Another week of being a Human in IT Infrastructure Are you still alive to talkabout it

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IN THIS WEEKS ISSUE Too Much Personal Sacrifice Put Technology First NotSales Please remember to enable the images the magazine looks a lot better thatway

Table of Contents (aka The Project Plan)

1 Too Much Personal Sacrifice2 Put Technology First NotSalesThanks InternetInternets Of Interest Product NewsPacketPushersnet - The LastFiveQuick Survey Sales IrritationsLast Issues Survey Results

Issue Number 60

07062017

The People issue

Thought For The WeekSummer time and the living is easy

1 Too Much Personal Sacrificeby Ethan Banks

Is there such a thing as too much personal sacrifice to succeed intech This question asks us to draw the line between hard work andgoing overboard

Hard work is important in tech I believe personal sacrifice and lifelonglearning are keys to remaining a topshytier technologist However I alsobelieve itrsquos possible to go too far in the endless quest for IT knowledge

Humans They MatterConsider your human relationships when deciding how hard to pushyour career When you choose to extend your work hours loggingovertime labbing getting certified and leading projects yoursquore alsochoosing to not spend time with the people who care about you If yoursquore young and ambitious (and perhaps underpaid) theequilibrium that interpersonal relationships bring to your life might notbe obvious What other equilibrium is required than having a securejob and money in the bank especially with growing children and amortgage to pay off Besides BMW just announced the M edition ofyour favorite sedan and those arenrsquot cheap With that logic you think you can skimp on people Even family timecan seem like a thing worth sacrificing After all yoursquore doing it forthem Or so you tell yourself In reality ldquomaking a better life for your familyrdquo is a excuse wesometimes use to justify our own ambition The truth is that wersquore oftenpursuing peer recognition Wersquore looking for that raised eyebrow whenwe discuss the bleeding edge projects wersquore in charge of the newPOC lab we just deployed or the fresh vendorshyrecognized letterswersquove added to our sig files I hear friends tell tales of alienated spouses children they rarely spendtime with and friends theyrsquove lost touch with For a certain groupconference travel constitutes the majority of their social experienceshyshy

theyrsquore simply too busy the rest of the time to take a moment to relax Those other humans in your life are the victims of your oneshytrack mindUltimately you too are a victim as those relationships slip awayAnything uninvested in withers to nothingness Yoursquoll find that virtualrouters technical textbooks and certification plaques are coldcompanions

Burnout You MatterWhatrsquos more constant pursuit of the next big thing in tech will lead toburnout In burnout you are the victim Over the years Irsquoveexperienced two kinds of burnout

1 Shortshyterm mental exhaustion Irsquove found myself so worn outfrom balancing study projects commuting and a packedschedule that I canrsquot seem to focus My mind drifts I canrsquot sleep Istruggle to produce The most interesting things become foodand television the crappier of each the better

2 Longshyterm apathy There have been times where after monthsof pushing ahead I lose the desire to push further An attitude ofldquobeen there done thatrdquo sets in The pursuit of excellence in acorporate culture of mediocrity seems pointless I start to givemyself permission to settle in and be average Thatrsquos not ldquomerdquobut after burning so brightly for so long sometimes I run out offuel

The key here is balance I need time for me and you need time foryou Get outside Ride a bike Read a bookof fictionforentertainment Schedule time with friends to hang out relax joke andtell tall tales Create a few memories Plan a vacation or special eventaround your significant other Do those things and whatever else you like to do preemptively and notbecause yoursquore so fried that you canrsquot do anything else

Enjoying guiltshyfree time apart from technology grants you the ability tofocus during your work timeshyshyto be highly productive Hours spentaway from stress and pressure enables you to continue the personalsacrifice and lifelong learning that is a part of being a topshytiertechnologist Without the balance yoursquoll burn out and that wonrsquot helpanyone

2 Put Technology First NotSalesby Greg Ferro As time passes Im becoming more certain that the future oftechnology companies isnt about selling closing deals and account

management like we have today Today we demand that humans learn technology and make abusiness case Vendors are required to educate customers becausethey dont understand what they are buying or what the newtechnology can do for them Thatrsquos an expensive mode of operation

