A team founded by PhD researchers who studied some of the first instantiations of software defined networking at Stanford University have a new startup named Forward Networks that help users understand network behavior while protecting and predicting how changes will impact the system.The key to Forward Networks' technology is an algorithm developed at Stanford that allows a software copy of a network to be created. Using this copy, users can run tests on it before implementing changes into production and identify the cause of a problem when something is wrong, says CEO David Erickson.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What you need to know about Microservices +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At a time when the size of distributed denial-of-service attacks has reached unprecedented levels, researchers have found a new attack technique in the wild that allows a single laptop to take down high-bandwidth enterprise firewalls.The attack, dubbed BlackNurse, involves sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets of a particular type and code. ICMP is commonly used for the ping network diagnostic utility, and attacks that try to overload a system with ping messages -- known as ping floods -- use ICMP Type 8 Code 0 packets.BlackNurse uses ICMP Type 3 (Destination Unreachable) Code 3 (Port Unreachable) packets instead and some firewalls consume a lot of CPU resources when processing them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Having worked on Wall Street for many years, I’m a big believer in extracting the biggest return on technology investments. After all, anything that impacts the bottom line should be thoroughly analyzed from all sides of the value equation.
Now more than ever, CIOs are being scrutinized for their ability to increase ROI while driving innovation and digital transformations. According to more than 3,000 CIOs and technology leaders gathered for the 2016 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey, the role of today’s CIO is being stretched in many directions amid shifting priorities and pressures. + Also on Network World: Network World annual State of the Network survey results +
More CIOs report directly to CEOs than at any time in the past decade, rising 10 percent in the past year to 34 percent of the survey respondents. And, while 37 percent of the CIOs surveyed are still focused on saving money, almost two-thirds are helping CEOs identify IT projects that generate revenue. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The demand from Internet of Things, automotive networking and video applications are driving changes to Ethernet technology that will make it more time-sensitive.Key to those changes are a number of developing standards but also a push this week from the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory to set up three new industry specific Ethernet Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) consortiums – Automotive Networking, Industrial Networking, and ProAV Networking aimed at developing deterministic performance within standard Ethernet for real-time, mission critical applications.+More on Network World: IEEE sets new Ethernet standard that brings 5X the speed without disruptive cable changes+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a perfect example of how public wireless networks can be dangerous for privacy and security, an Israeli hacker showed that he could have taken over the free Wi-Fi network of an entire city.On his way home from work one day, Amihai Neiderman, the head of research at Israeli cybersecurity firm Equus Technologies, spotted a wireless hotspot that he hadn't seen before. What made it unusual was that it was in an area with no buildings.It turned out that the hotspot he saw, advertised as "FREE_TLV," was part of the citywide free Wi-Fi network set up by the local administration of Tel Aviv, Israel. This made Neiderman wonder: How secure is it?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This bias lighting strip, currently discounted by 64% on Amazon from $49.99 down to just $17.99, reduces eye-strain caused by differences in picture brightness from scene to scene in movies, shows and games, by adding a subtle backlight to your monitor or TV. The LED lights can be changed with up to 20 color selections customizing and setting the mood of your workspace. The strip is easy to install and can be cut to size and plugs directly in the USB port of the TV or monitor. Just Plug-and-play!To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
