One way to get enterprises and service providers to adopt cloud infrastructure is to make it easier to set up and use. That’s what EMC is doing with Neutrino, a new type of hardware-software node for the VCE VxRack platform.The VxRack System 1000 with Neutrino nodes can run any workload on any node in the rack, and on any of several cloud software stacks. If OpenStack is best for one job, Hadoop is best for another, and VMware Photon is ideal for a third application, each can run on the appropriate stack. As long as there’s capacity somewhere in the rack, it doesn’t matter where each is hosted.“It allows any of the hardware in the nodes to be provisioned to any software stack,” said Jeremy Burton, EMC’s president of products and marketing. This will help enterprises and service providers deliver IaaS (infrastructure as a service) to their users and customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The City of New York became the latest entity to weigh in on the subject of LTE-U, as an open letter from the mayor’s office to policymakers at the 3GPP standards body pushes for thorough protection for existing Wi-Fi.LTE-U, a carrier technology designed to take the load off of existing networks by using the unlicensed frequency bands where Wi-Fi lives, has provoked widespread concerns about interference and disruption. The technology’s inventors, Qualcomm and Ericsson, and the carriers have insisted that LTE-U contains features that will enable it to co-exist peacefully with Wi-Fi, but many others, from the cable industry to Google and Microsoft, have expressed serious doubts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nine out of 10 developers are likely or very likely to boost their use of containerized applications in the coming year, according to a new survey of 300 developers by Shippable.“Companies are realizing the productivity and flexibility gains they were expecting, and use of container technology is clearly on the rise,” said Shippable CEO Avi Cavale in a statement.Those are optimistic words, and almost 90 percent seems like a strong vote of confidence for containers such as Docker and others, validating the intense hype the technology has generated in the last couple years. Perhaps that’s why more than half of developers (52 percent) told Shippable, which sells a continuous delivery platform, they already use containers in production, at least for new applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Not the same old flowers, chocolate and jewelryThis isn’t a gadget-heavy list of Mother’s Day gift ideas. It’s a collection of gifts inspired by science, technology, engineering and math. The tech quotient is low, but the design bar is high. Each of these gifts shows how artists, craftspeople and industrial designers can put a geeky spin on the usual jewelry, flowers and accessories.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Most IT departments throughout enterprises are about to relinquish control of the Internet of Things, a research firm says.IoT will not generally be managed by IT, reckons Bob O’Donnell. His company, TECHnalysis Research, recently completed an online study about which department will be running IoT within organizations.Surprisingly, operations, facilities and manufacturing was the principal selection, the researcher found (with 42 percent). It will be the “most common department to be responsible for IoT projects,” O’Donnell says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past 30-plus years, Cisco has almost single-handedly carried the flag for network-centric innovation. Its many brand campaigns along the way have told us that Cisco can “Empower the Internet Generation” and connect the “Human Network” and that “Tomorrow Starts Here.”
Each of those branding initiatives was tied to a different era in networking. For example, “Tomorrow Starts Here” was targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT).
Now that IoT is well underway, Cisco is changing its brand to be more reflective of the next wave in business: the “digital” era.
This morning, Cisco’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karen Walker, outlined the thoughts behind Cisco’s new brand campaign of “There’s Never Been A Better Time.” Cisco’s tagline is supported by a number of use cases that explain what it is that there’s never been a better time to do. Below are a couple of examples that illustrate how “there’s never been a better time to make cities smarter” or “… to save the rhinos.” Along with the headline, Cisco provides stories and data points, quantifying the value of digitization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Truth be told, I am not a model citizen when it comes to password management, so the sentiment behind this latest installment of “Geek-themed Meme of the Week” resonated with me. And the discussion on Reddit that followed was interesting, too. Reddit
[DON'T MISS: Geek-Themed Meme of the Week Archive]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. government has indicted a Virginia couple for running an H-1B visa-for-sale scheme the government said generated about $20 million.Raju Kosuri and Smriti Jharia of Ashburn, Va., along with four co-conspirators, were indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).The scheme involved, in part, setting up a network of shell companies and the filing of H-1B visas applications for non-existent job vacancies.Workers were required to pay their own visa processing fees and were treated as hourly contractors, the DOJ alleged. Treating H-1B workers as hourly contractors is in violation of the program rules, the government said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Should you be able to plead the Fifth when a judge forces you to use your fingerprints to unlock an iPhone?That’s the latest ongoing debate in a Los Angeles courtroom after a judge compelled a woman in custody to use Touch ID to unlock an iPhone. Legal experts are arguing that this goes against the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination because the authorities would then have access to potentially-incriminating personal data stored on the device.+ MORE IPHONE: Best Apple iPhone 7 design concepts of 2016 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's Atom processor architecture will live on despite the recent cancellation of next-generation smartphone chips.The chip maker will continue the development and use of the processor architecture, which stresses power efficiency, though the chips may not necessarily carry the Atom label. Last week Intel canceled upcoming Atom smartphone chips code-named Broxton and Sofia.The next-generation Atom architecture, code-named Goldmont, will first appear in future Pentium and Celeron processors, code-named Apollo Lake, an Intel spokeswoman said. Current top-line Atom chips are based on an architecture named Airmont.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We now know the tradeoff for free Windows 10: Microsoft wants data about what you do with your device. But you don't have to send everything you do back to Redmond.You can control the data you send back, and how often, by delving into Windows 10's privacy settings (we've taken you here before) and looking specifically at Feedback frequency and Diagnostic and usage data. The former is typically just an automated survey, but the diagnostic component actually peers into your machine.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10
