The Network Shokunin

So, why study for a Cloud Networking certification? So, that was a wake-up call! Just taken my first attempt at the AWS Networking Specialty exam and it was an experience! I've been saying to my team for some time that in order to really understand the networking within cloud environments, and to get the optimum experience for customers in those environments, you need to really appreciate how applications are deployed, and the elements in AWS and Azure you need to make those applications reliable and scalable, And if ever I needed confirmation of that, I got it this morning.  The exam has 60 questions for which you're given 3 hours to complete them.  You shouldn't need that, but my goodness, it's tough and just illustrates how the paradigm shift to Cloud highlights what we have known for years - DC (and thus Cloud) networking is all about enabling application flows. If you're planning on looking into this (and as a networker you should - whether you believe ...

(#6 of 7) So, across the articles in  this series , we have covered most of the basic tenets of network design to ensure we have an available, supportable, secure network to implement for our customer.  Inevitably though, in any network there is a need to implement a wide range of capabilities - in order to interoperate between different vendors' kit perhaps; or maybe with a specific network operator for WAN connectivity; and of course we are highly unlikely to have an entirely green field operation, so the chances are we need to interact with an existing environment. Simplicity vs Complexity All of these bring a degree of complexity to  the network design, but also to the implementation and ongoing support of the network.  But when we say "complexity", what do we really mean?  Well, better minds than mine have considered this at length, and while there is no absolute consensus, a widely accepted definition might be where the network has a large number o...

(#1 of 7) Whilst studying for the CCDE , you stumble across new design methodologies all the time, each of which set out some fundamental principles by which you should look to adhere when building your network solutions - the one that springs to mind is Chapter 1 of Russ White's book "Optimal Routing Design" .   The idea is that you bear those simple ideas in mind as you go through the design process, checking back in with them to make sure that the design you produce will lead to a network which is robust and manageable, but still meets customer requirements. Through an iterative process of my own, I have arrived at five principles I try and embody in my work, and over coming blog posts, I'll go into more detail on how I look to apply each of them.   They are: Availability … is the fundamental desirable property of a network, its raison d'être.   The network exists as the transport to deliver apps to users, make data available to apps, and coll...