Another week of being a Human in IT Infrastructure Are you still alive to talkabout it

View this email in your browser

IN THIS WEEKS ISSUE The Consultants Story Getting Inside The IETF Pleaseremember to enable the images the magazine looks a lot better that way

Table of Contents (aka The Project Plan)

1 The Consultants StorySponsor Interop ITX2 Getting Inside The IETFSponsor ViptelaInternets Of Interest Sponsor INEProduct NewsPacketPushersnet - The LastFiveWatch ThisQuick Survey Whos TheWorstLast Issues Survey Results

Issue Number 54

04122017

The Story Time issue

Thought For The WeekPeeps or Cadbury Creme Eggs Or

both

1 The Consultants Storyby Greg Ferro

The team is gathered around the table wearing old trousers sneakersand lsquofreersquo tshyshirts from a wide range of vendors They drink the stalebulkshybuy instant coffee from the kitchen The discussion includes a fairamount of resentment at the lack of pay rises or bonuses The managers wear worn suits with cheap leather shoes pretendingthat they are important and valued In review sessions its clear theywork hard but there isnrsquot enough time to cover all the work Theyarenrsquot the best people Irsquove worked for but they care about thecompany in a ldquowant to keep my jobrdquo kind of way Irsquom not here to judgewhether their work is usefulshyshythats for management specialists I think back to my walk through the car park as I arrived Older carsmostly second hand looking well maintained but still a little tired Irsquom a consultant (hired directly over the Internet because recruitmentfees are expensive) to review the proposals and offer advice about amajor purchase Irsquom here to help fit a project into the budget

RequirementsThere have been a number of network failures over the last year Thebudget has been sliced with a spreadsheet resulting in a madeshyupnumber of dollars available for lsquosolving the problemrsquo The number hasno basis in reality A quick review of existing infrastructure highlights longshyterm underinvestment in the network Physically the network is less than 10years old but fear of failure means that the devices havenrsquot beenupdated since installation No one can remember why they bought theequipment they have the cabling isnrsquot right and the level ofnetworking capability is narrow They know what they know they donrsquotknow what they donrsquot know

Proposals

The resellers have been here for the last two days pitching theirsolutions It is immediately clear that reseller competence is limited toa single vendor because they donrsquot have the budget or available staffto expand Any questions about other vendors lead to puzzled looksClearly they donrsquot bother to learn what the competition is doing theyhave one vendor for networking and thats it Any moderately complex questions are noted and will be answeredlater because the person who can answer that isnrsquot here today Turnsout there is only one person who can answer the question anywaybecause the reseller has a small networking team say less than fivepeople All of the proposals are basically the same Same vendor sameproducts and roughly the same design When asked they admit thatthey have lsquoengagedrsquo the vendor who produced the design So we have three identical proposals from resellers that wereproduced by a single vendor employee who has a limited knowledgeof the actual solution but lsquoapprovedrsquo the same design for each reseller During phone interviews its easy to see that the resellers donrsquot reallyunderstand why the specific products were chosen or why the solutioncosts so much Theyve simply taken the vendor document andcopiepasted into their own proposals Just like last time none of them realize how obvious this is

Pushing HardThe reseller employees have become friendly with the team over thelast few years They donrsquot just sell networking they sell anything thatthe customer needs in the IT arena The relationship might be a littletoo cozy and the reseller is taking advantage of poor leadership by themanagers who are too tired and busy to care much

Everyone is upset when I ask uncomfortable questions clarify logicand challenge assumptions The lsquopreferredrsquo reseller starts to complainthat solution is the best available The managers are getting excitedthinking they can use the disruption to drive a better price They aresupporting me while their own staff supports the reseller The reseller can see the deal coming unstuck as I highlight the hugelyovershyspecified hardware in the design Of course the reseller points tothe vendor who created the design and says it wasnrsquot them The sales rep starts to panic and makes an attempt to undermine myposition He hasnrsquot done his homework and isnrsquot aware of mybackground or why Irsquove been brought into the process The managersfinally spark into life and gently point out that Irsquom here to help evaluatethe solution and get the best result for them I ask the reseller people if they understand the requirements and thesolution Of course they say they do So I drill in to the decisionshymaking process to understand the justification for unnecessaryhardware and software The usual responses come out quality trust future growth flexibilitylong lifecycle This company doesnrsquot need those things its starved forfunds and just needs to survive

