Geeks in Paradise | Brian Chee » A bit of ANCL History

June 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)

A bit of ANCL History

TAGS: Lab Freaks

The Advanced Network Computing Laboratory (ANCL) was founded in 1995 by a combined effort of Brian Chee, Oliver Rist and Wayne Rash while we were all with Communications Week Magazine. I was serving with the GSA Office of Information Security (secure data+video+voice) and met with Wayne Rash for drinks while he was covering CommNet. Now at our permanent home with the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOEST) the Advanced Network Computing Laboratory is one of the largest labs in the InfoWorld stable, while also giving university students real world experience with cutting edge technology.

Oliver Rist just happened to join him and being a wonderful October in Washington DC we all got rained upon. While escaping into a hotel bar we had a conversation about wanting to do comparitive product reviews in Hawaii while sipping Pina Coladas under a coconut tree. (thanks Oliver) The short version is that I played straight man to Oliver's wise crack and soon I was calling a friend at the University of Hawaii.

Oliver then started looking seriously at this concept and after doing LOTS of spreadsheets on the actual cost of doing reviews, found that doing testing in Hawaii wasn't a boondoggle afterall. His cost comparison actually showed a significant cost savings over alternative sites elsewhere in the US. Approximately 8 months later we rolled in the door of the UH Computer Science department with $8 million bucks worth of ATM gear from folks like FORE Systems, Cabletron, NewBridge and 3Com. This set the stage for an arms race between magazines on who could do the biggest and baddest comparitive reviews in the industry.

10 years later we've gone from Communications Week to Internet Week and now InfoWorld. The really cool part is that InfoWorld's management has given the Reviews group the leeway to continuously set the pace for large scale enterprise simulations. From the very first ATM shootout at Communications Week, to the current Triple-Play simulation (data+video+voice) in the current 10gig Enterprise Switch shootout, ANCL and InfoWorld are leading the pack.

Speaking of which, our goal is to create simulations that are solutions based rather than speeds and feeds. No IS manager in their right mind would dare run their infrastructure anywhere near capacity, and we've heard the feedback. We actually send out test invitations that closely resemble a request for proposal that our readers might send. We fine tune it with feedback from the vendors to create the proverbial level playing field. We also work in close cooperation with the test equipment vendors to design the test methodology (now published in Lab Rat Magazine) based upon statistics sent by readers and associates around the world. We take this "real world" information and do "what if" scenarios sized to the target audience. (Large enterprise, SMB, SOBO, SOHO, etc) We consistently make every effort to mix in real data streams (ie. broadcast quality MPEG, SIP PBX's, etc) along with the synthetic data. This real data approach gives readers a way to identify closer with our simulations. We also tend to layer in the data streams all at the same time instead of one at a time like other reviews. Afterall, who runs ONLY data or ONLY voice on their network now? The watch word is convergence and we follow trends that our readers follow.

So, do you have a scenario that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear about it. Willing to share your firewall stats, ACL's or router stats? We'll keep it confidential and add it to the data we use to size our simulations. Have a bone to pick? Let me hear it, and believe me..we'll listen. Hey, we've even taken RFP's from some friends and ran with it. The point is that we can't possibly experience the world's variety of enterprise configurations and would really love to hear from you (either publically on this blog or privately and I'll remove company references if you wish)so that we can continue to help you hack away the spin and get down to reality.

Heck, we even have some special agreements with equipment vendors to see their product roadmaps under NDA so that we can tune our editorial calendar to coincide with new product releases. We scoop the rest of the pack because we listen.

Feel free to drop me a line. If you make it to the Interop Trade Show, come visit me at the NOC...I've been on the NOC team since 1995 and beebop between the wireless team lead, addressing (yup, a class "A" is a challenge) voice+video, etc...I also strongly encourage you to spend a bit of time at the InteropLABs where we demonstrate "not yet baked" technologies, and give you the chance to play around and talk to the folks that most likely sit on the standards committees.

/brian chee

Posted by Brian Chee on June 14, 2006 11:01 AM

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