networking

Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel The importance of context in solving the problems created by tying web applications to deeply rooted local metaphors (IP addresses). The relationship between IP addresses and web applications to most end-users is much like the metaphorical language of the Tamarians in Star Trek: The Next Generation “Darmok”. It is incomprehensible without the proper foundational concepts; to anyone who lacks the proper context. In the case of IP addresses and web applications that foundation is technological rather than the historical basis of the Tamarian’s metaphorical language. The diseconomy of scale inherent in our reliance on IP addresses... posted @ Thursday, April 30, 2009 2:45 AM | Feedback (0)

Virtualization: Just how far are we willing to take it? If your entire data center infrastructure is on one virtualized PC, you're doing it wrong. Where's F5 The comparison between the power of a modern PC and a 1960's mainframe is often made in conjunction with a smug "look how far we've come" look. ... posted @ Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:26 AM | Feedback (1)

The impact of the network on ... everything Back in the day when I was a technical architect and actually wrote code (yes, they did let me do that once) I got into a discussion with the rest of my team about the impact of our code on performance. I was saying white-space was evil because it can unnecessarily increase the number of packets necessary to transfer data. I wanted to go through the code (mostly JavaScript and HTML output) and reduce the white-space to make application... posted @ Thursday, September 11, 2008 8:01 AM | Feedback (1)

Architecting for Speed               I'm going to give you an engine low to the ground.               An extra-big oil pan that'll cut the wind underneath you.               That'll give you more horsepower.               I'll give you a fuel line that'll hold an extra gallon of gas.               I'll shave half an inch off you and shape you like a bullet.               When I get you primed, painted and weighed... ... posted @ Friday, July 25, 2008 11:30 AM | Feedback (0)

What really breaks the "end-to-end nature of the Internet" IPv6 was supposed to eliminate NAT (Network Address Translation). But in order to make the transition from IPv4 reasonable and less painful, it's being added to IPv6. It's intended use in being included in IPv6 is to create gateways that bridge between IPv6 and IPv4 while the transition occurs. The IETF is not thrilled however. It's description of how it feels about NAT and the necessity to include it make it sound like school-children forced to allow that kid to play in their game of kickball. And then they put him in far right field. And I mean... posted @ Friday, July 25, 2008 4:14 AM | Feedback (5)

Articulate: Web 2.0 and The Impact on the Network Been wondering what the impact of Web 2.0 on the network might be? Click on over to this Articulate presentation and find out! You'll discover how Web 2.0 applications and its associated technologies affect the network, and what you can do about it.  Technorati Tags: MacVittie,F5,Web 2.0,networking,application delivery,challenges,presentation posted @ Friday, June 27, 2008 10:01 AM | Feedback (0)

If You Have to Ask What the Big(O) Is You've Never ... Calculated It I recently made a passing remark about the value of being able to write the code for a linked list. The night before Don and I had been arguing with our oldest son about whether he should be using a stack or a linked list to implement a Java version of Freecell, hence data structures had been on my mind. Because he, like many college students (and graduates) today, hasn't had the proper instruction in the basics of these data structures he's somewhat at a loss to understand why a linked list is, in fact, a better solution... posted @ Monday, May 19, 2008 4:53 AM | Feedback (2)

Silos belong on farms, not in IT The role of "application delivery expert" is really coming into its own of late, along with the understanding that the traditional siloed approach to management of applications in IT no longer makes sense. TechTarget :: How networking professionals can prove their worth Jim Metzler [vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates] recently worked with NetQoS to survey more than 175 NOC and non-NOC IT professionals about how the evolving role of the NOC affects both network and IT professionals. Metzler moderated several sessions at Interop that had... posted @ Wednesday, May 14, 2008 11:29 AM | Feedback (0)

Stupid User Tricks Tony Bourke has a fun little post on "Gotchas of Load Balancing" that really end up being your fault. Sorta. All very true and common mistakes that many people have made when configuring load balancers. But that got me thinking - and laughing - about a couple of "gotchas" that were my own fault back in the Network Computing lab. When Bits Don't Match You cannot plug a 10/100 port into a GigE only port and expect things to work. Really. One of the core routers in our lab had a GigE only blade and for some reason... posted @ Friday, April 18, 2008 10:12 AM | Feedback (0)

"Application Delivery" Role Missing "Delivery" Focus Like many people, I scour the Internet using Google Alerts that focus on keywords pertinent to my employer's business. Just this morning a digest from Google searching for the term "application delivery" landed in my inbox with an interesting job title: Application Delivery Support Analyst. My first thought was "Hey, that's cool!" I haven't seen such a title before and I got a little excited thinking that perhaps application delivery was finally coming into its own. Then I read the requirements and job description. Technical Skill sets Experience using SQL/ PL-SQL, SQLServer and Oracle to identify and... posted @ Tuesday, April 08, 2008 10:59 AM | Feedback (0)

Imagine No More It's been a month of imagining a lot of changes in the way we think about application delivery networks. Imagining unmatched performance, manageability of a system that's both green as in cash as well as in grass, and intelligence beyond what is currently available in most of today's application delivery controllers. It's been a long road to get here, but it's finally arrived: a bladed, chassis-based application delivery controller from F5. That's right - bladed and modular and with all the flexibility and intelligence you've come to expect from F5 combined with performance that's counted in the millions of transactions per... posted @ Wednesday, January 23, 2008 9:52 AM | Feedback (1)

The Impact of the Network on AJAX The importance of an application ready network I've been talking a lot about how AJAX and SOA impact the network of late, specificially focusing on the increase in traffic - both the amount of data and frequency of requests. Saturday night I was reminded of how important a properly tuned network can be to applications, especially those based on AJAX. TimeWarner Cable, our only choice in broadband providers, has thoughtfully reconfigured its network as part of a consolidation in the midwest. That shouldn't affect me, it's mostly about routing and such, right? That's what I thought, but it's... posted @ Monday, November 12, 2007 9:49 AM | Feedback (0)