These features comprised the Customer Experience Improvement Program, or CEIP, in previous versions of Windows—and they were voluntary. In Windows 10 they've become mandatory, but you can control some aspects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you pay $1.99 to download an ebook for your Kindle, it’s protected by DRM that stops you sharing the contents, and if Amazon wants to, it can revoke the document so you can’t read it any more. Is your company’s current price list protected nearly as well?With information rights management (often known as enterprise DRM, short for digital rights management), you could make sure that price list was only shared with your customers, blocking them from sending it on to your competitors and automatically blocking it at the end of the quarter when you come out with new prices. Or you could share specifications with several vendors in your supply chain during a bidding process and then block everyone but the winning vendor from opening the document after the contract is finalized. You can make sure that contractors aren’t working from out of date plans by making the old plan expire when there’s an update. Tracking and visibility is useful for compliance as well as security; you could track how many people had opened the latest version of the employee handbook, or see that a document you’d shared with a small team was being actually read by Continue reading
They sit off in the corner, some of them collecting dust. Yet, a printer is a legitimate attack surface. Many companies don’t bother to update the firmware on older models, or don’t include every model in a security audit (such as the one in the CEO’s office everyone forgot about), or the organization assumes a hacker won’t bother with an Epson or HP that is barely even connected to Wi-Fi.Interestingly enough, because a printer is so innocuous and seemingly harmless, that’s the exact reason it poses a threat, according to the security analysts who talked to CSO about this issue. Sometimes, the best attack vector for an attacker is the one no one bothers to think about. However, a recent IDC survey found that 35 percent of all security breaches in offices were traced back to an unsecured printer or multi-function device, costing companies $133,800 each year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Track workouts, heart rate, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes, and steps with the popular Fitbit Charge HR. Sync data wirelessly and automatically back to your computer or smartphone, where it can be viewed and analyzed securely online. Fitbit Charge HR also tracks your sleep, and can wake you with a silent alarm. The unit averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 24,000 people (read reviews). With a regular list price of $149.99, you can save $21 and pick it up now for $128.71. See the discounted Fitbit Charge HR Wireless Activity Wristband now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google Apps is getting a new set of tutorials. The tech giant announced Monday that it has acquired Synergyse, a startup that offered businesses a guided tutorial for Google Apps.Synergyse's technology allowed businesses to give their users step-by-step interactive guides to doing things inside Google Apps like sending emails in Gmail, setting up appointments in Calendar and getting started with Docs. The tutorials are frequently updated with new features that Google releases, so users can stay current with new functionality that gets added to the different services. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The worst part of this mistake – other than the pain caused to innocent weasels – is that it should have been avoided, at least here. After all, as I was typing last Friday’s post about an electrocution-sparked electrical outage at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) the question did occur to me: Is a weasel actually a rodent, as I am about to allege?Unfortunately, I failed to act upon that inquisitive impulse and the answer to the question is no, a weasel is not a rodent. And I am hearing about it from those who know better.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft last week outlined the timetable it will use to drop browser support for sites that secure traffic with SHA-1 certificates, part of an Internet-wide plan to rid the Internet of the weaker encryption.With the delivery of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update -- slated to ship sometime this summer -- both Internet Explorer (IE) and Edge will stop displaying a lock icon for sites that reply on a SHA-1 certificate. That icon signals that the bits back and forth between browser and website are encrypted, and so not vulnerable to spying.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This report from the CIO Executive Council (CEC), based on a webcast featuring Scott Angelo, CIO at K&L Gates, and Mike Plantinga, CIO at CIBC Mellon, explores CIO-level strategies for dealing with cybersecurity threats – before and after a data breach.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Back in 2007, I went to O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON). That particular year Canonical had a mini-summit, which happened in the two days before OSCON, called Ubuntu Live.I honestly don't remember much about any of the sessions I attended all those years ago. But one memory stands out like a spotlight pointed straight at my face: almost every single laptop I saw in use at Ubuntu Live was a MacBook.Nearly every single one. Row after row of little glowing Apple logos filling every conference room. And this was at Ubuntu's first big conference—a conference filled to the brim with Linux (and Ubuntu) developers and power users.We're not talking Apple hardware running Linux, either. I made a point of asking people what they were running (or just glancing at the screens as I walked by). Were a few running Linux? Yes. A few. But the majority were running Mac OS X. The vast majority. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Interop conference convening this week will be a far cry from the gathering of a small group of technology pioneers who sought interoperability among Internet devices 30 years ago.Then, the 1986 invitation-only TCP/IP Interoperability Conference drew representatives from 65 tech companies.The 30th version running this week in Las Vegas features a trade show with more than 160 vendors displaying their wares and where its interoperability mission ventures far outside the show’s signature InteropNet Demo Lab. This year it is focused on promoting interoperability among Internet of Things devices, a category of gear unheard of that first year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here