch families will be equipped with OpenFlow agents? 

Question 2 @ 4:54 sec: Is Campus Slicing primarily for the university market or was the design center focused on both academic and enterprise.

Question 3 @ 8:04 sec: Is Cisco’s key added value in Campus Slicing focused on the ability to logically slice a piece of an operational network for researchers to perform their experiments?  

Question 4 @ 11:00 sec: What campus slicing use cased do you foresee in the enterprise market?  

Duration: 13 minutes 20 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:00 sec: Kevin lets first talk about why Cisco is offering OnePK? From the briefing I received its clear that this programming environment had to be in development for a few years, so Cisco must have been hearing this requirement for some time.  True?

Question 2 @ 2:44 sec: What drove the decision to expose the network to developers via OnePK? 

Question 3 @ 3:45 sec: What kind of network information and control will be exposed to developers and what type of applications will benefit from OnePK?

Question 4 @ 5:47 sec: Is there a Cisco OnePK developer ecosystem in development and how will OnePK applications be supported?

Question 5 @ 7:07 sec:  What are the implications for the skill set requirements for your customers who will use onePK?

Question 6 @ 8:36 sec:  How does onePK differ from OpenFlow? 

Question 7  @ 10:56 sec: Will API verbs be consistent across Cisco’s OSs and when will the OnePK SDK be available?

Victor Moreno Distinguished Technical Marketing Engineer at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss Cisco’s approach to workload mobility via is Locator/ID Separation Protocol or LISP technology. 

Duration: 21 minutes and 22 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:29 sec: Victor let’s start with a definition of LISP.   What it is, what does it do and where is it located in the network? 

Question 2 @ 8:10 sec:  How does LISP support network policy?

Question 3 @ 9:27 sec: How does LISP eliminate manual network changes required to move workload?   Put another way, how does LISP automate the process of workload mobility?

Question 4 @ 13:20 sec: When workload is freed from location what new data center or cloud computing design options are available to IT leaders?

Question 5 @ 17:09 sec:  How do IT business leaders deploy LISP, what’s needed and how systemic does it need to be implemented? 

Duration: 12 minutes and 26 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 2:19 sec: Rakesh, There are a few approaches to SDN including overlay virtual networks, OpenFlow control of physical and virtual switches plus a hybrid.  How do you see these implementations evolving over time?

Question 2 @ 5:10 sec: Samrat, There are a range of protocols to use for the overlay of virtual networks to tunnel through physical L2/3 networks, such as GRE, VXLAN , NVGRE, etc.  How will this space evolve? 

Question 3 @ 6:34 sec: Rakesh, There’s discussion in the industry about how SDN can be used to configure a converged LAN/SAN fabric.  Can you talk to this?

Question 4 @ 7:58 sec: Samrat, there are multiple approaches for SDN controllers, be it in a hypervisor, an appliance, part of a cloud stack, etc.  How do you see the role of the controller evolving over time? 

Question 5 @ 9:17 sec: Rakesh, How do you see SDN evolving and how does programmable networking fit in? 

Question 6 @ 10:52 sec: Samrat, same question.  How do you see SDN evolving and how does programmable networking fit in? 

Duration: 12 minutes 20 seconds

Lippis Intro/Analysis Starts @ : 00:10 sec

Question 1 @ 1:58 sec: Shehzad. lets first start with Extreme’s view of SDN market drivers.  What are your customers asking for? 

Question 2 @ 3:52 sec: Shehzad, Extreme describes an SDN architecture with four layers.  Let’s describe that to the audience as its central to the re-distribution of network responsibilities and functions. 

Question 3 @ 6:51 sec: Shehzad, Extreme’s initiative consist of four components: 1) Open programmability of networking, 2) SDN/OpenFlow & Multiple controller support, 3) support for OpenStack and quantum and 4) all of the above built on top of an open fabric.   Can you talk to each initiative and how they are additive in value?

Question 4 @ 10:39 sec: What does Extreme’s Open fabric SDN approach bring to IT business leaders and how can they take advantage of it?  

You can also download a white paper on App-IQ HERE

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here. 

Cisco is the only large vertical IT supplier with compute, storage, L4-7 application services and deep networking capabilities making its data center offering unique.  It’s Unified Network Services or UNS, Unified Computing System or UCS, Unified Fabric and policy based management make up the Cisco Data Center Fabric.  In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Shashi Kiran; Director of Market Management for Data Center/Virtualization at Cisco Systems about the vision and strategy of Cisco’s Data Center Fabric and the value its customers are gaining from its use.       

