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Category Archives for "Networking"

IDG Contributor Network: The future of SD-WAN: Gen2 is here

SD-WAN is the hottest topic in networking today. On the one hand, analyst reports state that this industry is in its infancy with less than 5% adoption through 2017. On the other hand, the same analysts project over 50% customer adoption in the next 36 months. Why has adoption been modest to-date, and why is 10X acceleration expected now? The answer lies in understanding the differences between the first generation of SD-WAN (Gen1) and the second generation of SD-WAN (Gen2).In the old days, WAN routers were focused on providing connectivity using MPLS. The goal of Gen1 SD-WAN was to enable usage of broadband for connectivity. So Gen1 SD-WAN provided better VPN manageability and improved the delivery of voice traffic over broadband connections. However, like many first-generation products, Gen1 SD-WAN has serious limitations, three of which I examine below.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The future of SD-WAN: Gen2 is here

SD-WAN is the hottest topic in networking today. On the one hand, analyst reports state that this industry is in its infancy with less than 5% adoption through 2017. On the other hand, the same analysts project over 50% customer adoption in the next 36 months. Why has adoption been modest to-date, and why is 10X acceleration expected now? The answer lies in understanding the differences between the first generation of SD-WAN (Gen1) and the second generation of SD-WAN (Gen2).In the old days, WAN routers were focused on providing connectivity using MPLS. The goal of Gen1 SD-WAN was to enable usage of broadband for connectivity. So Gen1 SD-WAN provided better VPN manageability and improved the delivery of voice traffic over broadband connections. However, like many first-generation products, Gen1 SD-WAN has serious limitations, three of which I examine below.To read this article in full, please click here

Thoughts on Open/R

Since Facebook has released their Open/R routing platform, there has been a lot of chatter around whether or not it will be a commercial success, whether or not every hyperscaler should use the protocol, whether or not this obsoletes everything in routing before this day in history, etc., etc. I will begin with a single point.

If you haven’t found the tradeoffs, you haven’t looked hard enough.

Design is about tradeoffs. Protocol design is no different than any other design. Hence, we should expect that Open/R makes some tradeoffs. I know this might be surprising to some folks, particularly in the crowd that thinks every new routing system is going to be a silver bullet that solved every problem from the past, that the routing singularity has now occurred, etc. I’ve been in the world of routing since the early 1990’s, perhaps a bit before, and there is one thing I know for certain: if you understand the basics, you would understand there is no routing singularity, and there never will be—at least not until someone produces a quantum wave routing protocol.

Ther reality is you always face one of two choices in routing: build a protocol specifically tuned Continue reading

OpenStack and CITC – Creating and learning about OpenStack networking

Part 1 – Examining the existing network

In my previous post, I was playing around with Cumulus in the Cloud (CITC) and how it was integrated with OpenStack. Now that I was playing with OpenStack in CITC, I wanted to dive deeper into the networking specific technology.

In this blog post I will be discussing how I leveraged a flat network to initially create simple instance deployments. Then I’ll dive more deeply into how I created a VXLAN network for my OpenStack instances to create more scalable east-west communication. In the previous post I used the CITC console as my primary interface for configuration. This time I will be using an SSH client and the direct SSH information, as the outputs I’m gathering have wider width that is easier to obtain via an SSH client.

To do so, I just clicked the SSH access button on the right hand side of the GUI. This provided me with the username, password and IP address that would allow me to use my own SSH client to connect to the CITC infrastructure.

For the uninitiated, here is a great intro doc into OpenStack networking. In addition, my colleague Eric Pulvino pointed me Continue reading

14 Linux apps that will change how you work

Linux productivity toolsThe sheer number of Linux apps available today is mind boggling and one category in particular has exploded over the last few years: productivity tools. While there are a few well-known apps such as LibreOffice and NeoOffice (both forks of OpenOffice), there are many more tools that can make your work easier. Here are a variety of killer Linux office productivity apps you may not know about. (Note: many of them are also available for macOS and Windows, so if you have to hop between operating systems, you can keep at least a semblance of consistency.)To read this article in full, please click here

Living In A Multi-Cloud World

Living In A Multi-Cloud World

A few months ago at Cloudflare’s Internet Summit, we hosted a discussion on A Cloud Without Handcuffs with Joe Beda, one of the creators of Kubernetes, and Brandon Phillips, the co-founder of CoreOS. The conversation touched on multiple areas, but it’s clear that more and more companies are recognizing the need to have some strategy around hosting their applications on multiple cloud providers.

Earlier this year, Mary Meeker published her annual Internet Trends report which revealed that 22% of respondents viewed Cloud Vendor Lock-In as a top 3 concern, up from just 7% in 2012. This is in contrast to previous top concerns, Data Security and Cost & Savings, both of which dropped amongst those surveyed.

