ryan niemes

Privacy in the Digital Age

I decided that before 2018 was out, I’d try to tackle my online presence and remove any unused accounts. I started by opening lastpass and running through the security challenge and let me tell you, it was pretty pathetic. I don’t recall my exact score but it was dismal. It took a while but IContinue reading “Privacy in the Digital Age”

choose your own identity

I’ve been working with my team to come up with some visionary thoughts around where we think our services will be in the next 3-5 years. In addition to the typical CMMI-speak, we did come up with a few ideas that I think are revolutionary from a corporate IT perspective. The one term I cameContinue reading “choose your own identity”

relocating an HQ network

I wanted to document a few of the hurdles we had to overcome when moving our HQ from one collection of buildings to a shiny new campus. We pretty much gutted the new campus, pulling back all Ethernet cables in order to re-use where possible. We designed a routed access model for our new buildingContinue reading “relocating an HQ network”

i know nothing

Let me just begin by saying that I don’t know anything. There, I said it. And I truly believe it. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know shit.Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me talk a little about some things I do know, and I’m OK at (read:Continue reading “i know nothing”

Giving Back

I went to DefCon 2012 this year for the first time ever and I must say that it was a great experience. I met too many people to count, and learned a good deal about some security topics. I also learned some information about password hashes, which is fantastic b/c it’s some timely information withContinue reading “Giving Back”

NX-OS & ECMP

Having multiple equal-cost paths (Equal-Cost MultiPath) to a destination is nice, but you need to understand how it will work in a Cisco network. By default, per-packet load balancing is disabled. Anyone know why? Leave replies in the comments section & I’ll pick the best answer. It’s generally bad to per-packet load-balance, so IOS willContinue reading “NX-OS & ECMP”

LISP: Locator/ID Separation Protocol available on IOS

Cisco IOS release 15.1(1)XB introduces some LISP features. LISP is a relatively new protocol whose aim is to separate two functions contained within an IP address. A host IP address contains both the Endpoint Identifier (EID) and the Routing Locator (RLOC). What this basically means is that the IP address not only indicates the specificContinue reading “LISP: Locator/ID Separation Protocol available on IOS”

The First 90 Days

The First 90 Days I recently started a new job and have been considering what to implement during the first period of my tenure. The following are my restrictions / requirements: No budget Services must fit in a VM Scalable (read: easily supported / maintained) With that in mind, I’ve decided to implement a fewContinue reading “The First 90 Days”

CCDE Topic: docs I found useful

CCDE Topic: docs I found useful Step One: the written (read this even if you already passed!) I found the written outline to be the most useful preparation not only for the written exam, but also the practical. I went through all of the topics outlined and made sure I understood exactly what they wereContinue reading “CCDE Topic: docs I found useful”

CCDE certified, now what?

So it’s been a few weeks since learning that I passed the practical, and other than NOT having to attend the next practical in December, not much has changed. I think the marketplace is still trying to determine the value of this certification, and my feeling is that some employers may think it’s nothing moreContinue reading “CCDE certified, now what?”