Supply ChainAs a rough guide 30shy50 of the purchase price of your enterprise ITtechnology is consumed by sales marketing and delivery Why Every product that we buy moves through a long and expensivepipeline Manufacturer gt Vendor gt Distributor gt Reseller gt Customer Twenty or thirty years ago this pipeline was normal because globalshipping warehousing and support were enormous challenges It was difficult for vendors to reach customers directly and managing aglobal sales force was to be avoided at all costs Using local agents indifferent markets aka resellers was preferred Customers had problems getting information training and updatesResellers made this possible Technology in general and the Internet in particular have changed thisdynamic Customers can easily communicate with vendors and getaccess to technical information Hardware distribution has beentransformed by robots inventory management and better logistics

Sales FirstBecause sales is such a large part of the technology acquisitionprocess we have built enterprise IT around the sales cycle With somuch money available for sales and marketing vendors have strong

incentives to continue spending on additional sales resources This creates a salesshyfirst culture All that matters to most vendorstaffers is the deal The solution and technology are just a means to anend How do customers react to a salesshyfirst culture They reduceheadcount to cut costs but then rely on vendorshyprovided support andservice contracts Vendors are rewarded for a sales culture with everypurchase I think the move to whitebox is partly a reaction to the salesshyfirstculture Customers can avoid the sales costs and get the sametechnology They can also avoid wasted time spent on salesnegotiations meetings and presentations Customers are finding that the negatives of increasing headcount andtraining costs with a whitebox solution are outweighed by the benefitsof having smart people inshyhouse and an IT organization aligned tobusiness goals instead of to the vendor or reseller

Why Technology FirstApple sells iPhones at an astonishing profit margin Apple doesnrsquothave network of middle men taking a cut The product is built to bereliable and easy to use thus reducing the need for technical supportApple is the best of a group of companies that are applying a newbusiness model to technology One key thing An iPhone is built from commodity components andhas a softwareshycentric architecture Sound familiar (Hint itrsquos softwaredefined) The future is not only about superior silicon more ports faster speedsor more features Itrsquos about reducing the middle men in the transactiongetting customers as close to the source as possible and producing

products that are simple enough to use without expensive technicalsupport The Technology Im talking about is taking our existing technologiesand making them suitable for human use Today Im looking at Meraki VeloCloud Apstra Nutanix and Plexxi asexamples of enterprise IT vendors that remove complexity Thesecompanies focus on enabling customers to use technology simply

Closing ThoughtsWe built the salesshyfirst culture because it was necessary in the earlydays of enterprise IT when CPUmemory were scarce and costlystorage volumes were small and customers were few This is nolonger the case We can use the Internet to communicate directly with our vendors atlow cost with low friction Manufacturing technology has becomealmost comically cheap which enables commodity components thathave enough performance and capacity for all but the most demandinguses Do we really need a 1980s supply chain and sales culture in the2020s

Thanks InternetAll kinds of amusing things wash up in our social feeds Heresone that caught my eye

Source iamdevloper

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

Enjoying guiltshyfree time apart from technology grants you the ability tofocus during your work timeshyshyto be highly productive Hours spentaway from stress and pressure enables you to continue the personalsacrifice and lifelong learning that is a part of being a topshytiertechnologist Without the balance yoursquoll burn out and that wonrsquot helpanyone

2 Put Technology First NotSalesby Greg Ferro As time passes Im becoming more certain that the future oftechnology companies isnt about selling closing deals and account

management like we have today Today we demand that humans learn technology and make abusiness case Vendors are required to educate customers becausethey dont understand what they are buying or what the newtechnology can do for them Thatrsquos an expensive mode of operation

Supply ChainAs a rough guide 30shy50 of the purchase price of your enterprise ITtechnology is consumed by sales marketing and delivery Why Every product that we buy moves through a long and expensivepipeline Manufacturer gt Vendor gt Distributor gt Reseller gt Customer Twenty or thirty years ago this pipeline was normal because globalshipping warehousing and support were enormous challenges It was difficult for vendors to reach customers directly and managing aglobal sales force was to be avoided at all costs Using local agents indifferent markets aka resellers was preferred Customers had problems getting information training and updatesResellers made this possible Technology in general and the Internet in particular have changed thisdynamic Customers can easily communicate with vendors and getaccess to technical information Hardware distribution has beentransformed by robots inventory management and better logistics

