This month's installment covers the impetus lent to IoT deployments by the ongoing pandemic, some new wrinkles in the security picture, and the possibility of more intelligence at the network edge in the future.
When most non-technical people hear the term “seven layers”, they either think of the popular Super Bowl bean dip or they mistakenly think about the seven layers of Hell, courtesy of Dante’s Inferno (there are nine). For IT professionals, the seven layers refer to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, a conceptual framework that describes the functions of a networking or telecommunication system.The model uses layers to help give a visual description of what is going on with a particular networking system. This can help network managers narrow down problems (Is it a physical issue or something with the application?), as well as computer programmers (when developing an application, which other layers does it need to work with?). Tech vendors selling new products will often refer to the OSI model to help customers understand which layer their products work with or whether it works “across the stack”.To read this article in full, please click here
IBM is expanding the role of its security-software package for hybrid-cloud deployments by improving the gathering of security data collected within customer networks and drawing on third-party threat-intelligence feeds, among other upgrades.IBM’s Cloud Pak for Security, which features open-source technology for hunting threats and automation capabilities to speed response to cyberattacks, can bring together on a single console data gathered by customers’ existing security point products.IBM Cloud Paks are bundles of Red Hat’s Kubernetes-based OpenShift Container Platform along with Red Hat Linux and a variety of connecting technologies to let enterprise customers deploy and manage containers on their choice of private or public infrastructure, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Alibaba and IBM Cloud.To read this article in full, please click here
Having completed its purchase of bare-metal cloud specialist Packet in March, Equinix is announcing the availability of Equinix Metal, an automated and interconnected bare metal cloud service in four major regions.A bare metal service means the customer provides the operating environment, not just the apps. Typical IaaS/PaaS includes the operating system (either Linux or Windows) plus developer tools and middleware. In a bare metal environment, there's no operating system or virtual machine. All you get are cores, memory, storage, and networking.
READ MORE: Why a bare-metal cloud provider might be just what you need | Google Cloud's bare-metal initiative | Rackspace offers bare-metal cloud offeringTo read this article in full, please click here
Common red masonry bricks – the same type used in construction projects, including many data centers – can be adapted and used to store electricity, researchers claim.A team from Washington University in St. Louis has found that the red pigment in bricks can trigger a chemical reaction, in much the same way rust occurs, that enables bricks to store a significant amount of energy.Specialized bricks aren't required; the synthesis works with any kind of brick, according to an article published on the university's news site. The team used common bricks bought from the Home Depot in Brentwood, Missouri, for 65 cents apiece.To read this article in full, please click here
The internet of things, already booming, can expect a big boost from 5G cellular technology as it becomes more available and as commercial services catch up with enhanced standards that are already in the pipeline
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
“Because of the increased spectrum that is available to 5G, it increases the overall bandwidth and allows massive amount of IoT devices to connect,” says Michelle Engarto, vice president wireless solutions and product line management at Corning, which, among other things, makes distributed antenna systems for in-building cellular products.To read this article in full, please click here
Juniper Networks has added new components to its security portfolio to help customers get a better handle on potential threats as well as improve risk detection and response.The new products are aimed at figuring out who and what devices are on the network and then offering the security intelligence to help them address threats at every point on the network, said Samantha Madrid vice president of product management in the Security Business & Strategy business at Juniper Networks.Security is always a challenge but even more so now when customers have mass-scale remote workforces, Madrid said. [Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
Madrid cited a recent Juniper-sponsored IT survey by Vanson Bourne that found 97% of respondents said their companies faced challenges securing their organizations’ network effectively.To read this article in full, please click here
Networks today are essential for supporting businesses, providing communication, delivering entertainment—the list goes on and on. A fundamental element networks have in common is the network switch, which helps connect devices for the purpose of sharing resources.What is a network switch?
A network switch is a device that operates at the Data Link layer of the OSI model—Layer 2. It takes in packets being sent by devices that are connected to its physical ports and sends them out again, but only through the ports that lead to the devices the packets are intended to reach.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco this week lost a patent infringement case brought by security vendor Centripetal Networks and was hit with a $1.9 billion judgement.A non-jury judgement from U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan determined Cisco infringed on four security patents related to encrypted traffic and packet filtering technology belonging to plaintiff Centripetal Networks. The award directs $755.8 million in actual damages, multiplied by 2.5 to reflect "willful and egregious" conduct from Cisco, the judge found. The award also includes past damages and a running royalty of 10% on the apportioned sales of the patented products for a period of three years, followed by a second three-year term with a running royalty of 5% on such sales, which could take damages from the case north of $3 billion, according to a Centripetal statement about the case.To read this article in full, please click here
Intel has partnered with Lightbits Labs, as well as taken a financial stake in the startup, to improve the performance of storage systems in data centers. The two companies plan to develop disaggregated storage solutions designed to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) in storage systems due to extraneous hardware and "stranded disk capacity."Stranded disk capacity refers to storage that has been allocated but is unused or unavailable for use by applications for any number of reasons, including problems with a connection. The result is that storage systems are burning electricity but not being used.
