Cisco is rolling out a cloud-based geolocation package it expects will help customers grow mobile location services and integrate data from those services into enterprise analytics and business applications.The package, called DNA Spaces, is comprised of Cisco’s Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) wireless suite and enterprise geolocation technology purchased from July Systems. Cisco CMX is a software engine that uses location and other intelligence gleaned from Cisco wireless infrastructure to generate analytics data and help deliver services to customers on their mobile devices.[ Check out our hands-on reviews: 5 top hardware-based Wi-Fi test tools and Mojo wireless intrusion prevention system. ]
Cisco bought July last June for an undisclosed price. July provides businesses with deep and accurate analytics about who and what are in their physical locations along with the ability to act on those insights in real-time, Cisco said.To read this article in full, please click here
Wireless advances, software-defined WANs and intelligent network management tools are among the top technologies that will impact the networking community in 2019.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Data processing, analytics, and storage increasingly are taking place at the network edge, close to where users and devices need access to the information. Not surprisingly, edge computing is becoming a key component of IT strategy at a growing number of organizations.A recent report from Grand View Research predicted the global edge computing market will reach $3.24 billion by 2025, expanding at a “phenomenal” compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41% during the forecast period.One of the biggest contributors to the rise of edge computing is the ongoing growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The vast amounts of data created by IoT devices might cause delays and latency, Grand View says, and edge computing solutions can help enhance the data processing power, which further aids in avoiding delays. Data processing takes place closest to the source of the data, which makes it more feasible for business users to gain real-time insights from the IoT data devices are gathering.To read this article in full, please click here
(Editor’s note: Recent research by Enterprise Management Associates takes a look at how enterprises view currently available SD-WAN products. This article by Shamus McGillicuddy, EMA’s research director for network management, details highlights of “Wide-Area Network Transformation: How Enterprises Succeed with Software-Defined WAN,” a report based on EMA’s survey of 305 WAN decision-makers at distributed enterprises. EMA has posted a free webinar about the report.) To read this article in full, please click here
Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax, is viewed by many to be game changing, as it’s the first major architectural change to the wireless LAN since its inception. Unlike other standards, which were just faster versions of the previous incarnation, Wi-Fi 6 is built from the ground up to support a world that is hyper-connected over Wi-Fi. To accomplish this, Wi-Fi 6 includes several new features and design enhancements.OFDMA enables more clients to connect to access points
Many industry people I have discussed Wi-Fi 6 with believe the most important new feature is something called orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), which allows multiple clients with varying bandwidth requirements to be connected to a single AP simultaneously.To read this article in full, please click here
It looks like Microsoft is looking to give itself the gift of networking in the form of an acquisition — Mellanox. But it may have to get in line.An Israeli financial publication called TheMarker reports that Microsoft not only has an interest in acquiring the network chip maker, but it also has reportedly engaged Goldman Sachs to handle negotiations. The rumors first popped up before Christmas, and understandably there has been little activity since.But Microsoft may not be the only vendor looking to grab Mellanox. Data Centre Dynamics in the U.K. reported last month that three other firms — Xilinx, Intel, and Broadcom — could also be interested in acquiring the company. As far back as October, CNBC was reporting that Mellanox was looking for a buyer.To read this article in full, please click here
This time of year, it can seem like the world is swimming in predictions for the new year, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is no exception. In fact, in fast-evolving areas like IoT, multitudes of trends and opportunities and challenges are in play, making predictions ridiculously easy — just about anything can happen, and probably will.[ Also read: Gartner’s top 10 IoT trends for 2019 and beyond | Get regularly scheduled insights: Sign up for Network World newsletters ]
So, my goal here is to identify a set of IoT predictions that are both likely to happen … and likely to have a significant impact on the development and implementation of the technology.To read this article in full, please click here
Applications used to be vertically integrated, monolithic software. Today, that’s changed, as modern applications are composed of separate micro-services that can be quickly brought together and delivered as a single experience. Containers allow for these app components to be spun up significantly faster and run for a shorter period of time providing the ultimate in application agility. The use of containers continues to grow. A recent survey from ZK Research found that 64 percent of companies already use containers, with 24 percent planning to adopt them by the end of 2020. (Note: I am an employee of ZK Research.) This trend will cause problems for network professionals if the approach to management does not change.To read this article in full, please click here
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are emerging fields that will transform businesses faster than ever before. In the digital era, success will be based on using analytics to discover key insights locked in the massive volume of data being generated today.In the past, these insights were discovered using manually intensive analytic methods. Today, that doesn’t work, as data volumes continue to grow as does the complexity of data. AI and ML are the latest tools for data scientists, enabling them to refine the data into value faster.[ Also read: Network operations: A new role for AI and ML | Get regularly scheduled insights: Sign up for Network World newsletters ]
Data explosion necessitates the need for AI and ML
Historically, businesses operated with a small set of data generated from large systems of record. Today’s environment is completely different where there are orders of magnitude more devices and systems that generate their own data that can be used in the analysis. The challenge for businesses is that there is far too much data to be analyzed manually. The only way to compete in an increasingly digital world is to use AL and ML.To read Continue reading
