A job posting on Facebook has led to speculation that the company is building a team to design its own semiconductors, thus ending their reliance on Intel. If so, it would be another step in the trend of major firms building their own silicon.Bloomberg was the first to note a job opening, titled “Manager, ASIC Development,” that sought a manager to help build an "end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization." There is also an opening for an “ASIC & FPGA Design Engineer,” which seems an unusual position for a social network website to need.To read this article in full, please click here
Today’s enterprise relies heavily on applications for just about every business function, making it critical for administrators to have full visibility into networks to better manage traffic and application usage. With MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) networks, this level of visibility is virtually impossible because those networks weren’t designed with an application-first mentality, but that is changing with the implementation of software-defined networks (SDN).Often, administrators don’t even know what apps are on their network or they know only what traffic comes in and out of their firewall/proxy servers. SDN, which replaces most network hardware with software-based controls, is providing transparency that administrators never had before, allowing them to steer application traffic to achieve the best performance.To read this article in full, please click here
Cray owes its survival to AMD. The company was bought by SGI in 1996, hollowed out, and spun off in 2000 with very little left. SGI had taken most of the talent and IP.Desperate for a win, Cray began working with Sandia National Labs in 2002 to build a supercomputer based on x86 technology. Intel at the time was dismissive of 64-bit x86 and was promoting Itanium. AMD had other plans and was in the process of developing Athlon for desktops and Opteron for servers.[ Learn how server disaggregation can boost data center efficiency and find out what the top 10 fastest supercomputers are. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]
The project came to be known as Red Storm, starting with single-core Opterons and upgrading to dual- and quad-core CPUs as they hit the market. Red Storm ranked as high as number two on the Top 500 list of supercomputers. More important, it served as the basis for the XT3 line of supercomputers that revived Cray as a player in that field, and lit a fire under Intel as well.To read this article in full, please click here
Mobile devices. The data center. The WAN. All are players in the move to a software-defined industry that gives network operators more control, programmability and responsiveness to business needs.The momentum behind the shift to Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has seen organizations embrace the benefits and advantages offered by software and virtualization—benefits that center around agility, flexibility, and adaptability. This shift significantly changes how networks are built and operated, as well as how services are created and delivered. An increasingly critical component of any network, software helps meet evolving end-user demands for greater programmability and openness.To read this article in full, please click here
I recently had the pleasure of speaking as a panelist at an event break-out session discussing the benefits of SD-WAN. The session, “Catch the Next Wave of Cost Savings,” mirrored much of the current SD-WAN hype, and the abstract further stimulated excitement:“With the promise of savings as high as 90%, are you ready to make the leap from MPLS?”While the benefits of hybrid networks with SD-WAN are already proven and groundbreaking for many companies, the claims of totally replacing MPLS with SD-WAN are becoming bold and perpetuating unrealistic expectations. And it’s not just at events; I have seen white papers lately advertising 10X savings with pure SD-WAN. The issue: enterprises need help clarifying the line between hype and reality.To read this article in full, please click here
With an upcoming data tsunami expected to absorb up to 20 percent of global electricity by 2025, according to some experts, data center energy sources are a hot talking point — the photovoltaic solar panel being one of the hottest and most viable fossil fuel alternatives.However, there’s an obvious problem with the solar panel as electricity source: When sunlight drops off on cloudy or rainy days, so does power output.Chinese scientists, though, think they have a solution, and that’s to develop a generalized hybrid panel that also harnesses the power of rain. It compensates for lack of sun on iffy days and at night.To read this article in full, please click here
We continue our theme of looking at different industry verticals, big and small, that are getting the IoT treatment. Previously we have looked at the largest IoT deployment, the Smart Electric Grid, as well as some innovative IoT implementations that are transforming healthcare. Today, it is time to look at Agriculture. While it might not seem to be a ‘cool enough’ vertical to get the ‘Smart Treatment’, this couldn’t be further from the truth.Why is it vital to even implement Smart Farming? Two reasons – carbon dioxide and human population growth. The increase in CO2 in the atmosphere leads to lower production, while the steady growth in human population leads to increased demand. Many predict that unless we increase our food production, we are very close to a global food shortage. Since it is not easy to dramatically increase arable land size, one way to achieve our goal is to improve the yield per unit area (or lower waste). Here is where IoT comes in.To read this article in full, please click here
