Mention blockchain in the watercooler chat, and odds are that it evokes notions of cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, and covert financial transactions. But in the enterprise world, blockchain is much more than an ultra-secure, digital financial ledger or another “over-hyped” new technology.When combined with the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain drives new value propositions and new business models, while addressing transparency, complexity and even some security challenges surrounding data transactions. In many ways, blockchain is the “missing link” that enables IoT deployments to achieve their full potentialBlockchain 101
Before diving into this subject in more detail, let’s begin with the definitions. In a basic sense, blockchain is a decentralized ledger that allows multiple parties to records transactions between them efficiently, securely and permanently. Once recorded, it is impossible to manipulate information within the blockchain. Thus, blockchain becomes a single source of truth for the transactions without a need for a third-party validation and verification. Easy enough, right?To read this article in full, please click here
The Flash Memory Summit is taking place in Santa Clara, California, this week, which means a whole lot of SSD-related announcements headed my way. One already has my attention for the unique features the vendor is bringing to an otherwise dull market.Seagate is expanding the Nytro portfolio of SSD products with emphasis on the enterprise and hyperscale markets and focusing on read-intensive workloads such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI). It has some of the usual areas of emphasis: lower power requirements and capacity that scales from 240GB to 3.8TB.[ Learn what hyperconvergence is and whether you’re ready for hyperconverged storage. | For regularly scheduled insights, sign up for Network World newsletters. ]
Also being updated is data protection via Seagate Secure, which prevents data loss during power failure by enabling data inflight to be saved to the NAND flash. The DuraWrite feature increases random write performance by up to 120 percent or provides maximum capacity to the user.To read this article in full, please click here
As data volumes escalate, many organizations are looking for storage efficiencies — and they have found it with software-defined storage (SDS).
“For IT organizations undergoing digital transformation, SDS provides a good match for the capabilities needed — flexible IT agility; easier, more intuitive administration driven by the characteristics of autonomous storage management; and lower capital costs due to the use of commodity and off-the-shelf hardware,” said Eric Burgener, research director at IDC.
The analyst firm predicts the SDS market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.5% through 2021.To read this article in full, please click here
If you’re reading this, you’ve got RF power. Power is a necessity for networking, allowing us to charge our batteries, connect millions of devices, communicate over long distances and keep our signals clear.Don’t believe me? Kill the power and see what happens to your network.But with great RF power comes great responsibility. Power management is the art and science of optimizing input and output signals to maximize the efficiency and performance of RF devices – and it’s no easy feat. Each networking device has its own unique power requirements. Higher data rates often mean more power consumption and complexity, which can introduce losses that reduce reliability and increase cost. Low data rate devices, such as those supporting the Internet of Things (IoT), draw very little power in order to conserve every millisecond of precious battery power.To read this article in full, please click here
During its 35-year history, DNS has been largely known as the backbone of the internet, a powerful tool that enabled the internet’s infrastructure to develop into the distributed marvel it is. Even though it’s always been there, the way it is being used has changed. Now, a modern DNS deployment is also critical to a cybersecurity strategy and to deliver the scalability that growing enterprises need.Once considered solely the internet’s address book, DNS has become a favored target of cybercriminals and hackers who are constantly trying to either cause havoc to or extract valuable data (or cash) from unwitting enterprises worldwide. Because it’s at the center of everything, it’s no great surprise that 90 percent of all cyberattacks, such as DDoS attacks, ransomware, and data exfiltration, target DNS.To read this article in full, please click here
Light-carrying, miniature wires are potentially more efficient for computing than other forms of interconnects, including copper and larger optical systems, say experts.However, there’s been a problem in getting such a nanowire system to work, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains in an article published on Science Daily.“There hasn't been a controlled method for selectively sending light down along nanoscale wires,” says James Cahoon, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Optical technology has either used much larger structures or wasted a lot of light in the process.” Creating light uses power, defeating the object, for one thing.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco today laid out $2.35 billion in cash and stock for network identity, authentication security company Duo.According to Cisco, Duo helps protect organizations against cyber breaches through the company’s cloud-based software that verifies the identity of users and the health of their devices before granting access to applications with the idea of preventing breaches and account takeover.A few particulars of the deal include:
Cisco currently provides on-premises network access control via its Identity Services Engine (ISE) product. Duo's software as a service-based (SaaS) model will be integrated with Cisco ISE to extend ISE to provide cloud-delivered application access control.
By verifying user and device trust, Duo will add trusted identity awareness into Cisco's Secure Internet Gateway, Cloud Access Security Broker, Enterprise Mobility Management, and several other cloud-delivered products.
Cisco's in-depth visibility of over 180 million managed devices will be augmented by Duo's broad visibility of mobile and unmanaged devices.
