Network World

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Gartner: Top trends to know for infrastructure and operations in 2023

Two networking technologies – secure access service edge (SASE) and wireless— lead a  list of six core trends that will impact enterprise infrastructure and operations activity in 2023, according to new research revealed by Gartner analysts at its IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference this week.Implementing SASE, a term coined by Gartner, has been ongoing but is expected to grow substantially in the next year. Gartner forecasts that worldwide SASE spending will hit $9.2 billion in 2023, a 39% increase from 2022.To read this article in full, please click here

SONiC builds muscle for enterprise-network service in 2023

The coming year could be a very big one for the open-source network operating system SONiC as it garners start-up support and increasing interest from major networking vendors.The Linux-based Software for Open Networking in the Cloud decouples network software from the underlying hardware and lets it run on hundreds of switches and ASICs from multiple vendors while supporting a full suite of network features such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), remote direct memory access (RDMA), QoS, and Ethernet/IP. It was developed and then open-sourced by Microsoft, which in April turned the project over to the Linux Foundation and its 450,000 developers. The vendor community supporting SONiC has been growing, too, and includes Dell, Arista, Nokia, Alibaba, Comcast, Cisco, Broadcom, Juniper Apstra, Edgecore, Innovium, Nvidia-Mellanox, Celetica and VMware.To read this article in full, please click here

How to combat counterfeit network gear

In today challenging business and economic environment, everybody's looking for a deal. Yet there is one "bargain" that network managers should avoid at all costs – low-priced network devices that turn out to be counterfeit.No competent network manager would intentionally purchase a faux network component, but that doesn't mean it never happens. "If signs of counterfeit parts were obvious, this issue would probably be resolved quickly," says John Loucaides, senior vice president of strategy at security technology provider Eclypsium.Virtually every type of network device is shadowed by one or more unauthorized doppelgängers. Fake drop-in replacements are particularly prevalent. "This enables a wide variety of cheaper parts to be used in a non-obvious way, maximizing the benefit of providing a counterfeit device," Loucaides says. Sometimes, however, only a single component within a device is counterfeited. "Given a financial motive, this is likely the most expensive part being substituted for a cheaper part," he says.To read this article in full, please click here

Gartner: What to do to make data centers more sustainable

Just a few weeks ago Gartner analysts said that sustainability and issues around it  would transcend all of the strategic technology trends for 2023.This week at its IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference Gartner described how corporate data centers might make sustainability a practical reality.“IT leaders must avoid wasting value through the premature replacement of IT infrastructure,” said Philip Dawson, vice president and analyst at Gartner, at the conference. “They can do that by using real-time health analytics to maximize the useful life of data-center assets.”To read this article in full, please click here

Ransomware attack knocks Rackspace’s Exchange servers offline

Cloud services and hosting provider Rackspace Technology acknowledged Tuesday that a recent incident that took most of its Hosted Exchange email server business offline was the product of a ransomware attack. The company shut the service down last Friday.It was not, initially, clear what had caused the outage, but Rackspace quickly moved to shift Exchange customers over to Microsoft 365, as this part of the company’s infrastructure was apparently unaffected.Rackpsace offers migration to Microsoft 365 Rackspace said today that there is “no timeline” for a restoration of Exchange service, but it is offering Exchange users technical assistance and free access to Microsoft 365 as a substitute, though it acknowledged that migration is unlikely to be a simple process for every user. Rackspace said that, while the migration is in progress, customers can forward email sent to their Hosted Exchange inboxes to an external server, as a temporary workaround.To read this article in full, please click here

12 killer (and free) tools for network engineers

The job of a network engineer just keeps getting more complicated. Mission critical applications are competing for bandwidth. The sheer number of devices is exploding, driven by IoT. And the network itself if being extended to the cloud, the edge and to the home office.  And then there’s cybersecurity to worry about. Attacks are on the rise across the board, and attackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities or backdoors, upping the need for solid and secure networking to act as an early warning system for cybersecurity defenses.Thankfully, there are many great tools available to help network engineers complete their never-ending tasks. And many of them are available for free. Here’s our list of 12 killer network tools that won’t break the bank. To read this article in full, please click here

Converting numbers on Linux among decimal, hexadecimal, octal, and binary

You might not be challenged very often to convert numbers from one numbering system to another but, when you are, you can do it with either of two fairly easy commands on the Linux command line.Converting in your head can be taxing, especially for longer numbers. While the decimal numbering system allows any digit in a number to have any of ten values (0-9), digits in hexadecimal numbers can have 16 (0-F), digits in octal numbers only eight (0-7) and digits in binary numbers only two (0-1).And, whether you like it or not, from time to time you are likely to run into numbers displayed in hex or octal, and knowing how to convert them from one number base to another can come in handy.To read this article in full, please click here

Is SASE right for your organization? 5 key questions to ask

Secure access service edge (SASE) is a network architecture that provides a security-focused alternative to SD-WAN. First outlined by Gartner in 2019, SASE converges SD-WAN services with a range of Security-as-a-Service offerings. Gartner now forecasts that by 2024 at least 40% of enterprises will consider adopting SASE.The leading SASE vendors are a mix of networking incumbents and well-funded startups. These include Cato Networks, Cisco, Fortinet, HPE, Palo Alto Networks, Perimeter 81, Versa, VMware, and Zscaler.To read this article in full, please click here

Linux bash tips: Many ways to loop using bash

The bash shell provides a superb functionality when it comes to writing scripts. This includes many ways to loop through a pile of data so that you can get a lot done with one running of a script. Whether you’re looping through a large group of numeric values, days of the week, usernames, words, files, or something else entirely, bash has an option that can make it easy for you.for, while, and until loops The first thing you need to know about looping in bash is that there are several basic commands to use. The while loop will loop as long as some particular condition holds true. The until loop will loop until some condition becomes true, and the for loop will run through a series of values regardless of their origin.To read this article in full, please click here

