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

View this email in your browser

IN THIS WEEKS ISSUE Lifelong Learning And Sacrifice Patching Should Be EasyBlogging Balance Please remember to enable the images the magazine looks a lotbetter that way

Table of Contents (aka The Project Plan)

1 Lifelong Learning AndPersonal Sacrifice2 Patching Should Be EasyAnd PredictableThanks Internet3 Blogging BalanceInternets Of Interest Product NewsPacketPushersnet - The LastFiveQuick Survey OutdatedCertificationsLast Issues Survey Results

Issue Number 59

06222017

The Pain and Gain issue

Thought For The WeekAll work and no play make Jack a

dull boy

1 Lifelong Learning AndPersonal Sacrificeby Ethan Banks

While recording a show on IT careers with Katherine McNamara acouple of themes recurred One was lifelong learning The other waspersonal sacrifice Technology careers arent static You probably arenrsquot doing today whatyou were doing five years ago and certainly not what you were doingten years ago Perhaps your job description is similar but what youactually do each day is different Somewhere along the way a new backup system came into the officeand so you donrsquot change tapes anymore Load balancers brought awhole new level of complexity to application deployments And thentherersquos that pesky cloud thing Each technology transition has likely impacted you The greater yourrole and responsibilities inside of the IT team the more impactful thetechnology shifts have likely been The question becomes ldquoHow do you feel about thatrdquo In our recording Katherine said shersquos run into folks who just donrsquot wantto keep up A technological shift causes angst frustration andcomplaints I get that I have a binder full of certificates from classes Irsquove taken andcertifications Irsquove achieved over two decades in enterprise IT Itrsquosfrustrating that little of that specific knowledge is applicable today

Yes in tech there are historical patterns we can spot that give usinsight into new tech wersquove never seen before Irsquom contributing a fewchapters to a book on exactly that topic However no one will find myspecific MCSEshylevel knowledge about running Windows NT4 networksuseful Technology has moved on I accepted this a long time ago butit still hurts because I worked hard to get that cert These cycles of learning happen over and over To remain highlyemployable in technology we must sacrifice time and money Westudy outside work hours for exams or stay late at the office to mastera technique We buy access to remote racks We lab We blog Wepresent at user groups Thats what we do to be topshytier technologists

So back to the question How do you feel about that If yoursquore up to the challenge therersquos a payoff of longshyterm wellshycompensated employability Acquiring certifications is part of that challenge However certificationsarent the end game The end game is knowledge Staying on top of the latest usefultechnology that organizations can leverage is what yoursquore actuallytrying to achieve If you cheat on an exam because you think the certification is the goalthen people like me and Katherine will eat you alive in the interviewprocess and spit out your bones Technologists no longer assume you know anything just because yourresume or CV says you have an education work experience or acertification We actually assume yoursquore exaggerating or even flatshyoutlying and well dig to find out what you actually know If yoursquore part of the culture of personal sacrifice and lifelong learningyoursquoll be fine But if yoursquore faking it wersquoll find out With my point made you might wonder ldquoIsnrsquot there such a thing as toomuch personal sacrifice to succeed in techrdquo Yes I believe you can gooverboard You can lose the balance Tune into the next edition of Human Infrastructure and Irsquoll address this

2 Patching Should Be EasyAnd Predictable

by Greg Ferro Soshycalled IT security experts tell us that simply patching our productswould substantially reduce the risk of owning IT What they conveniently forget is that patching costs serious money foroperational resources and involves substantive operational risks todeploy Vendors are making big claims about their software futures so letssee a return on those recurring licenses and increased maintenancefees If we are paying more we should expect more

Risks Of Failure In my own experience and in discussions with many other people therisk of patching is perceived as high Experienced engineers expectfailure Think about that Vendors tell us their products will have bugs and weshould plan to test and upgrade often But we also expect thatupgrades will be faulty and that we have to bear that risk Why

Patch What Needs Patching In networking particularly product vendors have been buildingmonolithic mainframeshystyle products for the last 30 years You cantpatch an insecure application or operating system you must replacethe entire software stack in a single action We dont do this for virtualization or servers so why are we stillimplementing this 30shyyear old idea when most other technologies haveadvanced to modular code Monolithic code made sense in the 1980s when software development

tools were expensive complex and unreliable In 2017 were wellpast time for modern approaches to network software

