Network Field Day 22 - #NFD22

Network Field Day (NFD) was an absolutely magical time. This was my first NFD and I didn’t know what to expect. Upon meeting everyone at a kickoff dinner the night before the presentations it became clear to me, most of these people were veterans of NFD and some of the most influential people in the networking space. I was definitely the outsider looking in, I found myself questioning why am I even here? I’m not equal to these people. What can I bring to the table that these brilliant minds haven’t already thought? This is where the nervousness of meeting new people and imposter syndrome started setting in.

This is for you @fryguy_pa

Although I felt like an outsider in the beginning, everyone welcomed myself and the couple other new delegates with open arms. Before dinner was over, I felt very welcomed and accepted as a peer. The next 4-days just felt like old friends hanging out. It was like a 4-day nerdy summer camp, where you get to participate in cool activities all week, make new friends, enjoy each other’s company and learn from each other and the vendors we got to meet.

Tom & Ben

First, I want to talk about the Network Field Day team. Tom Hollingsworth and Ben Gage were boots on the ground and with us the entire time. They shepherded us along throughout the 4-days we were together. They have this down to a science and operated like a well-oiled machine. Also, thanks to all the back-office support keeping Tom and Ben in line and helping with all the scheduling, confirmation emails and social media coordination.

What is Network Field Day from a delegate’s perspective?

NFD is an exclusive invite only event when 12-delegates get to meet with various companies and presenters to learn more about new products, new software, recent acquisitions and more. This is typically and engineer to engineer style discussion, the sales and fluff is kept to a minimum. This helps us as engineers, operators, integrators and administrators to make educated informed decisions for our companies, our customers and our partners. Being able to meet the presenters in person, ask questions and get answers face-to-face goes along way.

Being part of NFD you’re really on the front lines of what’s happening in the industry. When Arista purchased Big Switch they officially made the announcement to us and the people joining remotely via live stream. We got to hear from Avi Networks as part of the VMware presentation because of their recent acquisition. And about 2 months after we visited CloudGenix they were acquired by Palo-Alto Networks.

All of the content is live streamed as it’s happening and all the video feeds are captured edited and posted to YouTube, Vimeo and the Tech Field Day website.

For the full list of presenters, all the videos, links to all the delegates and more check out the #NFD22 website: https://techfieldday.com/event/nfd22/

My Top Picks from #NFD22:

• Most Innovative: DriveNets (My Blog Post)
• Most Needed (and Entertaining): Forward Networks
• Most Educational: Broadcom
• Back to Basics: RiverBed

DriveNets

I really enjoyed the DriveNets presentation I think what they are doing is really innovative in our field. Disaggregating the software from the hardware, using white box hardware, creating a horizontally scalable platform through use of containers and their own orchestrator. There's no doubt lots of engineering when into this product and I'm excited to see where this goes next. You can read more on my blog post here, or on the Network Field Day 22 website to watch all their videos.

Forward Networks

Their presentations were packed with Grumpy Cat (R.I.P.) Memes, Seinfeld references, and more. It was memorable and entertaining. Through a mock work-week the presenters showed 5 different use cases for their product. When you see their product and videos there's no question why they are successful. You should go watch the videos right meow! 

Broadcom

I learned alot about the chips and the silicon that is in the equipment we touch everyday. I learned about the difference in the chipset families and why we have different architectures and their benefits. If you want to be educated on the reasons Broadcom makes different chipset families go watch the videos. Jeff Fry wrote an excellent post about their NFD22 presentation at: https://fryguy.net/2020/05/06/broadcom-nfd22/

RiverBed

Romain Jourdan from Riverbed gets the "Back to Basics" award for giving a good ol’fashioned whiteboard session about BDP (Bandwidth Delay Product). I’m not gonna lie, it definitely had me checking my TCP facts/knowledge at the door. Great Job Romain!

When Attendees Become the Content

It was really funny to see tweets from former and current NFD delegates in the presentations of the vendors. RiverBed had a tweet from Phil Gervasi (seen in this video) and Kentik had a tweet from Kevin Myers (seen in this video). Being an NFD delegate you are sometimes unknowingly part of the presentation.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Months after attending Networking Field Day and as I was putting together this series of posts, I found something that reminded me of Network Field Day in my travel pack. This is a banker’s pouch that was given to each attendee. This small pouch of goodies is a well thought out collection of most requested items. This is a testament to how prepared the TechFieldDay crew is to most efficiently cater the needs of the delegate throughout the experience. Contained in the pouch were: Advil, Apsrin, Pepto, Emergen-C, Shout Wipe & Go, throat lozenges, jolly ranchers, TechFieldDay stickers and much more. Today, this pouch stays in my travel pack and goes with me where ever I go. It’s perfectly convenient.

Disclaimer: I was invited to Networking Field Day 22 with GestaltIT covering travel and accommodation. There is no requirement to blog, promote, or produce any content from the event. This post is my opinion and my opinion alone.