READ MORE: NVMe over Fabrics creates data-center storage disruptionTo read this article in full, please click here
Ranger is a unique and very handy file system navigator that allows you to move around in your Linux file system, go in and out of subdirectories, view text-file contents and even make changes to files without leaving the tool.It runs in a terminal window and lets you navigate by pressing arrow keys. It provides a multi-level file display that makes it easy to see where you are, move around the file system and select particular files.To install ranger, use your standard install command (e.g., sudo apt install ranger). To start it, simply type “ranger”. It comes with a lengthy, very detailed man page, but getting started with ranger is very simple.To read this article in full, please click here
When you delete a file on a Linux system, it isn’t necessarily gone forever, especially if you just recently deleted it.Unless you rubbed it out with a tool such as shred, the data will still be sitting on your disk—and one of the best tools for recovering deleted files, testdisk, can help you rescue it. While testdisk has a wide range of functionality including recovering lost or damaged partitions and making non-booting disks bootable again, it’s also frequently used to restore files that were deleted by mistake.In this post, we’ll take a look at how you can recover deleted files using testdisk and what each step in the process looks like. Since the process requires quite a few steps, you’re likely to feel more comfortable running through them once you’ve done it a few times.To read this article in full, please click here
While far from being one of the first 50 Linux commands anyone learns, the lshw command (read as “ls hardware”) can provide a lot of useful details on your system’s hardware.It extracts details—maybe quite a few more than you knew were available—in a format that is reasonably easy to digest. Given descriptions, logical (device) names, sizes, etc., you are likely to appreciate how much detail you can access.This post examines the information that lshw provides with a particular focus on disk and related hardware. Here is some sample lshw output:$ sudo lshw -C disk
*-disk:0
description: SCSI Disk
product: Card Reader-1
vendor: JIE LI
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdc
version: 1.00
capabilities: removable
configuration: logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512
*-medium
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/sdc
Note that you should run the lshw command with sudo to ensure that you get all of the available details.To read this article in full, please click here
Many of today’s cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, edge computing and microservices, owe their start to the concept of the virtual machine—separating operating systems and software instances from the underlying physical computer.What is a virtual machine?
A virtual machine (VM) is software that runs programs or applications without being tied to a physical machine. In a VM instance, one or more guest machines can run on a host computer.To read this article in full, please click here
The idea of integrating computer networks and the human body is driving research in a number of areas. Recently, two teams of researchers shared their respective projects, which explore how biological cells might become networked and how electronics could become directly integrated with human tissue.Both presentations were part of the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo.The first presentation, conducted by a team at the University of Maryland, is focused on communications networks that mimic electronic networks but are derived from biological cells. The second study, led out of University of Delaware, discusses the idea of interfacing hardware and human tissue.To read this article in full, please click here
Acquisitions and defections be damned, Arm Holdings is pushing forward with its Neoverse line of server processor designs with the launch of the Neoverse V1 and N2 processor architectures.The new chips are the successors to the Neoverse N1 and E1 designs, which are used in server processors like Ampere’s Altra, Amazon’s Graviton2, and Marvel’s ThunderX2. Arm claims these chips will deliver 40% to 50% better performance than the previous generation while consuming the same amount of power.To read this article in full, please click here
Two wireless vendors say they have collaborated to significantly extend the useful range of millimeter-wave 5G transmissions beyond what had been widely considered its limits.
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
Qualcomm and Ericsson have worked together in separate trials with two other companies to boost that distance from less than a mile (1.6km) to 3.8km in one case and to 5km-plus in the other, the companies claim.To read this article in full, please click here
Ericsson’s purchase of wireless WAN vendor Cradlepoint means that the Sweden-based networking powerhouse is targeting growth in the 5G and edge markets, according to experts.
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
The deal, valued at $1.1 billion, will see Cradlepoint become a fully owned subsidiary of Ericsson, part of the larger company’s Business Area Technologies and New Business divisionTo read this article in full, please click here
With an eye toward adding intelligence and growing deployment options, Palo Alto Networks has rolled out analytics, machine learning, and new hardware appliances for its recently acquired SD-WAN package.The company bought cloud-based SD-WAN vendor CloudGenix earlier this year for $420 million and promised to integrate and augment CloudGenix's intelligent cloud-managed SD-WAN products and technology as well as integrate it with Palo Alto’s cloud-based security package Prisma.To read this article in full, please click here
Extreme Networks is unveiling a family of hardware and software that promises to let enterprise customers deploy wired or wireless platforms and manage security and other key resources from a cloud-based console.On the hardware side, the company is rolling out new core switches: the wired 5520 Series universal edge and aggregation switches, and the wireless, WiFi 6-based AP300C and AP400C Series universal access points.Upon linking to the company's flagship ExtremeCloud IQ cloud-based management platform (or manually through customized on-premises deployment), users of the new systems can pick and choose the Extreme operating system they need to support their particular infrastructure needs. Those options include ExtremeXOS and VSP Operating System (VOSS) with future support expected for the SLX Operating System under the 5520 switch and Aerohive IQ Engine and the Motorola WiNG for the wireless APs. To read this article in full, please click here