Sales FirstBecause sales is such a large part of the technology acquisitionprocess we have built enterprise IT around the sales cycle With somuch money available for sales and marketing vendors have strong

incentives to continue spending on additional sales resources This creates a salesshyfirst culture All that matters to most vendorstaffers is the deal The solution and technology are just a means to anend How do customers react to a salesshyfirst culture They reduceheadcount to cut costs but then rely on vendorshyprovided support andservice contracts Vendors are rewarded for a sales culture with everypurchase I think the move to whitebox is partly a reaction to the salesshyfirstculture Customers can avoid the sales costs and get the sametechnology They can also avoid wasted time spent on salesnegotiations meetings and presentations Customers are finding that the negatives of increasing headcount andtraining costs with a whitebox solution are outweighed by the benefitsof having smart people inshyhouse and an IT organization aligned tobusiness goals instead of to the vendor or reseller

Why Technology FirstApple sells iPhones at an astonishing profit margin Apple doesnrsquothave network of middle men taking a cut The product is built to bereliable and easy to use thus reducing the need for technical supportApple is the best of a group of companies that are applying a newbusiness model to technology One key thing An iPhone is built from commodity components andhas a softwareshycentric architecture Sound familiar (Hint itrsquos softwaredefined) The future is not only about superior silicon more ports faster speedsor more features Itrsquos about reducing the middle men in the transactiongetting customers as close to the source as possible and producing

products that are simple enough to use without expensive technicalsupport The Technology Im talking about is taking our existing technologiesand making them suitable for human use Today Im looking at Meraki VeloCloud Apstra Nutanix and Plexxi asexamples of enterprise IT vendors that remove complexity Thesecompanies focus on enabling customers to use technology simply

Closing ThoughtsWe built the salesshyfirst culture because it was necessary in the earlydays of enterprise IT when CPUmemory were scarce and costlystorage volumes were small and customers were few This is nolonger the case We can use the Internet to communicate directly with our vendors atlow cost with low friction Manufacturing technology has becomealmost comically cheap which enables commodity components thathave enough performance and capacity for all but the most demandinguses Do we really need a 1980s supply chain and sales culture in the2020s

Thanks InternetAll kinds of amusing things wash up in our social feeds Heresone that caught my eye

Source iamdevloper

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

management like we have today Today we demand that humans learn technology and make abusiness case Vendors are required to educate customers becausethey dont understand what they are buying or what the newtechnology can do for them Thatrsquos an expensive mode of operation

Supply ChainAs a rough guide 30shy50 of the purchase price of your enterprise ITtechnology is consumed by sales marketing and delivery Why Every product that we buy moves through a long and expensivepipeline Manufacturer gt Vendor gt Distributor gt Reseller gt Customer Twenty or thirty years ago this pipeline was normal because globalshipping warehousing and support were enormous challenges It was difficult for vendors to reach customers directly and managing aglobal sales force was to be avoided at all costs Using local agents indifferent markets aka resellers was preferred Customers had problems getting information training and updatesResellers made this possible Technology in general and the Internet in particular have changed thisdynamic Customers can easily communicate with vendors and getaccess to technical information Hardware distribution has beentransformed by robots inventory management and better logistics

Sales FirstBecause sales is such a large part of the technology acquisitionprocess we have built enterprise IT around the sales cycle With somuch money available for sales and marketing vendors have strong

incentives to continue spending on additional sales resources This creates a salesshyfirst culture All that matters to most vendorstaffers is the deal The solution and technology are just a means to anend How do customers react to a salesshyfirst culture They reduceheadcount to cut costs but then rely on vendorshyprovided support andservice contracts Vendors are rewarded for a sales culture with everypurchase I think the move to whitebox is partly a reaction to the salesshyfirstculture Customers can avoid the sales costs and get the sametechnology They can also avoid wasted time spent on salesnegotiations meetings and presentations Customers are finding that the negatives of increasing headcount andtraining costs with a whitebox solution are outweighed by the benefitsof having smart people inshyhouse and an IT organization aligned tobusiness goals instead of to the vendor or reseller

