Intel has launched its brand-new lineup of Xeon processors designed specifically for edge computing needs, where space, heat, and power are all of greater concern than in a traditional data center design.The Xeon D-2100 processors are the successor to the 1000-D series that Intel introduced last year. They are high-powered SoCs with anywhere from four to 18 Skylake-generation cores and sport the full range of Skylake features, including VT-X/VT-d for virtualization, RAS features and the entire TXT, AVX-512, TSX Instruction sets.Also read: What is edge computing and how it’s changing the network
The platform supports up to 512 GB of memory, up to 32 PCI Express 3.0 lanes and up to 20 Flexible High Speed I/O. TDP ranges from 60 to 100 watts, slightly lower than the traditional Xeon design. All told, there are six processors in the Xeon D-2100 family, ranging from four cores to 18 and from 2.3Ghz to 2.8Ghz in speed.To read this article in full, please click here
Intel has launched its brand-new lineup of Xeon processors designed specifically for edge computing needs, where space, heat, and power are all of greater concern than in a traditional data center design.The Xeon D-2100 processors are the successor to the 1000-D series that Intel introduced last year. They are high-powered SoCs with anywhere from four to 18 Skylake-generation cores and sport the full range of Skylake features, including VT-X/VT-d for virtualization, RAS features and the entire TXT, AVX-512, TSX Instruction sets.Also read: What is edge computing and how it’s changing the network
The platform supports up to 512 GB of memory, up to 32 PCI Express 3.0 lanes and up to 20 Flexible High Speed I/O. TDP ranges from 60 to 100 watts, slightly lower than the traditional Xeon design. All told, there are six processors in the Xeon D-2100 family, ranging from four cores to 18 and from 2.3Ghz to 2.8Ghz in speed.To read this article in full, please click here
It was inevitable. Once Google published its findings for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in CPUs, the bad guys used that as a roadmap to create their malware. And so far, researchers have found more than 130 malware samples designed to exploit Spectre and Meltdown.If there is any good news, it’s that the majority of the samples appear to be in the testing phase, according to antivirus testing firm AV-TEST, or are based on proof-of-concept software created by security researchers. Still, the number is rising fast.To read this article in full, please click here
It was inevitable. Once Google published its findings for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in CPUs, the bad guys used that as a roadmap to create their malware. And so far, researchers have found more than 130 malware samples designed to exploit Spectre and Meltdown.If there is any good news, it’s that the majority of the samples appear to be in the testing phase, according to antivirus testing firm AV-TEST, or are based on proof-of-concept software created by security researchers. Still, the number is rising fast.To read this article in full, please click here
AMD scored a significant win in its efforts to retake ground in the data center with Dell announcing three new PowerEdge servers aimed at the usual high-performance workloads, like virtualized storage-area networks (VSAN), hybrid-cloud applications, dense virtualization, and big data analytics. The servers will run AMD's Epyc 7000 series processors.What’s interesting is that two of the three new Dell servers, the PowerEdge R6415 and R7415, are single-socket systems. Usually a single-socket server is a small tower stuck in a closet or under a desk and running as a file and print server or departmental server, not something running enterprise workloads. The R7425 is the only dual-socket server being introduced.To read this article in full, please click here
AMD scored a significant win in its efforts to retake ground in the data center with Dell announcing three new PowerEdge servers aimed at the usual high-performance workloads, like virtualized storage-area networks (VSAN), hybrid-cloud applications, dense virtualization, and big data analytics. The servers will run AMD's Epyc 7000 series processors.What’s interesting is that two of the three new Dell servers, the PowerEdge R6415 and R7415, are single-socket systems. Usually a single-socket server is a small tower stuck in a closet or under a desk and running as a file and print server or departmental server, not something running enterprise workloads. The R7425 is the only dual-socket server being introduced.To read this article in full, please click here
In its latest Cisco Global Cloud Index (2016-2021), the networking giant predicts that by 2021, 94 percent of all workloads will run in some form of cloud environment and that dedicated servers will be a distinct minority.That 94 percent covers both public and private cloud scenarios, which means even in an on-premises scenario, almost all workloads are going to be run in a virtualized environment. The days where a server is dedicated to one workload are rapidly drawing to a close.“We use the definition of one workload or instance with one physical server,” said Thomas Barnett, director, Cisco Service Provider forecast and trends. “In virtual scenarios, we’re seeing one workload with multiple virtual machines and containers. Based on growth in public cloud, we’ve overcome some of the barriers of adoption, such as cost and security and simplicity of deploying of these services.”To read this article in full, please click here
