Sure, it was a cloud computing conference, and maybe the goal remains a bit unrealistic, but at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas last week, the number of enterprises expressing a wish to stop running their own data centers was too big ignore.Even old-line enterprises companies said they weren’t content to create a foothold in the cloud and stay with a hybrid cloud environment, though that’s the situation many currently find themselves in. No, many are looking to exit the data center business entirely, just as soon as they can manage it.Also on Network World: How a giant like GE found a home in the cloud
And from the size and quality of the companies signing on to this stretch goal — think PG&E, Expedia, and to some extent even Goldman Sachs — it seemed clear that they represent only the tip of the iceberg.To read this article in full, please click here
Dell EMC is expanding its hyperconverged infrastructure portfolio with new systems built around 14th generation PowerEdge servers.Converged (CI) and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is a fancy way of saying turnkey systems with compute, storage, networking and software all combined into a single bundle. Rather than building a system from a variety of vendors, the customer gets everything they need from one vendor and it comes pre-configured to run out of the box.It’s basically a page out of the mainframe book, when everything came from one vendor (usually IBM). As server technology moved away from big iron and the x86 market took over, pieces were fragmented. You got your servers from Dell, HP or IBM, storage from EMC or NetApp, networking from Cisco or 3Com, etc.To read this article in full, please click here
VMware today released a new version of its NSX virtual networking software that aims to make it easier to manage network requirements of cloud-native and application-container-based applications.The move represents the latest example of a network vendor evolving its automation tooling to operate in not just traditional data center and campus networks, but increasingly in cloud environments that cater to a faster-pace of application development.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What SDN is and where its going +VMware has two separate versions of its software-defined networking (SDN) software. The more popular and widely-used version named NSX integrates with VMware’s vSphere virtualization management software and the company’s popular ESXi compute hypervisor.To read this article in full, please click here
With the amount of data in the world predicted to increase at least 50 fold between 2010 and 2020, how we store that data has come into sharp focus. Collecting large volumes of raw log data from multiple applications and infrastructure components and sending it to a central location for storage and processing, for example, increases the size and cost of storage. And as the volume of data grows and storage and processing costs increase dramatically, businesses risk undermining the advantages big data brings. Furthermore, the surging demand for data has environmental implications; by 2020, 12 percent of the world’s energy consumption will be taken by our digital ecosystem, and this is expected to grow annually at approximately 7 percent until 2030. To read this article in full, please click here
This month, you'll probably need to buy stocking stuffers and cheap little gadgety things for co-workers, extended family members, or to fill in gaps last-minute when you find yourself asking, "Did I buy enough?". Amazon has deals running every day, so we've filtered their list of active deals down to just the tech categories, and only the deals $25 or less with 4 or 5 star ratings. Discounted USB cords, chargers, phone accessories, BlueTooth speakers, splitters, and other gadgets. Here it is: An impulse shopper's dream/nightmare. (Note: When you get to Amazon's page, scroll down past their "featured" deals to where the filtered list begins).To read this article in full, please click here
During the past three decades, we have seen a monumental growth in networking technology. From RFC-1163, which describes the beginnings of BGP in 1989 to the cloud and software defined networks of today, our voracious appetite for bandwidth and services have begun to outpace the networking industry’s ability to deliver.I remember when I had my first “broadband” – and I use that term loosely – circuit installed at my house. It was a 128kbps ISDN line from my local telco. Since it was 1996, I was riding high compared to everyone else using 28.8 kpbs modems to access the internet. Today I have a 1Gbps connection that allows me to stream 4k video from multiple providers. In roughly 20 years, my consumption of bandwidth has increased 8000%!To read this article in full, please click here
What's going to shake things up in 2018? IT pros will have their hands full with technologies that have been hyped for some time and are now ripe for adoption, including software-defined WAN, hybrid cloud computing, hyperconvergence, and Internet of Things. See below for our collection of enterprise picks, predictions and prognostications.Why 2018 will be the year of the WAN
Thinkstock
Software-defined WAN technology is sweeping across the industry, growing from an emerging technology in 2017 to become mainstream in 2018. As SD-WAN deployments become ubiquitous for organizations with remote offices, more big changes will come. Check it out.To read this article in full, please click here
