Chicago Network Operators Group 12

Last week, Chicago played host to ChiNOG (Chicago Network Operators Group) 12, one my favorite events that brought together networking professionals, engineers, and enthusiasts for a day of insightful discussions, great presentations, and invaluable networking opportunities. The agenda was packed with diverse topics, reflecting the dynamic and ever-evolving landscape of network technology. In this blog, I will provide an overview and my key takeaways from the event.

Kicking Off the Day: Innovation and Insights

The day kicked off bright and early at 8:00AM with registration and breakfast at teh Voco Chicago Downtown hotel. Right at the registration desk I started visiting with members of the community about what they have been working on. Opening remarks officially commenced the event at about 9:00AM, with Tom Kacprzynski (WoW) setting the tone for the day, thanking all the sponsors, and highlighting the hard work the PC (Program Committee) has done to build this line up of great presentations.

Morning Sessions: AI, HFT, Automation, and Career Paths

One of the highlights of the morning was Petr Lapukhov (NVIDIA), who delved into “How networking changed with pre-training, post-training and inference.” His presentation explored the demands that training these models places on the network that interconnects the GPUs. This is an area that is continuing to evolve as new and interesting challenges arrive that need solving. Following that, Jeremy Filliben (Jump Trading) offered a fascinating peek into the high-stakes world of “Networking at the Speed of Light – A peek at networking inside a high frequency trading firm.” This session provided a unique perspective on the extreme demands placed on network infrastructure in environments where every nanosecond counts. I started my career working on financial market networks long before HFT (High Frequency Trading) existed. I can tell you first hand how critical these networks were 25 years ago and they have only gotten more critical since then.

After a well-deserved break, the intellectual journey continued with John Kristoff (Dataplane.org/UIC), who shared insights into “What a Distributed Network Sees: Internet Observations from All Over.” His presentation shared some of the interesting data you can see when you have 500 servers with IP addresses originating in more than 150 ASNs around the Internet. Damien Garros (Opsmill) then took the stage to discuss “Building Trustworthy Network Automation, From Principles to Practice.” and the morning concluded with an engaging panel titled “Routing Your Career: Expert Insights,” offering valuable guidance and perspectives on career development within the networking field.

Attendees then enjoyed a well-earned lunch break, providing further opportunities for informal discussions and networking before the afternoon sessions commenced.

Afternoon Tracks: Routing and Security vs. Network Automation

The afternoon agenda continued to deliver high-quality content but this time the audience split into two rooms. One room focused on talks related to routing and routing security. The other track focused on Network Automation. I started the breakout in Network Automation with Brandon Ewing (IMC) presenting on “Vendor-agnostic automation with Ansible Network Resource Modules.” Brandon went rapid fire through some slides but walked the audience through some Ansible playbooks he has built using the new(er) Network Resource Modules in Ansible. After that, Jon Howe (Myriad360) presented on “Network Automation Pipelines – From Near-Zero to Hero in 30 Minutes” and showed how to build an automated service that starts with a Jira ticket and ends with the provisioning of some firewall configs on a Palo Alto firewall, all in 30 mins!

After the break, I moved over to the Routing Security track and listened to Jon Worley (ARIN) presenting on “The Routing Security Crystal Ball: RPKI Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) is fundamental to securing internet routing, and this session offered a look at its past, present, and future trajectory. Jon even talked about some of the work the RIRs are working on to make the underlying signing more secure and reliable. Next up was Dane Jackson (Cato Networks) presenting on “SD-WAN is Dead, Long Live SD-WAN!”. While I was not convinced that SD-WAN is in fact dead, Dane did provide some interesting insights they see as Enterprises struggle with SD-WAN is some parts of the world. Things we take for granted in the US are much more difficult in other reasons.

Networking and Farewell

Unfortunately, I had an early plane to catch so I was not able to stay for the closing and the social. However, I heard from colleagues it was a good way to close out the day, complete with food, drinks, and a raffle, allowing participants to unwind, connect with peers, and solidify new relationships.

ChiNOG 12 once again proved to be an indispensable event for the networking community in Chicago and beyond. The diverse range of topics, expert speakers, and collaborative environment fostered a rich learning experience and demonstrated the continued importance of staying current with the rapid advancements in network technology. If you missed some or all of the sessions, be sure to keep an eye on their agenda here where links to the video recordings will be posted soon. Be sure to mark your calendar for next year’s ChiNOG 13. You won’t be disappointed!