It’s becoming a cliché to say that data security is a top concern among executives and boards of directors. The problem is: the problem just won’t go away.Hackers and attackers are ever finding new ways to exploit weaknesses. Just as companies start to use emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to protect their organizations in an automated fashion, so too are bad actors using these tools to further their goals.In a nutshell, security simply cannot be overlooked. And now, as companies increasingly adopt edge computing, there are new considerations to securing these environments.To read this article in full, please click here
A lot of important values are stored on Linux systems in what we call “variables,” but there are actually several types of variables and some interesting commands that can help you work with them. In a previous post, we looked at environment variables and where they are defined. In this post, we're going to look at variables that are used on the command line and within scripts.User variables
While it's quite easy to set up a variable on the command line, there are a few interesting tricks. To set up a variable, all you need to do is something like this:To read this article in full, please click here
Last week at Hannover Messe, Microsoft and German carmaker BMW announced a partnership to build a hardware and software technology framework and reference architecture for the industrial internet of things (IoT), and foster a community to spread these smart-factory solutions across the automotive and manufacturing industries.The stated goal of the Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP)? According to the press release, it's “to drive open industrial IoT development and help grow a community to build future Industry 4.0 solutions.” To make that a reality, the companies said that by the end of 2019, they plan to attract four to six partners — including manufacturers and suppliers from both inside and outside the automotive industry — and to have rolled out at least 15 use cases operating in actual production environments.To read this article in full, please click here
VeloCloud is now a Business Unit within VMware since being acquired in December 2017. The two companies have had sufficient time to integrate their operations and fit their technologies together to build a cohesive offering. In January, Neal Weinberg provided an overview of where VMware is headed with its reinvention. Now let’s look at it from the VeloCloud SD-WAN perspective.I recently talked to Sanjay Uppal, vice president and general manager of the VeloCloud Business Unit. He shared with me where VeloCloud is heading, adding that it’s all possible because of the complementary products that VMware brings to VeloCloud’s table.To read this article in full, please click here
Building and deploying lightweight apps is becoming an easier and more reliable process with the emergence of unikernels. While limited in functionality, unikernals offer many advantages in terms of speed and security.What are unikernels?
A unikernel is a very specialized single-address-space machine image that is similar to the kind of cloud applications that have come to dominate so much of the internet, but they are considerably smaller and are single-purpose. They are lightweight, providing only the resources needed. They load very quickly and are considerably more secure -- having a very limited attack surface. Any drivers, I/O routines and support libraries that are required are included in the single executable. The resultant virtual image can then be booted and run without anything else being present. And they will often run 10 to 20 times faster than a container.To read this article in full, please click here
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is considered the glue of the internet. If we view through the lens of farsightedness, however, there’s a question that still remains unanswered for the future. Will BGP have the ability to route on the best path versus the shortest path?There are vendors offering performance-based solutions for BGP-based networks. They have adopted various practices, such as, sending out pings to monitor the network and then modifying the BGP attributes, such as the AS prepending to make BGP do the performance-based routing (PBR). However, this falls short in a number of ways.The problem with BGP is that it's not capacity or performance aware and therefore its decisions can sink the application’s performance. The attributes that BGP relies upon for path selection are, for example, AS-Path length and multi-exit discriminators (MEDs), which do not always correlate with the network’s performance.To read this article in full, please click here
As part of its massive data center event on Tuesday, Intel formally launched the Optane persistent memory product line. It had been out for a while, but the current generation of Xeon server processors could not fully utilize it. The new Xeon 8200 and 9200 lines take full advantage of it.And since Optane is an Intel product (co-developed with Micron), that means AMD and Arm server processors are out of luck.As I have stated in the past, Optane DC Persistent Memory uses 3D Xpoint memory technology that Intel developed with Micron Technology. 3D Xpoint is a non-volatile memory type that is much faster than solid-state drives (SSD), almost at the speed of DRAM, but it has the persistence of NAND flash.To read this article in full, please click here
The quest to find more efficient methods for cooling computers is almost as high on scientists’ agendas as the desire to discover better battery chemistries.More cooling is crucial for reducing costs. It would also allow for more powerful processing to take place in smaller spaces, where limited processing should be crunching numbers instead of making wasteful heat. It would stop heat-caused breakdowns, thereby creating longevity in components, and it would promote eco-friendly data centers — less heat means less impact on the environment.Removing heat from microprocessors is one angle scientists have been exploring, and they think they have come up with a simple, but unusual and counter-intuitive solution. They say that running a variant of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) with its electrodes reversed forces the component to act as if it were at an unusually low temperature. Placing it next to warmer electronics, then, with a nanoscale gap introduced, causes the LED to suck out the heat.To read this article in full, please click here
I am sure by now you’ve heard about the latest Wi-Fi technology, which is 802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6. We’ve been very active educating you about this standard for the past year. Please check out this blog series here.We’ve been building a portfolio of high-performance 802.11ax APs to meet a broad range of enterprise needs. Last fall, we introduced our first 802.11ax campus access point, the 510 Series, which is ideal for midsize mobile and IoT deployments.To read this article in full, please click here
I am sure by now you’ve heard about the latest Wi-Fi technology, which is 802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6. We’ve been very active educating you about this standard for the past year. Please check out this blog series here.We’ve been building a portfolio of high-performance 802.11ax APs to meet a broad range of enterprise needs. Last fall, we introduced our first 802.11ax campus access point, the 510 Series, which is ideal for midsize mobile and IoT deployments.To read this article in full, please click here
