Simplicity is a beautiful thing
Posted by jrensink78 on November 13, 2009
As I’ve been studying for my written exam I read RFC 3439, which is part of the General SP Network section of the blueprint. It talks about how complexity in the network raises both CapEx and OpEx dollars. It’s main focus is on the Internet, but many of the principles can be applied to the enterprise network as well.
The RFC was a bit of a slap upside my head. Not that I purposefully sought out complex solutions to things. But as I learned all of these nifty configurations during my CCIE studies, I wanted to implement them. So sometimes I would get these academically nice implementations that either didn’t need to be there, or were a bit more difficult to support.
Also, I see the effects of complex networks in my job. There are some areas of my network that are very straight-forward. As a result, they are easy to support and scale well. There are also a few areas that started off complex and have only gotten worse. It’s like the initial complexity bred more complexity as new demands were put on it. As a result, it’s a total bear to support. We’re trying to remove complexity out of it, but even that process is a major pain. So even though it’s a relatively small part of our network, it soaks up more than its fair share of OpEx.
Now my design focus is on finding the simplest solution to a given need. Obviously you can only go so far with simplicity. But I’m learning to stop turning the nerd knobs, except where it promotes a simpler solution that makes the network easier to support and much more scalable.
If you have a spare 30-40 minutes, I’d recommend giving the RFC a read. Even if you aren’t studying for the SP track, you should be able to pull out some helpful nuggets.
