IoT, because of its flexibility and, let us admit, complexity, gives CIOs and business leaders in similar roles pause. And this anxiety about the pain of implementing comprehensive digital transformation is causing some foot dragging. Delaying however could put your business at risk, potentially causing your business to fall behind and ultimately fail. Implementing IoT solutions offer the opportunity to sustain your business leadership, the ability to scale and create new types of sales/revenues, as well as cost savings. No matter what the industry, there are partners aplenty eager to help enterprises transform their operations via the extraordinary power of fully deployed IoT systems.To read this article in full, please click here
What should your next role in IT be? Maybe a security management expert? Or a change management guru?“Factors such as the proliferation of network-connected devices, adoption of cloud services and exponential rise in security threats are affecting hiring trends,” according to a survey released today by researchers at IDC and sponsored by Cisco about what IT roles will be hot in the future.[ Click here to download a PDF bundle of five essential articles about IoT in the enterprise. ] “Despite the central role that technology and the technology workforce play in this digital era, certain key roles stand out from the pack in terms of importance and opportunity. Not all roles are equal in the future,” wrote Mark Leary an intelligence analyst with Cisco Services in a blog post about the study.To read this article in full, please click here
Sometime in the past couple of years, Gartner introduced a term called “Shared Accelerated Storage” (SAS) to describe what’s next for the industry after all-flash arrays. I’m not sure when they first used the term, but it was the very first bullet in its 2017 Storage Hype Cycle, indicating its relative newness as a market category.In its Hype Cycle, Gartner has a rather long and complicated definition of what SAS is. The easy way to think about it is that it brings the benefits of network-based systems and direct-attached systems together by leveraging a number of new technologies, most notably Nonvolatile Memory Express— or NVMe, as its more commonly known. To read this article in full, please click here
Artificial intelligence is set to play a bigger role in data-center operations as enterprises begin to adopt machine-learning technologies that have been tried and tested by larger data-center operators and colocation providers.Today’s hybrid computing environments often span on-premise data centers, cloud and collocation sites, and edge computing deployments. And enterprises are finding that a traditional approach to managing data centers isn’t optimal. By using artificial intelligence, as played out through machine learning, there’s enormous potential to streamline the management of complex computing facilities.Check out our review of VMware’s vSAN 6.6 and see IDC’s top 10 data center predictions. Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. AI in the data center, for now, revolves around using machine learning to monitor and automate the management of facility components such as power and power-distribution elements, cooling infrastructure, rack systems and physical security.To read this article in full, please click here
Data-center downtime is crippling and costly for enterprises. It’s easy to see the appeal of tools that can provide visibility into data-center assets, interdependencies, performance and capacity – and turn that visibility into actionable knowledge that anticipates equipment failures or capacity shortfalls.Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools are designed to monitor the utilization and energy consumption of both IT and building components, from servers and storage to power distribution units and cooling gear.[ Learn how server disaggregation can boost data center efficiency and how Windows Server 2019 embraces hyperconverged data centers . | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] DCIM software tackles functions including remote equipment monitoring, power and environmental monitoring, IT asset management, data management and reporting. With DCIM software, enterprises can simplify capacity planning and resource allocation as well as ensure that power, equipment and floor space are used as efficiently as possible.To read this article in full, please click here
There are two main camps in the quantum computing development, says Ashish Nadkarni, Program Vice President of Computing Platforms, Worldwide Infrastructure at IDC. In the first camp are entrenched players from the world of classical computing. And in the second are quantum computing startups.“It’s a highly fragmented landscape,” Nadkarni says. “Each company has its own approach to building a universal quantum computer and delivering it as a service.”[ Now see What is quantum computing [and why enterprises should care.] Classic-computing vendors pioneer quantum computing Along with IBM, other classical computing companies staking a claim in the emerging field of quantum computing include:To read this article in full, please click here
The first thing to know about quantum computing is that it won’t displace traditional, or ‘classical’ computing. The second thing to know: Quantum computing is still a nascent technology that probably won’t be ready for prime time for several more years.And the third thing you should know? The time to start protecting your data’s security from quantum computers is now.[ Learn how server disaggregation can boost data center efficiency and how Windows Server 2019 embraces hyperconverged data centers . | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] Here’s an overview of what you should know about quantum computing.To read this article in full, please click here
