Stephen Lawson
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Stephen Lawson
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Box wants to be a platform for easy-to-write enterprise apps
A developer edition of Box will allow enterprises to build applications on top of the company’s content collaboration and sharing capabilities without using the Box user interface or requiring users to have a Box account.The announcement of the Developer Edition at the Box Dev conference is the company’s latest step beyond its legacy as a storage, sync and sharing service and toward its higher calling as a platform company. Box aims to provide cloud resources like big names such as Amazon Web Services do, but with additional features that take more work off developer’s plate when creating an enterprise application.Since it went public in January, Box has been under scrutiny for signs of a path to profit. Box’s traditional service is up against competing products, such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, from bigger companies with other ways to make money. That makes cloud storage by itself a commodity business with brutal price competition, so the company is reaching higher with more differentiated features, said Chris Yeh, senior vice president of product and platform, in an interview at Box Dev.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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EMC Syncplicity lets enterprises manage their own encryption keys
Some enterprises that are happy to put their data in a public cloud prefer to keep the keys to that data under their own control. That’s the message online file sync and sharing services are sending lately.On Wednesday, EMC’s Syncplicity division announced Customer Managed Keys, a feature that lets enterprises store the encryption keys for their Syncplicity shared data on a rights management server on their own premises. It’s a new option in addition to having the keys stored in Syncplicity’s cloud.The announcement came just a couple of months after rival Box released its own private key-management feature into beta testing. That system, called EKM (Enterprise Key Management), may become generally available on Wednesday at the Box Dev conference in San Francisco. EKM likewise was added as an alternative to keeping keys in the vendor’s cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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EMC Syncplicity lets enterprises manage their own encryption keys
Some enterprises that are happy to put their data in a public cloud prefer to keep the keys to that data under their own control. That’s the message online file sync and sharing services are sending lately.On Wednesday, EMC’s Syncplicity division announced Customer Managed Keys, a feature that lets enterprises store the encryption keys for their Syncplicity shared data on a rights management server on their own premises. It’s a new option in addition to having the keys stored in Syncplicity’s cloud.The announcement came just a couple of months after rival Box released its own private key-management feature into beta testing. That system, called EKM (Enterprise Key Management), may become generally available on Wednesday at the Box Dev conference in San Francisco. EKM likewise was added as an alternative to keeping keys in the vendor’s cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why the journey to IPv6 is still the road less traveled
The writing’s on the wall about the short supply of IPv4 addresses, and IPv6 has been around since 1999. Then why does the new protocol still make up just a fraction of the Internet?Though IPv6 is finished technology that works, rolling it out may be either a simple process or a complicated and risky one, depending on what role you play on the Internet. And the rewards for doing so aren’t always obvious. For one thing, making your site or service available via IPv6 only helps the relatively small number of users who are already set up with the protocol, creating a nagging chicken-and-egg problem.The new protocol, which is expected to provide more addresses than users will ever need, has made deep inroads at some big Internet companies and service providers, especially mobile operators. Yet it still drives less than 10 percent of the world’s traffic. This is despite evidence that migrating to IPv6 can simplify networks and even speed up the Web experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why the journey to IPv6 is still the road less traveled
The writing’s on the wall about the short supply of IPv4 addresses, and IPv6 has been around since 1999. Then why does the new protocol still make up just a fraction of the Internet?Though IPv6 is finished technology that works, rolling it out may be either a simple process or a complicated and risky one, depending on what role you play on the Internet. And the rewards for doing so aren’t always obvious. For one thing, making your site or service available via IPv6 only helps the relatively small number of users who are already set up with the protocol, creating a nagging chicken-and-egg problem.The new protocol, which is expected to provide more addresses than users will ever need, has made deep inroads at some big Internet companies and service providers, especially mobile operators. Yet it still drives less than 10 percent of the world’s traffic. This is despite evidence that migrating to IPv6 can simplify networks and even speed up the Web experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why the journey to IPv6 is still the road less traveled
The writing’s on the wall about the short supply of IPv4 addresses, and IPv6 has been around since 1999. Then why does the new protocol still make up just a fraction of the Internet?Though IPv6 is finished technology that works, rolling it out may be either a simple process or a complicated and risky one, depending on what role you play on the Internet. And the rewards for doing so aren’t always obvious. For one thing, making your site or service available via IPv6 only helps the relatively small number of users who are already set up with the protocol, creating a nagging chicken-and-egg problem.+ Also on Network World: iPhone 7 rumor rollup +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why the journey to IPv6 is still the road less traveled
