The Data Centre Networking (DCN) Ref. Frame - Expanding MONAF Part 1

Your Data Centre Network (DCN) essentially is a stretch that cuts across SaaS, PaaS, Public Clouds, Hybrid Clouds & the Modern Day Multi-Cloud.

If You look underneath, it's essentially a set of technical capabilities, combined together to deliver business outcomes.

But what should be Your starting point to have a well structured conversation with business as well as the technical folks around DCN ?

Well, if we expand the DCN frame under the MONAF umbrella, it exactly does that to offer You are a very detailed and a firm structure by segmenting those capabilities into well defined and structured layered approach. (Essentially following the famous MECE consulting approach).

Let me know if there is any questions that comes in your mind around DCN that this frame couldn't fit into one of it's layers.

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 - 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 (By : Jeroen Mulder)

 

You go to any modern mid/large enterprise and You are likely to encounter - Multi-Cloud. The multi-cloud comes in many shapes and sizes beside the fact that its purpose & use cases have been keep evolving over last 5-7 years in particular.

I recently had the pleasure of reading "Multi-Cloud Strategy for Cloud Architects" by Jeroen Mulder, and I found it to be a thorough guide that provides the necessary comprehensive and practical insights into navigating the complexities of operating a business in a multi-cloud world.

This book offers valuable information about the benefits of major cloud providers like #Azure, #AWS & #GCP Cloud to help businesses make better & informed decisions and make use of the right capabilities to drive business outcomes.

It also puts enough emphasis on financial optimization through the FinOps framework. The author has provided valuable insights into cost management, including cost modeling and chargeback etc. which are the essential components for every modern enterprise to get right since often hear stories and articles about mistakes and missing governance in these areas could lead to an inflated running cost.

The book also covers many real-world examples and the case studies to enhance understanding, making it valuable for both beginners and experienced professionals. Whether you're adopting or managing public clouds, this book equips you with the necessary knowledge & structural approach.

So if You are serious about Multi-Cloud, Cloud Strategy or Cloud Architecture and have been struggling with figuring out the what those really mean vs. looking for specific insights and data point, you know now where to look for that information.

Link of the book --> https://lnkd.in/gkV3j7Gy

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

A Simple Frame to Showcase Cyber Security Hierarchies

 

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

Technology, Projects & a Yes Man Approach - The match made in hell (A Brief Writeup)

 

In tech you will often encounter people who have hard time saying "No" to their customers & even colleagues. Because people don't want to be seen as:

- Show stopper

- Negative/pessimistic

- Work dodger (in hindi we call them "kaamchor")

- Incompetent 

- Noise maker

- Uncareful 

In which case people often end up committing to asks from others which are - unrealistic, unjustifiable, impossible, impractical & last but not the least - out of scope.

So those people often:

- Fail at delivering their promises and commitments

- Make up things

- Channel incorrect and wrong information

- Fail at meeting quality and standards 

- End up overworking and experience burnouts

- Unable to find the right balance between work and personal life/family/friends/social & society bound activities 

But how do we handle it ?

Well it boils down to the Organization leadership and hence the culture. At least in my personal experience I haven't seen many people being successful to turn around the culture in corporate from bottom up. Have You ?

On the flip side You as an individual can still get better at it and play it right beside being ethical. So spend time (which most tech folks in general don't give a damn about surprisingly):

- Set high standards for yourself (If you don't care about it, who else would?)

- Be more strategic in your approach (Hardest thing for people in general)

- Pick your battles wisely & carefully (You have limited energy & time)

- Improve your negotiation skills (People rarely think about)

- Learn the art of saying "No" politely (You can learn that)

- Pick up on "Effective Argument" skills (Don't just argue, do it the right way)

- Spend time on improving communication skills (You can do all of above and still fail if you can't communicate it properly and convincingly - It not only about what you say but also how you say it)

- Improve your vocabulary

- And yet be prepared to be criticized until you find your right spot and right place (Like I said, its a culture and leadership issue with little to no control you have)

Further Readings

-  Why Are You Always so Negative?