With so much going on in the enterprise storage world, two bits of good news have come out — and it’s only Tuesday. Capacity is going up, and prices are coming down.According to the report from DRAMeXchange, the enterprise SSD market has been growing fast. It projects enterprise SSD sales to top 30 million units this year, up from fewer than 20 million units in 2016, and that rate of growth is expected to continue in the next three years.That’s despite tight supply for memory chips in the first quarter resulting in high average selling prices. For the second quarter, which we are in the midst of, DRAMeXchange expects a rebound in demand due to increased supply.To read this article in full, please click here
The modern enterprise is comprised of a complex set of application stacks that span a disparate variety of virtual machines, physical servers, and proprietary storage hardware. Tentacles reach from headquarters, branch and remote offices, and offshore facilities around the world to technology stacks, SaaS providers and a multitude of applications.Over the years layer after layer of technology has accumulated, but rather than replace what came before, we simply built on top through a long series of incremental decisions and implementations. For many, mainframes were bolstered by a client-server layer that moved into data centers. Web technology added SaaS beyond our data centers before virtualization and server consolidation reorganized everything into more manageable chunks.To read this article in full, please click here
The logger command provides an easy way to add log files to /var/log/syslog -- from the command line, from scripts or from other files. In today's post, we'll take a look at how it works.How easy is easy? This easy. Just type logger <message> on the command line and your message will be added to the end of the /var/log/syslog file.$ logger comment to be added to log $ tail -1 /vvar/log/syslog May 21 18:02:16 butterfly shs: comment to be added to log Command output You can also add the output from commands by enclosing the commands in backticks.$ logger `who` $ tail -1 /var/log/syslog May 21 18:02:43 butterfly shs: shs pts/0 2018-05-21 15:57 (192.168.0.15) Content from a file The contents of text files can be added by using the -f option. Put the name of the file to be added to the log following the -f option as shown below.To read this article in full, please click here
The logger command provides an easy way to add log files to /var/log/syslog — from the command line, from scripts, or from other files. In today's post, we'll take a look at how it works.How easy is easy? This easy. Just type logger <message> on the command line and your message will be added to the end of the /var/log/syslog file.$ logger comment to be added to log $ tail -1 /vvar/log/syslog May 21 18:02:16 butterfly shs: comment to be added to log Command output You can also add the output from commands by enclosing the commands in backticks.$ logger `who` $ tail -1 /var/log/syslog May 21 18:02:43 butterfly shs: shs pts/0 2018-05-21 15:57 (192.168.0.15) [ Two-Minute Linux Tips: Learn how to master a host of Linux commands in these 2-minute video tutorials ] Content from a file The contents of text files can be added by using the -f option. Put the name of the file to be added to the log following the -f option as shown below.To read this article in full, please click here
As backup and recovery products and solutions evolve, they are beginning to intersect with security and compliance. Online backup and recovery software company Asigra has announced a new version of its software that addresses the risks posed by ransomware and non-compliance with Article 17 of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Both should be a concern for organizations of all sizes, from global enterprises on down to small/medium businesses.Let’s take a look at the new capabilities that Asigra is bringing to market with the version 14 release of its Cloud Backup software, and why these capabilities are an important evolution in backup and recovery.To read this article in full, please click here
Onboarding devices has always been kind of a pain, but IT has managed to muddle its way through the process.The bring your own device (BYOD) wave hit created some problems. Still, many organizations allowed employees to bring those devices onto the network by shifting the responsibility to the end user. What happens, though, when there are so many new devices that IT can’t keep up? Or when devices are brought in without IT’s knowledge? That’s the trend businesses are about to face as the Internet of Things (IoT) goes mainstream.[ Read also: Network World's Corporate Guide to Addressing IoT Security. ] The IoT era is here, and it’s about to make IT’s life a lot more difficult The IoT era has arrived, and I say this because more and more companies I talk to are connecting non-traditional IT devices, such as lighting systems and point-of-sale devices, to the internet without uttering the phrase “IoT.” It’s no longer this futuristic thing that we ponder and pontificate over.To read this article in full, please click here
A flurry of storage announcements from IBM share a common theme: Helping customers achieve greater efficiency and wring cost savings from their multitier, multi-cloud storage environments.Anchoring the news is IBM Storage Insights, a new AI and cloud-based storage management platform that’s designed to give users a fast view of storage capacity and performance, as well as make tiering recommendations to help cut storage costs. A single dashboard shows the status of block storage and captures trend information.[ Check out What is hybrid cloud computing and learn what you need to know about multi-cloud. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] “Imagine you have an up-to-the-second event feed where you can see everything happening, not just on one of your arrays but across your entire environment,” said Sam Werner, vice president of offering management for IBM’s software-defined infrastructure (SDI) and storage software.To read this article in full, please click here
