So, I’m trying to understand how lost I am here. I’ll admit I’m not really skilled at putting a budget together, this is like the second time in my entire career, but I’m doing what I can and with what understanding I have.
I had a meeting with Presidio yesterday for pre-planning and for help putting our list together and it didn’t go well. I had a meeting with Cisco the week prior and it was very friendly and lots of give and take with advice and thoughts on things. Nothing negative. The Presidio meeting had one tech that just seemed to act like every thought I had or question I asked was surprisingly ridiculous. I felt like he was going to write Cisco and AWS and have them revoke my certifications.
So, I know some may bash me a bit on here for asking the following, but I seriously am asking for clarity for how far off base I am with my understanding of some things. I’m just going to touch on the things the Presidio tech was giving me tude on:
I didn’t know that there was a virtual 9800 controller. I’ve always gone to an IP and logged on (this is at two different jobs). When I asked the difference, or why it was important to know one from the other (I figured they both must do the same job), he became almost appearing insulted. What did I say that was wrong in asking that question?
He asked what my plans were for our network (city-wide network, gov’t, about 80 switches, a controller, and almost 50 APs) and I told him my plans were to bring in 9000 series switches and at some point, automate the network. He asked why I wanted to automate it and followed by how (Ansible, python, Puppet…). I honestly wasn’t sure why that was important right now as to what scripting I was going to use, so I threw out probably Ansible/python…but I really didn’t know yet. Right now we’re just implanting devices that can be managed from a single plane and automated down the road. As to why I wanted to automate, I assumed that would be obvious, but I guess not. He also mentioned I don’t need 9000 switches to automate.
He seemed dedicated to correcting me on my understanding of what an SDN is. I’ve always understood an SDN network to be one run via software and code (automation, GUI) but I guess I’m wrong. I honestly didn’t understand his explanation.
All in all, I felt like he was beating me down so he could sell me stuff I wasn’t wanting, but maybe I just don’t really understand what I’m wanting to do or what I’m working with. It wasn’t a good meeting and I really don’t look forward to having to deal with him more down the line as this progress, but go ahead and let me know how far off base I am. I’d rather know the truth than be wrong and continue being wrong as we move ahead.
