Last weekend I was interviewing a potential new staff member for a job we have going, and we started discussing various vendors strengths and weaknesses. I put forward that I would question buying hardware from a vendor who just copies everyone else and doesn’t innovate on their own undertaking.

The response from one of the people present was that you can buy innovation (eg Cisco buying back Nuova, HP buying 3Com and thus H3C). I didn’t respond at first to this statement because I wasn’t really sure how I felt. After some thought I have decided how I feel.

You cannot buy innovation, you can only buy innovative product lines. Innovation is an ongoing process

Anybody with a hefty wallet can buy a company who is making some new products and bring them into your own portfolio, but this is only buying an innovative product line. To be truly innovative is a corporate culture kind of thing. If your company does not believe in innovation as a way of life then purchasing any new products is only going to move you in very small baby steps – steps that will possibly become dead-ends without appropriate investment in research and development.

Corporate Culture can be changed or learned. Various companies throughout corporate history have brought in new management who have been able to change the core practices. Sometimes this can be through grass-roots change, or from a visionary new C-Level exec, but without fail it has required key changes be made to how the company does business and what values are important to them.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again if you are just doing what everyone else is doing then why should I buy from you?

If you are waiting for the standards instead of innovating new ways to do things today, then I guess I will come back to you next refresh cycle – cos you cannot meet my needs today.

Maybe this is a naive view, and as always Im happy for those wiser than me to “show me the light”

So I woke up this morning to a couple of people on twitter talking about my Data Centre 3.0 presentation from NZNOG in January. I was really confused why people would all of a sudden start talking about this 2.5 months after it was presented. As I was leaving work tonight I checked my RSS feeds to see that Greg Ferro had posted a new article to his blog with a link to the video recording of that presentation.

I guess I should make a mention of that presentation on my own blog too ( for some reason, I hadnt really thought to do that previously!). This is a brief introduction into some of the newer technology coming out focused on the Data Centre market. Lots of new and interesting technology is involved in this space and there is a lot of work out there for engineers who are up to speed with what is coming 🙂

A couple of people have asked about the slides, so I have included them here so you too can follow along at home. I have also presented a slightly updated version of this presentation at APRICOT but that session was not recorded.

PDF – Introduction to Data Centre 3.0 (NZNOG-2011)

Let me advise that Im nothing special to look at and my voice and suggests that Im best suited to being a mime during a blackout, but hopefully you can get something useful out of this.

If you enjoyed this presentation, please sign up for Ivan Pepelnjak’s webinar on Data Centre 3.0 for Network Engineers as he goes into a lot of depth across a broad range of topics. Be sure to look at his other webinars as well – there are bound to be many that interest you!

I havent blogged at all for March (and this is only a very brief one) because I have been very busy studying and it seems to have paid off! I managed to get the first step towards my CCIE R&S exam out of the way last week – I passed my CCIE Written exam 🙂

I made the commitment back in December to sit the exam while I was at Cisco Live Melbourne 2011. If you have been following any of my tweets so far this year you may have noticed that I have spent nearly as many days out of the country as I have in. My work travel schedule was pretty hectic for January and February and I didnt have as much time dedicated to study as had hoped.

When March rolled around and I knew that I would be spending the last week of that month down in Melbourne I knew I had to kick my study into overtime! I received lots of encouragement from many of my friends on Twitter but I can tell you I really wasnt feeling ready for the exam (even as I walked into the room!) but I managed to pass – much to my relief!

Now that I have passed, I am working when to schedule the lab. I am thinking either September 9th (My Birthday!) or in the beginning of December. Either way I know that if I do not set a hard date I will keep putting off the serious study required to complete the lab!