After I read Brian Bailey’s IoT semiconductor design article, IoT Myth Busting, I thought of Prince’s song 1999, in particular, the line:
“So tonight I'm gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine.”
Without a lot of irrational exuberance, we won’t see IoT edge and fog networks soon
Most IoT applications are prototypes and proof of concepts (PoC) designed to justify enterprise budget increases and follow-on venture investment rounds. Unless we return to and party like it is 1999 when telecoms over-invested in capacity ahead of demand, the telecom carriers are not going to build the new fog and edge networks that IoT needs to grow ahead of demand. At this stage, we would have to see a return of the irrational exuberance, a term coined by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, used to describe the over investment and over valuation during the dot-com bubble.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On Unix systems, random numbers are generated in a number of ways and random data can serve many purposes. From simple commands to fairly complex processes, the question “How random is random?” is worth asking.EZ random numbers
If all you need is a casual list of random numbers, the RANDOM variable is an easy choice. Type "echo $RANDOM" and you'll get a number between 0 and 32,767 (the largest number that two bytes can hold).$ echo $RANDOM
29366
Of course, this process is actually providing a "pseudo-random" number. As anyone who thinks about random numbers very often might tell you, numbers generated by a program have a limitation. Programs follow carefully crafted steps, and those steps aren’t even close to being truly random. You can increase the randomness of RANDOM's value by seeding it (i.e., setting the variable to some initial value). Some just use the current process ID (via $$) for that. Note that for any particular starting point, the subsequent values that $RANDOM provides are quite predictable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM has introduced the 14th generation of its Z series mainframes, which still sell respectably despite repeated predictions of their demise. One of the major features being touted is the simple ability to encrypt all of the data on the mainframe in one shot. The mainframe, called IBM Z or z14, introduces a new encryption engine that for the first time will allow users to encrypt all of their data with one click—in databases, applications or cloud services—with virtually no impact on performance.The new encryption engine is capable of running more than 12 billion encrypted transactions every day. The mainframe comes with four times more silicon for processing cryptographic algorithms over the previous generation mainframe along with encryption-oriented upgrades to the operating system, middleware and databases. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The internet of things combined with cloud computing is the platform for innovation that is used by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that should be used by enterprises, but it means setting up the right network infrastructure, JPL’s CTO says.“Number one, build an IoT network that’s separate from the regular network,” says Tom Soderstrom, the JPL CTO. “That’s what we did, and we found that it was amazing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The internet of things combined with cloud computing is the platform for innovation that is used by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and that should be used by enterprises, but it means setting up the right network infrastructure, JPL’s IT CTO says.“Number one, build an IoT network that’s separate from the regular network,” says Tom Soderstrom, the JPL IT CTO. “That’s what we did, and we found that it was amazing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For extreme conditions, this phone pouch features a simple snap and lock design that easily keeps out water, snow, dust, sand, and dirt, without hindering use of touch-screen or camera. It fits all large smartphones up to 6 inches, as well as your cash, documents, credit cards, or any similar sized items you need safe from the elements while outdoors. The 2-pack's typical list price of $16.99 has been reduced 47% right now to $8.99. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM wants businesses to use its new z14 mainframe to encrypt pretty much everything -- an approach to security it calls pervasive encryption.Encrypting everything, and restricting access to the keys, is one way to reduce the risk and impact of data breaches. It can reduce the threat surface by 92 percent, according to research commissioned by IBM.To make such pervasive encryption viable, the z14 has four times as much silicon devoted to cryptographic accelerators as its predecessor, the z13, giving it seven times the cryptographic performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past few years Cisco has changed the face of its security business. What was once a struggling concern is now the fastest-growing part of Cisco. How did the company do this? Part of the rebirth of Cisco security can be traced to a change in focus, away from point products to a more data-driven model. Big data, analytics and machine learning have been hot topics in IT, and Cisco has gotten religion in this area and applied it masterfully to its security business.Today, Cisco added to that when it announced its intent to acquire privately held Observable Networks. The St. Louis-based company provides dynamic network behavior monitoring to help security teams find anomalies that could indicate a breach. The product captures data and analyzes it to gain situational awareness of all users, devices and traffic, not only on a company’s network, but also out to the cloud, with support for both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM has revamped and restructured its services division to provide greater emphasis on its Watson platform and artificial intelligence.IBM has been retrenching around Watson, a series of cognitive applications and A.I. applications in one coherent platform, for the last few years as traditional sales of mainframe hardware and software continue to dry up.Bart van den Daele, general manager of IBM Global Technology Services in Europe, told Bloomberg that the new A.I.