I recently picked up an intriguing book called Crucial Conversations, which caught my eye while I was researching the Five Whys technique. Maybe I’ll take refuge in a coffee shop, enjoy endless chai lattes, and dive into it. Who knows ... I’ll figure it out tomorrow.
Nikolay Abromov blog
10/02/2024
Tuesday Reflections – My First Day of Unemployment
I recently picked up an intriguing book called Crucial Conversations, which caught my eye while I was researching the Five Whys technique. Maybe I’ll take refuge in a coffee shop, enjoy endless chai lattes, and dive into it. Who knows ... I’ll figure it out tomorrow.
9/30/2024
September 30th – My Last Day at Three UK (H3G)
However, as life goes, several colleagues were on leave, and others were dealing with family matters. So, only a few of the people I work closely with were around. That said, I received a call on Sunday from one of the team, inviting me to lunch, which was a nice surprise. It ended up being a much better day than I had anticipated – a good note to end on.
7/07/2024
It's time for a change
3/01/2024
Packetpushers - Big Rock or Best-in-Breed (heavy strategy)
I recently listened to a conversation on Packet Pushers that really got me thinking. In the past, I’ve seen a similar pattern in large transformations where organizations adopt the “Big Rock” approach—going all in on a single, massive solution to address their needs. Each time, it didn’t deliver the expected results. So why does this approach keep getting chosen? Is it driven by cost-saving measures, the desire for streamlined management, or is there something else at play?
Of course, the best-of-breed approach has its own set of challenges—like managing multiple vendors or integrating different systems—but doesn’t it offer a safer path for better business continuity and outcomes? It allows for flexibility and adaptability, which are crucial in today’s fast-changing landscape. While it’s not without its headaches, it seems like a more reliable bet in the long run.
Link to the talk.
3/07/2023
In love with Golang
Now, let’s be clear—I don’t code every day. I don’t even get the chance to write code as often as I’d like. And when I do, it takes me a minute to remember how things work.
So while I may not code every day or have everything down perfectly, I’m excited about where this journey is taking me. Learning cloud-native programming has been an adventure, and I’m here for it—one chapter at a time.
12/02/2022
IPv6 Council London - 2022 (Meta)
I personally have been pushing the IPv6 agenda and I consider myself as an IPv6 advocate, because I understand the business need for it, and most of the people I have deployed carrier-grade NAT (large scale), and I also remember when I took the last IPv4 range from RIPE.
I guess, I will finish this post with - if anyone is interested in IPv6, the IPv6 Council London is free, and it's quite interesting!
Link: https://www.ipv6.org.uk/
11/17/2022
DC with Arista Networks
I got this fantastic opportunity to deploy new clouds based on Arista Networks VXLAN fabric. The solution included Arista CloudVision (known as CVP), AVD and of course, the Arista switches. The first thing I was impressed with was the simplicity that Cloud Vision brings on the table for both deployment of new configurations and visibility.
We were waiting for the hardware to arrive, and all we got was the CVP installed and ready, so we did a bit of work e.g. getting the configlets ready and when the hardware arrived we plugged all the optics and connected the fibres. In that moment one of my colleagues who didn't have experience with Arista decided to go around and check for any obvious errors, so he did not find anything than just couple of links require fibre change, not a big deal. On the next day, we start exploring what can be observed via CVP, and we found it actually start reporting packet drops/ and errors via the telemetry that is supported via Terminattr telemetry agent created by Arista.
The second thing that I personally liked was the familiar CLI interface. When you login to the device - it simply looks familiar, e.g. it looks like Cisco. I work in environment with multiple vendors and to be honest, I struggle some times with some of them, like, Nokia. I find the CLI being a bit tricky. (To admit, I don't work with Nokia CLI that much) but eOS is powerful and easy to use.
The third thing its worth mentioning is my experience with the TAC. After just couple of interactions with them, I hate them!lol. Now I will expect the same experience with every other company I work with :) these guys set the bar a bit too high. (I have story I would like to tell, but I don't think it's a good idea to write it in a blog).
One more thing I wanted to mention. I had great time reading the "Arista Warrior" book. I don't think I ever laughed at tech book before, but this one made my late evenings after work when the kids were asleep.