Why Technology FirstApple sells iPhones at an astonishing profit margin Apple doesnrsquothave network of middle men taking a cut The product is built to bereliable and easy to use thus reducing the need for technical supportApple is the best of a group of companies that are applying a newbusiness model to technology One key thing An iPhone is built from commodity components andhas a softwareshycentric architecture Sound familiar (Hint itrsquos softwaredefined) The future is not only about superior silicon more ports faster speedsor more features Itrsquos about reducing the middle men in the transactiongetting customers as close to the source as possible and producing

products that are simple enough to use without expensive technicalsupport The Technology Im talking about is taking our existing technologiesand making them suitable for human use Today Im looking at Meraki VeloCloud Apstra Nutanix and Plexxi asexamples of enterprise IT vendors that remove complexity Thesecompanies focus on enabling customers to use technology simply

Closing ThoughtsWe built the salesshyfirst culture because it was necessary in the earlydays of enterprise IT when CPUmemory were scarce and costlystorage volumes were small and customers were few This is nolonger the case We can use the Internet to communicate directly with our vendors atlow cost with low friction Manufacturing technology has becomealmost comically cheap which enables commodity components thathave enough performance and capacity for all but the most demandinguses Do we really need a 1980s supply chain and sales culture in the2020s

Thanks InternetAll kinds of amusing things wash up in our social feeds Heresone that caught my eye

Source iamdevloper

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

incentives to continue spending on additional sales resources This creates a salesshyfirst culture All that matters to most vendorstaffers is the deal The solution and technology are just a means to anend How do customers react to a salesshyfirst culture They reduceheadcount to cut costs but then rely on vendorshyprovided support andservice contracts Vendors are rewarded for a sales culture with everypurchase I think the move to whitebox is partly a reaction to the salesshyfirstculture Customers can avoid the sales costs and get the sametechnology They can also avoid wasted time spent on salesnegotiations meetings and presentations Customers are finding that the negatives of increasing headcount andtraining costs with a whitebox solution are outweighed by the benefitsof having smart people inshyhouse and an IT organization aligned tobusiness goals instead of to the vendor or reseller

Why Technology FirstApple sells iPhones at an astonishing profit margin Apple doesnrsquothave network of middle men taking a cut The product is built to bereliable and easy to use thus reducing the need for technical supportApple is the best of a group of companies that are applying a newbusiness model to technology One key thing An iPhone is built from commodity components andhas a softwareshycentric architecture Sound familiar (Hint itrsquos softwaredefined) The future is not only about superior silicon more ports faster speedsor more features Itrsquos about reducing the middle men in the transactiongetting customers as close to the source as possible and producing

products that are simple enough to use without expensive technicalsupport The Technology Im talking about is taking our existing technologiesand making them suitable for human use Today Im looking at Meraki VeloCloud Apstra Nutanix and Plexxi asexamples of enterprise IT vendors that remove complexity Thesecompanies focus on enabling customers to use technology simply

Closing ThoughtsWe built the salesshyfirst culture because it was necessary in the earlydays of enterprise IT when CPUmemory were scarce and costlystorage volumes were small and customers were few This is nolonger the case We can use the Internet to communicate directly with our vendors atlow cost with low friction Manufacturing technology has becomealmost comically cheap which enables commodity components thathave enough performance and capacity for all but the most demandinguses Do we really need a 1980s supply chain and sales culture in the2020s

Thanks InternetAll kinds of amusing things wash up in our social feeds Heresone that caught my eye

Source iamdevloper

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

products that are simple enough to use without expensive technicalsupport The Technology Im talking about is taking our existing technologiesand making them suitable for human use Today Im looking at Meraki VeloCloud Apstra Nutanix and Plexxi asexamples of enterprise IT vendors that remove complexity Thesecompanies focus on enabling customers to use technology simply

Closing ThoughtsWe built the salesshyfirst culture because it was necessary in the earlydays of enterprise IT when CPUmemory were scarce and costlystorage volumes were small and customers were few This is nolonger the case We can use the Internet to communicate directly with our vendors atlow cost with low friction Manufacturing technology has becomealmost comically cheap which enables commodity components thathave enough performance and capacity for all but the most demandinguses Do we really need a 1980s supply chain and sales culture in the2020s

