The drive toward the cloud is lifting all boats. The need for capacity and new servers combined to lift the server market in the third quarter, with more growth to come, especially for the “white box” vendors.Gartner reported worldwide server revenue grew by a very impressive 16 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2017, while unit shipments grew by 5.1 percent. That gulf between revenue and units means more higher-end, more decked-out servers are being sold than cheap, commodity hardware.Also on Network World: REVIEW: How rack servers from HPE, Dell and IBM stack up
It helps that in recent months, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Dell EMC and Lenovo have all released new hardware, which is helping to drive sales as enterprises refresh their on-premises hardware. So all told, the third quarter was marked by new hardware and continued growth of the cloud.To read this article in full, please click here
Network functions virtualization (NFV) makes it possible to replace traditional dedicated customer premise equipment with software in the form of virtual network functions (VNFs), running on standardized hardware. Despite the confusing acronym overlap of NFV and VNF, the technology is intended to vastly simplify enterprise wide area networking.Virtualization and Cloud Review describes NFV as a younger cousin to software-defined networking: “Like SDN, NFV is fundamentally about the shift from proprietary hardware-based solutions to more open, software-based substitutes,” David Ramel explains.To read this article in full, please click here
Application delivery controllers (ADCs) have long been a critical piece of infrastructure. They sit between applications and infrastructure and are the only piece of technology that can speak the language of both applications and networks. I have often characterized the ADC as the “Rosetta Stone” of the data center, as it’s the key to being able to translate application speak to the network and vice versa.IT is undergoing a rapid modernization process, and things such as software-defined everything, the cloud, containers and other initiatives are having a profound impact on infrastructure.Also on Network World: Enterprise network trends to watch 2018
To understand how these trends are impacting ADCs, I recently conducted an Application Delivery Controller Survey to get a pulse of IT professionals who work with ADCs. The demographics of the survey were 100 U.S.-based respondents across a variety of industry verticals and company sizes and is an accurate representation of the current opinions of ADCs with respect to IT modernization.To read this article in full, please click here
A modular plug terminated link (MPTL) is nothing more than an Ethernet cable that is terminated with a female socket (jack) on one side and a male plug on the other, whereas a standard permanent link is terminated with sockets on both sides of the cable. Simple, right? Wrong.Installing is one thing, testing is another
The name modular plug terminated link is new, but the practice of installing LAN cabling with a socket on one side and a plug on the other goes back to the beginning of twisted pair cabling. An MPTL makes perfect sense to anyone who wants to connect a networked device by plugging the cable directly into the device. Installers of IP security cameras have been doing this since the advent of IP CCTV.To read this article in full, please click here
Our story begins on a cold Christmas Eve in 1966, five minutes after my uncle stopped by our house to show off his new analog car phone. He worked for IBM at the time, and I can still remember him opening the door of his car Vanna White-style to reveal the status symbol inside.We’ve all been visited by old, curmudgeonly RF. As networking professionals, we know the joys of RF present, and there are enough predictions articles this time of year to get us excited about the future.If networking were A Christmas Carol, it might go something like this.The ghost of RF past
The first of the RF spirits takes us to the 1980s, when cellular, WiFi and automotive connectivity were young and innocent. RF was so old you could see it, hanging in the air like a damp, grey fog.To read this article in full, please click here
An APC UPS provides backup power power and surge protection to power and protect your PC or Mac, network router, gaming consoles like Xbox and PS4, AV and other business electronics from the dangers of power surges, spikes, lightning and power outages. By powering your critical electronics with a backup battery during blackouts, you ensure personal and professional connectivity when it matters most. Improvements in efficiency, size and surge protection come at an affordable price, making the Back-UPS Pro mini-tower battery backup UPS models a perfect solution for your power protection needs. Right now the Back-UPS Pro from APC averages 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $170 is discounted 30% to $119. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco’s DNA Center is a new network automation software that the company has positioned as the interface for its ambitious intent-based networking (IBN) strategy.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What is intent-based networking? | Why intent-based networking could be a big deal +Launched in the summer of 2017, the IBN plan to build an intuitive network has a variety of components that include DNA Center, which is the provisioning dashboard for managing the campus and branch networks.To read this article in full, please click here
The recent AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas was all about the cloud, but another hot technology also played a leading role: the Internet of Things. In multiple keynotes, top Amazon Web Services (AWS) executives, including CEO Andy Jassy and CTO Werner Vogels, went out of their way to extol the virtues of IoT. The company also used the occasion to announce a slew of new IoT-related products.AWS’ IoT strategy
Jassy spent time on IoT during the closing of his massive keynote speech (to be honest, though, he focused on just about everything at one point or another during his epic 2.5-hour presentation). But Jassy also addressed IoT during his relatively short segment of the earlier AWS Partner Summit keynote with Terry Wise, AWS Vice President of Global Alliances, Ecosystem and Channels. And Vogels talked IoT during his own keynote address.To read this article in full, please click here
The TP-LINK HS100 smart plug is quite simply a power outlet that you can control from anywhere. Using your smartphone, you can turn devices on & off, set programs to turn them on & off at set times while you're away, or engage a "countdown timer" which powers the switch off after a set amount of time. Installation is simple -- just plug a device into your smart plug and connect to your wifi network. The HS100 is also compatible with Amazon Alexa, for voice control. Buy multiple plugs and get creative.To read this article in full, please click here
Vapor IO, the data center technology startup previously featured for its plans to put mini data centers at cell towers, announced a new architecture for deploying and managing distributed computing power throughout cities.As previously announced, the company launched what it calls Project Volutus, a co-location and “data center as a platform” service, powered by Vapor Edge Computing containers. What’s coming out now is details on the modules.What is Vapor Kinetic Edge?
