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Building an app-centric Infrastructure Performance Monitoring system

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.Applications are the lifeblood of any enterprise, but application performance can suffer without optimal support from the infrastructure teams. At the heart of this problem is the fact that application- and infrastructure-layer management stacks remain distinct entities across the IT environment.Application performance management (APM) drills down into the behavioral characteristics of the app and its supporting runtime environments, and perhaps select pieces of the virtual servers, but it is blind below the virtual machine. The underlying physical and virtual resources are managed and controlled by an infrastructure performance monitoring (IPM) system, which can effectively maintain the health of physical and virtual resources but doesn’t know whether this is producing an effective application environment in terms of either cost or performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft to slash cloud-connection rights for stand-alone Office

Microsoft last week announced sweeping changes to Office's support rules, which will push more corporate customers to the Office 365 subscription model.The support policies introduced Thursday will cut in half the time that non-subscription versions of Office -- usually labeled "perpetual" as a nod to the licenses which, once purchased, let customers run the software as long as they want -- can connect to Microsoft cloud-based services. These include Microsoft-hosted Exchange email, the OneDrive for Business storage service and Skype for Business, the corporate edition of Microsoft's video-calling service.[ Further reading: Microsoft starts clock ticking on Office 2016's first upgrade ] Under the new rules, owners of perpetual-license versions of Office will be able to use those services only during the first half of their 10-year support lifecycle, the portion Microsoft dubs "mainstream." Currently, those customers may connect to cloud services such as Exchange mailboxes for the full decade of Microsoft's combined mainstream and "extended" support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Zoomdata wants to scale out real-time data visualization

Zoomdata is a company that is all about helping organizations paint pretty pictures from their data. That might sound like a flippant description, but visualizations are actually an important part of surfacing insights and delivering them in a way that is actionable by the organization. Zoomdata is one of an increasing number of vendors that are filling a big gap in the marketplace.+ Also on Network World: Data visualization tools: The features users love and hate + You see, visualizations or data insights have historically been a product borne of the work of data analysts, utilizing data warehouses and rigid query approaches. This way of working was, arguably, OK in the past when organizational development cycles were slower and there was less of a critical imperative to innovate at speed. Today, however, time is of the essence, and these old-school approaches towards analysis simply don’t cut it any more.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft .Net Core: Finally ready for prime time

It’s risky and often foolish to rush into a new software development framework, programming language, or technology platform too early in its lifecycle. Beyond the usual issues of too much hype and too little stability, new tech tends to lack staying power. You might end up investing precious time and effort into learning the ways of a tool that becomes abandoned or, worse, eliminated. It happens more often than you might think.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

FAQ: The real impact of Trump’s H-1B executive order

President Donald Trump is calling for "a long-overdue reform of H-1B visas." But what changes does he want, and can he get Congress to agree?Here's a look at some some of the key questions around Trump's visa reform effort and his "Hire American, Buy American" executive order.What's the most important thing that Trump wants to accomplish?In issuing his executive order, Trump called the "totally random" H-1B lottery "wrong." He wants the visas distributed to "the most-skilled and highest-paid" applicants. He wants to end "abuse."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

12 free utilities that can give you more control over your PC

Tweak Windows to your willImage by Bet Noire / iStockThere are some very good reasons why you might want to peer behind the scenes of your Windows PC. Maybe you want to tweak your system to maximize performance, or maybe you just want to know what your computer is doing underneath those slick desktop graphics. Either way, here are 12 free programs you can use to fully monitor and manage your Windows experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Top IT hiring trends for recent grads

TEKsystems, a provider of IT staffing services, released the results of a survey highlighting the best IT jobs and key hiring trends for recent graduates. The survey asked more than 250 IT hiring managers across the U.S. what they're looking for in entry-level IT candidates and what the best opportunities are for graduates.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Why you need a systems reliability engineer

How can you ensure that the software and services you build today can deliver what your customers and consumers need in the future? If this is a question you think your organization should be asking, then you might need a systems reliability engineer (SRE). SREs are software engineers who focus on the reliability and uptime of applications and services not just in the short-term, but with a focus on scalability and long-term use.Sometimes referred to as "site reliability engineer," or "services reliability engineer," this engineering role is one that's finding its footing as DevOps practices take hold in IT departments, says Jason Hand, DevOps evangelist and incident and alerting specialist with VictorOps. The roles are most prevalent in cloud services, SaaS, PaaS and Iaas companies whose clients rely on them to keep those services available 24/7/365, he says. For organizations that rely on uptime, availability and reliability, an SRE is a logical talent add, as every minute of downtime chips away at the bottom line, Hand says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 tips to turn your data center green

Going greenImage by ThinkstockData center providers know all too well that it’s not easy being green. According to a 2016 report by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), data centers are responsible for close to 2 percent of U.S. energy consumption. Ensuring the integrity of these systems is a major challenge for data centers looking to create sustainable operations for their facilities and the companies who rely on them, but some simple steps can make all the difference.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Russian hackers use OAuth, fake Google apps to phish users

The Russian hacking group blamed for targeting U.S. and European elections has been breaking into email accounts, not only by tricking victims into giving up passwords, but by stealing access tokens too. It's sneaky hack that's particularly worrisome, because it can circumvent Google's 2-step verification, according to security firm Trend Micro. The group, known as Fancy Bear or Pawn Storm, has been carrying out the attack with its favored tactic of sending out phishing emails, Trend Micro said in a report Tuesday. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Huawei, Google supercharge Android with new Raspberry Pi-like board

