Enterprises are adopting software-defined WAN to simplify branch office connectivity, improve application performance, and better manage WAN expenses, according to Gartner, which predicts that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020.“While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner writes.Two early adopters of SD-WAN shared some of the gains they’re realizing from the technology. The Bay Club Company and Autodesk are deploying SD-WAN technology from VeloCloud and CloudGenix, respectively, to transform the way they provision and support remote sites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
VMware’s acquisition of monitoring software maker Wavefront for an undisclosed sum is a move core to VMware's strategy to round out its portfolio for facilitating and managing hybrid cloud environments. It highlights in the need to ensure that applications running between private and public clouds perform up to par.[ 30 CIOs share their strategic focus ]
Companies undertaking digital transformations are leaning heavily on hybrid clouds to deploy software, a scenario playing out across nearly every industry. To enable this at a high velocity, companies are instituting DevOps, in which code is constantly written, shipped, run and regularly refined. In DevOps environments, corporate developers code application functionality, called microservices, which they ship via virtual containers to run between private cloud environments and public cloud systems such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We all love our smartphones and tablets, but boy do we miss our big screens, mice, and keyboards when doing complex work on those mobile devices. That’s why the notion of a smartphone that acts like a PC when connected to those peripherals has kept recurring ever since the iPhone redefined mobility for the modern era.But so far, reality has not delivered on that promise of the mobile-on-desktop notion. Now, Samsung is trying its hand at this puzzle, with the Dex dock available for its new Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones.[ Review: Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is an unpleasant smartphone. | iPad Pro vs. Surface Pro vs. Pixel C vs. Galaxy TabPro S: The “tabtop” tablet/laptop hybrids compared. ]
The journey from the Lapdock to the Dex Station
The Motorola Lapdock back in 2011 was the first dock to put smartphone screens on a computer monitor, as well as provide a full-screen browser and connections for physical keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals. But the constrained smartphone apps weren’t much easier to use as big-screen windows, and the Linux-based browser was too limited.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung has finally beat Apple at its own game.While the Galaxy S has been regarded for years as the best Android phone money can buy (at least until the Pixel came around), it’s always existed in the iPhone’s lengthy shadow. Even with a higher market share, a dominant OS, and a years-long lead on features like screen size and water resistance, the Galaxy S has stayed just out of reach of the iPhone zeitgeist. No matter how much it tried to create its own end-to-end experience, Apple fans saw it as a copycat and Android enthusiasts lamented its aggressive TouchWiz interface overhaul.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’ve been remiss by not blogging earlier this year about ESG’s annual IT spending intentions research. The year 2017 continues to follow a pattern: Cybersecurity is a high business and IT priority for most organizations. Based upon a global survey of 641 IT and cybersecurity professionals, the ESG research reveals:
While just over half (53%) of organizations plan on increasing IT spending overall this year, 69% said they are increasing spending on cybersecurity. As far as cybersecurity spending goes, 48% will make their most significant cybersecurity technology investments in cloud security, 39% will in network security, 30% in endpoint security, and 29% in security analytics.
Respondents were asked which business outcomes were their highest priorities for this year. The top three results were as follows: 43% said “reducing costs,” 40% said “increasing productivity," and 39% said “improving information security.”
When asked which business initiatives will drive the most IT spending, 39% said “increasing cybersecurity,” the top selection of all.
When asked to identify the most important IT initiatives for this year, the number one answer was “strengthening cybersecurity controls and processes.”
For the sixth year in a row, survey respondents said cybersecurity is the area where Continue reading
You might think that a pickpocket skilled enough to steal 100 cellphones, pictured above, would also be savvy enough to know that at least the iPhones in that haul carry a means to foil his caper.Then again, you might be giving the crook too much credit.From a story on the website of a Boston television station:
A New York man was arrested at the Coachella music festival in Southern California after he was found with more than 100 stolen cellphones, according to Indio police.During the concert festival on Friday, several people noticed their phones were missing and immediately activated the "Find My Phone" feature on their mobile devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After 20 years, Intel is scrapping its marquee annual Intel Developer Forum event, where tech enthusiasts gathered to load up on the chipmaker's news and technologies.IDF started off in 1997 as a small event in Palm Springs, California. The show was later moved to San Francisco and vastly expanded during a boom in the PC market.But with the PC market slowing down, the attraction of IDF has also dwindled. Intel's future isn't tied to PCs but instead to areas like data centers, autonomous cars, modems, the internet of things, and manufacturing. Last year, IDF events were held in San Francisco and Beijing, and neither will happen this year. An event was scheduled this year from Aug. 15 to 17 in San Francisco, according to a calendar for Moscone Convention Center, but it has been canceled.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Mirai -- a notorious malware that's been enslaving IoT devices -- has competition.A rival piece of programming has been infecting some of the same easy-to-hack internet-of-things products, with a resiliency that surpasses Mirai, according to security researchers."You can almost call it Mirai on steroids," said Marshal Webb, CTO at BackConnect, a provider of services to protect against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.Security researchers have dubbed the rival IoT malware Hajime, and since it was discovered more than six months ago, it's been spreading unabated and creating a botnet. Webb estimates it's infected about 100,000 devices across the globe. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The law of unintended consequences is once again rearing it’s ugly head: Google, Apple, Amazon and others now make virtual assitants that respond to commands, and recordings can trigger them.Burger King found out how, via a radio commercial, it could get Google’s attention. It produced an ad designed to trigger Google Home to advertise the Whopper. The ad featured a Burger King employee saying, “OK, Google. What is the Whopper burger?” The Google Home device would then read the Wikipedia definition of a Whopper. The trigger stopped working a few hours after the ad launched.