Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday included a hefty haul of fixes: 49 total, and one of them is more than just critical. For enterprises running Windows Server 2016 and Server 2019, it's vital you implement the patch ASAP.The National Security Agency (NSA) disclosed the Windows vulnerability on Tuesday, the same day the fix was issued. That means the NSA found the flaw likely months ago but held off on public notification until Microsoft could come up with a fix. It would be irresponsible for the NSA, or anyone else, to announce a vulnerability and not give the software maker time to patch it.The vulnerability was spotted in "crypt32.dll," a Windows module that has been in both desktop and server versions since NT 4.0 more than 20 years ago. Microsoft describes the library as handling certificate and cryptographic messaging functions in the CryptoAPI.To read this article in full, please click here
This week's Patch Tuesday marked the end of the line for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2). No more fixes will be issued for the two aged operating systems, unless you purchase a pricey extended service license.On the Windows 7 front, Microsoft has done a good job getting Windows 10 deployed through its aggressive (perhaps too aggressive) upgrade program. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 now accounts for 65% of the worldwide desktop Windows market share, and Windows 7 is down to 27%.
RELATED: What to know before upgrading to Windows Server 2019To read this article in full, please click here
This week's Patch Tuesday marked the end of the line for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2). No more fixes will be issued for the two aged operating systems, unless you purchase a pricey extended service license.On the Windows 7 front, Microsoft has done a good job getting Windows 10 deployed through its aggressive (perhaps too aggressive) upgrade program. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 now accounts for 65% of the worldwide desktop Windows market share, and Windows 7 is down to 27%.
RELATED: What to know before upgrading to Windows Server 2019To read this article in full, please click here
Google Cloud announced the general availability of Archive, a long-term data retention service intended as an alternative to on-premises tape backup.Google pitches it as cold storage, meaning it is for data which is accessed less than once a year and has been stored for many years. Cold storage data is usually consigned to tape backup, which remains a surprisingly successful market despite repeated predictions of its demise.Of course, Google's competition has their own products. Amazon Web Services has Glacier, Microsoft has Cool Blob Storage, and IBM has Cloud Storage. Google also offers its own Coldline and Nearline cloud storage offerings; Coldline is designed for data a business expects to touch less than once a quarter, while Nearline is aimed at data that requires access less than once a month.To read this article in full, please click here
Enterprise tech crossed a significant line as the decade ended. For the first time, enterprises spent more annually on cloud infrastructure services than on data-center hardware and software, according to Synergy Research Group.Synergy reports that total spending on cloud infrastructure services in 2019 will reach $97 billion, a 38% increase over the prior year. Ten years ago, that spending was near zero. Total spending on data center hardware and software, on the other hand, is expected to hit $93 billion in 2019, an increase of only 1% when compared to 2018.To read this article in full, please click here
Cumulus Networks has announced a partnership with HPE that will see its NetQ management software run on HPE's network storage products.Under the deal, HPE's StoreFabric M-Series Ethernet switches will run Cumulus's Linux operating system and NetQ, a move that Cumulus said in a statement will deliver “a flexible networking fabric that is predictable, scalable, and reliable."[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
Combining the M-Series switches with Linux and NetQ will offer enterprises a high-bandwidth, low-latency way to connect primary, secondary, hyperconverged, NAS, or object-storage systems, and is an ideal way to build an Ethernet Storage Fabric (ESF), the company added.To read this article in full, please click here
Cumulus Networks has announced a partnership with HPE that will see its NetQ management software run on HPE's network storage products.Under the deal, HPE's StoreFabric M-Series Ethernet switches will run Cumulus's Linux operating system and NetQ, a move that Cumulus said in a statement will deliver “a flexible networking fabric that is predictable, scalable, and reliable."[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
Combining the M-Series switches with Linux and NetQ will offer enterprises a high-bandwidth, low-latency way to connect primary, secondary, hyperconverged, NAS, or object-storage systems, and is an ideal way to build an Ethernet Storage Fabric (ESF), the company added.To read this article in full, please click here
Sources in Asian memory chipmakers are projecting that NAND flash contract prices will rise by 40% in 2020 due to product ramps and increased demand, according to the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes.The article, now locked behind a subscription wall, cited sources at Taiwanese memory makers. However, the biggest makers of NAND flash are not Taiwanese, like Samsung, Toshiba, and Micron. This would impact memory cards, USB flash drives, and solid-state drives. It noted the contract price of SSDs had been falling for a few years and only started to rise after production issues reduced NAND output in the second quarter of 2019.To read this article in full, please click here
Sources in Asian memory chipmakers are projecting that NAND flash contract prices will rise by 40% in 2020 due to product ramps and increased demand, according to the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes.The article, now locked behind a subscription wall, cited sources at Taiwanese memory makers. However, the biggest makers of NAND flash are not Taiwanese, like Samsung, Toshiba, and Micron. This would impact memory cards, USB flash drives, and solid-state drives. It noted the contract price of SSDs had been falling for a few years and only started to rise after production issues reduced NAND output in the second quarter of 2019.To read this article in full, please click here
IT generally requires a good reason to disrupt a smooth working environment, which is why some hardware sits deployed for decades. Even though Windows Server 2016 is relatively young, there’s a decent argument to be made for upgrading a Server 2016 environment to Server 2019, the most recent release.There’s a longer span between Windows Server releases than the desktop version of the software because of slower migration habits on the server side, and this means bigger changes between releases. Windows Server 2016 was the first server OS built on the Windows 10 kernel, and some of the changes were rather rough. Windows Server 2019 is markedly faster, and it has a number of changes under the hood, from security to hybrid cloud integration. Here’s a rundown of what’s new and what are the most compelling arguments for upgrade.To read this article in full, please click here
