Extreme Networks continued to amass a nice nest of data center technology saying today it would buy Brocade's data center networking business will be sold to Extreme for $55 million in cash from its current owner Broadcom.Broadcom bought Brocade last year for about $5.5 billion but has since sold off Brocade’s Ruckus Wireless Wi-Fi business for $800 million to Arris International and now the data center networking business to Extreme.+More on Network World: When the Internet Engineering Task Force meets this week in Chicago it will have a new chair – Cisco Fellow Alissa Cooper +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Whenever I speak with companies starting to research SD-WANs, the question about testing invariably comes up. Like probably any enterprise device, SD-WANs are filled with features. And as with any major WAN acquisition, testing those features prior to purchase is incredibly important. SD-WAN vendors have their own nuances and strengths. You need to be sure those strengths align with your environment.RELATED: SD-WAN: What it is and why you will use it one day
As an edge device, there’s very little in terms of packet processing that needs to be tested in an SD-WAN node. But that doesn’t mean SD-WAN node testing isn’t important. Here are some tips for what you can look for when running your proof of concept (POC) from my buddy DC Palter, CEO at network testing simulator company Apposite Technologies, and our experiences here at SD-WAN Experts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
F5 Networks is said to be lining up to acquire Brocade’s virtual Application Delivery Controller (ADC) business, the latest hunk of Brocade’s IP suite to be sold off to meet the terms of Brocade’s $5.5 billion acquisition by Broadcom, a deal announced last November. Brocade sold its Ruckus Wireless and ICX Switch business to Arris International in February for $800 million.The latest divestiture -- reported by companies contacted by the private equity firm shopping the ADC asset -- is said to involve Brocade’s Virtual Traffic Manager, formerly known as the SteelApp Traffic Manager. Brocade had acquired the technology from Riverbed in 2015 for an undisclosed fee, and Riverbed itself had acquired the tech from Zeus Technologies in 2011 for $140 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an incredibly diverse space, encompassing a large variety of hardware form factors and software ecosystems unlike anything we have seen in technology. Smartwatches, connected cameras, drones, thermostats, voice-enabled speakers, smart appliances and more—they all live together within the IoT.RELATED: 8 tips for building a cost-effective IoT sensor network
But the diversity and innovation that excites many IoT fans is a big challenge not just for manufacturers and developers, but also (and most importantly) consumers. Which technology options should be used when designing or deploying IoT devices? How do they keep up with updated or new operating systems? What about new software and connectivity technologies coming up? Those are just some of today’s challenges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Capturing radio signals that are already in the air, then adding data and reflecting the combination back to passersby’s smartphones is how marketing and smart city communications should take place in the future, say researchers.By doing so, one can use everyday objects as radio stations, say scientists from University of Washington. A kind of smart-poster would be one use for the technology, they say.Bus stop billboards, for example, would be able to broadcast a message to be picked up by a transit customer’s FM radio already built into their smartphone. The “singing poster,” as they call it, wouldn’t need to be powered with any great oomph—the radio signal reflective technology consumes “close to zero power,” the researchers claim in an article on the university’s website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The only constant in work is that work changes. It shifts. It pivots. It requires new skills, new training, new ideas. This has always been the case. But today, with everything becoming connected to the internet and digitization reshaping the definition of value in entire industries, the rate of change is increasing dramatically.In IT specifically, automation technology is driving a new wave of change, making many rote operations tasks that we’ve performed manually for decades a thing of the past. All of this is great news; after all, how many of us truly enjoy the laborious and time-intensive process of manually configuring and troubleshooting devices using Command Line Interface (CLI)?