When Tim Callahan came to Aflac four years ago to take on the role of CISO, enterprise security at the insurance giant was embedded deep in the infrastructure team.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Domain name system (DNS) over transport layer security (TLS) adds an extra layer of encryption, but in what way does it impact your IP network traffic? The additional layer of encryption indicates controlling what’s happening over the network is likely to become challenging.Most noticeably it will prevent ISPs and enterprises from monitoring the user’s site activity and will also have negative implications for both; the wide area network (WAN) optimization and SD-WAN vendors.During a recent call with Sorell Slaymaker, we rolled back in time and discussed how we got here, to a world that will soon be fully encrypted. We started with SSL1.0, which was the original version of HTTPS as opposed to the non-secure HTTP. As an aftermath of evolution, it had many security vulnerabilities. Consequently, we then evolved from SSL 1.1 to TLS 1.2. To read this article in full, please click here
Todays interenet of things market includes countless consumer gadgets such as routers, Internet-connected video cameras and smart TVs, as well as innumerable enterprise IoT devices for business, scientific and industrial applications.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
The disciplines of networking, security and regulatory compliance are challenges for all organizations, but especially so for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) for a variety of reasons.A primary challenge is in implementing technology solutions, most of which are point solutions that operate in silos. This leads to “swivel chair” operations where networking and security professionals have to consult multiple separate consoles to keep tabs on how well everything is performing and whether cyber threats are bringing risk to the business. The lack of integration of the siloed solutions can leave gaps in coverage and cause extra work for those in charge of the network.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco says it is buying optical-semiconductor firm Luxtera for $660 million and will build its silicon photonics into future enterprise data-center, webscale, and service-provider networking gear.This photonic technology is essential to keep up with projected massive increases in IP traffic volume over the next four years, according to Cisco's networking chief."Optics is a fundamental technology to enable this future. Coupled with our silicon and optics innovation, Luxtera will allow our customers to build the biggest, fastest and most efficient networks in the world," said David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager, Networking and Security Business at CiscoTo read this article in full, please click here
Soon we may have a space-based optical backbone capable of transferring data 1.5 times faster than Earth-based terrestrial fiber, now that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given LeoSat the go-ahead to start its build-out.Moving “large quantities of data quickly and securely around the world, is fast outpacing the infrastructure in place to carry it,” says LeoSat in a press release announcing its FCC market-access grant last month. Upcoming LeoSat, will be a “a backbone in space for global business,” the company says.To read this article in full, please click here
As we head towards the end of the year and end of our budgets, my engineers are reminding everyone that the Cisco 2960-XR family is an affordable and under-utilized option compared to other switch siblings in the Cisco 2960 family.The 2960-XR Series switches provide easy device onboarding, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting. These fully managed switches can provide advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 features, as well as optional Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) power. The switches deliver enhanced application visibility, network reliability, and network resiliency that continues to make it a great networking choice.Since the 2960-XR switches are part of the 2960-X family, users will be familiar with the switches port counts and types, the identical levels of PoE+, and the identical stacking module/capability. But be sure to read on, as I have more to say about stacking.To read this article in full, please click here
In network circles, there may be no hotter topic right now than software-defined WAN (SD-WAN). Given WAN technology stood still for the better part of three decades, this makes sense, as most companies have a WAN that’s long overdue for a refresh and architectural update — and SD-WANs make this a reality.SD-WANs are definitely moving out of the early-adopter phase and into mainstream adoption. And anytime a technology does this, the market changes. Below are the primary ways SD-WANs will change in 2019.[ Check out: 10 hot SD-WAN startups to watch | Get regularly scheduled insights: Sign up for Network World newsletters ]
Less focus on cost savings
The initial wave of SD-WANs was sold with the promise of slashing network costs by replacing MPLS with broadband. If a business is willing to ditch all of its MPLS, and that’s a big if, and replace it wholly with broadband, it will save money on transport. However, it will likely need to add some optimization technologies to account for the unpredictability of broadband.To read this article in full, please click here
If you were kicking the tires on Kubernetes and other cloud/container services, you found may have found nirvana at this week’s KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2018 where all manner of new operational software and support from VMware, Arista and others were on display.To access the growing popularity of cloud, Kubernetes and containers, the Cloud Foundry Foundation released the results of a new survey that found among other things that 45 percent of companies are doing at least some cloud-native app development, and 40 percent are doing some re-architecting/refactoring of their legacy apps.To read this article in full, please click here
Cloud computing is changing everything – just ask Juniper CTO Bikash Koley.Along with that notion Koley says that there are a number of certainties about the future of building out large cloud infrastructures: Multicloud is a real inflection point for enterprises and service providers; there will be private clouds and that the way all infrastructure will be built going forward will be different from the way things are done today.[ Learn who's developing quantum computers. ]
juniper
Bikash KoleyTo read this article in full, please click here
Communications capabilities are essential to the success of organizations everywhere. Voice, e-mail, text messaging, multimedia messaging, file sharing, streaming video, conferencing, collaboration, and more – you can’t do business without them. But as traffic volumes and the number of communications services in use continue to grow, so do the IT and operational challenges.Communications services have historically been provisioned by, and are of course still widely available from, broadband landline and wireless carriers who seek value-added revenue to offset the commodity nature of their “big dumb pipe” core businesses. But there are also numerous third-party solution suppliers, private implementations, and unified communications (UC) product and service capabilities. In addition, an increasing number of cloud-based services – many of which are often aimed squarely at consumer end-users rather than organizations – are seeing significant organizational application, and unfortunately often via backdoor or shadow-IT routes.To read this article in full, please click here