-centric services will help IBM’s customers minimize disruptions such as server outages or other malfunctions by predicting problems before they occur and taking corrective action, such as adding cloud capacity or rerouting network traffic around bottlenecks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM has revamped and restructured its services division to provide greater emphasis on its Watson platform and artificial intelligence (AI).IBM has been retrenching around Watson, a series of cognitive applications and AI applications in one coherent platform, for the last few years as traditional sales of mainframe hardware and software continue to dry up.Bart van den Daele, general manager of IBM Global Technology Services in Europe, told Bloomberg that the new AI-centric services will help IBM’s customers minimize disruptions such as server outages or other malfunctions by predicting problems before they occur and taking corrective action, such as adding cloud capacity or rerouting network traffic around bottlenecks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This 3 port USB 3.0 hub converts any 9.5mm & 7mm 2.5-Inch SATA HDD/SSD into an external hard drive for ultimate mobility and convenience. Setup is tool free and easy to install and disassemble. A built-in foam pad protects the hard disk. This device features automatic sleep and spin-down, and goes into sleep mode automatically after 10 minutes in idle state. Currently receiving 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon (read reviews), it's discounted by 48% down to just $21.99, See it on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Anker's highly rated SoundCore Bluetooth speaker's typical list price of $79.99 has been discounted 66% today to just $26.99 on Amazon, where it averages 4.6 out of 5 stars from over 7,500 reviewers (76% rate the full 5 stars: read reviews here). It features rich sound, a generous 24 hours of play time (500 continuous songs without needing a charge), Bluetooth 4.0 66-foot wireless range and a worry-free 18 month warranty. This deal is good for today only (7/13), so see it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has taken the wraps off Azure Stack, its take on hybrid cloud infrastructure and response to the popular OpenStack open-source cloud computing package. Azure Stack will begin shipping in September.Azure Stack was originally designed as a software-only product, much like OpenStack. But Microsoft has decided to add integrated hardware turnkey solutions from its certified partners such as Dell EMC, HPE, Lenovo, Cisco and Huawei.Microsoft first announced Azure Stack at the Ignite Conference in 2015 and formally introduced it at the Inspire conference in Washington, D.C.Azure Stack is basically the same APIs, tools and processes that power Azure, but it’s intended to be hosted on-premises in private cloud scenarios. By offering the same platform and tools both on-premises and in Azure, the company promises consistency and ease of deployment, whether it’s hosted locally or in the cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past few years, SD-WANs have become the Kardashians of the tech industry. That is, it’s hard to go anywhere or talk to anyone without the topic of SD-WANs coming up. Unlike the Kardashians, SD-WANs deserve this level of attention, since the technology is useful by lowering the cost of running a WAN and improves application performance. However, for all the hype and chatter about the topic, its primary focus has been to improve connectivity to branch offices.It’s been well documented on this site and others that the cloud is not only mainstream but also the preferred strategy for many organizations, so a WAN must not only address connectivity to branch offices but also cloud services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The most secure form of network ever created has been successfully real-world-tested in China, said a publication there yesterday.Quantum entanglement—the tech that drives quantum networks—is a part of quantum-key distribution (QKD). Roughly, it gains its supposedly unhackable nature because the subatomic particles that make up the data impact each other all at the same time, regardless of where they are in the transmission.That means that because all of the cryptographic keys are intertwined, it’s possible to see at any time if bits have been corrupted. That includes being stolen or erased. Any disruption becomes transparent and throws an error. One can’t hack the system, experts say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hyperconvergence is an IT framework that combines storage, computing and networking into a single system in an effort to reduce data center complexity and increase scalability. Hyperconverged platforms include a hypervisor for virtualized computing, software-defined storage, and virtualized networking, and they typically run on standard, off-the-shelf servers. Multiple nodes can be clustered together to create pools of shared compute and storage resources, designed for convenient consumption. The use of commodity hardware, supported by a single vendor, yields an infrastructure that's designed to be more flexible and simpler to manage than traditional enterprise storage infrastructure. For IT leaders who are embarking on data center modernization projects, hyperconvergence can provide the agility of public cloud infrastructure without relinquishing control of hardware on their own premises.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Make no mistake: Intel's Xeon Processor Scalable Family, based on the company's Skylake architecture, is about much more than revving up CPU performance. The new processor line is essentially a platform for computing, memory and storage designed to let data centers -- groaning under the weight of cloud traffic, ever-expanding databases and machine-learning data sets -- optimize workloads and curb operational costs.In order to expand the market for its silicon and maintain its de facto processor monopoly in the data center, Intel is even starting to encroach on server-maker turf by offering what it calls Select Solutions, generally referred to in the industry as engineered systems -- packages of hardware and software tuned to specific applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I like Gartner’s concept of the technology hype cycle. It assumes that expectations of new technologies quickly ramp to an inflated peak, drop into a trough of disillusionment, then gradually ascend a slope of enlightenment until they plateau. Of course, not all technologies complete the cycle or transition through the stages at the same pace.Artificial intelligence (AI) has arguably been in the trough for 60 years. I am thinking of Kubrick’s HAL and Roddenberry’s “computer” that naturally interact with humans. That’s a long trough, and despite popular opinion, the end is nowhere in sight.+ Also on Network World: Using artificial intelligence to teach computers to see +
There’s so much excitement and specialized research taking place that AI has fragmented into several camps such as heuristic programming for game-playing AI, natural language processing for conversational AI, and machine learning for statistical problems. The hype is building again, and just about every major tech company and countless startups are racing toward another inflated peak and subsequent trough.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The next step in the evolution of wireless WAN communications - known as 5G - is about to hit the front pages, and for good reason: it will complete the evolution of cellular from wireline augmentation to wireline replacement, and strategically from mobile-first to mobile-only.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
The next step in the evolution of wireless WAN communications - known as 5G - is about to hit the front pages, and for good reason: it will complete the evolution of cellular from wireline augmentation to wireline replacement, and strategically from mobile-first to mobile-only.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)