Today is Valentine’s Day, and that means showing appreciation to the people you love. I love my kids; my cats; my new puppy, Bodhi; and most of all my wonderful and amazing wife, Christine. She’s a kind, warm and loving person who has been fighting a rare illness called CVID for the past few years and still keeps a smile on her face and stops to smell the roses — something I’m not very good at.I would also like to use this Valentine’s Day to show appreciation for cool infrastructure innovation because the new stuff is becoming super important.To read this article in full, please click here
Demand for SD-WAN delivered as a managed service is exploding as customers see the benefits that SD-WAN can bring to their distributed organizations.For example, communications service providers (CSPs) such as Verizon, NTT, and BT all report strong demand for SD-WAN services. Plus, hundreds of other CSPs, cable providers (e.g. Comcast), managed service providers (MSPs), and system integrators have recently deployed new SD-WAN services.Also on Network World: SD-WAN: What is it and why you’ll use it one day | How to make the transition to SD-WAN
We also see that managed SD-WAN revenues are growing rapidly as they displace traditional managed WAN services (e.g. private lines and MPLS) — an addressable market of over $40 billion in business services.To read this article in full, please click here
With the beginning of the new year, it’s popular to opine on what the new year might bring in terms of technology advances. My predictions for the WAN in 2018 have been covered in several publications here, here and here. In this blog, I’m going to expand on one of my predictions: how the new WAN edge enables improved security architectures. I believe there are three primary ways the new WAN edge will enable improved security architectures for enterprises building an SD-WAN.To read this article in full, please click here
Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a significant and growing subset of the larger Internet of Things (IoT) movement, so you have to ask, “Is my network ready for machine-to-machine (M2M) devices?”To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Historically, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s Wi-Fi strategy has been to be an Aruba OEM. Given Aruba’s high market share and strong technology, this makes sense because it gives Alcatel-Lucent a credible set of products to build a business around.However, as is the case with all things in life, one size doesn’t fit all, and Aruba’s products, as good as they are, aren’t for everyone. Aruba makes great technology, loaded with features, but they are a premium-price vendor and some customers have budget constraints.The Alcatel-Lucent Stellar line of access points
To address this part of the market, last year Alcatel-Lucent introduced its own line of access points (AP) under the brand name “Stellar.” These products are designed to be lower cost and easier to deploy.To read this article in full, please click here
Organizations that are leveraging IoT to drive better business outcomes are increasingly using digital twin technology. In fact, Gartner predicts half of large industrial companies will be using them by 2021.A digital representation of a physical object, digital twins allow businesses to create a crystal-ball-like-view into the future. They enable simulation, analysis and control to test and explore scenarios in a practice setting before initiating changes in the real world.While digital twins have historically been associated with more complex technology environments, its impressive ability to both eliminate problems and deliver next-level operational performance is making these models a must-have technology in every IoT team’s toolkit.To read this article in full, please click here
For those of us who cut our technical teeth on the Unix/Linux command line, the relatively new ranger makes examining files a very different experience. A file manager that works inside a terminal window, ranger provides useful information and makes it very easy to move into directories, view file content or jump into an editor to make changes.Unlike most file managers that work on the desktop but leave you to the whims of ls, cat and more to get a solid handle on files and contents, ranger provides a very nice mix of file listing and contents displays with an easy way to start editing. In fact, among some Linux users, ranger has become very popular.To read this article in full, please click here
Making fun of silly implementations of the Internet of Things (IoT) is easier than shooting fish in a barrel. No matter how ridiculous the last IoT device may seem, there’s always something even more outré in the works.That’s fine — up to a point. It doesn’t necessarily hurt for IoT to enter people’s lives in friendly, non-threatening, non-mission-critical applications. Ideally, that can make IoT seem approachable instead of creepy, mildly useful instead of invasive.Also on Network World: Forget the CES hype, IoT is all about industry
But there’s a limit to this approach. The endless parade of pointless IoT gimmicks threatens to trivialize the technology, leading consumers (and business people) to dismiss the IoT as the realm of smart toothbrushes and smart hairbrushes and smart refrigerators — and internet-connected toilets.To read this article in full, please click here
IMMI is an Indiana-based manufacturer of safety products, such as seat belts, car seats, and other specialized vehicle safety devices. It has more than 1,600 employees in six countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.IMMI has invested heavily in computer-assisted manufacturing for its main plant locations. In addition, it relies on Oracle ERP and Microsoft Office 365 in hosted locations for day-to-day productivity.The company continues to expand through acquisition and requires agile WAN to facilitate communications between its locations and to ensure optimal user experience with cloud-based applications.Deployment details
IMMI had been using Cisco ASA firewalls to provide secure IP VPN connections to its 12 main locations (headquarters, main data centers, and manufacturing plants). WAN connectivity is provided by a mix of high-speed broadband Internet, private links, and 4G LTE (as back up). IMMI found the Cisco ASAs complex and time consuming to manage, especially in remote locations. Application performance across the company was negatively affected by high latency and occasional brownouts due to reliance on Internet connectivity from distant locations (e.g., China).To read this article in full, please click here
In its latest Cisco Global Cloud Index (2016-2021), the networking giant predicts that by 2021, 94 percent of all workloads will run in some form of cloud environment and that dedicated servers will be a distinct minority.That 94 percent covers both public and private cloud scenarios, which means even in an on-premises scenario, almost all workloads are going to be run in a virtualized environment. The days where a server is dedicated to one workload are rapidly drawing to a close.“We use the definition of one workload or instance with one physical server,” said Thomas Barnett, director, Cisco Service Provider forecast and trends. “In virtual scenarios, we’re seeing one workload with multiple virtual machines and containers. Based on growth in public cloud, we’ve overcome some of the barriers of adoption, such as cost and security and simplicity of deploying of these services.”To read this article in full, please click here
NordVPN promises a private and fast path through the public internet, with no logs and unmetered access for 6 simultaneous devices. They are currently running a promotion, but you'll have to use this link to find it. Its typical price has been discounted to $99 for 3 years of service. That's a good deal at just $2.75 per month. See the $2.75/month NordVPN holiday deal here.
