Top benefits of using Linux in the modern enterprise
Let’s be honest. There are many enterprise data centers (and data center admins) who aren’t crazy about Linux. But most of that opposition comes from simply not understanding the benefits of Linux and not experiencing Linux hands-on. Fortunately, we’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything Linux that you can use to get familiar with the basics. Once you start testing out Linux for yourself and getting comfortable with it, I think you’ll find that Linux is the best operating system available today.
So what are the benefits, in general, of using Linux? Some of these benefits include:
- Consistent operating model. No matter what version or distribution of Linux you use, whether you’re on a supercomputer or a tiny embedded device, the general operation of Linux is the same no matter where you go. What this means is that, with some exceptions, the command line syntax is similar, process management is similar, basic network administration is similar, and applications can be (relatively) easily ported between distributions. The end result of this consistent operating model is a cost savings generated by greater staff efficiency and flexibility.
- Scalability. Linux is eminently scalable and is able to run on everything from wristwatches to supercomputers Continue reading
Bell Canada First to Deploy Open Source ONAP in Production
Carrier is using ONAP to automate its data center tenant network provisioning.
Megaport, IBM Cloud Reach Direct Connection Deal
Megaport claims to have the world’s first SDN-based elastic interconnection platform.
Kubernetes Community Bows to the Real World with 1.9 Release
The recent KubeCon event and upcoming holidays influenced release timing.
Nuffield Health Uses SD-WAN in Strategy to Escape MPLS
It deployed Silver Peak’s SD-WAN.
Reaction: AT&T’s Paper on dNOS
The AT&T White Paper: What they get Right, what they get Wrong
AT&T recently published a paper on dNOS, an open, disaggregated, Network Operating System for any kind of hardware. They list three primary purposes for their effort at helping the networking industry build an open source dNOS:
- To improve the rate of innovation and introduction of new features
- To provide more flexibility in network design
- To reduce costs where possible by taking advantage of purchasing “at scale”
How could disaggregation help with these three goals? The first of these, the rate of innovation, is really about packaging and perception, but we often forget that perception is a large part of innovation. If software developers always believe they must wait on the hardware, and hardware developers always feel like they must wait on the software, then the two teams develop an interlocking system that can slow down the pace at which either team can operate. One certain way to drive innovation is to break up such interconnected systems, allowing each one to use the features of the other in ways not originally intended, or drive the other team to create new features through competition. For instance, if the software team Continue reading
6 Internet of Things Terms You Should Know
Don't know the difference between LTE-M and NB-IoT? You’re not alone.
Continuing David Vyorst’s Legacy: Recognizing the Next Generation of Open Internet Advocates
Last week we shared the sad news that David Vyorst, the Executive Director of the ISOC-DC chapter and an instrumental part of the North American Internet community, passed away.
The DC Chapter and the Internet Society are jointly establishing a fellowship award in David’s name. The fellowship will be awarded to a young person in a US-based chapter who has an innovative project or initiative for making a chapter more effective in advancing the values of a free and open Internet accessible by everyone.
You can visit the DC Chapter’s website to make a donation in David’s memory.
Photo credit: Glenn McKnight
The post Continuing David Vyorst’s Legacy: Recognizing the Next Generation of Open Internet Advocates appeared first on Internet Society.
Approaches to Data Protection Start to Rapidly Evolve
Thanks to rise of APIs IT organizations are crafting more modern approaches to data protection.
Full Stack Journey 016: George Miranda, Service Meshes & Linkerd
The Full Stack Journey podcast tackles service meshes and Linkerd. Joining to help explain is George Miranda from Buoyant.io.
The post Full Stack Journey 016: George Miranda, Service Meshes & Linkerd appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Full Stack Journey 016: George Miranda, Service Meshes & Linkerd
The Full Stack Journey podcast tackles service meshes and Linkerd. Joining to help explain is George Miranda from Buoyant.io.
Why Some Phishing Emails Are Mysteriously Disappearing
Phishing is the absolute worst.
Unfortunately, sometimes phishing campaigns use Cloudflare for the very convenient, free DNS. To be clear –– there’s a difference between a compromised server being leveraged to send phishing emails and an intentionally malicious website dedicated to this type of activity. The latter clearly violates our terms of service.
In the past, our Trust and Safety team would kick these intentional phishers off the platform, but now we have a new trick up our sleeve and a way for their malicious emails to mysteriously disappear into the ether.
