TechHouse570

Ok I may not have exactly 99 problems & Jay Z can hit me up later! But I can assure you any issues that may exist in our environments today never do for long thanks to Fortinet & their growing portfolio of security products & solutions! It was no secret that I had been overly joyed & excited to FINALLY see them present in person at a Tech Field Day event. And their presentation at Networking Field Day 30 did not disappoint! So, let’s dive in to briefly recap what they brought to the table at NFD30!

You Could FortiThis? Or You Could FortiThat!

Fortinet kicked us off by diving right into their terrific company history, showcasing over the last 20 years they without question have delivered in the areas of both Networking & Security. Leading the way in Cybersecurity their solutions are simplistic, most effective & assure solid delivery no matter which way you go. Now I don’t wanna give too much away, to get a deeper dive into their solutions I would most definitely recommend heading over to the Networking Field Day 30 Fortinet Page link HERE to see what they brought to the table! But a little preview won’t hurt so let’s look into their switching solutions!

Fortinet Switching & Infrastructure Demo!

The Fortinet team delivered in every aspect of their presentations from SD-WAN, SASE & more! But I do need to give a special shoutout to my good friend Mr. James Allen. I not only had the privilege to get to connect with him a day prior to the presentation, but his knowledge & passion for the solutions truly show! We could’ve talked for hours but I did have to save my questions for the day of the event & it was well worth it.

His presentation on FortiSwitch was incredible, I’ve known for the longest time that their Firewall & products supersede many others! But entering the switching arena provides a new depth to their line of products. Designed to be deployed across Campus, SD-Branch & more. Configuration like their other products is simple through zero- touch provisioning & management of all runs through their FortiManager interface same as their firewalls, AP’s & other devices. One license grants you access to all of the features you need and that’s a win in itself. Another thing I did want to dive in more too was their FortiLink technology!

Designed as a proprietary protocol, it allows any Fortinet product to simplistically be added to the security fabric and instantly become managed through FortiMnager! Yup it’s that simple, all Fortinet products utilize this making onboarding the easiest thing you’ll ever experience.

The demonstration was phenomenal! And showcased FortiOS as a LAN management platform, provisioning & walking you though an entire deployment & more. So, if you haven’t check it out you won’t be disappointed! I can say without question after using their products for the last year or so Fortinet is changing the way we deploy & secure networks at every level. And I’m all here for it! I want to give a huge thank you again to the Fortinet team for always bringing their A-Game you never disappoint! Until next time stay safe, stay secure & I’ll see you everyone!

Best Regards,

Girard

I asked Santa this Christmas for one thing & one thing only… to return to another phenomenal Tech Field Day event. And he delivered! Networking Field Day 30 returns to where all the magic started in Silicon Valley! Celebrating its 30^th milestone. Gestalt IT’s flagship event will provide new insights into the networking industry, new solutions, a roundtable lineup of some of the best to do it & more! So, let’s not waste any time, let’s take a look at some of the incredible vendors that will be presenting at this event!

Anuta Networks

This is going to be my first time getting to see Anuta present at an event! Providing On-Prem & Cloud Network Orchestration solutions for branch, campus, data center & more. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what types of automation solutions they’ll be bringing!

Selector

Selector is going to be a first-time presenter at NFD30 & I can’t wait! Utilizing AIOps, they’re one of the premier analytics solutions offering real time insight into maintaining & managing multi domain infrastructure seamlessly & endlessly! Never getting to leverage their solution I’m excited to see what tools & technologies they’ll have to offer for our day-to-day environments!

Fortinet

Fortinet the last two or three years has been such a huge part of my day to day! Continually learning & implementing their new solutions, I would be lying if I didn’t say this by far is going to be one of my most anticipated presentations to see! After not getting to see them in person at Security Field Day last March & seeing them present virtually at this past one. They’re without question have some of the best security & EDR solutions in the game today! I can only imagine what they’ll be bringing in the SD-WAN & fabric space to showcase next week!

