The rise of SD-WANs has been well documented by every analyst firm that covers network technology. I have the market growing from $1.0 billion in 2017 to over $9.5 billion in 2022, indicating the market is about to go through an accelerated phase of growth. Given SD-WANs can help save money and improve network agility, it seems like a no-brainer to evolve to an SD-WAN.However, the path to an SD-WAN isn’t easy. There are a lot of factors to be considered, including the use of broadband, how to optimize the links, network architecture, and the impact of moving the on-premises infrastructure out to the cloud. If anything is missed, application performance could be severely degraded, which would negate the return on investment of the project.To read this article in full, please click here
Hardware processing should replace a device’s dependency on networks, some scientists say. Making machines more efficient, saving power and resilience are behind the reasoning.“Devices like drones depend on a constant Wi-Fi signal. If the Wi-Fi stops, the drone crashes,” an article about researchers at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, says.[ Now read: What is quantum computing (and why enterprises should care) ]
But if you make a device independent of any linking, it could become more resilient, the researchers say. Plus, the more processing work one can do on the machine the more energy you’ll save because you won’t have to come up with power to communicate.To read this article in full, please click here
Hardware processing should replace a device’s dependency on networks, some scientists say. Making machines more efficient, saving power and resilience are behind the reasoning.“Devices like drones depend on a constant Wi-Fi signal. If the Wi-Fi stops, the drone crashes,” an article about researchers at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, says.[ Now read: What is quantum computing (and why enterprises should care) ]
But if you make a device independent of any linking, it could become more resilient, the researchers say. Plus, the more processing work one can do on the machine the more energy you’ll save because you won’t have to come up with power to communicate.To read this article in full, please click here
For enterprises considering an SD-WAN solution, one of the key choices will be who will implement and manage it.For some enterprises this is a relatively straightforward decision; for others the choice may require more deliberation. In either case, best-practice sourcing dictates that this decision be made up front – to achieve exceptional results, the sourcing strategy, approach and execution following must be tailored to the desired self-managed or fully-managed solution. [ Also see What to consider when deploying a next generation firewall. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]
If you have a strong and sufficiently sized internal networking team with associated software/routing and other engineering competencies, taking on the implementation of SD-WAN is more than feasible. There may still need to be development of new skill-sets to take advantage of the technology and fully understand the flavor of SD-WAN chosen.To read this article in full, please click here
Networking tools for Windows are typically command-line programs or desktop applications. Under Windows 10, there’s a third format: apps that you download from the online Microsoft Store.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Software-defined WAN traffic is exploding, and so is the number of technology providers competing for enterprise SD-WAN customers. Here are some key issues to consider as IT pros investigate SD-WAN deployment options and weigh the importance of features such as application prioritization, multicloud support and integrated network security.SD-WAN technologies and services are designed to combine multiple physical WAN links into one logical network and provide traffic prioritization to accelerate application performance. Using network abstraction, SD-WAN improves the economics of branch connectivity by enabling organizations to leverage inexpensive circuits, such as the Internet, to address growing bandwidth requirements. SD-WAN is relatively easy to deploy and manage as it maps new services – application prioritization, security, management – on top of existing physical networks.To read this article in full, please click here
It’s not necessarily easy to pick the coolest and wackiest tech stories of the year, especially when you have so much to choose from. Rather than trying to be all- inclusive as we have done in the past, see (here and here and here) we have tried to more “exclusive.” Have fun!To read this article in full, please click here
Some kinds of data should be encoded onto an inaudible, near-ultrasound layer placed on top of normal, audible sounds — a process that could rapidly scale Internet of Things (IoT) adoption, says startup Trillbit.The company says that by doing that kind of overlay, any microphone and speaker is turned into a data-transfer device that then could be used for payments transfers, user authentication, and smart city applications such as digital locks.“There is no common universal protocol to connect Internet of Things,” Trillbit explains on its website. “Speakers [and microphones], which are already in place, and all around us” could perform connections.To read this article in full, please click here
Technology expense-management (TEM) is a service that is of ever-increasing importance to enterprise buyers because it touches on virtually all aspects of the technology lifecycle.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Cisco foresees a massive buildup of IP traffic – 4.8 zettabytes per year by 2022, which is over three-times the 2017 rate – lead by the increased use of IoT device traffic, video and sheer number of new users coming onboard. The company also says there will be 4.8 billion Internet users by 2022, up from 3.4 billion in 2017.Those predictions are from Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, its annual look at the state of the Internet culled from actual network traffic reports and independent analyst forecasts.To read this article in full, please click here
HPE is offering new Edgeline Converged Edge System hardware and software designed to let enterprises not only control machines in their facilities, but also manage and analyze the sea of data generated by devices and sensors at the edge network.The new software lets enterprise network managers and data-center administrators merge data from a variety of third-party applications and remotely manage as many as thousands of Edgeline hardware systems, which are capable of running unmodified enterprise applications, HPE said at its Discover Conference in Madrid Tuesday.To read this article in full, please click here
