Fans of Tom Waits will recognize this as the opening line of What's he building? from his 1999 album Mule Variations. (Lyrics are here if you are interested.)

The same question could be asked of Cisco. There has been a definite uptick in chatter around Cisco's Service-oriented Network Architecture (SONA) ; what has become of their Topspin acquisition; and their ambitious and disruptive concept of a virtual data center centered on network virtualization.

For those of you lucky enough to subscribe to 451 there is a great Spotlight article by one of their network analysts Network virtualization: are servers converging with switches and routers?

Hold that thought - more on this later.

Read the full "What's he building in there?" article.

I'm taking a few days off to meet up with some old buddies for our annual First Friday Chapter Skiing Trip. This is a key event in our social calendar and the only legitimate excuse for not turning up is that you are no longer with us ;-)

Read the full "Where has all the snow gone?" article.