2 About the Design Documents Series

The “Design Document” series is a collection of information on a given topic that is not well covered elsewhere. Vendors will often discuss their products but not the technology or fundamentals behind the products. I will take a “whole of market” perspective that is vendor independent, technology centred and sharing deeper knowledge about the networking that is not readily available.

The aim is to deliver a topic on narrow technology topic of about 10000 words. Top

Thus report is a vendor independent analysis of the trend to commoditisation in the data networking industry.

Planned Series The report is the first in a planned series of reports that looks at wider issues in the industry, highlights trends and changes that are not obvious to other people. Please check out my website EtherealMind.com to stay up to date with other reports.

2.1 Why read this Report ?

This report is targeted at network architects and designers who want to understand more about the networking technology. Engineers who work for end-user or resellers often have limited access to information about technology and markets. You might spend hours reading blogs, vendor announcements and documentation to get to grips with these technologies.

In my role as podcaster on the [Packet Pushers[(http://packetpushers.net) and writer, I receive a lot of briefings from vendors about their new products . I have conversations with vendor engineers and industry leaders who are generous enough to help me understand changes in the networking industry. When I meet people at conferences and at customer sites (yes, I’m still working as an engineer), I talk to people about what’s happening in the real world.

My goal is to produce a independent take on topics that matter. If you like it, please tell other people about them so that I can continue to write and share them.

2.2 About the Author

Greg Ferro is a Network Architect and Engineer working in the UK. Over the last 25 years or so he has worked across the industry for FTSE 250 companies, and previously across Australia and Asia Pacific. Today, Greg specialises in the design and deployment of Data Centres including Network Fabrics, Data Security, Cloud and Internet. He has worked as a consultant for high profile companies throughout Asia and Europe and now lives in the UK.

Greg is widely known for his blog at EtherealMind.com where he writes regularly about many aspects of Data Networking since 2008. His personal ( non-technical) blog is at GregFerro.com.

Greg is the founder and co-host of the weekly “Packet Pushers Podcast” at PacketPushers.net where he interviews network engineers, vendors and industry figures on a range of highly technical topics where the motto is “Too Much Networking Would Never Be Enough”. Packet Pushers reaches an audience of more than 8000 downloads with more than 180 weekly shows published to date.

2.3 About Lean Publishing and Book Updates

Unlike a traditional publishing, I have chosen to use as Agile project method to write and publish the book. The basic idea is to Publish Early and Publish Often. Most publishers require authors to endlessly polish a 600 page epic that is out of date by the time it is published. I’ve decided to adopt Agile methods and cut down the scope of the book to the bare minimum and publish early and often.

This book is only available electronically and you can always return to the LeanPub Home Page website to download an updated version from your account. You can also receive

This book is available in PDF, ePub and Mobi formats so that you can load them to your preferred eBook reader. There is no DRM. If you have obtained the book from a friend then you can receive the latest version by purchasing a copy. Your financial support gives me a reason to keep writing, publishing and updating the report as technology progresses and entitles you to receive the latest updates.

2.4 Book Updates

The book is planned to receive updates on an occasional basis for at least the next 12 months to bring the book to completion. It will follow market trends during that time and be updated as the COTS market grows and continues.

2.5 Version Information

Updates to the book are listed here and links to the new sections are provided so that new content can be more easily found.

| Version | Date Released | Updated | | :-: | :-: | :- | | 1 | 20140209 | First Version of the White Box Networking in 2014 |

2.6 Language

This book is written using British English (not American English) because I was educated in Australia and live in the UK. However, the PDF version is in US Letter size because most people are able to print Letter on A4 paper but reverse is apparently not true.

2.7 Reprints or Other Uses

This report is available for reprints or other purposes. Perhaps you are a reseller and would like to buy multiple copies a site license for your engineering team or reprints for vendors to use in their own marketing content.

Please contact me to discuss your requirements. I can provide discounts for volume purchases, site licenses for your company and reprint licenses.