Juniper today announced intentions to acquire Cyphort, a Santa Clara-based startup that offers an advanced threat detection, analytics and mitigation platform. Juniper says it will integrate Cyphort’s technology with its Sky Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) product line.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: DEEP-DIVE REVIEW: How Cyphort makes advanced threat protection easier than ever +Cyphort’s software platform detects advanced threats, evasion techniques and zero-day vulnerabilities using a combination of behavioral analytics, machine-learning and long-data security analysis, the company says. The platform can work across virtual infrastructure, cloud environments and edge devices. In addition to identifying threats, Cyphort creates real-time timelines of incidents and can integrate with network tools to update security postures.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This blog post is going a bit outside my usual “make sense to the C-Level” slant. I wanted to get in the weeds about reviewing SD-WAN products. We all know that’s where the fun really is!I have been doing a bit of evaluation on SD-WAN products and their configurations from the network engineer’s perspective. I have looked at numerous vendors’ products, poured over install guides, and dusted off the CLI.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This blog post is going a bit outside my usual “make sense to the C-Level” slant. I wanted to get in the weeds about reviewing SD-WAN products. We all know that’s where the fun really is!I have been doing a bit of evaluation on SD-WAN products and their configurations from the network engineer’s perspective. I have looked at numerous vendors’ products, poured over install guides, and dusted off the CLI.Everyone who knows me can tell you I am a Cisco fanatic. Hands down, I would rather implement a Cisco technology rather than any other vendor by a 1000:1 ratio. I have spent a majority of my career as a network engineer, and the best network devices to configure and troubleshoot have been Cisco.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco made a big splash earlier this year when it revealed its vision for the future of networking: An intent-based networking system that allows users to specify what they want the network to do and management software that automatically orchestrates it.Since Cisco’s announcement, intent-based networking (IBN) has caught the networking industry’s attention and has seemingly become the buzzword-du-jour. Some see it as a logical evolution of advanced network automation. Others believe it’s a fundamental shift in how enterprises use machine learning to autonomously manage networks. Meanwhile, all types of vendors, from stalwarts of the industry to myriad startups are jumping on to the IBN bandwagon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Are you ready for the Internet of Things (IoT)? Despite its transformational potential, most organizations are not. In an era of rapid disruption and digital transformation, IT executives and managers must lead the charge. You must bridge the gap between technology, business, engineering and operations. You must be evangelists, teachers, facilitators and innovators. To succeed, I’ve listed six things you must do to accelerate IoT adoption within your organization.Increase your organization’s IoT IQ
Start the journey by increasing awareness, knowledge and conversations around IoT throughout the organization. This can be done in several ways:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Earlier this month, Cisco completed the acquisition of SD-WAN vendor Viptela, which it had announced in early May.The companies’ recent news sparked several rumors about the fate of Cisco’s Intelligent WAN (IWAN), with publications writing such articles as “Is the End Near for Cisco’s IWAN?” and “Cisco’s Viptela acquisition could mean IWAN is dying or dead.” The content of the articles isn’t quite as aggressive as the headlines, but the articles have led to a number of misconceptions about what Cisco will do with its SD-WAN solution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As the IoT and industries related to it continue to expand at mind-boggling speeds, it’s only natural that myths and hear-say about IoT-related technologies grow as well. One of the greatest victims of scandalous rumors is Z-Wave technology, a critical aspect of the IoT that is often unfairly castigated by those who present false or misleading information.So just how secure is Z-Wave technology? What are the most persistent myths about it, and why do some people benefit from spreading them? Below, we’ll go over five common myths about Z-Wave tech, and explain just how wrong they are.Z-Wave is difficult to integrate into the IoT
One of the most heinous hoaxes proliferating around the internet is that Z-Wave technology is difficult to integrate into the IoT, and presents serious challenges to IoT application and gadget developers. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Some Z-Wave critics argue that its development kits are few and far-between, and challenging to both locate and utilize. The reality, however, is that a plethora of Z-Wave development kits are readily prepared to help IoT developers achieve their objectives easily.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One weird little quirk about being human is that we (as a group) tend to think things have been the way they currently are for a lot longer than they actually have been — and that they're not likely to change.Even the most hard and well-backed-up science tends to change with the proverbial wind. Example: Cholesterol ... good or bad? See? Things (and ideas) change. Fast. And often we don't think they've changed at all. Sometimes it's good to sit back and look at how things have already changed — to see how things might change in the future.Let's apply that to servers. Computers serving up bits of data to other computers. What did those look like 10 years ago? 20? 50? In this article series, let's look over each major era and type of servers, in no particular order — I'll be bouncing around a bit as I tell the story of "Computer Servers."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable quickly connects a wide range of HDMI devices. Use it to connect a small mobile, home-entertainment, or gaming device to a big-screen HDTV, large projector, or computer monitor, for example. Delivering clear, vibrant video, the AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet meets the latest standards, which means it considerably expands bandwidth up to 18 Gbps, offers 4K@50/60 (2160p) video resolution (four times more clarity than 1080p/60), and supports the wide-angle theatrical 21:9 video aspect ratio. The cables average 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 12,000 reviewers on Amazon (read reviews). Right now you can get a 2-pack of these 6-foot cables for just $7.96. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you’re contemplating whether SD-WAN will improve your company’s Wide Area Network, I’ve learned it’s important to first get a grasp of the different SD-WAN architectures.As a long-time business ISP and cloud broker, I’ve had the best seat in the house for watching the SD-WAN craze take flight. As dozens of SD-WAN product offerings pop up, I have the enviable job of making sense of it all. [sigh]In my observation, there are 3 main buckets of SD-WAN architecture, each of which benefit certain types of companies. Which architecture is “best” depends on the applications your company is accessing through your WAN.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