InfiniBand is set to hit 200Gbps (bits per second) in products that were announced Thursday, potentially accelerating machine-learning platforms as well as HPC (high-performance computing) systems.The massive computing performance of new servers equipped with GPUs calls for high network speeds, and these systems are quickly being deployed to handle machine-learning tasks, Dell’Oro Group analyst Sameh Boujelbene said.So-called HDR InfiniBand, which will be generally available next year in three sets of products from Mellanox Technologies, will double the top speed of InfiniBand. It will also have twice the top speed of Ethernet.But the high-performance crowd that’s likely to adopt this new interconnect is a small one, Boujelbene said. Look for the top 10 percent of InfiniBand users, who already use 100Gbps InfiniBand, to jump on the new stuff, she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Modular and open-source are now the watchwords for network infrastructure, whether you’re delivering internet connections or VR cat videos.On Tuesday at the Structure 2016 conference in San Francisco, Facebook announced its most powerful modular data-center switch yet, and AT&T gave an update on its huge migration from dedicated servers to a software-based architecture.Once the same kind of hardware can do different things in a network, everyone gets more freedom to accomplish what needs to get done.That’s true for Facebook, which built on its own switch innovations and software stack in the new Backpack switch, and for AT&T, which says enterprises can now order and turn on services in 90 seconds instead of 90 days. Agility is also the key selling point for cloud companies like Google, which hopes its customers can ignore hardware altogether in a few years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Starting carrier services like routing and security is getting faster and easier thanks to a new way of deploying them that doesn’t require specialized equipment at customer’s sites.The new approach, called virtualized business services, lets various carrier services run on standard infrastructure at either customer sites or service-provider facilities. Because the services are virtual, companies can order and change them quickly, and they won’t get locked into whatever capabilities come with a particular device.On Monday, Orange Business Services launched its virtualized network services program, called Easy Go Network. It joins AT&T, Verizon and other operators that are selling or developing such programs. Easy Go Network is available as a month-to-month subscription and its launch follows a year-long customer trial. Orange Business Services claims more than 3,000 multinational organizations as customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Best Deals of the Week, October 31st - November 4thCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of October 24th. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted.43% off NETGEAR AC750 WiFi Range ExtenderBoost the range of your existing WiFi and create a stronger signal in hard-to-reach areas with a WiFi range extender like this one from Netgear, which is highly rated and currently discounted 43% on Amazon. . This compact AC750 wall-plug WiFi booster delivers AC dual band WiFi up to 750 Mbps, and is small and discreet, easily blending into your home decor. Well over 13,000 people have reviewed the AC750 on Amazon (read reviews) and have given it an average of 4 out of 5 stars. Right now its list price of $70 has been reduced to $40. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A virtual private network is a secure tunnel between two or more computers on the internet, allowing them to access each other as if on a local network. In the past, VPNs were mainly used by companies to securely link remote branches together or connect roaming employees to the office network, but today they're an important service for consumers too, protecting them from attacks when they connect to public wireless networks. Given their importance, here's what you need to know about VPNs:VPNs are good for your privacy and securityOpen wireless networks pose a serious risk to users, because attackers sitting on the same networks can use various techniques to sniff web traffic and even hijack accounts on websites that don't use the HTTPS security protocol. In addition, some Wi-Fi network operators intentionally inject ads into web traffic, and these could lead to unwanted tracking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cloud computing is throwing more variables into network performance, but it’s also helping to make network management smarter.
Nyansa, a startup that launched earlier this year with a cloud-based service to pinpoint the sources of enterprise network problems, is now adding the ability to analyze how individual applications are performing.
