This post is the second post in a three-part series on QoS.  If you haven't read the first blog post, I highly recommend reading the first part here.

I just completed a Quality of Service, or QoS, assessment for a customer. While I was writing the assessment, I decided to brush up on my knowledge of QoS best practice to better serve the customer. While it's still fresh in my brain I figure I will...

Stackwise Virtual is a Cisco virtualization technology that allows for two Catalyst 9500 switches to virtually form a single switch, not unlike VSS with other Catalyst platforms.   This reduces the spanning tree domain and allows for Multi-chassis Etherchanneling (MEC). It will enable the StackWise Virtual pair to form aggregated links to connected switches and devices that supports LAG.

Cisco Meraki firmware upgrades allow network administrators to utilize the latest features and security enhancements on Meraki devices. With MS Switches, you have an option to configure Staged Upgrade. Staged upgrade is only available for switches within the same network.

What is it? Panorama is a centralized management system from Palo Alto Networks. Which of course manages Palo Alto Firewalls. It uses templates to push configuration to each or multiple firewalls. Which you probably already know if you got one. But the question is how it is being used.

As technology continues to advance, so do the threats and risks to our cybersecurity. One of the most common defenses against these threats is the use of firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPS). However, these systems are not foolproof and can encounter problems that may leave your organization vulnerable to attacks.

Recently we’ve updated, reviewed and revamped a lot of our customers’ call center scripts in order to make them more efficient. A call center should never lose focus of its purpose:

Network documentation is arguably both the most important and most over looked tasked a network administrator does. A good network diagram is invaluable for understanding how a network is working, for troubleshooting when its not working, and a great source of information when onboarding new employees to the network team or, more important to me, getting vendors and partners up to speed on how...

So, you’ve verified your firewall appliance is allowing your application traffic, you’ve ensured your routers are getting the traffic where it needs to go, and your access control lists on your switches are perfect. A packet cap on your switch shows the traffic getting to your Windows server. Why isn’t it working? I’ve run into the Windows server itself blocking traffic destined to its own...

What is Cisco Smart Licensing

Lately, I have encountered some clients that are not familiar with or even confused with Cisco Smart Licensing. They are either are not from the Cisco world, have not had to work with Cisco licensing much or used to the traditional licensing model. Cisco is phasing out traditional licensing and this only add to the confusion. With traditional licensing, often a...

Welcome to our in-depth look at Single Sign-On (SSO) and how Azure Active Directory (AAD) can be a game-changer for your organization's identity management. We're living in a world with an ever-growing number of applications and services and managing access to all of them can become a real headache. That's where SSO comes in, making life easier for everyone involved, from users to IT...