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When the Internet Engineering Task Force meets this week in Chicago it will have a new chair – Cisco Fellow Alissa Cooper. Cooper will be the first woman to hold the position as the standards-setting body continues its work to improve all things internet technology-related.The Stanford and Oxford graduate comes to the job having worked with Cisco since 2014 in its collaboration business and the IETF since 2008.Jonathan Rosenberg, Cisco Fellow and Vice President, CTO for Cisco's Collaboration Business [who has authored many of the internet standards that define modern telecoms, including the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)], and Cooper’s boss wrote that “Alissa has a long history of contributions to the IETF, serving most recently as the area director for the set of working groups that produce real-time communications protocols like SIP. Alissa, who was recently appointed to Cisco’s top technical rank of Cisco Fellow, takes the IETF reins in an exciting time. Areas like IoT, SDN, and NFV are requiring significant attention and making big impacts on the industry.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As the digital enterprise struggles to find the best security solutions to defend their ever-expanding networks, many are looking to next generation tools that offer interoperability capabilities.Software defined networking (SDN) holds lots of promises. By consolidating the control planes of multiple devices into a single controller, that controller becomes the omnipotent decision maker over the entire network.That's a lot of power, yet developers still don't have security at the forefront of their minds when building SDN products, which is why there are weaknesses in SDN that can compromise enterprise security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In my last post, “#WirelessSucks: Where do we go from here?” I talked about the need for better insight into the root cause of network problems. All too often, the Wi-Fi infrastructure is blamed for bad network connectivity when, in fact, the wired network (e.g. DNS, DHCP, etc.) and/or the mobile devices may be equally at fault.
I identified four components that are required to accurately and easily address this problem:
Monitoring networks at a service level
Real-time visibility into the state of every wireless user
A cloud infrastructure to store and analyze real-time state information and aggregate it to the highest level of commonality
Machine learning to automate key operational tasks, such as event correlation and packet captures
Let’s go into more detail on the first of these requirements: service-level monitoring and enforcement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Andy Traba is Vice President of Behavioral and Data Science at Mattersight, a company that spun out of eLoyalty about six years ago to pursue the idea that you can identify communication preferences through speech analysis and use that knowledge to improve call center performance. Traba, who runs the team that is responsible for generating algorithms that turn freeform conversations into data, as well as the team that builds applications around those datasets, explained how it works to Network World Editor in Chief John Dix. Mattersight
Andy Traba, Vice President of Behavioral and Data Science, MattersightTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook and Nokia have found a way to push a lot more data through a submarine cable across the Atlantic, which could help the social network keep up with the growth of video and virtual reality.On a 5,500-kilometer (3,400-mile) cable between Ireland and New York, the companies tested a new technique developed at Nokia Bell Labs for increasing the efficiency of fiber-optic cables. They say it comes close to the absolute limit for sending bits over a fiber.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said VR is the future of social media. If it is, then the networks that link consumers and data centers will have more data than ever to carry. Higher resolution video also is increasing the burden on networks. For example, Netflix recommends subscribers have at least a 5Mbps broadband connection to stream HD video and 25Mbps for Ultra HD (4K) streams.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Eliminate dead zones, reduce interference, and extend the range of your home Wi-Fi coverage with this D-Link Wi-Fi range extender. With next-generation AC750 performance, the DAP-1520 provides bandwidth up to 300Mbps on the 2.4Ghz, and 433Mbps on the faster, more reliable 5GHz bands. The unit is compact and fits discretely into any wall outlet. Right now its typical list price of $45.25 has dropped a significant 56% to just $19.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Raise your hand if you think webpage load times are great -- not too slow at all.No one? Well, Google may have just made big strides to increase load time for websites, while not compromising anything in the process. So how did the tech giant do that?In IT Blogwatch, we hit refresh. So what is going on? DL Cabe gives us some background:Google...released a brand new, open-source JPEG encoder called Guetzli that can do two...neat things...it can decrease JPEG file size by 35% without a noticeable decrease in quality, and...it can increase the quality of an image without increasing file size at all.
