I have read a dozen or more Stephen King books over the years, but ‘It’ – the one upon which an upcoming movie is based and named -- is not among them. So I could relate right away to this observation posted to the section of Reddit devoted to sysadmins:“I keep seeing posts and advertisements for the movie IT. Every time, I think of it as I-T and have to reread it. … Is it just me?”No, it’s not just you. And, speaking at least for myself, this isn’t the first time I’ve been momentarily confused by an uppercase IT. My mind reads that as “an acronym for information technology,” not “the creepy clown from a Stephen King novel,” or any other meaning more commonly attached to the word it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has crazy quantum computing plans. It is building hardware based on a particle that hasn't been discovered, and the company now wants to make super-cool memory for quantum computers.The company is working with Rambus to develop and build prototype computers with memory subsystems that can be cooled at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic temperatures typically are below minus 180 degrees Celsius or minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit.Quantum computers could eventually replace today's PCs and servers and promise to be significantly faster. But the systems are notoriously unstable and need to be stored in refrigerators for faster and secure operation. As an example, D-Wave's 2000Q quantum computer needs to be kept significantly cooler than supercomputers so operations don't break down.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
True legends in any field are few and far between but Robert Taylor, who died last week at 85, was definitely was one in the field of computer networking.A key figure on the development of the Internet and ubiquitous Ethernet, Taylor was also instrumental in developing the first personal computer known as the Alto and a host of other computer and networking advances throughout his career. And his career was dotted with major positions at Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Stanford Research Institute, NASA, the Pentagon, Xerox and Digital Equipment Corporation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As you read through the list of new features in System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), you will be hard-pressed to find any new features not directly related to Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V. As I worked with VMM 2016, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that VMM 2016 was good ol’ VMM 2012 R2 with bolted-on support for features introduced in Windows Server 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
When Scott Crowder joined BMC as its vice president of infrastructure and operations in 2011, he felt like he had stepped back in time. While he knew BMC’s products to be world class, the data center and other technologies running this world-class operation seemed more like they belonged in a museum.+ Also on Network World: Accelerating digital transformation using the Medici Effect +
Thus started a transformational journey that began in earnest with Crowder’s appointment as BMC's CIO in 2014. He had already begun the transformation of the data center in his first role, but upon taking the reins as CIO, he knew he had the opportunity to reshape the IT landscape from the ground up.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What's to like? Image by Vicki Lyons, Prakash Kota, Julie Ulrich and David LeDouxEvery year we ask IT pros to share their favorite enterprise products, and every year we learn what it takes to win them over — including gear that saves time and money, bolsters security, and streamlines digital transformations. Read on to learn what 31 tech pros like best, in their own words.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On Good Friday 2017, the Easter Bunny dropped off Avaya’s Chapter 11 plan for reorganization at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of N.Y. The plan is aimed at significantly cutting Avaya’s pre-filing debt, which had become an anchor around an otherwise healthy and profitable company. The reduction of debt will strengthen the company’s balance sheet, putting the company in a position to be successful in the future. A healthy financial position leads to M&A opportunities, funding of R&D, hiring of new sales people or any other number of options. + Also on Network World: Avaya files Chapter 11 reorg plan, reduces debt by $4 billion | 4 possible outcomes for Avaya +
The proposed plan includes the following terms:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Avaya has filed a chapter 11 reorganization plan the company says will significantly reduce Avaya's pre-filing debt, strengthening its balance sheet and improve financial flexibility and position it for long-term success.+More on Network World: Avaya plan deploys network virtualization, segmentation to guard business jewels+Under the proposed plan, which must be approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York a number of actions are proposed, including:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Avaya has rolled out products it says will help enterprise customers more easily segment traffic between widely dispersed networked resources and effectively protect corporate data.The two central components of what the company calls its Data Center Everywhere plan include a new hardware-independent operating system for the company’s switches – the Virtual Service 8000 non-Avaya products such as x86, or ARM platforms – that lets customers deploy virtualized network functions anywhere in the network.+More on Network World: Cisco, Mitel, NEC and others are targeting Avaya’s customers as the networking company goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
About a year ago, Cisco embarked on a new branding campaign, telling its customers there’s “Never Been A Better Time” to become a digital organization and create new experiences for employees and customers. However, the path to becoming digital may not be that obvious, as we are connecting more things to our network, costs are escalating, the skills gap is widening, and IT is becoming more dynamic and distributed. + Also on Network World: Cisco targets digital business transformation with new certifications +
Put this all together, and CIOs face a difficult situation. Digital transformation requires businesses to use technology to move fast, but IT complexity is clearly on the rise. Technology leaders are now in a situation that seems to be untenable: Accelerate business transformation while trying to completely revamp the way IT is run within the organization. I’ve heard the analogy that it’s like changing the wings on a plane while it’s flying, but it’s more like changing the entire plane and the people flying it while flying. So, where can businesses turn for help?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