Cisco said that Integration of its network, device and cloud security platforms with Duo Security’s zero-trust authentication and access products will let customers to quickly secure users to any application on any networked device. In fact, about 75% of Duo’s customers are up and running in less than Continue reading
Recently, I was reading a blog post by Ivan Pepelnjak on intent-based networking. He discusses that the definition of intent is "a usually clearly formulated or planned intention" and the word “intention” is defined as ’what one intends to do or bring about." I started to ponder over his submission that the definition is confusing as there are many variations.To guide my understanding, I decided to delve deeper into the building blocks of intent-based networking, which led me to a variety of closed-loop automation solutions. After extensive research, my view is that closed-loop automation is a prerequisite for intent-based networking. Keeping in mind the current requirements, it’s a solution that the businesses can deploy. To read this article in full, please click here
If there’s a downside to business growth, it’s typically the urgent need for IT resources to keep up with demand. But that obstacle cannot impede forward movement, especially when it comes to storing critical data.This was the challenge facing two companies. Their legacy storage systems couldn’t address demand for performance and capacity, causing rising IT costs and adding management complexity.Here’s how they tackled the scalability challenge and cleared the path for business growth. Scale With Room to GrowLUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics needed a makeover in the storage department. With 800 stores in 51 countries, the IT infrastructure was rapidly running out of capacity.To read this article in full, please click here
South Korea’s IT behemoth Samsung is working on a graphics processor unit (GPU) and has hired a major figure from Nvidia to help get the job done, according to a report from a graphics analyst.Jon Peddie Research reports that Samsung has hired Dr. Chien-Ping Lu, a former Nvidia executive who oversaw development of discrete and integrated GPUs used in Apple MacBooks as well as integrated processors before the advent of GPUs in CPUs.Now, many mobile CPUs have integrated GPUs, or the phone itself comes with its own GPU. Qualcomm has its own line called Adreno. But Peddie doesn’t think Samsung hired a heavy hitter like Lu to make mobile phone chips.To read this article in full, please click here
The days of the blockbuster deal to outsource the IT department and the company’s infrastructure assets are long gone.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
In our companion article, “Making network-services deals: Sourcing and service-delivery strategies that work,” we examine how enterprises should approach sourcing and designing managed network service arrangements under current outsourcing market conditions by applying certain best practices to help identy the optimal providers and service delivery approaches.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
As the enterprise Interent of Things (eIoT) becomes an increasingly big deal, everyone is starting to wonder which companies have the inside track to dominate this hot new market.It’s not just a pie-in-the-sky question. A July 2018 study from Market Research Future predicted 26 percent annual growth in the eIoT market, hitting $58 billion in 2023.[ Now read: The future of enterprise IoT ]
And last year, a McKinsey & Company survey noted, “Although enterprise IoT is a relatively new development, 98 percent of survey respondents reported that most companies within their industry include enterprise IoT initiatives in their strategic road maps, including those related to improving service operations, increasing visibility into operations, enabling new business models, and creating new product and service offerings.”To read this article in full, please click here
The idea for this blog post came to me during a discussion around some recent research performed by Cisco’s Talos threat research group.The post "Advanced Mobile Malware Campaign in India uses Malicious MDM" authored by Warren Mercer, Paul Rascagneres and Andrew Williams and the follow-up post containing additional research found in Part 2.In this beautiful piece of research, these guys identified and analyzed an attacker with malicious intent, that used a modified open source Mobile Device Manager (MDM) to control multiple mobile devices; and to install modified versions of well-known apps like WhatsApp and Telegram in order to gain access to what would otherwise be private data.To read this article in full, please click here
There are many reasons to encrypt files — even on a system that is well maintained and comparatively secure. The files may highly sensitive, contain personal information that you don't want to share with anyone, or be backed up to some variety of online storage where you'd prefer it be extra secure.Fortunately, commands for reliably encrypting files on Linux systems are easy to come by and quite versatile. One of the most popular is gpg.gpg vs pgp and OpenPGP
Used both to encrypt files in place and prepare them to be sent securely over the Internet, gpg is related to, but not the same as, pgp and OpenPGP. While gpg is based on the OpenPGP standards established by the IETF, it is — unlike pgp — open source. Here's the rundown:To read this article in full, please click here
At long last, the Internet of Things (IoT) is moving beyond the hype and initial deployment cycle and entering a phase where we are now seeing many successful enterprise implementations. Thousands of businesses across all industries have begun to experience the operational benefits and new value propositions delivered by the IoT. But, as I speak with customers, partners and industry leaders around the world, I still hear many frontline business and operations managers say that they are unsure how, exactly, to begin their IoT initiatives. Often, they have an idea for how they would like to use IoT in their business but are not aware of all the considerations they should think through before beginning, or how to create their project plan and measure the impact.To read this article in full, please click here
When big data was hyped as the next technology set to transform the business world many organizations began to collect as much of it as they could lay their hands on. Data centers proliferated as companies sucked in data points from customer interactions, supply chain partners, mobile devices and many, many other sources.It looked as though enterprises had jumped on board with the idea of big data, but what they were actually doing was hoarding information. Very few had any idea about how to unlock the insights contained within. Businesses that saw the value and pioneered analytics are beginning to see a major return on their investment.In a global, cross-industry McKinsey survey of 530 C-level execs and senior managers, almost half said that data and analytics have significantly or fundamentally changed business practices in their sales and marketing functions, and more than a third said the same about R&D. Big data can have a major beneficial impact, but realizing those potential benefits requires a winning strategy.To read this article in full, please click here
When selecting VPN routers, small businesses want ones that support the VPN protocols they desire as well as ones that fit their budgets, are easy to use and have good documentation.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
High-speed Ethernet is quickly becoming the networking norm as customer data-center servers grow to handle a ton of traffic from new, smarter applications, IoT devices, video and more.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Lenovo has launched a new product line called ThinkAgile CP that consists of Lenovo ThinkSystem hardware and Cloudistics software for what it calls a “composable cloud,” or cloud-in-a-box, where the attributes of cloud multi-tenancy are available to organizations behind their firewall.Basically it’s a hyperconverged system preconfigured to work right out of the box and operate inside a data center much like a cloud service provider. Compute, storage, and networking are designed to connect to the ThinkAgile CP Cloud Controller, which in turn lets an IT administrator spin up multi-tenant provisioning. Software-defined compute, storage, and networking can be achieved in just a few clicks.To read this article in full, please click here