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Category Archives for "Network World SDN"

Don’t worry about shadow IT. Shadow IoT is much worse.

For years, IT departments have been railing about the dangers of shadow IT and bring-your-own-device. The worry is that these unauthorized practices bring risks to corporate systems, introducing new vulnerabilities and increasing the attack surface.That may be true, but it’s not the whole story. As I’ve long argued, shadow IT may increase risks, but it can also cut costs, boost productivity and speed innovation. That’s why users are often so eager to circumvent what they see as slow and conservative IT departments by adopting increasingly powerful and affordable consumer and cloud-based alternatives, with or without the blessing of the powers that be. Just as important, there’s plenty of evidence of that enlightened IT departments should work to leverage those new approaches to serve their internal customers in a more agile manner.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: Back to School: Your SD-WAN Reading List

Summer is about to end. Time to head back to work, understand next year’s projects and plans, and set your IT infrastructure objectives accordingly. SD-WAN and MPLS transformation are huge trends that cannot be overlooked. How will it impact your existing IT?MPLS transformations can send chills down any IT pro’s spine but these suggested readings will help calm the nerves. They’re a series of clear, concise, and practical manuals divided into lessons on how to migrate from the prehistoric world of MPLS into the light of SD-WAN.  Finish all of them and you’ll have an A+ in WAN Transformation 101.To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: A Compelling Justification for Your Business-driven SD-WAN Investment at Your Fingertips!

This is the second of a two-part blog series that explores how enterprise IT leaders can effectively measure the return on SD-WAN investments. In my first installment of this series, I discussed how IT leaders can make a business case for moving from a traditional router-centric architecture to a business-first networking model SD-WAN, like the one delivered by Silver Peak. According to a recent report by IDC[1], the SD-WAN market is poised to reach $5.25 Billion in 2023. The report also predicts the SD-WAN industry to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8 percent from 2018 to 2023, and that is driving a lot of attention to this new way of deploying WAN infrastructure. CIOs are asking how and why they will use SD-WAN and how they can justify making SD-WAN investments.To read this article in full, please click here

AMD hosts an Epyc party — and everyone wants in

Last week, AMD launched the second generation of its Epyc server processor, the Epyc 7002 series a.k.a. “Rome,” and it’s a far cry from the days when it held a release party for the Opteron and no one showed up. These days, AMD has a whole lot of friends.Of course, it helps to deliver a part people want, and it looks like the Epyc 7002 is all that. It builds considerably upon the first generation, code-named “Naples,” delivered two years ago. One chip packs up to 64 cores and two threads per core, double the max of 32 cores in Naples. It has eight memory channels and up to 128 lanes of PCI Express Gen 4.[ Also read: What is quantum computing (and why enterprises should care) ] The Epyc 7002 achieves this massive core count through “chiplets,” eight small chips in the CPU die with eight cores each and connected by a high-speed interconnect. A single monolithic 64-core die is impractical from a manufacturing standpoint. There is so much more that can go wrong with 64 cores than 16. Plus, AMD is manufacturing this on a 7nm process (Intel is just getting to 10nm), so Continue reading

What is instant recovery? A way to quickly restore lost files and test backup systems

The concept of instant recovery is relatively simple – the ability to run a virtual machine directly from a backup of that VM – but the possibilities offered by such a simple concept are virtually limitless, which explains why it’s considered one of the most important advances in backup and recovery for many years.Before the advent of instant recovery all restores were basically the same, starting with how backups were stored – in some type of container or image. Prior to commercial backup-and-recovery software, backups were stored in formats such as tar, cpio, or dump. More about backup and recovery:To read this article in full, please click here

5 reasons to choose a managed SD-WAN and 5 reasons to think twice

Northgate Gonzalez Markets, a chain of grocery stores in southern California, was launching a fast-paced digital transformation initiative that required a complete revamp of its WAN infrastructure.Northgate was taking the bold step of eliminating its data center and moving around 500 servers’ worth of applications and data to the cloud. The old WAN topology of backhauling traffic from each of its 43 locations to a central data center via two T-1s had to be replaced with a direct, reliable, resilient, secure connection from each individual location to the cloud. More about enterprise SD-WAN: 10 hot SD-WAN startups to watch The inside scoop from real-world SD-WAN deployments SD-WAN: What is it and why you’ll use it one day 4 questions to ask before deploying SD-WAN How to choose the right SD-WAN transport and why it matters Harrison Lewis, CIO and chief privacy officer at Northgate Markets, settled on an SD-WAN deployment. After evaluating the pros and cons of the do-it-yourself (DIY) option versus a managed service, Lewis decided that a managed approach was preferable for multiple reasons, with speed at the top of the list. “We had a compressed timeline,” he says. “We didn’t have the luxury of saying, Continue reading

How to get a handle on multicloud management

As enterprises pile more cloud activities onto the platforms of more cloud providers, many IT and network managers are feeling overwhelmed because each cloud provider comes with its own toolset, rules and user demands. In a multicloud environment, this convoluted mixture quickly leads enterprises into a pit of complexity, confusion and cost.Coming to the rescue are more than a dozen vendors, ranging from IT stalwarts to startups, offering multicloud management tools designed to bring order, control and insight to data centers juggling multiple cloud services. IBM, BMC Software, Cisco, Dell Technologies Cloud, DXC Technology, VMware, HyperGrid, and Divvycloud are just some of the firms promising stable and reliable multicloud management. Many cloud services also provide some degree of management and integration with other cloud providers.To read this article in full, please click here

