Latest Posts

Recently, I’ve noticed an increasing trend in the use of the term Collaboration versus Unified Communications.  Perhaps this increase is just a carefully timed marketing strategy…you know, a way to freshen things up a bit.  However, it sparked my interest and I began to ask select peers and colleagues their…

This will be a short blog as it’s more a “retweet” if you will of information I believe is pertinent to all of our UC customers.  A subset of the [...]

It can be useful to have some basic information about how the various First Hop Routing Protocols (FHRP’s) work. When I read that the first release of Cisco OTV (Overlay [...]

I’ve been studying VMware lately – specifically vSphere 4.1 and ESX/ESXi 4.1. This article is the first of several planned ‘observations’ on VMware from the perspective of a network-centric person [...]

Denise Donohue was interviewed this week by Brandon Carroll on podcast.globalconfig.net on topics that ranged from industry certifications to hiring network professionals. Denise and Brandon discussed what managers look for when interviewing potential engineers, as well as how to remain part of a team once you have been hired.

Most network management tools provide a way to group devices and interfaces based on a variety of information, including descriptions, addresses, and names. I’ve been thinking about how to use [...]

Do you know what’s happening in your data center? I’ve been working with two customers who are just starting to monitor the switch ports within their data centers. There are [...]

In my last post, I described the need for building defensible networks. If you are going to be able to thwart advanced persistent threats and cybercrime, security needs to be built into the design of your network, and not just “stuck on” as an afterthought.  

Well, there are some obvious reasons. First and foremost, there are some pretty visible NetCraftsmen such as myself, Bill Bell, and Rick Burts that participate heavily in the forums. You can read more about that here in Bill’s recent blog on the CSC Designated VIP Program. Shameless plug aside and; with all seriousness,…

Overview LDAP is an open standard application protocol that provides a directory structure for housing information.  It is most often seen in Microsoft Active Directory.  In that context, LDAP provides [...]

Cisco launched the Designated VIP Program today (11/10/2010). This program recognizes the top individual contributors in Cisco's online communities, including the Cisco Support Community (CSC) and the Cisco Learning Network. This is great news. Even better news is that Chesapeake NetCraftsmen claims 3 of the 26 spots in the inaugural…

One of our customers had an interesting problem recently that caused a network outage in a critical part of the network. An interface blade was inserted into a Cisco Cat6500, [...]