Network World

Author Archives: Network World

Extreme moves cloud-based network management to the edge

Extreme Networks has unveiled a cloud-based network management package called ExtremeCloud Edge that lets customers administer their growing edge-based resources regardless of their location.The company also expanded its portfolio of Universal switches with new core and aggregation boxes and released a new power-efficient Wi-Fi 6E access point.The ExtremeCloud Edge package unifies the company’s core ExtremeCloud applications, which include the ExtremeCloud IQ wireless and wired network-management offering, CoPilot AI-based management tool, and SD-WAN. With an integrated package, customers can deploy a variety of management and networking features, from analytics and AI support to edge networks, all via a single cloud-based console.To read this article in full, please click here

Dell pushes security, devops integration in storage updates

Dell’s storage product lineup is set to receive a wide range of updates, including  devops integrations with the Ansible and Terraform tools, compliance with the latest US government security standards, zero trust readiness and more.PowerStore, Dell’s flash-based storage array line, is receiving the lion’s share of the security updates, according to a Dell announcement on Wednesday. Dell said that PowerStore now boasts STIG hardening, meaning that it is compliant with the federal government’s stanadards for its own networks. PowerStore also received secure and immutable snapshot technology, which should make for more reliable and harder-to-compromise recoveries. Multifactor authentication, streamlined file resiliency (which adds more mounted snapshots per system) and direct management of file permissions from within PowerStore are also being added.To read this article in full, please click here

US data center market nears full capacity

The North American data center market is at near capacity, which means that enterprises looking for colocation services may not be able to get the space they need at the data center they want, or they may have to pay a premium for it.Market researcher datacenterHawk, which helps companies search for colocation and cloud service providers, says that the North American data center market is facing record-high demand, although the rate of growth has slowed somewhat due to economic headwinds.High demand and low inventory (available space) have resulted in a vacancy rate in major North American markets of just 2.88%, according to datacenterHawk's 1Q 2023 Data Center Market Recap. In the secondary markets, it’s 5%.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco warns of certificate problem that takes down SD-WANs

Cisco is warning customers that an expired certificate bug in a number of its Viptella SD-WAN devices can take down the boxes and consequently their attached SD-WAN environments.In a tweeted alert and a Tech Note Wednesday morning, Cisco said it is actively working to address a device failure problem that's impacting a number of Viptela SD-WAN platforms including the vEdge 100, 1000, 2000. It defined the problem as “an expired certificate affecting control plane connections, which eventually impacts data plane connections resulting in loss of service.”To read this article in full, please click here

AT&T, Dell and VMware team to simplify 5G edge deployments

AT&T, Dell and VMware have partnered to create a multi-access edge computing (MEC) solution that includes private 5G wireless deployed on premises. The three vendors combined their experience in 5G communications and edge infrastructure to create an integrated 5G MEC solution – called AT&T MEC with Dell Apex – that’s designed to accelerate enterprise adoption of 5G technology.AT&T provides network connectivity for the solution, while Dell delivers the hardware that AT&T MEC rides on and provides an “as-a-service” capability via Dell Apex Private Cloud. VMware's virtualization and multi-cloud enablement software comes loaded on the Dell Private Cloud VxRail HCI servers.To read this article in full, please click here

Nutanix’ new multicloud management products aim for simplification

Hybrid cloud integration provider Nutanix is set to release three new features for its multicloud platform, aimed at simplifying complex environments and making application management simpler for IT teams.The first is Project Beacon, a centralization of the basic Nutanix Cloud Platform offering designed to deliver a unified experience for business applications across multiple public clouds. Where most PaaS services are tied to specific public clouds, according to the company, Project Beacon is designed to provide platform services for apps running different services wherever they might be, complete with Kubernetes integration.To read this article in full, please click here

IBM advances its quantum roadmap as competition heats up

IBM reached a quantum-computing milestone in March with the first U.S. deployment of an on-site, private-sector, IBM-managed quantum computer. The IBM Quantum System One, installed at the Cleveland Clinic, is the world's first quantum computer to be specifically dedicated to healthcare research, with the goal of helping the Cleveland Clinic accelerate biomedical discoveries, according to IBM.The announcement didn't surprise Scott Buchholz, global quantum computing lead at enterprise advisory firm Deloitte. "IBM is a leader in the race to build useful, scalable quantum computers," he says. "Their research teams have been working to build the software, hardware, and supplier ecosystem necessary to support the long-term development of these important technologies."To read this article in full, please click here

What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones

5G (short for fifth generation) is an umbrella term that describes the collection of standards and technologies that define the current generation of wireless network connectivity. First rolled out in commercial applications in 2019, 5G promised a significant increase in network speeds and a decrease in latency compared to 4G LTE networks.Initially, many operators offered 5G-branded services that mixed 4G and 5G technologies and in practice provided speeds closer to the former. But 5G has become near-universal in the U.S. and most developed countries, and just about any new cellular wireless device you purchase today will be 5G-enabled.In the public mind, 5G is mostly associated with cell phones, and those remain by far its most widespread use case. But 5G is also the first wireless technology that telecoms are using to compete with cable or fiber for fixed home internet use. It also has a number of industrial uses. 5G does all this safely, and anything you might read about the supposed dangers of 5G is simply false.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco’s customer experience group aims to boost ROI for enterprise purchases

Cisco continues to invest in its customer experience (CX) group, which provides product lifecycle management and aims to ensure that customers get what they want out of their technology purchases.Alistair Wildman, senior vice president of Cisco Global Customer Experience, says his team of 20,000 is primed to make sure enterprises are effectively choosing, implementing, and using the technologies they purchase to achieve their business goals. Cisco CX offers a suite of services to help customers optimize their network infrastructure, security, collaboration, cloud and data center operations – from planning and design to implementation and maintenance.To read this article in full, please click here