Background: How Email Works
SMTP - the protocol used for sending email - was finalized in 1982, when it was just a small community online. Many of them knew and trusted each other, and so the protocol was built entirely on trust. In an SMTP message, the MAIL FROM field can be arbitrarily defined. That means you could send an email from any email address, even one you don’t own.
This is great for phishers, and bad for everyone else.
The solution to prevent email spoofing was to create the Sender Policy Framework (SPF). SPF allows the domain owner to specify which servers are allowed to send Continue reading
APIs and Networking: 3 Use Cases
APIs enable network automation and provide visibility in the cloud era.
Reflections on a Global and Cyber heavy week at GCCS and GFCE
Two weeks ago, a small Internet Society delegation was in Delhi to participate in a number of events that contained the word ‘Global’ and ‘Cyber’. In this post, I’ll share some of our perspectives on the first two events – the GCCS and the GFCE.
GCCS – The Global Conference on Cyberspace
The first meeting of the week was the Global Conference on Cyberspace. This was originally a government-initiated conference series and is also commonly known as the London Process.
Part of the strength of these meetings is that they create a trusted environment for governments to discuss global issues that are usually state-centric, such as international aspects of security and stability. Over time, these meetings have opened up to other stakeholders, with the 2015 meeting in The Hague being the most inclusive so far. However, inclusive participation is not a given. Inclusion is important because these types of meetings ultimately are where norms for inter-state behaviour emerge, not necessarily in writing but through the development of a common narrative. But such narratives are only strong and impactful if those who implement and are impacted by those norms have a seat at the table. Although inclusive, multi-stakeholder participation has historically Continue reading
Network Topology Visualization – Example of Using LLDP Neighborships, NETCONF and little Python/Javascript
Ok, this is a continuation of two streams of articles here, first my recent NETCONF tutorial here, and secondly my very old project (back then in Java) of visualization of network topologies using SNMP information called “HelloRoute”. So this is a resurrection of a very old ideas, just using newer methods and tools. But first a foreword on visualization.
Foreword – Visualization use in Network Infrastructure by Author’s experience
Well, as far as I would say, automated network visualization or documentation never really took of as primary source of documentation, everywhere I look we still maintain manually created maps with version control, trying to keep them up-to-date in change process and etc… , the reason why this is so is the context that human author can give the map, for example office networks mapped by purpose or parts of buildings, or by legal organizations. Have a look on the picture below, this is a difference between human and automated maps in most generic network modeling tools.
Human vs computer generated network diagrams
Now to not completely kill the point of you finishing this tutorial, I BELIEVE THE PROBLEM IS THAT VISUALIZATION TOOLS ON MARKET ARE MOSTLY GENERIC PRODUCTS, Continue reading
Moving Complexity to Application Layer?
One of my readers sent me this question:
One thing that I notice is you mentioned moving the complexity to the upper layer. I was wondering why browsers don't support multiple IP addresses for a single site – when a browser receives more than one IP address in a DNS response, it could try to perform TCP SYN to the first address, and if it fails it will move to the other address. This way we don't need an anycast solution for DR site.
Of course I pointed out an old blog post ;), and we all know that Happy Eyeballs work this way.
Read more ...The FCC Wants to Kill Net Neutrality – Use Battle for the Net on Cloudflare Apps to Fight Back
TL;DR - Net neutrality is under attack. There's an app on Cloudflare Apps that empowers site owners to host a popup on their sites, encouraging users to contact their congresspeople to fight back. Everyone should be doing this right now, before the December 14th FCC vote.
Use Battle for the Net to Call your Congressperson »
Attend Cloudflare's Save the Internet! Net Neutrality Call-A-Thon »
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has scheduled a vote to kill its net neutrality rules this Thursday, December 14th. Unfortunately, the expectation is that the FCC will vote to repeal its net neutrality rules. Read about this on Business Insider, Bloomberg, or TechCrunch.
Net neutrality is the principle that networks should not discriminate against content that passes through them. The FCC’s net neutrality rules protect the Internet, users, and companies from abusive behavior by the largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Without net neutrality rules in place, ISPs may be able to legally create a "pay to play" system and charge websites to provide content to their customers more quickly. This will create a disadvantage for startups, bloggers, and everyone else who cannot afford to pay fees for their websites to offer faster service.