I just finished Howard Berkowitz's new book, "WAN Survival Guide:
Strategies for VPNs and Multiservice Networks," and found it full of wisdom
and interesting analogies. Howard has a unique ability to share his wisdom
and experience in a funny and memorable way so that the reader learns new
information, but more importantly gains network design skills.
This book is not YAWB (Yet Another WAN Book). As any WAN engineer can tell
you, the most important challenges require a broader understanding.
Designing a reliable WAN requires an understanding of fault-tolerance
options, QoS, and security. This book covers those topics, along with load
distribution, MPLS, NAT, tunneling, and "virtualization." The Layer-7
virtualization section provides useful tips for understanding Web caches,
application-specific caches, proxies, and stateful packet screening.
"WAN Survival Guide" is part of the Networking Council Series from Wiley
Computer Publishing and it meets the goals of that series well. The
Networking Council, which includes luminaries such as Vint Cerf and Scott
Bradner, produces books that offer real-world guidance for experienced
network engineers. These books don't reiterate the technical details that
you can get from RFCs, vendor white papers, or reference books. Instead
they present new ways of thinking about options, so that an engineer can
compare and contrast technologies using business practices that the author
has found useful.
I recommend this book, both because it is enjoyable to read, (especially
the Schwarzenegger laws of networking), and because it is practical and unique.
________________________
Priscilla Oppenheimer
http://www.priscilla.com
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