About a month ago, someone asked me to define the term “digital transformation.” At first, I thought about giving a long technical definition that mentioned the convergences of people, process and data, but then I shortened to one word — speed. Digital transformation is all about doing things faster than the competition. This is one of those things that’s easier to say than do. Most businesses simply can’t move faster just because they want to. Instead it requires an entirely new approach to IT. Gartner uses the term “Mode 2,” but other terms are things like agile development or DevOps. + Also on Network World: Adapting the network for the rise of containers +
This new approach to IT has brought with it several new technologies, one of which is containers. The use of containers has steadily increased because IT departments can quickly spin them up, do whatever task they need to do and then shut them down. The whole process can be automated, so the IT organization doesn’t even need to be involved. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Engineers at Google have developed a new algorithm to speed up TCP, the main transport protocol for traffic on the internet, by optimizing the speed at which traffic is sent so it doesn’t clog up the available routes. They say their acceleration method, called bottleneck bandwidth and roundtrip (BBR) propagation time, measures the fastest way to send data across different routes and is able to more efficiently handle traffic when data routes become congested. Google is already using BBR to speed up its YouTube traffic, and last month the company made BBR available in its Google Cloud Platform. Google says implementing BBR sped up the already highly-optimized YouTube traffic by 4% on average, and as much as 14% in some countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Software-defined networking (SDN) is defined by a decoupling of the control and packet-forwarding planes in a network, an architecture that can slash operational costs and speed the time it takes to make changes or provision new services.Since all the intelligence resides in software – not baked into monolithic specialty hardware – customers can replace traditional switches with commodity devices to save on capital costs. SDN also makes it possible for the network to interface with applications directly via APIs to improve security and application performance.So what is SDN?
Traditional networks are made up of devices with integrated control and data-forwarding planes so each box needs to be configured and managed independently. Because of this, even simple changes to the network can take weeks or even months to complete because the changes have to be made to each device. This was acceptable when network changes were typically made independently from business changes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Today Cisco announced it is developing a way to integrate its software defined networking product named Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) with public cloud infrastructure from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.By extending ACI from the data center to the public cloud, Cisco is making it easier for customers to manage a hybrid network that spans both environments. Having common network management across this hybrid environment allows customers to implement fine-grained security policies and manage applications across both, Cisco says.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What SDN is and where it's going + To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you’re wondering whether your network is vulnerable or not, you haven’t been paying attention – everybody’s is. This free online course shows what it takes to effectively conduct network vulnerability assessments and analysis that will help you keep the hackers at bay.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
If you’re wondering whether your network is vulnerable or not, you haven’t been paying attention – everybody’s is. This free online course shows what it takes to effectively conduct network vulnerability assessments and analysis that will help you keep the hackers at bay.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
In many industries, it’s critical to get Wi-Fi everywhere, but it can often be difficult accomplish this. For example, extending a hotel comprised of smaller cottage-type rooms or one with lots of suites has many hard to reach places with traditional access point (AP) placement. Dorm rooms or hospitals typically want Wi-Fi everywhere, but it’s often difficult to provision it because of interference from thick walls or other infrastructure. One possible solution is to put an AP in every room, but that can get prohibitively expensive given the cost of APs and the expense of running new cables to every location.Another option has been the growing number of “wall plate” APs where the existing wall plate is removed and an AP in the form factor of a wall plate is connected into the existing Ethernet cable, bringing Wi-Fi to that location.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In many industries, it’s critical to get Wi-Fi everywhere, but it can often be difficult accomplish this. For example, extending a hotel comprised of smaller cottage-type rooms or one with lots of suites has many hard to reach places with traditional access point (AP) placement. Dorm rooms or hospitals typically want Wi-Fi everywhere, but it’s often difficult to provision it because of interference from thick walls or other infrastructure. One possible solution is to put an AP in every room, but that can get prohibitively expensive given the cost of APs and the expense of running new cables to every location.Another option has been the growing number of “wall plate” APs where the existing wall plate is removed and an AP in the form factor of a wall plate is connected into the existing Ethernet cable, bringing Wi-Fi to that location.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Interconnection is the fuel of digital business, and organizations must understand its power if they hope to handle the global digital economy’s increasing demands. For such a pivotal business enabler, interconnection has long been tough to quantify. But new research from the company I work for, Equinix, does just that by looking at installed interconnection bandwidth capacity and projected growth. The Global Interconnection Index, published by Equinix and sourced from multiple analyst reports, is an industry-first look at how interconnection bandwidth is shaping and scaling the digital world. It aims to give digital business the insight needed to prepare for tomorrow. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here