The Final PhaseIrsquom in the final meeting with the managers The process has to bewrapped up this week and ashydecisionshymustshybeshymade All three resellers on the short list have offered the same solution fromthe same vendor I discuss the business reasons why this happens Iexplain the vendor has enormously overshyspecified the solutionbecause thats standard practice Itrsquos not malicious or likely intentionalbut all vendor designs inherently lean into highshyvalue solutions andmost vendor employees lack the field experience to rightsize their

designs The solution will work but the team will struggle to cope with extratechnology that isnrsquot necessary or relevant The solution costs three times more than budget available Somethinghas to give Irsquom asked for options Irsquom prepared for this I look down at my list

Option 1

I recognize that the team wants to stay with the trusted vendorbecause thats what they know Its going to be hard to persuade themto change for fear of losing skills and what they know The reseller is atrusted party and my advice isnrsquot what they want to hear Managersjust want this to go away I shrug my shoulders and recommend biting the bullet on the cheapestproposal There are three likely impacts 1) Cut back to 60 of the proposed solution or about twice the budgetavailable The vendor expects it will get the deal via one of theresellers and is unlikely to discount so there is no leverage Thelargest reductions will come from the reseller professional servicescomponent and likely lead to rushed deployment Theres significantrisk that reductions will render the solution unworkable once deployed 2) Headcount reductions to cover the funding gap within the year

3) Cut something else from the budget to allocate to the network

Option 2

Recommend finding a networkshyspecific reseller that can offer newproposals with different vendors technology or structure that can fitthe requirements and the budget Networkshyspecific resellers are more

likely to propose a better solution This could upset the incumbent reseller who may react negatively atthe loss of a deal The team may also be upset because they arefriendly with the reseller and donrsquot want to see their lsquohired friendsrsquo loseout On the other hand networking isnrsquot a big deal to the reseller becausethey make 90 of their revenue selling MS Office licenses serversand desktops and they might be relieved to get out of the dealThesales rep wants the commission badly perhaps badly enough to putthe reseller on the hook for a solution it cannot properly support The managers are tired of the network problems but also donrsquot want tokeep spending valuable time with resellers instead of on coreactivities

Option 3

Instead of funding a new network point out that the existing networkequipment is fit for purpose but needs an overhaul and update of thedesign There are two key factors here First the existing team will certainly oppose this since they hope tokeep their careers relevant and have been working on the new designfor a year or more (sunk investment) Recommend allocating somefunds to training and conferences (knowing it wont happen) to placatepeople who are disappointed Second the update will require a number of planned outages andoutside skills to supplement the team Recommend allocating funds forreseller services knowing that the reseller is not competent to deliverthe design because they rely on the vendor professional services thatwill want to be paid Finally an upgrade will require deep and continuous engagementwhich wonrsquot be possible at the resellers day rate

The EtherealMind ViewWhich do you choose Are any of these outcomes a win for everyoneconcerned or even most In the end the process that we use to buy technology is badly flawedIts a sliding scale where customers rarely understand what they arebuying resellers donrsquot know what they are selling and vendors lackreal customer awareness Enterprise IT has many problems to solve if its going to push backagainst the transition to public cloud which is much easier to buyRight

Sponsor Interop ITX Where Tech Pros Go For Objective Full Stack ITEducation Interop ITX takes place May 15shy19 at the MGM in Las Vegas JoinGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks for The Future of Networking Summit ndash atwoshyday session where wersquoll take a deep dive into nextshygenerationdevelopments in wide area networks data center networking networkoperations and softwareshydefined security Register for Interop ITX and attend other handsshyon workshops like TheFuture of Data Container Crash Course Dark Reading Cyber SecuritySummit and the Open Source IT Summit The eventrsquos Conferencetracks focus on Security DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Data ampAnalytics ndash all the technologies you need for a successful Full Stack ITstrategy If yoursquore looking to accelerate your career there are also

The resellers have been here for the last two days pitching theirsolutions It is immediately clear that reseller competence is limited toa single vendor because they donrsquot have the budget or available staffto expand Any questions about other vendors lead to puzzled looksClearly they donrsquot bother to learn what the competition is doing theyhave one vendor for networking and thats it Any moderately complex questions are noted and will be answeredlater because the person who can answer that isnrsquot here today Turnsout there is only one person who can answer the question anywaybecause the reseller has a small networking team say less than fivepeople All of the proposals are basically the same Same vendor sameproducts and roughly the same design When asked they admit thatthey have lsquoengagedrsquo the vendor who produced the design So we have three identical proposals from resellers that wereproduced by a single vendor employee who has a limited knowledgeof the actual solution but lsquoapprovedrsquo the same design for each reseller During phone interviews its easy to see that the resellers donrsquot reallyunderstand why the specific products were chosen or why the solutioncosts so much Theyve simply taken the vendor document andcopiepasted into their own proposals Just like last time none of them realize how obvious this is

