Peter Welcher

I will be presenting in the CMUG (Cisco Mid-Atlantic User Group) session on Tuesday February 2/25/2014. The formal abstract and announcements are here. The location is: Loyola University Columbia Graduate Center (8890 McGaw Rd, Columbia, Maryland 21045). There will be a continental breakfast served starting at 0800, with the presentation to start at…

It's time to talk (briefly!) about how NSX, DFA, and ACI handle Security. This blog series has already covered ARP, L2 forwarding and L3 forwarding, complete with many technical details. I'm hoping this blog will be a bit shorter, making easier on me doing the writing and you the reader.…

I've been writing up an internal NetCraftsmen QoS template for a Cisco 3850 switch. This blog relates some lab experiences with the 3850. I hope it provides some useful information for those grappling with 3850 QoS. The second half of the blog is some observations and personal philosophy about QoS.…

How does L3 forwarding work in NSX, DFA, and ACI? That's the topic for this blog, blog #3 in a series. The series attempts to contrast the various behaviors of NSX, DFA, and ACI. So let's jump right in and see what's happening at Layer 3. (And if you're still…

How does L2 forwarding work in NSX, DFA, and ACI? That's the topic for this blog, blog #2 in a series. The series attempts to contrast the various behaviors of NSX, DFA, and ACI. We'll look at L2 forwarding (bridging) and some scenarios where the behavior might not be what…

Cisco is talking up the Internet of Everything (IOE) lately, with today’s focus being public sector #IOE. I’m excited about the potential, and have been watching discussions eagerly. From the news, [...]

This blog is the first in a planned series, aimed at describing how some of the current SDN offerings (NSX, DFA, and ACI) work from a practical perspective. I'll explain the title in a moment.  (Updated 1/7/14.) Concerning this blog series: I'm a networking person, so I want to know…

There's a new Cisco IWAN blog containing some good IWAN links. I'm mentioning it here in case you missed it, perhaps due to year end avoidance of online activities, busy-ness, etc. Also as followup to my prior IWAN ("Intelligent WAN") blog, IWAN, Cisco, and Akamai (Oh My!). In case you want the…

I've been trying to blog about NSX, DFA, and ACI for a while. I'll blame Cisco -- they're now coming out with additional info. And I kept coming up with more Things I Don't Know. Hence, deferred blogging, to avoid putting an ignorant foot in my mouth. I'm now equipped…

Well, now that some time has elapsed, I have some more thoughts -- after-thoughts -- about Application Centric Networking (#ACI). And I'd like to share them. I include some thoughts about VMware NSX for comparison. (#NSX). For those who missed my prior blogs about the ACI Launch: The Cisco ACI Launch,…

This is the second of at least two blogs about Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). The first covered the broad set of announcements with a focus on the hardware, and can be found at https://netcraftsmen.com/blogs/entry/the-cisco-insieme-aci-launch-part-1.html. It contained a set of links about ACI and the launch. This one focuses more…

I'm writing this at and after the Cisco / Insieme #ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure)  launch today in New York City. There's much to cover! Recall that in some prior blogs I threw out a bunch of guesses in a prior blog, and a couple of things I hoped for. I'm…