University of Washington Computing & Communications

Networks & Distributed Computing

2003 All-Hands Meeting
Terry Gray
and friends

14 May 2003
University of Washington Computing & Communications

Preliminaries
• Welcome!

• Kudos for Karen!

• Agenda based on your feedback

(some of you, anyway… only those who responded
are entitled to be disappointed :)

• Insufficient time for all topics; will schedule add’l

meetings on some specific subjects.
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My Agenda
09:30 Beam, Stevens, Wright, Richardson, Hata
10:20 Break
10:30 Gray
11:15 Q&A
11:30 FISH! Video
11:50 Lunch (and maybe Amusement)
12:45 Lightfoot
13:30 Johnson
14:15 Q&A
14:40 FISH! Video #2
15:00 Adjourn
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Your Agenda
(What you wanted to hear about)
 Budget
 UW and C&C prognosis?
 Why can we afford router upgrades but not salary
increases?
 Trends
 Technical
 Non-technical

 Organization
 What are we doing?
 What will we be doing?
 How are we doing?
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Your Agenda II
Future Meeting Possibilities

 How is C&C doing on the security front?

 Security vs. network utility model
 State of the PNW-Gigapop
 VoIP plans
 MyUW.net status
 Advanced network diagnostic tools
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Technology Trends
 laptop use (desktops become specialty items?)
 wireless
 voip and voip + wireless
 linux vs. MS licensing
 middleware emergence/criticality
 convergence in mobile space
 pervasive sensor nets
 social/collab/augmentation software
 wikis, IM, chat, etc
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Info Tech Meta Trends

 Growing EXTERNAL FORCES on IT
 Growing COMPLEXITY of IT
 Growing DEMAND for IT
 Growing DEPENDENCE on IT
 Growing THREATS via IT
 Growing IMMEDIACY of IT
 Growing NETWORK CONVERGENCE??
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Growing EXTERNAL FORCES on IT

 Legislative/Regulatory
 Economic/Budgetary/Actuarial
 Society/Culture
 Greed
 Sociopaths, Terrorists
 Media
 Familiarity: >expectations, >contempt?
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Growing COMPLEXITY of IT
 Technical
 Political/Economic
 Legal/Regulatory
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Growing DEMAND for IT

 More users
 More usage
 More features and services
(pressures to do more stuff, e.g. CA)
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Growing DEPENDENCE on IT
 Life-critical systems (e.g. Cerner/EMR)
 Network, Web, Email, Calendar == oxygen
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Growing THREATS via IT

 from spammers
 from immature adolescents
 from cyber-terrorists
 from complex/critical system bugs
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Growing IMMEDIACY of IT
 Pervasive communications (e.g. embedded
journalists; instant war coverage w/GIS)
 Fast networks = fast attacks (300K hosts in
15min)
 Sensor networks = omnipresent/omniscient
rapid status reporting
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Growing NETWORK CONVERGENCE?

 1988: "Five anti-interoperable networks”
 2003: “Common IP Bearer Service”
 2018: "One Network to Rule Them All" ??
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Opportunities
 How might network-enabled immediacy and
pervasive access to information help
transform the way we do business?
 Operations/Project Management
 immediacy: real-time status of systems, projects,
priorities
 Disintermediation
 pervasive/direct client access to info/status,
transactions
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Tensions
 Management: Expectations vs. Budgets
 Eternal triangle: resources, requirements, deadlines
 Security: Prevention vs. Detection
 Security vs. Networking
 Reliability vs. Complexity (MTBF)
 Reliability vs. Simplicity (SPOFs)
 Security, Reliability vs. Cost (e.g. isolation)

cf. Converged net vs. separate servers

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Network Convergence
 by technology (data, voice, video)
 by constituency (hospital, academic, admin)
 by bandwidth/interference risk (R&D net)
 by economic model (premium services)
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Motivations
 efficiency/cost
 innovation
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Separation/Isolation at what level?