Pushing HardThe reseller employees have become friendly with the team over thelast few years They donrsquot just sell networking they sell anything thatthe customer needs in the IT arena The relationship might be a littletoo cozy and the reseller is taking advantage of poor leadership by themanagers who are too tired and busy to care much

Everyone is upset when I ask uncomfortable questions clarify logicand challenge assumptions The lsquopreferredrsquo reseller starts to complainthat solution is the best available The managers are getting excitedthinking they can use the disruption to drive a better price They aresupporting me while their own staff supports the reseller The reseller can see the deal coming unstuck as I highlight the hugelyovershyspecified hardware in the design Of course the reseller points tothe vendor who created the design and says it wasnrsquot them The sales rep starts to panic and makes an attempt to undermine myposition He hasnrsquot done his homework and isnrsquot aware of mybackground or why Irsquove been brought into the process The managersfinally spark into life and gently point out that Irsquom here to help evaluatethe solution and get the best result for them I ask the reseller people if they understand the requirements and thesolution Of course they say they do So I drill in to the decisionshymaking process to understand the justification for unnecessaryhardware and software The usual responses come out quality trust future growth flexibilitylong lifecycle This company doesnrsquot need those things its starved forfunds and just needs to survive

The Final PhaseIrsquom in the final meeting with the managers The process has to bewrapped up this week and ashydecisionshymustshybeshymade All three resellers on the short list have offered the same solution fromthe same vendor I discuss the business reasons why this happens Iexplain the vendor has enormously overshyspecified the solutionbecause thats standard practice Itrsquos not malicious or likely intentionalbut all vendor designs inherently lean into highshyvalue solutions andmost vendor employees lack the field experience to rightsize their

designs The solution will work but the team will struggle to cope with extratechnology that isnrsquot necessary or relevant The solution costs three times more than budget available Somethinghas to give Irsquom asked for options Irsquom prepared for this I look down at my list

Option 1

I recognize that the team wants to stay with the trusted vendorbecause thats what they know Its going to be hard to persuade themto change for fear of losing skills and what they know The reseller is atrusted party and my advice isnrsquot what they want to hear Managersjust want this to go away I shrug my shoulders and recommend biting the bullet on the cheapestproposal There are three likely impacts 1) Cut back to 60 of the proposed solution or about twice the budgetavailable The vendor expects it will get the deal via one of theresellers and is unlikely to discount so there is no leverage Thelargest reductions will come from the reseller professional servicescomponent and likely lead to rushed deployment Theres significantrisk that reductions will render the solution unworkable once deployed 2) Headcount reductions to cover the funding gap within the year

3) Cut something else from the budget to allocate to the network

Option 2

Recommend finding a networkshyspecific reseller that can offer newproposals with different vendors technology or structure that can fitthe requirements and the budget Networkshyspecific resellers are more

likely to propose a better solution This could upset the incumbent reseller who may react negatively atthe loss of a deal The team may also be upset because they arefriendly with the reseller and donrsquot want to see their lsquohired friendsrsquo loseout On the other hand networking isnrsquot a big deal to the reseller becausethey make 90 of their revenue selling MS Office licenses serversand desktops and they might be relieved to get out of the dealThesales rep wants the commission badly perhaps badly enough to putthe reseller on the hook for a solution it cannot properly support The managers are tired of the network problems but also donrsquot want tokeep spending valuable time with resellers instead of on coreactivities

Option 3

Instead of funding a new network point out that the existing networkequipment is fit for purpose but needs an overhaul and update of thedesign There are two key factors here First the existing team will certainly oppose this since they hope tokeep their careers relevant and have been working on the new designfor a year or more (sunk investment) Recommend allocating somefunds to training and conferences (knowing it wont happen) to placatepeople who are disappointed Second the update will require a number of planned outages andoutside skills to supplement the team Recommend allocating funds forreseller services knowing that the reseller is not competent to deliverthe design because they rely on the vendor professional services thatwill want to be paid Finally an upgrade will require deep and continuous engagementwhich wonrsquot be possible at the resellers day rate

The EtherealMind ViewWhich do you choose Are any of these outcomes a win for everyoneconcerned or even most In the end the process that we use to buy technology is badly flawedIts a sliding scale where customers rarely understand what they arebuying resellers donrsquot know what they are selling and vendors lackreal customer awareness Enterprise IT has many problems to solve if its going to push backagainst the transition to public cloud which is much easier to buyRight

