New IOS features

[mikey_p]

Hi guys and girls,

I was wondering if there was a Cisco mailing list or some type of advertising shoot that Cisco used to advertise new features in IOS software? I have been reading through text books on the new exams in the past to keep up to date but thought that there must be a better way out there that I have simply missed.

Any help will be appreciated. Oh and you can also be the first person to respond to my posts on the forum :S. To be fair I fixed the other issues by myself but it’s always nice to hear from others.

Cheers

Mike

[Peter Paluch · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike,

To be completely honest, I would welcome such mailing list or a concise information channel for new and changed IOS features as well. Unfortunately, so far, there are no such focused information sources to my best knowledge.

What you can always visit:

1) Each major IOS generation is documented along with the Release Notes which document the changes, newly added or removed features, solved and open caveats, etc. Following is the list of Release Notes for major IOS versions for routers:

12.4: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6350/prod_release_notes_list.html

12.4T: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6441/prod_release_notes_list.html

15.0M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10591/prod_release_notes_list.html

15.1M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10592/prod_release_notes_list.html

2) Also, major new features are described in standalone documents called the Feature Guides:

12.4: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6350/products_feature_guides_list.html

12.4T: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6441/products_feature_guides_list.html

15.0M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10591/products_feature_guides_list.html

15.1M: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10592/products_feature_guides_list.html

3) For Catalyst switches, the Release Notes are are published more often, however, the IOSes for Catalyst switches are customized for each Catalyst platform and you should always go to the appropriate Catalyst switch product pages to visit the corresponding IOS documentation.

4) As the Catalyst switches have very nice Configuration Guides, they can also be used as sources of information about supported features, including learning about new features - although it may be difficult to know which exact feature has been added in a new version.

Anyone here willing to share his/her own ways of keeping in pace with new IOS features?

Best regards,

Peter

[mikey_p]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your thoughts.  I have also been using this same technique lately to update myself on anything I had missed.

Speaking to one of my colleagues I have also heard that Cisco provides Webex sessions and presentations to Cisco partners in some countries updating them to new developments not only in hardware but also in software, shame that there isn’t just a general announcement about new features on the web site. I guess that the premise is that organisations should be perpetually updating their devices to the latest IOS and therefore engineers will learn during the upgrade process about new features. Not so handy in the real network where everyone sticks with a working IOS until a bug is found or the hardware is upgraded.

Thanks

Mike

[Peter Paluch]

Hi Mike,

Speaking to one of my colleagues I have also heard that Cisco provides  Webex sessions and presentations to Cisco partners in some countries  updating them to new developments not only in hardware but also in  software, shame that there isn’t just a general announcement about new  features on the web site.

Well, that's marketing policy. Sometimes, the partners may be informed about things that are under NDA and should not be publicly disclosed yet but which are already important for partners to get ready for them in advance. Also, it is, in a sense, natural that the partners should be given a preferential treatment when informing about a new technology, feature, or about plans to implement them, as it is expected that partners are the ones to display excellency afterwards in implementing them. It's a way of giving the partners some relevance

But I agree that if there are publicly disclosable information presented in the WebEx sessions, their recordings could be made public after the products are made available to customers.

I guess that the premise is that organisations should be perpetually  updating their devices to the latest IOS and therefore engineers will  learn during the upgrade process about new features. Not so handy in the  real network where everyone sticks with a working IOS until a bug is  found or the hardware is upgraded.

Yes and no, actually It is obviously not a good idea to be upgrading to latest IOSes in a production network just to have the bleeding-edge versions (and, sadly, dozens of bugs along with it which happens every now and then with the last IOSes). But when faced with a new network deployment or installation, it is certainly logical to consider implementing recent IOS versions. So both approaches have merit - keeping the "good old" IOS in existing networks, and being aware of new IOSes and their features for new network deployments or major upgrades.

Best regards,

Peter

[Leo Laohoo]

Speaking to one of my colleagues I have also heard that Cisco provides  Webex sessions and presentations to Cisco partners in some countries  updating them to new developments not only in hardware but also in  software, shame that there isn’t just a general announcement about new  features on the web site.

In an ideal world, you'd expect Cisco to make product and feature announcements to authorized Cisco reseller, Channel Partners to disseminate the information selectively to you.

Unfortunately, dissemination of information to clients are based upon a "hierarchy".  This hierarchy is based upon current the amount of equipment you purchased with the authorized Cisco reseller, Channel Partners and planned future purchases.

Take our situation as an example.  In majority of our situation, we had to tell our partners, authorized Cisco reseller, Channel Partners or even local Cisco Sales Engineers what new products were unvielded by Cisco.  This was evident when we asked our local Cisco Sales Engineer (back in 2011) when we can purchase the new 2960S and 3750X.  It took Cisco Australia three days to come back with an answer.  By the second day, I was able to get the answer somewhere else (and not from Cisco).   My supervisor wasn't happy and commented (nay, complained) to our management chain that I was getting more "heads-up" information (about new products, features, IOS releases, features, etc.) than our local Cisco office.

If you want to be informed if a new IOS is released for a particular appliance, I get my information from the MyCisco website (hosted by Cisco).

If I want to get information about Bugs then RSS is the best place to go.

Otherwise, if I want to get information about new products and features being offered by Cisco, I go to other websites.  They tend to give out the information days, weeks or even months before Cisco.