Camp Dress McKee or CDM is a consulting, engineering, construction and operations firm delivering exception service to public and private clients worldwide.  CDM’s traditional areas of expertise include water and the environment.  In this video podcast I talk with Peter Palmisano CIO CDM about how CDM is using HD videoconferencing to speed business processes and reduce operational cost.

As IT operations become more complex, it steals productivity. Unchecked complexity slows down new applications from being deployed or virtualized, elongates troubleshooting, stresses operational staff, creates compliance vulnerabilities and shrinks IT operational budgets. All IT departments seek to manage this complexity inflation before it impacts business processes. One of the largest drivers of complexity inflation is the growing rate of “IP addresses and network change management requirements.” The fact is that IT business leaders must deploy dynamic IT solutions to enable their businesses to support flexible business processes to address market dynamics. Without automated tools to facilities change management, complexity inflation simply eats up IT operations. In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Steve Garrison, Vice President, Marketing for Infoblox, about solutions to tame complexity inflation with automated IP address management and network change management.     

Adding new applications in a data center has become highly complex thanks to routing paths set-up to provide connectivity/reach of Layer 4-7 network services and their associated configuration and policy set-up for specific applications.  Then, once the application is operational it’s hard to virtualize it and move it via v-motion while keeping set-up and policies intact especially routing paths.  This is a difficult problem riddled with complexity and associated cross-administrative operational cost limiting the number of applications that can be virtualized.  A fundamental new approach to networking is needed to solve this and Cisco has been thinking about it for some time now.  In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Gary Kinghorn Product Marketing Manager Data Center Solutions Marketing at Cisco Systems as we discuss Cisco’s Unified Network Services strategy. 

Alcatel-Lucent brings its new OmniSwitch 10K enterprise core Ethernet switch to the Lippis/Ixia test at iSimCity.  Nick Lippis interviews Khurram Khawaja, Product Manager at Alcatel-Lucent on cloud network design with the OmniSwitch 10K.  Go here to download the Lippis/Ixia Test Report of the OmniSwitch 10K. 

BLADE/IBM brings its new G8124 and G8264 Top-of-Rack 10GbE switch to the Lippis/Ixia test at iSimCity.  Nick Lippis interviews David Iies, Director or Product Management RackSwitch Product Line at BLADE/IBM on cloud network design with these new RackSwitches. Go here to download the Lippis/Ixia Test Report of the G8124 and G8264 RackSwitches.

Andy Bechtolsheim Founder, Chief Development Officer and Chairman of Arista Networks joins me to discuss how the public and private data center cloud network market is emerging and the new type of networking it’s requiring.  

A typical “non-virtualized” data center has three network layers, Top-of-Rack, End-of-Row and Core switches. But virtualized infrastructure adds two additional layers; the virtual switch and blade switch; raising the number of tiers from 3 to 5.  This significantly increases latency plus the number of network elements within the data center resulting in increased data center management complexity.  I talk with Shehzad Merchant Senior Director for Strategy at Extreme Networks about Extreme’s flattening approach to data center network fabric through its DirectAttach.

Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group and I recorded our annual and very popular predictions for the coming year.  We hit a lot of topics such as 2011 being the year of mobile computing thanks to the iPad and Androd tablets and the huge implications of a new tier of computing.  MSFT Lynx fizzling, Extreme Networks rebounding, the rise of private clouds and desktop virtualization, a big IPO year coming, video conferencing adoption acceleration, Polycom not making it alone, wifi/3G/4G blurring, etc. This end-of-year, forward-looking Lippis Report podcast is one of our most popular, so we offer it to our subscribers as a holiday gift with wishes for a great holiday season and prosperous New Year.

Move a VM from one physical server to another and network port profile, VLANs, security settings etc have to be reconfigured.  Many networking companies haven’t taken the critical step of giving complete visibility and control of the VM lifecycle from an infrastructure perspective.  But with XNV, Extreme Networks is bringing this functionality and visibility to network administrators, tracking VMs and applying policy as they move throughout the network.  Shehzad Merchant Sn. Director for Strategy at Extreme Networks joins me for a discussion about Extreme’s approach to network automation and visibility of virtualized infrastructure through its XNV software module.