The actual data center module design is called Vapor Kinetic Edge. The idea is to install multiple interconnected edge computing locations around a city or a region and connect them to form a single virtual data center using centralized management and orchestration software.To read this article in full, please click here
It’s the "Dirty Cloud," says journalist John Vidal in a recent tweet. Vidal is referring to energy use by data centers, which he wrote about in an article for Climate Home News.In the story, published this week, the Guardian environment writer reveals a bleak picture of future global climate change emissions. Bleak, in part, because the discouraging projections he writes of are caused not by, as one might expect, fossil fuel power plants and internal combustion engine users, but by communications and data center power use.To read this article in full, please click here
Amazon has a discount of $20 active right now on their all new Echo smart speaker, which features a new speaker, new design, and is available in a range of styles including fabrics and wood veneers. Echo connects to Alexa to play music, make calls, set alarms and timers, ask questions, control smart home devices, and more -- instantly. Echo averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 2,200 reviewers, and with the current discount you can grab it for yourself (or someone else) now for just $79.99. See the discounted Echo deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here
If you have any doubt about the many commands and options available on Linux systems for file compression, you might want to take a look at the output of the apropos compress command. Chances are you'll be surprised by the many commands that you can use for compressing and decompressing files, as well as for comparing compressed files, examining and searching through the content of compressed files, and even changing a compressed file from one format to another (i.e., .z format to .gz format).You're likely to see all of these entries just for the suite of bzip2 compression commands. Add in zip, gzip, and xz, and you've got a lot of interesting options.To read this article in full, please click here
Research firm IHS Markit recently released its Data Center Network Equipment market tracker report for Q4 2017 by analyst Cliff Grossner, which includes Software-Defined WANs (SD-WAN). I don’t normally comment on other industry research, but I have tremendous respect for Grossner, and his quantitative numbers are among the best. So, I felt a deep dive into his findings on the SD-WAN market was worth the effort.Also read: Why 2018 will be the year of the WAN
It’s important to note that Grossner’s numbers include SD-WAN appliance and control management software revenue and not services, so his numbers will be smaller than other firms, such as IDC, which has the market pegged somewhere in the billion-dollar range. Neither is better than the other, per se; they’re just different.To read this article in full, please click here
Most people think of Aerohive Networks as a Wi-Fi vendor, which makes sense given most of the company’s revenue comes from selling wireless access points into businesses. In actuality, Aerohive is a cloud management vendor that has applied its expertise in that area to wireless LANs. About year ago, the company introduced its software-defined LAN (SD-LAN) solution that includes wireless APs and wired switches, enabling its customers to manage the entire campus network from the cloud.This week, Aerohive extended its reach into the WAN with the release of its SD-WAN solution that can be managed through HiveManager, the same cloud management tool used for its SD-LAN products, giving customers a single console for managing the WAN, wired network and wireless APs.To read this article in full, please click here
Undersea, internet-carrying cables are not protected well enough and there isn’t an alternative in place should they fail.That's according to a new report from U.K.-based Policy Exchange, which outlines potential catastrophic effects that a simple cut in the hosepipe-sized underwater infrastructure could create.Also on Network World: The hidden cause of slow Internet and how to fix it
Tsunamis, a vessel dragging an anchor, or even saw-wielding Russians could bring down the global financial system or cripple a solo nation’s internet access, Policy Exchange says in its new study (pdf).To read this article in full, please click here
About a decade ago almost all data centers were built on a traditional three- (or sometimes more) tier architectures that used the spanning tree protocol (STP). That prevented routing loops but also deactivated all the backup links, which accounted for almost half the ports in large environments. This caused organizations to significantly overspend on their networks.Leaf-spine networks, on the other hand, have only two tiers, are much flatter and use something called ECMP (equal cost multi-pathing). So all routes are active, creating a much more efficient network that more agile and costs less.Also on Network World: 10 Most important open source networking projects
The traditional three-tier data center was designed to scale up, which was the key requirement in the client/server era. Leaf-spine is optimized for rapid scale out, which has become critical in data centers today, as more and more traffic is moving in an East-West direction. To read this article in full, please click here
IDC concluded a worldwide survey in September 2017 to learn and report on the key factors driving SD-WAN deployments for enterprises. I’m pleased to see the alignment in the findings with what I wrote in my previous article, SD-WAN Delivers Real Business Outcomes to Cloud-first Enterprises back in September. The results of the survey identified the following top four drivers for deploying an enterprise SD-WAN solution:To read this article in full, please click here
The booming popularity of Linux happened around the same time as the rise of the web. The server world, once proprietary, eventually fell in love with Linux just the same way networking did. But for years after it began growing in popularity, it remained in the background. It powered some of the largest servers, but couldn’t find success on personal devices. That all changed with Google’s release of Android in 2008, and just like that, Linux found its way not only onto phones but onto other consumer devices.The same shift from proprietary to open is happening in networking. Specialized hardware that came from one of the “big 3” networking vendors isn’t so necessary anymore. What used to require this specialized hardware can now be done (with horsepower to spare) using off-the-shelf hardware, with Intel CPUs, and with the Linux operating system. Linux unifies the stack, and knowing it is useful for both the network and the rest of the rack. With Linux, networking is far more affordable, more scalable, easier to learn, and more adaptable to the needs of the business.To read this article in full, please click here