Dell EMC has one of the broadest networking portfolios in the industry. What’s unique about Dell EMC’s approach is that it's a mix of its own technology, as well as network partners. Also, it offers traditional hardware products and software-only products and supports white-box implementation. As an industry watcher, I’ve always been confused by the strategy of Dell EMC Networking. I know I’m not alone in this, as other network professionals I’ve talked to have echoed this sentiment.Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with Tom Burns, senior vice president and general manager of Dell EMC Networking and Solutions, about the company's networking portfolio and asked if he could clarify what is included in it.To read this article in full, please click here
Retailers see some tantalizing possibilities for using IoT technology in their businesses, but 2019 seems likely to feature more pilot programs and small-scale testing than widespread upheaval.Bridging the gap between online and in-person shopping, increased automation, and new ways to engage with customers (mostly by showing them ads) are all concepts with major upside for retailers, but the technology has only recently started to take hold.[ Related: What is the IoT? How the internet of things works. ]
Some of IoT’s presence in the retail world isn’t retail-specific. Companies use asset-management systems, integrated HVAC and other smart-building tech just like many other industries, according to analysts, but physical retailers have been having a tough time across the board lately, and investments in new technology can quickly fall down priority lists.To read this article in full, please click here
Sigfox, the France-based wireless networking company that is trying to push IoT communications technology into the mainstream with its low-power WAN service, provided through partnerships with mobile carriers who weave its technology into their base stations, just celebrated its third year of doing business in North America.In an interview with Network World, Sigfox USA president Christian Olivier was eager to characterize his company as an operator or a carrier for the IoT, not an infrastructure provider.To read this article in full, please click here
Powerful new Internet of Things (IoT) devices promise to revolutionize everything from farm equipment to satellites. But can those benefits also be added to the enormous installed base of existing, legacy, equipment, and infrastructure? After all, much of that stuff has been in place for decades, if not centuries, and still works just fine. Replacing it all would cost untold trillions, so no matter what the possible profits might be, it’s unlikely to fall out of service any time soon.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco is making it possible to run, manage, automate and secure wired and wireless networks all on top of a single operating system.Key to the company's next step in operational efficiency is a new Catalyst 9000 switch, the 802.11ax-ready 9800 Wireless LAN Controller family which is available in an on-premises chassis or as a software addition that can be run on select Catalyst 9000 switches or a private or public cloud, Cisco said.[ Related: Getting grounded in intent-based networking]
High-Efficiency Wireless or 802.11ax promises a fourfold increase in average throughput per user and is designed to handle high-density public environments. But it also will be beneficial in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, in heavy-usage homes, in apartment buildings and in offices that use bandwidth-hogging applications like videoconferencing.To read this article in full, please click here
Enterprise demands for IT services have grown considerably, so considering a role in IT service management (ITSM) can be a stable and lucrative career move. However, not just anyone can become an IT service manager; it requires earning IT certifications, which demand rigorous preparation. Not to mention, there are numerous courses to choose from online. If you want to earn an IT certification, this Ultimate ITIL Certification Training Bundle by Integrity Training can help you prepare for $49.To read this article in full, please click here
Computer scientists at the University of California at Riverside have found that GPUs are vulnerable to side-channel attacks, the same kinds of exploits that have impacted Intel and AMD CPUs.Two professors and two students, one a computer science doctoral student and a post-doctoral researcher, reverse-engineered a Nvidia GPU to demonstrate three attacks on both graphics and computational stacks, as well as across them. The researchers believe these are the first reported side-channel attacks on GPUs.[ Read also: What are the Meltdown and Spectre exploits? | Get regularly scheduled insights: Sign up for Network World newsletters ]
A side-channel attack is one where the attacker uses how a technology operates, in this case a GPU, rather than a bug or flaw in the code. It takes advantage of how the processor is designed and exploits it in ways the designers hadn’t thought of.To read this article in full, please click here
iDrive has activated a significant discount on their Remote access software RemotePC in these days leading into Black Friday. RemotePC by iDrive is a full-featured remote access solution that lets you connect to your work, home or office computer securely from anywhere, and from any iOS or Android device. Right now, their 50 computer package is 90% off or just $6.95 for your 1st year. If you've been thinking about remote access solutions, now is a good time to consider RemotePC. Learn more about it here.To read this article in full, please click here
Looking to help customers batten down the edge, Cisco is marrying its software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) software with security features while boosting support for cloud services.Many times SD-WAN customers have been forced to choose between adding more security to their SD-WAN at the expense of application performance or vice-versa, said Ramesh Prabagaran senior director of product management at Cisco.To read this article in full, please click here
Your customers want more than a just great product. They want a great experience. Businesses all around the world are embracing digital transformation to deliver new memorable, personalized experiences. Airbnb immerses guests into each host’s unique world. Experiential retail is bringing shoppers back into stores. Hospitals are reinventing themselves to create patient experiences that feel more like a “home away from home” to improve patient outcomes. While the digital era is disrupting business and creating new opportunities, it also brings with it challenges and rising expectations.User Expectations are GrowingPeople want a great connected experience wherever they are, whether at work, in the classroom, at their favorite store or at the stadium. They are relentlessly unforgiving when their applications are slow or the Wi-Fi is spotty.To read this article in full, please click here