-  Planning fallacy

-  Cobb's Paradox

-  How Unethical Behavior Spreads

-  You Can't Incentivize Performance  

-  Negotiation Skills

-  Effective Argument Skills

-  Effective Communication Skills

-  Effective Problem Solving Skills 

-  Handling Criticism 

-  Strategic Skills 

-  Improving business writing skills 

-  RFC 1925 Rule 3 & 6

-  Being Ethical Is Long-Term Greedy

-  "Clouds, Overlays and SDN: What really matters" Ivan Pepelnjak

-  The Three Paths of Enterprise IT

-  Why Is Public Cloud Networking So Different?

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

Problem Solving & How Often People Get it All Wrong - A Brief Perspective

 

People often mix:

• Problem Framing
• Problem Solving
• Communicating Solutions

Those are 3 different skills and often people look at them as a one singular thingy or use those terms interchangeably, which is of course incorrect.

You might be a good problem solver in theory but still a terrible problem framer (problem framing is least talked about topic surprisingly), flip side - You might be a good problem framer or problem solver or both and still bad at communicating your view point, analysis & recommendations.

And yet we are not talking about:

- Design thinking

- Mental Models

- Hypothesis Testing

- Data Analysis & Analytics

- Systems Thinking

- Problem Solver vs. Problem Owner Mindset

- Cognitive biases

- Thinking Fast & Slow

- Proactiveness & Simulations

- Time & Focus Mgmt.

- Chaos Theory

- Complexity Theory

- Information Theory

- Epistemology (aka the theory of knowledge)

- Judgement

- Scenario Planning

- Gemba Walk

- Dunning–Kruger effect

etc..

So what you think about yourself ? 

Are you a good problem framer, problem solver or an effective solution communicator ?

 HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

BGPv4 Mindmap

 HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

What makes it so hard for the Enterprise Architects to Work with the Solutions Architects & Vice Versa ?

 

What makes it so hard for the Enterprise Architects to work with Solutions Architects & Vice Versa ?....the different lenses they use to examine problems and their approach to the value creation.

 

Last but not least....the subtle difference between the "Problem Solver" vs. " Problem Owner" .... which sadly only a very few gets anyway.

 

The fun part is :

 

1. Most people even don't understand EA's job
2. For many EA simply means - That TOGAF guy without necessarily understanding TOGAF is simply stupid at its core & approach to the whole EA thing as discipline. The very root of the problem of this question "What an EA Does ?"
3. In an IT Org. in general people in 99.99% cases would confuse EA with " An IT Architect "

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

MPLS - RSVP TE Mindmap (The Most Detailed Mindmap in the History of IP Networking)

 

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

The Mother of All Network Architecture Frameworks - MONAF

 

In case You have been into the IP Networking Industry for long enough, You would have probably come across:

1. The Holy "OSI Model"
2. ISO Model
3. TCP/IP Model
4. RINA Model by John Day
5. Hour Glass Model by Micah Beck
6. SOS Model
7. OODA Loop for Security

While all of these models are helpful in some form and shape, They often help us answer some of the very few questions we generally have as Network Architects, Designers & Engineers but often lacks:

- A bird eye view of Network Architecture as a whole

- A layered approach to go deeper into details & nuts and bolts while still allowing abstractions to work to meet requirements of different audience

- Fill the gap between understanding of Network among - Business, Architects, Designers, Engineers

- Address both functional & Non-Functional requirements

- Work as a guiding compass to address - "Known Knowns", "Known Unknowns", "Unknown Unknowns"

- Stitching together all of the information in a more tangible & informed way

- Last but not least, helps understand your specific constraints beside looking at everything across its life cycle

If you have been there and often relying on your head to hold so much of information but yet unable to put it into a structural frame, You might just want to give this a try.

