In several of my previous posts, I’ve connected the dots between digital transformation and the need for IT to evolve. IT professionals need new technologies, tools and processes to meet the demands of the digital era. This often requires a willingness to do things that were never the norm in previous technology eras.One of the biggest changes that IT must accept is the willingness to automate processes. Whenever I have spoken to IT professionals in the past, particularly network engineers, the reaction to automation tools has been somewhat tepid. As a former network engineer, I can relate. I want to control everything so that I know things are done correctly and everything is operating as it should.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The explosion of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in recent years can put enterprise computers at risk due to name conflicts between internal domain names used inside corporate networks and those that can now be registered on the public Internet.Many companies have configured their networks to use domain names, in many cases with made-up TLDs that a few years ago didn't use to exist on the Internet, such as .office, .global, .network, .group, .school and many others. Having an internal domain-based namespace makes it easier to locate, manage and access systems.The problem is that over the past two years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved over 900 gTLDs for public use as part of an expansion effort. This can have unexpected security implications for applications and protocols used on domain-based corporate networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you manage your whole LAN in the cloud, why not add in the desk phones, too?That's what Cisco's Meraki division has done. Its first phone, the MC74, can be managed on the same dashboard Meraki provides for its switches, Wi-Fi access points, security devices, and other infrastructure.Cisco bought Meraki in 2012 when it was a startup focused on cloud-managed Wi-Fi. The wireless gear remains, but Cisco took the cloud management concept and ran with it. Now Meraki’s approach is the model for Cisco’s whole portfolio.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's been nearly 20 years since Wi-Fi made its debut, and one of its most significant innovations to date is now beginning to spread: MU-MIMO, an optional feature in Wave 2 of the emerging 802.11ac wireless standard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
There’s an inside joke in the software-defined networking industry that “SDN” stands for “still done nothing.” People say that because despite the tremendous hype around SDN, many customers remain confused about what it is, how to deploy it and what the benefits are. This is particularly true in the data center where the stakes are high and any kind of mistake can cost an organization millions of dollars.About 21 months ago, Cisco launched its Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) solution and threw its hat in the SDN ring. In practicality, ACI is a much broader solution. It uses the principles of SDNs but deals with much more than the network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Routers and other wireless devices made by Ubiquiti Networks have recently been infected by a worm that exploits a year-old remote unauthorized access vulnerability.The attack highlights one of the major issues with router security: the fact that the vast majority of them do not have an auto update mechanism and that their owners hardly ever update them manually.The worm creates a backdoor administrator account on vulnerable devices and then uses them to scan for and infect other devices on the same and other networks."This is an HTTP/HTTPS exploit that doesn't require authentication," Ubiquiti said in an advisory. "Simply having a radio on outdated firmware and having its http/https interface exposed to the Internet is enough to get infected."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems has fixed four denial-of-service vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to cause Web Security Appliance devices to stop processing traffic correctly.The Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA) is a line of security devices that inspect Web traffic going in and out of an organization in order to detect malware, prevent data leaks, and enforce Internet access policies for users and applications. The devices run an operating system called Cisco AsyncOS.One of the four DoS vulnerabilities fixed Wednesday by Cisco stems from how the OS handles a specific HTTP response code. An attacker could send a specifically crafted HTTP request in order to consume the entire memory of an affected device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Economic uncertainty is still putting a damper on some network spending, and that won't change in the next few months, Cisco Systems said Wednesday.The dominant networking vendor reported slightly higher sales for the three months ended April 30 but said enterprises remained cautious about replacing LANs that still work. That continues a trend the company identified in February, the last time it posted financial results.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 15 more useful Cisco sites
At that time, Cisco cited January's stock-market fluctuations. Stocks have regained ground since then, but orders for campus network gear haven’t rebounded, CEO Chuck Robbins said Wednesday. Overall switching revenue was down 3 percent in the quarter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Forget that bass; in the digital world, it’s all about that bandwidth. You’re paying your ISP for a given amount of bandwidth, but it’s up to you to manage how it’s consumed. Whether or not you have a data cap—and even if your data cap is high enough that you never bang into it—simply letting all the devices on your network engage in a battle for supremacy is a recipe for problems.You could experience poor video streaming, choppy VoIP calls, or debilitating lag in your online gaming sessions. And if you do have a data cap (and yes, they are evil), blowing through it can hit you in the pocketbook, expose you to throttling (where your ISP drastically, if temporarily, reduces your connection speed), or both.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ed Meyercord just wrapped up his first year as the top executive of Extreme Networks, a company that helped launch the gigabit Ethernet market 20 years ago. In this installment of the IDG CEO Interview Series, Meyercord spoke with Chief Content Officer John Gallant about how Extreme is capitalizing on its acquisition of Enterasys Networks and the company’s tighter focus on the mid-tier of the network market. He outlined how Extreme’s hands-on customer service is spurring growth and how having a wired-wireless-software ‘solution’ set is opening up new opportunities among Cisco and HP customers.
