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
AWS primarily and Azure, of late, dominate today’s discussions around storage, backup and compute power. A quick glance at headlines from technology journalists, and a reader can glean a common coverage theme that ties these writers together — the ongoing discussion around the benefits of going all-in on the public cloud. However, in most cases technology journalists are writing about larger corporations, or big name installations, which may or may not reflect the actual trends taking place in the marketplace, especially at mid-size companies and organizations experiencing a growth spurt.As one who is regularly engaged with the CIOs at mid-size and smaller companies and organizations, I don’t see them going all-in on the cloud right now; rather some are pulling back from it and either opting a hybrid cloud solution, or are going all-in with on-prem backup solutions. In fact, according to a survey published by SMB analyst firm Techaisle LLS, the hybrid cloud is now being used by 32 percent of midmarket (100 to 999 employees) organizations, and that figure is expected to remain relatively flat at 31 percent into next year, in spite of what your read in the press about AWS or Azure penetration.To read Continue reading
AWS primarily and Azure, of late, dominate today’s discussions around storage, backup and compute power. A quick glance at headlines from technology journalists, and a reader can glean a common coverage theme that ties these writers together — the ongoing discussion around the benefits of going all-in on the public cloud. However, in most cases technology journalists are writing about larger corporations, or big name installations, which may or may not reflect the actual trends taking place in the marketplace, especially at mid-size companies and organizations experiencing a growth spurt.As one who is regularly engaged with the CIOs at mid-size and smaller companies and organizations, I don’t see them going all-in on the cloud right now; rather some are pulling back from it and either opting a hybrid cloud solution, or are going all-in with on-prem backup solutions. In fact, according to a survey published by SMB analyst firm Techaisle LLS, the hybrid cloud is now being used by 32 percent of midmarket (100 to 999 employees) organizations, and that figure is expected to remain relatively flat at 31 percent into next year, in spite of what your read in the press about AWS or Azure penetration.To read Continue reading
At the end of 2016, China had over 700 million internet users, more than double the number of internet users in the U.S. And as the Chinese tech market continues to shift from hardware to software and services, Forrester Research analysts predict this will drive software growth of 10 percent over the next couple years.China is now a critical market for global technology companies and enterprises. It’s little wonder that tech giants like Apple, Facebook and others are clamoring to secure a hold there, even when it means addressing unique challenges and making certain compromises.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At the end of 2016, China had over 700 million internet users, more than double the number of internet users in the U.S. And as the Chinese tech market continues to shift from hardware to software and services, Forrester Research analysts predict this will drive software growth of 10 percent over the next couple years.China is now a critical market for global technology companies and enterprises. It’s little wonder that tech giants like Apple, Facebook and others are clamoring to secure a hold there, even when it means addressing unique challenges and making certain compromises.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The next great leap forward in Wi-Fi got a little closer to reality Tuesday with Broadcom’s announcement of a new family of chips designed to comply with the not-yet-finalized 802.11ax standard, but you might not need to game-plan for the arrival of 802.11ax products in the enterprise for quite awhile.However, thanks to several factors, including an unusual adoption cycle, the capabilities of existing Wi-Fi hardware and the standards process itself, 802.11ax is unlikely to take enterprise wireless customers by storm before late 2018, according to experts.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Does MU-MIMO really expand Wi-Fi capacity? + 3 real-world examples of IoT rolled out in the enterprise + How Wi-Fi could get a boost from Li-FiTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The next great leap forward in Wi-Fi got a little closer to reality Tuesday with Broadcom’s announcement of a new family of chips designed to comply with the not-yet-finalized 802.11ax standard, but you might not need to game-plan for the arrival of 802.11ax products in the enterprise for quite awhile.However, thanks to several factors, including an unusual adoption cycle, the capabilities of existing Wi-Fi hardware and the standards process itself, 802.11ax is unlikely to take enterprise wireless customers by storm before late 2018, according to experts.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Does MU-MIMO really expand Wi-Fi capacity? + 3 real-world examples of IoT rolled out in the enterprise + How Wi-Fi could get a boost from Li-FiTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The story of Extreme Networks is one of the more remarkable turnarounds I’ve seen in technology in years. About two years ago the company had a market cap of under $300 million, and I thought they were a sure-fire acquisition target for someone who wanted some decent technology on the cheap — because it was becoming apparently clear that the once-cool networking company had lost its way like so many others before it.Many of the brand names we have known in the past — Nortel, 3Com, Cabletron, Lucent, FORE systems and Foundry — all dropped as Cisco got bigger and HP Networking gobbled up the low end. There just didn’t seem to be room for another vendor. If an acquisition happened, it would likely fall on the scrap heap that so many other networking vendors have been tossed on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The story of Extreme Networks is one of the more remarkable turnarounds I’ve seen in technology in years. About two years ago the company had a market cap of under $300 million, and I thought they were a sure-fire acquisition target for someone who wanted some decent technology on the cheap — because it was becoming apparently clear that the once-cool networking company had lost its way like so many others before it.Many of the brand names we have known in the past — Nortel, 3Com, Cabletron, Lucent, FORE systems and Foundry — all dropped as Cisco got bigger and HP Networking gobbled up the low end. There just didn’t seem to be room for another vendor. If an acquisition happened, it would likely fall on the scrap heap that so many other networking vendors have been tossed on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For decades, enterprises have relied on the public internet for business-critical SaaS applications and data traffic. The reason why is pretty simple: it’s cost-efficient, it’s easy to use and it’s already there. Compare that to the logistical, financial and implementation challenges of installing an alternative private network, and it’s clear why enterprises have been pretty content with the internet for their entire digital lives.But, it’s 2017. And, if there’s one thing clear about the public internet today, it’s that it no longer cuts it. Rampant DDoS attacks and other cyber threats posed by hackers, rogue employees and nation-states have not just revealed the security, reliability and transparency cracks in the public internet — they’ve blown them wide open.