IT business leaders are faced with a great economic shift, while at the same time are afforded the opportunity of a shift in IT delivery models.  Business leaders must balance maintaining their current infrastructure, while exploring these IT delivery innovations. Most importantly, IT business leaders need to use their IT budget, approximately 4% of corporate spend, to significantly enhance and reduce the other 96% of corporate spend.  But it’s not just an economic calculus that is diving post great recession IT spending.  IT leaders need to engineer their delivery to be flexible to support current business growth, ongoing change, and long-term business goals.  Robert Taylor, VP of HP Enterprise Services joins me to discuss what he has learned from HP’s global 2000 customers as they emerge from the economic downturn and prepare for a new business cycle with IT.

Gigabit Ethernet networking has expanded to desktop connections in campus networking and to dense server connectivity in data centers.  In short gigabit Ethernet has become mainstream with multiple use cases driving its growth. But a new generation of gigabit Ethernet switches is needed to satisfy market demands with attributes such as PoE-Plus, stacking, data center cooling, power efficiency and more.  It’s these attributes and more that Extreme is delivering with its new Summit X460 Gigabit Ethernet switch.  I talk with Darius Goodall, Senior Manager Product Marketing at Extreme Networks about the Summit X460 and the new network designs it enables.  

Ronnie Kenneth, CEO and Asaf Somekh, VP Marketing of Voltaire a leader in data center networking are my guest as we dive into Ethernet data center fabric design options.  Data Center vendors are discussed too and you have to hear what they have to say about Cisco.  Enjoy, Nick

Avaya has developed a unique approach to branch office networking with the introduction of its Advanced Gateway 2330.  Previous to Avaya’s acquisition of Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions business its branch office solution was focused on communications, but now it has computer-networking capabilities that is manifesting into a powerful branch office portfolio offering.  I talk with Michael Fitzgerald, Portfolio Leader of the Unified Branch at Avaya about Avaya’s investment in branch office networking with particular focus on network designs its approach affords.  Enjoy, Nick

With energy efficiency and sustainability mandates being issued by government officials and corporation boards, IT vendors have focused engineering resources to deliver products with increased feature sets that consume less energy.  But one company in particular has taken its core competency and found a way to not only make its own business more energy efficient but everything it touches too.  That company is Cisco Systems. Laura Finkelstein, Senior Director of Switching Marketing at Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss Cisco’s Borderless Green service and the value it delivers to both IT business and government leaders.

Before HP purchased 3Com it would seldom engage in discussion about the future of networking.  It was product focused.  But now in an exclusive interview with Mr. Saar Gillai, Vice President of Advanced Technology Group & CTO of HP Networking, HP opens up and talks freely about industry trends it’s watching and most importantly influencing.  These trends are guiding HP investment in networking with hopes of market share gain, thought leadership and increased industry influence.  It’s a fascinating interview into the mind of HP Networking.

Contact center technology is being virtualized at the agent desktop and server levels offering favorable economics, agent flexibility and a centralized data center deployment design.  For Siemens Enterprise Communications, a leader in the Contact Center market, its OpenScape Contact Center V8 software runs on top of a VMware hypervisor.  In addition to efficient server deployment V8 adds powerful agent features such as a Web-based agent, supervisor and management desktops making it easier to deploy home-based or remote agents virtually at multiple locations.  George Despinic, Global Contact Center Marketing Manager for Siemens Enterprise Communications is my guest as we discuss the company’s OpenScape Contact Center V8 that puts contact center functionality in a virtualized data center offering new design and economic options for contact center deployments.

I interview Marius Haas, Senior Vice President and World Wide General Manager of the HP Networking business.  I asked him how will HP compete in the highly competitive networking market, what is their salient value proposition, why is HP so focused on networking now and why should IT business leaders consider HP Networking.  His responses had a ring of market truth to them.  As such any IT business leader worth their salt needs to listen to this podcast.  Enjoy, Nick

I interview Vikram Mehta President and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies or BLADE.  BLADE has been offering top-of-rack and blade switches since 2006, boast nearly 9 million ports installed and is now the number 2 provider of 10GbE switches.  With all this success I ask Vikram what BLADE is being asked to offer from IT Business leaders as they build out their data center Ethernet fabric.  You don’t want to miss his responses.  Listen now.   