About a year ago, Cisco embarked on a new branding campaign, telling its customers there’s “Never Been A Better Time” to become a digital organization and create new experiences for employees and customers. However, the path to becoming digital may not be that obvious, as we are connecting more things to our network, costs are escalating, the skills gap is widening, and IT is becoming more dynamic and distributed. + Also on Network World: Cisco targets digital business transformation with new certifications +
Put this all together, and CIOs face a difficult situation. Digital transformation requires businesses to use technology to move fast, but IT complexity is clearly on the rise. Technology leaders are now in a situation that seems to be untenable: Accelerate business transformation while trying to completely revamp the way IT is run within the organization. I’ve heard the analogy that it’s like changing the wings on a plane while it’s flying, but it’s more like changing the entire plane and the people flying it while flying. So, where can businesses turn for help?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The countdown to the United Kingdom’s separation from the European Union began in late March when U.K. prime minister Theresa May officially triggered the “Brexit.” With just less than two years until the U.K. is officially out of the EU, the date of departure is one of the few certainties regarding the situation. “No country has ever travelled this path, and there is no turning back,” says Craig Wright, managing director for business transformation and outsourcing advisory firm Pace Harmon.[ Related: Brexit: a project doomed to fail ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With Windows Server 2016, Microsoft has introduced a lengthy list of improvements to Hyper-V. Along with functional additions like container support, nested virtualization, and increased memory and vCPU limits, you’ll find a number of new features, including production-grade checkpoints and the ability to hot-add memory and network adapters, that ease administration.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Networking and other technology businesses are among the highest paying companies in America, according to a new report from jobs marketplace Glassdoor. And if you find yourself out of a tech job, well, there’s always consulting, where the pay isn’t too shabby either. In fact, the top two companies on the list, A.T. Kearney and PwC’s Strategy&, are both consulting firms, and two others are on the Top 25 List as well. A.T. Kearney and Strateg& offer median total compensation of $175K and $172K, respectively, according to the Glassdoor study, which is based on self-reported data by Glassdoor members. The report reveals total and base compensation, with the difference between the two often in the $15K-$30K range once you factor in commissions, bonuses, etc. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the 18 months since the company split from its sister consumer business, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has been in an almost constant state of refining its strategy.The company backed out of the public cloud market; sold off its Enterprise Services Business to competitor CSC for $8.5 billion; dealt other “non-core” assets to Micro Focus in an $8.8 billion deal; and dumped its OpenStack and Cloud Foundry development efforts off to Suse. HPE also bought all-flash storage vendor Nimble storage for $1 billion last year and snapped up hyperconverged infrastructure vendor Simplivity for another $650 million in January.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the 18 months since the company split from its sister consumer business, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has been in an almost constant state of refining its strategy.The company backed out of the public cloud market; sold off its Enterprise Services Business to competitor CSC for $8.5 billion; dealt other “non-core” assets to Micro Focus in an $8.8 billion deal; and dumped its OpenStack and Cloud Foundry development efforts off to Suse. HPE also bought all-flash storage vendor Nimble storage for $1 billion last month and snapped up hyperconverged infrastructure vendor Simplivity for another $650 million in January.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data centers are declining worldwide both in numbers and square footage, according to IDC -- a remarkable change for an industry that has seen booming growth for many years.Users are consolidating data centers and increasingly renting server power. These two trends are having a major impact on data center space.[ Further reading: The march toward exascale computers ]
The number of data centers worldwide peaked at 8.55 million in 2015, according to IDC. That figure began declining last year, and is expected to drop to an expected 8.4 million this year. By 2021, the research firm expects there to be 7.2 million data centers globally, more than 15% fewer than in 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco initially scheduled its inaugural DevNet Create developers’ conference in San Francisco for what turned out to be the same week in May as Google's wildly popular I/O event in Mountain View (that coy old Google didn't reveal its show dates until late January). So Cisco wound up bumping its new event to the following week “to make sure we don’t take audience away from Google I/O. Okay okay — maybe it’s the other way around…” quipped Susie Wee, VP & CTO of Cisco DevNet Innovations in a recent blogpost.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In yet another twist to the ongoing patent and copyright infringement case between Cisco and Arista, Arista has landed a significant win that will let it once again import redesigned products to the US that have been under import embargo since January.Specifically, according to a post on Arista’s site, on “April 7, 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) completed its review and once again ruled that Arista’s redesigned products do not infringe the ’592, ’145, or ’537 patents that were the subject of a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order issued by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) in Investigation No. 337-TA-944 and that Arista may resume importing its redesigned products into the United States.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data center transformation has delivered better resource utilization, scalability and automation for data center environments. While software-defined networking (SDN) and automation platforms can tie in network security, the options have been largely inflexible and static, limiting the amount of security automation that can be delivered. This has become even more apparent as DevOps environments continue to grow.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Understanding Software-Defined Networking
Micro-segmentation as a concept has been around for several years. It has recently become more mainstream with organizations now dedicating budgets and personnel to micro-segmentation projects. Micro-segmentation itself is really an evolution in network security. While many of the concepts (i.e. private VLANs) have been around for years, the implementation and use of these has evolved with micro-segmentation. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here