In five years, all you’re going to find is Wi-Fi 6, or what most wireless experts are still calling 802.11ax. But five years is a long time. If you’re considering an early move toward the most cutting-edge Wi-Fi technology on the market, there are some hurdles that you’ll have to overcome.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Firewalls been around for three decades, but they’ve evolved drastically to include features that used to be sold as separate appliances and to pull in externally gathered data to make smarter decisions about what network traffic to allow and what traffic to block.Now just one indespensible element in an ecosystem of network defenses, the latest versions are known as enterprise firewalls or next-generation firewalls (NGFW) to indicate who should use them and that they are continually adding functionality.What is a firewall?
A firewall is a network device that monitors packets going in and out of networks and blocks or allows them according to rules that have been set up to define what traffic is permissible and what traffic isn’t.To read this article in full, please click here
Linux systems provide a number of commands that make it easy to report on system activity. In this post, we're going to look at several commands that are especially helpful.The watch command
The watch command is one that makes it easy to repeatedly examine a variety of data on your system — user activities, running processes, logins, memory usage, etc. All the command really does is run the command that you specify repeatedly, each time overwriting the previously displayed output, but this lends itself to a very convenient way of monitoring what's happening on your system. [ Two-Minute Linux Tips: Learn how to master a host of Linux commands in these 2-minute video tutorials ]
To start with a very basic and not particularly useful command, you could run watch -n 5 date and see a display with the current date and time that updates every 5 seconds. As you likely have guessed, the -n 5 option specifies the number of seconds to wait between each run of the command. The default is 2 seconds. The command will run and update a display like this until you stop it with a ^c.To read this article in full, please Continue reading
Contract prices for server DRAM are expected to fall by more than 20 percent this quarter over the same period in 2018, even more than the earlier forecast of 15 percent, reports DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce.The demand outlook remains weak due to high inventory levels, seasonal buying patterns, a tapering in demand, and uncertainties over the U.S-China trade war and the possibility of tariffs.Mark Liu, senior analyst at DRAMeXchange, said the main reason for price decline is because DRAM makers are having difficulty reducing inventory. The DRAM suppliers’ fulfillment rate went from 90 percent last quarter to 120 percent in this quarter, which means there is an oversupply.To read this article in full, please click here
The IT department in Durham County, N.C.'s government was spending far too much time manually addressing network and security operations and turned to Cisco to help achieve the operational and security effectiveness it was looking for.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Network management tools have come a long way from the early command-line products with arcane, text-based configuration files that kept everyone except the resident (typically Linux) guru in the dark. Today’s management tools, replete with desktop or web-based GUIs, easy installs and configuration wizards, are far more accessible. With each iteration vendors find ways to make these tools more powerful and easier to use. For this review, we evaluated newer versions of three established open-source network management products – OpenNMS, Zenoss Core and NetXMS – as well as a relative newcomer, Sensu Core. All four products are free and open source.To read this article in full, please click here
NordVPN promises a private and fast path through the public internet, with no logs, unmetered access for 6 simultaneous devices and access to 5,232 servers worldwide. They are currently running a promotion, but you'll have to use this link to find it. Its typical price has been discounted for 3 years of service -- a good deal at just $2.99 per month. See the $2.99/month NordVPN deal here.
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If you’re still using a business landline, you’re likely not doing much business in 2018. Video conferencing is as commonplace as sending an email, and remote team members are increasing by the minute, making internet-based communication systems essential for any rising company. So if you’re finally looking to get your office set up with a state-of-the-art communications system, look no further than RingCentral, an award-winning VoIP (voice over internet provider). RingCentral offers comprehensive, affordable packages for any size organization, and you can set it up in minutes for as low as $19.99 per month. To read this article in full, please click here
Microprocessors that are unique to each Internet of Things (IoT) device is the way forward in the ongoing and tricky quest to secure the IoT, says Crypto Quantique. One idea is that by making each chip one of a kind and unclonable, an application would become almost impossible to hack.The U.K.-based startup says it has introduced “the world's most advanced security product for IoT devices.” The microprocessor-based solution uses quantum physics, combined with cryptography, all embedded in silicon, it explained in a press release last October.To read this article in full, please click here
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is already having a profound impact on the world of retail, both online and in the brick-and-mortar world. But according to Darin Archer, chief marketing officer of ecommerce software vendor Elastic Path, we haven’t seen nothing yet.Via email, I asked Archer about the opportunities and challenges the IoT poses for retailers, and he offered some illuminating answers, including how IoT devices are “especially useful for routine purchases” and how they will increasingly pit retailers against manufacturers.[ Read also: 6 ways IoT is transforming retail ]
Opportunity in the home, the car, online, and IoT devices
That retailer/manufacturer competition will play out in four key fields, Archer said: the home, the car, online and social media, and from devices themselves.To read this article in full, please click here
Some of us have been zipping files on Unix and Linux systems for many decades — to save some disk space and package files together for archiving. Even so, there are some interesting variations on zipping that not all of us have tried. So, in this post, we’re going to look at standard zipping and unzipping as well as some other interesting zipping options. [ Two-Minute Linux Tips: Learn how to master a host of Linux commands in these 2-minute video tutorials ]
The basic zip command
First, let’s look at the basic zip command. It uses what is essentially the same compression algorithm as gzip, but there are a couple important differences. For one thing, the gzip command is used only for compressing a single file where zip can both compress files and join them together into an archive. For another, the gzip command zips “in place”. In other words, it leaves a compressed file — not the original file alongside the compressed copy. Here's an example of gzip at work:To read this article in full, please click here
Edge gateways have emerged as architectural components that improve the performance of IoT networks, and vendors have stepped up with off-the-shelf devices flexible enough to meet the varying demands of individual deployments.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
As more companies build their businesses around software, network and data-center pros will also be looking toward software to optimize their skills.While software may not be the first thing to come to mind when dealing with data centers, IT industry watchers say experienced network and infrastructure professionals would be wise to up their code game. Popular technology trends such as public, private and hybrid cloud, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning will prompt network and data center pros to invest their training time and dollars in better understanding the software side of the IT house.
