AT&T’s march toward standard “white-box” network gear will come to enterprises this week with the introduction of a standard x86 server that can take the place of four specialized network devices.
AT&T is aggressively pursuing SDN and NFV (network functions virtualization), a pair of technologies that are expected to change the face of networking over the next several years. The carrier is on track to have nearly one-third of its own infrastructure virtualized this year. More important for enterprises, it’s offering customers a way to do the same thing at their own locations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When it comes to drones, AT&T wants to be in the driver’s seat.The massive U.S. carrier is already using drones to inspect its cell towers and may someday put cells on drones to boost service at big events. But it’s also eyeing a major role in the way others use drones.At the heart of it all is AT&T’s network, technology executives from the company said Friday at AT&T’s Shape conference in San Francisco. They see the network as a future backbone for command and control of drones or even a drone traffic management system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems released patches this week for several vulnerabilities in its IOS software for networking devices and the Cisco and WebEx conferencing servers.The most serious vulnerability affects the Cisco IOS XR software for the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 6000 Series Routers. It can lead to a denial-of-service condition, leaving affected devices in a nonoperational state.Unauthenticated, remote attackers can exploit the vulnerability by initiating a number of management connections to an affected device over the Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) or Secure FTP (SFTP).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Imagine sitting courtside at game seven of the NBA finals without having to pay the reported $99,000 someone spent on two tickets last month. Or imagine watching that same game in the stadium, and live statistics pop up on your connected glasses that show a certain player is approaching a triple-double—without having to take your eyes off the action.
If you think either seem unrealistic, you probably didn’t think you’d be bumping into people chasing virtual Pokémon around the streets, did you?
+ Also on Network World: Amazon CTO says cloud can help crashing Pokemon Go +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live!CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live! as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading
Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live.CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading
Juniper Networks has fixed several vulnerabilities in the Junos operating system used on its networking and security appliances, including a flaw that could allow hackers to gain administrative access to affected devices.The most serious vulnerability, rated 9.8 out of 10 in the Common Vulnerability Scoring System, is located in the J-Web interface, which allows administrators to monitor, configure, troubleshoot and manage routers running Junos OS. The issue is an information leak that could allow unauthenticated users to gain admin privileges to the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s time to face facts: Attackers are stealthy enough to evade your monitoring systems. If you’re sitting back waiting for alarms to go off, there’s a good chance you’re already hosed.Despite spending more than $75 billion on security products and services, enterprises are frequently compromised, highly sensitive data is stolen, and the fallout can be devastating. Worse, enterprises don’t discover they’ve been breached for weeks to months after initial compromise, taking between 120 to 200 days on average to even detect an attack. That’s a six-month head start on reconnaissance and exploitation -- more time on your network than most of your recent hires.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Looking to help business customers ensure their Software Defined Networking products and applications work and perform properly, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) this week said it would form consortium to perform controller and switch interoperability, conformance and benchmark testing.
The Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Consortium expects to open for business August 1 and the 28,000 square foot lab will be working with Spirent Communications and Ixia to develop performance tests said Timothy Winters, UNH-IOL Senior Executive, Software and IP Networking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Glue Networks used the Cisco Live conference in Las Vegas this week to announce what CEO Jeff Gray describes as the “first multi-vendor software defined network orchestration platform focused on end-to-end automation, all the way from the data center across the WAN as well as the LAN.”While Software Defined Networking promised to simplify the management of network devices by centralizing control, Gray argues the SDN tools are still vendor specific: “Juniper has their controller, Cisco has theirs, Brocade, you name it. It’s hard enough to automate and build orchestration for a single vendor, but now customers have these different vendor islands and they need a consistent layer of automation across them to plug into their existing workflow systems, monitoring tools, ITSM workflows, IP addressing systems, etc. That’s the gap in the network world we’re solving.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The APC Surge Arrest Performance series from APC offers the highest level of protection for your professional computers, electronics and connected devices, as well as provides surge protection for all of your data lines. The P11VT3 features 11 heavy duty outlets. Telephone and coax cable line surge suppression jacks are available to protect against dangerous surges traveling along data lines. Wiring Fault LED proactively notifies you of potentially dangerous building wiring conditions. Additional features like a ten foot power cord, safety shutters, status indicator, cord management, lifetime equipment protection policy and more make this their most complete surge offering. Over 1,100 customers on Amazon rate this item 4.5 out of 5 stars (read reviews) and Amazon indicates that its typical list price of $39.99 has been reduced by 40% to just $23.99. See this item now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Today is Amazon's biggest event of the year – Prime Day. As you read this, over 100,000 products have been dramatically discounted for today only. Laptops, cell phones, gadgets, gear, and everything in-between has been slashed up to 40% or more. You need to be a Prime member to access the deals, but a free trial of Prime - Sign up here - gets you access just the same. Jump over to Amazon and explore the seemingly endless list of products on sale right now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Switching networking providers is no small task but it wasn't really an option for Pattonair CIO Brian Long. Growing 16 percent year-over-year, the provider of nuts and bolts for airline engines was regularly adding new offices worldwide to serve its customers. It needed to have these new sites up and running quickly but its MPLS network provider Verizon was not willing to move at the speed Pattonair required, Long says.