But what does that mean, exactly? Rafael Fariñas explains:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The IT vendor landscape is constantly in flux, with mergers, acquisitions, new technology developments and the growth of the cloud having a huge impact on which companies might be the most strategic partners for organizations looking to enhance their technology infrastructure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
An experiment by scholars at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has demonstrated a wireless network based on infrared rays that can move data at speeds of 42.8Gbps.The system, which is the work of new Ph.D recipient Joanne Oh, uses light “antennas,” which don’t have any moving parts, translating signals from a fiber-optic cable into infrared light and beaming them to receivers in the same room, which can be tracked by their return signals – when a user’s device moves out of one beam’s area of function, another light antenna can take over.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco security advisory dump finds 20 warnings, 2 critical + Raspberry Pi roundup: Pi Day, Remembrances of Pis Past, competitor corner, STEM and SKULLSTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An unpatched command injection vulnerability could allow hackers to take over enterprise networking products from Ubiquiti Networks.The vulnerability was discovered by researchers from SEC Consult and allows authenticated users to inject arbitrary commands into the web-based administration interface of affected devices. These commands would be executed on the underlying operating system as root, the highest privileged account.Because it requires authentication, the vulnerability's impact is somewhat reduced, but it can still be exploited remotely through cross-site request forgery (CSRF). This is an attack technique that involves forcing a user's browser to send unauthorized requests to specifically crafted URLs in the background when they visit attacker-controlled websites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Regardless of your home’s size or shape, these 3 powerful Luma devices work together to create an extremely fast, ultra-secure surround WiFi network that’s customized for your home. No more fiddling with extra WiFi extenders to manage dead spots and weak zones. Luma puts you in control. With a few simple taps, you can pause the internet, filter what your kids are looking at online, or set house rules for your network. Luma also secures your devices and neutralizes threats, keeping you in control of your network. The Luma whole house WiFi system averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 1,100 people on Amazon (read recent reviews), where its typical list price of $399 has been reduced 31% to $275.95. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The CBRS Alliance, which promotes LTE services in the shared 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, is riding high after signing up all of the Big 4 U.S. carriers, plus Samsung, and then seeing a slew of CBRS activity at the recent Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.Neville Meijers, VP of business development at Qualcomm Technologies and chairman of the board for the CBRS Alliance, says “there’s a lot of interest in the combination of unlicensed and shared spectrum” for a number of use cases being tested for public and private services.I caught up with Meijers shortly after MWC to get up to speed on the latest CBRS action.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The outage that hit Amazon Web Services' Simple Storage Service earlier this month might have been unusual in its impact, but not in its cause—a configuration error. Service providers suffer outages for all sorts of reasons. Backhoes take out local access loops. Seismic events and fishing trawlers cut underwater cables. And, yes, humans make mistakes.RELATED: SD-WAN: What it is and why you will use it one day
About three years ago, I was called in by a customer to help address a problem in their MPLS network. At the time, I ran MPLS Experts, a predecessor of SD-WAN Experts, and had developed a reputation for knowing a thing or two about global MPLS/VPLS services. The customer was noticing packets with unknown IPs on its carrier-managed private network. After we reviewed the logs, the cause became apparent: One of the carrier techs had misconfigured the VRF/VFI identifiers, accidentally connecting a different customer to their private network. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When the CBRS Alliance introduced itself early last year as an outfit bent on promoting LTE services across shared spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, five out of the six founding members’ names — Google, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Ruckus — were familiar to those in general network technology circles. But the other member, Federated Wireless, might have drawn some blank stares from those not in the thick of the emerging Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) market.
Interestingly enough, though, it was Federated that drew up the charter for this alliance of companies promoting CBRS in light of new FCC rules opening up 150 MHz of spectrum for new commercial use. What’s more, Federated Wireless CEO Iyad Tarazi, previously a VP with Sprint and Nextel, had also co-chaired the Wireless Innovation Forum, which the FCC is working with to establish standards for the CBRS band to ensure that devices used in the newly opened 3.5 GHz shared spectrum play nicely together. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here