The rise of cloud applications has been well documented. The cloud era kicked off with a handful of SaaS applications, such as ERP, CRM and HR systems. Today, businesses are buying almost everything cloud-related — from compute services, contact center software, unified communications to anything else you can think of. These apps and services may look somewhat unrelated, but they all have one thing in common: They are highly dependent on the network to perform properly.Consider a consumer example. We pay Netflix a certain amount of money to watch a movie, but we are entirely dependent on our network connections to enjoy the experience. It doesn’t matter how much more money we pay Netflix; if our network connection performs poorly or is unavailable, the viewing experience suffers.To read this article in full, please click here
In the world of wireless, the term Wi-Fi is synonymous with wireless access, even though the term Wi-Fi itself (and the Wi-Fi Alliance) is a group dedicated to interoperability between different wireless LAN products and technologies.The standards themselves are part of the 802.11 family of standards, courtesy of the IEEE. With terms such as “802.11b” (pronounced “Eight-O-Two-Eleven-Bee”, ignore the “dot”) and “802.11ac”, the alphabet soup of standards that began in the late 1990s continues to see improvements in throughput and range as we race to the future to get faster network access.Along the way, improvements are being made by adopting new frequencies for wireless data delivery, as well as range improvements and reduced power consumption, to help support initiatives like “The Internet of Things” and virtual reality.To read this article in full, please click here
As the cloud world gears up for this week’s big AWS re:Invent 2017 cloud computing conference in Las Vegas, it seems like a good time to take look at the future of hybrid cloud.Defined as a computing architecture that — in one way or another — incorporates elements of both the public cloud and private on-premise data centers, hybrid cloud is currently having a moment. As vendors such as Microsoft, Google, and Cisco scramble to offer specific hybrid-cloud solutions, many observers are calling hybrid cloud the best of both worlds, offering the scalability and flexibility of the public cloud along with the security and control associated with on-premise infrastructures. All that has helped the hybrid market grow very quickly.To read this article in full, please click here
Evolving your network to have the characteristics of a platform is a core requirement of the Pervasive Network. The goal is to have a network that delivers greater value by reducing operational costs, while allowing for the rapid addition of new functionality and services to consumers, wholesale players or Industry X.0 – the emerging modern enterprise defined by cyber-physical production systems that combine communications, IT, data and physical elements. It is the enabler of many of the new technologies – 5G, VR and IoT – that are driving massive industry disruption and bringing new consumer services and industry solutions to market. To achieve this the network needs to adopt the characteristics of a successful software platform such as Google, Amazon or Facebook:To read this article in full, please click here
After years of pushing toward total domination, Linux finally did it. It is running on all 500 of the TOP500 supercomputers in the world, and who knows how many more after that. That’s even more impressive than Intel’s domination of the list, with 92 percent of the processors in the top 500.So, how did Linux get here? How did this upstart operating system created by a college student from Finland 26 years ago steamroll Unix, a creation of Bell Labs and supported by giants like IBM and Sun Microsystems and HP, Microsoft’s Windows, and other Unix derivatives?To read this article in full, please click here
Across all sorts of networks today – in enterprises large and small, service providers, government agencies, and beyond – there is a transformation towards a software-driven architecture. Where procedures were once manual, they are becoming more automated, driven perhaps foremost by the need for agility, while maintaining availability and protection.That transformation is coming in a broad arc, not a single drop-in solution, and the industry is still figuring it all out; you’ll see me write more about “softwarization” of the network here in the future. In this post, I’ll discuss a burgeoning aspect of this transformation towards automation: a new technology called network verification, which helps predictively ensure that business goals match reality, even throughout frequent change. With this automated assurance of resilience and security intent, the network can become more agile. And network verification does that with math!To read this article in full, please click here
Thanksgiving is tomorrow. While I’m looking forward to turkey, stuffing and pie, I’m also thankful to have been able to spend most of my career administering Unix and Linux systems. So, today’s post is going to focus on some of the things I’ve felt most thankful for and most gratified by over the span of more than 30 years with Unix and Linux.Also on Network World: 14 Linux apps that will change how you work
There are many reasons why I came to appreciate Unix and then Linux and why they became such an important part of my life. These operating systems provided a focus and a career specialty that I've greatly enjoyed. I appreciate Linus Torvalds and the many thousands of developers who have contributed their time and energy into building a powerful, efficient and enjoyable operating system. I appreciate the many tools and commands that make them so easy to use and get my work done. And I appreciate the chances that I've had to share what I've learned with so many others. It's been fun, and it's been very rewarding.To read this article in full, please click here
If you need some practice buying stuff before the big day (Black Friday), Amazon has released a boat load of deals in these days leading up to it. What we've done here is simply filtered their list of current deals down to the tech categories we care about, 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: Scroll down past the "featured deals" to where the lists really starts. Enjoy!To read this article in full, please click here
On Monday, Marvell Technology announced it intends to acquire embedded chip maker Cavium in a deal worth $6 billion. When it’s done, the combined company will have $3.4 billion in annual sales. That's hardly Intel territory, but their chips will be in practically every piece of equipment in your data center.There has been quite a bit of consolidation going on in the chip industry as every player gobbles up a competitor or complimentary vendor to give them a competitive advantage and diversification of products. Only Nvidia seems to be staying out of this, content to compete with what it has. And who can argue with the results? Certainly not its shareholders.To read this article in full, please click here
President Ronald Reagan once advised “trust, but verify” about nuclear disarmament. The same could be said about some official information on public health and safety issues. Remember Flint, Michigan?LeeAnne Walters is a mother of four in Flint, Michigan. She was alarmed when her entire family started losing clumps of hair and her twins kept breaking out in rashes, reported Mother Jones. The family was suffering from the effects of lead in Flint’s water supply. Frustrated with the city’s response, Walters contacted a manager at the EPA which helped unleash a chain of investigations into the crisis.To read this article in full, please click here
