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Category Archives for "Networking"

App Micro-segmentation How To’s: Informatica, Oracle and SAP

consolidated posts from the VMware on VMware blog

Are you someone that prefers a blank sheet of paper or an empty text pad screen?  Do you get the time to have that thought process to create the words, images or code to fill that empty space?  Yes to both — I’m impressed!  Creating something from scratch is an absolutely magical feeling especially once it gets to a point of sharing or usefulness.  However, many of us spend a bit more of our time editing, building upon or debugging.  Fortunately, that can be pretty interesting as well.

In the case of setting up mico-segmentation with VMware NSX Data Center, you have a couple options on quickly getting started:

Those resources and more are great jumping off points especially since you likely have more than just Informatica, Oracle and SAP apps in your environments.

Now, should you have those Informatica, Oracle and SAP apps, then here’s the next level of details.  I’m Continue reading

Automation: Flow Control & Dimensionality

Human beings as we are, struggle sometimes to think multi-dimensionally about tasks. Our brains seem to have a conscious layer and a sub-conscious layer. Whether you think in words, noise or images, your brain is a single threaded engine with a silent co-processor that can either assist or annoy. Experience has shown that we look at network automation challenges through this shaped lens and try and solve things that makes sense to humans, but not necessarily for mechanized processes.

In an attempt not to lose my own thread, I’ll try and explain some different view points through examples.

Example One: I’m English, Make me some Tea!

Making a a cup of tea is a very English thing to do and the process of making one will suffice for this example.

Let’s look at the process involved:

// { type: activity}
(Start)-><a>[kettle empty]->(Fill Kettle)->|b|
<a>-(note: Kettle activities)
<a>[kettle full]->|b|->(Boil Kettle)->|c|
|b|->(Add Tea Bag)-><d>[Sugar: yes]->(Add Sugar)->(Add Milk)
<d>[Sugar: no]->(Add Milk)
<d>-(note: Sweet tooth?)
(Add Milk)->|c|->(Pour Boiled Water)
(Pour Boiled Water)->(Enjoy)->(Stop)

Fig.1

This makes us a relative standard cup of English breakfast tea.

Let’s assume macros exist for milk and sugar quantity and the dealing of a mug or best china Continue reading

When It Comes to IoT, We Must Work Together to #SecureIt

My first ever rendezvous with the word “IoT” was during my final year at a college conference, when a prominent regional start-up figure dispensed an oblique reference to it. I learned that IoT was the next big thing veering towards the mass market, which would eventually change the course of everyday human existence by making our way of life more convenient. What caught my attention was the term “things” in IoT – an unbounded category which could be anything from the the bed you sleep on, the clothes you drape, or even the personal toiletries you use.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a class of devices that “can monitor their environment, report their status, receive instructions, and even take action based on the information they receive.” IoT connotes not just the device but also the complex network connected to the device. Multiple studies have revealed that there are more connected devices than people on the planet. Although, combining computers and networks to devices has existed for long, they were previously not integrated to consumer devices and durable goods, used in ordinary day to day life. Furthermore, IoT being an evolving concept, exhibiting a range of ever-changing features, Continue reading

Diving into the DNS

DNS OARC organizes two meetings a year. They are two-day meetings with a concentrated dose of DNS esoterica. Here’s what I took away from the recent 29th meeting of OARC, held in Amsterdam in mid-October 2018.

IXPs: Why Is the Middle East Lagging Behind?

On October 2nd, the Internet Society was happy to support the ITU in organizing the IXP Workshop on Peering and Interconnection in the Arab World “Towards unlocking regional interconnection opportunities” It was held in Manama-Bahrain, and kindly hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Bahrain. This workshop was held on the eve of the Annual Meeting of the Arab ICT Regulators Network (AREGNET), and 30 regulators and 10 operators attended from all over the Arab region.

The workshop started with an overview of the Arab peering landscape given by Christine Arida, Director for Telecom Services and Planning at National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt. Christine showed that the region is well served by undersea cables, with the oldest IXP established 20 years ago. However, all countries have either an underperforming IXP or do not have one at all. Regionally, cross-border interconnection is almost non-existent – with very few exceptions and most of the traffic is exchanged in London and Marseilles.

The debate started with an acknowledgement that strong and vibrant IXPs are needed in the Arab region. IXPs are a means and not the end… They are the enablers of digital transformation and a means to attract investment. Cheaper Continue reading