Ed Meyercord, CEO, Extreme NetworksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After meeting with U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez yesterday, Verizon and union leaders representing some 40,000 striking workers agreed to continue stalled contract negotiations with the assistance of a federal mediator who has on her resume decades of experience as general counsel for a major union. From a U.S. Department of Labor press release:“The parties involved in the Verizon labor dispute, including the senior leadership of the unions and the company and their bargaining teams, met today in Washington with Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Allison Beck, an experienced federal mediator who the parties agreed today would assist in the ongoing contract negotiations. Discussions will continue in Washington this week under the auspices of the Department of Labor.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
BOSTON -- The head of the leading cable trade group feels like the federal government is trying to pick winners and losers.Michael Powell, president and CEO of NCTA, the organization representing firms like Comcast and Cox in Washington, argues that federal regulators have been pursuing policies that would create a two-tier regulatory regime that favors Internet firms over the telecom providers that deliver broadband and cable access services."What I believe is most troubling is an emerging government view that the communication market is bifurcated and should be regulated differently -- Internet companies are nurtured and allowed to run free, but network providers are disparagingly labeled 'gatekeepers' that should be shackled," Powell said in a keynote address at NCTA's annual Internet and TV conference. "The implications of this world view go far beyond how it affects one industry."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. has warned of fragmentation of the Internet if China goes ahead with proposed rules that would require compulsory registration of Internet domain names in China through government-licensed providers.The regulations for the administration of Internet domain names would also forbid the registration of websites containing any one of nine categories of broadly and vaguely defined prohibited content, and create a blacklist of ‘forbidden characters’ in the registration of domain names, “adding an extra layer of control to China’s Great Firewall,” two top U.S. officials in charge of Internet policy and administration, wrote in a statement Monday. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Representing a rare hopeful sign in what is now an acrimonious month-long work stoppage, Verizon management and some 40,000 striking employees have agreed to return to the bargaining table tomorrow after the weekend intervention of U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.
From a Department of Labor press release:
Today, Secretary Perez met at the U.S. Labor Department with Lowell McAdam, chairman and CEO of Verizon; Chris Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America; and Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The parties had an open, frank and constructive dialogue about finding a comprehensive way forward to resolve disputed issues and get people back to work. The parties agreed to return to the bargaining table on Tuesday to continue their discussion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New home Wi-Fi routers have some impressive advanced features to help boost speed, range and capacity. Network World Lab Alliance member David Newman explains how beamforming and MU-MIMO technologies work in the latest Wi-Fi routers.
Yesterday we noted the light sentence given a Westborough, Mass., man who entombed a Verizon worker in an underground utility shed in 2013. Today comes news that another Verizon worker picketing in that same small town was struck by a pickup truck operated by a replacement worker who police say was driving on a suspended Florida license … allegedly while intoxicated … at just past 8 o’clock Thursday morning.From an entry on the Westborough Police Department’s Facebook page:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Internet is all-encompassing. Between mobile devices and work computers, we live our lives on it -- but our online existence has been tragically compromised by inadequate security. Any determined hacker can eavesdrop on what we say, impersonate us, and perform all manner of malicious activities.Clearly, Internet security needs to be rethought. Retrofitting security and privacy controls onto a global communications platform is not easy, but few would argue that it's less than absolutely necessary.[ Deep Dive: How to rethink security for the new world of IT. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security newsletter. ]
Why should that be? Was the Internet built badly? No, but it was designed for a utopian world where you can trust people. When the fledgling Internet was populated by academics and researchers communicating with trusted parties, it didn’t matter that trust relationships weren’t well-implemented or communications weren’t secure by default. Today it matters very much, to the point where data breaches, identity theft, and other compromises have reached crisis levels.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Because no one was physically injured or worse, headline writers such as yours truly felt able to characterize the August 2013 incident thusly: “Verizon worker thankful 911 operator could hear him now.”
Today the 73-year-old Massachusetts man who perpetrated the criminal act against that Verizon worker must be equally thankful that a lenient judge has sentenced him to only a year of probation plus an apparently long-overdue anger management class.
From a story in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Thread, an open wireless protocol for the Internet of things, is getting a boost from one of its biggest boosters, Google-owned Nest Labs.
An IPv6 networking protocol built on the 802.15.4 mesh networking standard, Thread is designed to connect hundreds of low-power devices to one other and to the cloud.
While the protocol is open, anyone wanting to build Thread-compatible devices had to roll their own software stack implementing it -- until now.
Late Wednesday, Nest published the source code for its implementation of the Thread protocol, OpenThread, on Github under a three-clause BSD license, allowing anyone to reuse, modify or redistribute it in source or binary form.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dell may be the largest tech company to ever go private, but it is by no means the only vendor that has decided it would be better off to pursue strategic options without the constant second guessing of public investors. To learn more about the trend, Network World Editor in Chief John Dix talked with Seth Boro, a Managing Partner at private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which has taken Riverbed, Dynatrace and many other network companies private, and with Kevin Thompson, CEO of SolarWinds, a supplier of IT management tools that Thoma Bravo helped take private in a $4.5 billion deal last February. Below is the interview with Boro. Click here for the interview with Thompson from SolarWinds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here