It was hardly a surprise, but this week Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai made it all but official: He announced a plan to scrap Obama-era net neutrality rules.Since Republicans hold a 3-2 edge at the FCC, Pai’s plan is virtually certain to pass — despite lobbying efforts and court challenges from just about every internet constituency apart from big internet service providers (ISPs). "The Restoring Internet Freedom Order," as it’s cynically called, will very likely upend the current rules classifying internet service as a public utility and prohibiting carriers from slowing or blocking certain types of traffic.To read this article in full, please click here
According to Gartner, more than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud over the next five years. Many research firms point to hybrid cloud as a fastest-growing segment, including MarketsandMarkets, which predicts that demand will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent through 2019, outpacing the IT market overall.There’s no question that cloud technologies have improved time to market, lowered operational and capital expenditures, and provided organizations with the ability to dynamically adjust provisioning to meet changing needs globally. And yet, as many businesses shift from on-premise, private clouds to public or hybrid models, a myriad of technical questions and business concerns come into play as compute, network and storage resources are further virtualized.To read this article in full, please click here
Update May 17, 2018
Following the U.S. Senate’s 52-47 vote to reinstate net neutrality rules, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) announced the House of Representatives will attempt to also force a vote on the issue under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).“I have introduced a companion CRA in the House,” Doyle said during a press conference yesterday, “but I’m also going to begin a discharge petition, which we will have open for signature tomorrow morning. And I urge every member who supports a free and open internet to join me and sign this petition, so we can bring this legislation to the floor.”To force a vote in the House, the petition needs 218 signatures. The Democrats hold only 193 seats there, so they need 25 Republicans to switch sides.To read this article in full, please click here
The migration of applications to the cloud is motivating enterprises to rethink how they architect their WANs, and this in turn has created the SD-WAN market category. The recent acquisition of VeloCloud by VMware, and of Viptela by Cisco earlier in the year, represent attempts by two of the bigger players in IT to stake a claim in this fast-growing new market.While it’s convenient to place products into categories, there are many approaches to SD-WAN, each focused on a different use case or customer base. It was not unexpected to see Cisco go for Viptela. Of all the SD-WAN solutions, Viptela is arguably the one that most closely emulates a traditional router, including conventional device-by-device CLI-based configuration, with a limited amount of central orchestration. It certainly represents the least disruptive approach for Cisco, and gives them an angle to extend the life of the old Swiss army knife known as the ISR.To read this article in full, please click here
Linux productivity toolsThe sheer number of Linux apps available today is mind boggling and one category in particular has exploded over the last few years: productivity tools. While there are a few well-known apps such as LibreOffice and NeoOffice (both forks of OpenOffice), there are many more tools that can make your work easier. Here are a variety of killer Linux office productivity apps you may not know about. (Note: many of them are also available for macOS and Windows, so if you have to hop between operating systems, you can keep at least a semblance of consistency.)To read this article in full, please click here
When managing your /etc/sudoers files, it’s a good idea to organize user privileges in ways that make them easier to manage over the long haul and to assign permissions based on the roles that users play in your organization.One very useful way to do that is to group related commands together — such as all commands related to running backups or managing web sites — and assign them to the individuals or groups that require these privileges.Setting up command groups in /etc/sudoers
To create a command group, you use what is called a Cmnd_Alias in your /etc/sudoers file and give the new command group a meaningful name. Here are some examples. Note that full pathnames should be specified for all of the commands included in a group. Otherwise, you are likely to see an error like this when you try to exit visudo. And remember to only edit /etc/sudoers with the visudo command to allow it to warn you in ways like this and prevent errors.To read this article in full, please click here
Two top makers of converged infrastructure devices – FlexPod and Oracle Exalogic – rank well among their users, but they have important differences, according to customers who have used the products.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
In 5 software licensing challenges in the next generation network , I noted the important role that licensing models would have in the transition to the software defined network. But there’s a deeper linkage between the growing demand for SaaS applications, cloud technology evolution and new software-defined Wide Area Network solutions. What does that linkage mean for the licensing technologies that will drive monetization for the new software defined network?Let’s start with the Q3 Forrester Wave report “Recurring Customer And Billing Management,” which speaks broadly to the accelerating trend of consumers and businesses using Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings via the cloud versus traditional on-premises software. The author states that as this takes place, software vendors invariably migrate to subscription, or usage-based monetization models. The report goes on to reference a Forrester 2017 SaaS adoption report that finds “in 2017, we expect software-as-a-service (SaaS) spend in particular to be more than 1.5 times that of license software.”To read this article in full, please click here
Everyone who has a stake in the internet of things, from device manufacturers to network service providers to implementers to customers themselves, makes important contributions to the security or lack thereof in enterprise IoT, attendees at Security of Things World were told.“The key to all [IoT devices] is that they are networked,” Jamison Utter, senior business development manager at Palo Alto Networks told a group at the conference. “It’s not just a single thing sitting on the counter like my toaster, it participates with the network because it provides value back to business.”“I think the media focuses a lot on consumer, because people reading their articles and watching the news … think about it, but they’re not thinking about the impact of the factory that built that consumer device, that has 10,000 or 20,000 robots and sensors that are all IoT and made this happen.”To read this article in full, please click here
This Alexa-enabled smart speaker from Eufy is discounted 43% today on Amazon as part of their "Black Friday Week" event (see all of today's active deals here). Stream music from Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM and others. Control smart home devices. Ask for weather, sports score, news and more. Eufy Genie currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon where Its typical list price has been reduced 43% to just $19.99. See it on Amazon here.To read this article in full, please click here