In its latest Cisco Global Cloud Index (2016-2021), the networking giant predicts that by 2021, 94 percent of all workloads will run in some form of cloud environment and that dedicated servers will be a distinct minority.That 94 percent covers both public and private cloud scenarios, which means even in an on-premises scenario, almost all workloads are going to be run in a virtualized environment. The days where a server is dedicated to one workload are rapidly drawing to a close.“We use the definition of one workload or instance with one physical server,” said Thomas Barnett, director, Cisco Service Provider forecast and trends. “In virtual scenarios, we’re seeing one workload with multiple virtual machines and containers. Based on growth in public cloud, we’ve overcome some of the barriers of adoption, such as cost and security and simplicity of deploying of these services.”To read this article in full, please click here
Comeback kid AMD announced on its quarterly earnings call that it intends to have a silicon fix for the variant 2 of the Spectre exploit, the only one of the Meltdown and Spectre exploits it’s vulnerable to, by 2019 with its new Zen 2 core.The company also said it will ramp up GPU card production to meet the insane demand these days thanks to cryptominers, although it said the biggest challenge will be to find enough memory to make the cards.Also read: Meltdown and Spectre: How much are ARM and AMD exposed?
It's hard to believe that in 2018 we are seeing such shortages in computing hardware, but there you have it.To read this article in full, please click here
Comeback kid AMD announced on its quarterly earnings call that it intends to have a silicon fix for the variant 2 of the Spectre exploit, the only one of the Meltdown and Spectre exploits it’s vulnerable to, by 2019 with its new Zen 2 core.The company also said it will ramp up GPU card production to meet the insane demand these days thanks to cryptominers, although it said the biggest challenge will be to find enough memory to make the cards.Also read: Meltdown and Spectre: How much are ARM and AMD exposed?
It's hard to believe that in 2018 we are seeing such shortages in computing hardware, but there you have it.To read this article in full, please click here
For the third straight year, IT organizations are keeping tight control over their IT budgets, but not because of economic uncertainty. Instead, the hesitancy to spend is because of the transition to the cloud.That’s the findings from IT market research firm Computer Economics, which published the report Worldwide IT Spending and Staffing Outlook for 2018 (paywall), and it echoes a common finding that on-premises computing continues to fall out of favor as IT shops look to migrate as much work as possible to the public cloud.“Typically, before the cloud transition, companies would grow IT budgets roughly to match expected revenue growth,” said David Wagner, vice president of research for Computer Economics in a statement. “This is no longer true in regions of higher cloud adoption, such as the U.S. and Canada, where IT budgets are not keeping pace with revenue growth.”To read this article in full, please click here
For the third straight year, IT organizations are keeping tight control over their IT budgets, but not because of economic uncertainty. Instead, the hesitancy to spend is because of the transition to the cloud.That’s the findings from IT market research firm Computer Economics, which published the report Worldwide IT Spending and Staffing Outlook for 2018 (paywall), and it echoes a common finding that on-premises computing continues to fall out of favor as IT shops look to migrate as much work as possible to the public cloud.“Typically, before the cloud transition, companies would grow IT budgets roughly to match expected revenue growth,” said David Wagner, vice president of research for Computer Economics in a statement. “This is no longer true in regions of higher cloud adoption, such as the U.S. and Canada, where IT budgets are not keeping pace with revenue growth.”To read this article in full, please click here
With the software fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities slowing servers down by unacceptable amounts, a hardware fix is clearly what is needed, and Intel’s boss says one is coming this year.Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told analysts during the company's Q4 2017 earnings call earlier this week that "silicon-based" fixes for Spectre and Meltdown would arrive by the end of 2018. Intel has several launches set for this year and he did not specify which."We're working to incorporate silicon-based changed to future products that will directly address the Spectre and Meltdown threats in hardware. And those products will begin appearing later this year," were his exact words.To read this article in full, please click here