AWS launches new chips, replacement for TCP

Amazon Web Services has introduced a new CPU customized for high-performance computing (HPC) and the next generation of its Nitro smart networking chip, plus instances that take full advantage of the hardware.The Arm-based CPU is called the Graviton3E and has been optimized for floating point math, key in HPC, the company announced at AWS re:Invent conference. Amazon said Hpc7g instances powered by the new Graviton3E chips offer up to double the floating point and vector performance compared to the current generation of instances.The vast datasets that accompany HPC need to be moved around, so Amazon also introduced the fifth generation of its Nitro smartNICs, offering up to twice the network bandwidth and up to 50% higher packet processing-per-second performance compared to current generation networking-optimized instances.To read this article in full, please click here

Commands for finding out if compressed Linux files are the same

Compressed Linux files are helpful because they save disk space, but what should you do when you have a series of compressed files and want to determine if any are duplicates? The zdiff and zcmp commands can help.To begin, if a directory contains two files like those below, it’s easy to tell just from the listing that they are not identical. After all, the file sizes are a little different. The files look like this:$ ls -l total 200 -rw-r--r--. 1 shs shs 102178 Nov 22 2021 2021.gz -rw-r--r--. 1 shs shs 102181 Nov 22 11:19 2022.gz If you compare the files with the diff command, it will confirm that the files differ:To read this article in full, please click here

5 DNS services to provide a layer of internet security

Having thorough IT security usually means having a layered approach. Basic antivirus, for instance, might catch PC-based malware once a user downloads it, but you could try to block it before it ever reaches the user device, or at least have another security mechanism in place that might catch it if the basic antivirus doesn’t. DNS-based filtering can do this! It can help stop users from browsing to malware and phishing sites, block intrusive advertising to them, and serve as adult content filters.First, a quick primer for those who are unfamiliar with DNS: You utilize the Domain Name System (DNS) every time you surf the Web. Each time you type a site name into the browser, DNS is queried for the IP address corresponding to that particular domain, so the browser can contact the Web server to get the content. The process of converting the domain name to its IP address is called domain-name resolution.To read this article in full, please click here

Schneider Electric, SAP tighten bonds to ease IIoT system integration

ERP giant SAP and industrial automation company Schneider Electric Tuesday announced that they would expand their collaboration in the field of IIoT (industrial IoT) and digital transformation, with a focus on sustainable infrastructure and easy deployment.The two companies plan to create preconfigured deployment options for IIoT customers—so any company looking for, for example, a field service management tool using augmented reality can simply pick up and use the partnership’s preset hardware and software configuration. (Shop floor operational tech integration, using digital twins for lifecycle management, is also planned.)To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco updates SD-WAN to simplify provisioning, management

Cisco is set to unveil a new edition of its SD-WAN software that will extend the system’s reach and include new management capabilities.Among the most significant enhancements to Cisco SD-WAN release 17.10, expected in December, is the ability to use Cisco SD-WAN Multi Region Fabric (MRF) support with existing Software Defined Cloud Interconnect (SDCI) systems to significantly expand the reach and control of the SD-WAN environment. MRF lets customers divide their SD-WAN environments into multiple regional networks that operate distinctly from one another, along with a central core-region network for managing inter-regional traffic, according to Cisco. To read this article in full, please click here

Seagate introduces HDDs as fast as SSDs

Thanks to some engineering wizardry involving existing technologies, Seagate has introduced a new line of hard disk drives that can match the throughput of a solid state drive.The drives are part of Seagate’s Mach.2 line, called Exos 2X18. This is the second generation of the Mach.2, coming in 16TB and 18TB capacity and support either SATA3 6Gbps or SAS 12Gbps interfaces.The drive is essentially two drives in one, with two sets of platters served by two separate actuators, the arms with the drive heads, that work in parallel. So the 16TB/18TB capacity is achieved through two 8TB/9TB drives packed into one 3.5-inch form factor. The Mach.2 line is filled with helium to reduce friction.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco to gauge user experience with its cloud-management service

Cisco is taking steps to better control the performance and observability of cloud-based enterprise applications.At the AWS re:Invent conference this week, Cisco said it has added a feature called business transaction insights to its AppDynamics Cloud system so it can more easily track performance of applications running on the AWS Cloud including on Kubernetes, microservices, and other AWS infrastructure.Available since June, AppDynamics Cloud is a cloud-native service designed to observe applications and take action to remediate performance problems. It is built on OpenTelemetry, an emerging standard for data collection that helps to visualize and measure application performance from multiple data sources, said AppDynamics Executive CTO Gregg Ostrowski.To read this article in full, please click here

Data-center requirements should drive network architecture

If you like survey data, here’s an interesting fact for you. Every year since 2000, when I started surveying enterprises on the question, the most important factor driving investment and change in enterprise networks was the data center. It’s like the network is the tail of a big, fuzzy, maybe-largely-invisible dog, and it’s time we look at where that dog might be leading us.Today’s virtual private networks (VPNs) evolved from the days when companies leased time-division-multiplexed (TDM) lines and connected their own routers. That approach focused companies on how to network sites, and they now think about networking people instead. But people are half the story; the other half is what the people are doing, which is accessing (increasingly via the cloud) data-center applications and databases.To read this article in full, please click here

10 most powerful network management companies

Network management has never been easy, and the proliferation of IoT devices, the shift to remote work, and the migration of applications to multi-cloud environments have added new levels of complexity to enterprise networks.IT execs are dealing with network management tool sprawl and employee skills gaps. They are also struggling to gain visibility across increasingly distributed networks, including SaaS instances that are not under their direct control.To read this article in full, please click here

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