Aryaka

Another first-time presenter! Aryaka prides itself as not only a true SD-WAN & SASE solution. But also offers Multi-Cloud Networking, RemoteVPNaaS, along with multiple other services. Their layer 2 & 3 solutions are anchored in the cloud, so it’ll be interesting to see not only how it works but how their application performance outperforms MPLS!?

Rounding out with what I know will be incredible presentations from Juniper Networks & Cisco. This event is going to be phenomenal & getting to hang with the all-star lineup of delegates from all over is going to make this event more special! If you haven’t checked out the Tech Field Day website for more info regarding this event you need too! And be sure to follow the event using the hashtag #NFD30 for more news updates & to ask me and my fellow delegates & presenters questions leading up to the big event and day of! Get your calendars ready for January 18^th  to 20th for Networking Field Day 30. Until next time, stay safe and I’ll see you all next week!

Best Regards,

Girard

Photo Credit: Fortinet

In today’s security landscape the growing level of threats has substantially increased dramatically in 2022 alone. Increasing 28%, the average weekly attacks worldwide grew to over 1,130 attacks globally across multiple organizations. But as we evolve our solutions need to also, and Fortinet has led the way for the last 20 years in doing so at every level & continues to in our day to day.

Offering over 57 products across their vast portfolio, from some of the most sophisticated firewalls in our industry today to incredible security, EDR & cloud-based solutions. They’ve not only changed the game in the way we detect, respond & remediate multiple different threats! But also set the tone for how to continually remain provocative & vigilant in identifying them in every area to further protect & keep our environments safe.

Now normally I have the honor of being in sunny San Jose to check out the action! But this time I was still fortunate enough from the comfort of my own home to check out Fortinet at Security Field Day 8 to see what they’ve got cooking up, let’s dive in & take a look!

FortiRecon

One of their newer products that utilizes their existing security platform with an External Attack Surface Intelligence (EASM) is FortiRecon! Providing us with the capability to identify threat actors’ activity, as well as monitor ransomware data leaks to remain proactive in remediating in real time. Focusing on so many different attacks & risks, this solution manages to not only prioritize the challenges but weed out the false positives as best as it can & offer immediate remediation.

Through monitoring & collecting, assessing the threat & providing actionable intelligence FortiRecon is next level detection no threat is ready for!

FortiDeceptor

Another great product we got to see in action was FortiDecptor! Designed as an agentless OT/IT/IoT deception solution. Its goal is to provide early detection & response to active threats that may exist within your environment in real time.

How it works is the decoy generates intelligence-based alerts to which then the attacker engages with the decoy. From there the attack is blocked, quarantined & removed! Think of a sting operation in your network you get to see in real time, that’s awesome! Offering a ton of integrations with existing Forti products, this is one solution & incredible demo you defiantly don’t want to miss, I highly advise you check this one out for yourself!

Rounding out the spectacular presentations Fortinet brought was their FortiCNP cloud native application protection platform!

Offering resource risk prioritization, this tool offers a ton of incredible features but focuses on the one key area we struggle with internally with our IT teams. Sorting through the mess of alerts, noise & more to narrow & focus on the areas that are key and require the highest priority! And provides value at every level across your business to assure you get the most out of your solution. Fortinet has delivered since I first discovered the platform & from my first initial configuration to deployment. The more I grow with these tools I was beyond excited to see what they brought to the table & Id be lying in saying I can’t wait for my first use cases with these incredible solutions. For me one of the biggest highlights, if you haven’t check out Fortinet’s presentations & so many other incredible vendors that delivered at Security Field Day 8. Until next time stay safe, stay secure & ill see ya everyone!

Best Regards,

Girard

I couldn’t leave everyone hanging for that long now! Like any good movie I feel the sequel must deliver just as strong as the original! And my Tech Field Day 26 Part 2 recap does just that & more! Now will be jumping a little bit but lets starts at that exciting cliffhanger shall we!

Gestalt IT Panel: CXL Here We Come!

So why were me & my fellow delegates up on stage!? As I mentioned this Tech Field Day event was a little different than most & it was incredibly amazing for multiple reasons particularly this one! Me & my fellow delegates had the distinct honor & privilege to not only attend The OCP Summit & take in all of the vendors, amazing technology & more.

