ProCurve's core LAN switch is aimed squarely at Cisco Catalyst

Cisco News Alert This newsletter is sponsored by Riverbed Technology Bring the world closer with Riverbed Accelerate your Cisco networks up to 100 times faster. And take your apps, VoIP, video, and QoS to the next level. Discover how over 2500 Cisco customers bring their world closer with Riverbed. Get the "ESG Lab Field Audit". Network World's Cisco News Alert, 09/14/07 Welcome to the Friday edition of Network World's Cisco News Alert in which we focus on the top items from Cisco Subnet, your gateway to Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, giveaways and more. Enjoy! * TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: ProCurve unveils core LAN switch aimed squarely at Cisco Catalyst 6509, 4507 HP's ProCurve is aiming to put the squeeze on Cisco this week as it launches a core LAN switch that is focused squarely at Cisco's Catalyst 6509 and 4507 switches. The ProCurve Switch 8212zl is the company’s first core offering based on HP’s ProVision ASICs and comes with a lifetime warranty that allows enterprises to deploy an operationally consistent network from the edge to the core. Is the warranty a crucial differentiator? Let us know. Network World Buyers Guides Find the right products for your enterprise - fast. With seven categories - security, storage, convergence and VoIP, network infrastructure, network applications, wireless and LAN/WAN management - you can quickly pinpoint the hardware or software you need. With the side-by-side comparison tool you can evaluate product features and make the best purchase decisions for your enterprise. Click here to go to the Buyers Guides now. ALSO: Cisco reports of an IOS command flaw Opsware, Cisco speed device changes Cisco: We embrace hackers Cisco integrates with VMware * FROM OUR BLOGGERS: Brad Reese on Cisco: Take the CCNA exam before some major changes in November Jeremy Cioara - Cisco training expert and author of the Cisco Blog - the world of all things Cisco, is advising Cisco CCNA candidates to take their exam before Nov. 6, 2007. After November, it will be much more difficult to earn your Cisco CCNA because of a major update. Jeff Doyle on IP Routing: My favorite interview question I was often called upon, in past jobs, to conduct technical interviews with CCIE-level applicants to network engineering and professional services positions. Unless the candidate came from a service provider background they probably had no practical MPLS and IS-IS, and only basic BGP, experience. So I usually couldn’t dig very deep there, and only tried to determine their capacity for quickly coming up to speed on those protocols. I did, however, expect every candidate to have extensive experience with OSPF and that’s where I focused most of my questions. Author Expert Wendell Odom: CCENT: Making the 1 minute per question goal So far, the results from the survey I put in Monday’s blog shows that about half of those taking the time to answer would be more inclined to take the ICND1 exam, and therefore get a CCENT cert, than before the announcement of CCENT. That pretty well matches what I’ve been hearing from people the last few months – it’s more tempting to take the 2-exam path today, but it’s not necessarily hugely compelling. But even with the ICND1 exam, time pressure plays a role. So, continuing on this week’s theme of looking at CCENT and its content, today I want to show a example of a type of question you might see on the CCENT exam, and give you a chance to test yourself, and to time yourself, to see how long the question takes. ChannelSurfing with Ken Presti: Partners Partnering: The Next Horizon? Several years ago, Cisco’s former channel boss Tom Mitchell outlined his vision for channel “ecosystems”: a concept that involved partners getting deep into their own specialties and then partnering with other channel organizations to handle other parts of the big-picture solution. While there has always been at least some of this going on in the indirect sales community, the vast majority listened politely and then went on to other things. Mitchell’s presentation was a bit before its time. Fast forward to Sept. 12, 2007. Cisco’s current channel chief, Keith Goodwin, stood before a group of analysts in Dublin, Ireland to discuss a new portal and collaboration framework called “ISPN,” which effectively moves down that same ecosystem path. Michael Morris' Notes from the Field: Using BGP to build a separate lab network I've been on the BGP bandwagon with my last two blog entries: Making BGP Our Core Enterprise Routing Protocol and Using BGP to Make Our Internet Access Dynamic, so I thought I'd finish up today with a project we recently finished that relies on a complex, but very cool, BGP design. HOT DISCUSSIONS AMONG CISCO SUBNET READERS: Cisco's acquisitions: Stifling innovation? Cisco says it's serious about security as its integration work associated with its acquisition of IronPort illustrates. Cisco says that work is not just an attempt for Cisco to grow revenue or to boost sales of its networking gear. One reader thinks otherwise. Is employing cheaper labor in China enough for you to switch vendors?3Com says employing cheaper labor in China allows it to price products at between 30% and 40% lower than its competitors, including Cisco. Is the price differences through cheaper labor enough for 3Com to lure customers from Cisco and the others? FREEBIES, GIVEAWAYS AND OTHER NOTABLES: * Enter to win a Skyline-ATS training course of your choice worth up to $3,495. Details here. *Enter to Win a Cisco Press Book: Up for grabs are 15 copies of Wendell Odom's book "Official Exam Certification Library (CCNA Exam 640-802), 3rd Edition," a comprehensive review and practice package for the latest CCNA exams.. Details here. Get a sneak peek of a chapter from one of the books here. * Read a free chapter of "Designing Content Switching Solutions" by Haroon Khan and Zeeshan Naseh. Free excerpt here. * Check out Cisco Subnet's library for more free chapters from Cisco Press books. * Show us your home lab and win a prize: Inspired by our readers' the mostly negative comments to a CCIE's $2.3M home lab, we're offering our readers to put their money where their mouths are and show us their home labs. The best wins some fabulous prizes. Details here.

TODAY'S MOST-READ STORIES: 1. Does 802.11n spell the end of Ethernet? 3. IBM uses Microsoft code in open-source effort 4. Cell phones at school: To ban or not to ban? 5. Internet domain name outlaw faces 20 years 6. AT&T going orange? Color me puzzled 7. Cisco, VMware demo data center integration 8. NASA silicon chips handle intense heat 9. Google wants into the car business 10. Sun now a Windows OEM MOST DOWNLOADED POCAST: Twisted Pair: Apple's gadgets give us the warm fuzzies

Contact the author: Senior Editor Jim Duffy covers Cisco for Network World. Linda Leung edits Cisco Subnet. Cisco Subnet: The independent voice of Cisco customers   This newsletter is sponsored by Riverbed Technology Bring the world closer with Riverbed Accelerate your Cisco networks up to 100 times faster. And take your apps, VoIP, video, and QoS to the next level. Discover how over 2500 Cisco customers bring their world closer with Riverbed. Get the "ESG Lab Field Audit". BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007