An urgent call to 911 from the front desk of an Anchorage, Alaska, hotel was routed to Ontario. Local police authorities blamed it on VoIP telephony services.While VoIP does play a role in the issue, the core problem stems from improper provisioning of the phone service and is something that has happened before, when calls to 911 were routed to Northern 911, an Ontario company.This specialized, privately operated 911 center functions as a "PSAP of last resort," taking calls meant for 911 that otherwise cannot be routed correctly, intercepting them manually. After determining the location of the incident, calls are then extended over trunks to administrative lines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans to refresh its Itanium server range around the middle of next year, employing Intel's long-promised "Kittson" successor to the current Itanium 9500 series ("Poulson") chips.News of the server update plans comes from Ken Surplice, category manager for mission-critical solutions at HPE's EMEA server division.Surplice told Dutch website Computable that the company is on schedule to refresh its Integrity servers for HP-UX and OpenVMS with Intel's upcoming Kittson Itanium processors in 2017, and that the servers should be with customers mid-year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google tapped into the superior intelligence of its DeepMind neural network to find ways to vastly reduce the energy it uses in its data centers, which make up 40% of the worldwide Internet."This will also help other companies who run on Google's cloud to improve their own energy efficiency," Google said in a blog about the achievement. "While Google is only one of many data center operators in the world, many are not powered by renewable energy as we are."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco has patched what it called a critical vulnerability in its Unified Computing System (UCS) Performance Manager software that could let an authenticated, remote attacker execute commands.+More on Network World: Quick look: Cisco Tetration Analytics+Cisco UCS Performance Manager versions 2.0.0 and prior are affected and the problem is resolved in Cisco UCS Performance Manager versions 2.0.1 and later. UCS Performance Manager collects information about UCS servers, network, storage, and virtual machines.According to Cisco the vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation performed on parameters that are passed via an HTTP GET request. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP GET requests to an affected system. An exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the root user.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Who doesn’t love the fundamental promise of containers? Simple development, segmented applications, rolling changes, etc. They are certainly a blessing to both developers and operations. But if not thoughtfully designed, container virtual networking could be the curse that plagues us for years.Let’s start with a little perspective. The rise and wide deployment of virtual machines and containers coincides with mainstream data center networking evolving from a hierarchical layer 2/3 network to a flatter layer 2 interconnect. Since cloud infrastructure is inherently multi-tenant, traditionally virtual LANs have been used to isolate applications and tenants sharing a common infrastructure. But as containerized applications explode in number, the VLAN maximum size limit of 4,096 becomes grossly inadequate for very large cloud computing environments.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s earnings season, which for publicly-traded technology vendors in the cloud market means it’s time to update investors on the momentum of emerging products helping to displace eroding revenue from legacy offerings.For two technology vendor stalwarts – Microsoft and IBM - cloud computing has played a significant role in their earnings this quarter.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: 4 Numbers that stood out in VMware’s earnings| Who’s right behind Amazon in IaaS revenue? Not Microsoft +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Storing all of the books ever written on media the size of a postage stamp is possible with atom-based memory, say scientists.Five hundred terabits per square inch is doable, in fact. That would be 500 times more efficient than current state-of-the-art commercial hard drives, say the researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.To prove the feat could be accomplished, the scientists created an 8,000 bit memory “where each bit is represented by the position of one single chlorine atom,” the university says in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Conscientious sysadmins face a dilemma on December 31, when a new leap second will threaten the stability of computer systems and networks.Scientists occasionally add a leap second to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time reference most clocks are set by, so as to keep it in step with the earth's gradually slowing rotation. If they didn't, then clocks would be off by about a minute at midday by 2100.Computer systems don't like leap seconds as they are programmed to expect the same number of seconds in every minute of every hour of every day. The various ways of tricking them into accepting the extra second -- stretching out all the other seconds in the preceding minute, hour or day, repeating the same second twice, or creating a 61st second in a minute, can cause chaos as they affect different computers in different ways.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tom Hollingsworth, a CCIE and author of a popular blog called “The Networking Nerd,” used that forum last week – smack in the middle of Cisco’s annual user conference -- to issue a blistering critique of the CCIE routing and switching written exam.
“The discontent is palpable,” according to Hollingsworth. “From what I’ve heard around Las Vegas this week, it’s time to fix the CCIE Written Exam.”
