EVPN-VXLAN Video 2, Aruba Airheads and that bird app

EVPN-VXLAN Video 2, Aruba Airheads and that bird app

In this post:

๐ŸŽฌ EVPN-VXLAN Explainer 2
๐Ÿงก My experience at the Aruba Airheads Netherlands event
๐Ÿฅ€ Going off Twitter and joining Mastodon

๐ŸŽฌ EVPN-VXLAN Explainer 2

Hot of the presses, well, iMovie rendering, here is the latest EVPN-VXLAN Explainer video:

This one covers how BGP peers build an EVPN session, with the AFI/SAFI in a BGP OPEN. Plus there's a config demo and some packet captures in there, showing a BGP OPEN 'in the wild'.
Check it out and let me know what you think.

๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Airheads Netherlands

A couple of weeks ago, I presented a couple of sessions at the Aruba Airheads event in NL, just outside Utrecht.
โ˜๏ธ My first session was on Aruba Central NetConductor, Aruba's all-encompassing architecture; that unifies wired and wireless networking with a strong focus on security and management.
That went well, and my live demo, as much as I got to show in the timeslot, was a success.
The big challenge with that type of presentation, because it isn't a single product or service, but an architecture and design approach; is to answer the question 'what is it?'. I'm not a fan of marketing at all, so I always attempt to get down to basics about the component pieces.
I plan to record and release my content around this, but I'll wait for this new release from Aruba to mature a little first, it has only just be GA'ed.

โœŒ๏ธ I finished up the day, presenting EVPN-VXLAN in the final slot. To my surprise, there was good attendance for this session, and people seemed eager to learn.
One point of interest to me was that over half of the people in attendance put their hands up when I asked the crowd whether they had experience with BGP. If I asked that question at an Aruba event a few years ago, the percentage would have been much lower.
To me, that reveals the growing importance of switching for Aruba customers, which was traditionally a wi-fi company.

๐Ÿฆ Going off Twitter and moving to Mastodon

Personally, I have benefited hugely from being active on Twitter, but recent developments there have dramatically reduced my desire to be a part of it. A year ago I would've classed myself as generally positive towards the new CEO, but now I'm firmly in the 'strong dislike' bucket, and every 24 hours seems to provide more evidence to confirm my opinion.
Enough about the negative then, more of the positive, here's my game plan:

๐Ÿ‘‰ I'm now active on Mastodon @joeneville@hachyderm.io - I'll use that as my main form of social media; posting my content, random life stuff etc.
๐Ÿ‘‰ I'm going to use the bird app to advertise my work - and that's it. No discussion or other interactions.

If Mastodon really does take off, like I hope, then I'll be shutting down my bird app completely.
Admittedly Mastodon is much quieter, but there are a lot of positives:

๐Ÿค Much friendlier interactions, it doesn't feel like the gladiatorial arena of bird app.
๐Ÿ˜ŒA lot less noise - I found that I had to mute some people on twitter, not for any negative reason other than it just felt all a bit too much.Sometimes logging in felt like going to the pub and the same locals are propping up the bar, saying the same things. That and all the clout tweets, I think a fresh start isn't a bad thing.
๐Ÿง˜ No right-winger crazies popping up in my TL - when your social media reads more like the kind of thing you'd expect to hear from the conspiracy theory people that camp out on Whitehall, it is time for a refresh.

Definitely give Mastodon a go if you are looking for something other than the usual from the bird app.