Web visits from desktops and tablets have declined dramatically, says Adobe Digital Insights in Adobe Mobile Trends Refresh — Q2 2017.The device people are using: their smartphone. And the majority of that device’s traffic is arriving via Wi-Fi connections, not mobile networks, the analytics-oriented research firm says. Adobe has been tracking over 150 billion visits to 400 websites and apps since 2015.The sites these mobile users are visiting are large-organization national news, media and entertainment, and retail — with over 60 percent of those smartphone visits connecting through Wi-Fi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Today, there are new and changing uses of data in the digital economy. The big questions however are, who is winning with data, where is this data being kept, what makes new data different, when should data be kept, moved, deleted or transformed, how should data be valued, and why data is so much more important than it used to be?Data is one of the most important assets that any company has, but it’s surprising that we don’t put the same rigor into understanding and measuring the value of our data that we put into more traditional physical assets. Furthermore, should data be depreciated as an asset? Or perhaps it appreciates like art. Counter-intuitively, the answer is “yes” to both.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A machine learning project to build an autonomous sailplane that remains aloft on thermal currents is impressive enough. But the work conducted by Microsoft researchers Andrey Kolobov and Iain Guilliard will also improve the decision making and trustworthiness of IoT devices, personal assistants and autonomous cars.The constraints limiting the computational resource of weight and space imposed by the airframe of the sailplane adds relevance to the many new developments in ubiquitous computing. The autonomous sailplane is controlled by a 160MHz Arm Cortex M4 with 256KB of RAM and 60KB of flash running on batteries that monitor the sensors, run the autopilot and control the servo motors, to which the researchers have added a machine learning model that continuously learns how to autonomously ride the thermal currents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Innovators of all stripes have tapped into the Internet of Things (IoT) as they develop the best products and services of the 21st century, but few have made as much use of the IoT as today’s mobile app developers have. By exploiting the ubiquity of today’s IoT, mobile app developers are finding hordes of new customers by the day, and show little signs of slowing down their industry’s growth.So how exactly are these app developers using the IoT to make their jobs easier? What are the common habits of successful developers, and what IoT flukes have they learned to avoid? A quick look at how the IoT and mobile development go hand in hand shows just how far this duo could go in the tech world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s been about two months since Extreme Networks closed on the acquisition of Avaya Networking. As I pointed out, Extreme’s first partial quarter post close was a smashing success, which indicates the company is headed in the right direction. But now the real work begins.In the two months since the close, the company has been extremely busy (pun intended) doing a bunch of things to integrate the companies, such as onboarding workers, bringing systems together and holding a unified sales conference. These things are obviously interesting and important, but the question on most customers’ minds is how long before there is integration at a product level?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon's best-selling tablets feature vibrant displays, generous battery life, Alexa, parental controls, and everything you need to surf, check email, watch Netflix, read books, and more. If you're a Prime member, you can get get the Fire 7 for as low as $34.99 after a $15 discount, or the Fire HD 8 for as low as $54.99 after a $25 discount. If you're looking for a tablet that won't drain your bank account these are solid considerations especially at these discounted prices. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Machine learning is a hot topic across the technology spectrum today. From self-driving cars, to catching nefarious content in the fight against terrorism, to apps that automatically retouch photos before you even take them, it is popping up just about everywhere. Each innovation is creating a new wave of business opportunity while simplifying and automating tasks that are generally beyond the reach of how much data we human beings can process at once, or even in a lifetime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Analysts agree that SD-WAN is the way forward for enterprises supporting cloud-first initiatives. Everywhere you turn it seems someone is writing about SD-WAN, the trends and how to select the right solution. For example, Andrew Lerner from Gartner recently wrote a blog about SD-WAN going mainstream. I’ve also spent time talking about lessons we’re learning from our customers. In fact, earlier this summer I authored an article that ran on Network World that highlighted key SD-WAN solution evaluation criteria.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Property and ownership are among the most basic concepts of a modern society. Our ability to clarify who owns what separates us from savages because property and ownership help us maintain our independence and identity.The rules of property and ownership have evolved over centuries. There are clear transfer procedures for all types of property, including real estate, cars and even books. The problem is these age-old concepts are not holding up in our connected and digital world. Cambridge University Press
“Property ownership as we know it is under attack and fading fast,” writes Joshua Fairfield in his book Owned: Property, Privacy, and the New Digital Serfdom. “The Internet of Things and digital property ownership systems are being built on the old feudal model.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This USB C to USB 3.0 cable from Anker merges seamless connectivity, premium materials and market benchmark production techniques. Features a double-braided nylon exterior, toughened aramid fiber core and laser-welded connectors for with superior toughness end-to-end, and super fast 5Gbps data transfer speeds. Right now you can pick up the 3-foot version for 61% off, or just $10.19. See it on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How much do you need to know about disks to successfully manage a Linux system? What commands do what? How do you make good decisions about partitioning? What kind of troubleshooting tools are available? What kind of problems might you run into? This article covers a lot of territory – from looking into the basics of a Linux file systems to sampling some very useful commands.Disk technology
