Pilot vs. Prototype

NetworkGod

What is the difference? I don't get it :

mikej412

I'm having CCDA flashbacks

In real life, a pilot is the first roll out to a small group of real users with the real equipment of the "real stuff" to see if it works and to see if the users break it.

A prototype is something you throw together in a lab with whatever stuff you have laying around to convince someone (usually management or a customer) to give you money to buy new equipment (and development toys) to develop the real solution to what ever problem them want solved.

In CCDA Think:
They both "test and verify designs"

The Pilot Network tests and verifies a design before the network is launched.

The Prototype Network tests and verifies a design or redesign in an isolated network before inflicting it on the real network.


Anyway -- I remember the Prototype as "being isolated."

NetworkGod

Hmm OK, let me see if i got this right.. First you come up with Prototype (an isolated network setup), then you go with Pilot (test it in real time environment and see how it does?)
This gives me further question, if Prototype network is isolated, can it be virtual or on a piece of paper? Or it must be physical?

mikej412

Don't confuse "real life" with the CCDA.

Both Pilot and Prototype "test and verify" -- so for CCDA purposes, paper probably doesn't do it.... but I don't remember the CCDA getting this deep into it.

In real life you may prototype a network in software and verify it in a pilot network. Or you may build a prototype in a lab.... and then also do a pilot prior to a staggered roll out.

Just like the prototype is differentiated from the pilot by the "isolated network".... I think the CCDA differentiates a pilot for a "new design" versus a prototype for a "re-design."

Its stuff like this that makes the CCDA so much fun.

NetworkGod

yes "very fun" indeed i'm going tomorrow 12:30PM, shaking like a leaf already gonna repeat stuff today all day long!

Webmaster

mikej412 wrote:

I'm having CCDA flashbacks

Yeah, the subject of this topic alone had the same impact on me. I do remember it as a fun cert because of these less-technical topics. Certainly made the CCNA knowledge more useful. And it was fun when a telco consultant/sales guy scheduled two days to sell a Cisco solution to the company I worked at. He was simply presenting his CCDA study notes.

mikej412 wrote:

Anyway -- I remember the Prototype as "being isolated."

That valuable piece if info should enable one to answer most of the questions related to this topic.

Prototype example: configuring, installing, and testing a big phat Cisco router and firewall combi that 'will' (in the future) replace the old shared ISDN connection. The old connection is still used by users, only IT folks test the new setup in an isolated environment. So it cannot interrupt/affect network services in the production network.

Once the IT folks tested the prototype, they could implement it right away. However, the new solution may very well act differently once it becomes part of the production network. To ensure it doesn't affect all users right away, they can do a pilot first. This means, for example, that 995 of the 1000 users will still use the ISDN connection, but a handful of people (usually non-IT folks but instead one or more users who are representative for the entire group of eventual user.)

Another more confusing analogy (which you want to skip if the above doesn't make sense):
While the JSF is developed it is a prototype. Test pilots like the IT folks above, test the prototype. Once it is tested over and over again, it will be considered safe enough to do a pilot. This means a small select group of regular pilots will actually 'use' the pilot (the JSF plane that was a prototype). If no pilot crashes the pilot and no new problems arrise, it will go in production. If new problems pop up, they could go all the way back to the prototype phase.


If it weren't obvious yet from this example: there's often only one prototype being tested at the same time (which could be improved and still be a prototype) but once it becomes a pilot, there can be many.

Another prototype/pilot example:
A prototype being one of your company's most common desktop PC with Windows Vista on it running the applications typical for that company. Someone (who knows the PC, Vista, apps) tests it to make sure your company's applications work on it, and Vista runs properly on the hardware. Once it seems to be working ok, they could do a pilot for 10 people, meaning their PCs will be upgraded to Vista and they will actually use it (still with the purpose of testing it). This usually leads to finding incompatibilies and other problems, which can then be fixed before all the other PCs are upgraded to Vista.

Prototype: isolated, tested by experts.

Pilot: in live network, used and tested by actual users.

NetworkGod

thank you for your help gentlemen
yes, there's definetely a lot of good sales pitches in the CCDA book, i wrote down a lot of them just in case i will ever need to sell something or make an impression on a manager or something i don't know
but very usefull stuff indeed

mikej412

Good Luck!

flyone

Pilot Network-->live,subset,existing

Prototype Network-->isolated,complex,full trial

this is my understood.

right?

Forsaken_GA

I regard the prototype as a proof of concept. It shows that what you're thinking about is possible and practical.

The pilot is the validation and sanity testing of the prototype under live conditions, as opposed to sanitized conditions. It is essentially your staging environment before you roll it out to production. I've seen a number of pilot setups, whether it be network or server oriented, remain permanently designated as such, and essentially become the development platform where bug fixes are deployed, or new features demo'd in preparation for a push into production.

Panzer919

Think of prototype like cars - automakers produce prototype vehicles that they build and beat on to get all the bugs out before actual production. So in Cisco a prototype is the mock setup you build to get all the configuration issues out of the way before deployment.

Pilot reminds me of planes(duh I know), its the slow take off of the project before you go full throttle with full deployment.

I have not studied any of the DA but I imagine I can't be that far off.

I just realized this thread was from 07