In the subsequent posts we will uncover different layers and that too 5 layers down in terms of details (From 10,000 feet to 100 feet journey)

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

What Really Is Business ? - Few Short Perspectives

 

What really is "Business"

+++++++++++++++++

 

"Business is the activity you engage in to monetize your specific knowledge. It is not something to be studied and pursued in and of itself."

 

"If you create it for yourself, it’s art. If you create it for others, it’s business."

 

"Business is the vessel to translate embodied wisdom into actualized value for humanity. It is the very medicine to bring your unique perspective and sense of belonging in the world into harmony with what the world is ready to receive."

 

"Is best way to foster growth is through working specific projects Not analysis paralysis where you fail to start through trying to thoroughly understand every aspect of business before even starting"

 

"The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity."

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

How to Provide/Get an Effective Feedback In the Meetings

 

https://lnkd.in/g9amfUJ9

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anetworkartist_how-to-provideget-an-effective-feedback-activity-7044883508284035072-4ZoY/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

Strategy - Few Perspectives

• The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.
• It's about long term consequences of your short term choices.
• Gives you focus where to put your energies and resources.
• Strategy is a "Plan" to create "Value".
• An integrative set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that You win.
• The imagination and logic to choose between specific alternatives; resource control beyond immediate needs; and. the will to forego current benefits in order to invest in the future potential.
• A plan designed to achieve a particular goal.
• The unique value a business provides to the market.
• Strategy is a deliberate and integrated plan or course of action undertaken by an organization to achieve a long-term goal or set of goals, considering its internal capabilities and external environment, and involving resource allocation, competitive positioning, and adaptation to change. It encompasses decisions on where to compete, how to compete, and the means to achieve strategic objectives, with the aim of creating sustainable competitive advantage. Strategy provides a framework for aligning organizational activities and guiding decision-making over an extended time horizon.
• Strategy is the response to the challenges keeping you from reaching your ambitions.
• "The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors." This core consists of "a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action."
• Strategy is a cohesive response to an important challenge.
• The most basic idea of strategy is the application of strength against weakness. Or, if you prefer, strength applied to the most promising opportunity.
• Making choices ahead of time in the face of uncertainty.
• To deploy that capital to drive growth, generate value, and create sustainable competitive advantage.
• A comprehensive process for determining what a business should become and how it can best achieve that goal.

On the flip side, IMHO the strategy often offers an illusion to still many thinking that they got a plan (though strategy and planning are fundamentally two different things) and often miss to examine problems/goals from different lenses. 

Last but not least, execution is what matters the most since just thinking, planning and strategizing doesn't really move anything and 90% IMHO couldn't cross that chasm.  

HTH...

A Tech Artist 🎨

An Architectural Perspective on Hierarchy In IP Networks - A Complex Puzzle Comprising Protocols, Topologies, Addressing & Systems (A Short Post)

 

If you ever bump into a Network Design book, course, blog or a webinar - most likely you are going to get introduced to this interesting & an important concept of " Network Hierarchy aka Hierarchical Networks Design Principle ".

Now depending upon which study materials and authors you follow, you would likely to come across different view points in terms of it's needs, pros & cons. Which in general not only contributes into more confusion among audience but also when I speak around with experiences Network Architects & Design Engineers, I often find them:

1. Having different interpretations of this concept and different view points

2. Considering this to be a very theoretical concept which you are likely to encounter in most Architecture & Design books but don't know about:

A. How to practice it (By applying theory to practice) 

B. How to measure it 

C. Missing the deep understanding of the topic at hand beside failing to understand its tradeoffs

So Idea behind this post is to offer you some architectural decision pointers to think through the problem statement and break it down into few tangible pieces by following another important network design principle " Separate the Complexity from the Complexity - Russ White " beside examining the rule 8 from RFC-1925

One of the model I personally always find handy is the SOS model from Russ White and you can use it too as a good ref. point.

