Microsoft MVP Summit

I finally got around to booking the Summit, Hotel and Airfare. I am trying to get into the sessions for Networking items but I am not holding my breath at all. I might have to find them while I am actually there. Looking forward to March 1-4 to enjoy some quality Microsoft technical time.
- Ed

Cisco Nexus 2000 Series is orderable

The Nexus 2000 is now orderable so Cisco DC vision is just about complete. When the Nexus 1000v is final than Cisco's vision for the data center will be a full leap ahead of everyone else in the industry. They will have a full product line that can bridge the gap between today's data center needs and support what your data center will look like for several years to come.
The remarkable thing is that Cisco pulled this off in 1 yr. The release of the Nexus 7000 was just over 1 yr ago and while definately early out of the gate it is remarkable the amount of engineering and resources that have gone into building out this new data center vision. Cisco is back in their element - everyone else better look out because the 800 gorrilla is on a rampage!
- Ed

Windows 7 experience - or lack of

I downloaded Windows 7 beta when it was made available to Microsoft MVP's. I need to still get it loaded up and working since the two times I tried to load it as a VM it failed horribly. I've gotten to play with some colleagues Windows 7 machines and I must admit they have gotten it working much faster then Vista. I think we will see Microsoft roll out Windows 7 by June or July, they got so little traction with Vista it just makes sense to get 7 out the door asap and then rollout a fast release patch after that.

EFF 18th Birthday celebration

I got an invite from the Electronic Frontier Foundation regarding their 18th birthday. It is hard to imagine a world in tech without the EFF, if you follow the news at all you know they are doing all sorts of things to push back on the erosion of rights in the digital age.
They are a worthy group, so consider them in your annual giving for donations.
- Ed

ASA code update - mobile AnyConnect

For those that are keeping track there was an interim release on Dec 5th for asa804-16-k8.bin plus as I noted before there is now an ASDM release of 6.1.5.51 or asdm-61551.bin which is compatible with Jave 6.10 or 6.11. There is one issue I have found with the newer ASA code, it does not appear to honor the global translation timeout settings. So if you have long flow sessions (big single tcp backup sessions that stay open forever for instance) then you can have some serious issues.

Also, is anyone else completely baffled as to why the ASA is requiring a separate mobile AnyConnect license, even if you already paid for SSLVPN licenses for the standard AnyConnect on the ASA? Seems like double dipping to me. At a minimum a free license extension should be offered to clients to get some mobile licenses based on the number of existing AnyConnect licenses you already own. Perhaps 2 mobile for every 10 SSLVPN? Cisco, you are just getting greedy on that one.

Happy New Year everyone.
- Ed