Some of the PACUG group members attend the Pittsburgh Geek Night at the Church Brew Works at 3525 Liberty Ave. (Lawrenceville) and hope you'll join us! The group meets every other month, with the next gathering being on April 1.

For more than 10 years, geeks from the Pittsburgh area have been getting together to socialize, network, and ingest adult beverages. It's always a great time, and the food at the Church Brew Works is awesome!  There is no fee to attend, and sometimes the sponsors provide some appetizers (have to get there early for them).

Click here for details and directions.

PACUG meeting Wednesday February 24 – Cisco Systems North Shore office

Subject – MPLS
The presentation will be given AT&T employees George Long and Mike Kaehly. MPLS was our #1 vote getter on the pacug.com website! This should be a great topic for the group.

We will also, as always, have an informal meet and greet session at Bettis Grille directly following the meeting. I look forward to seeing everyone there! Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Gathering Date & Time:
Wednesday February 24 at 6:30pm

Location:
Cisco Systems
323 North Shore Dr
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

A new edition of the top-selling Cisco certification title is now available! CCNA 640-802 Exam Certification Library, Simulator Edition combines the popular Cisco CCNA® Certification Library with network simulator software containing 250 simulation labs in a discount-priced package. Both created by Wendell Odom, the library and software will let you learn and get hands-on experience from the most popular CCNA author of all time!

[more information - click here]
 

SAN JOSE, California – December 18, 2009 – Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced it has completed its acquisition of Starent Networks (NASDAQ: STAR), a leading supplier of Internet Protocol (IP) based mobile infrastructure solutions targeting mobile and converged carriers.

With the Mobile Internet at an inflection point as IP-enabled Smartphones and other connected mobile devices gain rapid acceptance, service providers have been actively investing in this market. Global mobile data traffic is expected to more than double every year through 2013, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index.

Starent Networks' mobile infrastructure solutions play an important role in enabling service providers to scale their mobile infrastructure and monetize their investments via differentiated experiences. They provide the multimedia intelligence, core network functions and services to manage access from any 2.5G, 3G and 4G radio network to a mobile operator's packet core network. Starent Networks' access-independent technology is deployed in CDMA2000 (1X, EV-DO), UMTS/HSPA and WiMAX networks.

[READ MORE]

Core Knowledge Questions Now Available for All CCIE Labs

Effective January 4, 2010, the Cisco CCIE^® Service Provider, Storage, and Wireless lab exams will add a new type of question format in a section called Core Knowledge. In this new section, candidates will be asked a series of four open-ended questions that require a short written response to be entered into the computer, typically several words. The questions will be randomly drawn from a pool of questions on topics eligible for testing. Candidates can review the topics by visiting the CCIE track information on Cisco.com or the Cisco Learning Network. No new topics are being added as a result of this change.

Candidates will have up to 30 minutes to complete the Core Knowledge section and may not return to it once they have moved on. A passing score on the Core Knowledge section is required to achieve certification. Core Knowledge questions were implemented on Routing and Switching labs in February 2009 and Security labs in June 2009, and allow Cisco to maintain strong exam security and ensure that only qualified candidates are awarded CCIE certification. Candidates with exam dates on January 4, 2010 or later should expect to see the new question format on their lab exam.

 [more information]

Subject – QOS for VOIP
The presentation will be given by Hans Schaefers of New Horizons. Hans is the local Cisco instructor at the Pittsburgh New Horizons.
PACUG meeting Wednesday, December 16 @ 6:30pm – Cisco Systems North Shore office.

QOS for VOIP was our #2 vote getter on the www.pacug.com poll for the December meeting. Our #1 vote was for MPLS. We are planning an MPLS presentation for a meeting in the near future.

We will also, as always, have an informal meet and greet session at Bettis Grille directly following the meeting. I look forward to seeing everyone there! Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Gathering Date & Time:
Wednesday December 16 at 6:30pm

Location:
Cisco Systems
323 North Shore Dr
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Gathering Date & Time:

Thursday, Oct 29 at 6:30pm

Presentation – Cisco WAAS (Wide Area Application Services)

Introduction

WAN Optimization and Application Acceleration Using Windows Server on Cisco WAAS

Sony Ericsson improved user experience and reduced IT costs. (1:12 min)

Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) is a comprehensive WAN optimization solution that accelerates applications over the WAN, delivers video to the branch office, and provides local hosting of branch-office IT services. Cisco WAAS allows IT departments to centralize applications and storage in the data center while maintaining LAN-like application performance and provides locally hosted IT services while reducing the branch-office device footprint. 

Location:

Cisco Systems
323 North Shore Dr
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

See you there!

MAP

Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Scales to Deliver Video and Mobile Internet Applications in the "Zettabyte Era"
 
SAN JOSE, Calif., August 25, 2009 – Cisco today announced it is doubling the density of its flagship edge router, the Cisco® Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series.  This enhances the platform’s leadership position as the highest-capacity edge router and gives it the industry’s highest density.

Read more on Cisco’s website…

The Cisco Eos platform unlocks unrealized value for Media & Entertainment companies by helping them build engaging and active communities around their branded media content. The platform brings together social networking, site administration, and content management features on a robust, secure, and scalable architecture to centralize the development of media properties with dramatic cost savings while enabling unique and branded experiences around content.

See Cisco EOS for more detail

We would like to thank Joe Buchanan and David Rudd from Lancope for giving an awesome presentation of their product at the last PACUG meeting. 

StealthWatch is a flow-based anomaly detection and network performance monitoring product.

See ( http://www.lancope.com )