HPE is targeting a new class of storage it calls Memory-Driven Flash at enterprise data centers that are increasingly being called on to handle real-time analytics, high-speed transactions, big data and AI workloads that demand more storage performance than ever before.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
IDG
Software, software, and more software. That seems to be the mantra for Cisco in 2019 as the company pushes software-defined WANs, cloud partnerships, improved application programs, and its over-arching drive to sell more subscription-based software licenses.As the year closed on Cisco’s first quarter 2019 financials, the company was indeed touting its software growth, saying subscriptions were 57 percent of total software revenue, up five points year over year, and its application software businesses was up 18 percent to $1.42 billion. The company also said its security business, which is mostly software, rose 11 percent year over year to $651 million.To read this article in full, please click here
Delivering global SD-WAN is very different from delivering local networks. Local networks offer complete control to the end-to-end design, enabling low-latency and predictable connections. There might still be blackouts and brownouts but you’re in control and can troubleshoot accordingly with appropriate visibility.With global SD-WANs, though, managing the middle-mile/backbone performance and managing the last-mile are, well shall we say, more challenging. Most SD-WAN vendors don’t have control over these two segments, which affects application performance and service agility.In particular, an issue that SD-WAN appliance vendors often overlook is the management of the last-mile. With multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), the provider assumes the responsibility, but this is no longer the case with SD-WAN. Getting the last-mile right is challenging for many global SD-WANs.To read this article in full, please click here
Every now and then, the industry gets hit with a “huh?” acquisition, like Facebook buying virtual reality headset maker Oculus or chipmaker Broadcom acquiring mainframe software vendor CA.Last week’s news from Oracle was also up there, with the announcement it plans to acquire Talari Networks, a software-defined networking (SDN) specialist, by the end of the year.It would seem an odd pairing, but Oracle has a considerable communications software business of mostly brokers, controllers, and monitors. In announcing the deal, the company said Talari would complement Oracle’s Session Border Controller (SBC) and network management infrastructure by adding high availability, Quality-of-Experience (QoE) connectivity, and cloud application access across any IP network with the reliability and predictability of private networks.To read this article in full, please click here
Today's threat landscape consists of skilled, organized and well-funded bad actors. They have many goals including exfiltrating sensitive data for political or economic motives. To combat these multiple threats, the cybersecurity market is required to expand at an even greater rate.The IT leaders must evolve their security framework if they want to stay ahead of the cyber threats. The evolution in security we are witnessing has a tilt towards the Zero-Trust model and the software-defined perimeter (SDP), also called a “Black Cloud”. The principle of its design is based on the need-to-know model.The Zero-Trust model says that anyone attempting to access a resource must be authenticated and be authorized first. Users cannot connect to anything since unauthorized resources are invisible, left in the dark. For additional protection, the Zero-Trust model can be combined with machine learning (ML) to discover the risky user behavior. Besides, it can be applied for conditional access.To read this article in full, please click here
Unauthorized interception of DNS traffic provides enough information to ascertain internet users’ thoughts, desires, hopes and dreams. Not only is there concern for privacy from nearby nosey neighbors, but governments and corporations could use that information to learn about individuals’ internet behavior and use it to profile them and their organization for political purposes or target them with ads. To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Dell EMC has one of the broadest networking portfolios in the industry. What’s unique about Dell EMC’s approach is that it's a mix of its own technology, as well as network partners. Also, it offers traditional hardware products and software-only products and supports white-box implementation. As an industry watcher, I’ve always been confused by the strategy of Dell EMC Networking. I know I’m not alone in this, as other network professionals I’ve talked to have echoed this sentiment.Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with Tom Burns, senior vice president and general manager of Dell EMC Networking and Solutions, about the company's networking portfolio and asked if he could clarify what is included in it.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco is making it possible to run, manage, automate and secure wired and wireless networks all on top of a single operating system.Key to the company's next step in operational efficiency is a new Catalyst 9000 switch, the 802.11ax-ready 9800 Wireless LAN Controller family which is available in an on-premises chassis or as a software addition that can be run on select Catalyst 9000 switches or a private or public cloud, Cisco said.[ Related: Getting grounded in intent-based networking]
High-Efficiency Wireless or 802.11ax promises a fourfold increase in average throughput per user and is designed to handle high-density public environments. But it also will be beneficial in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, in heavy-usage homes, in apartment buildings and in offices that use bandwidth-hogging applications like videoconferencing.To read this article in full, please click here
Looking to help customers batten down the edge, Cisco is marrying its software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) software with security features while boosting support for cloud services.Many times SD-WAN customers have been forced to choose between adding more security to their SD-WAN at the expense of application performance or vice-versa, said Ramesh Prabagaran senior director of product management at Cisco.To read this article in full, please click here