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IDG Contributor Network: 5 top data challenges that are changing the face of data centers

Data is clearly not what it used to be! Organizations of all types are finding new uses for data as part of their digital transformations. Examples abound in every industry, from jet engines to grocery stores, for data becoming key to competitive advantage. I call this new data because it is very different from the financial and ERP data that we are most familiar with. That old data was mostly transactional, and privately captured from internal sources, which drove the client/server revolution. New data is both transactional and unstructured, publicly available and privately collected, and its value is derived from the ability to aggregate and analyze it. Loosely speaking we can divide this new data into two categories: big data – large aggregated data sets used for batch analytics – and fast data – data collected from many sources that is used to drive immediate decision making. The big data–fast data paradigm is driving a completely new architecture for data centers (both public and private).To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 5 top data challenges that are changing the face of data centers

Data is clearly not what it used to be! Organizations of all types are finding new uses for data as part of their digital transformations. Examples abound in every industry, from jet engines to grocery stores, for data becoming key to competitive advantage. I call this new data because it is very different from the financial and ERP data that we are most familiar with. That old data was mostly transactional, and privately captured from internal sources, which drove the client/server revolution. New data is both transactional and unstructured, publicly available and privately collected, and its value is derived from the ability to aggregate and analyze it. Loosely speaking we can divide this new data into two categories: big data – large aggregated data sets used for batch analytics – and fast data – data collected from many sources that is used to drive immediate decision making. The big data–fast data paradigm is driving a completely new architecture for data centers (both public and private).To read this article in full, please click here

On the Leading Edge – Cloudflare named a leader in The Forrester Wave: DDoS Mitigation Solutions

On the Leading Edge - Cloudflare named a leader in The Forrester Wave: DDoS Mitigation Solutions

On the Leading Edge - Cloudflare named a leader in The Forrester Wave: DDoS Mitigation Solutions

Cloudflare has been recognized as a leader in the “Forrester WaveTM: DDoS Mitigation Solutions, Q4 2017.”

The DDoS landscape continues to evolve. The increase in sophistication, frequency, and range of targets of DDoS attacks has placed greater demands on DDoS providers, many of which were evaluated in the report.

This year, Cloudflare received the highest scores possible in 15 criteria, including:

  • Length of Implementation
  • Layers 3 and 4 Attacks Mitigation
  • DNS Attack Mitigation
  • IoT Botnets
  • Multi-Vector Attacks
  • Filtering Deployment
  • Secure Socket Layer Investigation
  • Mitigation Capacity
  • Pricing Model

We believe that Cloudflare’s position as a leader in the report stems from the following:

  • An architecture designed to address high-volume attacks. This post written in October 2016 provides some insight into how Cloudflare’s architecture scales to meet the most advanced DDoS attacks differently than legacy scrubbing centers.

  • In September 2017, due to the size and effectiveness of our network, we announced the elimination of “surge pricing” commonly found in other DDoS vendors by offering unmetered mitigation. Regardless of what Cloudflare plan a customer is on—Free, Pro, Business, or Enterprise—we will never terminate a customer or charge more based on the size of an attack.

  • Because we protect over 7 Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: ROI linked to later stages of Industrial IoT

When most people think about the adoption of the IoT, they think about smart cities, autonomous vehicles, or the latest consumer tech and wearables. However, some of the most amazing technology applications are taking place within industrial verticals such as manufacturing, oil and gas (O&G), and transportation. Unfortunately, when asked about the state of IoT adoption within these markets, we’re often left relying on basic information about connected endpoints, instead of truly understanding how businesses are progressing through IoT maturity within the industrial field. To help answer these questions (and get a bit more in the weeds on the topic) my company, Bsquare, recently conducted its first Annual Industrial IoT (IIoT) Maturity Study. We polled 300 respondents at companies with annual revenues in excess of $250 million. Participants were evenly divided among three industry groups (manufacturing, transportation and O&G) and titles covered a wide spectrum of senior-level personnel with operational responsibilities, most of whom had spent an average of six years in their organizations.To read this article in full, please click here

Cumulus content roundup: December

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — that’s right, it’s time for another Cumulus content roundup! We’ve wrapped up all of the best content in a neat little package just for you. (Think of it as an early holiday gift!) Whether you’re interested in centralized configuration or just trying to learn the basics of Linux, this roundup is your roadmap for what’s in this season. The latest articles, videos, industry reports and more are at your fingertips, so get cozy by the fireplace and check out what’s new in open networking trends.

Cumulus content

Linux Networking 101 guide: Searching for an easy, comprehensive guide to Linux networking? Look no further! Download this ebook and start learning the language of the data center.

Forrester’s 2017 Vendor Landscape Report: This report will take you through the characteristics of a network that’s built for the future and help you navigate the vendor ecosystem. Read on to see if your data center is ready for 2018.

