You could say I am on cloud ☁️ nine that I was able to pass this exam on the first try on a Saturday at that. I think a celebration is in order but I wanted to share a few thoughts of what I have learned and the potential for building diverse blockchain based application using the Cisco ONE Enterprise Cloud Suite of products.
Here's the proof that I passed! 916 out of 1000!
So, what is the Cisco ONE Enterprise Cloud Suite and what products comprise it?
Here is a At a Glance Document that I think lays out the big selling points quite well.
One point that jumped out to me in the Steem context was the following:
Because when you start talking ROI on the Steem blockchain, people "ears" lift up. 106% is pretty impressive but I wonder the timeframe and factors that are used in producing this calculation. In any case, let's move onto the products and, before you ask, NO. I am NOT paid by Cisco. Quite the contrary, I have to pay them to maintain my certifications. This time was a hefty sum of $300 versus my previous exams which were $250.
Something something inflation I guess.
What comprises the Cisco ONE Enterprise Cloud suite?
Cisco Prime Services Catalog Self-Service Portal
- In a nutshell, this is the product that provides a shopping cart like experience to your cloud end users to purchase items from your catalog. These items could be virtual machines, application containers, orchestration workflows or even mundane things like service requests for your VOIP phone. In other words, the Cisco Prime Services Catalog is not limited to cloud. As a matter of fact, there can be service catalog items for things like having Bob the netadmin to retip your Category 5 network cable. I'm sure Bob will get to it when he has a chance. The big take away is this affords a ton of flexibility and also lends to the ruthless standardization that is beaten into your head during the study material. By having standard catalog items, you will not as often find yourself in the "one off" situations that many an IT admin finds themselves in. As a system engineer that works in an extremely diverse environment in terms of technologies, applications and organization, I can appreciate that.
Integrated Infrastructure Management with Cisco UCS Director
- As the namesake would suggest, Cisco UCS director is not too far removed from a Big Shot Hollywood Director in its function. While movie directors may spend a lot of time coordinating with lighting, scenery, and writers, Cisco UCS Director spends a lot of time coordinating with orchestration components, self-service provisioning, reporting and more.
Cisco VACS
- Ok, this is where it gets pretty cool in terms of what we can do for blockchain. So, Cisco UCS Director has the ability to deploy this thing called application containers which come in primarily three flavors, 3 tiered internal, 3 tiered external, and custom. The three tiers are typical for applications that is your database, web, and application components not necessarily in that order. How could this be used for Steem?
Well, I'm glad you asked...
Imagine defining a workflow for all the steps in configuring a SQL instance of the Steem blockchain. Let's suppose it defines a schema based on existing JSON objects for whatever your intended purpose. Perhaps, we just want vote operations. That's fine.
We can define a catalog item that will initiate all the required workflows (filtering all vote operations on the blockchain) for creating this via the Orchestration components and VIOLA! You have your own virtualized Structured Query Language app for votes on the Steem Blockchain. I don't know about you but that is pretty damn cool in my humble opinion. I love automation so that sounds right up my alley.
Another example is a predefined bid bot template (which for damn sure you will not find on my cloud). What about a witness node? This tech has got you covered. So, you are to configure workflows that require user input. I haven't set up a witness node myself as I consider such an endeavor futile for reasons I think I have outlined in my previous anti-bid bot posts.... but either way the principle still applies. If one can take the steps in the witness guide and configure intelligent orchestration to allow the aspiring user who wants to run their own witness, I am assured it could be done with ease leveraging this automation technology.
I'm pretty damn excited about this tech. To be honest, if I had the capital, I would invest in it tomorrow and finally build my lab environment for flag rewards and other Steem projects I have my hand in. You know, things like @steemflagrewards, that actually serve the blockchain versus the myriad of projects that diminish it. Those that know me, know damn well what I'm talking about.
Let's talk about broader blockchain application
I apologize in advance to the Steem maximalists out there but I have another blockchain in mind for the idea that occurred to me. It boils down to this but this is not necessarily Cisco Vendor specific. One thing I learned in the 210-455 curriculum is about OpenStack, an open source cloud project. I did also go on a tangent and discovered a thing called Xenserver, another open source cloud project but I know more about the former. What am I thinking about?
Imagine a decentralized network of incentized cloud service providers!
That's the concept that came to mind. I don't think it would require purchasing an enterprise server solution either but it wouldn't hurt. I think the big challenge would be producing a client that is able to assess any given host for virtual machine leasing capability. What are things that it would check and or do?
- Security posture of host
- Port forwarding status validating by other network participant (ie if you are hosting a web server for a customer. Pretty sure you are going to have ports 80 and 443 open)
- Chargeback metrics (client will assess how much resources your customer is utilizing and reward you accordingly with the blockchain incentive.)
- Advertise and check host specified capabilities (Are you offering fault tolerance, redundancy, or load balancing? Rule sets will be defined for the client to check these things and will inform customer selection of host and affect cost)