Cloudcast (.NET) - Episode 34 - New Networks for the Cloud

Brian and I had the awesome privilege of speaking with Ivan Pepelnjak on Friday about how we see networks in Cloud Computing evolving in the next few years.  We rolled up our sleeves and talked about OpenFlow and SDN (Software-Defined Networking) and many other great topics.  It was great fun and I learned a lot from Ivan.  If you go to the show notes page you will see a BUNCH of helpful links so rather than recreate them all here, go over there and take a look!

Also, here are some other links I used to prepare for the show.  As always, feedback welcome!

• What is OpenFlow and why is it needed?
• On data center scale, OpenFlow, and SDN
• Will SDN/OpenFlow be used in the Enterprise?

Links to Great Cisco UCS and Nexus 1000v Links

I'm a bit behind on some of these links but I wanted to present some great Cisco UCS and Nexus 1kv links from the past few weeks.

• Steve Chambers did a great write up on the new features in the UCS Manager version 1.4 and better yet, why you'd care!
• Dave Alexander has an awesome series of posts on UCSM over at the Unified Computing Blog:
• UCSM 1.4 Where to find the firmware now
• UCSM 1.4 Maintenance Policies & Schedules
• UCSM 1.4 Direct upload of firmware bundles
• UCSM 1.4 Direct attach appliance/storage ports!
• For Nexus 1000v, Jason Nash highlights the new features in Nexus 1kv release 4.2(1) SV1(4)
• Also from Jason Nash on Twitter: The Cisco Nexus 1000v Install and Upgrade Guide

• The last link gets the "Must Bookmark Award" for the week.  Jeff Allen posted an article to highlight the newly (at least new to me) Cisco Quick Links site

Links to Great Links

Here's a collection of some of the interesting links I found recently.  As you can tell, I have building a home lab on the brain this week:

• Nick's Weaver's Interactive Cloud Demo - If you do nothing else this week, go check out Nick's video.  Great stuff!
• Kendrick Coleman did an awesome writeup on the home lab he built
• Carlo Costanzo posted a cool article up on how to install ESXi 4.1 on a USB stick using VMware Workstation, cool trick!
• I will be setting up my Virtual Lab on my laptop shortly and when that happens I will be following Simon's articles on using the Uber VSA. Looking forward to the rest of the series!
• Vinf.net has a great article on setting up a Nexentastor NAS for your home lab.  There is also a follow up article that he needed more memory than originally thought