Enterprises recognize that all of the new technologies they want to deploy – IoT, edge computing, serverless, containers, hybrid cloud, and AI – require a robust, flexible, secure, self-healing, software-driven network. And the industry has responded with fresh new approaches such as software-defined networking (SDN), SD-WAN, hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and intent-based networking.To read this article in full, please click here
The internet of things is growing at breakneck pace and may end up representing a bigger economic shift in networking than the internet itself did, making security threats associated with the IoT a major concern.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Cisco issued some 40 security advisories today but only one of them was deemed “critical” – a vulnerability in the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Mode data-center switch that could let an attacker secretly access system resources.The exposure, which was given a Common Vulnerability Scoring System importance of 9.8 out of 10, is described as a problem with secure shell (SSH) key-management for the Cisco Nexus 9000 that lets a remote attacker to connect to the affected system with the privileges of a root user, Cisco said.To read this article in full, please click here
It’s here, and it’s sweeping campuses nationwide: Digital Transformation (Dx) in higher education. While other industries have already made giant leaps in Dx (just look at the retail industry with tech titan Amazon and the transportation industry with innovator Uber), Digital Transformation in higher ed is now starting to take shape.The topic of Dx in higher ed is being addressed at widely attended events like the Educause Annual Conference, where higher education institutions of all sizes come together to discuss the topic of technology. Still in the relatively early stages of Dx, higher ed IT professionals are wondering if their IT departments are set up to support the evolving digital ecosystems at their institutions – and working to ensure that they are.To read this article in full, please click here
Over the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of attention on how customer support is changing and how brands are using customer support as a business differentiator. But where’s all the attention on how businesses are using internal-facing support as a key competitive advantage?(Crickets chirping. Still chirping.)The truth is, customers are a prime focus for businesses but internal employees a distant second, at best. It seems to make sense to prioritize external-facing customer support over internal-facing IT support. But here’s the deal: your employees are consumers, too – they’re out there in the world interacting with A+ service and support teams, and it’s changing their expectations back at the office. They expect internal IT support to deliver the same level of service that they experience as customers.To read this article in full, please click here
Dell EMC kicked off its Dell Technologies World show by announcing an alliance with VMware to offer Dell EMC hardware on-premises without having to buy it outright.The VMware Cloud on Dell EMC program offers the entire VMware software-defined data center (SDDC) stack on hyperconverged VxRail hardware. Rather than purchasing it outright, customers can pay for the service every month based on use. [ Read also: How to plan a software-defined data-center network ]
Sound familiar? HP Enterprise has a similar program called GreenLake that does the same thing. Also, Dell has a program called Cloud Flex, a consumption financing offering for on-premises hardware.To read this article in full, please click here
What are Linux modules?
Kernel modules are chunks of code that are loaded and unloaded into the kernel as needed, thus extending the functionality of the kernel without requiring a reboot. In fact, unless users inquire about modules using commands like lsmod, they won't likely know that anything has changed.One important thing to understand is that there are lots of modules that will be in use on your Linux system at all times and that a lot of details are available if you're tempted to dive into the details.One of the prime ways that lsmod is used is to examine modules when a system isn't working properly. However, most of the time, modules load as needed and users don't need to be aware of how they are working.To read this article in full, please click here
You’d almost think I’d get tired of writing this story over and over and over… but the ongoing growth of cloud computing is too big a trend to ignore.Critically, the impressive growth numbers of the three leading cloud infrastructure providers—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform—doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It’s not just about new workloads being run in the cloud; it’s also about more and more enterprises moving existing workloads to the cloud from on-premises data centers.To read this article in full, please click here
Edge computing startup Vapor IO now offers a direct connection between its edge containers to Amazon Web Services (AWS) via a high-speed fiber network link.The company said that connection between its Kinetic Edge containers and AWS will be provided by Crown Castle's Cloud Connect fiber network, which uses Amazon Direct Connect Services. This would help reduce network latency by essentially drawing a straight fiber line from Vapor IO's edge computing data centers to Amazon's cloud computing data centers.“When combined with Crown Castle’s high-speed Cloud Connect fiber, the Kinetic Edge lets AWS developers build applications that span the entire continuum from core to edge. By enabling new classes of applications at the edge, we make it possible for any AWS developer to unlock the next generation of real-time, innovative use cases,” wrote Matt Trifiro, chief marketing officer of Vapor IO, in a blog post.To read this article in full, please click here
Edge computing deployments are well underway as companies seek to better process the wealth of data being generated, for example, by Internet of Things (IoT) devices.So, what are the results? Plus, how can you ensure success with your own edge projects?Measurements of successThe use cases for edge computing deployments vary widely, as do the business drivers and, ultimately, the benefits.Whether they’re seeking improved network or application performance, real-time data analytics, a better customer experience, or other efficiencies, enterprises are accomplishing their goals. Based on two surveys — one by Automation World and another by Futurum Research — respondents have reported:To read this article in full, please click here
Few events in the tech industry are truly transformative, but Cisco’s replacement of its core Catalyst 6000 family could be one of those actions for customers and the company.Introduced in 1999, iterations of the Catalyst 6000 have nestled into the core of scores of enterprise networks, with the model 6500 becoming the company’s largest selling box ever.