Thanks InternetAll kinds of amusing things wash up in our social feeds Heresone that caught my eye

Source iamdevloper

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

Source iamdevloper

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

Join the Datanauts on their missionto bust silos and explore the latestdevelopments in cloudconvergence data centers andmore Sign up free here

Network Break is a weeklypodcast that delivers news ampanalysis on the networking industryin a fun fastshypaced style Subscribehere

Internets Of Interest A collection of pre-loved links that might interest you Pre-lovedbecause I liked them enough to put into this newsletter Its not true love By Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray

Test Driving DNA Center Katherine McNamara has posted an extensive blog that walks throughCiscos newly announced DNA Center and SDshyAccess which allowsyou to create a campus fabric and is supposed to help streamline andautomate tasks such as onboarding users and managing connectivity

Note that Katherine is a Cisco employee (as she states up front in thispost) but if youre curious about all the hoopla around DNA that cameout of CLUS 2017 she provides a detailed overview of thesecomponents

CLUS 2017- The Elephant in My Room Meanwhile Lee Badman (aka WiredNot) takes Cisco to task for itspoor record when it comes to software quality This isnt just armshychairsniping Lee is a longtime Cisco customer and Cisco Champion Hewants to believe in the promises Cisco is making but that has to startwith better software

Many of the promises being made are predicated on anassumed foundation of good code under all of the newmagic As the longshytime customer I see no evidence thatCiscorsquos own intolerance for crappy code is getting any closerto mine

The Weekly Show channel is ouroneshyhour deep dive on networkingtechnology Subscribe today

Priority Queue tackles niche andnerdy tech topics and cuttingshyedgeresearch projects Subscribe here

Product News Find out about interesting new products or get essential informationabout things you might already be using

Aruba Picks A Fight In The Campus Core WithIts New 8400 SwitchEarlier this month at HPE Discover Aruba announced a brand newcore and aggregation switch the 8400 The company is positioning the8400 as a competitor to the venerable Catalyst 6500 among others

By adding a coreaggregation switch to its portfolio Aruba asserts itswillingness to compete for network business from the branch all theway through to the campus core

LINK

OpenDaylight Carbon And What SDN HasBecomeA few years back I remember greeting the news of the OpenDaylightproject (ODL) with enthusiasm Here was an openshysource project

backed by an interesting amalgam of vendors and customers that wasgoing to result in an SDN controller anyone could use

At last the industry would have a rallying point for software definednetworking Here in ODL the hard work of hammering out what wecould really do with SDN would get done With all of those big brainsdevelopers and largeshyscale end users involved in the project wersquodfigure this SDN thing out ODL would be that point of commonality thatwould make SDN real

LINK

Recent PodcastsThe last five podcasts published on Packet Pushers

PacketPushersnet - The Last FivePQ Show 120 Intent-Based Networking With Apstra (Sponsored) Datanauts 091 Found On The Internet Series 2 Network Break 142 Cisco Explores Disaggregation Nutanix Pursues HybridCloud Show 346 Ixia CloudLens And Cloud Visibility (Sponsored) Datanauts 090 AWS Networking Deep Dive

Cant get enough newsletters Check out Link Propagation our newestpublication We send you a free weekly digest with tech news interesting blogsand industry announcements all curated by the Packet Pushers Its an easyway to keep up and stay informed Subscribe at packetpushersnetlink-propagation

Quick Survey Sales Irritations Which of the following vendor sales practices most annoys you A Aggressive sales tactics B Complex licensing schemes C Exorbitant supportservice contracts D Exaggerated claims about featurescapabilities E Other

Last Issues Survey Results

Did We Miss Something Got an link or an article to share Email it tohumaninfrastructurepacketpushersnet

The End Bit

Sponsorship and Advertising - Send an email to humaninfrastructurepacketpushersnet for more information Youcould reach 5013 people Human Infrastructure is bi-weekly newsletter with view perspectives and opinions It is edited andpublished by Greg Ferro and Drew Conry-Murray from PacketPushersnet If youd like to contribute emailDrew at drewconrymurraypacketpushersnet We dont give away your email address or personal details because that would suck Copyright copy 2017 Packet Pushers Interactive LLC All rights reserved unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences