Networking Pearl Harbor in the Making

Mon Nov 7 17:33:03 UTC 2005

>>>
>>> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/110405-juniper-cisco- 
>>> hacker.html
>> Cisco, Juniper, or vendor "X".   We all benefit by having "genetic
>> diversity" in our routing/switching systems.  I have been bit hard,
>> as many of us on this thread have been bit, by bugs in vendor
>> software/hardware.  Support your IETF!  Don't use proprietary
>> protocols and insist on interoperability.  If you have the
>> wherewithal install at least two different vendors for your critical
>> services.  Then make them play nice together!
>
> How do the operators/engineers explain to 'management', or whomever  
> asks,
> the 'training issues' that always crop up when more than one vendor  
> are
> proposed? Has anyone had good luck with this arguement? (my answer  
> is sort
> of along the lines of: "Its just a router, no matter the vendor and  
> they
> all have command-line help" but that's not always recieved well :) )
>
> Just curious as I'm sure there are folks stuck in an all vendor X  
> shop who
> look over the electronic fence and see vendor Y with 'so much  
> better' or
> 'so much faster' or 'so much more blinkly lighty'... and try to  
> have their
> management agree to purchasing new devices :)

Well, the last time I just whined a lot ? <grin>

Seriously, we actually put together a presentation that described a  
series of major events that have occurred through the use of  
monoculture networks/systems and stated that for many financial/ 
security reasons it is best to maintain at least two vendors.

We covered the following

o Security Implications:  How monoculture networks/operating systems  
are prone to attack.
o Financial Impact:  How managing multiple vendors can reduce long  
term expense.
o Stability:  How monoculture networks/systems are prone to network/ 
system wide failures.
o Viability: How existing technology is capable of interop and how  
we, the engineering team, were capable of making it happen.
o Customer demand: How our customers actually "felt better" about our  
service as a result of it's genetic diversity.

Regards,

Blaine