Installation Complexity While some advances have been made around improving the uploadand booting of images to devices its not simple or straightforward Lets not ignore security here either Are the images secure andunmodified by a malicious actor Some customers believe that customand proprietary silicon is a feature so lets use that to include securitychecks on the running software Note This area has been addressed well by startups in the SDshyWANmarket where cloud operations are normal This proves it is possibleat low cost

Moral Hazards Vendors charge for tech support Yet when bugs or security flaws areuncovered customers are expected to fix the problems themselves Vendors should

1 Make the code upgrade process simple and reliable2 Ensure the code is reliable and wellshytested3 Ensure code upgrades are modular to reduce operational risk

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

3 Blogging BalanceBy Eric Shanks Blogging has been a labor of love for me for a little over five yearsnow I started a blog to get my own ideas written down to documentmy own experiences with technology and to try to give back to anindustry who had helped me improve my own skills But blogging hasnrsquot been an easy thing all of the time and often comeswith challenges If yoursquore new to blogging and thinking about gettingstarted this post may help you figure out how you want to blog Ifyoursquore an experienced blogger I expect that you can relate to thispost

The Rewards Before talking about some challenges I wanted to reiterate that

blogging does come with some perks

Added Skills ndash There are soft skills that blogging has helped mewith such as vocabulary grammar and getting used to explainingthings through pictures Maybe for you grammar police out thereit still looks like I canrsquot write a coherent sentence but imaginehow bad of a writer Irsquod be if I didnrsquot write as often My day jobbenefits from these skills since I write designs and documentationfor customers and must articulate points in much the same wayIn addition to this Irsquom diving into technologies more deeply than Imight normally because Irsquom expecting to have to explain it in apost later to someone else Being able to explain how to or howshould you do something takes a deeper level of knowledge sothis is a benefit Networking ndash Irsquove met a lot of great people because of myblogging Being introduced to the Tech Field Day team hasopened many doors and just being involved in social media hasbeen amazing If it werenrsquot for my blog I donrsquot know how involvedI would have gotten in social media but now that I am I touchbase with a lot of fellow bloggers or people Irsquove met atconferences Blogging can open some doors for you if yoursquorelooking for work and this point is not lost on me Community Awards ndash Vendor programs such as VMwarevExperts Cisco Champions or Microsoft MVPs is a nice perk ifyou routinely cover solutions in those ecosystems While this isnrsquota reason to blog it is a nice thing to be acknowledged from avendor and get access to licensing or new products ahead of therest of the pack

Balancing The Blogging DifficultiesItrsquos not all sunshine and cake by the ocean though There are plenty ofreasons that people donrsquot blog

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

So back to the question How do you feel about that If yoursquore up to the challenge therersquos a payoff of longshyterm wellshycompensated employability Acquiring certifications is part of that challenge However certificationsarent the end game The end game is knowledge Staying on top of the latest usefultechnology that organizations can leverage is what yoursquore actuallytrying to achieve If you cheat on an exam because you think the certification is the goalthen people like me and Katherine will eat you alive in the interviewprocess and spit out your bones Technologists no longer assume you know anything just because yourresume or CV says you have an education work experience or acertification We actually assume yoursquore exaggerating or even flatshyoutlying and well dig to find out what you actually know If yoursquore part of the culture of personal sacrifice and lifelong learningyoursquoll be fine But if yoursquore faking it wersquoll find out With my point made you might wonder ldquoIsnrsquot there such a thing as toomuch personal sacrifice to succeed in techrdquo Yes I believe you can gooverboard You can lose the balance Tune into the next edition of Human Infrastructure and Irsquoll address this

2 Patching Should Be EasyAnd Predictable

by Greg Ferro Soshycalled IT security experts tell us that simply patching our productswould substantially reduce the risk of owning IT What they conveniently forget is that patching costs serious money foroperational resources and involves substantive operational risks todeploy Vendors are making big claims about their software futures so letssee a return on those recurring licenses and increased maintenancefees If we are paying more we should expect more

Risks Of Failure In my own experience and in discussions with many other people therisk of patching is perceived as high Experienced engineers expectfailure Think about that Vendors tell us their products will have bugs and weshould plan to test and upgrade often But we also expect thatupgrades will be faulty and that we have to bear that risk Why

