So, now that we’ve discussed who the major players are, let’s take a closer look at why it’s really such a big deal that we can now deploy our Unified Communications products as part of our virtual infrastructure, using the Cisco UCS.

The best way to learn is to engage in hands-on practice using real equipment in a non-production environment. Having crashed a few networks in my time, I can tell you that having the freedom to make changes on the fly without any risk can reduce unnecessary pressure and keep you focused solely on learning. Having said that, don’t use consumer-grade devices for this type of preparation, as they do not even remotely resemble the actual Cisco components used in the exam environments. Ideally, if you have older components in your work environment, then by all means use those.

Last week we installed the Avaya System Manager. Now we will go to the Session Manager Server. This is the Redhat Kickstart DVD procedure. You will load this on a separate server than the one you just loaded System Manager on (make sure you have a monitor and keyboard attached as this will be your only way to initially interact with the sesman until you do the SMnetSetup in a later step).

In the summer of 2011, I attended my first Cisco Live event. For years – even when it was called Networkers, I’d heard how great a show it was. Needless to say, I was excited. I didn’t get to stick around Cisco Live 2011 long enough to hear William Shatner and Carlos Dominguez in the final keynote. Missing that was a huge disappointment. This year, I’m planning to be there the whole week — from the welcome reception to the final keynote address. This year, I’m planning to be there the whole week — from the welcome reception to the final keynote address.

I loved my freshman year high school Spanish class. I would have done okay had I been left to my own devices, but by luck, I had two of my best friends sitting on either side of me in that class, and we developed a friendly rivalry over our grades in the class. Competition pushed us to excellence far better than any of us could have pushed ourselves alone. Microsoft has capitalized on that desire to compete in a perennial competition called the Scripting Games. Competitors have a week to submit a solution to the challenge, posting it to www​.PoshCode​.org, which hosts the competition again this year. Each entry is then evaluated by a panel of judges. Prizes are awarded for the top-scoring scripters in a beginner and advanced division, and additional prizes are awarded randomly to participants, with an increased chance of winning as you participate in greater numbers of challenge events.

There are a number of ways a business can consolidate storage including iSCSI, Fibre Channel SAN, NAS, tiered storage, and data archiving.

Why must you be so careful when using debug commands?

While a recent study found that Chrome tops the list of most secure browsers, IE still has the most market share. Regardless of what browser you use there are some basic tips you can use to help make your web browsing more secure.

Anyone who’s managed switches over the years knows that the Spanning-tree protocol (STP) is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to the data center at layer 2 of the OSI model.

On the plus side, the Spanning-tree protocol is what first allowed us to create redundant paths within our switching infrastructure, making our data center much more resilient to outages than ever before. Anyone who’s experienced a “broadcast storm” knows the full value of Spanning-tree in the traditional switching environment. We’ve also seen many improvements in Spanning-tree over the years to make it work faster and more efficiently (i.e. Rapid Spanning-tree, Bridge Assurance, and many others).

Previously, I talked about the logical and physical steps to building a basic certification lab, concentrating mostly on the CCENT/CCNA Routing and Switching level. Once you have that set of certifications under your belt, there are several options for specialization. Each of these advanced technology tracks serve as methods of enhancing your professional skill set as follows: