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Dynatrace boosts observability platform with generative AI
Dynatrace has incorporated generative AI into its Davis AI engine to let customers more quickly create dashboards, determine the root cause of incidents, and speed mean time to repair.Davis AI features causal and predictive AI capabilities now, and with the addition of generative AI, Dynatrace says it will offer customers a third mode of AI that applies natural language capabilities to more easily create dashboards, automate workflows, and complete tasks. Davis CoPilot generative AI will work in collaboration with its causal AI technology, which analyzes real-time data, and its Davis predictive AI models that anticipate future behavior based on past data and observed patterns in the environment.To read this article in full, please click here
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GigaIO introduces single-node AI supercomputer
Installation and configuration of high-performance computing (HPC) systems can be a considerable challenge that requires skilled IT pros to set up the software stack, for example, and optimize it for maximum performance – it isn't like building a PC with parts bought off NewEgg.GigaIO, which specializes in infrastructure for AI and technical computing, is looking to simplify the task. The vendor recently announced a self-contained, single-node system with 32 configured GPUs in the box to offer simplified deployment of AI and supercomputing resources.Up to now, the only way to harness 32 GPUs would require four servers with eight GPUs apiece. There would be latency to contend with, as the servers communicate over networking protocols, and all that hardware would consume floor space.To read this article in full, please click here
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Is your data center ready for generative AI?
Enterprise adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which is capable of generating text, images, or other media in response to prompts, is in its early stages, but is expected to increase rapidly as organizations find new uses for the technology.“The generative AI frenzy shows no signs of abating,” says Gartner analyst Frances Karamouzis. “Organizations are scrambling to determine how much cash to pour into generative AI solutions, which products are worth the investment, when to get started and how to mitigate the risks that come with this emerging technology.”To read this article in full, please click here
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Network giants unite to fight security risks
A group of industry stalwarts is banding together to help enterprises, services providers and telcos fight cyber foes.The Network Resilience Coalition includes AT&T, Broadcom, BT Group, Cisco Systems, Fortinet, Intel, Juniper Networks, Lumen Technologies, Palo Alto Networks, Verizon and VMware. Its aim is to deliver open and collaborative techniques to help improve the security of network hardware and software across the industry.The coalition was brought together under the Center for Cybersecurity Policy & Law, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the security of networks, devices and critical infrastructure. The Center has a broad security mission, but at least for now, it wants the Resilience group to focus on routers, switches and firewalls that are older, may have reached end-of-life vendor support, or have been overlooked for security patching or replacement. To read this article in full, please click here
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The real risk of AI in network operations
OK, you used to worry about nuclear war, then pandemics, then maybe an asteroid hitting earth or the sun going nova. Now, some want you to add AI to the list of things to worry about, and yes, you should probably do that. I’d hold off on worrying that AI will end life on earth, but users themselves tell me that AI does pose some risks, particularly the current ultra-hot “generative AI” that ChatGPT popularized. That’s particularly true for those who want to apply it to network operations.I got input from 197 senior IT and network professionals over the last month, and none of them believed that AI could lead to the mass extinction of humanity. Well over half said that they hadn’t seen any crippling long-term downsides to AI use, and all of them said that their company used AI “somewhere.” Thirty-four offered real insight into the use of AI in network operations, and I think this group offers us the best look at AI in network missions.To read this article in full, please click here
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Nitel goes global with international network-as-a-service plans
Nitel’s newest service offering takes the company’s existing network-as-a-service out of North America and into the international market, as the company announces the availability of its SASE capabilities and NaaS to 34 global regions.Nitel’s key offering is a full as-a-service network, leveraging relationships with data carriers — wired or wireless — at the local level to deliver basic connectivity, and then fold that into a robust enterprise networking suite, complete with SASE and private networking. The idea is to provide a more or less out-of-the-box network product that allows small and medium-size companies to hand the vast majority of their connectivity issues off to Nitel, which manages configuration and provisioning. In addition, Nitel provides SASE-standard security features like antimalware sandboxing, zero trust network access, data loss prevention and content filtering.To read this article in full, please click here
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Data centers grapple with staffing shortages, pressure to reduce energy use
Reducing energy use and keeping qualified staff are top of mind for data center operators, according to Uptime Institute’s latest annual global data center survey.“Digital infrastructure managers are now most concerned with improving energy performance and dealing with staffing shortfalls, while government regulations aimed at improving data center sustainability and visibility are beginning to require attention, investment, and action,” said Andy Lawrence, executive director, Uptime Intelligence.To read this article in full, please click here
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Lenovo all-flash arrays aimed at optimizing AI workloads
AI is nothing without lots of data, so high-speed, high-capacity storage is a must. Lenovo is the latest vendor to come out with new storage systems that are optimized for read-intensive enterprise AI workloads and large dataset workloads.Lenovo’s ThinkSystem DG enterprise storage arrays use all-flash storage and quad-level cell (QLC) architecture, the densest flash storage available. They’re capable of up to six times faster performance and up to 50% less cost compared to HDD arrays, Lenovo asserts. Its ThinkSystem DM3010H array is aimed at SMB customers and designed to offer better scalability and flexibility for a wide range of workloads, including file services, virtualization, backup and archive and other I/O applications, according to Lenovo.To read this article in full, please click here
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Cisco, Arista, HPE, Intel lead consortium to supersize Ethernet for AI infrastructures
AI workloads are expected to put unprecedented performance and capacity demands on networks, and a handful of networking vendors have teamed up to enhance today’s Ethernet technology in order to handle the scale and speed required by AI.AMD, Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Eviden, HPE, Intel, Meta and Microsoft announced the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC), a group hosted by the Linux Foundation that’s working to develop physical, link, transport and software layer Ethernet advances.The industry celebrated Ethernet’s 50th anniversary this year. The hallmark of Ethernet has been its flexibility and adaptability, and the venerable technology will undoubtedly play a critical role when it comes to supporting AI infrastructures. But there are concerns that today’s traditional network interconnects cannot provide the required performance, scale and bandwidth to keep up with AI demands, and the consortium aims to address those concerns.To read this article in full, please click here
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EnGenius to release Wi-Fi 7 router for the enterprise
Enterprise networking hardware vendor EnGenuis will release one of the first Wi-Fi 7-enabled routers for business use, the company announced this week.The ECW536 uses the Qualcomm Networking Pro 1220 chipset, and features a 4x4x4 antenna configuration. It’s got two 10Gb ethernet ports, and boasts several security enhancements, including business-class encryption protocols, RADIUS and isolated guest access.The main draw, however, is Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. Wi-Fi 7, also known as 802.11be, is the latest and greatest Wi-Fi specification, although official certification from the IEEE isn’t expected to start until the second half of 2024. The key upgrades in Wi-Fi 7 include wider channels (up to 320MHz), 4K quadrature amplitude modulation rather than 1K, and muiltilink operation, which uses multiple radio bands at the same time to serve one connection. All that adds up to a substantially increased theoretical throughput peak, at 46Gbps.To read this article in full, please click here
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EnGenius to release Wi-Fi 7 access point for the enterprise
Enterprise networking hardware vendor EnGenuis will release one of the first Wi-Fi 7-enabled access points for business use, the company announced this week.The ECW536 uses the Qualcomm Networking Pro 1220 chipset, and features a 4x4x4 antenna configuration. It’s got two 10Gb ethernet ports, and boasts several security enhancements, including business-class encryption protocols, RADIUS and isolated guest access.The main draw, however, is Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. Wi-Fi 7, also known as 802.11be, is the latest and greatest Wi-Fi specification, although official certification from the IEEE isn’t expected to start until the second half of 2024. The key upgrades in Wi-Fi 7 include wider channels (up to 320MHz), 4K quadrature amplitude modulation rather than 1K, and muiltilink operation, which uses multiple radio bands at the same time to serve one connection. All that adds up to a substantially increased theoretical throughput peak, at 46Gbps.To read this article in full, please click here
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Assigning sudo privilege to users on Linux
The sudo command is a very important command on Linux systems. You might say that it allows users to run privileged commands without logging in as root, and that is true. However, the more important point is that it allows individuals to manage Linux systems – adding accounts, running updates, installing applications and backing up the system – without requiring these things be done using the root account. This is consistent with the policy that says root privilege should only be used as needed and that no one should simply log in as root and run all of their commands. Doing routine work using the root account is considered dangerous because any typos or commands run in the wrong location can have very serious consequences.To read this article in full, please click here
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UK competition agency provisionally OKs Broadcom’s $6B VMware acquisition
The UK’s Competition Market Authority (CMA) has provisionally cleared Broadcom’s proposed acquisition of VMWare, paving the way for the $61 billion deal to go ahead.In November 2022, the CMA announced it was launching an in-depth investigation into the proposed deal, looking into whether the proposed merger “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.”In particular, the CMA was concerned that the deal could harm the ability of Broadcom’s rivals to compete with VMware’s server virtualisation software, and if there would be a potential financial benefit to Broadcom and VMware if they were to make rival products work less well with VMware’s softwareTo read this article in full, please click here
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Gartner: Generative AI not yet influencing IT spending, but enterprises should plan for it
While the hype around generative AI is palpable, enterprise IT spending so far has not been impacted by it.That is one of the main takeaways from Gartner’s quarterly IT spending forecast, which finds that worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.7 trillion in 2023, an increase of 4.3% from 2022.Data center systems spending was down slightly year-over-year, but most other enterprise spending will increase, including software, IT and communications services outlay. according to the research firm.“IT projects are shifting from a focus on external facing deliverables such as revenue and customer experience, to more inward facing efforts focused on optimization,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, in a statement.To read this article in full, please click here
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Fortinet unveils data center firewalls with AI support
Fortinet has released two new high-speed, next generation firewalls designed to protect data center assets.The 387Gbps 3200F series and 164Gbps 900G series feature support for the vendor’s AI-Powered Security Services, which blend AI and machine-learning technologies to make customers aware of cyber threats and act on protecting resources much more quickly, according to Nirav Shah, vice president of products and solutions at Fortinet.FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services use real-time data from Fortinet’s threat researchers at FortiGuard Lab to monitor for new dangers. “We look at terabytes of data every day, and that's where we run our AI and machine learning to see different things – whether we need to enable AI-powered services with IPS, or utilize sandbox technologies to mitigate them,” Shah said. “If you look at the cybersecurity industry, and the amount of data that we see, and the patterns and other things that we need to recognize to find the threats – [it] is extremely tough if you do it manually.”To read this article in full, please click here
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How to determine your Linux system’s filesystem types
Linux systems use a number of file system types – such as Ext, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, JFS, XFS, ZFS, XFS, ReiserFS and btrfs. Fortunately, there are a number of commands that can look at your file systems and report on the type of each of them. This post covers seven ways to display this information.To begin, the file system types that are used on Linux systems are described below.File system types Ext4 is the fourth generation of the ext file system, released in 2008 and pretty much the default since 2010. It supports file systems as big as 16 terabytes. It also supports unlimited subdirectories where ext3 only supports 32,000. Yet it’s backward compatible with both ext3 and ext2, thus allowing them to be mounted with the same driver. Ext4 is also very stable, widely supported and compatible with solid state drives.To read this article in full, please click here
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IDC: Server and storage price hikes fueled cloud infrastructure growth
Thanks to the mania surrounding AI as well as the impact of inflation, spending on servers and storage for cloud deployments climbed in the first quarter of this year. Looking ahead, cloud infrastructure sales are expected to grow over the next four years while on-premises spending will diminish, reports IDC.The research firm’s quarterly enterprise infrastructure tracker finds that spending on compute and storage infrastructure products in the first quarter increased 14.9% year over year to $21.5 billion. Spending on cloud infrastructure continues to outpace the non-cloud segment, which declined 0.9% in 1Q23 to $13.8 billion.To read this article in full, please click here
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Cisco hosts containerized firewall on Catalyst switches to protect mixed IT/OT networks
Cisco announced a containerized firewall package for its venerable Catalyst switch family that’s designed to help enterprise customers with mixed IT and OT systems more easily segment network resources and save money by consolidating network and security deployments.Specifically, Cisco built a Docker-based container for its Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) that can be hosted on its Catalyst 9300 access switches. Cisco Secure Firewall ASA combines firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, encryption and virtual private network (VPN) support.The firewall supports up to 10 logical interfaces, which can be used for segmentation. This segmentation helps limit the ability of an attacker to move laterally within the network by containing any breach to a specific zone, wrote Pal Lakatos-Toth, an engineering product manager with Cisco’s security business group, in a blog about the news.To read this article in full, please click here
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Memory prices may have bottomed out
If you've been considering a memory upgrade for your systems, now might be the time to do it. The lengthy decline of memory prices has nearly stopped, and while that doesn’t mean prices are going to go up just yet, it's likely to happen down the road.DRAM and NAND flash memory makers have had to endure a severe downturn in average selling prices over the past six months, as part of the typical cyclical nature of memory sales. But a new report by technology industry analyst firm TrendForce says price declines for some forms of memory have slowed to almost zero.To read this article in full, please click here
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Cradlepoint differentiates its SASE platform with 5G support
Cradlepoint this week shared its strategy to couple 5G wireless with its secure access service edge (SASE) platform to provide wireless WAN and hybrid WAN environments with cloud management and SIM-based security capabilities.The platform builds off Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Exchange 5G SD-WAN and will incorporate zero trust and cloud-based security technology Cradlepoint acquired recently with its acquisition of Ericom. The company plans to roll out the updates in phases over the next 12 months, with its Cellular Intelligence component available now.To read this article in full, please click here