This was also the year I joined and started using twitter, just two months ago (and very glad I did), and found industry experts such as @ioshints, @bradhedlund, @etherealmind, @packetpushers, @ecbanks, @cloudtoad, @networkjanitor, and @scott_lowe just to name a few. Shortly after is when I started this blog.
As @networkjanitor said recently in a tweet to @bradhedlund, “As usual, another great post! You explained perfectly some of the random thoughts rattling around in my head,” and I could not agree more – that goes to the all of the blogs these guys write. Literally, in the past few weeks there have been many times I’m getting back from a customer or a normal day at work thinking about a technology/topic, and sure enough, one of these guys had just posted about it! Sometimes I think they are mind readers, but best of all, I appreciate their different perspectives on the various topics they post about.
On a personal note, this year has been the most I’ve ever traveled (for leisure) in a year including Las Vegas, San Jose, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Aruba, and Pennsylvania. And on Monday, I leave on a trip to Australia and Fiji to close out this year and start the next – it will probably be one of the most amazing trips I’ll ever take. I’m sure I’ll be thinking about L2/L3 along with OF/SDN on the long flights there and back, but hopefully not the whole time because this is meant to be a *real* vacation, not PTO (partial-time off) :).
All the best to you and yours and look forward to 2012 as being the year of execution for the many existing manufacturers and new start-ups in this space.
Happy Holidays!
-Jason