Evolution of the internet: Celebrating 50 years since Arpanet

Arpanet carried its first message on October 29, 1969, laying the foundation for today’s networked world. Fifty years later, more than 4 billion people have internet access, and the number of devices connected to IP networks is more than double the global population. Here’s a look at some key milestones in the history of the internet and  projections for its future growth.Arpanet, precursor to the internet The name Arpanet came from the U.S. military arm that funded it, the Advanced Research Projects Agency. When Arpanet was created, it connected five sites: UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Utah and BBN Technologies.To read this article in full, please click here

Xilinx closes SolarFlare purchase, promises high-performance networking

Network acceleration appears to be all the rage these days, what with Nvidia acquiring Mellanox, the advent of High Bandwidth Memory 2E targeting networking chips, and now Xilinx closing of its acquisition of low-latency network provider SolarFlare.SolarFlare makes a high-speed network interface card (NIC) using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to build SmartNICs sold under the X2 brand. These PCI Express network interface cards run network, storage, and compute acceleration, offloading that work from the CPU. SolarFlare also develops application acceleration software to fully utilize the cards.To read this article in full, please click here

VMware’s Bitfusion acquisition could be a game-changer for GPU computing

In a low-key move that went under the radar of a lot of us, last week VMware snapped up a startup called Bitfusion, which makes virtualization software for accelerated computing. It improves performance of virtual machines by offloading processing to accelerator chips, such as GPUs, FPGAs, or other custom ASICs.Bitfusion provides sharing of GPU resources among isolated GPU compute workloads, allowing workloads to be shared across the customer’s network. This way workloads are not tied to one physical server but shared as a pool of resources, and if multiple GPUs are brought to bear, performance naturally increases.“In many ways, Bitfusion offers for hardware acceleration what VMware offered to the compute landscape several years ago. Bitfusion also aligns well with VMware’s ‘Any Cloud, Any App, Any Device’ vision with its ability to work across AI frameworks, clouds, networks, and formats such as virtual machines and containers,” said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of the Cloud Platform Business Unit at VMware, in a blog post announcing the deal.To read this article in full, please click here

There’s finally a communication app tailormade for on-the-go teams. Try it free.

One of the hardest things for employers to do is keep up with the needs of an increasingly mobile workforce. More than ever, teams are using multiple devices to do their work on the go — and for workforces that are dispersed, it can be difficult to get on the same page for key objectives and initiatives. That’s where Eko comes in: this performance-boosting platform is built for mobile workforces, combining communications, process management, task management, e-learning and HR functionalities into one easy-to-use app. Ideal for remote teams, retail and hospitality, this app streamlines everything frontline staff needs to be successful into one helpful tool. To read this article in full, please click here

Getting help for Linux shell built-ins

Linux built-ins are commands that are built into the shell, much like shelves that are built into a wall. You won’t find them as stand-alone files the way standard Linux commands are stored in /usr/bin and you probably use quite a few of them without ever questioning how they’re different from commands such as ls and pwd.Built-ins are used just like other Linux commands. They are likely to run a bit faster than similar commands that are not part of your shell. Bash built-ins include commands such as alias, export and bg. [ Two-Minute Linux Tips: Learn how to master a host of Linux commands in these 2-minute video tutorials ] As you might suspect, because built-ins are shell-specific, they won't be supplied with man pages. Ask man to help with bg and you'll see something like this:To read this article in full, please click here

BrandPost: Digital Transformation: Can SD-WAN Help Strengthen Application Security in a Cloud-First World?

The majority of enterprise CIOs are of in the midst of a digital transformation journey, migrating more of their business applications and infrastructure from their own data centers to the cloud. These applications include real-time voice calling, video conferencing, email, storage, CRM, and many other software applications now delivered as a service – “SaaS.” To support digital transformation initiatives and shifting traffic patterns as more applications move to the cloud, 94 percent1 of enterprises are considering, evaluating or have already deployed1 SD-WAN solutions to address evolving WAN requirements. Enterprises are rethinking their WAN approach to better support multi-cloud infrastructures and to actively leverage higher bandwidth (and often lower cost) broadband services to augment existing MPLS transport networks.To read this article in full, please click here

AT&T partners with IBM and Microsoft, focuses on network capabilities

Earlier this year, AT&T finalized a deal to divest itself of its 31 data centers for $1.1 billion. Now that it has dumped its data center business, the company partnering with two of the largest providers of them: Microsoft and IBM.IBM and AT&T this week announced a multi-year strategic alliance where AT&T’s network and IBM Cloud will link up to provide software-defined network (SDN) services, including giving IBM Cloud access to AT&T’s 5G network. In return, IBM will make AT&T its primary provider of 5G, edge computing, and internet of things (IoT) services and help manage AT&T’s entire infrastructure footprint, including third-party cloud services, using Red Hat’s open-source tools to manage the network. This isn’t really new, as AT&T was using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for some time.To read this article in full, please click here

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