Over the last few years, many people—myself included—have been touting the Internet of Things (IoT) as a driving force behind digital transformation.But is IoT by itself truly that transformational?Well, I would argue that it is not.IoT focuses mainly on securely connecting devices that generate data. It is a key element of disruption and change, but it needs to partner with other technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and fog computing to create billions—some say trillions—of dollars in value and transform industries.Let’s take a closer look at these cross-technology relationships:AI is the brain, IoT is the body
IoT and AI have a remarkably synergistic relationship. AI, especially machine learning, provides intelligence—the ability to evaluate options, learn from experience and make smart decisions. IoT, like the body, provides the ability to sense and act. IoT delivers both the data AI needs, and the physical means to act on AI’s decisions. To read this article in full, please click here
There’s been a resurgence in the IaaS cloud computing market in the past year of vendors talking more and more about hybrid cloud computing.As the cloud market is maturing, users are crystalizing what workloads are best for public cloud and what will remain on premises or in a private cloud. At Amazon Web Service’s annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas this week, a big question heading into the show was: What would AWS say about hybrid?+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What is hybrid cloud computing? +Hybrid has been somewhat of a taboo topic for AWS over the years. AWS CEO Andy Jassy has repeatedly maintained that “in the fullness of time” he expects most workloads will run in the public IaaS cloud. We’re not there yet, though. A 451 Research poll from last year found that just 6% of enterprise workloads are running in the cloud.To read this article in full, please click here
The future of work is evolving at a rapid pace, and flexibility is at the forefront of the change. We’re talking about the ability to work anywhere, anytime, and from any device because technology enables a secure, integrated, and efficient way to work—not simply because company policy allows for flexibility in schedule or location.True flexibility enables collaboration, removes workflow roadblocks, and transforms how we interact with our physical environments, both in-office and elsewhere. The result is a seamless, intuitive way to work that increases productivity and engagement without compromise.The findings from our recent survey with Wakefield Research confirm this reality: while about a quarter (27%) of office professionals without a flexible work environment are concerned that implementing one would decrease productivity, half of those (50%) who do work in a flexible work environment note it has increased productivity. In addition, 87% of office professionals whose company has a flexible work environment report their company has experienced positive outcomes from the model.To read this article in full, please click here
IDG
Hyperconvergence is on a roll.Enterprises are shifting storage investments from legacy architectures to software-defined systems in an effort to achieve greater agility, easier provisioning and lower administrative costs. Hyperconverged systems – which combine storage, compute and network functionality in a single virtualized solution – are on their radars.Enterprise interest in hyperconverged systems as potential replacements for legacy SAN and NAS storage systems has in turn inspired major storage vendors to make hyperconvergence plays of their own, acquiring startups and building out their offerings.To read this article in full, please click here
The worldwide market for data center cooling equipment will reach $20 billion by 2024, a massive jump over the $8 billion spent in 2016. That is the finding of a report from Global Market Insights (GMI), which says cooling systems account for approximately 40 percent of the total energy consumption on average.Data center operators have been obsessed with lowering their PUE, or power usage effectiveness, the ratio of power consumed by the hardware to power consumed to cool it. The problem is that while Intel, AMD and the rest of the component vendors obsess over lowering thermals and overall heat generated, the density of these servers is increasing.To read this article in full, please click here
Tesla’s “Maximum Plaid” speed mode rockets its new Roadster from 0-60 in 1.9 seconds. If you think that’s fast, go ahead and Google “5G.”5G is Plaid for cellular networking – a next-generation mobile network that promises not only ten-times the available spectrum, for ten-times the download speeds, but across ten-times the devices and with a fraction of the latency.The move from 1Gbps to 10Gbps speeds will support bandwidth-intensive applications like high-definition video and virtual reality, and near real-time connections will enable ultra-low latency applications like autonomous cars, remote surgery and specialized applications within the Internet of Things (IoT).To read this article in full, please click here
Paul Whimpenny is Senior Officer for Digital Strategy at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), an agency that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Its goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. It has more than 194 member states and works in over 130 countries worldwide.Our organization, like many others has been both inspired and slightly terrified at the same time by the emergence of new digital markets. From AirBnB to Spotify, we see how whole industries can be changed almost in the blink of an eye, sometimes triggering a rapid decline of more traditional industries.To read this article in full, please click here