Pattonair CIO Brian Long.
"It was a really good service once [the network circuit] was in," Long says of Verizon's MPLS service. "But if you wanted to be a dynamic business and quickly open up new locations and change capacities it was just a nightmare." Long says he soon got the sense that "we were an account number in their database and we just couldn't get the support that we needed."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Many computer users don't realize it, but for most people their internet router is the most important electronic device in their home. It links most of their other devices together and to the world, so it has a highly privileged position that hackers can exploit.Unfortunately many consumer and small-business routers come with insecure default configurations, have undocumented backdoor accounts, expose legacy services and have firmware that is riddled with basic flaws. Some of these problems can't be fixed by users, but there are many actions that can be taken to at least protect these devices from large-scale, automated attacks.Don't let your router be a low-hanging fruit for hackers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Two decades ago, the core was the place to be in campus networking. The networking battles of the 1990s concluded with the edge specialists humbled and assimilated by core product lines. Control the core, we declared, and the edge will fall into place.But now the edge is fruitful, and the core is sterile—and for two reasons. First, the wireless interface adds mobility and complexity to the edge. Second, the new architectures of software-defined networking (SDN) and IoT are based on centralized models that take sensed information, manipulate a software representation of the network, then send control signals back to network nodes. Nodes are peers under the controller. Their importance is based on the quantity and quality of the information they can report, as well as the sophistication of the control they can apply.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The world’s largest social network today announced that it will launch OpenCellular, a mobile infrastructure platform designed to lower barriers to entry for would-be providers of internet service to the developing world.OpenCellular, in essence, is designed to be a customizable base chassis for a wireless access point, able to connect devices using 2G, LTE or even Wi-Fi. Facebook said that the emphasis in the design process was on keeping the design as modular and inexpensive as possible, as well as making it easy to deploy.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Boston is nation’s top tech-talent exporter + Antivirus merger: Avast offers $1.3 billion for AVGTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The AC1900 router from TP-LINK supports 802.11ac, the latest Wi-Fi tech. It operates on the 5GHz band as well as 2.4 for older devices. Dual USB 3.0 and 2.0 let you easily share files and media across your network. The AC1900 strives to create a stronger, faster and more reliable network that efficiently manages many connected devices simultaneously. Amazon currently has it listed for 24% off its typical list price of $170, so you can buy it now for $130. Over 2,700 customers rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars (read reviews). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Live, the world’s largest network event, kicks off next week in Las Vegas. Every year at the conference, Cisco and many of its technology partners announce new products or features that hopefully capture the attention of Cisco’s customers. ThousandEyes put some news out ahead of the event by announcing it uses Linux containers to run its network performance monitoring (NPM) software to track Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISR) and Aggregation Service Routers (ASR).+ Also on Network World: Annual State of the Network survey results +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While channel surfing recently I landed on a reality TV show where people bid on abandoned homes without knowing what’s inside. Occasionally, something of true value is found—maybe even something that might make the new owners wealthy. One might say that something like this happened when Avaya acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) in 2009.Comparatively, Avaya inherited rooms upon rooms where old Aunt Norty had stashed the detritus of her life. There were, however, many treasures. One find, known today as the company’s SDN Fx™ Architecture, might be compared to a Picasso found stashed away in the attic. That’s the good news.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A recently discovered vulnerability in a D-Link network camera that allows attackers to remotely take over the device also exists in more than 120 other D-Link products.The vulnerability was initially discovered a month ago by researchers from security start-up firm Senrio in D-Link DCS-930L, a Wi-Fi enabled camera that can be controlled remotely through a smartphone app.The flaw, a stack overflow, is located in a firmware service called dcp, which listens to commands on port 5978. Attackers can trigger the overflow by sending specifically crafted commands and then can execute rogue code on the system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here