Ansible + Networking Webinar Q&A

The Ansible Ask an Expert webinar series continues to be one of the most popular series we’ve ever hosted. During these Q&A style webinars, our Ansible experts take questions from the audience about specific topics.

In March, we covered Ansible + Networking. We’ve compiled the questions and answers below for your reference.

Interested in more? Our next Ask an Expert: Networking webinar is scheduled for July 19 at 11AM EDT. Register here.

Q: Persistent connection optimization really applies to devices that do not use a REST API with support for long-lived access tokens (as opposed to cookies)?

A: That's correct. The persistent connection framework is designed to work with SSH based connections, which include CLI and NETCONF connection methods.

Q: Do you know if it's in the roadmap to ship Ansible Tower with jobs out-of-the-box for the most common tasks performed with Red Hat products? For example, deploy a jboss EAP, install OS packages, and stuff like that?

A: Assuming you are talking about "canned" Playbooks here. In most cases, each of the individual products would curate and maintain Playbooks for use and are distributed by the individual products (since there are support implications). The Ansible distribution does not include Continue reading

Cyber-sleuth boots 15 cheaters from today’s Boston Marathon

Here in Hopkinton, Mass., this morning, 15 fewer runners – cheaters, actually -- are gathering for the start of the Boston Marathon than would have otherwise, thanks to the cyber-sleuthing efforts of an Ohio business analyst.Derek Murphy has made it his business to purge marathoning and, in particular, the Boston competition, of those who by hook, crook – or writing a check – seek to run as official entrants without having done the training to produce a legitimate qualifying time.From a story posted Saturday in Runner’s World.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cyber-sleuth boots 15 cheaters from today’s Boston Marathon

Here in Hopkinton, Mass., this morning, 15 fewer runners – cheaters, actually -- are gathering for the start of the Boston Marathon than would have otherwise, thanks to the cyber-sleuthing efforts of an Ohio business analyst.Derek Murphy has made it his business to purge marathoning and, in particular, the Boston competition, of those who by hook, crook – or writing a check – seek to run as official entrants without having done the training to produce a legitimate qualifying time.From a story posted Saturday in Runner’s World.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cybercrime—from inside an Ohio prison

Plenty of companies have smart, resourceful IT teams that diligently support their organization’s computers and networking operations. But I’m not sure how many of them could pull off the technological tricks that a group of inmates at Ohio’s Marion Correctional Institution did.From e-waste to identity theft According to local news reports that blew up over the internet last week, at least five prisoners built a pair of working PC out of parts scavenged from e-waste as part of a program designed to teach computer skills by having inmates break down end-of-life computers and recycle the parts. The inmates smuggled the PCs to a training room, hid them in the ceiling and then ran wiring to connect to the prison network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cybercrime—from inside an Ohio prison

Plenty of companies have smart, resourceful IT teams that diligently support their organization’s computers and networking operations. But I’m not sure how many of them could pull off the technological tricks that a group of inmates at Ohio’s Marion Correctional Institution did.From e-waste to identity theft According to local news reports that blew up over the internet last week, at least five prisoners built a pair of working PC out of parts scavenged from e-waste as part of a program designed to teach computer skills by having inmates break down end-of-life computers and recycle the parts. The inmates smuggled the PCs to a training room, hid them in the ceiling and then ran wiring to connect to the prison network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Using Microsegmentation to Prevent Security Breaches

Network virtualization is making microsegmentation possible and allowing networks to isolate security breaches.

Why AI will both increase efficiency and create jobs

Artificial Intelligence is already impacting every industry through automation and machine learning, bringing concerns that AI is on the fast track to replacing many jobs. But these fears aren't new, says Dan Jackson, director of Enterprise Technology at Crestron, a company that designs workplace technology."I'd argue this is no different than when we moved from an agricultural to an industrial economy at the turn of the last century. The percentage of people working in agriculture significantly decreased, and it was a big shift, but we still have plenty of jobs 100 years later," he says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 reasons why Google built its own AI chip

Data centers workloads once handled by IBM mainframes and Sun servers were commoditized by Intel PC hardware, driven by cloud companies like Google. The belief held by the tech industry, including Andreessen Horowitz VC Ben Evans up until recently, that this would continue forever changed last week when Google released a detailed research paper about performance and architectural details about its Tensorflow Processing Unit (TPU).An advertising, cloud services and software company breaking from its core business raises the question: Why are Intel, Qualcomm and NVIDIA not meeting Google’s data center needs?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Crafting the Optimal IT Resume: 6 Tips