Sponsor Interop ITX Where Tech Pros Go For Objective Full Stack ITEducation Interop ITX takes place May 15shy19 at the MGM in Las Vegas JoinGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks for The Future of Networking Summit ndash atwoshyday session where wersquoll take a deep dive into nextshygenerationdevelopments in wide area networks data center networking networkoperations and softwareshydefined security Register for Interop ITX and attend other handsshyon workshops like TheFuture of Data Container Crash Course Dark Reading Cyber SecuritySummit and the Open Source IT Summit The eventrsquos Conferencetracks focus on Security DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Data ampAnalytics ndash all the technologies you need for a successful Full Stack ITstrategy If yoursquore looking to accelerate your career there are also

Everyone is upset when I ask uncomfortable questions clarify logicand challenge assumptions The lsquopreferredrsquo reseller starts to complainthat solution is the best available The managers are getting excitedthinking they can use the disruption to drive a better price They aresupporting me while their own staff supports the reseller The reseller can see the deal coming unstuck as I highlight the hugelyovershyspecified hardware in the design Of course the reseller points tothe vendor who created the design and says it wasnrsquot them The sales rep starts to panic and makes an attempt to undermine myposition He hasnrsquot done his homework and isnrsquot aware of mybackground or why Irsquove been brought into the process The managersfinally spark into life and gently point out that Irsquom here to help evaluatethe solution and get the best result for them I ask the reseller people if they understand the requirements and thesolution Of course they say they do So I drill in to the decisionshymaking process to understand the justification for unnecessaryhardware and software The usual responses come out quality trust future growth flexibilitylong lifecycle This company doesnrsquot need those things its starved forfunds and just needs to survive

The Final PhaseIrsquom in the final meeting with the managers The process has to bewrapped up this week and ashydecisionshymustshybeshymade All three resellers on the short list have offered the same solution fromthe same vendor I discuss the business reasons why this happens Iexplain the vendor has enormously overshyspecified the solutionbecause thats standard practice Itrsquos not malicious or likely intentionalbut all vendor designs inherently lean into highshyvalue solutions andmost vendor employees lack the field experience to rightsize their

designs The solution will work but the team will struggle to cope with extratechnology that isnrsquot necessary or relevant The solution costs three times more than budget available Somethinghas to give Irsquom asked for options Irsquom prepared for this I look down at my list

Option 1

I recognize that the team wants to stay with the trusted vendorbecause thats what they know Its going to be hard to persuade themto change for fear of losing skills and what they know The reseller is atrusted party and my advice isnrsquot what they want to hear Managersjust want this to go away I shrug my shoulders and recommend biting the bullet on the cheapestproposal There are three likely impacts 1) Cut back to 60 of the proposed solution or about twice the budgetavailable The vendor expects it will get the deal via one of theresellers and is unlikely to discount so there is no leverage Thelargest reductions will come from the reseller professional servicescomponent and likely lead to rushed deployment Theres significantrisk that reductions will render the solution unworkable once deployed 2) Headcount reductions to cover the funding gap within the year

3) Cut something else from the budget to allocate to the network

Option 2

Recommend finding a networkshyspecific reseller that can offer newproposals with different vendors technology or structure that can fitthe requirements and the budget Networkshyspecific resellers are more

likely to propose a better solution This could upset the incumbent reseller who may react negatively atthe loss of a deal The team may also be upset because they arefriendly with the reseller and donrsquot want to see their lsquohired friendsrsquo loseout On the other hand networking isnrsquot a big deal to the reseller becausethey make 90 of their revenue selling MS Office licenses serversand desktops and they might be relieved to get out of the dealThesales rep wants the commission badly perhaps badly enough to putthe reseller on the hook for a solution it cannot properly support The managers are tired of the network problems but also donrsquot want tokeep spending valuable time with resellers instead of on coreactivities

Option 3

Instead of funding a new network point out that the existing networkequipment is fit for purpose but needs an overhaul and update of thedesign There are two key factors here First the existing team will certainly oppose this since they hope tokeep their careers relevant and have been working on the new designfor a year or more (sunk investment) Recommend allocating somefunds to training and conferences (knowing it wont happen) to placatepeople who are disappointed Second the update will require a number of planned outages andoutside skills to supplement the team Recommend allocating funds forreseller services knowing that the reseller is not competent to deliverthe design because they rely on the vendor professional services thatwill want to be paid Finally an upgrade will require deep and continuous engagementwhich wonrsquot be possible at the resellers day rate

