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Category Archives for "Networking"

Anycast and Latency

One of the things I hear from time to time is how smaller Internet facing service deployments, with just a few instances, cannot really benefit from anycast. Particularly in the active-active data center use case, where customers can connect to one data center or another, the cost of advertising the service as an anycast, and the resulting requirement to keep the backend databases tightly synchronized, is often played as a eating a lot of complexity for the simplicity of having a single address in the DNS system, and hence not losing customer interaction time while the DNS records are timing out so the customer can reconnect to the service.

There is, in fact, some interesting recent research in this area. The research is directed at the DNS root servers themselves, probably because they are publicly accessible, and a well known system that has relied on anycast for many years (so the operators of the root DNS servers are probably well versed in the ways of anycast). One interesting chart from the post over at APNIC’s blog is—

The C root has 8 servers, while the L root has around 144 (according to the article pointed to above). Why is it Continue reading

Interop 2017 Reflections

Interop is changing, thats a good thing. After 31 years, the Interop conference is one of the last independent conferences where the focus is on the person paying for the ticket and less “rolling sales thunder” from the vendors. Thats good for attendees who get to hear genuine, thoughtful content that hasn’t been selected based […]

The post Interop 2017 Reflections appeared first on EtherealMind.

IDG Contributor Network: 3 ways big firms can compete with startups for top tech talent

CIOs looking to hire good talent risk being caught in a pincer as fast rising demand runs up against falling supply. Ever more companies and functions need staff with strong tech skills, while the number of STEM graduates in developed countries is in decline. Yet perhaps the most difficult part of the challenge is competition with startups. Startups offer much of what IT employees prioritize when considering an employer – compensation, future career opportunities and ongoing development, according to data from CEB, now part of Gartner (Disclosure: I am employed by CEB, now Gartner).In addition to a competitive salary, many startups attract top talent by offering the opportunity to own a stake in the company. They give employees the opportunity to move ideas quickly from conception to commercialization and to move careers forward at a similar pace, instead of waiting several years. While most big companies talk a good game about innovation and creativity, in reality caution usually comes first. In contrast, creative and independent work is the lifeblood of many startups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The future of IoT: Where it’s heading, what to expect

The subject of the Internet of Things (IoT) has an extremely broad range of interpretations. Some immediately think of the “thing” itself as a connected thermostat. Others see it as a means to extend products into services. Most interpretations gravitate toward financial reward through data collection and analysis.I recently attended IoT World in Santa Clara, California, and was struck by this diversity. Every conversation I witnessed had a five-minute preamble/negotiation just to agree on a common perspective. It’s kind of like the three blind men and the elephant parable, but instead of three men, it’s 1,000 people touching a sculpture made of wet clay.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Leveraging SD-WAN for Mergers & Acquisitions

A colleague recently asked me if SD-WAN could be leveraged to expedite network integration as a result of a merger or acquisition. His thoughts were that this could potentially provide a means to securely integration networks in a short amount of time.  At first I thought this made no sense — SD-WAN is not related to this challenge […]

The post Leveraging SD-WAN for Mergers & Acquisitions appeared first on Overlaid.

Area 1 Security stops phishing campaigns before they become attacks

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe.Anyone who has spent any amount of time trying to secure their organization’s endpoints or network would not be surprised to learn that phishing is now the #1 delivery vehicle for malware and ransomware.According to Mandiant, phishing was used in about 95 percent of the cases of successful breaches where an attacker has been able to get into a target network and do something malicious. A phishing campaign is likely to have a 90 percent success rate—i.e., someone takes the bait—when the campaign is sent to 10 or more people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Area 1 Security stops phishing campaigns before they become attacks

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe.Anyone who has spent any amount of time trying to secure their organization’s endpoints or network would not be surprised to learn that phishing is now the #1 delivery vehicle for malware and ransomware.According to Mandiant, phishing was used in about 95 percent of the cases of successful breaches where an attacker has been able to get into a target network and do something malicious. A phishing campaign is likely to have a 90 percent success rate—i.e., someone takes the bait—when the campaign is sent to 10 or more people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Shadow Brokers reveal details about June monthly dump service: 100 Zcash (about $23k)

The Shadow Brokers revealed pricing and other details about its monthly dump service which kicks off in June. Subscribers of the dump of the month club will not be shelling out bitcoins, but a different cryptocurrency: 100 (ZEC) Zcash. At the time of publishing, 100 Zcash was equal to $23,251.Over the weekend, the Shadow Brokers moved bitcoins worth about $24,000 to over 30 smaller wallets. The bitcoins had been received back when the group was trying to auction off the hacking tools. Mikko Hypponen noticed the change after an alert he set on their bitcoin wallet went off.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Shadow Brokers reveal details about June monthly dump service: 100 Zcash (about $23k)

The Shadow Brokers revealed pricing and other details about its monthly dump service which kicks off in June. Subscribers of the dump of the month club will not be shelling out bitcoins, but a different cryptocurrency: 100 (ZEC) Zcash. At the time of publishing, 100 Zcash was equal to $23,251.Over the weekend, the Shadow Brokers moved bitcoins worth about $24,000 to over 30 smaller wallets. The bitcoins had been received back when the group was trying to auction off the hacking tools. Mikko Hypponen noticed the change after an alert he set on their bitcoin wallet went off.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nextcloud 12 expands data storage to support large organizations

Online ("cloud") file storage services are undeniably handy—for individuals and large organizations alike.Being able to toss files (spreadsheets, images, backups, etc.) somewhere, especially if that somewhere is easy to share with those you interact and work with, is crazy convenient. It certainly beats the pants off tediously sending files to your co-workers via email (or, worse, sneakernet).RELATED: Engineering firm uses cloud storage to speed file loads, and then unplugs its MPLS net Services such as Google Drive and Dropbox are easy to setup and use. And as a result, just about everybody (and their dog) have an account on one or the other. Many companies even utilize one of these for storing files across their organization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia NFV MANO Report Webinar Q&A: Automating Orchestration for Agile Services

Nokia NFV MANO Report Webinar Q&A Thanks to all who joined us for the Nokia NFV MANO Report Webinar: “Automating Orchestration for Agile Services”, where Nokia discussed integrating VNFs, automating VNF lifecycle management, and reliably constructing network service chains. After the webinar, we took questions from the audience but unfortunately ran out of time before we could answer everybody’s questions. You can read... Read more →