Hey friends,
Let’s talk CLI nostalgia, Star Trek, and why AI is no longer knocking on the data center door, it’s already inside and rearranging the furniture.
Here’s what’s going on this week 👇
1. 🖥️ Cisco CLI, Juniper Labs & Networking Throwbacks
I still remember the first time I sat in front of a Cisco console - Lloyd Witt at MTM Technologies basically threw me into the deep end and said: “FITFO.”
That CLI? Brutal. That learning curve? Priceless.
Since then, I’ve gone through tons of certs (shoutout to Iskren Nikolov, still one of the best teachers around), and even got my hands on Juniper gear early on. Very different flavor of networking.
So when Juniper Networks invited me to dive into their latest Apstra-powered Data Center Director, I couldn’t say no.
Here’s the first video in the series, and yes, we’re comparing it to Cisco ACI.
🎥 Watch the breakdown + grab the comparison guide
Drop your console stories or questions here:
💬 Join the LinkedIn convo
2. 🔥 Data Center Fires Are Rare, But Devastating
News like this is hard to read.
A fire at Telecom Egypt’s DC left people injured. And it immediately brought back memories of the OVHcloud fire in Strasbourg, where 30,000+ servers were lost.
As we pack more power into smaller spaces, safety must be as innovative as the tech itself.
📎 Read the report
3. 🤖 Star Trek or Skynet?
AI is everywhere.
Billion-dollar acquisitions, crazy feature releases, and now philosophical debates: Are we building something optimistic and human-centric... or something a bit more dystopian?
Ash Ali from our Apolo team put together a brilliant (and hilarious) blog on this very topic.
Smartphones, universal translators, teleporting lemonade, it's all in there.
🛸 Read “Star Trek vs. Skynet”
4. 🧠 How AI is Reshaping DC Infrastructure
Massive shoutout to Drew Robb and the team at Data Center Knowledge for featuring me in this article about AI-native infrastructure.
- Orchestration? Rethought.
- Design? Reimagined.
- Operations? Real-time.
And the warning? Don’t trust AI-generated anything without testing it first.
📖 Dive into the article
5. 🎙️ AI Is Already Inside the Data Center
If you missed my recent appearance on the Data Center Richness podcast with Rich Miller, give it a listen.
We’re not prepping for AI. It’s already operational. And it's changing everything from hardware layout to ops priorities
🎧 Listen to the clip
Let’s keep building. And scaling. And questioning everything.
Until next time
Stay tuned, stay curious, and stay excited!
Best,
Bill Kleyman
CEO, Apolo
Program Chair, AFCOM Data Center World
Check out more from Bill Kleyman here.