Apparently IBM’s Watson isn’t all that popular amongst the robot community – at least that’s how it looks in a new IBM commercial "Coping with Humans": A Support Group for Bots.”In the commercial Carrie Fisher (or Princess Leia of Star Wars fame) tries to guide a raft of disgruntled robots in a therapy session that apparently has had problems in the past – saying “maybe this week we might try and listen more – and throw things less.”It’s pretty funny, take a look.
+More on Network World: NASA touts real technologies highlighted in 'The Martian' flick+ To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When running down the list of top cloud vendors, the name Verizon doesn't come up immediately, but the firm is looking to expand its particular brand of cloud services that complement main players like Amazon and Microsoft. It's also fending off rumors it's getting out of the cloud business. Late last year, the company denied reports it was looking to sell off its enterprise services business, which include cloud services and data centers. At the Wells Fargo Securities 2015 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in late November, Verizon CFO Francis Shammo denied reports that his company is considering selling some of its enterprise assets after a Reuters report said just that. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This past month, Microsoft released a public preview of Azure Stack, which I downloaded, fiddled with, and put together this blog post to share what this thing is all about. As with all my blog posts, this is not merely a regurgitation of Microsoft’s announcement or a simple opinion of what I conceptually “think” about the thing, but this is an actual commentary after a few weeks of hardcore fiddling with Azure Stack to truly understand the power and capability of the solution.What is Azure Stack?To start with, “what is Azure Stack?” Azure Stack is effectively Microsoft’s Azure cloud brought into an organization’s own datacenter. True, under the hood Azure Stack is running Microsoft’s Hyper-V and Windows, as well as Linux and Microsoft networking and storage, but when you stop and think about it, you are “running Microsoft’s Azure in your datacenter!”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SDN pioneer Martin Casado is leaving VMware for the venture capital pastures of Andreessen Horowitz.Casado, executive vice president and general manager of VMware’s Networking and Security Business, will be replaced by former Broadcom and Cisco executive Rajiv Ramaswami. The transition takes effect April 1.Casado created OpenFlow, an early catalyst of the software-defined networking movement and a popular initial southbound interface between SDN controllers and switches. He joined VMware when the server virtualization company acquired the SDN start-up he co-founded, Nicira, in 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fave Raves is Network World’s annual roundup of the best products, as chosen by IT pros. Do you have a favorite enterprise IT product you can't live without? Tell us about it and we'll share your raves with our readers.Please send your submissions to Ann Bednarz at Network World ([email protected]) by Friday, March 11. Please note: Submissions must be received directly from IT professionals, not through a third party.Items to address:1. Please provide your name, title and employer.2. What's your favorite product? (vendor name and product name)3. Why do you like it?4. How has it helped you and/or your company?5. How many years have you worked in IT?6. What upcoming IT projects are you most excited about and why?7. Please include a picture of yourself.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The frequenter of Reddit’s section devoted to networking had an unusual question for his professional peers:“Anyone ever had to rack a switch upside down? Our data center uses these garbage PDUs that are blocking the QSFP ports on a 1U 9k switch. Any reason besides it’s f*****g stupid that I shouldn't rack it upside down? Like something technical?”Cue the wise guys:
“Be careful, the packets might fall out!”“The real problem comes from managed switches that have any sort of security setups. A managed switch puts unwanted frames in the bit bucket for disposal, but if it's upside down the bits will spill out of the bucket and clog the switch's cooling fans.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google built a data center in an Oregon town with a population of about 15,000. Yahoo established chicken-coop style data center in New York state farm country. And Apple runs an iCloud data center in rural North Carolina.But building big data centers in rural areas may be more the exception than the rule. Most data centers are located in, or at least close to, major Metro areas, acording to a new study. flickr/Tony Webster
Google Data Center - The Dalles, OregonTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Skytap Provider for VagrantKey features: The Skytap Vagrant plugin provides a common interface for all Vagrant resources, and offers software engineering teams the ability to instantly synchronize a local development stack with on-demand cloud-based environments. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Five of the top 12 high performance computing systems in the world are owned by U.S. national labs. But they are beyond reach, financially and technically, for many companies, even larger ones.That's according to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officials, who run the national labs. A new program aims to connect manufacturers with supercomputers and the expertise to use them.This program provides $3 million, initially, for 10 industry projects, the DOE announced Wednesday. Whether the program extends into future fiscal years may well depend on Congress.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dell is bringing the advantages of its enterprise-level hyperscale rack servers to a wider range of customers.At Mobile World Congress next week, Dell will show off its new DSS 9000 hyperscale rack architecture, a server technology that allows computing and storage resources to be decoupled. The new rack design, aimed at mid-sized to large businesses, is based on Intel's Rack Scale Architecture, which is meant to bring configuration flexibility and power efficiency to Web-scale tasks.The DSS 9000 will ship in the second half this year, Dell said.The hyperscale architecture is already available to Dell's largest customers through the company's DCS (Data Center Solutions and Services) division. The architectural blueprint will be made available to mid-range hyperscale customers through the recently formed DSS (Datacenter Scaleable Solutions) group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Researchers from University College London claim to have reached a data rate of 1.125 terabits per second, the fastest data rate ever recorded between a single optical transmitter and a receiver, according to an article on the university's website.It's quick enough to download the entire high-definition Game of Thrones series in one second, the scientists claim.'Super-channels'
