Presentation #3 was by F5 networks at the F5 Technology Center. Compellent presented to the Tech Field Day delegation about their automated storage solution which they call “Fluid Data”. View Compellent’s introductory video. The final Tech Field Day presentation was from NEC, on their HYDRAstor storage array.

The Seattle Tech Field Day was actually 2 days. Across those 2 days, the TFD delegates watched 5 presentations from 5 different vendors, plus had a mixer-style dinner with all the vendors. Most of these presentations were storage and virtualization related. Only one vendor, F5 Networks, would be considered to be a networking company, and even their presentation showed some of their fancy new integration with VMware.

You’ve been tasked with interconnecting two ethernet chassis switches. There are lots of reasons you might want to do this. The link you’re building might be between two core switches acting as your main data center routers. The link could be connecting a core switch and distribution or access layer switch. Here’s a brain stream of the pros and cons of various approaches I’ve seen in production environments.