If you're a network engineer, don't rush out and learn a programming language. To compete in the new world of software-defined networking, it might be more important to start thinking like a programmer.That was one of the ideas that emerged this week from an Open Networking User Group debate that generated healthy feedback from users in the audience.The days of managing individual switches and routers and configuring them with proprietary CLIs (command-line interfaces) are numbered, four panelists at the ONUG spring conference in San Francisco said on Tuesday. Though SDN hasn't worked its way into every enterprise, new approaches to enterprise IT and the availability of public clouds just a few clicks away are driving companies toward more agile and automated networks, they said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
F5’s new President and CEO, Francois Locoh-Donou, took over the reins of the application delivery networking company April 3, replacing longtime leader John McAdam who retired in 2015 but stepped back into the position when his replacement resigned in December of that year for “personal conduct matters.” Locoh-Donou was mostly recently COO of Ciena, a telecom equipment supplier. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix talked with Locoh-Donou yesterday about his plans and ambitions for F5 after Locoh-Donou hosted his first F5 quarterly earnings call (Q2 revenue up 7% year-over-year to $518 million). Given your history in the technology business, are there any experiences in particular that will guide you in this new role?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Current-generation Wi-Fi technology lives in the 5GHz band. Almost all of the major innovation in wireless standards takes place in the relatively untroubled frequencies around 5GHz (and well above), where there’s little radio competition and the living is easy.But wireless LAN users can’t just stay comfortable in the 5GHz realm – the older 2.4GHz frequency bands are a necessary part of most wireless implementations, and they’re rarely a favorite of the people who have to build and operate Wi-Fi networks.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Toward a bigger, faster, denser Wi-Fi WorldTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
“Wake up!” the good folks a Merriam-Webster just tweeted. “Sheeple is in the dictionary now.” Merriam-Webster via Twitter
And while the induction of such casual slang is sure to offend some, none will likely take great umbrage than Apple zealots, whose zealotry is cited by the dictionary as an example of the proper use of the word.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s an all-too-familiar story: Naïve but well-intentioned people get taken advantage of by an OEM that over-engineers and/or over-charges for equipment during a Request for Proposal (RFP).Remember the cautionary tale about the West Virginia officials accused of wasting $5 million of federal money on enterprise-class Cisco routers that weren’t needed? While that story is 4 years old now, the significance isn’t lost because it remains top of mind when IT staffers kibitz about how the RFP process can go wrong—awfully wrong.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The relationship between enterprise IT and service providers can be difficult. IT has frustrations in achieving optimal service levels. Service providers, as it turns out, have an equal number of bugaboos when it comes to their enterprise clients' readiness for and acceptance of provider intervention.We asked providers across a range of services what advice they can offer to smooth out some typical bumps in the road for their clients. Here's a look at what they had to say.1. Focus on the business users' needs, not the technology.
One of the biggest mistakes that enterprise IT makes when engaging a service provider is focusing too much on finding technology to solve the problem instead of fully understanding the problem that needs to be solved.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote on May 18 to kick off a proceeding to "reverse the mistake" of the agency's 2-year-old net neutrality rules, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said.The rulemaking proceeding would be the first step toward repealing the regulations and reversing the agency's 2015 decision to classify broadband as a regulated, telecom-like service.Pai didn't provide a lot of detail about his proposal during a speech Wednesday, but during the rulemaking, the FCC will seek public comment on how best to move forward with new net neutrality rules or guidelines, he said. The FCC is scheduled to release the text of Pai's proposal on Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With mid-market companies feeling an increasing need to devote time and resources to network security, the security-as-a-service model is gaining traction, according to new research released yesterday by 451 Research."The security challenge for mid-tier businesses is multi-dimensional," Daniel Cummins, analyst at 451 Research, said in a statement. "For these businesses, everything seems to be increasing — attack frequency, compliance requirements, complexity, costs and the number of security products that need to be managed. Cloud-based security-as-a-service offers potentially significant advantages in terms of simplicity and access to security that may prove to be less complex and expensive than traditional approaches."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google servers inside Cuba are now live on the internet, marking a major milestone in the country's communications evolution and promising faster access to Google's services for Cuban users.The computers are part of Google's global network of caching servers, which store frequently requested content locally so it doesn't have to be accessed over long distances.That speeds up access in any country but is particularly important in a nation like Cuba, which has relatively low connectivity to the rest of the world.Cuba is connected to the rest of the internet almost exclusively via the ALBA-1 submarine cable, which runs from the island to Venezuela, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Dyn Research. Dyn was first to spot the emergence of the Google caching servers on the internet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Looking to simplify what it calls the complexity associated with current Software Defined Networking controllers and proprietary protocols that require significant changes to customer network architecture and operations, Pluribus has refreshed and expanded its own SDN offering to address those challenges.