While some organizations continue to make use of WAN services such as Frame Relay and ATM, the use of those services is quickly diminishing. As a result, we are rapidly approaching a time when IT organizations will have only two WAN services to choose from: MPLS and the Internet. Given that trend, a key question facing network organizations is how to best design a branch office WAN using just those two services.Location of functionality
Abogado states that security in the branch will evolve from a model that relies on the perimeter approach to a multi-layered model that requires embedding security into all branch technologies. The philosophy behind this change is that administrators will have to make the “trust" zone an “untrust” zone, since attacks can come from any vector, including inside the branch. He believes that a single layer of encryption is probably insufficient, and that IT organizations should consider encryption at both the application and network layers. Increased branch deployment of network and data segmentation are also key technologies that will support the multi-layer security model.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from regulating broadband pricing under its net neutrality rules.The No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act would limit the FCC's authority over prices after the agency reclassified broadband as a regulated telecom service when it passed net neutrality rules in February 2015. The bill passed 241-173 Friday, with only five Democrats voting for it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the amount of enterprise network traffic to and from Asia Pacific due to globalization. In my recent visit to the region, I engaged in some interesting discussions around the WAN. For example, one of the biggest costs for large financial institutions are point-to-point dedicated leased lines between their regional and global offices called International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC). These circuits are typically provided by a carrier to offer auto re-routable network for maximum uptime and data protection.One of my recommendations to executives I spoke with was to consider the internet as an alternate transport. The typical response I received was, “I’m not conformable moving my real-time applications to the Internet because of its best effort model and lack of quality of service.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Marine Corps intends to protect its networks and communications with a new cyberspace operations team. Notably, the organization said its new unit will have an “offensive” element.“The Marine Corps is seeing the need for defense of its networks and communications,” a press release on the Marines Corps’ website explained. That will include “what can we do to hinder an enemy,” said Sgt. Brian Mueller, a digital network exploitation analyst with the new Marine Corps Cyberspace Warfare Group (MCCYWG), in the release. He is referring to the “offensive” element.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Jennifer Rexford, a professor of engineering and Computer Science Department chair at Princeton University, has been named the 2016-17 Athena Lecturer by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Council on Women in Computing in honor of her contributions to computer science.The Princeton and University of Michigan grad was recognized for her work in improving Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and for contributions that have paved the way for software-defined networks (SDNs). Before joining Princeton’s faculty, Rexford worked for AT&T Labs on Internet measurements and traffic engineering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
5G wireless is coming, but it has a lot of challenges to overcome, and we’re not going to be enjoying its blazing speeds until 2020 at least. But, at cable industry group CableLabs’ InformED Wireless event on Wednesday in New York, several experts helped provide new hints about the shape of the technology to come.One of the biggest hurdles, it seems, is physics – 5G is going to be a millimeter-wave technology, operating at a much higher frequency than existing Wi-Fi. That’s great if the goal is to move a lot of information quickly – 5G speeds could top 6Gbps in the field – but it raises the issue of range.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We all live in fear of the Internet going down, whether it be via a government kill switch or a nefarious hacking group. The operators of one swanky hotel in Japan understand the public's unease, and have taken pains to assure patrons that really, the Internet will only be inaccessible from the facility for 1 minute, and at 4AM at that.A friend who is working in Japan this week shared the photo above of a note from the Palace Hotel Tokyo's housekeeping staff, and she commented: "Only in Japan... The detail and thoughtfulness and modesty that pervades everything here is truly admirable."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon and the city of Boston today announced a $300 million fiber optic cable replacement of copper cable throughout the city over the next six years.The project will increase Internet speeds and help Boston, which has 650,000 residents, expand broadband as part of its priority to ensure every resident has Internet access, Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement on Tuesday. Business, schools, hospitals and libraries will also be connected.Smart city elements will be added as well, including a trial project to reduce traffic congestion along Massachusetts Avenue. The city and Verizon will partner to experiment with sensors and advanced traffic signal technology to increase safety, measure bike traffic and improve public transit vehicle flow.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Software-defined WAN promises a simplified, cost-effective way to manage multiple types of broadband Internet connections. While most enterprises today are only in the very early stages of piloting or implementing SD-WAN, Gartner predicts that by the end of 2019, 30% of enterprises will have deployed SD-WAN technology in their branches, up from less than 1% today. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