In the beginning days of Unix and later Linux, disks were physically large, but very small in terms of storage capacity. A 300 megabyte disk in the mid-90’s was the size of a shoebox. Today, you can get multi-terrabyte disks that are the size of a slice of toast.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hard disk makers are in a big of a struggle for survival. As SSDs grow in capacity and shrink in price, hard disk makers are losing business on the low end. Only the cheapest of laptops don’t have a SSD standard any more. And with affordable 1TB SSDs on the market, it’s a good choice for most desktops, as well. Their solution has been to increase capacity tremendously, since people are generating so much content these days. Forget 3TB or 6TB hard disks, we now have 12TB and 14TB drives coming to market. These are done by cramming a lot of disk platters in the drive case and using helium inside the drive to reduce friction.Even there, drive makers are reaching the limits of physics. But a Japanese firm, Hoya Corp., thinks it has the solution. The company told Nikkei Technology it believes glass substrates, already used in 2.5-inch notebook drives, can be designed for 3.5-inch desktop and server disks. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Five years ago, IT was decentralized at the University of New Mexico. “Every school or college had their own IT, and in most cases they were completely under-resourced – a one-person shop having to do phones, apps, email, desktop, servers, storage, disaster recovery, all of that,” said Brian Pietrewicz, deputy CIO at University of New Mexico.The university transitioned to a self-service model that enables each of its more than 100 departments to deploy infrastructure and application services itself and have them managed by the now-centralized IT team.Adopting VMware’s vCloud Automation Center enabled departments to consume cloud resources, but also give the management team the ability to curtail that consumption if necessary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Overlooked in the hoopla around the VMworld conference was an announcement of the availability of AppDefense, a new product that lets companies restrict the types of operations applications are allowed to run on virtualized servers. AppDefense works with the VMware hypervisor and can also connect to third-party provisioning, configuration management and workflow automation platforms. It can send out alerts, quarantine apps, shut them down and even restore a VM from an image. All of this is based on AppDefense catching unusual behavior, such as trying to modify the kernel or communicate with an unrecognized remote server. VMware already has some security features built into its NSX and VSAN products, but those are around networking and storage. AppDefense secures the core virtual machines in vSphere itself. It does this by using behavior-based whitelisting, which is not easy to do on desktops because they run a lot of apps. But on a server, especially a virtual server, it’s a much easier proposition. In some cases, virtual servers run only one or two apps, so shutting out everything else is simple.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
These Bluetooth headphones from Anker are lightweight, water resistant and provide up to 7 hours of listening on a single charge, making them a good consideration for workouts or outdoor activities. Customizable EarTips and InEar-Hooks give anyone a strong and comfortable fit. Anker promises a worry-free 18 month warranty, and right now if you buy the item on Amazon you'll get it for just $19.99, 44% off its typical list price, and an additional promotion also gets you discounts when you buy other Anker gadgets as well. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As cloud computing continues to generate a huge amount of buzz and interest over its future, another phenomenon is gaining investor’s and developer’s interest with promises to upend the future of enterprise IT. Hybrid cloud tech, which has only recently come into its own, is increasingly being recognized as the cash-cow of the future. But what exactly is this tech, and is it worth all the hubbub it’s garnered?A quick look at today’s hybrid cloud tech shows that the attention it’s drawn to itself is entirely warranted; the idea behind it may not be new, but recent advancements in computing have enabled it to truly thrive in the marketplace for the first time, and it could very well be on the verge of redefining modern computing. So what exactly is the future of hybrid cloud, and how close is it to taking off?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In June, private cloud infrastructure provider ZeroStack hired David Greene as its new CEO. For those of you who have followed the networking space closely, you may recognize Greene as the chief marketing officer of a couple of companies that were pioneers in their respective industries. Most recently, he was at Aerohive, one of the first Wi-Fi vendors to embrace a completely controller-less model.Prior to that, Greene was CMO of Riverbed. Riverbed certainly wasn’t the first WAN optimization vendor, but the company was responsible for evangelizing it and making it a household term (at least among IT circles).+ Also on Network World: Public vs. private cloud: Why the public cloud is a real threat to security +
Now, Greene is trying to catch another wave, as ZeroStack is one of the first companies to offer an easy-to-deploy solution that enables businesses to quickly deploy a private cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The fundamental principles of intent-based networking have been present for years, but only recently has this phenomenon grow to its full size today, where it stands to upend modern industry and business practices. So what exactly is intent-based networking, and is it really so marvelous to warrant the recent renewal in interest and support it’s gained?A brief foray into intent-based networking shows that, while it’s a very complex technology, it’s rather easy to grasp a basic understanding of it. Furthermore, a look at what some of today’s top companies are doing with this tech, and some ruminations about what they plan to do in the future, shows just how significantly intent-based networking can reshape modern markets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google is offering enterprises a new way to build hybrid infrastructure, with a service that extends corporate networks into its cloud platform.Called Dedicated Interconnect, it allows companies to treat servers in Google's cloud as if they were part of their own private address space. This can be useful for businesses operating in financial services, video editing, or other industries that need to be able to scale up processing capabilities, but want to keep their data on a private network, according to product manager John Veizades.By buying multiple 10 Gbit/s connections, customers can boost the throughput of the interconnect between the cloud and their on-premises networks, or improve its availability, or both.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google has launched a new service called Google Cloud Interconnect Dedicated that allows companies to directly connect their data center network to its public cloud.The company already has an interconnect service, which has been renamed Carrier Peering, where co-location provider or carrier customers can buy private links to Google’s cloud. Here the third party has been eliminated, and the link is direct.+ Also on Network World: Deep dive on AWS vs. Azure vs. Google cloud storage options +
Interconnect Dedicated service goes much further than Google’s Cloud VPN service. While that created a secure tunnel to Google’s cloud, those connections were limited to 3 Gbps, and traffic traveled over the public internet. Interconnect Dedicated offers a direct line to Google’s network with up to 80 Gbps in bandwidth, which is far more useful for moving large amounts of data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here