A way of combining carriers into what the scientists call a "super-channel" is key to obtaining the speeds. Super-channels are used for sending bulk data between cities and continents, they explain.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.VMware Workspace ONEKey features: Workspace ONE delivers a digital workspace that integrates device management, application delivery and identity management technologies to offer combined benefits on a single secure mobile platform to enable management and delivery of business critical resources.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nikola Alic, a photonics research scientist at the University of California’s Qualcomm Institute in San Diego, argues that optical research offers the best hope for helping the Internet accommodate the ever growing flow of multimedia services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Regular readers may recall that a year or so ago I took a moment away from this blog’s typical fare to note that it was minus 8 degrees outside, also known as “pretty nippy for these parts.”This morning, as you can see in the picture above, it’s minus 10.And I did the math after my fingers thawed out.Now obvious caveats: Minus 10 isn’t considered all that cold in some places. Where you live, for example, I’ve heard tell that at minus 10 water doesn’t even bother to freeze.In Massachusetts, however, minus 10 is wicked cold, as in I’ve lived here for more than half a century and can’t recall ever being outside when the thermometer was reading double-digits below zero.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Watson 2016 Foundation is an independent organization formed for the advocacy of the artificial intelligence known as Watson to run for President of The United States of America. It is our belief that Watson’s unique capabilities to assess information and make informed and transparent decisions define it as an ideal candidate for the job responsibilities required by the president.- Watson 2016 Foundation
Okay, so it's a publicity stunt by IBM but isn't it an interesting idea? Just imagine Watson, IBM’s AI computer system that beat humans playing Jeopardy, in the role of President and Computer-in-Chief. Decisions would be made incredibly fast based on a vast corpus of facts and knowledge … or would they? Is it possible to provide an enormous library of information for Watson to chew on that wouldn’t have political bias built in? Would it be possible for Watson to filter out bias automatically? Perhaps the best place to start is to give Watson a cabinet post, say, secretary of energy and see how that works out. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Strong gravityImage by NASABlack holes had the spotlight as the centerpiece of the gravitational waves discovery announced recently. The waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes – that were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. NASA defines black holes as places in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space and that can happen when a star is dying for example. While black holes are basically invisible, they make for some spectacular imagery, some an artist’s interpretation, in the space matter and stars around them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
VMware is closing the SDN gap with Cisco ever so slightly. Last fall saw Cisco with a 2:1 edge in customer adoption but the most recent numbers fall just a hair below 2:1.Even though Cisco’s second fiscal 2016 quarter saw switching revenue decline 4% and data center revenue dip 3% due to a pause in customer spending, the company actually gained Nexus 9000 and ACI customers in the quarter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A ripple in the space-time continuumIn one of the great astronomical discoveries scientists today said they made direct observation of gravitational waves -- ripples in space-time foretold by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. Physicists said the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes – that were about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision which happened about 1.3 billion years ago, had been predicted but never observed, according to the National Science Foundation. The gravitational waves were detected on Sept. 14, 2015 at 5:51 a.m. EDT by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, La., and Hanford, Wash.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you still have SQL Server 2005 anywhere in your firm, you now have four months to get a migration program going before Microsoft pulls the plug on support for the aging database. April 12 will be the last day any patches or fixes will be issued. The product will still work, it just won't be fixed if a new flaw or exploit is found. As we discussed when we outlined the challenges of migration, it's believed most enterprises have long since moved off the old database in favor of something newer, either on-premises or possible in the cloud. At best, SQL Server 2005 has been relegated to simple report generation on noncritical data. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Boston healthcare organization CIO and longtime technology standards leader John Halamka has been quite open over the years about his organization's technology efforts and challenges. Back in 2002 he shared his hospital's 3-day struggle with network slowdowns. Last Year, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO sounded the alarm that an FDA warning about a compromised medical device wouldn't be the last.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here