The transformation to the digital age has introduced significant changes to the cloud and data center environments. This has compelled the organizations to innovate more quickly than ever before. This, however, brings with it both – the advantages and disadvantages.The network and security need to keep up with this rapid pace of change. If you cannot match with the speed of the digital age, then ultimately bad actors will become a hazard. Therefore, the organizations must move to a zero-trust environment: default deny, with least privilege access. In today’s evolving digital world this is the primary key to success.To read this article in full, please click here
Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is growing in popularity and availability for those organizations that don’t want to host their own LAN or WAN, or that want to complement or replace their traditional network with something far easier to manage.With NaaS, a service provider creates a multi-tenant wide area network comprised of geographically dispersed points of presence (PoPs) connected via high-speed Tier 1 carrier links that create the network backbone. The PoPs peer with cloud services to facilitate customer access to cloud applications such as SaaS offerings, as well as to infrastructure services from the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft. User organizations connect to the network from whatever facilities they have — data centers, branch offices, or even individual client devices — typically via SD-WAN appliances and/or VPNs.To read this article in full, please click here
A collapse in NAND memory prices and a closing of the price gap between PCI Express-based and SATA-based solid-state drives (SSDs) means the shift to PCIe SSDs will accelerate in 2019, with the newer, faster format replacing the old by years' end.According to the Taiwanese tech publication DigiTimes (the stories are now archived and unavailable without a subscription), falling NAND flash prices continue to drag down SSD prices further, which will drive the adoption of SSDs in enterprise and data center applications. This, in turn, will further drive the adoption of PCI Express drives, which are a superior format to SATA.To read this article in full, please click here
I’ve seen plenty of articles touting the promise of edge computing technologies like AI and robotics in retail brick & mortar, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that I had my first encounter with an actual robot in a retail store. I was doing my usual weekly grocery shopping at my local Stop & Shop, and who comes strolling down the aisle, but…. Marty… the autonomous robot. He was friendly looking with his big googly eyes and was wearing a sign that explained he was there for safety, and that he was monitoring the aisles to report spills, debris, and other hazards to employees to improve my shopping experience. He caught the attention of most of the shoppers.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco has dropped 17 Security advisories describing 19 vulnerabilities in the software that runs most of its routers and switches, IOS and IOS/XE.The company also announced that two previously issued patches for its RV320 and RV325 Dual Gigabit WAN VPN Routers were “incomplete” and would need to be redone and reissued.[ Also see What to consider when deploying a next generation firewall. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]
Cisco rates both those router vulnerabilities as “High” and describes the problems like this: To read this article in full, please click here
Microsoft has introduced Azure Stack HCI Solutions, a new implementation of its on-premises Azure product specifically for Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) hardware.Azure Stack is an on-premises version of its Azure cloud service. It gives companies a chance to migrate to an Azure environment within the confines of their own enterprise rather than onto Microsoft’s data centers. Once you have migrated your apps and infrastructure to Azure Stack, moving between your systems and Microsoft’s cloud service is easy.To read this article in full, please click here
In a move that could upend how workers access data in the enterprise, Motorola has announced a broadband product that it says will deliver data at double the capacity and four-times the range of Wi-Fi for end users. The handheld, walkie-talkie-like device, called Mototrbo Nitro, will, importantly, also include a voice channel. “Business-critical voice with private broadband data,” as Motorola describes it on its website.The company sees the product being implemented in traditional, moving-around, voice communications environments, such as factories and warehouses, that increasingly need data supplementation, too. A shop floor that has an electronically delivered repair manual, with included video demonstration, could be one example. Video could be two-way, even.To read this article in full, please click here
There’s a surprising battle being fought on America’s farms, between farmers and the companies that sell them tractors, combines, and other farm equipment. Surprisingly, the outcome of that war could have far-reaching implications for the internet of things (IoT) — and now Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has weighed in with a proposal that could shift the balance of power in this largely under-the-radar struggle.Right to repair farm equipment
Here’s the story: As part of a new plan to support family farms, Warren came out in support of a national right-to-repair law for farm equipment. That might not sound like a big deal, but it raises the stakes in a long-simmering fight between farmers and equipment makers over who really controls access to the equipment — and to the increasingly critical data gathered by the IoT capabilities built into it.To read this article in full, please click here
There’s a surprising battle being fought on America’s farms, between farmers and the companies that sell them tractors, combines, and other farm equipment. Surprisingly, the outcome of that war could have far-reaching implications for the internet of things (IoT) — and now Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has weighed in with a proposal that could shift the balance of power in this largely under-the-radar struggle.Right to repair farm equipment
Here’s the story: As part of a new plan to support family farms, Warren came out in support of a national right-to-repair law for farm equipment. That might not sound like a big deal, but it raises the stakes in a long-simmering fight between farmers and equipment makers over who really controls access to the equipment — and to the increasingly critical data gathered by the IoT capabilities built into it.To read this article in full, please click here
Much of what’s exciting about IoT technology has to do with getting data from a huge variety of sources into one place so it can be mined for insight, but sensors used to gather that data are frequently legacy devices from the early days of industrial automation or cheap, lightweight, SoC-based gadgets without a lot of sophistication of their own.Researchers at MIT have devised a system that can gather a certain slice of data from unsophisticated devices that are grouped on the same electrical circuit without adding sensors to each device.[ Check out our corporate guide to addressing IoT security. ]
The technology’s called non-intrusive load monitoring, and sits directly on a given building's, vehicle's or other piece of infrastructure’s electrical circuits, identifies devices based on their power usage, and sends alerts when there are irregularities.To read this article in full, please click here