The EtherealMind ViewWhich do you choose Are any of these outcomes a win for everyoneconcerned or even most In the end the process that we use to buy technology is badly flawedIts a sliding scale where customers rarely understand what they arebuying resellers donrsquot know what they are selling and vendors lackreal customer awareness Enterprise IT has many problems to solve if its going to push backagainst the transition to public cloud which is much easier to buyRight

Sponsor Interop ITX Where Tech Pros Go For Objective Full Stack ITEducation Interop ITX takes place May 15shy19 at the MGM in Las Vegas JoinGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks for The Future of Networking Summit ndash atwoshyday session where wersquoll take a deep dive into nextshygenerationdevelopments in wide area networks data center networking networkoperations and softwareshydefined security Register for Interop ITX and attend other handsshyon workshops like TheFuture of Data Container Crash Course Dark Reading Cyber SecuritySummit and the Open Source IT Summit The eventrsquos Conferencetracks focus on Security DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Data ampAnalytics ndash all the technologies you need for a successful Full Stack ITstrategy If yoursquore looking to accelerate your career there are also

designs The solution will work but the team will struggle to cope with extratechnology that isnrsquot necessary or relevant The solution costs three times more than budget available Somethinghas to give Irsquom asked for options Irsquom prepared for this I look down at my list

Option 1

I recognize that the team wants to stay with the trusted vendorbecause thats what they know Its going to be hard to persuade themto change for fear of losing skills and what they know The reseller is atrusted party and my advice isnrsquot what they want to hear Managersjust want this to go away I shrug my shoulders and recommend biting the bullet on the cheapestproposal There are three likely impacts 1) Cut back to 60 of the proposed solution or about twice the budgetavailable The vendor expects it will get the deal via one of theresellers and is unlikely to discount so there is no leverage Thelargest reductions will come from the reseller professional servicescomponent and likely lead to rushed deployment Theres significantrisk that reductions will render the solution unworkable once deployed 2) Headcount reductions to cover the funding gap within the year

3) Cut something else from the budget to allocate to the network

Option 2

Recommend finding a networkshyspecific reseller that can offer newproposals with different vendors technology or structure that can fitthe requirements and the budget Networkshyspecific resellers are more

likely to propose a better solution This could upset the incumbent reseller who may react negatively atthe loss of a deal The team may also be upset because they arefriendly with the reseller and donrsquot want to see their lsquohired friendsrsquo loseout On the other hand networking isnrsquot a big deal to the reseller becausethey make 90 of their revenue selling MS Office licenses serversand desktops and they might be relieved to get out of the dealThesales rep wants the commission badly perhaps badly enough to putthe reseller on the hook for a solution it cannot properly support The managers are tired of the network problems but also donrsquot want tokeep spending valuable time with resellers instead of on coreactivities

Option 3

Instead of funding a new network point out that the existing networkequipment is fit for purpose but needs an overhaul and update of thedesign There are two key factors here First the existing team will certainly oppose this since they hope tokeep their careers relevant and have been working on the new designfor a year or more (sunk investment) Recommend allocating somefunds to training and conferences (knowing it wont happen) to placatepeople who are disappointed Second the update will require a number of planned outages andoutside skills to supplement the team Recommend allocating funds forreseller services knowing that the reseller is not competent to deliverthe design because they rely on the vendor professional services thatwill want to be paid Finally an upgrade will require deep and continuous engagementwhich wonrsquot be possible at the resellers day rate

The EtherealMind ViewWhich do you choose Are any of these outcomes a win for everyoneconcerned or even most In the end the process that we use to buy technology is badly flawedIts a sliding scale where customers rarely understand what they arebuying resellers donrsquot know what they are selling and vendors lackreal customer awareness Enterprise IT has many problems to solve if its going to push backagainst the transition to public cloud which is much easier to buyRight

Sponsor Interop ITX Where Tech Pros Go For Objective Full Stack ITEducation Interop ITX takes place May 15shy19 at the MGM in Las Vegas JoinGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks for The Future of Networking Summit ndash atwoshyday session where wersquoll take a deep dive into nextshygenerationdevelopments in wide area networks data center networking networkoperations and softwareshydefined security Register for Interop ITX and attend other handsshyon workshops like TheFuture of Data Container Crash Course Dark Reading Cyber SecuritySummit and the Open Source IT Summit The eventrsquos Conferencetracks focus on Security DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Data ampAnalytics ndash all the technologies you need for a successful Full Stack ITstrategy If yoursquore looking to accelerate your career there are also

likely to propose a better solution This could upset the incumbent reseller who may react negatively atthe loss of a deal The team may also be upset because they arefriendly with the reseller and donrsquot want to see their lsquohired friendsrsquo loseout On the other hand networking isnrsquot a big deal to the reseller becausethey make 90 of their revenue selling MS Office licenses serversand desktops and they might be relieved to get out of the dealThesales rep wants the commission badly perhaps badly enough to putthe reseller on the hook for a solution it cannot properly support The managers are tired of the network problems but also donrsquot want tokeep spending valuable time with resellers instead of on coreactivities