Patch What Needs Patching In networking particularly product vendors have been buildingmonolithic mainframeshystyle products for the last 30 years You cantpatch an insecure application or operating system you must replacethe entire software stack in a single action We dont do this for virtualization or servers so why are we stillimplementing this 30shyyear old idea when most other technologies haveadvanced to modular code Monolithic code made sense in the 1980s when software development

tools were expensive complex and unreliable In 2017 were wellpast time for modern approaches to network software

Installation Complexity While some advances have been made around improving the uploadand booting of images to devices its not simple or straightforward Lets not ignore security here either Are the images secure andunmodified by a malicious actor Some customers believe that customand proprietary silicon is a feature so lets use that to include securitychecks on the running software Note This area has been addressed well by startups in the SDshyWANmarket where cloud operations are normal This proves it is possibleat low cost

Moral Hazards Vendors charge for tech support Yet when bugs or security flaws areuncovered customers are expected to fix the problems themselves Vendors should

1 Make the code upgrade process simple and reliable2 Ensure the code is reliable and wellshytested3 Ensure code upgrades are modular to reduce operational risk

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

3 Blogging BalanceBy Eric Shanks Blogging has been a labor of love for me for a little over five yearsnow I started a blog to get my own ideas written down to documentmy own experiences with technology and to try to give back to anindustry who had helped me improve my own skills But blogging hasnrsquot been an easy thing all of the time and often comeswith challenges If yoursquore new to blogging and thinking about gettingstarted this post may help you figure out how you want to blog Ifyoursquore an experienced blogger I expect that you can relate to thispost

The Rewards Before talking about some challenges I wanted to reiterate that

blogging does come with some perks

Added Skills ndash There are soft skills that blogging has helped mewith such as vocabulary grammar and getting used to explainingthings through pictures Maybe for you grammar police out thereit still looks like I canrsquot write a coherent sentence but imaginehow bad of a writer Irsquod be if I didnrsquot write as often My day jobbenefits from these skills since I write designs and documentationfor customers and must articulate points in much the same wayIn addition to this Irsquom diving into technologies more deeply than Imight normally because Irsquom expecting to have to explain it in apost later to someone else Being able to explain how to or howshould you do something takes a deeper level of knowledge sothis is a benefit Networking ndash Irsquove met a lot of great people because of myblogging Being introduced to the Tech Field Day team hasopened many doors and just being involved in social media hasbeen amazing If it werenrsquot for my blog I donrsquot know how involvedI would have gotten in social media but now that I am I touchbase with a lot of fellow bloggers or people Irsquove met atconferences Blogging can open some doors for you if yoursquorelooking for work and this point is not lost on me Community Awards ndash Vendor programs such as VMwarevExperts Cisco Champions or Microsoft MVPs is a nice perk ifyou routinely cover solutions in those ecosystems While this isnrsquota reason to blog it is a nice thing to be acknowledged from avendor and get access to licensing or new products ahead of therest of the pack

Balancing The Blogging DifficultiesItrsquos not all sunshine and cake by the ocean though There are plenty ofreasons that people donrsquot blog

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

by Greg Ferro Soshycalled IT security experts tell us that simply patching our productswould substantially reduce the risk of owning IT What they conveniently forget is that patching costs serious money foroperational resources and involves substantive operational risks todeploy Vendors are making big claims about their software futures so letssee a return on those recurring licenses and increased maintenancefees If we are paying more we should expect more

Risks Of Failure In my own experience and in discussions with many other people therisk of patching is perceived as high Experienced engineers expectfailure Think about that Vendors tell us their products will have bugs and weshould plan to test and upgrade often But we also expect thatupgrades will be faulty and that we have to bear that risk Why

Patch What Needs Patching In networking particularly product vendors have been buildingmonolithic mainframeshystyle products for the last 30 years You cantpatch an insecure application or operating system you must replacethe entire software stack in a single action We dont do this for virtualization or servers so why are we stillimplementing this 30shyyear old idea when most other technologies haveadvanced to modular code Monolithic code made sense in the 1980s when software development

tools were expensive complex and unreliable In 2017 were wellpast time for modern approaches to network software

Installation Complexity While some advances have been made around improving the uploadand booting of images to devices its not simple or straightforward Lets not ignore security here either Are the images secure andunmodified by a malicious actor Some customers believe that customand proprietary silicon is a feature so lets use that to include securitychecks on the running software Note This area has been addressed well by startups in the SDshyWANmarket where cloud operations are normal This proves it is possibleat low cost

Moral Hazards Vendors charge for tech support Yet when bugs or security flaws areuncovered customers are expected to fix the problems themselves Vendors should