Massively scalable data centers have unique requirements such as low latency, high performance, non-stop operation, simplicity of design, workload mobility and storage transport support.  To address these requirements Cisco launched FabricPath, which is a scalable multi-link and multipath technology allowing 2 to 48 Nexus 7000s to be configured in a large, non-blocking Ethernet switch fabric.  This fabric, called a FabricPath Switching System or FSS, eliminates oversubscription and creates a two-tier fabric.   In addition to FabricPath, Cisco launched its F-Series 10GbE module for the Nexus 7000, which offers 32 ports of auto-sensing 1/10GbE targeted at server access, aggregation and FCoE implementations solutions.  Craig Griffin Senior Director of Product Management for Cisco’s Nexus 7000 discusses new Ethernet innovations for the age of massively scalable data centers.

A white paper on the topic is available here:

Unified communications is becoming an integration point for traditional dial tone, FAX, video and messaging as it adds increased access and functionality to these important forms of communications. Sagemcom is by far the industry leader in IP FAX having successfully integrated FAX capability into Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft’s UC platforms.  Its XmediusFAX has proven to reduced cost, increase access and security of FAX communications.  In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Bob Wood, Executive Director at Sagemcom about how FAX communications can be integrated into the UC platform of your choice and the business outcomes it delivers.

The Unified Communications (UC) market is changing significantly in terms of how solutions are deployed, services are packaged and systems procured.  Siemens addressed all of these areas in one fell swoop with the recently released OpenScape UC Server 2010.  Siemens announced new licensing options for endpoints and integrated UC endpoint services in packaged solutions including social media plug-ins such as Twitter. Kathy Heilmann, Director, Large Enterprise Voice and UC Solutions Marketing at Siemens Enterprise Communications joins me to talk about the new rules of UC procurement and its value to IT business leaders.

Networking has become “rigid”. Yes, I know it’s almost absurd to attribute inflexibility or rigidity to networking, but we are in a compute innovation cycle that’s driving a fundamental change in networking, which screams out the need for more flexibility and configuration automation.  The well understood problem is that when a virtualized machine is moved from one physical machine to another, the network, load balancers, firewalls/IPS, broadcast domains, etc., have to be reconfigured. There is no automation in place, meaning that the network is not flexible or agile enough to make the changes required. Networking companies such as Force10 Networks are driving an open approach to automation to enable network changes. I talk with Steve Garrison, Vice President, Marketing for Force10 Networks about its’ “Open Automation” approach to networking. 

In their recently released OpenScape UC Server 2010 Siemens has incorporated application virtualization allowing UC applications such as OpenScape Voice, OpenScape Branch, OpenScape Media Server etc to load on standard compute hardware avoiding the installation, configuration and maintenance of running multiple complex software stacks, operating systems and applications.  Paul McMillan Director UC Technical Vision & Strategy at Siemens Enterprise Communications joins me to talk about what virtualization in a UC environment delivers to IT business leaders as we dive into the details of UC Server 2010.

While the networking industry is full steam ahead with the transition from 1 to 10 Gb Ethernet in corporate uplinks plus virtualized and cloud spec data centers, the IEEE has been working on 40 and 100Gb Ethernet standards to be ratified soon. It’s anticipated that the 40GbE standard will be completed first and built with lower cost, long-range optical components than 100GbE. The question on the minds of most IT business leaders is when and where to deploy these ultra high-speed Ethernet technologies and at what cost?  We answer these questions with Steve Garrison, Vice President, Marketing of Force10 Networks. We’ll dive into Force10’s 40 GbE leadership position and the new network design options it unleashes upon IT business leaders.   

WAN optimization products are central to delivering excellent application performance to employees in branch offices especially as applications continue to be centralized in data centers.  Another key attribute of WAN optimization is that these solutions reduce WAN bandwidth requirements thus spend.  At the heart of WAN optimization technology is cache architecture, or how device stores or caches data to minimize WAN transfers.  We dive into the two main cache architecture approaches; “per peer” and “universal” then ask the key question.  Does caching architectures and cache sizing affect WAN optimization performance or are their other more important aspects of WAN optimization that buyers should be concerned with as they undergo vendor selection”?  In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Baruch Deutsch Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cisco System to demystify WAN optimization.

There is huge growth in video traffic on corporate networks thanks primarily to on-demand video clips and increasingly video collaboration, TelePresence, video surveillance and Digital Signage. But how do IT business leaders support the various forms of video on their corporate networks before a video tsunami wreaks havoc to network performance?  Also how do IT business leaders deliver a good video experience to a wide range of endpoints such as low bandwidth remote offices, mobile smartphones, WiFi connected laptops etc?  Tere’ Bracco, Senior Marketing Manager for Network Systems and Security at Cisco joins me to discuss Cisco’s Medianet technologies that offer an approach to managing and delivering video services over corporate IP networks. 

