Services are a relatively new concept in WANs. Devices and configurations were traditionally what made up a WAN, with routers, switches, load balancers, firewalls, proxy servers and other components positioned at appropriate points in the network. Enterprises have long grown accustomed to the use of appliances—or “middle boxes” to perform a single function, and the maintenance and management of these devices can be a real headache for IT teams.+ Also on Network World: SD-WAN: What it is and why you’ll use it one day +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple’s post-Steve Jobs leadership era began officially on Aug. 24, 2011 – five years ago tomorrow -- with the announcement of his resignation and the appointment of Tim Cook as new CEO.The news of his resignation, while not unexpected, was momentous.Jobs made the announcement in a letter addressed to “the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community” and posted to the company’s website:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Great Equalizer. The Great Democratizer. Many such phrases have been used to describe the internet over the years—mostly focusing on the rapid dissemination of uncensored information.Even social media sites (such as Twitter) have played critical roles in real-world revolutions. The ability for the average person to spread ideas, news and information—without corporate or government censorship—has brought about massive power and freedom to the people of the world.But what happens when the key websites and services—the ones we rely upon to spread those messages—censor that content? That’s a bad thing, right? Well, this seems to be happening a lot recently, especially in relation to leaked content (regardless of the type of content or the source from which it originated).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past few weeks I’ve written about Wi-Fi startups eero and Luma and how their new wireless mesh systems are changing the home network wireless market with easier setup and larger coverage than compared with traditional Wi-Fi routers and range extenders.One of the market leaders in that space, Netgear, is now on board with their own system, which not only validates the concept provided by eero and Luma, but now provides some big-time competition for those two companies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Cambridge SoundWorks OontZ Angle 3 Next Generation Ultra Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 8,300 people on Amazon (read reviews). It's regular list price is $99.99, but with the current 72% discount on Amazon, you can get it for just $27.99. The OontZ Angle 3 connects effortlessly to your device via bluetooth. It is designed to be loud and clear, with rich bass delivered through their proprietary passive subwoofer design. IPX5 water resistance makes the unit splashproof, rainproof, dustproof, and sandproof. A good consideration for the beach, poolside, in the outdoor shower, car, boat or golf cart. At only 9 ounces and just 5 inches long, it's very light and easy to fit in a backpack. Its high capacity rechargeable 2200 mAh battery lasts for up to 7 hours of playtime. Check out the dramatically discounted OontZ Angle 3 from Cambridge Soundworks now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung Electronics continues to place its bets on the Tizen operating system for smartphones, with the launch Tuesday in India of a 4G enabled smartphone priced at 4,590 rupees (US$68).The company’s Tizen phones have not very successful in the country, and the new device is not likely to disrupt the market in which Android phones dominate, said Vishal Tripathi, research director at Gartner. “The previous Tizen phones were good, but people were not used to the operating system,” he added.The Z2 is the third Tizen phone the company is launching in India. It was preceded by the Z1 and Z3. India has been a primary target market for Samsung's Tizen phones because of the country's large number of price-sensitive customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Yes, the idea of sitting down with a Microsoft technical fellow at a Linux conference is still somewhat counterintuitive, but times have changed – Redmond is no longer the inimical enemy of all things open-source. Twitter
Jeffrey Snover, PowerShell creator
Quite the opposite, these days, Microsoft, under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, has begun to embrace open-source in a big way, releasing key software components like .NET as open-source, making its Azure cloud Linux-compatible, and acquiring companies that boost its presence in the open-source world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For more than 15 years, Gary Smith has been at the helm of Ciena, leading the company through the so-called ‘telecom nuclear winter’ following the early 2000s dot-com bust to its global leadership position today in the optical networking and metro Ethernet markets. In this installment of the IDG CEO Interview Series, Smith talked with Chief Content Officer John Gallant about Ciena’s expanding enterprise business, including its data center connectivity strategy. He also discussed how Ciena is reshaping the portfolio of WAN services for enterprise customers – from the explosion of Ethernet services, to on-demand links and, ultimately, the software-defined WAN. Smith also explored the back-office work and revenue challenges ahead for service providers as big IT shops push for a more dynamic WAN.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
About 32% of hospitals and 52% of non-acute providers -- such as outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities and physicians' offices -- are not encrypting data in transit, according to a new survey.Additionally, only 61% of acute providers and 48% of non-acute providers are encrypting data at rest.This "leaves the door wide open to potential tampering and corruption of the data, in addition to a large potential for a breach," the report stated. "If a computer, laptop, thumb drive, or backup were to be stolen, any person would be able to access such information." HIMSS
The survey, conducted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a Chicago-based trade group for the health information technology sector, also revealed that many of the facilities' networks don't even have firewalls.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Side channels used to be avenues for cyber attacks. Today, one side channel has been elevated to a new front line for cyber defense, and it may go on to be a bulwark for the internet of things (IoT).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
