Is Padmasree Warrior in line to take a seat on Microsoft’s board? She’s been nominated, along with Sandra Peterson, group worldwide chairman of health products giant Johnson & Johnson. Cisco
Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's former chief technology and strategy officer.
Warrior was Cisco’s CTO and chief strategy officer and was one of the executives swept out shortly after new CEO Chuck Robbins was tapped to succeed John Chambers. Warrior was highly visible, always keynoting a Cisco or industry trade show and conference, and is omnipresent on Twitter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The FCC announced late last week that it would investigate Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink and Frontier over highly strict service terms in wireline business service contracts, which critics say lock customers into their deals unfairly.The commission is particularly focused on the special access market, which encompasses the legacy copper links that make up part of the fabric of U.S. Internet service. The large incumbent providers under investigation control a lot of these special access links, and their competitors have been claiming for years that they’ve leveraged these localized monopolies to keep customers from jumping ship.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: IoT standards groups get ready to rumble at CES + Google to enterprises: Ditch your Microsoft contract early for us +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As car-makers build more tech-savvy autos, their ability to communicate and interact with smart infrastructure to prevent accidents or warn of impending road hazards faces number of challenges that may hinder its deployment.+More on Network World: Car crash prevention technologies face huge challenges+Watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office this week said while the Department of Transportation will over the next five years spend $100 million via its Connected Vehicle pilot program that deploys Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies in real-world settings – many challenges with the technologies remain.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You don't need an MBA to know that in business, few things are more important than listening to your customers. So it's surprising that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who earned an MBA from the University of Oklahoma, told a customer that AT&T isn't at all interested in his suggestions. Ever. In fact, if you send Stephenson an unsolicited suggestion, you'll get a similar response from his lawyers. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
AT&T CEO Randall StephensonTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For anyone questioning the feasibility of super-high speed 5G networks—faster than wired is today—due to come on stream in 2020, be assured, tests have been completed that apparently indicate that the tech can actually work.
China-based equipment maker Huawei has announced that it has, along with Japan’s largest Mobile Network Operator NTT DOCOMO, concluded a large-scale, non-lab field trial of 5G.Peak speeds
Peak speeds reached 3.6Gbps Huawei says in a press release on its website. For comparison Verizon’s 4G LTE broadband in the U.S. has “peak download speeds approaching 50Mbps,” according to Verizon on its website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's found in every modern business, on every desk. It's powerful enough to connect even the most geographically distant workers, and yet, it strikes fear into the hearts of many millennial workers. It's the desk phone, and despite the prevalence of text messaging, collaboration apps and video conferencing, rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated."Maybe the desk phone is headed for retirement, but it's not there yet. There's still a significant portion of the workforce that prefers using their office phone to conduct business and mission-critical calls," says Curtis Peterson, senior vice president of operations at telecommunications provider RingCentral.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
OpenStack has gained considerable popularity over the years for its open-source cloud platform, but this week it looks like one major user is seriously considering dropping the technology in favor of a proprietary alternative.U.K.-based telecom giant BT Group said it will switch to a different option for delivering virtual enterprise services, according to a Wednesday report in Light Reading, unless OpenStack can address its concerns regarding six key areas: virtual network functions, service chain modification, scalability, security, backward compatibility and what's known as "start-up storms" when numerous nodes all come online at the same time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
VMware is taking Michigan to Europe as it works to make networking as secure in the hybrid cloud as it can be in a private datacenter.
At its VMworld Europe conference, it unveiled new features and tools to make it easier to roll applications out to its unified hybrid cloud platform, expanding the range of management functions available on its public cloud, vCloud Air, which can be linked with private clouds using vSphere.
The company also previewed a new technology, Project Michigan, that can deploy a secure enterprise gateway across vCloud Air offerings, including Disaster Recovery and Dedicated Cloud services. It will support VM migration and network and policy extension with low downtime through Hybrid Cloud Manager. It can be used to spin up thousands of virtual machines with secure connectivity on demand, it said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While Google cheerily advertises the 13 antennas packed into its new OnHub router, the company’s been less forthcoming about the software under the hood.
Now that some hackers have rooted the high-tech Wi-Fi router, we have some clarity: OnHub appears to run a heavily-modified version of Chromium OS, the same browser-based software that powers Chromebook laptops and Chromebox desktops.