So here is the quick list for you to think through in a more pragmatic manner:

1. What problems are you really trying to solve by introducing hierarchy into the Network (Go beyond theory) ?

2. Is it always possible to follow hierarchy? Specially in brown fields or during transitions (Think of old gear with still some lifetime left, mergers )

3. What are the downsides of introducing hierarchy ? (What harm it can cause and tradeoffs such us downgrade Agility, Flexibility, Organic Growth etc.)

4. Difference between Hierarchy vs. Symmetry vs. Modularity vs. Abstractions 

5. Different types of hierarchy/ layered approach to it ( physical level hierarchy,  logical level hierarchy,  hierarchy in addressing scheme, Protocol Level Hierarchy (ISIS Levels & Addressing ?) and so forth)

6. What data points you have in place to test your hypothesis to measure its impact on network

7. How these concepts are applied to different network environments - Enterprises (Campus <Wired and Wireless>, WAN/SDWAN, DC) vs Teclos vs CDNs vs Cloud Providers vs Web Scales vs Within public cloud virtual DC + Controller vs. Controller Less Architectures

8. Impact of introducing hierarchy on Visibility, Reporting and Performance mgmt. of the network

9. Impact on hierarchy on information hiding <reachability information> vs. topological information hiding (Aggregation vs. Summarization)

10. How all these choices will flow into your equipment sizing and potentially have an impact on your decision process

11. How will you apply all these concepts in a IPv10 network (IPv4 + IPv6 aka Dual Stack)

12. And if you are still brave enough :) , read through the further readings list to get to the bottom of this rat hole

Further Readings:

P-FatTree: A Multi-channel Datacenter Network Topology

Enabling Wide-spread Communications on Optical Fabric with MegaSwitch

Abstraction in Networks with Russ White

Hierarchical Network Design Overview

Engineer Versus Complexity

Optimal Routing Design

Navigating Network Complexity

Network Topologies

Five Number Summary for Network Topologies

Scaling MPLS Networks

The Side Effects Of Route Summarization

Avoid Summarization in Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics

Valley-Free Routing

Intra-Spine Links in Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics

Nonblocking versus Noncontending

Hierarchical IP Address Design and Summarization

Hierarchical IPv4 Framework

Fabric versus Network: What’s the Difference?

Liskov Substitution and Modularity in Network Design

Dragonfly+: Low Cost Topology for Scaling Datacenters

Reliability Basics- Part1

Network Centrality and Robustness

Swimlanes, Read-Write Transactions and Session State

Fifty Shades of High Availability

HTH...

A Network Artist 🎨

Overlay Networks & Protocols Tradeoffs - Aka SDN aka IBN aka Magic aka Silver Bullet

 

A long time ago I wrote a short article on what really went wrong with SDN, now a few years later the topic still pops up in a conversation with the great Ivan & he acknowledged my list of Tradeoffs (things to watch out for carefully) related to overlay networks and protocols which seems to be de-facto standard for most modern Network solutions that we see around in Enterprises & Telcos.

• Impact of overlay networks on visibility, reporting and performance management
• Additional control plane that would result in additional abstraction layers and interaction surfaces and hence cascading effect in many situations
• Impact on troubleshooting: how many solutions do we see in the market that can correlate underlay and overlay problems?
• When it comes to sizing equipment in terms of control plane or data plane, it poses a new level of complexity an architect would need to deal with and in most cases vendors themselves won’t be able to offer much help in general rather than just asking you to believe in their words
• I see lot of VXLAN and EVPN preachers, but let’s agree that mapping VLAN to VXLAN on 1:1 basis tells me you don’t know your stuff and believe too much in vendor marketing
• EBGP underlay with IBGP overlay…man we can do better
• Stitching two EVPN DCs with MPLS and SR: most of the implementations that I have seen were too complex and too fragile and thus results in a complex “policy.”

Ivan's Original Post

Further Readings:

Disjoint Path Routing and LP

HTH...

A Network Artist 🎨