Scalable Policy Routing

More than a decade ago (before SD-WAN was even a thing) I wrote an article describing how easy it is to route different applications onto different links (MPLS/VPN versus IPsec tunnels) using a distance vector routing protocol (preferably BGP, although even RIP would work).

You might find it interesting that it’s possible to solve tough problems with good network design instead of proprietary unicorn dust, so I salvaged the article from some dusty archive, cleaned it up, polished it, and published it on ipSpace.net.

Keep reading

AWS wants to get your mainframe apps into the cloud – fast

AWS is now offering a mainframe service that promises to help Big Iron customers interested in moving apps to the cloud cut that migration time by two-thirds.The goal of AWS Migration Acceleration Program for Mainframe is to get those customers off of the Big Iron “as fast as they possibly can” in order to take better advantage of the cloud, according to Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS, speaking at Amazon’s AWS re:Invent conference. [Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.] “It can be a messy business and involves a lot of moving pieces, and it isn’t something that people really want to do on their own,” Selipsky said.  “And while AWS partners can help with the transition, it can still take a long time.”To read this article in full, please click here

AWS targets IPv6 migration for serverless, container workloads

Amazon Web Services has launched new support for IPv6-only subnets that can meet the needs of workloads that require more IP addresses than IPv4 can readily provide.The service is available through Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and suitable for workloads such as serverless and container applications, according to a blog by Rohit Aswani, a senior specialist solutions architect and Aditya Santhanam, a senior product manager, both with AWS. “Workloads that are constrained by the limited size of the IPv4 address space can now migrate to an IPv6-only environment on AWS to scale up,” they wrote.To read this article in full, please click here

In A Peer-To-Peer Datacenter, PCI-Express Fabrics Will Be Pervasive

Supercomputers are expensive, and getting increasingly so. Even if they are delivering impressive performance gains over the past decade, modern HPC workloads require an incredible amount of performance, and this is particularly true of any workload that is going to blend together traditional HPC simulation and modeling with some sort of machine learning training and inference. …

In A Peer-To-Peer Datacenter, PCI-Express Fabrics Will Be Pervasive was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Thanksgiving’s biggest online shopping day was Cyber Monday, but other days were close behind

Thanksgiving’s biggest online shopping day was Cyber Monday, but other days were close behind
Thanksgiving’s biggest online shopping day was Cyber Monday, but other days were close behind

November comes, the temperatures start to get colder for most of the planet's population (87% live in the Northern Hemisphere) and many are also starting to prepare for the festive season. That also brings significant changes in Internet traffic, most notably the online shopping kind of traffic.

So, what were the November days that e-commerce websites had the most traffic in the US and what about worldwide? Is humanity using more mobile Internet at this time? And what are the most popular days online — is Black Friday the winner?

We’ll dig into those questions using Cloudflare Radar. E-commerce is expanding and at an all-time high, especially after the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation process (e-commerce had a 32.4% increase in sales in the US in 2020 and is expected to grow this year).

Cyber Monday, a ‘last minute’ winner

Let’s start with e-commerce — we added a chart to Radar that shows trends for e-commerce by country. The worldwide trend is pretty evident: Cyber Monday, the day for supposedly last-minute discounts, was the clear winner.

#1. Cyber Monday, November 29.

#2. Monday, November 23.

#3. Black Friday, November 26 — November Continue reading

Architecture of Max reHIT Workout

 

Today I have the pleasure of announcing my new app—Max reHIT Workout—on Product Hunt. Max reHIT Workout is an exercise app that guides you through interval workouts.

I won’t pitch the app here. I'll just say I’m proud of how it turned out and if you want an optimal algorithm for exercising, you might like it.

I know I haven’t been writing much lately. That's because there’s been very little evolution in software system architecture. It’s pretty much same thing, different day. In many ways that’s good, but it’s not interesting to write about.

This article, while definitely self serving, targets the choice of using a native iOS environment versus a cloud environment for an app. It’s a choice every developer must make. How do you make that choice? What are the implications? What choice would I make next time?

Out with the Old

Dynamic Negotiation of BGP Capabilities

I wanted to write a blog post explaining the intricacies of Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP, got into a yak-shaving exercise when discussing the need to exchange BGP capabilities to enable this feature, and decided to turn it into a separate prerequisite blog post. The optimal path selection with BGP AddPath post is coming in a few days.

The Problem

Whenever you want to use BGP for something else than simple IPv4 unicast routing the BGP neighbors must agree on what they are willing to do – be it multiprotocol extensions and individual additional address families, graceful restart, route refresh… (IANA has the complete BGP Capability Codes registry).

Read more …

Quantum primacy: Is it real (and if so, does it matter)?