There are many reasons to deploy a software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), including saving a boatload of money, improving network agility, and increasing WAN resiliency. However, those all pale in comparison to the ROI that a business would see by making its employees more productive.One of the biggest drags on worker productivity is poor application response time. In 2016, ZK Research conducted a study that found on average, workers were 14 percent less productive than their optimal state because of poor application performance. (Note: I am an employee of ZK Research.) There’s nothing that frustrates a worker more than clicking on an icon and sitting around waiting for it to open or update, but that’s exactly what happens to global organizations that need to access resources over a long distance.To read this article in full, please click here
Extreme Networks recently released a new report, “Quantifying the Value of the New Extreme Networks Solution” (an Enterprise Strategy Group Economic Value Validation report), to show the IT community how deploying our new solution can generate ROI and slash costs significantly, particularly in comparison with other network vendors.When we embarked on this journey, our goal was to make the resources of our organization part of the package. Customers should have access to a comprehensive network solution that goes beyond solving their immediate technology problems and extends into cost savings and economic benefit opportunities, period. This is why we engaged ESG to execute their Economic Value Audit process—to show you how you can realize unparalleled savings through Extreme.To read this article in full, please click here
A recently prepared report by IDC focuses on the practical solutions for bringing enhanced automation, security and visibility into the campus network and shares the trends that are impacting them.One trend we’ve observed during the evolution of digital transformation is seeing network workloads increase significantly, parallel to the significance of the network itself. Since business is centered on a fast-paced, on-demand culture, it’s only natural that major changes in networking technology are taking hold.To read this article in full, please click here
If you thought BYOD was a pain the neck for IT management, strap yourself in.The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the enterprise is moving beyond the hype into a much more pragmatic and operational phase of planning, execution and service delivery.There’s massive interest and buzz around IoT within companies of every type. This is largely due to the transformative business impact IoT will have. Major business will be transformed, disrupted or out completely when IoT is properly used in the business transformation process.But with IoT solutions comes new demands and a wide range of technologies, many of which will take the enterprise into unfamiliar territory, requiring different analytical skills and management tools. In other words, IoT devices quickly finding their way into to the enterprise will make life a living hell for network managers – far beyond the problems they experienced with BYOD.To read this article in full, please click here
There is nothing like a looming deadline to get people motivated. For the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), May 25 is that deadline. A sweeping new data privacy regulation, GDPR will soon come into effect across the European Union (EU). In practice, however, it affects any company or organization conducting business or operations in the EU (whether through a physical presence there or offering goods and services to EU residents) that collects and processes EU residents’ data. Its goal is to better protect and empower EU residents’ data privacy, and it represents the most significant change in data privacy laws in more than 20 years. For businesses too, it will be a watershed moment in how they process, handle and manage data, with heavy fines on the table for non-compliance.To read this article in full, please click here
We live in an age of instrumentation, where everything that can be measured is being measured so that it can be analyzed and acted upon, preferably in real time or near real time. This instrumentation and measurement process is happening in both the physical world, as well as the virtual world of IT.For example, in the physical world, a solar energy company has instrumented all its solar panels to provide remote monitoring and battery management. Usage information is collected from a customers’ panels and sent via mobile networks to a database in the cloud. The data is analyzed, and the resulting information is used to configure and adapt each customer’s system to extend the life of the battery and control the product. If an abnormality or problem is detected, an alert can be sent to a service agent to mitigate the problem before it worsens. Thus, proactive customer service is enabled based on real-time data coming from the solar energy system at a customer’s installation.To read this article in full, please click here
