Data Center

It’s been almost a year since Cisco publicly unveiled its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). As we’ve noted in the past, ACI had to overcome a number of preconceived notions about Software Defined Networking (SDN), and without some detailed explanation, it was hard to get your head around how…

Last we spoke, it was about network device configuration management. Let’s move our focus up the stack to applications and management of their configuration. Whether enterprise or cloud-architected, running on physical servers, in virtual machines or in containers, how are you managing your applicat…

Automation was a major theme at VMWorld 2014 in Barcelona this month and it was clear that IT professionals are discovering that they can’t keep pace with business using manual provisioning and de-provisioning processes. The problem is that with the physical boundaries of time and space, there simpl…

What is Shellshock? Recently a bug called Shellshock was discovered that could potentially allow remote attackers access to Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X operating systems. This bug, also called Bash Bug because it exploits vulnerabilities in the bash shell of *nix based systems, is rated a 7.5 on the C…

The tenth OpenStack release codenamed Juno was released on October 16, 2014. This press release provides a good summary of what to expect in Juno. It also discusses important new capabilities included in the more than 340 new enhancements built in to Juno and highlights different usecases that showc…

[Note: This is the last installment of a four-part series on the OpFlex protocol in Cisco ACI, how it enables an application-centric policy model, and why other SDN protocols do not.  Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] As noted earlier in this series, modern DevOps applications such as Puppet, Chef, and CFEn…

Of the more than 300 SQLSaturdays around the world, I am lucky enough to represent Cisco at the one in Barcelona on October 25th. If you’re attending TechEd Europe we encourage you to also join us at this one-day free event for IT professionals to learn more about SQL Server and the Cisco Unified Co…

Ready to savor tapas, Gaudi and the most vibrant community of IT professionals in the industry? You must be headed to Barcelona for Microsoft TechEd Europe, 28-31, October. Cisco will be there as well.  We’ll be showcasing integrated solutions from Cisco and Microsoft for Windows Server 2003 m…

[Note: This is the third a four-part series on the OpFlex protocol in Cisco ACI, how it enables an application-centric policy model, and why other SDN protocols do not. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4] The Cisco ACI fabric is designed as an application-centric intelligent network. The Cisco APIC policy mod…