1 Make the code upgrade process simple and reliable2 Ensure the code is reliable and wellshytested3 Ensure code upgrades are modular to reduce operational risk

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

3 Blogging BalanceBy Eric Shanks Blogging has been a labor of love for me for a little over five yearsnow I started a blog to get my own ideas written down to documentmy own experiences with technology and to try to give back to anindustry who had helped me improve my own skills But blogging hasnrsquot been an easy thing all of the time and often comeswith challenges If yoursquore new to blogging and thinking about gettingstarted this post may help you figure out how you want to blog Ifyoursquore an experienced blogger I expect that you can relate to thispost

The Rewards Before talking about some challenges I wanted to reiterate that

blogging does come with some perks

Added Skills ndash There are soft skills that blogging has helped mewith such as vocabulary grammar and getting used to explainingthings through pictures Maybe for you grammar police out thereit still looks like I canrsquot write a coherent sentence but imaginehow bad of a writer Irsquod be if I didnrsquot write as often My day jobbenefits from these skills since I write designs and documentationfor customers and must articulate points in much the same wayIn addition to this Irsquom diving into technologies more deeply than Imight normally because Irsquom expecting to have to explain it in apost later to someone else Being able to explain how to or howshould you do something takes a deeper level of knowledge sothis is a benefit Networking ndash Irsquove met a lot of great people because of myblogging Being introduced to the Tech Field Day team hasopened many doors and just being involved in social media hasbeen amazing If it werenrsquot for my blog I donrsquot know how involvedI would have gotten in social media but now that I am I touchbase with a lot of fellow bloggers or people Irsquove met atconferences Blogging can open some doors for you if yoursquorelooking for work and this point is not lost on me Community Awards ndash Vendor programs such as VMwarevExperts Cisco Champions or Microsoft MVPs is a nice perk ifyou routinely cover solutions in those ecosystems While this isnrsquota reason to blog it is a nice thing to be acknowledged from avendor and get access to licensing or new products ahead of therest of the pack

Balancing The Blogging DifficultiesItrsquos not all sunshine and cake by the ocean though There are plenty ofreasons that people donrsquot blog

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

tools were expensive complex and unreliable In 2017 were wellpast time for modern approaches to network software

Installation Complexity While some advances have been made around improving the uploadand booting of images to devices its not simple or straightforward Lets not ignore security here either Are the images secure andunmodified by a malicious actor Some customers believe that customand proprietary silicon is a feature so lets use that to include securitychecks on the running software Note This area has been addressed well by startups in the SDshyWANmarket where cloud operations are normal This proves it is possibleat low cost

Moral Hazards Vendors charge for tech support Yet when bugs or security flaws areuncovered customers are expected to fix the problems themselves Vendors should

1 Make the code upgrade process simple and reliable2 Ensure the code is reliable and wellshytested3 Ensure code upgrades are modular to reduce operational risk

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

3 Blogging BalanceBy Eric Shanks Blogging has been a labor of love for me for a little over five yearsnow I started a blog to get my own ideas written down to documentmy own experiences with technology and to try to give back to anindustry who had helped me improve my own skills But blogging hasnrsquot been an easy thing all of the time and often comeswith challenges If yoursquore new to blogging and thinking about gettingstarted this post may help you figure out how you want to blog Ifyoursquore an experienced blogger I expect that you can relate to thispost

The Rewards Before talking about some challenges I wanted to reiterate that

blogging does come with some perks

Added Skills ndash There are soft skills that blogging has helped mewith such as vocabulary grammar and getting used to explainingthings through pictures Maybe for you grammar police out thereit still looks like I canrsquot write a coherent sentence but imaginehow bad of a writer Irsquod be if I didnrsquot write as often My day jobbenefits from these skills since I write designs and documentationfor customers and must articulate points in much the same wayIn addition to this Irsquom diving into technologies more deeply than Imight normally because Irsquom expecting to have to explain it in apost later to someone else Being able to explain how to or howshould you do something takes a deeper level of knowledge sothis is a benefit Networking ndash Irsquove met a lot of great people because of myblogging Being introduced to the Tech Field Day team hasopened many doors and just being involved in social media hasbeen amazing If it werenrsquot for my blog I donrsquot know how involvedI would have gotten in social media but now that I am I touchbase with a lot of fellow bloggers or people Irsquove met atconferences Blogging can open some doors for you if yoursquorelooking for work and this point is not lost on me Community Awards ndash Vendor programs such as VMwarevExperts Cisco Champions or Microsoft MVPs is a nice perk ifyou routinely cover solutions in those ecosystems While this isnrsquota reason to blog it is a nice thing to be acknowledged from avendor and get access to licensing or new products ahead of therest of the pack