Learn about edge networking
How edge networking and IoT will reshape data centers
Edge computing best practices
How edge computing can help secure the IoT
It goes without question that migrating these customers alone to the new switch – the Catalyst 9600 which the company introduced today – will be of monumental importance to Cisco as it looks to revamp and continue to dominate large campus-core deployments. The first Catalyst 9000, introduced in June 2017, is already the fastest ramping product line in Cisco’s history.To read this article in full, please click here
Cloud access security brokers (CASB) insert security between enterprises and their cloud services by providing visibility and access control, but IPv6 could be causing a dangerous blind spot.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Dell EMC and Cisco have renewed a collaboration on converged infrastructure (CI) products that has run for more than a decade, even as the momentum shifts elsewhere. The news was announced via a blog post by Pete Manca, senior vice president for solutions engineering at Dell EMC.The deal is centered around Dell EMC’s VxBlock product line, which originally started out in 2009 as a joint venture between EMC and Cisco called VCE (Virtual Computing Environment). EMC bought out Cisco’s stake in the venture before Dell bought EMC.To read this article in full, please click here
There are a lot of things that remain to be seen about how 802.11ax will affect wireless network design. An interesting side effect of the addition of OFDMA to the standard may be an end to the dual 5 GHz access point (AP). In a typical campus wireless network, we don’t need as many 2.4 GHz radios as 5 GHz radios. Rather, we are more limited in the number we can use because the 2.4 GHz spectrum has fewer channels and a larger coverage area. This issue is even more pronounced in high-density wireless deployments.Rather than just disable the 2.4 GHz radio, some APs allow you to switch the unneeded 2.4 GHz radio to a 5 GHz radio in software. This can be useful because there are a lot more available 5 GHz channels, so rather than having a bunch of APs with only one radio you can add 5 GHz capacity to the network with the same number of APs.To read this article in full, please click here
When attempting to understand the world of IoT, it’s easy to get sidetracked by all the fascinating use cases: Automated oil and gas platforms! Connected pet feeders! Internet-enabled toilets! (Is “the Internet of Toilets” a thing yet?) But the most important IoT trend to follow may be the way that major tech vendors are vying to make large portions of the market their own.VMware’s play for a significant chunk of the IoT market is called Pulse IoT Center, and the company released version 2.0 of it this week. It follows the pattern set by other big companies getting into IoT: Leveraging their existing technological strengths and applying them to the messier, more heterodox networking environment that IoT represents.To read this article in full, please click here
If you're looking to buy a new business PC, HP is currently offering a "buy more, save more" discount that gets activated at 3 different price points, and using a special code. Configure your new PC to the $599+ price point and apply code BMSM60 to save $60. Or configure to $1,299+ and use code BMSM150 to save $150. Configure to $1,999+ and use code BMSM350 for a whopping $350 off your new PC. Click the codes just mentioned to learn more, or click right here to review available models, specs, and configurations.To read this article in full, please click here
The group behind the Domain Name System attacks known as DNSpionage have upped their dark actions with new tools and malware to focus their attacks and better hide their activities. Cisco Talos security researchers, who discovered DNSpionage in November, this week warned of new exploits and capabilities of the nefarious campaign.
More about DNS:
DNS in the cloud: Why and why not
DNS over HTTPS seeks to make internet use more private
How to protect your infrastructure from DNS cache poisoning
ICANN housecleaning revokes old DNS security key
“The threat actor's ongoing development of DNSpionage malware shows that the attacker continues to find new ways to avoid detection. DNS tunneling is a popular method of exfiltration for some actors and recent examples of DNSpionage show that we must ensure DNS is monitored as closely as an organization's normal proxy or weblogs,” Talos wrote. “DNS is essentially the phonebook of the internet, and when it is tampered with, it becomes difficult for anyone to discern whether what they are seeing online is legitimate.”To read this article in full, please click here
If you thought cloud storage was digging in its heels to become the go-to method for storing data, and at the same time grabbing share from own-server, in-house storage, you may be interested to hear that some think both are on the way out. Instead organizations will use blockchain-based storage.Decentralized blockchain-based file storage will be more secure, will make it harder to lose data, and will be cheaper than anything seen before, say organizations actively promoting the slant on encrypted, distributed technology.[ Read also: Why blockchain (might be) coming to an IoT implementation near you ]
Storing transactional data in a blockchain
China company FileStorm, which describes itself in marketing materials as the first Interplanetary File Storage (IPFS) platform on blockchain, says the key to making it all work is to only store the transactional data in blockchain. The actual data files, such as large video files, are distributed in IPFS.To read this article in full, please click here
Gartner has updated its forecasts for IT spending this year with a downward projection, but it's not necessarily due to declining sales. It’s because the strengthening U.S. dollar is driving prices down and undercutting previous predictions.Overall spending is expected to increase by 1.1% over 2018, to $3.79 trillion, down from a prediction of 2.8% growth made in January.“Currency headwinds fueled by the strengthening U.S. dollar have caused us to revise our 2019 IT spending forecast down from the previous quarter,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner, in a statement. “Through the remainder of 2019, the U.S. dollar is expected to trend stronger, while enduring tremendous volatility due to uncertain economic and political environments and trade wars."To read this article in full, please click here
April has a been a big month for drone delivery. First, Alphabet’s Wing Aviation drones got approval from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), for public deliveries in the country, and this week Wing earned Air Carrier Certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. These two regulatory wins got lot of people got very excited. Finally, the conventional wisdom exulted, drone delivery is actually becoming a reality.To read this article in full, please click here