Four ways to view files and file permissions on Linux

There are a number of ways to view files on Linux, because, after all, files on Linux are multifaceted. They have names, they have content, they have access permissions, and they have dates and times associated with their "birth" (when they were initially added to the file system) as well as when they were last changed and last accessed. This post covers the commands that allow you to view all these details.Listing files The easiest and most obvious way to list files is with the ls command. By default, ls will list files in the current directory in name order, but you can reverse that by adding the -r option.To read this article in full, please click here

EU’s changing stance on Huawei could impact 5G networks already in place

Ongoing US diplomatic efforts to keep Chinese-made equipment out of as many networks as possible appear to be bearing fruit, as Germany eyes a ban on Huawei and ZTE 5G equipment, which would follow in the footsteps of several other European nations. Sweden, Norway, and the UK have already implemented bans on Chinese-made equipment, following the US line that such hardware poses a national security threat thanks Huawei and ZTE’s close ties to the government in Beijing.News of a prospective German ban was originally broken in March by German newspaper Die Zeit, citing government sources.To read this article in full, please click here

Microsoft reportedly rallies behind AMD to develop chips for AI workloads

Microsoft is reportedly partnering with AMD to help the chip maker develop advanced processors that support artificial AI workloads. Microsoft’s increased demand for chips that can support AI applications is due to the number of AI-based products and services it has recently released in collaboration with OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT.As a result, Microsoft has decided to collaborate with AMD to provide an alternative to Nvidia, which dominates the market for graphics processing units (GPUs) used for AI applications, according to a Bloomberg report.To read this article in full, please click here

Broadcom CEO pledges $2 billion for VMware R&D, professional services support

Broadcom said it will spend $2 billion a year to accelerate research and development for VMware products and services.In making the investment assurance, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan wrote in a blog post: “By extending our multi-cloud strategy, we will invest in extending VMware’s software stack to run and manage workloads across private and public clouds, which means any enterprise can run application workloads easily, securely, and seamlessly on-prem, or in any cloud platform they prefer.”“If companies can run VMware as a private cloud on-prem, they should be able to take their same application workloads to the public cloud without needing to re-engineer that application or worry about being locked into the public cloud providers that they choose,” Tan stated.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco wants you to buy now, pay later

Cisco today announced a new finance program that encourages customers to buy products and services now without having to start paying for them till 2024.Specifically the Cisco Capital Business Acceleration Program will let customers purchasing Cisco products before July 29, 2023, and defer all payments until 2024. Payments deferred until 2024 would be based on the total amount financed and contract terms, the vendor stated.Cisco said another flexible payment option is available for its partners to let their customers buy Cisco technology today, and pay later, the vendor said in a statement.The entirety of Cisco’s portfolio is eligible for the program, including hardware, software, and services, as well as select partner services and third-party hardware. In addition the Cisco Refresh portfolio of Cisco certified remanufactured products is also eligible for organizations that want to acquire used gear, the vendor stated.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco cements software intentions with API, developer programs

Cisco continues to signal its desire to become a major software player, most recently with its emphasis on API advancements and its commitment to building a bigger development community around that effort.The average enterprise uses 1,935 applications—a 15% increase from five years ago, according to Cisco. And each of these apps is accessible via dozens of APIs from vendors, developers and homegrown sources.“We are conducting 8 billion API calls on a monthly basis. And just to give you an idea of the proliferation of that adoption, at the end of 2018 it was 20 million,” said Anne Gentle, developer experience manager with Cisco.Last year, Cisco announced its API First strategy, which prioritizes API development in all Cisco products to ensure efficient communication among applications, services and systems.To read this article in full, please click here

Data center sustainability becoming the norm, not the exception

The proportion of companies implementing a data center infrastructure sustainability program will rise from about 5% in 2022 all the way to 75% by 2027, as sustainability becomes an increasingly central consideration for cost optimization and risk management, according to new data from Gartner Research.Respondents to a recent global survey of 221 IT leaders conducted by Gartner said that sustainability is already on the march within their organizations, with 42% saying that environmentally friendly choices are helping to drive business growth and provide a differentiator to their competition, and 29% reporting that it’s helping to create strategic value through industry partnerships.To read this article in full, please click here

AWS secures access to cloud apps without using VPNs

Amazon Web Services has launched a service that secures user access to its cloud applications without requiring a VPN.AWS Verified Access, which the company previewed last November, validates every application request using Zero Trust principles before granting access to applications. Since AWS previewed the networking service, it has added two new features: AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) and the ability to pass signed identity context to customers’ application endpoints.To read this article in full, please click here

How to handle IT vendors’ worst bad habits

Most enterprises have what they describe as a cordial relationship with their network vendors, but roughly a third say their relationship is guarded, and more than a few say it’s suspicious. That’s a pretty broad range of views, but every enterprise I’ve chatted with says there are things they don’t want their vendors to do, and don’t like it if the vendors do them. Most also say they take steps to prevent these things, and the steps they recommend are really interesting.Vendors shouldn’t finger-point The top don’t-do for vendors by far is finger-pointing, meaning trying to deflect responsibility for an issue by blaming someone else. I remember well a meeting where the CIO of a healthcare company sprained his shoulder when he threw a ten-pound, bound listing of problem proofs at a network vendor VP who didn’t want to admit responsibility. (He him square in the chest, by the way.)  This is surely an extreme reaction, but every single enterprise in the over-200 I’ve talked to about this in the last year said that their network vendors had evaded a problem or obstructed problem determination at least once.To read this article in full, please click here

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