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The world is becoming more dynamic and distributed, and that’s having a profound impact on the vendor landscape.Some traditional vendors, such as Microsoft were able to make the shift to the cloud and have thrived, although it required dumping Steve Ballmer. Others are stuck in the legacy world and could have a hard time adjusting the business to meet the demands of their customers. For example, Dell-EMC went private to re-tool and in the midst of transforming itself. Time will tell if it’s successful.One company that I considered to be part of the legacy world is storage management vendor Veritas. It’s essentially still a backup and recovery company. Recently though, the company has made some moves and said some things that make me wonder if there’s something big coming from them.To read this article in full, please click here
Internet throughput issues, prevalent in many homes, may become a thing of the past thanks to a new and inexpensive invention that copies how major internet networks perform data links between cities and countries.Scientists at University College London (UCL) say they’ve figured out how to bring down the cost of highly efficient optical transceivers so that they can be installed en masse around consumer environments.Also read: 5G wireless could change networking as we know it
The receiver technology, when fully developed, will be able to provide a consistent 10,000 Mbps connection to homes and small businesses by removing a choke point that exists now at the point where fiber subscribers are connected to the ISP, the researchers claim. Average all fixed-line, download speeds in the U.S. are currently only 64 Mbps in comparison, according to a Speedtest study. Optimization should be able to increase that, though.To read this article in full, please click here
Software tools for testing Wi-Fi can run on a laptop, but dedicated hardware tools offer the convenience of a sometimes less cumbersome form-factor that are compact enough to fit in the pouch of a laptop bag.This article looks at five of these devices: AirCheck G2 Wireless Tester (NETSCOUT), Cape Networks Sensor, EyeQ Wi-Fi Monitor (7SIGNAL), NetBeez Wi-Fi Monitor and WiFi Pineapple Tetra.+Also see: REVIEW: Mojo wireless intrusion prevention system; 8 Free Wi-Fi Stumbling tools+To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco continued its HCI momentum this week, announcing at Cisco Live its new Cisco Container Platform (CCP), which runs on its HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution. This news follows last week’s HyperFlex 3.0 release and acquisition of Skyport. One of the key themes of Cisco Live was the need for businesses to be more agile and move faster. Businesses want to modernize the infrastructure to meet the changing demands on IT, and they are adopting the DevOps model. Along with that, containers have grown in popularity, as the lightweight nature of them makes them ideal for organizations that have embraced the concepts of DevOps.To read this article in full, please click here
Just about every Linux user is familiar with the process of piping data from one process to another using | signs. It provides an easy way to send output from one command to another and end up with only the data you want to see without having to write scripts to do all of the selecting and reformatting. There is another type of pipe, however -- one that warrants the name "pipe", but has a very different personality. It's one that you may have never tried or even thought about -- the named pipe.One of the key differences between regular pipes and named pipes is that named pipes have a presense in the file system. That is, they show up as files. But, unlike most files, they never appear to have contents. Even if you write a lot of data to a named pipe, the file appears to be empty.To read this article in full, please click here
Just about every Linux user is familiar with the process of piping data from one process to another using | signs. It provides an easy way to send output from one command to another and end up with only the data you want to see without having to write scripts to do all of the selecting and reformatting.There is another type of pipe, however, one that warrants the name "pipe" but has a very different personality. It's one that you may have never tried or even thought about — the named pipe.Also read: 11 pointless but awesome Linux terminal tricks
One of the key differences between regular pipes and named pipes is that named pipes have a presense in the file system. That is, they show up as files. But unlike most files, they never appear to have contents. Even if you write a lot of data to a named pipe, the file appears to be empty.To read this article in full, please click here
When the company unveiled its intent-based network system (IBNS) solution at its “Network. Intuitive.” event in San Francisco last year, that version focused on bringing the concept of a “self-driving” network to the enterprise campus and was dependent on customers having the new Catalyst 9000 switches. Cisco’s solution works as a closed-loop system where the data from the network is collected and then analyzed to turn intent into commands that can be orchestrated.To accomplish that, Cisco’s IBNS requires two components: translation to capture intent, translate it into policy, and check integrity, and activation to orchestrate the policies and configure the systems.To read this article in full, please click here
Once you remove the hype surrounding the ‘Internet of Things’, you seldom find large, real-world deployments of ‘Smart, connected things’ that forms it. You also don’t co-relate the words IoT and Electric Grid. However, the Smart Electric Grid is actually one of the largest IoT deployments, with an estimated 500 million meters installed to date. This is expected to grow to 1 billion by 2020.The smart grid infrastructure
A Smart Grid is nothing but a network of electrical suppliers, which is managed by a system of digitally controlled interfaces that can dynamically alter the flow and supply of electricity in response to micro and macro changes in demand. One way to think about this complex web of systems is in layers:To read this article in full, please click here
You’ve probably already heard about the latest Internet of Things (IoT) security fiasco — coverage has gone far beyond the tech press into the mainstream TV news. In case you haven’t been paying attention, though, here’s the elevator pitch version:Fitness network Strava publishes a global heatmap of where users are running and working out using its services, and folks just figured out that the map includes information that could reveal the locations of military forces working out in sensitive and sometimes secret locations. One expert worried that “tracking the timing of movements on bases could provide valuable information on patrol routes or where specific personnel are deployed.”To read this article in full, please click here