Arista’s new 7500 Series of Ethernet switches is touted as the fastest Ethernet switch on the planet.  Arista Networks has been delivering ultra high performance fixed 1/10 Gb Ethernet switches for high performance computing and cloud computing data centers. But this week Arista shocked the industry by introducing a massively powerful Ethernet switch platform that is 10 GbE port dense, compact, cloud spec fast, amazingly green plus smart and prepared for 40 and 100GbE with a price tag 50% below competitive offerings. I talk with Douglas Gourlay, Vice President Marketing and Anshul Sadana Vice President, Customer & Systems Engineering both from Arista Networks about a new age of network design in the cloud-computing era. 

This is the question that Zeus Kerravala, SVP of the Yankee Group and I address in the Lippis Report podcast.  Here’s a hint, lack of standards and the vendor community’s lack of interest of embracing the ones we have.  Post your ideas on twitter with the following hash mark #UCINTEROP.

Our industry is in a compute innovation cycle thanks to virtualization and cloud computing and it’s changing fundamental networking requirements and design.  These changes are beyond increased packet processing performance and ultra low latency.  They extend to network design and product features that enable increased server virtualization scale, workload mobility and cloud computing.  I discuss a new model for networking born out of data center virtualization and cloud computing with Doug Gourlay, Vice President Marketing at Arista Networks.  This is Arista Networks' first podcast; sure to be a classic. 

Enjoy, Nick 

Power over Ethernet (PoE) powers IT endpoints like IP phones and WLAN Access points.  But newer devices like IP video phones, IP surveillance cameras, thin client display, next Generation IP phones, 802.11n WLAN access points and Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) Surveillance cameras require more than 15W of power so the IEEE recently standardized a new 30W PoE standard called PoE Plus.  Soon most, if not all, corporations will have a mix of end points that require old PoE and new PoE plus power.  IT leaders can meet these requirements by leveraging the enhanced PoE and PoE Plus features offered by Cisco’s Catalyst 4500 E-Series product line. Moreover Cisco has announced two new Catalyst 4500 Series Line Cards with readiness for PoE Plus and inline power up to 30W per port.   I talk with Sachin Gupta, Director and Product Manager at Cisco Systems about these new PoE design features and what new options are available to IT architects as they build out corporate collaborative solutions.

A panel of IT business leaders discuss their experience with Network Virtualization as we dive into motivations, design options, economics and business outcomes.  On the panel is Marilyn Hay, Manager of the Network Management Centre at the University of British Columbia, Frank Hoonhout, Senior Lead Network Engineer at the State of Oregon’s State Data Center and Hasan Siraj, Director of Product Marketing at Cisco Systems.  This is a podcast you surely want to listen to.

Find out the real world value and business outcome of investing in Network Virtualization by listening to this podcast.

Cisco’s TrustSec is architecture with its implementation spread across client software, infrastructure (Catalyst & Nexus) and policy (Access Control System and NAC appliance).  Cisco has expanded TrustSec to incorporate 802.1x clients allowing IT leaders to mix and match NAC and 802.1x endpoints.  TrustSec organizes and simplifies authentication and policy schema allowing administrators to configure and maintain identity-based access to IT resources while identifying and applying policy based on a user roles in the organization. TrustSec also provides encrypted links at the switch port level.  Steven Song Security Business Manager in the Network Systems & Security group at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss TrustSec and how Cisco is expanding its services and importance for IT business leaders.   

In addition to desktop connectivity wiring closet switches now connect wireless access points, laptops, kiosks, netbooks, IP phones, printers, video desktop systems and more while also managing electrical power of the devices they connect.  New PoE Plus standard 802.3at allow 30W per port to be delivered which has driven a change in wiring closet power management. I talk with Berna Devrim, Sr. Manager, Access Switching Marketing at Cisco Systems about the dynamics forcing a change in wiring closet switching and the new Cisco X and S series of edge switching products which represent progressive thinking in this space.  Enjoy, Nick.