In what will probably be a long series of parries, the International Trade Commission this week granted a full review of certain patents in the now 15-month old patent suit between Cisco and Arista Networks.Specifically the ITC granted full review of the three patents that Arista is allegedly infringing under the initial determination issued by the presiding judge on Feb 2. In February, the ITC made an initial determination that Arista infringed on three Cisco patents in its switches -- patents associated with a central database for managing configuration data (SysDB) and private VLANs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The free ride is over for new Google Fiber subscribers in Kansas, as Google drops the free “Basic Internet” option from its plans.Google has offered the free plan since Fiber first launched in July 2012. Compared to Google’s $70 per month Gigabit Internet offering, the free plan was considerably slower, with just 5 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds. It also required a hefty $300 construction fee, which Google waived for paying customers who signed on for at least a year of service.According to Recode, that plan is now going away for new subscribers, suggesting that existing customers can hang onto their service for now. Google still offers free Basic Internet plans in Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, and is collaborating with the U.S. government on free broadband connections for public housing residents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Imagine if your router could detect a user’s location to within a few inches? For one thing, hotspot password protection becomes redundant because geographic authentication takes over—the router can be configured to only allow access from within a location, an apartment, say. In-café users could be allowed access without passwords, yet freeloaders on the street get blocked.Researchers think they’ve worked out how to do it.The system “locates users by calculating the ‘time-of-flight’ that it takes for data to travel from the user to an access point,” says Adam Conner-Simons in a recent MIT News article. And it does it with a single access point. That’s unlike other setups that require four or five access points for triangulation-like measuring. One access point determining a user’s position means costs should be lower, and individuals or small businesses can take advantage of the tech.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For the better part of a decade now, the traditional interface for hard drives has been Serial ATA (SATA). With the advent of the solid state drive (SSD), new interfaces have come into play designed to speed up throughput, because the SATA interface has rapidly become the bottleneck in drive speed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
ONF
The non-profit Open Networking Foundation has announced that its annual software-defined networking (SDN) interoperability event, dubbed AppFest 2016, will be held in May in New Hampshire and will feature a Community Day intended to expand ONF's reach beyond members.The ONF, whose more than 130 members include big names like Brocade, Google and Microsoft, will put the focus on applications working together at AppFest 2016, which will be held at University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab May 16-19. The UNH-IOL is an authorized testing lab for OpenFlow, the SDN standard that the ONF is best known for having introduced.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Security researchers have recently observed a large application-layer distributed denial-of-service attack using a new technique that could foil DDoS defenses and be a sign of things to come for Web application operators.The attack, which targeted a Chinese lottery website that used DDoS protection services from Imperva, peaked at 8.7Gbps. In a time when DDoS attacks frequently pass the 100Gbps mark, 8.7Gbps might not seem much, but it's actually unprecedented for application-layer attacks.DDoS attacks target either the network layer or the application layer. With network-layer attacks, the goal is to send malicious packets over different network protocols in order to consume all of the target's available bandwidth, essentially clogging its Internet pipes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The transition of 3.7 million Verizon landline customers in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications, as announced on April 1 of all days, continues to be a mess due to a combination of technical and communications issues.Unhappy landline phone, broadband FiOS Internet and video-on-demand customers have vented to Frontier support, including on social media sites, to express their frustration. Some have blamed Verizon as well, for not ensuring its residential, small/medium business and enterprise customers would receive a smooth transition after grabbing its $10.54 billion in the sale and shifting 9,400 of its employees to Frontier. (Though Verizon has blamed uncertainty round federal Internet regulation (i.e., net neutrality) for forcing it to sell the assets in the first place.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Internet of Things technologies can be complex and fragmented, but increasing numbers of pilot projects are emerging within smart cities, farms and at a wide range of businesses and industries."We are seeing adoption of IoT begin," said Mark Bartolomeo, vice president of IoT at Verizon, in an interview. "There are now use cases for IoT and less of an industry focus on the technology. The biggest macro trend lately is how IT can use the data [from IoT] more effectively to run a better business for customers."The carrier launched its ThingSpace development platform last October for companies to create and manage IoT applications more efficiently. In February, Verizon announced it had more than 4,000 developers using ThingSpace, and would open the software to third-party network and tech providers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the first of this series of blogs, I discussed the history and future of videoconferencing cameras, in the second I discussed the hierarchy of rooms/spaces/environments for visual collaboration. This – part three – is about how to use the darned things.From the earliest days of technology in enterprise conference rooms the user interface (UI) has been a contentious, problematic and difficult part of users’ satisfaction with that technology. All UIs have to achieve a balance between simplicity and power. The more that they can do, the harder they are to operate. So because videoconferencing has traditionally been hard, the UI has needed to do a lot to meet the needs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How do you know your network is safe from attacks and failures? Veriflow, a startup with backing from the U.S. Defense Department, says it can make sure.Veriflow applies a practice called formal verification, used in preparing Mars missions and military gear, to figure out ahead of time what could go wrong on a network. Using that information, it helps enterprises apply policies to prevent problems from starting or spreading.If this sounds more at home in a lab than in a data center, it may be because that's where it came from. Veriflow's CTO, CSO and principal engineer are all longtime academics who worked on the problem together at the University of Illinois, and the National Science Foundation is a funder.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Networking hardware vendor Brocade announced today that it would add a wireless infrastructure club to its bag in the form of Ruckus Wireless, as part of a deal with a net value of $1.2 billion.The objective, according to Brocade’s public statement, is to broaden the company’s enterprise networking stable and boost profits, since wireless is a growth area. Like any merger of this type, the idea seems to be to offer a unitary set of products and services.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: HTTP compression continues to put encrypted communications at risk + 12 powerful Windows 10 tools that hardcore PC enthusiasts will loveTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here