Is Networking dying ?

SeekBytes

Hello gents. I started my own job research a couple of days ago.
After finishing my CCNA and I was dreaming to push hard and fly high. During the job research, I actually started from Cisco Partners in UK, I noticed that none of the vacancies required Cisco Knowledge and that the skills required were all around Microsoft/Virtualization/Storage.

I got a bit knocked down. I have already ordered CCNA voice/security/wireless and that broke my plan

I then started to read about Software Defined Networking and I thought that the trend in the IT industry might be changing for Cloud Computing and Virtualization even for Networking.

I would like to hear what you think about SDN and how you are investing for your career.

Kind Regards.

JeanM

SDN has big potential, will take some time to get there, but you'll still need to have as much core networking/system know-how as possible.

theodoxa

Networking jobs will depend on where you are looking. The area I used to live in had no Cisco jobs at all. There were some places looking for Microsoft and/or Virtualization, but they wanted many years of experience and certifications out the wazoo. There were also call centers, but they wanted people with no experience to read a script for a non-livable wage. I ended up finding a networking job in another area and relocating.

ccnpninja

SDN is still in "hot" mode. Wait until most companies embrace it and start to talk about troubleshooting issues. They'll need network engineers, the guys who know what works underneath.

eitherway

It's always good to try and follow industry trends and keep an eye on what the next "Big Thing" in IT will be. It's not always good to think of technologies as "Dying". They are evolving into something new, and your knowledge will still be useful. I have some videos you might be interested in, concerning the future of networking/IT.


Len Bosack, founder of Cisco, Keynote discussion on the future of networking, June 2, 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpPBRmAEhxE

Future of the cloud (from pluralsight):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9WQ4Fms-Ho

tpasmall

There will always be a need for network professionals in some capacity. It's just narrowing in on a field that is the tricky part. Myself, I'm going for Network Security. Security needs are on the rise and the majority of the bigger attacks are happening over the network. Seems like a stable and rewarding path.

SeekBytes

May I ask you what job and tasks yo got with your first job? At the moment I stepped back for a second and started to take A+ and N+ to land a wider range of first line support positions. If I start to work I will have more funds to get me a lab and keep going with my studies. Cisco equipment is a bit expensive to purchase. I got to be honest.

rowelld

As long as packets need to be routed and switched networking will not die.

Someone still needs to be competent in IP addressing and routing. Someone needs to do the troubleshooting.

Node Man

Dying and evolving are two different things, also things that do die often run parrallel with other things for a long time, sometimes years or decades. For example, im pretty sure Token Ring and Frame Relay are close to dead, and so is hfc/cmts/docsis, but hfc/cmts/docsis may still last another 30 years just because of the size of the infrastructure.

Pupil

If you don't know traditional networking, SDN will leave you behind. Plus, it demands much more programming skills.

OfWolfAndMan

SDN is much political debate at the moment. Whenever a set of technological concepts emerges and claims to be "innovative", people have to look at it from a business perspective and think "How can this improve workflow, ROI, increase simplicity, etc?" If it doesn't solve a current problem in technology, or improve upon the modern foundation, what's the point of it existing? SDN is one of those things. At this stage, it's past the theoretical and in the "adopting" phase. It's far from the de facto, but close enough to experiment with. Did you know that this idea was conceptualized back in 1996 (Proposed by Ipsilon Networks, GSMP, RFC 1987)? The advantage of SDN comes in that it has the capability to separate the Control Plane from the Data Plane (Depending on how you look at it), provides centralized management, and you can get very granular without too much knowledge of the command line (QoS policy, routing policies, etc). However, again, you must look at the disadvantages.

SDN is not scalable. The potential of instantaneously pushing info to devices spanning over large geographical distances is not too feasible. In addition, it's an emerging technology. Where less people have used it on less platforms, the higher probability of encountering bugs and issues that could be tedious in an enterprise environment. Being the new technology, everyone's going to want their hands on the new stuff. Supply and demand. Arista seems to be the one pushing quickest at the moment. The result is going to be highest bidder. Cost will be an issue initially as well (Assuming they can prove it's effectiveness on a large scale). In addition, Cisco has come up with something else known as ACI, so the competition isn't on its own at the moment.

As for demanding more programming skills, learning python is a good thing to know right now (Along with modules that come along with it such as Ansible). If you think sticking with the info you have now will you keep you in the game, you should know better that IT is always evolving, and requirements need adaptability in not only their protocols and capabilities, but also in the engineers and administrators steering the network as well.

cisco_kidd20

rowelld wrote: »

As long as packets need to be routed and switched networking will not die.

Someone still needs to be competent in IP addressing and routing. Someone needs to do the troubleshooting.

I agree with rowelld. Nothing beats the robustness of hardware and a service contract from a company like Cisco to assist you during an outage. As far as SDN, companies will need engineers to know how maintain it. Isn't SDN an open source framework? Who will your engineers turn to in the event there's a major bug or catastrophic outage?

higherho

Networking isn't dying, not by a long shot. If anything the Edge is growing much faster than people realize.

networker050184

Node Man wrote: »

Dying and evolving are two different things, also things that do die often run parrallel with other things for a long time, sometimes years or decades.

My thoughts exactly. SDN skills aren't going to make you very employable right now outside of the companies on the forefront of the technology. Learn the current fundamentals to get yourself employable immediately. Keep an eye on emerging technologies as well as technology is ever changing. You either change with it or get left behind.

Heero

SDN means more for me to learn at some point I suppose.