Option 3

Instead of funding a new network point out that the existing networkequipment is fit for purpose but needs an overhaul and update of thedesign There are two key factors here First the existing team will certainly oppose this since they hope tokeep their careers relevant and have been working on the new designfor a year or more (sunk investment) Recommend allocating somefunds to training and conferences (knowing it wont happen) to placatepeople who are disappointed Second the update will require a number of planned outages andoutside skills to supplement the team Recommend allocating funds forreseller services knowing that the reseller is not competent to deliverthe design because they rely on the vendor professional services thatwill want to be paid Finally an upgrade will require deep and continuous engagementwhich wonrsquot be possible at the resellers day rate

The EtherealMind ViewWhich do you choose Are any of these outcomes a win for everyoneconcerned or even most In the end the process that we use to buy technology is badly flawedIts a sliding scale where customers rarely understand what they arebuying resellers donrsquot know what they are selling and vendors lackreal customer awareness Enterprise IT has many problems to solve if its going to push backagainst the transition to public cloud which is much easier to buyRight

Sponsor Interop ITX Where Tech Pros Go For Objective Full Stack ITEducation Interop ITX takes place May 15shy19 at the MGM in Las Vegas JoinGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks for The Future of Networking Summit ndash atwoshyday session where wersquoll take a deep dive into nextshygenerationdevelopments in wide area networks data center networking networkoperations and softwareshydefined security Register for Interop ITX and attend other handsshyon workshops like TheFuture of Data Container Crash Course Dark Reading Cyber SecuritySummit and the Open Source IT Summit The eventrsquos Conferencetracks focus on Security DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Data ampAnalytics ndash all the technologies you need for a successful Full Stack ITstrategy If yoursquore looking to accelerate your career there are also

The EtherealMind ViewWhich do you choose Are any of these outcomes a win for everyoneconcerned or even most In the end the process that we use to buy technology is badly flawedIts a sliding scale where customers rarely understand what they arebuying resellers donrsquot know what they are selling and vendors lackreal customer awareness Enterprise IT has many problems to solve if its going to push backagainst the transition to public cloud which is much easier to buyRight

Sponsor Interop ITX Where Tech Pros Go For Objective Full Stack ITEducation Interop ITX takes place May 15shy19 at the MGM in Las Vegas JoinGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks for The Future of Networking Summit ndash atwoshyday session where wersquoll take a deep dive into nextshygenerationdevelopments in wide area networks data center networking networkoperations and softwareshydefined security Register for Interop ITX and attend other handsshyon workshops like TheFuture of Data Container Crash Course Dark Reading Cyber SecuritySummit and the Open Source IT Summit The eventrsquos Conferencetracks focus on Security DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Data ampAnalytics ndash all the technologies you need for a successful Full Stack ITstrategy If yoursquore looking to accelerate your career there are also

plenty of sessions on leadership and professional development Pluscheck out over 100 vendors at Interop ITXrsquos Business Hall where yoursquollhave an opportunity to meet with leading and emerging tech vendors Join us at Interop ITX this May Use promo code PACKETPUSHERSwhen you register and yoursquoll receive 20 off any pass We want to see you in Vegas so visit interopitxcom and reserve yourspot today

2 Getting Inside The IETFby Ethan Banks I attended the 98th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF) in Chicago in March 2017 What is the IETF The IETF is madeup of folks that write among other things the RFC documents youhear so much about in ITshyshyespecially networking As such the IETF isa standards development organization (SDO) The IETF meets 3 times per year with locations scattered around theglobe In between the meetings mailing lists are the crucialcommunications tools where ideas and documents are developed andcritiqued Anyone can participate in the IETF All mailing lists and meetings arepublic There are over 1000 IETF videos on YouTube The meetingscost several hundred dollars to attend plus travel and lodging Remoteparticipation in the meetings is possible Each meeting room has ascreen and projector where remote participants can be seen andheard by those who have gathered in person