IT generally requires a good reason to disrupt a smooth working environment, which is why some hardware sits deployed for decades. Even though Windows Server 2016 is relatively young, there’s a decent argument to be made for upgrading a Server 2016 environment to Server 2019, the most recent release.There’s a longer span between Windows Server releases than the desktop version of the software because of slower migration habits on the server side, and this means bigger changes between releases. Windows Server 2016 was the first server OS built on the Windows 10 kernel, and some of the changes were rather rough. Windows Server 2019 is markedly faster, and it has a number of changes under the hood, from security to hybrid cloud integration. Here’s a rundown of what’s new and what are the most compelling arguments for upgrade.To read this article in full, please click here
UK chip designer Kaleao has re-launched as Bamboo Systems with some pre-Series A funding and claims its Arm-based server chips will be considerably more power efficient than the competition.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
Bamboo is targeting the x86 servers, which have a 95% market share, rather than Marvell with its ThunderX2 and Ampere Systems with the eMAG Arm processors. The company argues that the two Arm processors are no different than x86.To read this article in full, please click here
UK chip designer Kaleao has re-launched as Bamboo Systems with some pre-Series A funding and claims its Arm-based server chips will be considerably more power efficient than the competition.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
Bamboo is targeting the x86 servers, which have a 95% market share, rather than Marvell with its ThunderX2 and Ampere Systems with the eMAG Arm processors. The company argues that the two Arm processors are no different than x86.To read this article in full, please click here
Most data center operators are not prioritizing power and other "green" issues. While enterprises are making incremental improvements toward energy-efficient initiatives, they're advancing at a very slow rate, according to new research data.Supermicro surveyed more than 5,000 IT professionals for its Data Centers and the Environment report. One of the goals of the annual report is to help IT leaders to lessen the long-term environmental impact of their data center equipment purchases.Those surveyed said total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) are their primary measures of success. Less than 15% said that energy efficiency, corporate social responsibility, and environmental impact are key considerations for their facilities. At the same time, 22% of respondents noted that environmental considerations are too expensive to be considered a priority.To read this article in full, please click here
Most data center operators are not prioritizing power and other "green" issues. While enterprises are making incremental improvements toward energy-efficient initiatives, they're advancing at a very slow rate, according to new research data.Supermicro surveyed more than 5,000 IT professionals for its Data Centers and the Environment report. One of the goals of the annual report is to help IT leaders to lessen the long-term environmental impact of their data center equipment purchases.Those surveyed said total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) are their primary measures of success. Less than 15% said that energy efficiency, corporate social responsibility, and environmental impact are key considerations for their facilities. At the same time, 22% of respondents noted that environmental considerations are too expensive to be considered a priority.To read this article in full, please click here
Research firm Gartner is holding its IT Infrastructure, Operations, and Cloud Strategies Conference (IOCS) in Las Vegas this week, and a few news announcements from the show give an indication as to where data-center technology is headed.First up, Schneider Electric and Iceotope formally introduced their integrated rack with chassis-based immersive liquid-cooling designs. The deal was announced in October but now the details are out. In addition to Schneider and Iceotope, the alliance also includes Avnet, an electronic-component distributor.To read this article in full, please click here
Research firm Gartner is holding its IT Infrastructure, Operations, and Cloud Strategies Conference (IOCS) in Las Vegas this week, and a few news announcements from the show give an indication as to where data-center technology is headed.First up, Schneider Electric and Iceotope formally introduced their integrated rack with chassis-based immersive liquid-cooling designs. The deal was announced in October but now the details are out. In addition to Schneider and Iceotope, the alliance also includes Avnet, an electronic-component distributor.To read this article in full, please click here
It’s that time of year again when those of us in the press make our annual prognostications for the coming year. Some things we saw coming; the rise of the cloud and the advance of SSD. Others, like the return of many cloud migrations to on-premises or the roaring comeback of AMD, went right by us. We do our best but occasionally there are surprises.So with that, let’s take a peek into the always cloudy (no pun intended) crystal ball and make 10 data-center-oriented predictions.IoT spawns data-center growth in urban areas
This isn’t a hard prediction to make since it’s already happening. For the longest time, data centers were placed in the middle of nowhere near renewable energy (usually hydro), but need is going to force more expansion in major metro areas. IoT will be one driver but so will the increasing use of data center providers like Equinix and DRT as interconnection providers.To read this article in full, please click here
It’s that time of year again when those of us in the press make our annual prognostications for the coming year. Some things we saw coming; the rise of the cloud and the advance of SSD. Others, like the return of many cloud migrations to on-premises or the roaring comeback of AMD, went right by us. We do our best but occasionally there are surprises.So with that, let’s take a peek into the always cloudy (no pun intended) crystal ball and make 10 data-center-oriented predictions.IoT spawns data-center growth in urban areas
This isn’t a hard prediction to make since it’s already happening. For the longest time, data centers were placed in the middle of nowhere near renewable energy (usually hydro), but need is going to force more expansion in major metro areas. IoT will be one driver but so will the increasing use of data center providers like Equinix and DRT as interconnection providers.To read this article in full, please click here
In the cloud-services market, bare metal offerings have lagged behind virtualized ones, mostly because the use of the cloud for things like elastic apps and developer environments are better suited to instances with a native operating system.The term “bare metal” simply means no software of any kind, not even a hypervisor. Customers provide their own operating environments, and the provider offers nothing more than CPUs, memory, and storage. Up to now, IBM has led the charge with bare-metal services because SoftLayer, the major data-center provider it acquired in 2014, was heavily involved in that business.To read this article in full, please click here
Andy Patrizio