Colin McNamara

Analysis of Scale Computing's HC3 platform and its approach to making open source virtualization and storage technologies accessible to small and medium businesses through hyper-convergence.

A personal declaration of support for OpenStack and its mission to democratize cloud computing through open source technology, drawing parallels with Southwest Airlines' democratization of air travel.

Analysis of VMware's $1.2B Nicira acquisition, signaling a strategic shift beyond hypervisors and towards network virtualization and multi-platform cloud services.

An analysis of the Amazon EC2 outage affecting major services, explaining why the root cause lies in application architecture rather than cloud infrastructure.

A lighthearted discussion between industry experts about Cisco and EMC's VSPEX reference architecture, highlighting the value of partnership in delivering flexible solutions.

An analysis of Cisco's entry into Software Defined Networking with their Open Networking Environment, featuring onePK, OpenFlow integration, and expanded virtual overlay solutions.

Join the Cisco Live 5k charity run in San Diego to support the Wounded Warriors Project, featuring community participation, fundraising opportunities, and prize giveaways.

A comprehensive analysis of EMC's VSPEX reference architecture, explaining its positioning between custom solutions and VCE Vblock, and its flexible approach to virtualization infrastructure.

A personal account of participating in St.

A comprehensive guide to optimizing Hadoop clusters, covering infrastructure tuning, network optimization, and storage performance considerations for enterprise-scale deployments.

Following my journey in the historic Paris-Brest-Paris cycling event, a 1200km ultra-endurance challenge that I completed in under 77 hours.

A farewell message reflecting on four and a half years at ePlus Technology, highlighting key achievements in data center transformation and expressing gratitude for the opportunities provided.

A thank you message to the community for their support in voting for the VMworld 2011 'Built to Fail' presentation proposal, with results expected on June 1st.

A detailed overview of a VMworld 2011 presentation proposal on testing and acceptance methodologies for Tier 1 virtualized environments, focusing on infrastructure validation and performance testing.

A senior engineering position opportunity at ePlus in Silicon Valley, seeking highly skilled CCIE-certified engineers to work with enterprise customers on cutting-edge technologies.

A comprehensive guide to understanding and leveraging non-verbal communication cues in sales engineering, including body language interpretation and practical tips for better customer engagement.

An analysis of the key differentiators that transform good sales engineers into great ones, focusing on the critical importance of soft skills in the systems integration industry.

A personal reflection on 2010, covering work on secret data center projects, business growth during recession, professional certifications, and a transformative health journey.

A technical guide to resolving UCS configuration failures related to local disk configuration requirements, including a workaround for a firmware 1.3(1c) bug affecting service profile associations.

A comprehensive schedule of technical sessions at Cisco Live 2010, featuring advanced networking, cloud computing, and service provider technologies with detailed session information and room locations.

Led the network architecture for Apple's iTunes/iCloud infrastructure—deploying $113M of network gear in 6 months to create the world's largest content delivery network

An analysis of the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition between Cisco, EMC, and VMware, examining their VBlock infrastructure packages, integrated support model, and implications for the partner ecosystem.

An analysis of Cisco's Nexus 4000 blade switch, examining its role in unified data center architecture, protocol support, and integration with major blade server platforms.

An in-depth analysis of Arista Networks' cloud networking strategy, examining their Extensible Operating System (EOS), market silicon approach, and integration with VMware's virtual networking.

A comprehensive schedule of technical sessions at VMworld 2009, covering virtualization, cloud computing, and enterprise applications, with detailed session information and room locations.

A guide to creating Unified Computing System (UCS) Bill of Materials using Netformx, explaining why it's currently the preferred tool over Cisco's Dynamic Configuration Tool for UCS configurations.

An analysis of Cisco's new top-tier certification, the Cisco Certified Architect (CCA), examining its requirements, board examination process, and positioning above CCIE and CCDE certifications.

A comprehensive schedule of technical sessions at Cisco Live 2009, featuring advanced networking, data center, and cloud computing topics with industry experts and thought leaders.

A detailed analysis of Cisco UCS pricing, explaining the differences between list price, MSRP, and actual purchase price, while demonstrating how UCS can provide cost savings compared to traditional blade systems.

A comprehensive look at Cisco's new C-Series rack mount servers, examining how they complement the UCS B-Series and provide flexible options for various deployment scenarios.

An analysis of how Cisco is positioning itself in the cloud computing market, examining their strategic approach through UCS, network integration, and leveraging their existing infrastructure advantages.

A discussion of Cisco's Unified Computing System on the Cisco Interactive Network podcast, featuring insights from SAVBU's Brian Schwarz and industry experts.

An in-depth analysis of Cisco's groundbreaking Unified Computing System (UCS), exploring how it revolutionizes data center architecture by unifying computing, networking, and storage into a single cohesive system.

An in-depth look at Cisco's Nexus 2000 Fabric Extender and how it revolutionizes data center architecture by simplifying management, topology, and cost while enabling seamless 10GbE integration.

A practical guide for Cisco partners on navigating the ordering process for Nexus 5000 series switches, including FCoE configurations and licensing requirements.

Cisco expands its Nexus line with the compact 5010 switch, offering 20 ports of line-rate lossless fabric 10 Gigabit Ethernet in a cost-effective 1RU form factor.

Former Cisco Systems SVP Jayshree Ullal joins Arista Networks as CEO, bringing her expertise in data center and switching technology to pioneer new models for cloud networking.

A week's worth of personal updates and activities, from business travel to family time and local events, shared through Twitter.

A comprehensive analysis of network architecture requirements for VMware's Virtual Infrastructure 4 and cloud computing, examining the evolution from current infrastructures to future-ready designs.

A lighthearted look at Cisco's clever naming scheme in the Nexus 5000 switch fabric architecture, featuring a Bay Area-inspired play on words.

A review of TechWise TV's comprehensive coverage of virtualization's impact on data centers, featuring discussions on policy enforcement, security, and Cisco's Nexus 1000V.

A journey through VMware certification and deep-dive into virtualization technologies, reflecting on the evolution from ESX to Vi3 and looking ahead to Vi4 and VDC-OS.

A detailed account of taking the CCDE Practical Beta exam in Chicago, covering preparation strategies, exam experience, and reflections on the certification process.

A thank you note to fellow bloggers who referenced and discussed my content, highlighting the collaborative nature of the technical blogging community.

A moment of recognition as ZDNet quotes my analysis of Cisco's virtual networking initiatives in their coverage of the Cisco-VMware collaboration.

Altor Networks becomes the first vendor to leverage Cisco's Nexus 1000v virtual switch capabilities, marking an important development in virtual machine security and management solutions.

A teaser for a major announcement in the cloud computing and Data Center 3.0 space from Cisco and VMware, hinting at the realization of previously outlined datacenter visions.

An in-depth analysis of Cisco's Nexus 1000V virtual switch for VMware, examining how it addresses key challenges in virtualized environments and advances the Data Center 3.0 vision.

A comprehensive analysis of security considerations in virtualized environments, examining the balance between infrastructure consolidation and security zones, with practical insights into risk assessment and mitigation strategies.

An analysis of Cisco's pilot program introducing verbal interviews to the CCIE lab exam in Beijing, discussing its importance in maintaining certification integrity and addressing modern challenges.