News & Analysis

Closed Loop Automation With Anuta Networks’ Active Service Assurance

Ethan Banks · 5 minutes to read

^{Published February 3, 2023 · Updated February 3, 2023}

Various vendors are offering closed loop automation tools today. Let’s take Anuta Networks’ Active Service Assurance (ASA). ASA is a relatively recent addition to Anuta’s ATOM platform. If you don’t know Anuta, they offer network automation aimed at service providers and large enterprises acting as service providers. Create a service, and ATOM will deploy it for you in a vendor agnostic way. ASA adds network monitoring to know that a deployed service is or is not meeting the required service level agreement (SLA). If an SLA is not being met, ASA can modify the configuration to bring the service back into compliance.

Jassy’s Replacement At AWS Matters

Ethan Banks · 11 minutes to read

^{Published February 9, 2021 · Updated February 9, 2021}

As Andy Jassy takes over the CEO role at Amazon, the question is asked, “Does it matter who takes over at AWS, the position Jassy is vacating?” The idea is that AWS is such a dominant force in public cloud, an untrained monkey could sit at the helm and AWS would continue printing billions of dollars. So who cares who replaces Jassy? Whoever the new human is, they can’t get it wrong. That might be exactly right, but for the thought exercise, I decided to go a different direction. For purposes of this opinion article, I choose to entertain the idea that Jassy’s replacement does matter, and matters a lot.

Vendor Lock-In. Maybe Not So Evil. (Video)

Ethan Banks · < 1 minute to read

^{Published November 18, 2020 · Updated November 18, 2020}

Is vendor lock-in all that bad? Many argue yes. You’re tied to a vendor because you’ve used some of their proprietary technology, and so you’re (apparently) stuck with it forever, limiting your future business agility. I think that’s an incomplete argument, though.

RESPONSE: 3 Hidden Lessons Behind Top Podcasts to Help Yours Stand Out

Ethan Banks · 4 minutes to read

^{Published April 19, 2017 · Updated April 20, 2017}

Podcasting is NOT a digital regurgitation of radio, although many try to shoehorn podcasts into a radio format, because the radio business is what they understand. However, podcast content is different. Distribution is different. Listener consumption is different. Monetization is different.

Chicagoans: TECHunplugged Is Coming October 27, 2016

Ethan Banks · < 1 minute to read

^{Published August 24, 2016 · Updated August 23, 2016}

TECHunplugged is a one-day event where end users, influencers and vendors come together to talk shop. At the Chicago event on October 27, 2016, I’ll be speaking on the following big idea: how the network automation war might soon be won. If you’re a Chicagoan, I hope to see you there.

Brief Me At Interop?

Ethan Banks · < 1 minute to read

^{Published April 11, 2016 · Updated April 11, 2016}

Want to brief me about your product or otherwise have a chat? Send an e-mail to ethan.banks@packetpushers.net while there’s still room on my calendar. I look forward to seeing you at Interop!

Should Monitoring Systems Also Perform Mitigation?

Ethan Banks · 3 minutes to read

^{Published February 9, 2016 · Updated February 9, 2016}

Shiny red lights and sundry messages can tell us when a transaction time is too high, an interface is dropping too many packets, database commits are taking too long, or a WAN link’s jitter just went south. That information is wonderful, but doesn’t resolve the issue. A course of action is required.