In a report entitled , Gartner discusses the widespread preparation for 5G networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine-to-machine communications. These technologies are preparing to support a worldwide customer base that looks forward to smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and high-speed multimedia over broadband anywhere and anytime. To read this article in full, please click here
We live in a world in which we’re regularly streaming Netflix in 4K, using the power of the phones in our pockets to augment our realities with virtual gaming, and even watching basketball from a virtual courtside seat. Our networks have evolved to cater for these technologies, and each evolutionary step has brought with it a technological boom enabled by greater capacity, speed, automation, intelligence and programmability.The next step has arrived and it’s just in time, because when you thought we were finally content with, well, content, new technologies have emerged that push beyond what we ever thought possible.At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Intel Studios unveiled what it’s calling Volumetric Video – and it’s nothing short of stunning. Volumetric Video uses multiple cameras to shoot a 360-degree field of view, but it differs from standard 360-degree or VR video in that it captures footage “from the outside in”. To picture how it works, visualize the action scenes from The Matrix, in which the cameras pan around a frozen-in-mid-air Keanu Reeves. But now imagine being a viewer with the ability to zoom in on any part of that scene or look at any part of the Continue reading
In 2017, many service providers introduced their initial managed SD-WAN services to meet early market demand. Throughout the year, they thoroughly tested multiple SD-WAN technologies with the intention of selecting a lead platform for the initial service launch. There were many proofs of concept and beta tests prior to building the services wrap around those initial platforms. Providers developed their own trial programs and started to introduce services to their customers while completing all the necessary support to develop the platform as a fully managed service. Early offers generally included a handful of customers and, at times, restricted the service provider’s own network services.To read this article in full, please click here
The Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the foundations of the internet, yet most people outside of networking probably don’t realize they use it every day to do their jobs, check their email or waste time on their smartphones.At its most basic, DNS is a directory of names that match with numbers. The numbers, in this case are IP addresses, which computers use to communicate with each other. Most descriptions of DNS use the analogy of a phone book, which is fine for people over the age of 30 who know what a phone book is.[ 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. ]
If you’re under 30, think of DNS like your smartphone’s contact list, which matches people’s names with their phone numbers and email addresses. Then multiply that contact list by everyone else on the planet.To read this article in full, please click here
2018 has already been hailed as the “Year of SD-WAN” and while the promises of this technology are undoubtedly appealing to most enterprises, it’s equally important to understand its potential shortcomings.The “Death of the Router” has been largely exaggerated by those trying to market their “silver bullet” solutions that still lack basic routing capabilities. While there’s no doubt that years of technical debt have added some unnecessary functionality to the modern router, it’s worth acknowledging that there are many “table-stakes” features leveraged that need to exist in any SD-WAN solution that is meant to replace those boring routers.I’d like to highlight some often-missed considerations drawn from hard lessons learned by SD-WAN early adopters. Specific names and details have been left out to protect both the guilty and innocent.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco has added new cloud and virtual deployment options for customers looking to buy into its Tetration Analytics security system.Cisco’s Tetration system gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes it using big-data analytics and machine learning to offer IT managers a deeper understanding of their data center resources.[ 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. ]
Tetration can improve enterprise security monitoring, simplify operational reliability, give customers a single tool to collect consistent security telemetry across the entire data center and analyze large volumes of data in real time. To read this article in full, please click here
Whether you were aware or not, Monday, April 9, 2018, is World IoT Day:"IoTday is an open invitation to the Internet of Things community to participate in an event, host a hackathon, or just share a beer/coffee with a friend or fellow collaborator focused around the IoT and its implications."Now, IoT Day may not top your list of favorite holidays, but it seemed like a good time to take a moment and assess the future of the Internet of Things. In that light, I traded emails with some technical experts from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on the future of IoT in the enterprise. Their responses were illuminating.To read this article in full, please click here