If there’s been one constant through Linux’s 25 years in the wild, it’s change. The kernel itself has been through dozens of revisions; Linux distributions for most every use case have emerged; and the culture of Linux has evolved from weekend hobby project to an underpinning of worldwide IT infrastructure.Now we’re seeing the first versions of the next wave of Linux change. Containerization, unikernels, and other experiments with form are reshaping Linux from the inside out, opening up unheralded avenues for how the open source operating system that could (and did!) can do it all over again.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Android 7.0 Nougat is beginning its slow rollout to Android devices around the world. Most phones will take time to update, but Nexus owners can already play with Google’s latest and greatest OS. Nougat brings some cool new features like split-screen multitasking, bundled notifications, and Daydream VR. Even with all the improvements, there are still some nagging deficiencies in the Android feature set. Here are the five most glaring omissions from Android 7.0.Restart option
Come on, Google. You’re just being stubborn.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Learning is fun!Image by Derek WalterParents everywhere grapple with the question of how much “screen time” to allow for their children—and part of the challenge to this question stems from how many apps and games are mindless diversions.So to help you out, we’ve pulled together a group of higher-quality choices that are both educational and fun. Any guilt you have about screen time will be vastly diminished when your kid is learning about the solar system, practicing multiplication, or using logic to solve a puzzle. Check out some of our top choices for making learning something that can happen anytime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Application layer DDoS attacks are becoming more common, perhaps because they cost less for malicious actors to execute and can more effectively evade defenses than network layer attacks, Imperva says.One such attack generated 8.7Gbps at its peak, “unheard of in relation to application layer assaults,” in an effort to thread its way through the DDoS mitigations that had been set up to defend against such attacks, according to Imperva’s “DDoS Threat Landscape Report 2015-2016” released today.Application layer attacks can be measured in responses per second required from the application targeted, and they generally require less volume than network layer attacks to succeed, the report says. That means they require fewer botnet resources, if botnets are the platform from which the attack is launched.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), more commonly known as blockchain, has the potential to revolutionize financial, investment and insurance technology infrastructure and networks. It will form one of the foundations of “next-generation financial services infrastructure,” the World Economic Forum (WEF) says in a new report.The WEF pulls together political and business leaders to focus on global issues such as technology changes.+ Also on Network World: Blockchain: You’ve got questions; we’ve got answers +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s been a good year for IT administrators who want more information, more often, about what’s happening on their networks.In April, startups Veriflow and Nyansa introduced new ways to determine whether a network is doing what it should. In June, Cisco Systems unveiled its Tetration Analytics appliance to collect and analyze information about all parts of a data center in real time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In 2010, Jim Gettys, a veteran computer programmer who currently works at Google, was at home uploading a large file to his work server. His kids came into his study and said, “Daddy, the Internet is slow today.” Wondering how his upload activity could be affecting downloads by his kids, he began to investigate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
IBM's Power processors have a storied history; they were notably used in the Watson supercomputer that outsmarted humans in the game of Jeopardy in 2011. The latest chip in the family, called the Power9, is coming next year, and it stands out for its blazing speed and for technologies never seen in chips before.IBM is spilling Power9 details at the Hot Chips conference in Cupertino, California, this week. Here's some important information about the chip.Power9 servers will be smarter than the Jeopardy winner
The sheer computing power in Power9 will make supercomputers virtually unbeatable in Jeopardy, unless a superhuman demonstrating exceptional intelligence comes along. The Power9 architecture has up to 24 cores and provides blazing throughput to speed up complex calculations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Graphics processors with Nvidia's NVLink throughput technology have just started coming out, but a successor to the groundbreaking interconnect is already on its way.IBM's upcoming Power9 chip will include NVLink 2.0 technology, and servers using the chip will be available next year.Nvidia hasn't yet announced when GPUs with NVLink 2.0 would come out, but they could be available around the same time as the new Power9 servers come out.IBM is projecting Power9 servers to be out by the middle of next year, but the company hasn't nailed down a specific date.A presentation on Nvidia's website says NVLink 2.0 will be in GPUs code-named Volta, which also will come out next year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is lambasting Microsoft over Windows 10's telemetry technology, urging it to "come clean" with customers.In a piece posted last week to the EFF's blog, Amul Kalia, the San Francisco-based advocacy organization's intake coordinator, criticized Microsoft's practice of collecting large amounts of data from Windows 10 users."Windows 10 sends an unprecedented amount of usage data back to Microsoft, particularly if users opt in to 'personalize' the software using the OS assistant called Cortana," wrote Kalia, referring to the voice-controlled digital aide. "Microsoft should come clean with its user community. The company needs to acknowledge its missteps and offer real, meaningful opt-outs to the users who want them, preferably in a single unified screen."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here