Gartner report: How open is your network vendor?: Many vendors claim to have open solutions, but which ones can support those claims? Check out this report to learn the five questions you Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: AWS re:Invent and the 5 fronts of the cloud arms race

For the last six years running, the most important event in cloud computing has been AWS re:Invent, where the market leader announces its latest improvements. This year, 44,000 people descended upon a very crowded set of Las Vegas venues spread across multiple hotels for breakout sessions, certification exams, a diverse expo floor, and the all-important keynotes where the newest offerings were announced.Increasingly, the public cloud arms race is being waged on four fronts, with a fifth quickly emerging. All five had a healthy set of announcements—here are some of the highlights.1. IaaS/PaaS AWS started the cloud revolution with its S3 object storage service in 2006, which was quickly followed by its EC2 compute offering and a set of other IaaS products. As time went by, PaaS services like load balancers, message queues, and databases emerged as key components as well. Both classifications of services are, of course, built on physical hardware that AWS organizes into availability zones and regions.To read this article in full, please click here

Making Education Accessible for All: Vashkar Bhattacharjee’s Story

We recently shared the first part of Vashkar Bhattacharjee’s story. Vashkar is the National Consultant, Accessibility, A2i, Prime Minister’s Office of Bangladesh, and the Program Manager, Young Power in Social Action (YPSA). Here is Part Two.

Setting up an accessible digital talking book system (DAISY) in Bangladesh

After training in Japan, I was armed with knowledge in leadership and technology and wanted to create digital access for people with disabilities in Bangladesh. I wanted to prove that people with disabilities like me can work in our job market, but nobody wanted to believe me. With Young People in Social Action (YPSA), a social development organization in my home district of Chittagong, I worked as a volunteer on creating computerized braille production, which allows for printing to be in done in Braille, thus creating the tools for education for people with visual impairment. Very soon, we obtained funding to establish a digital lab, called ICT and Resource Center on Disability (IRCD), to develop assistive technologies and content for persons with disabilities.

In 2005, I was introduced to the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium, where I received inspiration from international experts to work harder and smarter, and make better use Continue reading

Puerto Rico’s Slow Internet Recovery

On 20 September 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.  Two and a half months later, the island is still recovering from the resulting devastation.  This extended phase of recovery is reflected in the state of the local internet and reveals how far Puerto Rico still has to go to make itself whole again.

While most of the BGP routes for Puerto Rico have returned, DNS query volumes from the island are still only a fraction of what they were on September 19th  — the day before the storm hit.  DNS activity is a better indicator of actual internet use (or lack thereof) than the simple announcements of BGP routes.

We have been analyzing the impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes going back to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Compared to the earthquake near Japan in 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, or the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, Puerto Rico’s disaster stands alone with respect to its prolonged and widespread impact on internet access.  The following analysis tells that story.

DNS statistics

Queries from Puerto Rico to our Internet Guide recursive DNS service have still not recovered to pre-hurricane levels Continue reading

New global internet reliability concerns emerge

Undersea, internet-carrying cables are not protected well enough and there isn’t an alternative in place should they fail.That's according to a new report from U.K.-based Policy Exchange, which outlines potential catastrophic effects that a simple cut in the hosepipe-sized underwater infrastructure could create.Also on Network World: The hidden cause of slow Internet and how to fix it Tsunamis, a vessel dragging an anchor, or even saw-wielding Russians could bring down the global financial system or cripple a solo nation’s internet access, Policy Exchange says in its new study (pdf).To read this article in full, please click here

New global internet reliability concerns emerge

Undersea, internet-carrying cables are not protected well enough and there isn’t an alternative in place should they fail.That's according to a new report from U.K.-based Policy Exchange, which outlines potential catastrophic effects that a simple cut in the hosepipe-sized underwater infrastructure could create.Also on Network World: The hidden cause of slow Internet and how to fix it Tsunamis, a vessel dragging an anchor, or even saw-wielding Russians could bring down the global financial system or cripple a solo nation’s internet access, Policy Exchange says in its new study (pdf).To read this article in full, please click here

Arista brings the benefits of leaf-spine to routing

About a decade ago almost all data centers were built on a traditional three- (or sometimes more) tier architectures that used the spanning tree protocol (STP). That prevented routing loops but also deactivated all the backup links, which accounted for almost half the ports in large environments. This caused organizations to significantly overspend on their networks.Leaf-spine networks, on the other hand, have only two tiers, are much flatter and use something called ECMP (equal cost multi-pathing). So all routes are active, creating a much more efficient network that more agile and costs less.Also on Network World: 10 Most important open source networking projects The traditional three-tier data center was designed to scale up, which was the key requirement in the client/server era. Leaf-spine is optimized for rapid scale out, which has become critical in data centers today, as more and more traffic is moving in an East-West direction. To read this article in full, please click here

Arista brings the benefits of leaf-spine to routing

About a decade ago almost all data centers were built on a traditional three- (or sometimes more) tier architectures that used the spanning tree protocol (STP). That prevented routing loops but also deactivated all the backup links, which accounted for almost half the ports in large environments. This caused organizations to significantly overspend on their networks.Leaf-spine networks, on the other hand, have only two tiers, are much flatter and use something called ECMP (equal cost multi-pathing). So all routes are active, creating a much more efficient network that more agile and costs less.Also on Network World: 10 Most important open source networking projects The traditional three-tier data center was designed to scale up, which was the key requirement in the client/server era. Leaf-spine is optimized for rapid scale out, which has become critical in data centers today, as more and more traffic is moving in an East-West direction. To read this article in full, please click here