Winds of Change

As I attempt to get back in the blogger swing of things, I would like to let everyone know that I am much, much more active on twitter (@perk_zilla), so please give me a follow.

A quick update on what I am up to...

Most of you know that I have jumped headfirst into my CCIE studies for Data Center. Cisco has created a marketplace with their Data Center products that has changed the landscape, particularly in Compute and Virtualization, and they are poised to do it again (more on that later). I usually view vendor certifications as a money grab for vendors, and certainly Cisco is making a boatload off of their certification tracks, but I am such a believer in their Data Center philosophy and product line that I am biting this particular piece off.

Many of the people I look to for guidance in the CCIE community (McGahan, Burns, Snow, Reville, etc) have said that starting and maintaining a blog as you study for an advanced certification helps with retention and understanding, so for the foreseeable future this blog will be focused on Cisco Data Center. I will try not to make it too technical, and give an "in the field" view of current technology and what's on the horizon. I don't want to rehash what other CCIE-DC Bloggers have done, so in many cases I will link to their blogs. I will also try to make a few non IT related blurbs as well, just to keep readership ;-).

Cisco Nexus 9508....purty!

Without further ado, here is some, as we say, Content!

Yesterday Cisco announced their plan for the future, and it is cool! Application Centric Infrastructure, or ACI, represents a complete overhaul in the way IT infrastructures will be designed and built. Cisco's TechWiseTV took an inside look into ACI, and in that video a revelation was presented almost as a passing remark: "..There is no value to being a VLAN plumber, anymore". What is being said is that the days of typical Routing and Switching are passing fast, and engineers and architects will need to embrace technologies like SDN in order to keep up. Infrastructure will and must be developed around the application. In the past, we designed infrastructures as molds that applications had to fit into. If they couldn't fit, the infrastructure had to be changed at significant cost. Virtualization helped alleviate a lot of the associated pain, but also caused additional pain for the underlying network. With ACI, the compute, storage, and virtualization frameworks will be able to adapt to an application on a PER APPLICATION BASIS. This type of fine grained control of resources has been needed for a very long time. Not only does this architecture allow for the customization of performance parameters on a per flow basis, it allows for a level of network security that has not been seen to date. Having the identity of an application, system, and user be present within traffic flows allows for supreme multi-tenant offerings without the brain numbing complexity that is used in today's environments.The infrastructure will now be able to adjust itself on the fly based on user and application signatures operating on guidance from a powerful policy engine.

What does this mean for us soon to be former VLAN plumbers? Get smart on ACI, because it is Cisco's intent for this to become the new way in which the IT world functions, and all news seems to indicate that industry partners are falling in line. Our comfortable silos are being torn town in the name of efficiency, and it will be those of us who can adapt to an unprecedented level of cross-discipline collaboration that will be successful moving forward. Get smart on the various technologies within networking, storage, virtualization, etc; because the days of our being able to pin ourselves to a single one of these have officially been given notice.

Next week I hope to get more information on the ACI product offerings, and be able to review them here. For now, head over to Matt Oswalt's (@mierdin) blog for some great information!

Whaddya mean they're not handing us the game?!?

Broncos Note: As I have hoped, Kansas City will come into Denver unbeaten...Barring any unforeseen occurrences against SD this week, Peyton Manning will be the first QB that KC has faced in 7 weeks that was a starting QB in week 1. KC will need to score more than 24 points in order to compete, and to this point, even against sub-par competition, they have not been able to do so....Denver wins, 40-23.

Hangover: Super Bowl

So, who won? The N.Y. Giants were ahead after the clock ticked down to zero, making them the Super Bowl Champions, so they must have won, right? While it's true that the Giants won the game, the real winners of this game didn't play a down.

For the first time in history, we were able to watch the game without having to sit in front of a television. This is big....REALLY big! Why? Sports drives innovation, particularly when it comes to football. Think about it....what really spurred the adoption of HD? Did anyone truly care that we could see the nightly news anchors' every pimple, wrinkle, and botox injection site? But, when we could see every stitch of a football as it spun through the air, or every movement of a sick knuckle ball....that's when HD became important! Other innovations such as the DVR and Sling, owe a large bit of their existence to their application to sports.

Photo credit to Jon Brodkin and ARS Technica

This year, the NFL let us watch the game on our laptops, phones, and tablets.
It's about time, but why did it take so long? The reason is simple, the commercials. As everyone is aware, the amount of money advertisers spend for Super Bowl air time is mind-boggling! It is understandable that they would want the NFL to ensure that people were in front of the television to see something that cost them a lot of money. But here is the thing....the same entity that threatens commercial revenue, the internet, has also given everyone a way to relive super bowl commercials over and over. In fact, the last few years saw YouTube set up an entire channel where consumers can view the commercials from the game as well as, get this, RATE the commercials! What better way for advertisers to get feedback!! No doubt, the NFL was able to point to this fact in order to get the advertisers to let the NFL offer the game online.

