Josh Stephens
Using IT management tools for forensics
The primary purpose of most IT management tools is to identify problems within your IT systems. Whether the problem is a down server or WAN link, a saturated fiber channel or trunk port, an Exchange store or SAN queue backing up or...
IT certifications -- why, which, and when
SolarWinds recently hosted a survey on the value of IT certifications. Based on the survey results, IT certifications are more valuable than any other time that I can remember, and folks with these certifications are seeing a...
Holiday projects for your network and data center
Now that Halloween is behind us, we have officially entered into the "Holiday Season." That can mean anything from "hands off everything" to "time to get those special projects done" depending on which industry that you're in. If you...
Dispelling common network myths and taboos
One of my biggest pet peeves is being told that I can't do something, or more specifically, that something can't be done. As soon as you throw a statement like that at me, you can bet your bottom dollar that all I'm thinking about is...
Virtualization's slow creep into your network, becoming a flood?
In many organizations, virtualization technology is managed by the systems team, the data center team, or a specialized virtualization team. Seldom do I see network teams responsible for the virtual layer. This makes sense, but it...
The fall TV schedule, and how it may affect your network
This week the autumn 2011 TV schedule kicked off with premiers of several of my favorite shows. As usual, I was working late last night so I missed some of the premiers but I can watch them online or on my DVR. So, as I sit here in...
IT recovery and planning in the wake of fires, floods, and quakes...
These last few years seem to have been wrought with natural disaster. Here in Austin, Texas, where I live, we've been ravaged by wildfires the last few weeks. The East Coast has recently been hit hard by hurricanes and flooding, and...
Cloud computing -- more philosophy than technology
At least once a week I end up in a conversation about cloud computing with someone who really has no idea what it is. It's hard to blame them as there are so many different things that get lumped into this bucket and the...
The Session Layer: Understanding layer 5 of the OSI Model
According to the OSI Model, the session layer is where connections are established, managed, and torn down. For connection-oriented network protocols, understanding how the session layer works, and what symptoms would help you...
IPv6 -- Are you ahead, behind, or completely off the map?
IPv6 has been one of the hottest topics of 2011. The heat around this subject was kindled with ICANN 's announcement that they'd depleted their IPv4 addresses by issuing their last two /8's but continued to gain momentum as...
Preparing your network to be managed
Over the last few weeks I've had the opportunity to visit some friends of mine who were starting IT management projects within their organizations. Those meetings got me thinking about all the things that need to happen to enable...
Cisco Live! Las Vegas 2011
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Cisco Live! and to talk with hundreds of IT professionals. Cisco Live! is one of my favorite events of the year as it's focused exclusively on geeks like me, whereas many shows are more...
The Transport Layer: Understanding layer 4 of the OSI Model
I like to think of the transport layer as the layer of the OSI Model that enables more interesting traffic. While we network engineers may love a lot of the simpler uses of the IP protocol and networks in general, we'd all be jobless...
The always-connected world of modern medicine
This week I've been hanging out at the hospital, spending time with my family and learning about medical IT. My wife's a doc so I'm often exposed to medicine from a physician's viewpoint, but it's been a while since I spent time with...
The United Airlines outage, and why it's so important to manage change
When I saw the news about the recent United Airlines system outage, and the travel problems it caused, I was especially interested. As you have probably read, United experienced a system outage last weekend that caused 36 flights to...
X-Men, virtualization and why they're relevant to you
Earlier this week I went to see X-Men: First Class. I told myself that it was research for this blog post so I didn't feel too bad about leaving work a bit early, avoiding traffic and catching an afternoon showing. It was awesome....
The Network Layer: Understanding layer 3 of the OSI Model
The third layer of the OSI Model, the network layer, is where most network engineers focus their time and expertise. As Darragh commented in my post on the data link layer, Layer 2 is cool but Layer 3 is the one that can take you...
Lady Gaga breaks Amazon.com, and what you should learn from it
Lady Gaga just released her latest album. Say what you want to about her music, but Lady Gaga is a genius when it comes to marketing. Rather than bellyache about how digital music distribution and piracy are decreasing revenues for...
The Data Link Layer: Understanding one of my favorite layers of the OSI Model
A couple posts ago, we talked about Layer 1 of the OSI Model -- the Physical Layer. Today, we'll start our climb up the Model with a visit to Layer 2, the Data Link Layer.The Data Link Layer is one of my favorite layers of the OSI...