The company's original Voyance service uses a software crawler to capture data about how traffic is flowing over the network and how each piece of infrastructure – such as a router or a Wi-Fi access point -- affects that performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Everybody wants to be a winner. One way to get there is to follow the leaders.In networking these days, big cloud companies like Google and Facebook are at the top of their game. They run giant data centers, continually launch and modify large-scale applications, and don’t seem to be bound to big system vendors. Many ordinary enterprises would love what the internet heavyweights have: standardized networks that can support any application without administrators having to configure a lot of proprietary hardware.Conveniently, some of those cutting-edge companies offer parts of their technology to others through open-source specifications. But there are limits to how well a company in the insurance or machine-tool business can emulate world-changing tech giants. It turns out no one can just become Google, at least not overnight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The cloud has made it dead simple to quickly spin up a new server without waiting for IT. But the ease of deploying new servers -- and the democratic nature of cloud management -- can be a security nightmare, as a simple configuration error or administrative mistake can compromise the security of your organization's entire cloud environment.With sensitive data increasingly heading to the cloud, how your organization secures its instances and overall cloud infrastructure is of paramount importance. Cloud providers, like Amazon, secure the server hardware your instances run on, but the security of the cloud infrastructure your organization sets up on that infrastructure is all on you. A broad array of built-in security services and third-party tools are available to secure practically any workload, but you have to know how to use them. And it all starts with proper configuration.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
News of Broadcom buying Brocade for an estimated $5.5 billion comes with some caveats: Most notably, chipmaker Broadcom isn’t planning to keep Brocade’s Ethernet business. So what will happen to it?When announcing the deal, Broadcom made its plans to sell Brocade’s IP networking business clear. “Broadcom, with the support of Brocade, plans to divest Brocade’s IP Networking business, consisting of wireless and campus networking, data center switching and routing, and software networking solutions,” the press release states.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The still-fragmented internet of things is slowly converging on protocols that may someday work in both homes and enterprises.The latest move to standardize how IoT devices talk to each other is a push by the Thread Group into industrial and commercial systems. Its Thread protocol, with roots in Alphabet’s Nest division, defines a low-power wireless mesh network. The organization hopes Thread will bring systems with proprietary network technologies into the Internet Protocol world, letting companies leverage their existing IP skills and technologies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chip maker Broadcom wants to buy storage vendor Brocade Communications Systems, stripping out its Fibre Channel business and selling the rest.
Broadcom has agreed to pay around US$5.5 billion for Brocade, it said Wednesday.
But it doesn't want all of it: After the deal closes -- between May and October 2017, Broadcom hopes -- it plans to sell off Brocade's IP-based wireless and campus networking, data center switching and routing, and software networking products.
The bit Broadcom wants to keep, Brocade's Fibre Channel SAN business, is in for a challenging time as enterprises turn to cloud storage and hyperconverged infrastructures. Fibre Channel doesn't play well in the virtualized SANs that hyperconvergence entails.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Does your home office Wi-Fi router's lackluster performance hamper your productivity? Do you constantly deal with wireless connectivity issues that drive you crazy? And do the problems get worse as you add more wireless devices to the network? If you answered yes to any of these questions, an upgrade of your aging, overloaded Wi-Fi router may be the only guaranteed solution.Before you buy that bargain basement router or even splurge on the most expensive model, it's wise to make sure you understand the technologies behind your in-home wireless so you can pick the best router for your workspace or small office.Making sense of Wi-Fi standards and technologies
Mobile devices that support Wi-Fi today conform to the 802.11 family of protocols for wireless communication. That family includes the trusted 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g standards, and newer Wi-Fi devices support the much faster 802.11n and 802.11ac, as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems is making a play for the fundamental process of putting IoT devices online, promising greater ease of use and security as enterprises prepare to deploy potentially millions of connected objects.Thanks to a dominant position in Internet Protocol networks, Cisco can do what no other company can: Change networks that were not designed for IoT in order to pave the way for a proliferation of devices, said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of the IoT & Applications Group.“The internet as we know it today, and the network that you operate, will not work for the internet of things,” Trollope said in a keynote presentation at the Cisco Partner Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday. “We can solve that problem because we own the network.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Ring Video Doorbell is the world's first battery-operated, Wi-Fi enabled, HD video doorbell. The device enables homeowners to see and speak with visitors from anywhere in the world by streaming live audio and video of a home's front doorstep directly to the free iOS or Android app. The doorbell's built-in motion sensors detect movement up to 30 feet, and HD video recording stores all recorded footage to the cloud which can be accessed via the Ring app. The Ring Doorbell is quick and easy to set up as it mounts and syncs in minutes and has a built in battery, however, it can also be powered through your existing doorbell wires. Over 11,000 people have reviewed the Ring Video Doorbell on Amazon (read reviews) and have given it an average of 4 out of 5 stars. Right now its list price of $199 has been reduced to $160. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here