The nexus of the ongoing competition among nations and corporations (such as   Google and IBM) to demonstrate quantum primacy has shifted to a university in China where not one, but two experimental quantum computers reportedly have shown that quantum primacy is attainable.Quantum primacy is when a quantum computer is able to solve computational problems that are beyond the ability of traditional “classical” computers, yoked as they are to their quaint system of ones and zeroes.Researchers show quantum computers can reason Don’t get me wrong; classical computers long have served with distinction. So did the abacus in its day. However, as society’s computational challenges became more complex--such as splitting a restaurant bill 11 ways among your cheap and quarrelsome family members--this ancient calculating device eventually gave way to the digital calculator.To read this article in full, please click here

Shortcuts for adding multiple lines of text to files on Linux

There are a number of ways to add text to files on Linux systems without having to open an editor, such as the echo and printf commands. On the other hand, when you need to add A LOT of text, the technique you use can make the job tedious or a piece of cake.This post describes some of the commands you can use and the problems and benefits you can expect.Also see: How to loop forever in bash on LinuxThe echo commands append lines of text to existing files in a straightforward way:To read this article in full, please click here

Quantum primacy: Is it real (and if so, does it matter)?

The nexus of the ongoing competition among nations and corporations (such as   Google and IBM) to demonstrate quantum primacy has shifted to a university in China where not one, but two experimental quantum computers reportedly have shown that quantum primacy is attainable.Quantum primacy is when a quantum computer is able to solve computational problems that are beyond the ability of traditional “classical” computers, yoked as they are to their quaint system of ones and zeroes.Researchers show quantum computers can reason Don’t get me wrong; classical computers long have served with distinction. So did the abacus in its day. However, as society’s computational challenges became more complex--such as splitting a restaurant bill 11 ways among your cheap and quarrelsome family members--this ancient calculating device eventually gave way to the digital calculator.To read this article in full, please click here

Shortcuts for adding multiple lines of text to files on Linux

There are a number of ways to add text to files on Linux systems without having to open an editor, such as the echo and printf commands. On the other hand, when you need to add A LOT of text, the technique you use can make the job tedious or a piece of cake.This post describes some of the commands you can use and the problems and benefits you can expect.Also see: How to loop forever in bash on LinuxThe echo commands append lines of text to existing files in a straightforward way:To read this article in full, please click here

Attack Maps now available on Radar

Attack Maps now available on Radar
Attack Maps now available on Radar

Cloudflare Radar launched as part of last year’s Birthday Week. We described it as a “newspaper for the Internet”, that gives “any digital citizen the chance to see what’s happening online [which] is part of our pursuit to help build a better, more informed, Internet”.

Since then, we have made considerable strides, including adding dedicated pages to cover how key events such as the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship and the Tokyo Olympics shaped Internet usage in participating countries, and added a Radar section for interactive deep-dive reports on topics such as DDoS.

Today, Radar has four main sections:

  • Main page with near real-time information about global Internet usage.
  • Internet usage details by country (see, for example, Portugal).
  • Domain insights, where searching for a domain returns traffic, registration and certificate information about it.
  • Deep-dive reports on complex and often underreported topics.

Cloudflare’s global network spans more than 250 cities in over 100 countries. Because of this, we have the unique ability to see both macro and micro trends happening online, including insights on how traffic is flowing around the world or what type of attacks are prevalent in a certain country.

Radar Maps will make this information even richer Continue reading

SmartNICs set to infiltrate enterprise networks

Enterprise infrastructure that supports data center, cloud and edge networks could someday be dominated by one of its tiniest components--the smartNIC or data processing unit (DPU).Use of smartNICs in the enterprise is still evolvinging, but the idea behind them--offloading server CPU duties onto a separate device to free up server cycles--is not new. Specialized hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPU), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and focused NICs have offloaded CPU workloads in telco, financial, and scientific application processing. NaaS is the future but it's got challenges Looking ahead, users and vendors see a way to reduce enterprise costs, improve performance and increase security with smartNICs.To read this article in full, please click here

SmartNICs set to infiltrate enterprise networks

Enterprise infrastructure that supports data center, cloud and edge networks could someday be dominated by one of its tiniest components--the smartNIC or data processing unit (DPU).Use of smartNICs in the enterprise is still evolvinging, but the idea behind them--offloading server CPU duties onto a separate device to free up server cycles--is not new. Specialized hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPU), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and focused NICs have offloaded CPU workloads in telco, financial, and scientific application processing. NaaS is the future but it's got challenges Looking ahead, users and vendors see a way to reduce enterprise costs, improve performance and increase security with smartNICs.To read this article in full, please click here

SmartNICs set to infiltrate enterprise network, security worlds

Enterprise infrastructure that supports data center, cloud and edge networks could someday be dominated by one of its tiniest components--the smartNIC or data processing unit (DPU).Use of smartNICs in the enterprise is still evolvinging, but the idea behind them--offloading server CPU duties onto a separate device to free up server cycles--is not new. Specialized hardware accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPU), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and focused NICs have offloaded CPU workloads in telco, financial, and scientific application processing. NaaS is the future but it's got challenges Looking ahead, users and vendors see a way to reduce enterprise costs, improve performance and increase security with smartNICs.To read this article in full, please click here

1 2 3 … 3,161