How a job candidate’s experience affects your brand

The internet is forever. Memes, Tweets, blog posts, PR wins and gaffes -- once published, these things won't ever go away. Nowhere is this fact more important than on employer review sites, where candidates and employees turn to share their thoughts, feelings and personal experiences interacting with a company, says Dan Schawbel, research director at Future Workplace.The research, "The Future of Recruiting," from Future Workplace and HR and social media recruiting technology solutions company CareerArc, surveyed 1,054 total respondents, including 616 employers and 438 job seekers, and showed that 61 percent of job seekers visit a company's online properties first before applying; a 17 percent increase from 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: VMM 2016 stiffs Azure, older Hyper-V

As you read through the list of new features in System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), you will be hard-pressed to find any new features not directly related to Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V. As I worked with VMM 2016, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that VMM 2016 was good ol’ VMM 2012 R2 with bolted-on support for features introduced in Windows Server 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: VMM 2016 stiffs Azure, older Hyper-V

As you read through the list of new features in System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), you will be hard-pressed to find any new features not directly related to Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V. As I worked with VMM 2016, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that VMM 2016 was good ol’ VMM 2012 R2 with bolted-on support for features introduced in Windows Server 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Top 30 free apps for Windows 10

Top 30 free apps for Windows 10Image by IDGWith Windows 10 adoption ramping up, many folks are looking for ways to further improve the Win10 experience. So why not make the most of your transition by reconsidering your old app habits and getting Win10 tools that will help you work smarter, faster, and more productively?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to jumpstart your infosec career

It would sure make things simple if there was one easy and obvious way to get a job or start a successful business in IT security. But it would also cut off a lot of potential career paths. We spoke to a host of different IT security pros and found that indeed there wasn't just one route to that coveted job.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The rising security risk of the citizen developer

While shadow IT was always a challenge for enterprise IT teams, it rapidly started to accelerate with the growth of the smartphone, and then cloud computing with the incredible expansion of public cloud infrastructure and software as a service offerings that made it as easy as providing a credit card to access a cloud service. Today, shadow IT has spread beyond smartphones, tablets, and cloud services and is rapidly extending into the domain of the enterprise developer.The trend could create profound risks for enterprise security teams if these shadow, or citizen, developers, aren’t reined.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The rising security risk of the citizen developer

While shadow IT was always a challenge for enterprise IT teams, it rapidly started to accelerate with the growth of the smartphone, and then cloud computing with the incredible expansion of public cloud infrastructure and software as a service offerings that made it as easy as providing a credit card to access a cloud service. Today, shadow IT has spread beyond smartphones, tablets, and cloud services and is rapidly extending into the domain of the enterprise developer.The trend could create profound risks for enterprise security teams if these shadow, or citizen, developers, aren’t reined.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows 10 privacy settings: What’s new in the Creators Update

Windows 10 privacy is a contentious issue. This is in part because Windows 10 is integrated with cloud-based features like Cortana, and it has features influenced by mobile such as determining your location. Then there's Microsoft's more questionable goals, like scooping up diagnostic data and gathering information for better ad-targeting.In previous versions of Windows 10, managing privacy was, to put it mildly, an insane process. Settings were strewn all over the operating system and the web.Privacy isn't much better in the recently released Creators Update, but Microsoft has consolidated its web-based privacy information related to a user's Microsoft Account. In addition, privacy settings on the PC are a little more helpful.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What it takes to be a security consultant

IT security consultants tend to be busy people. Given the widespread shortage of professionals with skills in many different aspects of cyber security, organizations frequently need help from outside experts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

What it takes to be a security consultant

IT security consultants tend to be busy people. Given the widespread shortage of professionals with skills in many different aspects of cyber security, organizations frequently need help from outside experts.Like many others who work in information security, Kevin Beaver, did not initially set out to pursue a career in the field—or to eventually become an independent IT security consultant. “During my senior year of high school, my late mother, Linda, encouraged me to go to college and study computers. That seemed to be a growing field with lots of opportunities,” Beaver says. “My mom was exactly right! My computer studies led to me pursuing this thing called computer security.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Women in Tech: Keys to Retention