Living In A Multi-Cloud World

At Cloudflare, our mission is to help build a better internet. To fulfill this mission, our customers need to have consistent access to the best technology and services, over time. This is especially the case with respect to storage and compute providers. This means not becoming locked-in to any single provider and taking advantage of multiple cloud computing vendors (such as Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform) for the same end user services.

The Benefits of Having Multiple Cloud Vendors

There are Continue reading

How to build command groups with sudo

When managing your /etc/sudoers files, it’s a good idea to organize user privileges in ways that make them easier to manage over the long haul and to assign permissions based on the roles that users play in your organization.One very useful way to do that is to group related commands together — such as all commands related to running backups or managing web sites — and assign them to the individuals or groups that require these privileges.Setting up command groups in /etc/sudoers To create a command group, you use what is called a Cmnd_Alias in your /etc/sudoers file and give the new command group a meaningful name. Here are some examples. Note that full pathnames should be specified for all of the commands included in a group. Otherwise, you are likely to see an error like this when you try to exit visudo. And remember to only edit /etc/sudoers with the visudo command to allow it to warn you in ways like this and prevent errors.To read this article in full, please click here

Building command groups with sudo

When managing your /etc/sudoers files, it’s a good idea to organize user privileges in ways that make them easier to manage over the long haul and to assign permissions based on the roles that users play in your organization. One very useful way is to group related commands together – such as all commands related to running backups or managing web sites – and assign them to the individuals or groups that require these privileges.Setting up command groups To create a command group, you would use what is called a Cmnd_Alias in your /etc/sudoers file and give the new command group a meaningful name. Here are some examples. Note that full pathnames should be specified for all of the commands included in a group. Otherwise, you are likely to see an error like this when you try to exit visudo. And remember to only edit /etc/sudoers with the visudo command to allow it to warn you in ways like this and prevent errors.To read this article in full, please click here

HPE pushes for the autonomous data center with InfoSight AI recommendation engine

HPE is adding an AI-based recommendation engine to the InfoSight predictive analytics platform for flash storage, taking another step toward what it calls the autonomous data center, where systems modify themselves to run more efficiently.The ultimate goal is to simplify and automate infrastructure management in order to cut operation expenses.[ Check out our What is hyperconvergence? and learn whether your network and team are up to hyperconverged storage. ] HPE acquired InfoSight as part of its $1 billion deal earlier this year for Nimble Software, a maker of all-flash and hybrid flash storage products. Along with the announcement of the new recommendation engine, HPE Tuesday also said it is extending InfoSight to work with 3Par high-end storage technology it acquired in 2010.To read this article in full, please click here

HPE pushes for the autonomous data center with InfoSight AI recommendation engine

HPE is adding an AI-based recommendation engine to the InfoSight predictive analytics platform for flash storage, taking another step toward what it calls the autonomous data center, where systems modify themselves to run more efficiently.The ultimate goal is to simplify and automate infrastructure management in order to cut operation expenses.[ Check out our What is hyperconvergence? and learn whether your network and team are up to hyperconverged storage. ] HPE acquired InfoSight as part of its $1 billion deal earlier this year for Nimble Software, a maker of all-flash and hybrid flash storage products. Along with the announcement of the new recommendation engine, HPE Tuesday also said it is extending InfoSight to work with 3Par high-end storage technology it acquired in 2010.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Could the smart city mean the death of privacy?

As the Internet of Things grows and society becomes more interconnected, millions of citizens are beginning to experience a new kind of lifestyle in smart cities. These futuristic, digitally-dependent cities aren’t entirely without their downsides, however; human rights activist, futurist, and private citizens are increasingly concerned that the advent of smart cities could mean the death of privacy itself.So, what’s the truth behind smart cities and privacy, and is all the craze generated over tomorrow’s urban centers anything more than wild speculation? A quick review of smart cities as they’re developing now shows that, managed properly, they can be a huge boon to the populace – but privacy advocates will have to stay on their toes.To read this article in full, please click here

What happens when an IoT implementation goes bad?

When talking about the Internet of Things, it’s important to remember that the “internet” part is just as critical as the “things.” That my sound cryptic, but it can have dramatic real-world implications, as demonstrated by the failure last week of one-time Kickstarter darling Emberlight.INSIDER: 5 ways to prepare for Internet of Things security threats The company had raised $300,000 back in 2014 to fund development of its smart light socket designed to work with ordinary bulbs. But on November 16, Emberlight notified customers it was going out of business due to competition from larger competitors and imitators selling similar devices for a quarter of the price.To read this article in full, please click here

Today, 75% off Lumina 5200 mAh Portable Power Bank Charger – Deal Alert

This powerful full-speed 5200mAh charger from Lumina features huge 2.4A output to keep your devices powered up while you're out, or in an emergency. The charger currently averages 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 380 reviewers (read recent reviews here). This item has been included as one of Amazon's "Prime Week" deals of the day, so right now its typical list price of $49.99 has been cut 75% down to just $12.74. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here

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