How often have you been on a VoIP call only to experience dropouts or garbled sound? Or endured a video conference with pixelated images or even a frozen screen? The expanding use of Unified Communications (UC) applications has placed increased pressure on IT to deliver an exceptional user experience to employees. But when user experience deteriorates enough, it results in a flood of calls to the IT help desk. Delivering consistent, high quality real-time communications is difficult, if not impossible, with a traditional router-centric wide area network architecture.Why? Because conventional routers can’t overcome inevitable packet loss that negatively impacts quality voice and video communication quality and the user’s experience and productivity. WAN architectures based on traditional routers typically backhaul all traffic to a headquarters-based data center, adding latency or delay that contribute to poor quality.To read this article in full, please click here
Once a niche technology, primarily attractive to organizations with specific needs, such as streamlining operations at branch offices, hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is rapidly finding a wide customer base.HCI is an IT framework that combines storage, computing and networking into a single system; hyperconverged platforms include a hypervisor for virtualized computing, software-defined storage, and virtualized networking.Enterprises planning an HCI adoption can select from two main approaches: hardware or software. HCI hardware typically comes in the form of an integrated appliance, a hardware/software package created and delivered by a single vendor. Appliance vendors include Dell EMC, Nutanix and HPE/SimpliVity. A software-only offering allows customers to deploy HCI on a bring-your-own-technology basis. HCI software vendors include Maxta and VMware (vSAN).To read this article in full, please click here
In the realm of enterprise computing, we have already automated the management and orchestration of software-defined compute and storage resources. Need another server or more storage capacity? Those virtual resources can be created in mere minutes — and without intervention from a human to initiate or manage the process.Need changes to the network, such as a router reconfiguration? Well, that’s going to take a lot of time and effort from a range of humans. Even something as simple as an update to a DNS or IPAM server can take three to five days to complete. A port turn-up can take just as long — not because any physical action takes that much time, but because the workflow of all the human reviews and approvals takes time.To read this article in full, please click here
Entegra Bank, a fast-growing financial institution based in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, switched from MPLS links for its 22 branches to SD-WAN-based broadband and slashed its WAN connectivity bill by 50%, while increasing bandwidth an average of fivefold.Loren Long, senior vice-president and CTO at the bank, says he had been eyeing both SD-WAN and broadband for some time, waiting for SD-WAN technology to mature and for rural broadband to improve in availability, dependability and security. After a positive experience with Silver Peak’s WAN optimization gear, “we felt confident to make that change,” he says.In a typical SD-WAN scenario, branch office broadband would connect directly to the public Internet. But since this a bank with heightened security and compliance responsibilities, traffic from the branches is backhauled over an encrypted VPN to internal gateways, where a third-party security services provider monitors all traffic and enforces security policies.To read this article in full, please click here
In the form of the iconic David Letterman Top Ten List segment from his former Late Show, Silver Peak is counting down the Top Ten Reasons to Think Outside the Router. Click here for the #10 reason to retire traditional routers at the branch.The #9 reason it’s time to retire traditional routers at the branch: Sub-par SaaS Performance!
We often hear from customers that their employees complain that Salesforce.com (or Office365 or Workday or any of myriad SaaS apps) is more responsive from home or from Starbucks than from the branch office.To read this article in full, please click here
Aruba
Tom Hollingsworth, Blog Contributor
The industry is on the cusp of a new wireless protocol. It's been almost 10 years since 802.11ac was proposed, and five years since final ratification. 802.11ac has been built upon to deliver speeds past 1 Gpbs and has become the preferred method of wireless connectivity for computers and mobile devices alike.To read this article in full, please click here
The Wi-Fi Alliance has introduced the first major security improvement to Wi-Fi in about 14 years: WPA3. The most significant additions to the new security protocol are greater protection for simple passwords, individualized encryption for personal and open networks, and even more secure encryption for enterprise networks.The original Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard was released back in 2003 to replace WEP, and the second edition of WPA came the year after. The third edition of WPA is a long-awaited and much-welcomed update that will benefit Wi-Fi industry, businesses, and the millions of average Wi-Fi users around the world—even though they might not know it.To read this article in full, please click here
The Wi-Fi Alliance has introduced the first major security improvement to Wi-Fi in about 14 years: WPA3. The most significant additions to the new security protocol are greater protection for simple passwords, individualized encryption for personal and open networks, and even more secure encryption for enterprise networks.The original Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard was released back in 2003 to replace WEP, and the second edition of WPA came the year after. The third edition of WPA is a long-awaited and much-welcomed update that will benefit Wi-Fi industry, businesses, and the millions of average Wi-Fi users around the world—even though they might not know it.To read this article in full, please click here
Wi-Fi 6 – aka 802.11ax – will begin to make its way into new installations in 2019, bringing with it a host of technological upgrades aimed at simplifying wireless-network problems.The first and most notable feature of the standard is that it’s designed to operate in today’s increasingly congested radio environments. It supports multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technology, meaning that a given access point can handle traffic from up to eight users at the same time and at the same speed. Previous-generation APs still divide their attention and bandwidth among simultaneous users.[ Also see Wi-Fi 6 is coming to a router near you. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]
Better still is orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), a technology borrowed from the licensed, carrier-driven half of the wireless world. What this does is subdivide each of the available independent channels available on a given AP by a further factor of four, meaning even less slowdown for APs servicing up to a couple dozen clients at the same time.To read this article in full, please click here