NXP Semiconductors, a world leader in secure connectivity solutions, just announced a Linux distribution that is intended to support factory automation. It's called Open Industrial Linux (OpenIL), and it's promising true industrial-grade security based on trusted computing, hardened software, cryptographic operations and end-to-end security.The fact that factory managers and industrial equipment manufacturers are turning to Linux is not surprising considering its operational stability, professional approach to system security, and its obvious low cost of ownership. The importance of the security and reliability of manufacturing security to the well being of any industrial nation is clear from the focus that DHS places on this sector.To read this article in full, please click here
The FCC’s December 14th vote on repealing net neutrality will have far reaching implications for our future. It is important in that case to not only read articles and watch the videos, but to actually read Ajit Pai’s proposal in its entirety. This Harvard grad and former Verizon lawyer chooses words carefully, leaning on legal terminology rather than technical verbiage to produce a conclusion that does not stem from his premise. It is not clear what the intent of this proposal is, however, it clearly does not benefit broadband users.To read this article in full, please click here
What is digitalization?
According to Gartner, “digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities. It is the process of moving to a digital business.” This includes evolving existing products more quickly, and being more agile in bringing new products to market.At a greater level of detail, digitalization means that the enterprise implements its critical business processes in software. These include:
Marketing to prospective customers
Engaging with existing customers
Managing the relationships with suppliers
Managing the entire production to fulfillment process
Managing the relationships with partners
Managing the relationships with employees and contractors
It is also clear from the Gartner research that CEO’s expect digitalization to drive growth in sales and profits and that they expect their technology management teams (IT) and technology leadership teams (the CIO and his staff) to successfully lead and implement the technology initiatives that will deliver these benefits from digitalization.To read this article in full, please click here
In a rush to capitalize on the SD-WAN market opportunity, some SD-WAN vendors seem to be playing fast and loose with their appliances.At a recent customer site of ours, Nirvik Nandy, CISO of SD-WAN Experts and CEO of Red Lantern, a security and compliance consultancy, and I collaborated on a security analysis of SD-WAN architectures. We conducted penetration testing of several SD-WAN solutions, looking atthe appliances and cloud architectures. Details of how we tested and vendor results are necessarily confidential. However, I can share with you some of our overall findings about appliances – we’ll get to the cloud at a later date.SD-WAN security: what it really means
First, some context: SD-WAN vendors speak about their architectures as being secure and that’s true to an extent. All SD-WAN solutions secure traffic in transit. But there’s more to network security than protecting data against eavesdropping and wiretapping, which is why companies deploy next-generation firewall (NGFW), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and more. SD-WAN and security vendors have been addressing this need, integrating the functionality of one another into solutions that provide networking and security.To read this article in full, please click here
While cloud computing holds out the promise of operational efficiency and cost optimization, most big companies will be operating hybrid computing environments for the foreseeable future. As a result, cloud technology for many companies adds yet another layer on top of an already complex computing infrastructure.Seeing an opportunity to help IT departments work with developers and lines of business to optimize their hybrid computing environments, HPE is offering what it calls the first SaaS-based multicloud management application for on-premises and public clouds. Dubbed OneSphere, the software is being unveiled at the company's Discover Conference in Madrid today.To read this article in full, please click here
With everything from massive data breaches at global organizations to explosive ransomware attacks that infect hundreds of thousands of users within days, it’s well established that enterprises these days are dealing with more threats than ever before – all of which are increasing in abundance, frequency and complexity.Among other things, this rapidly evolving threat environment can be attributed to new and expanding threat vectors that have opened the door for external threats to reach critical business assets via non-corporate entities, whether through a consumer device, poorly secured partner network or branch office. The Internet of Things (IoT) and guest tenant services, for example, force a unique method of segmenting the traffic service/workloads and introduce a level of operational complexity.To read this article in full, please click here