+More on Network World: Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions+Customers looking to SDN to change and improve legacy network constraints have found many times that the SDN implementation has been nothing short of complex, and includes its own hardware-bound problems, said Steven Shalita, vice president of marketing and business development at Pluribus Networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The question occurs: What will happen if I cancel Verizon’s “Non-Published Service,” which for a ridiculously unjustifiable fee of $5.25 a month keeps my landline unlisted and my time at home almost entirely uninterrupted by scammers and robocalls.If I cancel this alleged “service,” will Verizon really punish me by publishing my number – unlisted now for 10 years – against my will and even if I first ask politely that they not do so?I know what you’re thinking: Of course, they will, they’re not only a cold-hearted corporation, they’re a carrier, for crying out loud. I, too, figure they will treat me like a shop owner who refuses to pay protection money: “Nice quiet dinnertimes you have going there; would be a shame if something happened to them.” But you never know for sure until you ask, right?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to announce plans to repeal the agency's 2015 net neutrality rules on Wednesday.Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, will likely announce a plan to reverse course on the 2-year-old regulations and end the agency's classification of broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service. In a Wednesday speech, Pai will reportedly announce that he is scheduling a vote for the FCC's May 18 meeting to begin the process of repealing the rules.Pai has called the net neutrality rules a mistake that "injected tremendous uncertainty into the broadband market." President Donald Trump, who appointed Pai as the FCC's chairman, has also criticized the regulations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A group of networking engineers and vendors is making progress toward an API that would help enterprises merge SD-WANs from different vendors.The Open SD-WAN Exchange (OSE) initiative was launched last year by the Open Networking User Group (ONUG) to solve a shortcoming of software-defined wide-area networks: They often can't talk to each other. On Tuesday at the ONUG Spring 2017 conference in San Francisco, OSE will make public the work it's done so far.SD-WANs control links to branch offices and remote sites with software, which ultimately should eliminate proprietary hardware and dedicated routing schemes. They also allow companies to use regular broadband connections instead of more expensive MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s not at all uncommon for competitors to snipe at one another but it still makes for good reading and it provides an interesting look into a company’s strategy – and perhaps a signal to a competitor they are in for a fight.Today’s round comes from Juniper which has a piece of marketing out there that says: “In March 2017, Extreme Networks announced it will acquire Brocade's data center networking business. This acquisition has hindered Brocade/Extreme's ability to meet your long-term goals. They can no longer deliver networking solutions that will help you embark on your digital transformation journey. Juniper Networks can.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A funny thing happened on the way to the hybrid cloud: Building the infrastructure was a pain in the neck.That's what enterprise IT people in the Open Networking User Group have discovered Last year, public cloud providers persuaded C-level executives to move significant corporate workloads to the cloud, but the tools weren't there to make it work, said Nick Lippis, co-founder and co-chairman of ONUG."There is a ton of custom work that has to be done," Lippis said.So the user group, which includes IT executives from hundreds of enterprises, chose building hybrid cloud infrastructure as its focus for this year. It will be the main topic at ONUG Spring 2017, taking place next week in San Francisco.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
MIT is selling half of its 16 million valuable IPv4 addresses – an increasingly scarce stash it has held since the birth of the Internet. While details of the sale have not been made public, at least some of those addresses have already been transferred to Amazon.MIT says it will use the proceeds of the sale to finance its own IPv6 network upgrades and “support activities focused on the future of the Internet and the global cyber-infrastructure.”From an announcement by Next Generation MITnet.
Fourteen million of these IPv4 addresses have not been used, and we have concluded that at least eight million are excess and can be sold without impacting our current or future needs, up to the point when IPv6 becomes universal and address scarcity is no longer an issue. The Institute holds a block of 20 times 10^30 (20 nonillion) IPv6 addresses.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to deregulate the providers of the business data lines connecting broadband service to many small businesses, schools, hospitals, and ATM machines.The deregulation of business data services, or BDS, could mean broadband price hikes for those businesses as well as for mobile phone customers, critics said. BDS provides the backhaul that connects mobile towers to the wired internet.The commission's 2-1 party-line vote ends price caps on much of the BDS market across the U.S., while retaining price regulations in about a third of the country.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Broadcom this week introduced a family of Ethernet switches that support new technology aimed at helping users address the rising network implications of the Internet of Things, automotive networking and video applications.+More on Network World: Ethernet: Are there worlds left to conquer?+Key to that strategy is that the new family -- Broadcom StrataConnect BCM53570 – features support for an emerging Ethernet protocol technology called Time Sensitive Networks that brings standard deterministic real-time communications over Ethernet. The IEEE TSN standards define extremely precise, predictable timing across the network. By adding features to Ethernet such as time synchronization, ingress policing, seamless redundancy, frame preemption, scheduled traffic, and stream reservation, TSN ensures mission-critical, time sensitive data is not held up on the network, promoting an interoperable ecosystem spanning across many industries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some 350 Wi-Fi true believers have gathered in Tysons Corner, Va., this week to sing the wireless networking technology’s praises, peek into its future and warn of its challenges.The Wi-Fi Now event featured sessions and exhibitors focused on consumer, enterprise and service provider technologies, though I mainly concentrated on the enterprise technology in the sweet spot for Network World’s target readers. This included the latest alphabet soup of new and emerging IEEE 802.11 standards, including 11ad, ah, ax and ay. Bob Brown/IDG/NetworkWorld
Wi-Fi Now exhibitors' floorTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here