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Category Archives for "Networking"

Wi-Fi analytics get real

A number of Wi-Fi analytics tools have been brought to market over the past few years, and while most organizations have yet to dip their toes in the Wi-Fi analytics waters, our research shows that those who have are realizing significant benefits.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Worth Reading: Intent-Based Networking Taxonomy

This blog post was initially sent to the subscribers of my SDN and Network Automation mailing list. Subscribe here.

Saša Ratković (Apstra) published a must-read Intent-Based Networking Taxonomy which (not surprisingly) isn’t too far from what I had to say about the topic in a blog post and related webinar.

It’s also interesting to note that the first three levels of intent-based networking he described match closely what we’re discussing in Building Network Automation Solutions online course and what David Barroso described in Network Automation Use Cases webinar:

Read more ...

Step-by-step instructions for DHCP configuration on Windows

 

Here at Cumulus, we try to offer a lot of different tutorials for engineers to learn basic open networking commands and configurations, all the way up to advanced configurations (our how-to videos are a great example). But sometimes I find that there are some critical configurations where your desktop OS is a major player in how you configure. So for that reason, this blog post we will configure ONIE and Cumulus ZTP (Zero-Touch Provisioning) IPv4 DHCP Options on a Windows 2016 Server (this should also work with Windows 2012). I’ve broken this up into simple step-by-step instructions so it’s easy to follow. 

The first thing we will do is create the options needed for Cumulus Linux.

1. To begin, right click on IPv4 and select “Set Predefined Options…” 

2. Next, click the “Add” button:

Fill in the Option Type dialog box with the following:

Name: “default-url”

Data type: String

Code: “114”

Description: “Cumulus Binary Install”

Next, click “OK”

3. Clicking on the “OK” button will present you with the following dialog box that will require a String Value:

The “String Value” is the URL towards a binary image of Cumulus Linux.

4. Repeat “Step #2” in order to Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: 3 IoT challenges that keep data scientists up at night

Being hired as the resident IoT data scientist can come with a lot of pressure. Oftentimes the only one on the team with the unique ability to turn data into business intelligence, data scientists are responsible for making key IoT decisions, setting plans, ensuring execution and meeting deliverables. On top of this, there can be a number of stumbling blocks out of the gate that make it hard to reach goals. Being aware of these challenges not only helps put a data scientist on the shortest route to success, it makes it easier to identify where and when more help will be needed.Here are some of the most challenging requirements data scientists face when starting an IoT project:To read this article in full, please click here

Interested in Ubuntu? Check Out Andrew Mallet’s New Course

Tune into our newest addition to our course library: Ubuntu Server (18.04): Installing and Managing openLDAP Directories, with Andrew Mallet to learn the basics of Ubuntu server.

About the Course:

OpenLDAP is a directory service that predates many proprietary systems and provides a universal authentication mechanism for client system to authenticate to and white pages system to search. In this course we will take you through the basics of openLDAP Leading to an install. From there you will learn how to develop your system further by adding and searching entries. Next we will move on to authentication to openLDAP from other Linux clients and services such as Apache HTTPD. Finally we will look at scaling out our system by including replication to add failover and fault-tolerance to the Directly.

IDG Contributor Network: 5 ways to derail IT transformation projects

Projects involving virtualization, cloud architectures, advanced networking and cutting-edge digital technologies are critical to pushing a company into the future. As a result, missteps can be costly. Take a good idea on paper, execute it poorly, and your desire to create value will end up squandering value.Given the complexity of IT transformation projects, there are many ways to get them wrong. If you've ever been called upon to assist companies stuck in the middle of such projects (as has our team, many times) it’s easy enough to identify several sure-fire ways to derail them – and corresponding ways to keep them on track. Here are five:1. Trivialize the effort required Have you ever sat in a meeting and heard an executive dismiss the difficulty of a project? "That sounds easy!," he or she might say. Whether it’s a desire for the project to be completed, a lack of knowledge about the details, the planning fallacy or some other error, following that lead is a good way to set yourself up for failure.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 5 ways to derail IT transformation projects