So, actually, everyone wins. The NFL gets to increase their viewership (because, lets face it, they are struggling), advertisers are sure that their commercials are seen, and the consumers will reap the benefits as more and more sports content is placed online. Granted, there has been a limited increase of sports offerings, but in most cases it has been obscure events like mid-level conference games, Division 2, sub-par matchups, and less popular sports like cricket, that have been available online. Now that the most popular event in the nation has been showed online, which is certain to be followed by a mass of Olympic content this summer, hopefully the web has become a viable place to have our favorite teams and sports play.

Perkzilla

Tebow: Year in Review

Before I even get started, lets get something straight. I love the quarterback position. I was a quarterback. I study quarterbacks. I watch tape over and over to evaluate quarterbacks. Keeping all that in mind...

Tim Tebow has earned the right to be the Broncos Starting Quarterback.

To some, this is an obvious statement, to others, an asinine concept. The fact of the matter is that Tebow created a spark that the Denver Broncos rode (albeit backwards) into divisional round of the NFL playoffs. Not bad for a team picked to finish dead last. Chalk it up to the last place schedule, or the weak division, whatever. You can't help who you play, and the Broncos did what they had to do to make it to the annual Super Bowl tournament.

Notice that last statement: the BRONCOS did what they had to do. Football is, after all, a team sport. As a matter of fact, it is the consummate team sport. No one player is able to so affect a team that it can go from worst to first in a year, with the possible exception of Peyton Manning. And if you think Tim Tebow will EVER be at Peyton's level, you need to adjust your meds. So what can we point to for the Broncos turn-around? John Elway? John Fox? Von Miller? The return of Elvis Dumervil? Answer: All of the above. True football fans and analysts know, deep in their hearts, that the Broncos are not as bad as they seemed last season. Injuries, a distracted front office, a young coach trying to find his way, all of these played a part in the disastrous 2010 season, much like all the good things that happened to the Broncos this year were the product of stability and clear direction from the top down.

That's not to say Tim Tebow is not a special individual. His star burns bright, regardless of his flaws, which has brought the Broncos into the national spotlight in a way that Denver has never seen. Even with their success in the late nineties, the Broncos did not enjoy the level of press as they had this year, thanks in large part to new media, and thanks to the national appeal of Tebow. The bottom line is that this man is special, no matter what he happens to be doing at any particular moment. There can be no argument that, love him or hate him, Tebow moves the needle.

But what about Tim Tebow, the quarterback. I'll start with his mechanics. When Tebow started the last few games of 2010, there was an alarming issue with his ball. Almost every pass, whether it was 10 yards or 40, was a high, punt like lollipop just waiting to be housed. It was downright scary and, quite frankly, was to be expected from a kid out of college who had a half of an offseason to completely overhaul his throwing motion and pocket mannerisms. This season, we saw a considerable amount of progress in his throwing motion. I know his throws are wobbly and he threw wild a few times, but in general his balls are a lot more direct and his windup considerably shorter. The problem now is that the whole thing looks forced. It seems as if Tebow is counting off a cadence in his head in relation to his throws. The result is something that looks very forced, and detracts from what a quarterback should be thinking about at the pro level.

Let me explain. By the time a quarterback hits the pros, he should have a mechanical, second nature manner in which he throws the ball. Coaches at the pro level never really need to focus on mechanics other than a few tweaks. In the case of Tebow, the throwing motion has been a focus, causing him to think about it every time he drops back. As a result, instead of the focus being going through his progressions or reading what a defense is doing, Tebow is worrying about his footwork and his throwing motion.  Coaches and personnel guys at the NFL level are simply not prepared to take this into account. To adjust, the Broncos staff changed what they wanted to do to fit a style that was more familiar to Tebow's. Enter the option. This was a big reason that Tebow's fate was in question earlier in the year, despite his wins. Elway did not want his staff to be forced to run an offense centered around the option, nor focus on something that should be of little or no concern at the game's most influential position.

(A quick sidenote, really a plea to the Broncos. Please scrap the traditional option play. I like the read option and the plays that were developed from it, but the standard, triple option will not work at the pro level. The patriots showed us that.)

