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Category Archives for "Networking"

What is IoT?

The Internet of Things, at its simplest level, is smart devices - from refrigerators that warn you when you’re out of milk to industrial sensors – that are connected to the Internet so they can share data, but IoT is far from a simple challenge for IT departments.For many companies, it represents a vast influx of new devices, many of which are difficult to secure and manage. It’s comparable to the advent of BYOD, except the new gizmos are potentially more difficult to secure, aren’t all running one of three or four basic operating systems, and there are already more of them.A lot more, in fact – IDC research says that there are around 13 billion connected devices in use worldwide already, and that that number could expand to 30 billion within the next three years. (There were less than 4 billion smartphone subscriptions active around the world in Ericsson’s most recent Mobility Report.) To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How to plan your successful cloud migration

Recent Accenture Strategy research found that four out of five companies run up to half of their business functions in the cloud. Moreover, that figure is likely to increase significantly over the next few years. The research reveals that a clear majority of business leaders see the cloud platform as a critical enabler of greater innovation and competitive edge.Yet, companies still struggle when it comes to structuring the cloud transformation, beginning with the fundamental first step — planning a successful migration. What’s lacking is a solid comprehension of what value the cloud brings, its potential and its elasticity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

37% off Fitfort 4K WiFi Ultra HD Waterproof Sport Camera – Deal Alert

This sport camera is a budget-friendly alternative to GoPro. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 230 reviewers on Amazon, where Its list price of $100 is currently discounted 37% to just $64. Designed to be used for biking, hiking, diving, swimming, surfing, or anywhere else you could use a rugged, waterproof camera. The camera provides 4K/25FPS, 2.7K/30FPS, 1080P/60FPS, 1080P/30FPS and 720P/120FPS video resolution. Comes with a wireless remote, and 2 rechargeable batteries that provide up to 90 minutes of continuous filming each. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mythbusting the CCIE Continuing Education Program

It’s been about a month since the CCIE Continuing Education program was announced ahead of Cisco Live. There was a fair amount of discussion about it both on this blog as well as other places, like Jeff Fry’s post. Overall, the response has been positive. However, there are a few questions and ideas about the program that are simply not true. And no, this is not The Death Of The CCIE Program (just Google it). So, let’s take a look at this edition of Mythbusters for the CCIE CE program.

Myth #1: The CE Program Is Just A Way For Cisco To Sell More Training

This was a good one. The list of CE classes that was release at the beginning of the program included Cisco Live classes as well as Cisco Authorized training classes. Those were the only thing on the list as of right now. When some people saw the list, they jumped to the conclusion that the reason why the CE program exists is because Cisco wants to push their training courses. Let’s look at that.

Let’s say you want to start a global program that requires people to keep track of their training credits to turn Continue reading

Azure Stack: Microsoft’s private-cloud platform and what IT pros need to know about it

Microsoft’s release of Azure Stack, an on-premises version of its public cloud, could be important for networking and data center pros for one simple reason: It gives customers a way to use a popular and familiar cloud platform without shipping their sensitive data into a multi-tenant environment.Azure Stack is software from Microsoft that’s been certified to run on a select group of partners’ hardware and is intended to look and feel just like the Azure public cloud. In addition to providing a common management platform between the public and private cloud, Azure Stack is important for another reason too: none of Microsoft’s biggest public cloud competitors have anything like it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco IP Device Tracking

Ever thought about how ACS gets an end users IP or how when showing an interfaces authentication sessions it had the IP of the host attached? This all stems from IP Device Tracking. I only recently came across it when troubleshooting an issue we had with windows machines not getting a DHCP address due collision detection involving the 0.0.0.0 address. Although there are lots of posts about people having a similar issue and the workarounds, I couldn’t find much information on the exact reason why this happened. This post is designed to give more reasoning on why this happens.

Checkpoint Gateway and Mangers

Checkpoint Firewalls are not zone based Firewalls so have a different type of policy compared to ASA and Juniper. A typical build consist of a Security Gateways managed by a centralised Management Server using the Checkpoint Smart Dashboard software. Firewall policies are created and managed on the management server and pushed to the security gateway.

Cisco continues to shift its security strategy by moving to acquire Observable Networks

Over the past few years Cisco has changed the face of its security business. What was once a struggling concern is now the fastest-growing part of Cisco. How did the company do this? Part of the rebirth of Cisco security can be traced to a change in focus, away from point products to a more data-driven model. Big data, analytics and machine learning have been hot topics in IT, and Cisco has gotten religion in this area and applied it masterfully to its security business.Today, Cisco added to that when it announced its intent to acquire privately held Observable Networks. The St. Louis-based company provides dynamic network behavior monitoring to help security teams find anomalies that could indicate a breach. The product captures data and analyzes it to gain situational awareness of all users, devices and traffic, not only on a company’s network, but also out to the cloud, with support for both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco continues its network-based security strategy by moving to acquire Observable Networks

Over the past few years Cisco has changed the face of its security business. What was once a struggling concern is now the fastest-growing part of Cisco. How did the company do this? Part of the rebirth of Cisco security can be traced to a change in focus, away from point products to a more data-driven model. Big data, analytics and machine learning have been hot topics in IT, and Cisco has gotten religion in this area and applied it masterfully to its security business.Today, Cisco added to that when it announced its intent to acquire privately held Observable Networks. The St. Louis-based company provides dynamic network behavior monitoring to help security teams find anomalies that could indicate a breach. The product captures data and analyzes it to gain situational awareness of all users, devices and traffic, not only on a company’s network, but also out to the cloud, with support for both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco continues its network-based security strategy by moving to acquire Observable Networks

Over the past few years Cisco has changed the face of its security business. What was once a struggling concern is now the fastest-growing part of Cisco. How did the company do this? Part of the rebirth of Cisco security can be traced to a change in focus, away from point products to a more data-driven model. Big data, analytics and machine learning have been hot topics in IT, and Cisco has gotten religion in this area and applied it masterfully to its security business.Today, Cisco added to that when it announced its intent to acquire privately held Observable Networks. The St. Louis-based company provides dynamic network behavior monitoring to help security teams find anomalies that could indicate a breach. The product captures data and analyzes it to gain situational awareness of all users, devices and traffic, not only on a company’s network, but also out to the cloud, with support for both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here