The writing’s on the wall about the short supply of IPv4 addresses, and IPv6 has been around since 1999. Then why does the new protocol still make up just a fraction of the Internet?Though IPv6 is finished technology that works, rolling it out may be either a simple process or a complicated and risky one, depending on what role you play on the Internet. And the rewards for doing so aren’t always obvious. For one thing, making your site or service available via IPv6 only helps the relatively small number of users who are already set up with the protocol, creating a nagging chicken-and-egg problem.+ Also on Network World: iPhone 7 rumor rollup +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Size matters in mobile, but Nokia may find bigger isn’t better
Size is power in the mobile networks business, but it’s only one of the reasons Nokia is acquiring Alcatel-Lucent.Nokia estimates the company that will emerge from the planned buyout will be the second-largest vendor of carrier infrastructure by revenue, a bit smaller than Ericsson and slightly larger than Huawei Technologies. In a price-competitive industry where technology is constantly evolving, that matters, analysts say. But size alone isn’t reason enough to justify the €15.6 billion (US$16.5 billion) deal.As consumers watch more videos and use more apps on mobile devices, vendors are developing new technologies on multiple fronts to make sure networks can keep up with the demand. Putting up more conventional cells doesn’t cut it anymore, so they’re turning to exotic approaches like millimeter-wave beams and LTE networks that can use the same frequencies as Wi-Fi. Vendors are already jockeying for influence over 5G, the next generation of wireless specifications expected by 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Size matters in mobile, but Nokia may find bigger isn’t better
Size is power in the mobile networks business, but it’s only one of the reasons Nokia is acquiring Alcatel-Lucent.Nokia estimates the company that will emerge from the planned buyout will be the second-largest vendor of carrier infrastructure by revenue, a bit smaller than Ericsson and slightly larger than Huawei Technologies. In a price-competitive industry where technology is constantly evolving, that matters, analysts say. But size alone isn’t reason enough to justify the €15.6 billion (US$16.5 billion) deal.As consumers watch more videos and use more apps on mobile devices, vendors are developing new technologies on multiple fronts to make sure networks can keep up with the demand. Putting up more conventional cells doesn’t cut it anymore, so they’re turning to exotic approaches like millimeter-wave beams and LTE networks that can use the same frequencies as Wi-Fi. Vendors are already jockeying for influence over 5G, the next generation of wireless specifications expected by 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The future is now: You may already be using IPv6
You’ve probably heard about the looming shortage of Internet addresses, even if you’ve never gone looking for one. But depending on what websites you visit and how you get to them, you may be helping to solve it.If you go to Google or Facebook through a major carrier in the U.S., Germany or France, for example, there’s a decent chance you’re using IPv6 [Internet Protocol, Version 6], the next-generation system that has so many addresses that the world may never use them up. Though it’s pretty much invisible to end users, the new protocol is already making service providers’ networks run better and may be speeding up your connections, too.“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much IPv6 there is out there,” said Mat Ford, technical program manager of the Internet Society, the organizer of World IPv6 Launch.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IBM, Fujifilm show tape storage still has a long future
IBM and Fujifilm have figured out how to fit 220TB of data on a standard-size tape that fits in your hand, flexing the technology’s strengths as a long-term storage medium.The prototype Fujifilm tape and accompanying drive technology from IBM labs packs 88 times as much data onto a tape as industry-standard LTO-6 (Linear Tape-Open) systems using the same size cartridge, IBM says. LTO6 tape can hold 2.5TB, uncompressed, on a cartridge about 10 by 10 centimeters (4 by 4 inches) across and 2 centimeters thick.The new technologies won’t come out in products for several years and may not be quite as extreme when they do, but the advances show tape can keep getting more dense into the future, said Mark Lantz, manager of IBM’s Advanced Tape Technologies Group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IBM, Fujifilm show tape storage still has a long future
IBM and Fujifilm have figured out how to fit 220TB of data on a standard-size tape that fits in your hand, flexing the technology’s strengths as a long-term storage medium.The prototype Fujifilm tape and accompanying drive technology from IBM labs packs 88 times as much data onto a tape as industry-standard LTO-6 (Linear Tape-Open) systems using the same size cartridge, IBM says. LTO6 tape can hold 2.5TB, uncompressed, on a cartridge about 10 by 10 centimeters (4 by 4 inches) across and 2 centimeters thick.MORE: What's behind Microsoft's not-so-crazy startup spending spreeTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The Pentagon’s groundbreaking IPv6 project hasn’t broken much ground
The U.S. Department of Defense hasn’t followed through on its commitment to convert to IPv6, the new Internet standard designed to make room for an explosion of new connected devices.The DoD demonstrated IPv6 in 2008 but then disabled the technology because it didn’t have enough people trained to use it and was worried about potential security risks, according to a report by the Inspector General of the department. The Inspector General issued the report internally in December and on Monday released a redacted version to the public.The current Internet Protocol, IPv4, doesn’t meet battlefield needs, according to the report. Among other things, IPv6 would let troops quickly set up mobile, ad-hoc networks in the field. In addition, the slow transition to IPv6 has left the military without the expertise to identify malicious activity that uses the new protocol, the report said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The Pentagon’s groundbreaking IPv6 project hasn’t broken much ground
