The Internet of Things is coming, and drastic traffic growth is going to blow your network sky-high. Should you scale up your on-premises data center? No. Should you move to the cloud? No. The best strategy, according to a speaker at the Interop 2015 conference, is to move your servers, applications, and data into your own servers in a top-tier colocation facility.That’s not the advice you’d expect to hear in 2015, when the industry message is relentlessly cloud, cloud, cloud, cloud, cloud – and when the Interop expert speaker, Jason Mendenhall, carries the business card title of Executive Vice President, Cloud. However, when you realize that Mr. Mendenhall works for Switch’s massive 1.6 million square foot colocation center in Las Vegas, his bias toward colos becomes clear.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If the waiter was rude, your hotel room dirty or the plumber sloppy, you should be able to say so online without fear of getting slapped with a lawsuit.So said a group of lawmakers who want to make it illegal for U.S. businesses to use contracts to preemptively muzzle customers so they can’t post negative reviews.Four members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation last week that would render non-disparagement clauses in consumer contracts unenforceable. The bill, the Consumer Review Freedom Act, comes after consumer uproar when geek toy company KlearGear.com tried to charge a Utah couple a US$3,500 fee for a negative review they wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco next month will unveil an Ethernet switch designed for campus aggregation but in a space saving form factor that’s smaller than previous models.The Catalyst 6840-X is a 2RU device featuring up to 40 10G Ethernet ports and two 40G uplinks. It will include all of the software feature sets of the Catalyst 6800 line, which was introduced two years ago, and the 12+-year-old Catalyst 6500.
The Catalyst 6840-X comes in four configurations: 16x10G, 32x10G, 24x10G with two 40G uplinks, and 40x10G with two 40G uplinks. All switches are Layer 2/3 IPv4/v6 devices with MPLS, VPLS, 256K IPv4 routes, 512K NetFlow flows, large buffers, TrustSec Security Group Tags, MACSec, LISP and support for Catalyst 6800 Instant Access switch clients.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
French lawmakers have taken a first step toward allowing real-time surveillance of Internet and mobile phone use in France.Following attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a supermarket in Paris in January, the government rushed out a bill that will allow French intelligence services to collect communications metadata on the entire country’s phone calls and Internet traffic, in some cases installing their own equipment on operators’ networks. On Tuesday, the French National Assembly approved the bill by 438 votes to 86.The proposed surveillance measures have encountered opposition from many quarters: Internet service providers, civil liberties groups, and even an association of motorcyclists, concerned about the potential for government monitoring of lobby groups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't an evangelical preacher, but his latest video promoting the new Internet.org Platform is filled with a missionary zeal for free basic Internet for the 4 billion people worldwide without access.The nearly seven-minute video is also partly an ethical appeal by Zuckerberg to the tech community to put those without basic Internet service before their interest in "the intellectual purity of technology."Even though the appeal is evidently heartfelt, almost spiritual, analysts noted that Facebook, the corporation, stands to benefit ultimately from its free basic Internet message.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Little did we know that our interview with John Chambers at Cisco’s Texas Data Center Day in April might be our last with him as the company’s CEO. As we learned this week, he’ll hand the reins to Chuck Robbins in July, though will remain the company’s chairman and become its executive chairman as well. He’ll also hand Robbins the challenge of making Cisco the No.1 IT company by forging ahead with its data center, cloud and Internet of Everything initiatives. Chambers discussed those topics and more with IDG Enterprise VP and Chief Content Officer John Gallant.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Chambers steps down as Cisco CEO, Robbins gets the jobIt’s finally time for the changing of the guard at Cisco, after many months of rumors that John Chambers, CEO for 20 years, was planning his retirement. His surprise replacement is senior VP of worldwide operations Chuck Robbins, who wasn’t highlighted in a succession plan a few years ago. Chambers will move into the role of executive chairman on July 26 when Robbins takes over.EU’s new digital strategy could target US tech vendorsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google has acquired startup Timeful, whose iOS app uses machine learning to help people plan their days.People link Timeful to their calendars and then enter tasks, projects, events and hobbies into the app. For example, a user can tell Timeful he likes to jog four days a week, wants to finish painting a room by the end of the month and has a work presentation due on Friday.Timeful’s algorithm will use this information to create a schedule tailored to a person’s needs and preferences. The more information that is entered into Timeful and the more people use the app, the better it becomes at learning users’ activity patterns, schedules and habits.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Three years into his two- to four-year window, John Chambers retired. And 16 months after a succession plan was disclosed, Chuck Robbins was tapped to replace him.Robbins, Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, will become the 31-year-old company’s fourth CEO on July 26 as Chambers steps aside after 20 years at the helm. Chambers will become executive chairman.+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: New Cisco CEO: Meet the real Chuck Robbins; How Chambers kept a high profile+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf argued Monday that more users should encrypt their data, and that the encryption back doors the U.S. FBI and other law enforcement agencies are asking for will weaken online security.The Internet has numerous security challenges, and it needs more users and ISPs to adopt strong measures like encryption, two-factor authentication and HTTP over SSL, said Cerf, chief Internet evangelist at Google, in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.Recent calls by the FBI and other government officials for technology vendors to build encryption workarounds into their products is a bad idea, said Cerf, co-creator of TCP/IP. “If you have a back door, somebody will find it, and that somebody may be a bad guy,” he said. “Creating this kind of technology is super, super risky.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New man in chargeImage by Shutterstock/CiscoCisco’s choice of Chuck Robbins, Senior VP of Worldwide Field Operations, as the company’s next CEO came as a surprise given that two Cisco presidents were seen as frontrunners for the job. But a look at the 49-year-old Robbins’ background might explain why he is being given the reins of this $47 billion networking company. He’s not just a sales guy…To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You may have read about furniture retailer IKEA's plans to introduce wireless smartphone charging in some of its furniture. Its Selje nightstand includes a Qi-compatible charger, for example. Charge your phone wirelessly while you slumber, and only for $60.