IT leaders are not comfortable with mobile computing security.  And they do have a lot to be concerned about as securing a plethora of different devices accessing both corporate and SaaS applications from a vast array of locations and network access methods is a challenge.  Traditional VPN methods are too cumbersome for users and don’t factor the huge growth in SaaS application use.  A new model for securing remote and mobile access is needed and Cisco has delivered one.  Cisco just launched AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client that offers a simple use model for mobile workers that leverages Cisco’s ASA, IronPort Web Security Appliance, ScanSafe, and SIO to wrap a corporate perimeter around its mobile workforce.  Kevin Kennedy, Product Marketing Manager at Cisco Systems discusses a new approach to securing mobile computing.  

The Web is increasingly be used as the threat vector of choice by hackers and cybercriminals to distribute malware and perpetrate identity theft, financial fraud, and corporate espionage.  Is exploit sophistication and complexity evolving beyond traditional endpoint anti-virus mitigation?  Is a network centric model a faster and more accurate approach to zero day threat defense where massive cloud computing resources are put to work identifying and mitigating complex, polymorphic threats designed to evade anti-virus software are mitigated before they reach desktop or mobile endpoints?  Mark Guntrip, Product Manager at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss Cisco ScanSafe, a Cloud Web Security Offering and debate client versus network based zero day threat defense.

Analysts estimate 30% of today’s data center workloads are being virtualized and this number continues grow.  As such, the need to provide the same intrusion protection system or IPS security for applications in virtualized and non-virtualized data centers is a must.  In short applications on virtualized servers need the same protections as applications running on non-virtualized servers.  To meet that end 3Com has launched its Secure Network Fabric and TippingPoint’s Secure Virtualization Framework.   Alan Kessler, President of TippingPoint is my guest to discuss these initiatives and how they solve the problem of securing applications running on and off virtualized servers.

3com offers a global support network for its customers that are staffed around the world.  Their hallmark is flexibility in engagement arrangement and customization of support needs.  Vendor transition and product support are two key aspects offered by 3Com so that risk of vendor transition is transferred to 3Com and not the customer.  Service and support is needed more now then ever as data center and enterprise network design and deployments have become complex thanks to a plethora of new technologies and options.  I discuss the Importance of service and support in enterprise networking with Imran Khan Vice President of Global Services at 3Com.  Enjoy, Nick

In this Part Two special edition “Lessons Learned? podcast, Peter Palmisano, CIO and Jerry Weiner, Manager of Systems and Networks both of Camp Dresser & McKee continue to discuss their experience, both pros and cons, about deploying a multi-national converged network.  This is, by far, one of the best podcasts we have recorded, and is full of useful advice and insights from two leading IT executives.  They will tell you what to look out for and what works.  The huge questions raised are:  Is the IP telephony industry ready to support connected remote offices, a fully converged network, disaster plans and more?  You will hear it from executives that are living with it right now.  The first part of this interview is available in the Lippis Report Download Library.  This is a must listen podcast.  Special thanks to Viola Networks for sponsoring the ?Lessons Learned? series.  Enjoy, Nick

In this part one special edition Lessons Learned podcast, Peter Palmisano, CIO and Jerry Weiner, Manager of Systems and Networks both of Camp Dresser & McKee discuss their experience, both pros and cons about deploying a multi-national converged network.  This is by far, one of the best podcasts we have recorded and is full of useful advice and insights from two leading IT executives.  They will tell you what to look out for and what works.  The huge questions raised are:  Is the IP telephony industry ready to support connected remote offices, a fully converged network, disaster plans and more?  You will hear it from executives that are living with it right now.  The second part of this interview will be distributed September 12^th.  This is a must listen podcast.  Special thanks to Viola Networks for sponsoring the lessons learned series.  Enjoy, Nick

Scott Palmquist joins the program to discuss the network encryption market and CipherOptics' new Ethernet Security Gateway.  Protecting data in "motion" has become top of mind for most IT executives as they look to close network security vulnerabilities.  There's a great discussion on layer 2 versus layer 3 encryption, protecting data in motion versus at rest, where to apply encryption and the elimination of the encryption performance and latency penalty.  Enjoy, Nick

Nick Lippis interviews Al Baker of Siemens on how IT departments are looking to mold, shape and inject communications into business process.  IT departments are starting to view contact centers as the starting point to link communications directly into a wider set of business applications increasing productivity and creating competitive differentiation.  Al discusses these dynamics in the context of Siemens's new HiPath ProCenter Enterprise V7.0 contact center offering for the SME and mid-large enterprise markets.  It is a great listen and is studio quality too.