The root method for OnHub first appeared on Exploitee.rs. It turns out that the router’s underside contains a hidden switch underneath one of its screws. This switch can boot OnHub into developer mode if you enter a specific keystroke, using a keyboard plugged into the router’s USB port. That keystroke is Ctrl + D, which is precisely what you’d use to enter developer mode in Chromium OS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Like the Walking Dead lurching across your TV screen, Verizon's "zombie cookies" never give up. These hard-to-kill bits of code that track your mobile surfing habits are about to be shared with Verizon's newest acquisition, AOL, and that means additional advertisers will learn even more about you.Beginning in November, if you access the Web via Verizon’'s network, data on "your gender, age range and interests," (according to a Verizon FAQ page on its Relevant Mobile Advertising program) will be pushed to AOL's extensive network of advertisers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What if you could manage your data center switches and routers the same way you manage your servers, and cut capital expense costs in the bargain?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Juniper Networks has reportedly hired investment banker Goldman Sachs to explore taking the company private.The development has the blessing of activist investor Elliott Management, according to the website Benzinga. Elliott owns 4.5% of Juniper and has encouraged the company to look for ways boost shareholder value through restructurings and product portfolio rationalization.Juniper did reorganize last year at the urging of Elliott after multiple quarters of lackluster performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A Wi-Fi Alliance workshop next month could start to lay the groundwork for peace between Wi-Fi and LTE promoters who have been arguing over potential interference.If LTE and Wi-Fi can operate peacefully in unlicensed spectrum, mobile users should be able to get a better experience in in crowded areas whether they are using their carrier's service or a Wi-Fi hotspot.The group will bring together representatives of both sides and lay out proposed guidelines for coexistence between Wi-Fi and LTE on unlicensed frequencies. The workshop, on Nov. 4 in Palo Alto, California, will be the first of several such meetings, the Alliance says.The goal is to have every unlicensed LTE product tested on its ability to coexist with Wi-Fi. Those tests might be administered by the Wi-Fi Alliance or by another body, said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of the Alliance. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Arista Networks this week extended its controller software with the ability to activate firewalls and application delivery controllers for workloads and workflows across its switches.The company’s Macro-Segmentation Services (MSS) is a feature of the company’s CloudVision software, which maintains a database of network state. MSS works across Layer 2 and 3 topologies and network virtualization overlays to insert security services for data centers with physical and virtualized workloads, extending the separate capabilities of virtualization hypervisors with micro-segmentation, and physical firewalls.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AT&T has added Juniper Networks’ controller to its SDN. Juniper’s Contrail controller will provide SDN control of AT&T’s Integrated Cloud infrastructure.AT&T will use Contrail to help automate and virtualize the network for deployment of new services. AT&T is also using Brocade’s Vyatta controller in its Network on Demand service.Juniper says Contrail is based on its Open Contrail open source software, and allows AT&T to incorporate new capabilities into its network while decreasing development time and cost.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems has made another investment in a chip supplier it’s been funding since 2005.Cisco Investments contributed to Aquantia’s $37 million Series H funding, joining new investors Credit Suisse’s Direct Equity Partners, Global Foundries, and Walden Riverwood. Aquantia, which employs 160 people, has raised a total of $199 million since its first round of funding in 2005.Cisco has participated in each round, Aquantia says.Aquantia make PHY chips for copper-based 10GBASE-T and multigigabit 2.5G/5G Ethernet networks for enterprise, data center and mobile applications. Cisco is the leading vendor in these markets, and in Ethernet networking overall.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HP is spearheading multivendor development of an open source network operating system for data centers in an effort to address scale, dynamic operation and vendor independence.HP is banding together with three other hardware companies and a hypervisor vendor to launch the OpenSwitch Community, which will seek community-like participation in the development of a Linux-based OpenSwitch NOS. The other participants are Intel, Broadcom, Accton and VMware.Though the community lacks a pure operating system vendor, HP says it has plenty of OS and NOS expertise to lend OpenSwitch credibility in that regard. VMware also provides software-based network virtualization and control experience through its NSX product line and developers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco pedigreesNumerous tech companies have been founded over the years by former Cisco big shots and lower-level employees, with many a venture capitalist no doubt attracted by these entrepreneurs’ Cisco pedigrees. Some of the companies have gone on to be successful on their own, others were acquired, and others just failed. Here’s a look at some of these companies (listed alphabetically).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Small businesses typically lack full-time IT staff. Taking a self-proclaimed techie who serves another role in the business and assigning that person to provide network and tech support can be a great idea. I call these people the business’s resident tech, someone who can help with first-level support. An outside IT service provider can be called in to help when more complex support is required. Here are nine key steps in building a successful small business network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Sprint will likely cut its 31,000-person workforce as part of up to $2.5 billion in cost reductions in the next six months, a company spokesman said Friday."It's likely some jobs will be impacted by this [cost-cutting] process, but it's premature to talk about details," said Sprint spokesman David Tovar in a telephone interview on Friday.In addition to 31,000 workers, the company also employs about 30,000 contractor employees, he said. Sprint, with 57.7 million customers, fell to the nation's fourth largest wireless carrier in August, behind T-Mobile.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here