Balancing The Blogging DifficultiesItrsquos not all sunshine and cake by the ocean though There are plenty ofreasons that people donrsquot blog

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

3 Blogging BalanceBy Eric Shanks Blogging has been a labor of love for me for a little over five yearsnow I started a blog to get my own ideas written down to documentmy own experiences with technology and to try to give back to anindustry who had helped me improve my own skills But blogging hasnrsquot been an easy thing all of the time and often comeswith challenges If yoursquore new to blogging and thinking about gettingstarted this post may help you figure out how you want to blog Ifyoursquore an experienced blogger I expect that you can relate to thispost

The Rewards Before talking about some challenges I wanted to reiterate that

blogging does come with some perks

Added Skills ndash There are soft skills that blogging has helped mewith such as vocabulary grammar and getting used to explainingthings through pictures Maybe for you grammar police out thereit still looks like I canrsquot write a coherent sentence but imaginehow bad of a writer Irsquod be if I didnrsquot write as often My day jobbenefits from these skills since I write designs and documentationfor customers and must articulate points in much the same wayIn addition to this Irsquom diving into technologies more deeply than Imight normally because Irsquom expecting to have to explain it in apost later to someone else Being able to explain how to or howshould you do something takes a deeper level of knowledge sothis is a benefit Networking ndash Irsquove met a lot of great people because of myblogging Being introduced to the Tech Field Day team hasopened many doors and just being involved in social media hasbeen amazing If it werenrsquot for my blog I donrsquot know how involvedI would have gotten in social media but now that I am I touchbase with a lot of fellow bloggers or people Irsquove met atconferences Blogging can open some doors for you if yoursquorelooking for work and this point is not lost on me Community Awards ndash Vendor programs such as VMwarevExperts Cisco Champions or Microsoft MVPs is a nice perk ifyou routinely cover solutions in those ecosystems While this isnrsquota reason to blog it is a nice thing to be acknowledged from avendor and get access to licensing or new products ahead of therest of the pack

Balancing The Blogging DifficultiesItrsquos not all sunshine and cake by the ocean though There are plenty ofreasons that people donrsquot blog

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

blogging does come with some perks

Added Skills ndash There are soft skills that blogging has helped mewith such as vocabulary grammar and getting used to explainingthings through pictures Maybe for you grammar police out thereit still looks like I canrsquot write a coherent sentence but imaginehow bad of a writer Irsquod be if I didnrsquot write as often My day jobbenefits from these skills since I write designs and documentationfor customers and must articulate points in much the same wayIn addition to this Irsquom diving into technologies more deeply than Imight normally because Irsquom expecting to have to explain it in apost later to someone else Being able to explain how to or howshould you do something takes a deeper level of knowledge sothis is a benefit Networking ndash Irsquove met a lot of great people because of myblogging Being introduced to the Tech Field Day team hasopened many doors and just being involved in social media hasbeen amazing If it werenrsquot for my blog I donrsquot know how involvedI would have gotten in social media but now that I am I touchbase with a lot of fellow bloggers or people Irsquove met atconferences Blogging can open some doors for you if yoursquorelooking for work and this point is not lost on me Community Awards ndash Vendor programs such as VMwarevExperts Cisco Champions or Microsoft MVPs is a nice perk ifyou routinely cover solutions in those ecosystems While this isnrsquota reason to blog it is a nice thing to be acknowledged from avendor and get access to licensing or new products ahead of therest of the pack

Balancing The Blogging DifficultiesItrsquos not all sunshine and cake by the ocean though There are plenty ofreasons that people donrsquot blog