We got to wrap up Day 2 with a LIVE on-stage panel discussing our take not only on the event itself but our reaction to CXL, what the future holds for this phenomenal technology & some key takeaways. Not only was the entire experience so indescribably cool but to engage with our peers, big names in the industry & more while fielding questions was, I couldn’t even put into words how honored & humbled I was & still am! So, what were some of those takeaways? What does the future hold for CXL? I’ll be updating this piece with the link to our discussion at the summit which I highly advise you check out you don’t want to miss this!

OCP Summit 2022 Sights & More!

Now that we’ve seen the highlights of some phenomenal CXL presentations & our own panel! Let’s take a good look at some of the incredible companies & vendors that brought so many great solutions to the show floor!

Its no secret that CXL is the future, but one of the many things I did dive into was how this technology will rely more heavily on water cooling. Now for me the only time in my career I dabbled with water cooling was with PC’s and to say it didn’t go well is an understatement! But I would’ve never imagined that IT infrastructure can now utilize it as well. But with the higher speeds & performance the new hardware is capable of there’s no telling the impact these solutions will have. One the vendors that without question was one of my favorite highlights was from Wiwynn.

Their tank operates under a two-phase immersion system, its filled with dielectric fluid that’s been around for some time. It’s kept at a boiling point to match the server’s operations. Once that occurs the boiling takes away from the gears heat & acts a s a cooled condenser. If you read this its one thing, to see it in person is a spectacle! The tank is phenomenal & is without question the future of how newer hardware that supports CXL will need to be cooled to support their maximum performance of all that gear.

Cisco brought us amazing looks at the 8000 series routers utilizing their Silicon One ASIC architecture, as well as Intel, Microsoft & AMI were some of the vendors I felt brought terrific insights into some of their newest technology & first looks at what’s coming down the line!

My first Tech Field Day was nothing short of incredible not just cause of the presentations, vendors, connections made & more. What makes them special is as always getting to spend time with my family. Seeing some familiar faces, new ones, finally having the honor to meet the icon himself Mr. Stephen Foskett! Rachael who has been such a rockstar since the first time we’ve worked together. And to meet her now finally, she’s the glue that holds us together and such a terrific human being!

I can’t wait to see you all again hopefully very soon. To my fellow delegates I had the pleasure to connect with, thank you all again for making another Gestalt IT event monumental & I hope to work on some terrific things with y’all down the line. If you’re interested in taking part in these amazing one of a kind events check out the LINK here! Until next time & hopefully next event we’ll see you soon!

Best Regards,

Girard

Every Gestalt IT event that I’m always so honored to take part in continually gets better & better & never stops! It seems from the moment that I arrive in California to the last day I’m leaving is gone in seconds!? But like they say time flies when you’re having fun & this by far was an exciting & different experience in Tech Field Day 26!

There’s a ton to unpack and this piece and my next one will do just that. From the depths of CXL, to the OCP Summit & more this event was spectacular so let’s not waste anytime let’s dive in!

CXL Is Changing the Way We Compute!

George Washington said it best “I cannot tell a lie” and I can assure you neither would I! My knowledge of CXL was minimal at best prior to this event. But once I left, I felt completely reenergized! What CXL technology is capable of & how it changes the way we compute at every aspect of our infrastructure is astounding. But let’s start at the beginning, what is CXL!?

CXL is an acronym for Compute Express Link which serves as an interconnect for processors, memory expansion & more. What this means is that it takes the core connections made between the CPU & Memory and the Memory on attached devices and reallocates these resources to not only reduce performance speeds, but also reduce stack complexity, as well as lower overall costs and compliment newer hardware requirements in growing applications through AI & more.

Now currently CXL 1.0 is out with CXL 2.0 & 3.0 greatly expanding & will be over the next 3 to 4 years or so which will dive more into later. But to showcase these breakthrough changes being made it all took place at this years CXL Forum at The OCP Summit! While there were a ton of great presentations there were a few in particular that truly had my attention!

Micron You’ve Done It Again!