Projects involving virtualization, cloud architectures, advanced networking and cutting-edge digital technologies are critical to pushing a company into the future. As a result, missteps can be costly. Take a good idea on paper, execute it poorly, and your desire to create value will end up squandering value.Given the complexity of IT transformation projects, there are many ways to get them wrong. If you've ever been called upon to assist companies stuck in the middle of such projects (as has our team, many times) it’s easy enough to identify several sure-fire ways to derail them – and corresponding ways to keep them on track. Here are five:1. Trivialize the effort required Have you ever sat in a meeting and heard an executive dismiss the difficulty of a project? "That sounds easy!," he or she might say. Whether it’s a desire for the project to be completed, a lack of knowledge about the details, the planning fallacy or some other error, following that lead is a good way to set yourself up for failure.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 4 ways next generation NPMD solutions reduce risk in network transitions

Forced to keep pace with rapidly emerging business requirements, networks are changing faster than ever. The business-facing side of networking is under continuous pressure to do more, in more places, faster. Challenging as it is, the network-to-business interaction is simpler than what is going on behind the scenes, as network professionals transform almost every area of their networks to meet new demands.New technologies such as cloud, NFV and SDN are turning traditional networks into hybrid ones. In fact, Gartner predicts that cloud infrastructure services will grow 35.9 percent in 2018, and IDC predicts that SD-WAN adoption will grow at a 40.4 percent CAGR from 2017 to 2022. These numbers imply a great deal of change in networks, change that introduces significant risk of service disruption from minor – a few inconvenienced users – to major – significant outages visible to customers and executives. Reducing the risk during significant transitions is critical. That’s where network performance management and diagnostics (NPMD) products play a significant role.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 4 ways next generation NPMD solutions reduce risk in network transitions

Forced to keep pace with rapidly emerging business requirements, networks are changing faster than ever. The business-facing side of networking is under continuous pressure to do more, in more places, faster. Challenging as it is, the network-to-business interaction is simpler than what is going on behind the scenes, as network professionals transform almost every area of their networks to meet new demands.New technologies such as cloud, NFV and SDN are turning traditional networks into hybrid ones. In fact, Gartner predicts that cloud infrastructure services will grow 35.9 percent in 2018, and IDC predicts that SD-WAN adoption will grow at a 40.4 percent CAGR from 2017 to 2022. These numbers imply a great deal of change in networks, change that introduces significant risk of service disruption from minor – a few inconvenienced users – to major – significant outages visible to customers and executives. Reducing the risk during significant transitions is critical. That’s where network performance management and diagnostics (NPMD) products play a significant role.To read this article in full, please click here

Research: Tail Attacks on Web Applications

When you think of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, you probably think about an attack which overflows the bandwidth available on a single link; or overflowing the number of half open TCP sessions a device can have open at once, preventing the device from accepting more sessions. In all cases, a DoS or DDoS attack will involve a lot of traffic being pushed at a single device, or across a single link.

TL;DR
  • Denial of service attacks do not always require high volumes of traffic
  • An intelligent attacker can exploit the long tail of service queues deep in a web application to bring the service down
  • These kinds of attacks would be very difficult to detect

 

But if you look at an entire system, there are a lot of places where resources are scarce, and hence are places where resources could be consumed in a way that prevents services from operating correctly. Such attacks would not need to be distributed, because they could take much less traffic than is traditionally required to deny a service. These kinds of attacks are called tail attacks, because they attack the long tail of resource pools, where these pools are much Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Cutting complexity at the edge

The edge is top-of-mind for many IT and OT professionals across a wide range of industries and sectors. This interest is driven by the need to use data more effectively to maintain operations, optimize performance and increase uptime.Existing IT and OT infrastructures typically don’t collect, store and analyze data at the edge. They instead either send this data to the cloud or to enterprise-level computing systems for storage and analysis, the domain of IT personnel.A better solution, specifically for applications where access to data needs to happen quickly, is to perform data collection, storage and analysis at the edge using technologies designed to perform these specific tasks. The benefits of this approach include reduced latency, improved data security and more efficient use of bandwidth.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Cutting complexity at the edge

The edge is top-of-mind for many IT and OT professionals across a wide range of industries and sectors. This interest is driven by the need to use data more effectively to maintain operations, optimize performance and increase uptime.Existing IT and OT infrastructures typically don’t collect, store and analyze data at the edge. They instead either send this data to the cloud or to enterprise-level computing systems for storage and analysis, the domain of IT personnel.A better solution, specifically for applications where access to data needs to happen quickly, is to perform data collection, storage and analysis at the edge using technologies designed to perform these specific tasks. The benefits of this approach include reduced latency, improved data security and more efficient use of bandwidth.To read this article in full, please click here