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Category Archives for "Networking"

Chipping Away At Technical Debt

We’re surrounded by technical debt every day. We have a mountain of it sitting in distribution closets and a yard full of it out behind the data center. We make compromises for budget reasons, for technology reasons, and for political reasons. We tell ourselves every time that this is the last time we’re giving in and the next time it’s going to be different. Yet we find ourselves staring at the landscape of technical debt time and time again. But how can we start chipping away at it?

Time Is On Your Side

You may think you don’t have any time to work on the technical debt problem. This is especially true if you don’t have the time due to fixing problems caused by your technical debt. The hours get longer and the effort goes up exponentially to get simple things done. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Every minute you spend trying to figure out where a link goes or a how a server is connected to the rest of the pod is a minute that should have been spent documenting it somewhere. In a text document, in a picture, or even on the back of a Continue reading

Impact of Intel and Micron ending their NAND partnership is negligible

Intel and Micron earlier this week announced an end to their long-term joint development partnership for 3D NAND memory. What does this mean for buyers of Intel SSDs? Turns out, not much — if anything.On the surface, it looks like a blow to Intel — which makes chips, not memory — but in fact, it has that base covered. Intel has a 300-mm fab in Dalian, China, that it began to convert to produce 3D NAND flash memory in 2015. With Dalian online, Intel simply didn’t need Micron any more.Intel and Micron will still partner on other things This is hardly a split between the two. The companies will complete development of their third-generation of 3D NAND flash technology, which will be delivered toward the end of this year.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 4th-gen UI

Once every few decades, we experience a broad shift in how people interact with computers. Think about it. How long have you been relying on your mouse to click on the things you want to interact with? In many ways, the typical user interfaces model hasn’t changed much since 1984 but we’re finally in the midst of a major new shift.What I’m calling the fourth-gen user interface has arrived, and it will create a truly dramatic shift for users over the next few years. These new interfaces will leverage technologies like ubiquitous connected devices, location-based services, speech recognition, computer vision, biometrics and even augmented reality (AR).  This isn’t your dad’s computing environment.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Why we need to rethink transistors for the IoT

Innovators who make their living pioneering the ever-expanding internet of things always have their eyes open to detect trends and flaws before they ever surface in the mainstream. In today’s rapidly changing age, however, few innovators or tech investors have given sufficient attention to the question of the future of transistors as they relate to the IoT, and only the savviest, most forward-thinking analyst are beginning to understand that we need to rethink transistors entirely.So, what forthcoming changes to the IoT necessitate that we review the fundamental building block of modern electronics, on the back of which we’ve built a digital empire that spans the globe? A review of forthcoming changes to energy consumption show that transistors stand to yet again revolutionize how we work, socialize, and play – and that a failure to rethink them now could seriously cost us in the future.To read this article in full, please click here

Is Networking a Commodity?

Is networking becoming a commodity? Do we all need to worry about losing our jobs as network engineers because no-one cares about how a commodity is created or provided? Maybe it is time to take a second look at the commodity craze.

IDG Contributor Network: Will China start blocking SD-WAN traffic…today?

More than a decade ago, I launched the forerunner to SD-WAN Experts, MPLS Experts, on a project to China. Back then finding out telecom services in another country, let alone another continent, seemed like a mission impossible. China was among the most difficult.Much has changed in our industry. MPLS has given way to SD-WAN, but some things remain the same. We still need global connectivity and China continues to remain a mystery. My story about China blocking VPN traffic – and potentially SD-WAN traffic – caused quite a stir in the industry, in large part because, like so many things when dealing with China, concrete information remains scarce (particularly for non-native speakers).To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Will China start blocking SD-WAN traffic…today?

More than a decade ago, I launched the forerunner to SD-WAN Experts, MPLS Experts, on a project to China. Back then finding out telecom services in another country, let alone another continent, seemed like a mission impossible. China was among the most difficult.Much has changed in our industry. MPLS has given way to SD-WAN, but some things remain the same. We still need global connectivity and China continues to remain a mystery. My story about China blocking VPN traffic – and potentially SD-WAN traffic – caused quite a stir in the industry, in large part because, like so many things when dealing with China, concrete information remains scarce (particularly for non-native speakers).To read this article in full, please click here

SSH tunnelling from OSX

In certain situations, I need to connect to a remote network via a bastion host but only have SSH available to me.   To get around installing some kind of VPN gateway, the easiest thing to do is to create an SSH tunnel.

In this situation, what happens is that you set up local port-forwarding.   Local port numbers are forwarded to the remote host via an SSH tunnel to the intermediate host.

The command format to do this on OSX is:

ssh -C -L <LOCAL-PORT>:<REMOTE-IP>:<REMOTE-PORT> <USERNAME>@<BASTION-HOST>

So for example, I can forward local port 1000 on my Mac to the remote device’s port 23 using this command (sudo has to be used for local ports lower than 1024):

sudo ssh -C -L 1000:10.200.0.1:23 [email protected]

Once authenticated, I can open another terminal window and type:

telnet localhost 1000

and hey-presto, I get connected to a remote router via telnet through an encrypted SSH tunnel!   The -C parameter is for compression and isn’t actually necessary.

If you need to create a number of local port-forwards, this can be done in a config file instead.   By default SSH reads /etc/ssh/sshd_config for system-wide parameters, and also Continue reading

We’ve Added a New AWS Certified Solutions Architect Course to Our Video Library!

Last week, we added an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Level course to our video library. The course is available for streaming via your All Access Pass members account and also available for purchase at ine.com.

 

Why Study AWS?
An AWS certification will put you in an elite group of cloud engineers, and could lead to better employment opportunities. Amazon Web Services are used by thousands of companies around the world, therefore, AWS certified engineers are highly valued by many employers. AWS certifications show the potential employer that you have the skills to design, deploy and manage scalable and secure systems on AWS platform.

About the Course:
This course is designed to help you prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate exam. Even if you do not have a lot of IT experience, and have never used any Amazon Web Services, this course is the best starting point for AWS certifications.

This class is taught by Miles Karabas, and includes 5 hours and 43 minutes of in-depth lectures, plus numerous practice questions similar to those on the exam.

Areas Focused On:

  • Compute
  • Storage
  • Databases
  • Security, Identity & Compliance
  • Management Tools
  • Networking & Content Continue reading