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Lantern effectively repels mosquitoes and other biting insects in a 15 x 15-foot zone. It has no open flames, operates on a single butane cartridge, and is perfect for a deck, porch or campsite. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon and is currently discounted to $31.46. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft already has laid claim to its Edge browser being the most battery-efficient Web browser available on Windows 10, and now with the Creators Update, Microsoft touts even further gains in energy efficiency.According to Microsoft’s own tests, Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 Creators Update uses up to 31 percent less power than Google Chrome, and up to 44 percent less than Mozilla Firefox. Before you dismiss it as rather convenient that they did their own tests, they did make the methodology available and provided open-source testing tools for download, so you can run the tests yourself. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
True legends in any field are few and far between but Robert Taylor, who died last week at 85, was definitely was one in the field of computer networking.A key figure on the development of the Internet and ubiquitous Ethernet, Taylor was also instrumental in developing the first personal computer known as the Alto and a host of other computer and networking advances throughout his career. And his career was dotted with major positions at Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Stanford Research Institute, NASA, the Pentagon, Xerox and Digital Equipment Corporation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A few special “light antennas” dotted around a room would provide significantly more bandwidth for internet-connected devices than traditional Wi-Fi, says a Dutch scientist. Wi-Fi’s days could be numbered if the technology works as suggested.+ Also on Network World: IoT device sales set to surge in next decade +
With this new Wi-Fi replacement system that’s been proposed, benign, infrared rays of light emitted from ceiling-mounted transmitters would beam bandwidth-intensive streams of data at smartphones and laptops within the room. And each ray of light could provide 40 gigabits per second, says Joanne Oh, a Ph.D. researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in a news article on the university’s website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the age of livestreaming, you never know what you might see. Such was the case yesterday, on Easter Sunday, when 37-year-old Steve Stephens took an innocent man’s life and caused panic in Ohio.Stephens, who claimed to be mad at his girlfriend, was driving around until he spotted a random stranger walking on the sidewalk. He said it was her fault that he was about to murder him. Stephens stopped his car, approached an elderly man, asked him to repeat the name of the woman and said she was the reason this was happening. Then he shot and killed the man.Seventy-four-year-old Robert Godwin was the man killed; he was walking home after having Easter dinner with his children.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google will pay 438 million rubles (US$7.8 million) and will stop requiring its apps be preloaded on Android smartphones in Russia, in an antitrust settlement with the country's Federal Antimonopoly Service.The settlement, announced Monday, ends a nearly two-year investigation by FAS into Google's control of the Android operating system. FAS had accused Google of abusing its monopoly position in mobile app stores serving the Android operating system. The fine amounts to 9 percent of Google's revenue in Russia in 2014, plus inflation, according to TASS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The NutriBullet Rx’s 1700-watt motor uses hands-free SMART Technology to run at the perfect speed for the exact amount of time needed to break down even the most difficult foods, creating silky-smooth NutriBlast smoothies that nourish your system from the inside out. The machine also features a 7-Minute Heating Cycle, which transforms raw vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, and spices into warm, hearty puréed soups, sauces, dips, and beverages. All units include the Nature’s Prescription recipe book to instruct and inspire you on your quest towards optimum health. Its typical list price of $149.99 has been reduced 30%, for now, to just $105.29 for the 10-piece set. A very reasonable price and a solid consideration for the upcoming Mother & Father's day holidays. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Here in Hopkinton, Mass., this morning, 15 fewer runners – cheaters, actually -- are gathering for the start of the Boston Marathon than would have otherwise, thanks to the cyber-sleuthing efforts of an Ohio business analyst.Derek Murphy has made it his business to purge marathoning and, in particular, the Boston competition, of those who by hook, crook – or writing a check – seek to run as official entrants without having done the training to produce a legitimate qualifying time.From a story posted Saturday in Runner’s World.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Plenty of companies have smart, resourceful IT teams that diligently support their organization’s computers and networking operations. But I’m not sure how many of them could pull off the technological tricks that a group of inmates at Ohio’s Marion Correctional Institution did.From e-waste to identity theft
According to local news reports that blew up over the internet last week, at least five prisoners built a pair of working PC out of parts scavenged from e-waste as part of a program designed to teach computer skills by having inmates break down end-of-life computers and recycle the parts. The inmates smuggled the PCs to a training room, hid them in the ceiling and then ran wiring to connect to the prison network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Artificial Intelligence is already impacting every industry through automation and machine learning, bringing concerns that AI is on the fast track to replacing many jobs. But these fears aren't new, says Dan Jackson, director of Enterprise Technology at Crestron, a company that designs workplace technology."I'd argue this is no different than when we moved from an agricultural to an industrial economy at the turn of the last century. The percentage of people working in agriculture significantly decreased, and it was a big shift, but we still have plenty of jobs 100 years later," he says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data centers workloads once handled by IBM mainframes and Sun servers were commoditized by Intel PC hardware, driven by cloud companies like Google. The belief held by the tech industry, including Andreessen Horowitz VC Ben Evans up until recently, that this would continue forever changed last week when Google released a detailed research paper about performance and architectural details about its Tensorflow Processing Unit (TPU).An advertising, cloud services and software company breaking from its core business raises the question: Why are Intel, Qualcomm and NVIDIA not meeting Google’s data center needs?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here