What Does The IETF Do

The way I think about the IETF is that they are in the Internet problemshysolving business The Internet is a complex internetwork that operatesat a global scale The Internet is a platform for commerce freespeech and knowledge sharing The Internet is in this sense a globalequalizer of great interest to all of humanity Admittedly that soundsgrandiose but those are the facts However the Internet is also technically challenging to operate as youmight imagine any network functioning at global scale across manyservice providers would be The Internet is also politically challengingto operate spanning every continent and country with ramifications forgovernments and their peoples Therefore while the problems the IETF attempts to solve are largelytechnical these technical problems have a backdrop of business andglobal politics That means that the IETF does not operate in anenvironment of technical idealism Rather IETF solutions are oftencompromises designed to meet as broad a number of (sometimescompeting) requirements as possible Interestingly the IETF also tackles issues that affect small localnetworks That means that the ldquoInternet engineeringrdquo part of the IETFis sort of a misnomer as much of what the IETF works on aretechnologies that are in fact not deployed at a global scale and mightnot impact the global Internet directly

The IETF On Packet Pushers Wersquove been critical of SDOs and the IETF in particular on PacketPushers podcasts over the years However we donrsquot merely want tocriticize Wersquod like to do a little more than cast stony aspersions Wersquod also like to bridge the gap between regular network operatorsand the IETF Therersquos this idea that the IETF is a sort of prophethanding down the tablets from the mountain with RFCs written on

them The process is quite different from that so much so that I wishIrsquod been involved as a younger man To help us with these goals the Packet Pushers have been sponsoredby Huawei to attend two IETF meetings in 2017 Huawei didnrsquot ask foranything other than we attend and cover the meetings for the benefitof the broader networking community I attended IETF 98 and was lucky enough to capture five recordingsYoursquoll hear those on the Priority Queue channel as episodes 111 shy 115starting this week Give them a listen to hear us discuss severalinteresting drafts including BIER RIFT and BGP as a control planefor service function chaining (SFC) Wersquoll also hit goingsshyon in theworld of DNS IETF hackathons YANG and telemetry These are allissues that seemed to me to be of interest to the broader networkingcommunity as they might affect us in the real world someday soon I was also able to record a show on the FreeRangeRouting project afork of Quagga FRR is not an IETF issue specifically but thanks toRuss White I was able to chat with a lead developer and a lead testerfor FRR who happened to be in town for IETF 98 Greg will be attending IETF 99 in Prague during July and grabbingsome recordings there as well With any luck all of this activity willprompt more of us to be involved with the IETF I wrote quite a bit more about my first IETF experience which will beposted at PacketPushersnet later this week This article is just anexcerpt

Sponsor Viptela

them The process is quite different from that so much so that I wishIrsquod been involved as a younger man To help us with these goals the Packet Pushers have been sponsoredby Huawei to attend two IETF meetings in 2017 Huawei didnrsquot ask foranything other than we attend and cover the meetings for the benefitof the broader networking community I attended IETF 98 and was lucky enough to capture five recordingsYoursquoll hear those on the Priority Queue channel as episodes 111 shy 115starting this week Give them a listen to hear us discuss severalinteresting drafts including BIER RIFT and BGP as a control planefor service function chaining (SFC) Wersquoll also hit goingsshyon in theworld of DNS IETF hackathons YANG and telemetry These are allissues that seemed to me to be of interest to the broader networkingcommunity as they might affect us in the real world someday soon I was also able to record a show on the FreeRangeRouting project afork of Quagga FRR is not an IETF issue specifically but thanks toRuss White I was able to chat with a lead developer and a lead testerfor FRR who happened to be in town for IETF 98 Greg will be attending IETF 99 in Prague during July and grabbingsome recordings there as well With any luck all of this activity willprompt more of us to be involved with the IETF I wrote quite a bit more about my first IETF experience which will beposted at PacketPushersnet later this week This article is just anexcerpt

Sponsor Viptela

Join Viptela and the Packet Pushers atCentrifuge

If youre attending Interop ITX in Las Vegas youre invited to joinViptela the Packet Pushers and your networking peers for live eventwith food drink and great conversation Bring your questions challenges and future projections to discussand get an opportunity to learn about the latest in SDshyWAN fromnetwork architects and engineers And dont forget to say to Hi toGreg Ferro and Ethan Banks from the Packet Pushers Register here and well see you in Vegas When Monday May 15 630 pm Where Centrifuge MGM

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Take The Packet Pushers SD-WAN Survey The Packet Pushers have talked about SDshyWAN a lot over the pastcouple of years so we thought it might be a good idea to shut up andgive you a chance to tell us what you think about it

We put together a survey to get an idea about your interest in SDshyWAN Our goal is to get some vendorshyneutral data on questions likecurrent and potential adoption WAN challenges and relevant featuresand functions If you have a few minutes wed appreciate yourresponses LINK