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When most enterprise companies worry about having their systems hacked by attackers, the main concern is for the enterprise networks. Few companies consider that their phone systems may be vulnerable to hacking resulting in costly toll fraud. Nevertheless, the practice of hacking into corporate PBX systems and injecting fraudulent calls over the network is causing billions of dollars in damage worldwide every year.Enterprise companies use modern PBX (private branch exchange) systems to run their communications. A PBX switches calls between enterprise users on local lines while allowing all users to share a certain number of external phone lines. Modern PBX systems work on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating real-time sessions that include voice, video, and messaging applications.To read this article in full, please click here
Wireless advances, software-defined WANs and intelligent network management tools are among the top technologies that will impact the networking community in 2019.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) may seem like an odd place to announce server processors, but Intel knows full well the eyes of the tech world are on the show. And what better place to corral a bunch of journalists?First up was shipment of the new Xeon Scalable CPU, code-named Cascade Lake, featuring improved artificial intelligence (AI) and memory capabilities. Cascade Lake is the first to feature support to the company's Optane DC persistent memory and instruction set, called DL Boost, to facilitate AI-based deep learning (DL) inference.Optane memory goes in the memory slots and has the persistence of flash but better performance. Think of it as a cache between the SSD and the main memory. It will also support multiple terabytes of memory per socket.To read this article in full, please click here
Data processing, analytics, and storage increasingly are taking place at the network edge, close to where users and devices need access to the information. Not surprisingly, edge computing is becoming a key component of IT strategy at a growing number of organizations.A recent report from Grand View Research predicted the global edge computing market will reach $3.24 billion by 2025, expanding at a “phenomenal” compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41% during the forecast period.One of the biggest contributors to the rise of edge computing is the ongoing growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). The vast amounts of data created by IoT devices might cause delays and latency, Grand View says, and edge computing solutions can help enhance the data processing power, which further aids in avoiding delays. Data processing takes place closest to the source of the data, which makes it more feasible for business users to gain real-time insights from the IoT data devices are gathering.To read this article in full, please click here
All of the monstrous data centers popping up globally are having multiple negative impacts on the planet, the EPA notes.First, there is the obvious effect, power consumption. Data centers account for 3 percent of the global electricity supply and consume more power than the entire United Kingdom.But beyond that is the waste caused by disposal. With Amazon and the like deploying more than a million physical servers per year globally, the old server equipment they replace have to go somewhere. The same goes for your old servers.[ Read also: Chip-cooling breakthrough will reduce data-center power costs | Get regularly scheduled insights: Sign up for Network World newsletters ]
E-waste 70 percent of toxic waste
The EPA estimates e-waste, disposed electronics, now accounts for 2 percent of all solid waste and 70 percent of toxic waste, thanks to the use of chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and beryllium, as well as hazardous chemicals such as brominated flame retardants. A lot of that is old servers and components.To read this article in full, please click here
Officials blamed a power surge for the blackout on Dec. 28th that left LaGuardia airport in the dark for about 45 minutes, grounding flights. A look at the trend of power outages at American airports shows a disturbing pattern and possibly sinister cause.Background
Attacking an adversary’s infrastructure is asymmetrical warfare. It causes a lot of damage for a very small cost. Cyberattacks are an ideal weapon as they disguise who might be behind them, making retaliation much harder. Attacks on the power grid for airports are especially devastating as they ground flights, stranding passengers and disrupting business nationwide. Just take a look at recent power outages:To read this article in full, please click here
Two giant industrials, Bosch and Volkswagen, are among companies that are taking seriously the idea that the Internet of Things (IoT) and decentralized data marketplaces should co-exist. That means a type of "blockchain meets IoT" is likely in our future.Both German organizations have recently teamed up with fellow-country, decentralized transactional platform IOTA on various development projects. IOTA’s Tangle is a transactional data transfer and settlement system for connected devices.[Also see our corporate guide to addressing IoT security. ]
Bosch announced in November that it intends to use a combination of its XDK (Cross Domain development Kit) product (an IoT prototyping and programmable sensor module used as a come-on to get organizations to work with Bosch on custom mass production and series engineering), and morph XDK with IOTA marketplace along a masked communications channel.To read this article in full, please click here