How to make a Business Flexible with Network Design Principle Scalability – ZNDP 082

ZNDP 082: How to make a Business Flexible with Network Design Principle Scalability

Zig Zsiga: How to make a Business Flexible with Network Design Principle Scalability - ZNDP 082

Zig Zsiga: We have a solo show for you today! We talk about Network Design Principles and today we are going to highlight how we can leverage the Network Design Principle Scalability to make a Business Flexible! Lets go!

Zig Zsiga: Welcome back My Friends, Nerds, Geeks, and Ziglets out there. We have another episode of the Zigbits Network Design Podcast (ZNDP), where Zigabytes are faster than Gigabytes. We strive to provide real-world context around technology!

Zig Zsiga: What's up everybody? I hope everyone is doing great. Zig Zsiga here and welcome to Episode 82 of the Zigbits Network Design Podcast. My Name is Zig Zsiga, I’m here to help you with Network Engineering, Network Design, and Network Architecture, and today we are Making Businesses Flexible with our Network Design Principle Scalability!

Zig Zsiga: Before we jump right in, I want to make sure you know that we have a dedicated Zigbits Discord Community where you can have network design discussions right now, live! You can ask your questions and get real-time answers. If you want to lurk, thats fine as well, but we are all always happy to help. To join our Discord server, go to https://zigbits.tech/discord, and let us know which Zigbits Network Design Podcast Episode is your favorite. See you there!

Zig Zsiga: Scalability has always been a Network Design Principle and will most likely always be one.

Zig Zsiga: I want to flip the script a bit with it though.

Zig Zsiga: It’s more than just making the network scalable. It’s about making the Business Flexible.

Zig Zsiga: We can provide flexibility to the business. We can allow the business to adapt on the fly as the business needs to. By doing this the network becomes a business enabler and is no longer a cost center.

Zig Zsiga: This is where designing the network to be scalable comes in. Having different options to choose from as the business grows, will allow the business to be flexible.

Zig Zsiga: This can be as simple as having different architecture options in your design. This can also be specifically, a low-level design element like a routing architecture.

Zig Zsiga: When I played Soccer in High School, before a big game we would watch our opponent’s previous games on tap. These recordings allowed us to play things forward to see what each opponent team member was most likely to do. I was a defender (full-back), so seeing what the top 2 - 3 strikers were most likely to do in specific situations was critical in making big plays.

Zig Zsiga: We can use this same concept when we look at a network from an architecture perspective. Playing the tape forward is a great way to see what options are most likely needed in the future. Designing a Data Center solution with purpose build pods within a spine-leaf architecture provides extreme network scalability and business flexibility. Now if the business has a need to add a new stack of applications, it’s extremely flexible to accomplish in this architecture.

Zig Zsiga: With a low-level design element like that of a routing architecture, leveraging routing boundaries, OSPF areas/area types, and LSA filtering techniques are all ways of increasing the scalability of the routing environment. This scalability allows for the business to grow as needed. A good example of this would be the need to add an additional 100 remote sites within the business. If we had a flat OSPF area 0 routing architecture this would not be scalable or achievable. With our proposed design that leverages OSPF areas, area types, and LSA filtering techniques, it is easy to add 100 remote sites. This can scale to the 1000s if the business needed it too.

Zig Zsiga: When it comes to scalability and making a business flexible, roll the tape forward!

Zig Zsiga: Take all of the information you have from the customer, and all of your experiences, and make some educated guesses as to what the business will need in the future.

Zig Zsiga: Rolling the tape forward like this is not foolproof and it won’t always hit the mark. Businesses change on a whim and we cannot predict everything. As you get more experience in doing this, you will start to recognize Design Patterns that can help you in this process.

Zig Zsiga: Hey Friends, Nerds, Geeks, and Ziglets thats going to close out today's episode of the Zigbits Network Design Podcast where we discussed How to make a Business Flexible with Network Design Principle Scalability! Today’s show notes will be at https://Zigbits.tech/82.

Zig Zsiga: We have a new giveaway! This month, March 2021, we have a joint giveaway with Du’An Lightwood (@LabEveryDay) and Erica Cooper (@TechLayDee). We are giving away 5 copies of the Network Warrior by Gary Donahue! Thats right, you heard it. We are going to have 5 different winners this month. Check out the hashtag #ZigbitsMarch2021Giveaway to join the real time conversations on twitter! Get into the giveaway right now. All of the details are at https://zigbits.tech/giveaway.

Zig Zsiga: Hey if there is something you would like us to giveaway, let us know.

If you want to have live network design conversations right now, joining the Zigbits Discord community. There are a ton of highly skilled experts ready to help you with your network design questions. Go to https://zigbits.tech/discord to join! Its a 100% free community!

Zig Zsiga: If you didn’t know, We are creating a Network Design Course. This is a vendor-agnostic and certification agnostic course. You can totally use it to help you achieve your CCNP and your CCDE, but its not just limited to those exams! If you want to hear weekly status updates on where we are with this course, join the email list at https://zigbits.tech/networkdesign

Zig Zsiga: If you liked today's episode let us know. You can find more Zigbits network engineering, Network Design, and Network Architecture content, including technical podcasts, monthly webinars, YouTube videos, and a dedicated community on discord. All Free content! Find all of this and much more at https://Zigbits.tech. Follow us on Twitter @Zigbits, find us on LinkedIn.

Zig Zsiga: Sign up for our free weekly Newsletter, The Network Design Digest, filled with the best Network Design content in Network Engineering at https://zigbits.tech/newsletter

Zig Zsiga: As always I appreciate and thank you for listening!

Zig Zsiga: Don’t forget to #AttackYourGoals #AttacktheDay #AttackYourLife and #MakeProgress

Until next time, Bye for now.