That contention has received broad though not unanimous support on Twitter and comments on the post itself. As for Cisco, it tells me they’re always open to suggestions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Is it possible to develop chip technology that combines the high-performance characteristics of ASICS with the speedy, low-cost features of printed circuit boards?Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week said they were looking for information on how to build interface standards that would enable modular design and practical circuit blocks that could be reused to greatly shorten electronics development time and cost.+More on Network World: DARPA: Researchers develop chip part that could double wireless frequency capacity+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
So I ask a colleague to name the most famous city “welcome” sign other than Hollywood and he answers without hesitation: “Las Vegas.”Not anymore.The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the crash occurred just before 7 a.m. on Sunday and that the driver of the pickup suffered no injuries.The “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign did not fare as well, as you can see in this Facebook video:
Naturally, the sign has its own Wikipedia page, which has already been updated with news of the accident (I love Wikipedia) and begins:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cloud computing delivers many benefits for end user organizations, but for consulting firms, whose bread and butter is long (some would say torturous) technology implementation projects, the cloud tends to be somewhat toxic to traditional revenue streams.Seeing this impending hole, the big consulting firms have to find new ways to replace existing revenue streams. As a result, we've seen the formation of digital transformation units within the large consulting firms.Another trend is to jump into emergent technologies. We have a good example of this today from Deloitte, which is announcing a partnership with IPSoft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AT&T’s march toward standard “white-box” network gear will come to enterprises this week with the introduction of a standard x86 server that can take the place of four specialized network devices.
AT&T is aggressively pursuing SDN and NFV (network functions virtualization), a pair of technologies that are expected to change the face of networking over the next several years. The carrier is on track to have nearly one-third of its own infrastructure virtualized this year. More important for enterprises, it’s offering customers a way to do the same thing at their own locations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some banking software is so old that programmers have had to come out of retirement to fix glitches in the code and integrate it into mobile phone device interfaces. That’s if the banks could find the poor guy, who's probably out fishing somewhere, or if he’s still alive.Yet banks haven’t wanted to invest in from-scratch, well-documented re-engineering. It’s too expensive—bankers prefer to count money than spend it—and it’s difficult to justify a new back end to owners because code is so invisible. Banking code has thus stagnated and gotten patched when necessary, or possible, despite fraud and cyber theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, company founders, engineers, and investors have signed an open letter regarding Donald Trump. The gist: They don't like him and think his presidency would be a disaster for the business of innovation.
The letter, published Thursday on Medium, accuses Trump of running a campaign based on fear of new ideas and new people, as well as anger, bigotry, and "a fundamental belief that America is weak and in decline."
"We have listened to Donald Trump over the past year and we have concluded: Trump would be a disaster for innovation," the letter said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live!CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live! as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading
Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live.CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading
The APC Surge Arrest Performance series from APC offers the highest level of protection for your professional computers, electronics and connected devices, as well as provides surge protection for all of your data lines. The P11VT3 features 11 heavy duty outlets. Telephone and coax cable line surge suppression jacks are available to protect against dangerous surges traveling along data lines. Wiring Fault LED proactively notifies you of potentially dangerous building wiring conditions. Additional features like a ten foot power cord, safety shutters, status indicator, cord management, lifetime equipment protection policy and more make this their most complete surge offering. Over 1,100 customers on Amazon rate this item 4.5 out of 5 stars (read reviews) and Amazon indicates that its typical list price of $39.99 has been reduced by 40% to just $23.99. See this item now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Azure Stack, Microsoft's system for building private clouds that run the same software it uses in its public cloud, has been delayed until the middle of 2017, the company announced Tuesday.Microsoft has changed its strategy and will provide Azure Stack through integrated systems built by hardware partners, rather than allowing companies to deploy the software on any compatible hardware they choose. Microsoft has been pushing Azure Stack as a differentiator of its cloud platform compared to many of its competitors in the public cloud arena -- especially Amazon. The change came about because the company wants to give businesses prevalidated hardware to simplify deployments of Azure Stack, according to Mike Schutz, the general manager of product marketing for Microsoft's Server and Tools division. At launch, Microsoft will be working with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Dell, and Lenovo. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft officially ended support for Windows Server 2003 a year ago, and there was a major push to get people off the aging operating system and onto something new all through 2014 and 2015. But the zombie OS lives on mostly because people feel no urgency to get rid of it.Spiceworks, the helpdesk and monitoring provider, released a survey focused on virtualization but with a few OS tidbits as well.Virtualization use
According to Spiceworks' 2016 State of IT report, more than 76 percent of organizations today use virtualization, and another 9 percent expect to adopt it in the coming years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here