So then, why is Elway now willing to give Tebow the reigns in 2012? Well, apart from avoiding riots along the Colorado front range due to fan revolt, Tebow showed an incredible amount of progress this season. His footwork got a little better, his motion got a little crisper, he got a little more accurate. I know that doesn't sound very incredible, but consider this: the progress to his personal skill set happened in the course of an NFL season, where practices focus on game planning, not skills building. This fact, above all else, shows what kind of person Tim Tebow is. Elway and the Broncos are aware of this, and they know they HAVE to give Tim Tebow the benefit of a full offseason, something the lockout robbed him of this season. The prospects of Tim Tebow going to work, focusing on his mechanics and the intricacies of an NFL offense with the benefit of the team's support is nothing short of exciting for Broncos fans. John Elway, someone who knows a little bit about quarterbacking, has said he is EXCITED to work with Tebow this off season. If anyone can show Tim how to throw a spiral...its #7.

So here's the thing....as exciting as all this sounds, next year, there are no excuses. Tebow will have everything he needs to succeed. A top tier O-Line, a couple of massive receiving targets (provided their hands are fixed), decent running backs, a better defense, and one of the best special teams in the NFL. The Broncos are poised to make noise. How will Tebow respond? If his character is any indication, the rest of the league is on notice. And if he fails, well....Matt Barkley might look good in orange.

Perkzilla

Remodel

Since the mandatory postings for my Masters Emerging Technology class are complete, I have decided that writing a blog is something I would like to keep going. Starting in January, this place will be where I do a brain dump. I will be discussing everything from tech to sports, whatever happens to be on my mind. Buckle Up

Perkzilla

Game Within a Game

Those of you who play fantasy football using ESPN may have noticed something different this year. One of the league trophies that comes pre-installed with your league is the "Never Say Never" trophy, and its given to the winner of the game that has the narrowest margin of victory.

What is so special about this? the trophy is sponsored! Yes, the weekly never say never trophy is brought to you by our good friends at GMC! This got me thinking. FFL is inherently a practice of game theory, with the reward being cash, bragging rights, whatever. Fantasy Football is also a multi-billion dollar business.What if sponsors offered prized based on other outcomes, like most points in a week sponsored by the NYSE. Or, beat down of the week sponsored by Ringout. And each of these awards would come with some sort of gift card or spiff that get consumers in the stores or online to purchase products. Maybe this isn't so emerging, maybe its just a matter of time. A fundamental characteristic of game theory is an entities choices having a tangible affect on other participants. We see this in FFL. Late in the season we see many players who may be out of the playoff race start to "forget" to set their rosters any be apathetic in general. But, if an iTunes gift card was on the line every week, or a meal at Outback, I bet that interest would remain high, and sponsors would have another way to get into our lives.Hey, being inundated with ads is a small price to pay for a bloomin' onion coupon.....

Smart boards give meat-heads means to embarrass themselves

No doubt many of you have seen a new member on many of ESPNs commentary sets. The smart board has gin the former sporting greats that ESPN employs a means to add value without having to think too much. This new paradigm reminds me of one of my favorite Dilbert comics:

As a systems architect, I have ran into the above scenario more times that I care to admit.

The jocks at ESPN can now use pictures to replace any semblance of writing and preparation they may have had to do in the past. To be fair, when the boards are used to diagram plays and tape review/telestration, it is very cool and adds value to the conversation. But when they use it to replace dialogue and actual research, it shows.

Where smart-boards really belong are in classrooms:

iPads as Playbooks

I actually wanted to avoid this topic until I saw some fruit from the effort, but enough people have asked me about it that I decided to take it up.
Two NFL teams have publicly announced that they have issues playbooks to players on Apple iPads. At first glance, this may sound like a gimmick, or even a bit dangerous making something akin to trade secrets so accessible. But the more I think about it, the more I like it.
First, let me explain something about NFL playbooks. They are massive. However, players are not asked to memorize individual plays, they are asked to understand the elements of a play. When the elements are called in a huddle, they make up a play. Lets say there are four elements to a play: The formation, the protection, play type, and routes. As I said, NFL playbooks are not full of plays, they are full of these elements. Hundreds of combinations of these elements are able to be assembled at the whim of a coach. Playbooks are designed this way so that gameplans can be flexible, both during a game, and from game to game. This makes sense, since the opponent a team may face from week to week look different, and teams must be able to adjust. Over the course of a season, a playbook will expand to nearly a thousand pages. That's a lot of information for a player to carry around.

Enter the iPad. Now coaches have a great form factor that allows them the flexibility to game plan all they want, and with a keystroke send that game plan to every player on the roster. Teams can easily take their iPads with them to study the plan, changes are instant and easy, and you also can also use it as a platform to review gametape and practice notes.

As far as security goes, Apple has made great gains in their enterprise support. unlike a traditional playbook, that can be easily lost, stolen, or copied, the iPad can be remotely wiped, preventing unwanted eyes from gaining access.

and lets not forget about all those trees that are being saved.

Perkzilla