Don MacVittie

It has been a while since I wrote an installment of Load Balancing for Developers, and now I think it has been too long, but never fear, this is the grad-daddy of Load Balancing for Developers blogs, covering a useful bit of information about Application Delivery Controllers that you might want to take advantage of. For those who have joined us since my last installment, feel free to check out the entire list of blog entries (along with related blog entries) here, though I assure you that this installment, like most of the others, does not require you to have read those that went before. ZapNGo! Is still a growing enterprise, now with several dozen complex applications and a high availability architecture that spans datacenters and the cloud. While the organization relies upon its web properties to generate revenue, those properties have been going along fine with y... (more)

Blitzkrieg and VDI Edge Protection

By now, everyone even vaguely familiar with information security knows the military maxim of blitzkrieg – burst through the hardened defense at a single point and then rush pell-mell to the rear where the soft underbelly of any static army lies. It is a good military strategy, provided you have the resources to break through the defenses and follow up with a rapid advance into the rear areas. While there are variants of this plan, and a lot of discussion about how/when it is strategically worth the risk, historically speaking it has been a smashing success. Germany did it to Fran... (more)

From Point A to Point B

The complexities of life often escape a young child. The Little Man asked me the other day why I had to go work, which was both a compliment to wanting to spend time with me and an unintended backhand slap at Lori, who was going to hang out with him while I took care of business. The answer was the usual stuff, that working paid the bills, and work has its own rewards… It did not include “and I like my job”, though I do, simply because I didn’t want to imply “more than hanging out with you” to a three year old. But children boil everything down to simplicity. The picture over ther... (more)

F5 Friday. IT Brand Pulse Awards

IT Brand Pulse carries a series of reports based upon surveys conducted amongst IT professionals that attempt to ferret out the impression that those working in IT have of the various vendors in any given market space. Their free sample of such a report is the November 2010 FCoE Switch Market Leader Report and it is an interesting read, though I admit it made me want to paw through some more long-form answers from the participants to see what shaped these perceptions. The fun part is trying to read between the lines, since this is aimed at the perceived leader, you have to ask ho... (more)

Making Chili and Managing Network Resources

I don’t usually talk a lot about F5 specific solutions, but since we’re the only ones doing this (so far), the contents of this blog are F5 specific. Though this needs to be industry standard. So, you’re yearning for some chili. That’s understandable, this time of year is when those of us from the US midwest think of chili, because it’s good hunting season food, and it both fills you and warms you up. So grab a handful of hamburger and stuff it in your mouth, then grab a handful of dried kidney beans and stuff those in there too, no, don’t worry, we’re about to get to the cayenne... (more)