Prepare to run Android at blazing fast speeds on a new Raspberry Pi-like computer developed by Huawei.Huawei's HiKey 960 computer board is priced at US$239 but has some of the latest CPU and GPU technologies. Google, ARM, Huawei, Archermind, and LeMaker all played roles in developing the board.The HiKey 960 is meant to be a go-to PC for Android or a tool to develop software and drivers for the OS. The board development was backed by Linaro, an organization that develops software packages for the Android OS and  ARM architecture.Linaro CEO George Grey recently said it was sad that Android developers had to write code on x86 chips. He encouraged the organization's members to build a superfast computer so developers could build ARM software on ARM architecture. Intel has scaled back Android support on x86 PCs and isn't making smartphone chips.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Discounted CleanMyMac 3 with Gemini 2 Space Saving Bundle – Deal Alert

CleanMyMac 3 with Gemini 2 in tow is like a professional cleaning team for your Mac. The all-new CleanMyMac 3 will clean, optimize, and maintain your Mac. It scans every inch of your system, removes gigabytes of junk in just two clicks, and monitors the health of your Mac. Gemini 2 finds duplicate files and wipes them away. It's smart, laser accurate, and recovers tons of space on your Mac. Right now, when purchased together, the bundle will be discounted 10%. See this deal now on MacPaw (see under "Space Saving Bundle"). Alternatively, if you're looking to purchase just one, you can access CleanMyMac 3 here, and Gemini 2 right here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Specs of Microsoft’s purported CloudBook leaked

Over the past few weeks there have been rumors of a new version of Windows 10, called Windows 10 Cloud, that sounded like a reimagined Windows RT and would only load apps from the Windows Store and do everything online. Along with the new OS have been rumors of a new piece of hardware, dubbed the CloudBook, which would be targeted at the popular Chromebooks created by Google and its OEM partners. Chromebooks are basically modern-day netbooks, in that they are aimed at internet use, have very long battery life and are below cost. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco Jasper package manages everything enterprise mobile

Cisco today announced an enterprise management package designed to help users monitor and control the data usage operation of the tons of mobile devices in their networks.Cisco Jasper’s Control Center for Mobile Enterprise is an extension of Jasper’s overarching Control Center IoT service platform, now directed at letting enterprise customers turn up services more quickly, and since it ultimately will be integrated directly into service provider networks will allow for real-time usage data, automated cost control and what Jasper calls “enterprise-grade self-serve management of mobile services and assets.”Like Control Center for IoT, Cisco Jasper’s Mobile Enterprise features are delivered through a service provider and in for now only Canadian telco Telus offers the plan. Cisco Jasper says others will soon follow, but a timetable remains open. The company has 50 service providers offering Control Center services worldwide.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This is the closest thing Intel has built to a discrete GPU

Intel doesn't make its own discrete GPU but has built something that specializes in processing 4K graphics. But that product isn't powerful enough to run Crysis, if you were wondering.The chipmaker showed off its Intel Visual Compute Accelerator 2 at the NAB show in Las Vegas this week. It has the build of a GPU but is designed for server applications and not for PCs.The VCA 2 is aimed at cloud streaming 4K video, graphics, and virtual reality content. Servers with the graphics accelerator installed could be used to stream video or broadcast content.The VCA 2 uses the 4K-capable Iris Pro Graphics P580 graphics chip and three Intel Xeon E3-1500 v5 processors. The P580 is also used in Intel's mini-PC called Skull Canyon, which is designed for gaming.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ixia goes native to build its cloud visibility solution

Earlier this month Ixia announced an update to its CloudLens product where it could now provide visibility into public clouds. Ixia wasn’t the first packet broker vendors to roll out a solution that extends the visibility infrastructure to the cloud. That honor goes to Gigamon, which announced the general availability of its visibility platform for Amazon Web Services.Over the past few years, the packet broker space has heated up, as customers are feeling the pain of running distributed environments and have brought in more network management and security tools. Packet brokers effectively create a middleware layer that sits between the network and tools and makes it significantly easier to deploy best-of-breed tools. Now that IT departments are aggressively expanding to the cloud, it makes sense that the visibility tier would need to as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security certificates gone wrong

Security certificates are designed to authenticate hosts. Browsers have become pretty good about understanding chains of authorities, and making users accept the risk when websites can’t prove the chain of authorities needed to verify they are who they say they are.Sites masquerading as legitimate sites, however, employ sad little tricks, such as “punycode”—URL links embedded in otherwise official-looking phishing emails. These tricks are malicious. There are also sites that should be well-administrated but are not.Then there are sites, important sites, that botch their own security with certificates ostensibly granted by places such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Box revises platform pricing to ease developer adoption

Box is trying to give developers who want to use its platform more pricing consistency with a new  announced Tuesday.Customers will now pay on the basis of how much active use they're getting out of the Box Platform, which offers cloud storage and content management capabilities for third-party applications. Companies can purchase packages from Box that include a set number of active users, API calls, bandwidth, and storage use.The first package costs US$500 per month and includes 100 monthly active users, 175,000 Box API calls, 125GB of bandwidth, and 125GB of storage in Box's cloud. The more packages companies purchase, the less they have to pay per package. For developers just getting started with the platform, there's a free tier that allows 10 monthly active users, 15,000 API calls, 10GB of bandwidth, and 10GB of storage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pluribus recharges, expands software-defined network platform

Looking to simplify what it calls the complexity associated with current Software Defined Networking controllers and proprietary protocols that require significant changes to customer network architecture and operations, Pluribus has refreshed and expanded its own SDN offering to address those challenges.+More on Network World: Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions+Customers looking to SDN to change and improve legacy network constraints have found many times that the SDN implementation has been nothing short of complex, and includes its own hardware-bound problems, said Steven Shalita, vice president of marketing and business development at Pluribus Networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here