The musings of an IT Consultant » switching

HP A-Series Switches

Raj Perumal — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:05:09 +0000

Hi folks! So recently I went away on some HP A-Series switch training. I was out in Toronto at some training provided by Avnet.

The training was very comprehensive, and I got to learn a lot of great things about HP’s new series of enterprise switches which they acquired from the 3COM/H3C purchase.

Long story short, these switches are amazing. I have to say they compete quite well with their Cisco competition. For anyone considering buying switches in the enterprise space, I urge you to demo some of the A-Series product line!

-RP

Cisco CCNP Certification Changing

Raj Perumal — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:05:23 +0000

Hi folks! So as you know I’ve been working on the CCNP certification for the past while. Well recently some new information came to light about how the certification is changing.

Word on the street is that Cisco will be making an official announcement at the end of January 2010. What I’ve heard is that they are changing it from the current format of 4 exams down to a 3 exam format. This will consist of one routing exam, one switching exam, and one troubleshooting exam.

After the announcement they will retire the old exams this year, but will allow people who are in the middle of completing their CCNP to finish off their certification with the old exams (BSCI, BCMSN, ISCW, ONT).

You can read more about it here.

-RP

Is your data network ready for VoIP?

Raj Perumal — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:00:01 +0000

Hi folks! One of the greatest things about today’s network is that it seems to be able to handle anything. It doesn’t seem to matter what you want to do on your network, there is always a technology around the corner that can make it happen for you.

Well one of the most common things happening today is the conversion of data networks to voice and data networks. With the coming of VoIP, network engineers have been put under an increasing burden to support the world of the telephone when historically data and voice have been two separate entities.

There are a lot of people that erroneously think that VoIP is all about the phones and the PBX, but in reality if you don’t have a data network that can handle the traffic, none of that is really going to matter. Some of things network administrators find out in the end is that a switch isn’t always just a switch. What I mean by this is that administrators have been forced to cut and slash budgets and buy cheaper equipment only to find out that their switch is sub-par and cannot support a voice network. They are then faced with redoing their entire data network infrastructure which makes the cost of going to VoIP prohibitively expensive.

If administrators really look at what is offered to them when they buy network equipment such as switches, they can then plan for future VoIP deployments so when the time comes their data network will be ready. Things such as QOS and POE are two items that are not paid heed to when buying switches if VoIP isn’t in the equation, but then you find out you need it when the company starts going in the VoIP direction.

What I’m trying to say here is that in the future, almost all of us will be using VoIP, so you might as well start planning for getting your data networks ready now.

-RP