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

Time Away From Family ndash I have a great family that knows theimportance of blogging for an outlet and as a benefit to mycareer But writing a blog researching technologies and going tocommunity events can put a real strain on relationships as wellItrsquos one thing to have a demanding job but an entirely other thingto spend additional time writing a blog I think Irsquove failed inregards to this balance in the past by spending too much timeblogging and not enough time ensuring that my personalresponsibilities are met Fear Of Criticism ndash If you want to blog you have to write thingsI know this is a very profound statement but you have to lay outwhat knowledge you have on the Web page for everyone to seeThis can be a very intimidating prospect for new bloggers What ifI write something thatrsquos inaccurate What if I write something andpeople realize how little I know What if people make meancomments about a post I worked hard writing Well all of thesethings can happen You have to find that right balance about whatyou want to write about and what level of criticism yoursquore willing totake I will tell you that the criticism can be very humbling attimes but if used correctly can also make you better at your job Employer Conflicts ndash This will certainly be different for everyemployer Does your company have a blog that they expect youto write for If they do how do you know what content goes onyour blog vs the companies blog If yoursquore writing up some coolnew code or a runbook what content is yours to use and whatcould be considered intellectual property by your employerThese are sometimes tough decisions that need to be dealt withIf yoursquove already got an established blog Irsquod recommend havingsome discussions with your employer when you interview for anew position to get this straightened out going in

Why Do It

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

For me its a way to document my training activity and give me areference point for where Irsquom at technically I canrsquot list all of the timesIrsquove gone to do something and found my own blog as a great technicalresource to remind me how things were done and why I did themMaybe this is a selfish reason but its one of the big ones The other reason blogging is important to me is out of a sense of dutyWhen I was a Systems Administrator I spent a lot of time on blogsfiguring out how to do stuff for work They were lighthearted moredirect versions of technical documentation where the operator wouldtell you what really worked vs what should have worked Being able toprovide this type of resource to other Systems Administrators seemslike something I owe to the community

Thank YouDuring my career Irsquove had different job roles ranging from level 1technical support up to being a Senior Solutions Architect for aconsulting company My focus has changed and so have the types ofblogs Irsquove read When I was starting with vSphere I read yellowshybrickscom and frankdennemannl Later I found Wahlnetworkcomand virtuallyghettocom to be the most useful to me And now KeithTownsendrsquos Linkedin posts or CTOAdvisor posts are the most relevantto me personally Irsquod like to thank these bloggers and more for taking the risks andbalancing the difficulties for the betterment of the communityregardless of the reasons they decided to start blogging Thank you

If you have bloggers that you appreciate you still have an opportunityto go vote for them at vsphereshylandcom Go show them yourappreciation

See Erics original version of this post and his other blogs at his siteThe IT Hollow

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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

Deciphering Malwarersquos use of TLS (without

Decryption) Cisco recently announced technology that allowed it to identifymalware in encrypted trafficshyshywithout the need to decrypt the trafficfirst Turns out that Cisco researchers figured out they could reliablyidentify known malware families based on parameters in unencryptedTLS headers If you want to dig into the gory details the researcherspublished a paper thats available as a PDF

The new status symbol itrsquos not what you spendndash itrsquos how hard you work The Guardian has an interesting essay about how the amount of timeone spends working has become a way to signal ones elite statusalongside more traditional signs (expensive cars second or thirdhomes designer labels and so on) The essay suggests this arisesfrom the recent obsession with personal productivity as well as theneed for executives to justify their outlandish compensation

In the new Gilded Age identifying oneself as a member ofthe ruling class doesnrsquot just require conspicuousconsumption It requires conspicuous production

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

Juniper Updates Security Platform ToIncorporate Cisco SwitchesJuniperrsquos Software Defined Secure Networks (SDSN) platform cannow work with Cisco switches and ForeScoutrsquos CounterAct NACsoftware to automatically respond to compromised computersconnected to the corporate network

If malicious files or programs are detected automated responsesinclude blocking or quarantining compromised computers alerting

administrators or simply logging the malware notification

LINK

Aricent Targets Web Scale Data Centers WithISS 101The name Aricent has been bouncing around the technologybackground for sometime The company has 12000 employees andhas been manufacturing products for 25 years which is about a longas Cisco (Aricent started out as Hughes Electronics and thenrebranded)

Itrsquos been a supplier of software components and hardware designs tothe usual network vendors for the last 20 years but is now looking togo direct to the market like other suppliers

LINK

Recent PodcastsThe last five podcasts published on Packet Pushers

PacketPushersnet - The Last FiveDatanauts 089 SRE vs Cloud Native vs DevOps Network Break 140 Broadcom Announces Trident 3 Nokia Launches NewNetwork Processors Show 344 Analyst Talk With John Fruehe PQ Show 119 Can The Network Do That

Datanauts 088 Found On The Internet Series 1

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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