Continuing our quest for robust, enterprise-grade open source network monitoring, we tested Icinga Core 2 (version 2.8.1) and the stand-alone Icinga Web 2 interface. Created in 2009 as a fork of the Nagios network monitoring tool, Icinga has come a long way.We found Icinga to be a powerful monitoring tool with many great features. The Core install is straightforward and basic monitoring is easy with either pre-configured templates or plugins. However, we discovered that the Web install is a bit more complicated and could stand to be streamlined. [ Don’t miss customer reviews of top remote access tools and see the most powerful IoT companies . | Get daily insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ] Icinga runs on most of the popular Linux distros and the vendor provides detailed installation instructions for Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat (including CentOS and Fedora) and SUSE/SLES. Icinga does not publish specific hardware requirements, but our installation ran well on a quad-core processor with 4 GB RAM and this is probably be a good starting point for a basic installation.To read this article in full, please click here
Industry bellwether Cisco revealed some important financial numbers this week – its revenues were $12.5 billion, up 4 percent for the third quarter year-over-year, with product revenue up 5 percent.But one of the of the more interesting tidbits is that the company said it was selling some 40 Catalyst 9000 systems a day in and has installed 2,700 of the big boxes this quarter bring the total to 5,800 since its introduction in 2017. The Catalyst 9000 is key to a number of Cisco’s future initiatives – one of the most important being its drive to build out its Network Intuitive plans for intent-based networking.[ Related: Getting grounded in intent-based networking] | The other is that the way its software is sold – via a variety of subscription/feature levels is a key component of its overall strategy to become a more software-oriented company.To read this article in full, please click here
High-density data could one day be stored in fabric patches embedded in people’s clothing, say scientists at the University of Washington. Importantly, it wouldn’t require electricity, so the smart-fabric could be washed or ironed just like regular clothing. That could make it more convenient than other forms of memory.Off-the-shelf conductive thread, which the scientists say they recently discovered can be magnetized, is being used in trials. The data is read using a simple magnometer. The conductive thread is used commercially now in gloves for operating touch screens, for example.“You can think of the fabric as a hard disk,” said Shyam Gollakota, associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, announcing the breakthrough on the school’s website at the end of last year. “You’re actually doing this data storage on the clothes you’re wearing.”To read this article in full, please click here
Any technology, product, or service can become so popular that it develops a trendiness, in which case it becomes difficult to determine if the tool actually has its perceived value or is causing overzealousness in the market. Cloud computing has the huge visibility that could allow it to become an overvalued product, which could allow industry analysts to think it will expand more rapidly than it actually will. This article explores the current industry growth rate projections for the cloud and signs that these growth rates could begin to slow in the years ahead.The numbers: how fast is cloud growing? For many reasons, businesses are turning toward the cloud. One key one is that a greater understanding has developed that the security of cloud is preferable to the security of on-premise architecture.To read this article in full, please click here
In 2018, for the first time cloud and software-defined data-center concerns have become the primary focus of enterprise network teams, bumping server virtualization from the top spot, according to an Enterprise management Associates (EMA) report based on a survey of 251 North American and European enterprise network managersThis is the first shift in their priorities for in more than a decade. Since 2008, EMA has been asking network managers to identify the broad IT initiatives that drive their priorities. Server virtualization has dominated their responses year after year. Cloud and software-defined data center (SDDC) architectures have always been secondary or tertiary drivers.To read this article in full, please click here
If you remember, in a previous Switch IT Up blog post I referenced Wireless AC and Wave 2 — some of the things that we could expect and some of the problems we could run up against. Things like having enough bandwidth to our APs to support a 6.8 gig connection.So, what can be done about that?Well, in 2015, Cisco introduced its Catalyst Multigigabit Technology, along with a new group of products, that address that issue and allow users to get more than just that 1 gig speed that most people have in their closets or in their infrastructure. How can users leverage that and still use their preexisting infrastructure rather than having to rip everything out and replace it?To read this article in full, please click here