Spotifys LoveHate Relationship with DNS The music streaming service Spotify pulls back the curtains to sharehow the company designs and runs its own DNS infrastructure inhouse Its a detailed post with lots of illustrations that describes howthe company handles automation service discovery monitoring errorreporting and more

Only when you entangle yourself in DNS do you realizenew ways to break it some weird intricacies and esotericproblems And there is certainly no better way to bring downyour entire service than to mess with DNS

Digital encoding Legacy software Evolution If you believe in a perfectible future you probably shouldnt read thispost from Martin Suacutestrik Suacutestrik draws an analogy between softwareand DNA to explore the idea that big changes in code just arentpossible any more Instead were stuck with small incremental adhoc steps that like evolution are driven by natural forces moving inunknown directions rather than careful design

We are stuck with technology we have Any radicalalternative will be crushed by the sheer momentum of thecode already out there And by the way itrsquos not going to getany better so get used to it

Sponsor INE Achieve Your Dream Career By Setting SmartGoals Its an exciting time to be working in the networking and IT industryWith many companies hungry to hire talented engineers networkingcan be an attractive option for those considering a technology careeror even for someone considering a midshycareer change But how canyou tell if a career as a network engineer is the right choice for youWhich particular specialty in networking would best fit your interestsand aptitudes One great way to make a confident decision is to talk with an expert inthe field someone whos walked the path youre considering and whocan help you set smart goals as well as show you the stepsnecessary to achieve those objectives If you or someone you know are considering in a career in networkingjoin us on April 27th for a live QampA webinar with one of our highlyrespected instructors Keith Bogart (CCIE 4923) And get 15 off an All Access Pass subscription to INE Click here fordetails

The Weekly Show channel is ouroneshyhour deep dive on networkingtechnology Subscribe today

Priority Queue tackles niche andnerdy tech topics and cuttingshyedgeresearch projects Subscribe here

Product News Find out about interesting new products or get essential information

about things you might already be using

Free Range Routing Project Forks Quagga Theres a new open source router on the loose The Free RangeRouter (FRR) is a fork of the Quagga project This new version isbeing driven by companies including Cumulus Networks 6Wind andBig Switch Networks that were unsatisfied by the pace of developmentin Quagga FRR is being overseen by the Linux Foundation LINK

Recent PodcastsThe last five podcasts published on Packet Pushers

PacketPushersnet - The Last FiveDatanauts 079 Designing For The vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Network Break 130 VMware Sells vCloud Air ATampT Tests White Boxes Show 334 Illumio amp Adaptive Security (Sponsored) PQ Show 110 Is The CCIE Fading In Value Datanauts 078 Object Storage amp The OpenIO Project

Watch ThisWhere we collect some videos that make us reflect think about our inner livesor just entertain us

After a bad breakup the comedian Tig Notaro experiments with Clowns as a Service

Cant get enough newsletters Check out Link Propagation our newestpublication We send you a free weekly digest with tech news interesting blogsand industry announcements all curated by the Packet Pushers Its an easyway to keep up and stay informed Subscribe at packetpushersnetlink-propagation

Quick Survey Whos TheWorst It hasnt been a great month for consumer rights in the ISP and airlineindustries Which of these businesses is the worst when it comes tocustomer treatment A Airlines B Financial services C InternetMobile service providers D Retail E Other

Last Issues Survey Results

Did We Miss Something Got an link or an article to share Email it tohumaninfrastructurepacketpushersnet

The End Bit

Sponsorship and Advertising - Send an email to humaninfrastructurepacketpushersnet for more information Youcould reach 5013 people Human Infrastructure is bi-weekly newsletter with view perspectives and opinions It is edited andpublished by Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray from PacketPushersnet If youd like to contribute emailDrew at drewconrymurraypacketpushersnet We dont give away your email address or personal details because that would suck Copyright copy 2017 Packet Pushers Interactive LLC All rights reserved unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences

Did We Miss Something Got an link or an article to share Email it tohumaninfrastructurepacketpushersnet

The End Bit

Sponsorship and Advertising - Send an email to humaninfrastructurepacketpushersnet for more information Youcould reach 5013 people Human Infrastructure is bi-weekly newsletter with view perspectives and opinions It is edited andpublished by Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray from PacketPushersnet If youd like to contribute emailDrew at drewconrymurraypacketpushersnet We dont give away your email address or personal details because that would suck Copyright copy 2017 Packet Pushers Interactive LLC All rights reserved unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences