Recently in my career I had the pleasure of spreading across multiple software defined networking (SDN) solutions. The one that has been the most fun to learn has been Microsoft SDN on top of Azure Stack HCI. I discovered already having an SDN background had both its pros and cons in my journey to learn Azure Stack SDN. I thought I would take the time to write a blog series in the hopes it will help others who have the desire to spread across multiple SDN solutions.
Feel free to check in on this series:
Majority of the information I will be sharing was used with Azure Stack HCI as the platform:
Step 1 – Plan the Journey
I cannot stress the importance of figuring out the destination of your journey and walking that plan backwards until you reach where you currently are. For example, you wouldn’t decide you want to go to the beautiful lands of New Zealand and start walking in a random direction 🙂 I’m pretty sure you would need a boat or a plane to get there 😉
Coming from a VMware NSX background I had a few simple goals for my journey to get up to speed ASAP:
- Learn the basic components of Azure SDN and how they interconnect
- Attempt a packet walk through the Azure SDN environment
- Compare and contrast components and feature parity between NSX and Azure SDN
- Put 1-3 together to begin architecting “like for like” architectures and designs
- Take my new knowledge and grow the art of the possible with both NSX and Azure SDN
Sounds simple, right? Hold your horses for those who want to begin running. Even though Software Defined Networking has a lot of similar concepts and capabilities, not all SDNs are created equal. If I am being honest, that is what made this journey so much fun!
Hooray, I was ready for this new journey with Azure SDN. I’m sure anyone reading this series will be as excited I was when this adventure began. Like any adventure there will be fun times and challenging times.
Summary:
Believe it or not it only took me two (2) weeks from start to finish in this journey. Every journey is different and everyone walks their own paths at different paces. That is why I am writing this series in hopes it helps those with VMware backgrounds to find their way on their own journey to Azure SDN. As always, I hope this series is helpful
*The thoughts and opinions in this article are mine and hold no reflect on my employer*