CXL as I started to process it was a way to reallocate memory & restructure it if you will to allocate it to the necessary resources & hardware in a particular order allowing the additional memory to be utilized elsewhere as needed. For me use cases & being able to see how this would work are always helpful & Micron never fails to deliver! Not only did they play a huge role in bringing this summit to life to educate those on this phenomenal technology. But they brought their A game in presenting solid use cases for CXL technology as a whole!

Ryan Baxter gave a terrific presentation on not only educating us on the future of CXL, but also showing real scenarios from how we can utilize this to reduce system complexity, memory pooling & more.

If you haven’t once its up, I would advise you watch the full presentation to take it all in & partake in the same experience I was fortunate enough too! Here was a recent talk that Ryan presented to give you an idea of this evolving solution of CXL!

MemVerge- Big Memory & Bigger Future

Another standout presentation to me last week was from MemVerge, they focused on showing us what we may or may not have been aware of. And that is that software-based solutions are at the forefront of CXL!

Don’t mistake it Hardware too is still high in demand but with CXL working with so many partners & vendors to deliver an entirely new experience in the way we not only build out our infrastructure from servers to switches & firewalls. But also, how we can replace components in our hardware without having to increase downtime & additional costs is truly game changing.

I also really loved the incredible MemoryViewer tool we got to see demo’d! Providing a real time look into not only your memory’s topology but also ensures maximum optimization, performance review & can fully analyze memory usage patterns.

All of these great takeaways lead to me what I felt was my biggest highlight and got me the most excited yet!

Broadcom & Google- Switching At A Whole New Level

For me the big takeaway that really floored me was not just the capabilities of CXL at every point, but how it will soon begin factoring into networking as well from the switching & firewall level.

Broadcom & Google dove into some of the key challenges we face when designing & scaling a new buildout. From end-to-end security topology, fabric management & other key areas.

Siamak & Jeff did a phenomenal job of showing how to not only buildout these new configurations but also how to focus on specific areas such as port-based routing utilizing the CXL.cache & .mem.

I loved the call to actions that really showed just how involved everyone in the community is to not only educating but learning & moving forward in the progression CXL technology! Now I know… the million-dollar question you’re asking yourselves!

Why am I on stage with my fellow delegates!? How does CXL plan on taking over the entire IT infrastructure haha!? Stay tuned for Part 2 of my Tech Field Day 26 recap to unpack the rest of this truly spectacular event. Until next time, stay safe and I’ll talk to you all soon!

Best Regards,

Girard

October is my favorite time of the year! Halloween, scary movies & now another incredible reason! Ill be once again humbled & honored to get to attend another spectacular event in Tech Field Day 26 to join the icon himself Mr. Stephen Foskett along with my fellow delegates, incredible presenters & more. Let’s take a quick look at what to expect at the event!

Intel

Intel has had quite the year from expanding operations to introducing an entirely new chipset product line. For the longest time they’ve always been my go-to for commercial & enterprise And I can’t wait to see what they’ll be bringing to the event in October!

AWS

AWS has & continues to be dominant at the forefront of cloud computing, its no secret that networking is taking its next step in evolving into the cloud as well. Has it continues to grow in every space in our industry this is going to be my first time seeing them present at at Tech Field Day event & I look forward to what they’ll be bringing & what’s coming down the line!

ZPE

It’s no question that ZPE always knows how to deliver! And after continually seeing what they’ve offered at past events. I can’t wait to see what else they have cooking up as far as expanding upon their incredible OOB & cloud-based solutions, in addition to new offerings.

While this event is a few weeks away there are still some vendors that haven’t been announced just yet so keep your eyes peeled. This event is going to be phenomenal & getting to hang with fellow delegates from all over is going to make it even more special! If you haven’t check out the Tech Field Day website for more info regarding this event & others. And be sure to follow the event using the hashtag #TFD26 for more news, updates & to ask me and my fellow delegates & presenters questions leading up to the big event and day of! Get your calendars ready for October 19th to 21st for Tech Field Day 26. Until next time, stay safe and I’ll see you all from Silicon Valley!

Best Regards,

Girard