With the software fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities slowing servers down by unacceptable amounts, a hardware fix is clearly what is needed, and Intel’s boss says one is coming this year.Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told analysts during the company's Q4 2017 earnings call earlier this week that "silicon-based" fixes for Spectre and Meltdown would arrive by the end of 2018. Intel has several launches set for this year and he did not specify which."We're working to incorporate silicon-based changed to future products that will directly address the Spectre and Meltdown threats in hardware. And those products will begin appearing later this year," were his exact words.To read this article in full, please click here
The father of the Linux operating system has once again blasted Intel for its handling of the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities due to the sloppiness of some of the patches. While he has a point, he’s also being a bit unfair, as well as unreasonable.Linus Torvalds is known for his blistering comments on the Linux mailing lists and frequently expresses his dissatisfaction with high levels of acidity. In this case, he was responding to an Amazon engineer on the Linux kernel mailing list regarding recent patches that have resulted in some systems randomly rebooting.To read this article in full, please click here
The father of the Linux operating system has once again blasted Intel for its handling of the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities due to the sloppiness of some of the patches. While he has a point, he’s also being a bit unfair, as well as unreasonable.Linus Torvalds is known for his blistering comments on the Linux mailing lists and frequently expresses his dissatisfaction with high levels of acidity. In this case, he was responding to an Amazon engineer on the Linux kernel mailing list regarding recent patches that have resulted in some systems randomly rebooting.To read this article in full, please click here
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has partnered with Kubernetes container vendor Portworx to provide a reference configuration for enterprises to launch stateful container workloads on Kubernetes.Containers are a lightweight form of virtualization, where just what is needed is loaded rather than the full operating system like in a virtualized environment. Docker was the first with containers, but it has been steamrolled by Kubernetes, which was developed by Google. Google just had way more resources to bring to bear than Docker, a startup that has relied on venture funding.Also on Network World: Will containers kill the virtual machine?
One of the big changes as containers have evolved is adopting the stateful condition. Initially they were stateless, meaning the data was erased from memory when the container was shut down at the completion of its workload. Stateful applications, on the other hand, are services that require retention of data, usually through a connection to a back-end database so they have persistent storage.To read this article in full, please click here
For some time now, server unit sales have been steadily dropping for the major x86 server vendors as enterprises draw down their on-premises hardware in favor of cloud services.The response from the hardware vendors is if you can’t beat ‘em, clone ‘em. Vendors are adopting a pay-as-you-go model not unlike that of a cloud provider, where you pay for how much compute time you use and hand back the hardware when you are done rather than buying it outright.+Check out our review of rack servers from HP, Dell and IBM and tips on calculating the true cost of cloud migration+To read this article in full, please click here
For some time now, server unit sales have been steadily dropping for the major x86 server vendors as enterprises draw down their on-premises hardware in favor of cloud services.The response from the hardware vendors is if you can’t beat ‘em, clone ‘em. Vendors are adopting a pay-as-you-go model not unlike that of a cloud provider, where you pay for how much compute time you use and hand back the hardware when you are done rather than buying it outright.+Check out our review of rack servers from HP, Dell and IBM and tips on calculating the true cost of cloud migration+To read this article in full, please click here
Security researchers at an antivirus company have documented another potentially serious security hole in an Intel product, this time in the mechanism for performing system updates. The good news, however, is that it is limited to desktops, is a configuration error, and does not appear to impact servers.Last June, researchers at F-Secure found a flaw in Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT), a feature used to perform remote updates to advanced desktops using Intel vPro or workstation platforms using Core desktop chips and certain Xeon CPUs. Xeon is primarily a server processor but there are some low-end chips used in high-performance workstations, such as those used in a CAD environment.To read this article in full, please click here
Andy Patrizio