The U.S. Department of Defense hasn’t followed through on its commitment to convert to IPv6, the new Internet standard designed to make room for an explosion of new connected devices.The DoD demonstrated IPv6 in 2008 but then disabled the technology because it didn’t have enough people trained to use it and was worried about potential security risks, according to a report by the Inspector General of the department. The Inspector General issued the report internally in December and on Monday released a redacted version to the public.The current Internet Protocol, IPv4, doesn’t meet battlefield needs, according to the report. Among other things, IPv6 would let troops quickly set up mobile, ad-hoc networks in the field. In addition, the slow transition to IPv6 has left the military without the expertise to identify malicious activity that uses the new protocol, the report said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US gains in mobile patents as IBM passes Samsung
The U.S. widened its lead in mobile patents last year and IBM took the top spot in new patents granted in that space, according to a report this week that analyzed data from both the U.S. and Europe.While the number of mobile patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) jumped by 17 percent between 2013 and 2014, the total fell by 4 percent at the European Patent Office (EPO), according to Chetan Sharma Consulting. The U.S. continued to gain on Europe as the place where mobile inventions are devised, a trend driven by software development in Silicon Valley and Americans’ heavy use of mobile data, the report said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cisco to buy SDN startup Embrane
Cisco plans to beef up its SDN [software-defined networking] technology by acquiring Embrane, a startup with an architecture for virtualized network appliances.Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cisco is already an investor in Embrane, which is based in Santa Clara, California, near Cisco headquarters. The acquisition is expected to close within three months.M&A: 2015 enterprise network & IT mergers and acquisition trackerEmbrane’s Heleos platform can deploy software-based appliances such as firewalls across a pool of commodity servers, using more or less computing power as demands rise and fall. It lets cloud service providers quickly deploy new, differentiated services, the company says. With open APIs, users can integrate Embrane’s technology with third-party billing and orchestration tools.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Tanium’s fast-acting endpoint management tool grows up
A tool for nearly real-time management of clients like desktops, laptops and Windows tablets is now set to take on massive organizations that have millions of endpoints.Tanium is software that can examine and modify all such clients across an enterprise within 15 seconds, according to the company. It’s already being used by customers with more than 500,000 endpoints, and the newly released Version 6.5 is designed to serve some of the world’s largest organizations, especially in the public sector, Tanium says.At the heart of Tanium’s software is the ability to rapidly reach all endpoints throughout an organization, which can speed up both security and IT management tasks. Tanium makes this work by organizing endpoints into linear chains in which they communicate peer to peer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FCC will vote next month on plan to share valuable 3.5GHz spectrum
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote April 17 on a spectrum-sharing plan for a band that could serve the military, mobile service providers and individuals.The CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) would open up frequencies from 3550-3700MHz to three classes of users, including owners of new mobile devices who could use the service like they do Wi-Fi. The FCC vote comes after several rounds of study and public comment on the proposal for more than two years.In that time, growing demand for wireless spectrum has boosted pressure on the government to share or auction off some of the many frequencies it exclusively controls. Bandwidth-hungry services like streaming video and audio, plus wireless links for a growing array of connected devices, are expected to eventually place strains on the spectrum currently allocated to wireless data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Court throws out lawsuit over storage on iPhones, iPads
A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit against Apple over the amount of storage available in mobile devices that come with iOS 8.The district court in San Jose, California, threw out the proposed class-action suit on Wednesday after Apple filed a motion saying the plaintiffs failed to back up their arguments. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs can’t sue Apple again for the same thing.In the suit, filed last December, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara charged that Apple misled consumers about how much of the storage on iPhones and iPads was taken up by the OS. For example, they said a 16GB iPhone 6 really had just 13GB of capacity available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Court throws out lawsuit over storage on iPhones, iPads
A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit against Apple over the amount of storage available in mobile devices that come with iOS 8.The district court in San Jose, California, threw out the proposed class-action suit on Wednesday after Apple filed a motion saying the plaintiffs failed to back up their arguments. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs can’t sue Apple again for the same thing.In the suit, filed last December, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara charged that Apple misled consumers about how much of the storage on iPhones and iPads was taken up by the OS. For example, they said a 16GB iPhone 6 really had just 13GB of capacity available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here