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For decades, enterprises have relied on the public internet for business-critical SaaS applications and data traffic. The reason why is pretty simple: it’s cost-efficient, it’s easy to use and it’s already there. Compare that to the logistical, financial and implementation challenges of installing an alternative private network, and it’s clear why enterprises have been pretty content with the internet for their entire digital lives.But, it’s 2017. And, if there’s one thing clear about the public internet today, it’s that it no longer cuts it. Rampant DDoS attacks and other cyber threats posed by hackers, rogue employees and nation-states have not just revealed the security, reliability and transparency cracks in the public internet — they’ve blown them wide open.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It is probably safe to assume that private networking has been an afterthought. In fact, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document (RFC 1918) that created private network addresses that are “un-routable” was released years after BGP-4 and IPV6 were codified into standards.In order to join private networks to each other, wide area networks (WANs) emerged. Initially, the benefits obtained by WANs were just pure connectivity. Subsequent benefits accrued, including the belief that private networks were secure because addresses of servers and clients in the private address could not be reached from the public network unless a “translation” or rule was established. This, however, may no longer be the case.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It is probably safe to assume that private networking has been an afterthought. In fact, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document (RFC 1918) that created private network addresses that are “un-routable” was released years after BGP-4 and IPV6 were codified into standards.In order to join private networks to each other, wide area networks (WANs) emerged. Initially, the benefits obtained by WANs were just pure connectivity. Subsequent benefits accrued, including the belief that private networks were secure because addresses of servers and clients in the private address could not be reached from the public network unless a “translation” or rule was established. This, however, may no longer be the case.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I know, I know, I’ve heard it before. A new technology comes along, and it promises to be the next big thing. Consumers and businesses buy it, and what happens? It fails to live up to the hype. In my opinion, almost every iPhone release over the past five years has been that way. Sure there were some cool new features, but overall it’s not something I’d say was game changing. One technology that does promise to live up to the hype is 802.11ax, the next standard for wireless LANs. I say that because this next generation of Wi-Fi was engineered for the world we live in where everything is connected and there’s an assumption that upload and download traffic will be equivalent. Previous generations of Wi-Fi assumed more casual use and that there would be far more downloading of information than uploading. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I know, I know, I’ve heard it before. A new technology comes along, and it promises to be the next big thing. Consumers and businesses buy it, and what happens? It fails to live up to the hype. In my opinion, almost every iPhone release over the past five years has been that way. Sure there were some cool new features, but overall it’s not something I’d say was game changing. One technology that does promise to live up to the hype is 802.11ax, the next standard for wireless LANs. I say that because this next generation of Wi-Fi was engineered for the world we live in where everything is connected and there’s an assumption that upload and download traffic will be equivalent. Previous generations of Wi-Fi assumed more casual use and that there would be far more downloading of information than uploading. To read this article in full, please click here
As an ever present staple of technology in the inventory of any major enterprise, WAN optimizers have begun to lose their luster. While there are still probably thousands in widespread use throughout the world, evolution has conspired to put them on the endangered species list. Do you remember thicknet, thinnet, or token ring? Yup! That kind of endangered! Continue reading
As an ever present staple of technology in the inventory of any major enterprise, WAN optimizers have begun to lose their luster. While there are still probably thousands in widespread use throughout the world, evolution has conspired to put them on the endangered species list. Do you remember thicknet, thinnet, or token ring? Yup! That kind of endangered! Continue reading
Linux is a tried-and-true, open source operating system released in 1991 for computers, but its use has expanded to underpin systems for cars, phones, web-servers and, more recently, networking gear.It’s longevity, maturity and security make it one of the most trusted OSes available today, meaning it is ideal for commercial network devices as well as enterprises that want to use it and its peripherals to customize their own network and data center infrastructure.That in turn makes Linux skills highly sought after by IT hiring managers. Many of the new technologies associated with DevOps, for example, such as containers, OpenSource infrastructure and SDN controllers are built on Linux.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Linux is a tried-and-true, open source operating system released in 1991 for computers, but its use has expanded to underpin systems for cars, phones, web-servers and, more recently, networking gear.It’s longevity, maturity and security make it one of the most trusted OSes available today, meaning it is ideal for commercial network devices as well as enterprises that want to use it and its peripherals to customize their own network and data center infrastructure.That in turn makes Linux skills highly sought after by IT hiring managers. Many of the new technologies associated with DevOps, for example, such as containers, OpenSource infrastructure and SDN controllers are built on Linux.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When I began this blog in October of last year, my goal was to help readers understand both the magnitude of the digital transformation currently underway and its implications for companies and IT professionals in every industry. In particular, I focused on the role of the network in enabling digital business and best practices for transforming the network from a cost center to a growth driver.This is a subject near and dear to my heart because the networking industry has been my home for many years, and it has seen a lot of change. Come this fall, it’s likely so see a bit more. Last November, my company, Brocade, announced that it is being acquired by Broadcom Ltd., and in the next few months, that transaction is expected to be completed. I’m a perfect example of the fact that you can never fully predict how things will change; you can only know things will change. So I want to wrap up this blog series with a look back at some of the most important things you need to consider today to make sure you’re ready for whatever changes digital transformation may send in your direction.To read this Continue reading