Juniper Networks Warrior

Chapter 5. Internet Access Redress

Over my years as a network warrior, I have been involved with many tribes of warriors, and I have seen projects in almost every stage of implementation. In some cases, the warriors are called in after the fact, like custodians, to “clean up on aisle 4.” In other cases, we are brought in to draft the initial design, create the bill of materials, and take the project to a handoff to the client’s operations team. Most engagements are somewhere in between these two extremes. Such was the case with this engagement for a state government.

The call came for network warriors to engage in a retrofit of the Internet access for the government offices. When we arrived on site, we walked into an environment that reminded me of a dime-store novel. The main plot was to offer a better Internet experience. The subplots included jealousy, fiefdom protection, getting “the man” (whoever that was), and greed. The only subplot left out was sex, and that was probably happening too, but I didn’t want to go there.

If the reader has gathered anything from the various engagements described in this book, it should be that all engagements involve some level of suspense, political intrigue, and/or nontechnical elements. This one just happened to have them all—but hey, if it was easy, they wouldn’t call us warriors.

It took a while to find the players and assemble a tribe that was going to work together along the same plot lines (“let’s keep it simple here and focus on the Internet ...