Well, that's just the beginning of the future for the 315-store, 9,500-product company. IKEA's future kitchen ideas include networked devices, shelves that act as refrigerators, tabletops that cook, and instant food delivery by drone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Palo Alto CEO Mark McLaughlin sat down recently to talk about a range of security issues with Network World Senior Editor Tim Greene. They discussed McLaughlin optimism about turning the tide on attackers, the evolution of his company’s next-generation firewall and how to secure the Internet of Things. Here is an edited transcript.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Corporate IT security pros need to consider the Internet of Things as a new and dangerous attack vector – oh, and we all should be particularly worried about the safety of our cars, says the top executive at Palo Alto Networks.“You need to be completely rethinking endpoint security and you need to be seeking out technology that will actually prevent things at endpoints before [malware] lands,” says Palo Alto CEO Mark McLaughlin in a recent interview with Network World.+ FULL INTERVIEW: Register to read the full transcript from the interview +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Oh what a trip it has beenImage by REUTERS/Robert GalbraithCisco CEO John Chambers raised the company’s profile, as well as his own, during his 20-year tenure at the helm of the largest networking vendor on the planet. Here is a sampling of the Who’s Who of dignitaries he’s pressed the flesh with over two decades.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Monday named sales executive Chuck Robbins to be its next CEO, replacing John Chambers, who held the title for 20 years.
The change takes effect July 26. Chamber will become executive chairman of the company.
MORE: How Chambers has kept high profile over the years | Critical Milestones in Cisco's HistoryTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook opens Internet.org platform to (almost) any content serviceStung by criticism that its Internet.org platform is a closed-off, private web masquerading as a philanthropic effort to bridge the digital divide, Facebook is opening the service to developers who meet its technical guidelines. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video that although the company started with just a few content partners, “we’ll work with anyone who wants to join us.” Facebook posted a version of the video subtitled in Hindi, aiming to reach its audience in India where the company was seen by some as trampling principles of net neutrality with Internet.org.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey’s CEO and husband of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, died Friday night. He was 47 years old.Goldberg, a well known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, his brother Robert said in a Facebook post.“In this time of sorrow, we mourn his passing and remember what an amazing husband, father, brother, son and friend he was,” Robert Goldberg wrote.In a statement released Saturday, SurveyMonkey said Goldberg’s “genius, courage and leadership were overshadowed only by his compassion, friendship and heart.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey’s CEO and husband of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, died Friday night. He was 47 years old.Goldberg, a well known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, his brother Robert said in a Facebook post.RELATED: Notable deaths in 2014 from Tech, Science, Inventions“In this time of sorrow, we mourn his passing and remember what an amazing husband, father, brother, son and friend he was,” Robert Goldberg wrote.In a statement released Saturday, SurveyMonkey said Goldberg’s “genius, courage and leadership were overshadowed only by his compassion, friendship and heart.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Congress should kill the section of the Patriot Act that has allowed the National Security Agency to collect millions of phone records from the nation’s residents, instead of trying to amend it, a civil liberties advocate said Friday.Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the NSA to collect phone records, business records and any other “tangible things” related to an anti-terrorism investigation, expires in June, and lawmakers should let it die, said Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to approve a bill to amend that section of the anti-terrorism law. The USA Freedom Act would end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records by narrowing the scope of the agency’s searches, backers of the bill said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here