 Operational Goals:
 by user (identity-based networking)
 by app (e.g. admin vs. research vs. control)
 by tech (voice, video, data)
 Technical Means
 1: physical (fiber)
 2: data link (VLAN)
 2.5: network (MPLS)
 3-4: network/transport (IPSEC)
 5: session (SSL,SSH,Kerb)
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Barriers to Net Convergence: RATS

(Regulation, Accounting, Technology, Security)
 Concerns about interference, vulnerability:
 BW contention/interference
 DOS interference
 Complexity interference (impact on reliability)
 Sensitive data vulnerability (exposure,
modification)
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Example of convergence concerns:

Backbone Instability
 slammer
 multicast
 new complexity/new code
(e.g. foundry arp and multicast problems)
 even redundant hardware!
(e.g. BB switch fiber i/f problems)
 QoS? VoIP? IPv6?
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Alternative Network Futures

 Separate nets for different apps
 Only port 80, 500 ever open
 Packet switching loses to lambda switching
 Totally open IPv6 net
 NAT everywhere
 Firewalls everywhere
 DEN+VLANs everywhere
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Security vs. Network Utility Model

 NUM: all ports are equal, ala electric utility
 Easier to diagnose/support
 Encourages innovation
 But: end-point security is insufficient
 Defense in Depth
 Unfixable devices
 Thus: Network Utility Model at risk from perimeter
firewalls
 Claim: NUM survival depends on providing local
open/closed network choice
 Options: P172, DEN+VLANs, ??
(NB: NUM also at risk from bw mgt)
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C&C (U-N-I) Priorities

 Projects
 Security,
 Reliability
 DRBR
 Middleware
 MIS/OIS Tools ??

 Organization
 Improved campus cooperation & communication
 Improved intra-C&C cooperation & communication
 Improved project management skills
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Your Current Challenges

 figuring out organizational layout, philosophy, and direction
 so much to do it's hard to determine the next high priority thing
 motivating myself when my morale is low
 project coordination
 unreasonable expectations
 dealing with external dependencies on getting things done
 facilitating progress on projects for improving core services;
 figuring out how to be better prepared for disasters;
 improving intragroup cooperation
 email inbox management
 time management
 trying to do more with less
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Your Suggestions for NDC/C&C

 more unity across departments
 a clear mandate & encouragement to work together better
 collaboration on technologies of common interest
 technology focus groups with open membership
 client satisfaction surveys
 nice if we had the rep of providing "Service with a Smile” ™
 areas that could be improved re: cost-cutting and efficiency
 better cooperation, coordination, and communication between C&C
groups
 non-monetary compensation
 Hawaiian Shirt Fridays :)
 expunge phrase "doing more with less” from C&C vocabulary
University of Washington Computing & Communications

Dilbert on “Working Smarter”

 http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/arc
hive/dilbert-20030504.html

“Wally, can you teach me to work smarter, not

harder?”

“Walk briskly and pretend to be angry about

what you’re reading…
As a rule, people try to avoid anyone who has
more problems than they do.”
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Management Philosophies
 Management by "Yes, Minister”
 Management by FISH!
 Management by Deep Change
 NDC Core Values
 Seeking Serenity in Troubling Times
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Management by "Yes, Minister”

a.k.a. Creative Inertia
 New administration; can't be too hasty.
 But is this the right way to achieve it?
 Not really the time...
 Have tried before; but there are difficulties…
technical, administrative, legal...
 Will need extra staffing.
 Are you sure you can get approval?
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Management by FISH
 Play
 Make their day
 Be present
 Choose your attitude
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Management by Deep Change

 Choice: Deep Change or Slow Death
 Changing others requires changing self
 "The tyranny of competence”
 Transformational management
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NDC Core Values

 Mutual Respect (Golden Rule)
 Dependability
 DWYSYWD
 Technical Competence
 Relationships & Results over Process
 Design Principles:
 Simplicity, Scalability, Small fault-zones
 HUI: “harmless, useful, indestructible”
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Seeking Serenity in Troubling Times

applying the “harmless, useful, indestructible” idea...
 to Systems
 Applications (GIGO or graceful recovery?)
 Systems (e.g. protected memory)
 Network (e.g. redundant paths)
 to Organizations
 Finding ways to be valuable no matter what
 Choosing to improve what we can
 to Ourselves
 Changing the internal/external dynamic
 Avoiding “victim syndrome”
 What helps you stay above water during storms?
family? vivaldi? gardenias? purpose?
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Success Metrics
 What should they be?

Q&A