For $179.99, this thing packs a pretty hefty list of features:

• Simultaneous dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) wireless-N
• 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports
• USB Storage Port with built-in UPnP AV media server
• WPA/WPA2 encryption and SPI firewall
• QoS traffic prioritization
• 6 internal antennas, 3×3 MIMO

The USB Storage Port lets you add an external USB drive to your network and share files at home or over the Internet. The built-in UPnP AV Media Server allows for streaming of your video and media files to an Xbox 360, PS3, or other UPnP compatible device.

Cisco also has plans to turn the USB port into a Virtual USB port with a future firmware upgrade, this will also enable printers to easily connect to the network so all users in the home can print wirelessly.

During the first day of Tech Field Day #4 in San Jose we heard from two storage vendors who had two different thoughts on how storage should be configured.  We started out the day with NetApp who went over everything from their new OnTap 8.0.1 software, to the joint venture with Cisco and VMware called FlexPod as well as a presentation from Greg Kleimanon, Director of Marketing, on how NetApp uses caching in their arrays.

NetApp believes their Intelligent caching using Flash Cache is the best way to handle some of the hurdles that customers are facing today.  Kleimanon stated that Tiering is expensive and complicated to manage.  He did comment that there are companies (Like F5, another vendor from a previous Tech Field Day) that have created algorithms to dynamically manage tiering but he echoed that these algorithms are not proven.

The last presentation of the day was from Avere Co-founder/CEO Ronald Bianchini, Jr.  He was very passionate about his product and it showed through the presentation.  Avere uses your current “slow” storage for archive and uses a hybrid of RAM and SAS/SSD drives for faster reads/writes.  This solves the problem of speed in space by using a non traditional process of putting their box with the fast stuff (RAM & SAS/SSD) in front of your traditional SATA slow array.  It uses a algorithm to decide which items should be written/read from the RAM, the SAS/SSD drives or the SATA drives depending on the most efficient way to handle the data.

So what are your thoughts?  Caching or Tiering?

After seeing both presentations I think Tiering as implemented by Avere is the right way to implement the solution.  The way Avere breaks down the data and gives it the most efficient access path to the storage just makes sense.  Look for big things coming from Avere, especially in their FXT Series.

Update:  Here are the videos of the two presentations.  Watch and share your thoughts!

NetApp Presentation 1, 2, 3

Avere Presentation

Disclaimer:  Tech Field Day is organized by the great folks at Gestalt IT and paid for by the presenters of the event.  Even though my travel, meals and hotel accommodations were paid for my opinions are my own and it will not affect my posts.

The scenario

Well, instead of telling you what to do, allow me to tell you what not to do.  Not just that, let me drill into your collective skulls what not to do.  Are you ready?  Here it comes:

Do not, and this is key, so write it down… do not buy a Cisco SA 500 series device.

Did you get all that down?  Now, I know some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute there, sir!  Cisco makes excellent business systems!  I am shocked at your lack of understanding!”  For those of you saying that, you have probably used something like the Cisco ASA 5505 to wrangle your network and think Cisco walks on water.  It’s okay… until recently I was one of you.  I’m here to tell you that putting the SA 500 in the same category as the ASA 5505 is akin to putting your child’s refrigerator “art” in the same category as the Mona Lisa (sorry, moms).

Here’s the lowdown on this “Security Appliance” that will be the bane of your existence.   First, the unit is essentially and enhanced and rebranded Linksys product meant for small businesses.  Now, I like that Cisco bought Linksys when it comes to home and small business products and up until meeting this hardware from hell, I had thought the merger would never go wrong. So what is so wrong with something like this?  Well, if you like certain features like a command-line interface, support for any VPN client other the Linksys (whoops, I mean, “Cisco”) QuickVPN and other things you’ve come to expect from a Cisco device, than you’ll understand the issue I have with this product.

Second, the price points for these units are right up there with the vastly superior ASA 5505.  You’re paying the same price for this Yugo of a device as you would for one equaling a Camaro.  Why would someone in their right mind do something like this?  Let me tell you how someone could be misguided into purchasing this unit.  Unlike the ASA 5505, the SA 500 allows you to integrate Verisign’s One-Time Password service for VPN access.  Now, I understand how OTP is a good thing, but for a medium-sized company, I’ve found tying VPN access to AD Authentication (using IAS) is not a bad alternative (especially if you’re using best security practices and least user access).

So, let’s say you are okay with the lack of Cisco VPN support and you’re young, so you love purely web-based GUI interfaces (This is you if you’ve ever thought “Command line… what is this, 1985?”).  What other issues would you run into?  Well, for one, the SA 500 doesn’t allow you to activate support for QuickVPN unless you’re on a 10.x.x.x network.  So, you know, you would have to redo your entire corporate IP scheme.  If that isn’t doing it for you, keep in mind that there is a big difference between Cisco VPN and Linksys/Cisco QuickVPN:

The SA 500 still looking that great to you?  Remember that since there is no CLI, you’ll be unable to simply copy the config from your old Cisco Switch over to your new model, so there will be considerable downtime.  This will be far from seamless and, I would expect, cause massive amounts of user headache.

So, if you’re going to be buying a new Cisco device, and your company has more than 10 – 20 users… do everyone a favor and purchase a Cisco ASA 5505, everyone will thank you.  Now then, I need to get back to trying to hammer this square peg into this round hole here.

The new configuration will allow 16×10 Gigabit Ethernet line cards, delivering over 100 Gbps of bandwidth. Cisco claims that this new configuration leads the industry in density and scalability, unlike some competitors that only can support 50G today.

The 9000 series router is typically used to deliver TV, video on demand, Internet video and other high bandwidth traffic. It is also used by wireless carriers to support their Internet infrastructure.