“Progress might have been alright once, but it has gone on too long.” – Ogden Nash The book The Innovator’s Dilemma appears on the desk of a lot of Silicon Valley executives. Its author, Clayton Christiensen, is famous for having coined the term “disruptive innovation.” The term has always bothered me, and I keep waiting for the […]
Category: Perspectives
Where does time go?
Two things can almost go without saying: If you start a blog, you need to commit time to writing it. When you move up in the corporate world, time becomes a precious commodity. When I started this blog several years ago, I was a network architect at Juniper with a fair amount of time on […]
Cisco Live is over! Long Live Cisco Live!
I think it’s fair to say that all technical marketing engineers are excited for Cisco Live, and happy when it’s over. Cisco Live is always a lot of fun–I heard one person say “it’s like a family reunion except I like everyone!” It’s a great chance to see a lot of folks you don’t get […]
Inside Cisco Live
While I’m thinking about another TAC Tale, I’m quite busy working on slides for Cisco Live. I figured this makes for another interesting “inside Cisco” post, since most people who have been to the show don’t know much about how it comes together. A couple years back I asked a customer if I could […]
I am not a coder!
I recently replied to a comment that I think warrants a full blog post. I’ve been here at Cisco working on programmability for a few years. Brian Turner wrote in to say, essentially: Hang on! I became a network engineer precisely because I don’t want to be a coder! I tried programming and hated it! […]
Do we hate network engineers?
I was doing well on the blog for a few months but lately fell behind. With (now) 12 people reporting to me, and three major areas of responsibility (SD-Access, Assurance, and Programmability), it’s not easy to find time to write up a blog post. I have about five drafts needing work but I cannot seem […]
Network Engineering Jobs
I’ve been in this industry a while now, and I’ve done a lot of jobs. Certainly not every job, but a lot. My first full time network engineering job came in 2000, but I was doing some networking for a few years before that. I often see younger network engineers posting in public forums asking […]
Cisco IOS XE Programmability Book
In a previous post I had mentioned I co-authored a book on IOS XE Programmability with some colleagues of mine. For those who are interested, the book is available here. The book is not a comprehensive how-to, but a summary of the IOS XE features along with a few samples. It should provide a good […]
On Being a Dinosaur
An old networking friend whom I mentored for his CCIE a long time ago wrote me an email: I’ve been a CCIE for 10 years now, he said, and I’m feeling like a dinosaur. Everyone wants people who know AWS and automation and they don’t want old-school CLI guys. It takes me back to a […]
Where I’ve been, and what a TME is
Jesse, a recent commentor, asked why I haven’t been posting much lately. In fact, my last post was August of 2017. Well, there are several reasons I don’t post much these days. In part, I’m not convinced anyone is reading. It’s nice to see a comment now and again to realize it’s not just spambots […]