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Category Archives for "Networking"

Cisco adds some Spark to meetings

In the technology industry, we like to swing pendulums too far one way or the other and make general statements like “everything is moving to the cloud” or “everything is connecting over wireless,” and those statements are, of course, false. There are still more on-premises workloads than cloud ones, and there’s a huge world of devices that are connected with wires. The collaboration industry is no different, as there has bee a significant rise in the number of tools to improve virtual meetings. We have web conference platforms, audio bridges and advancements in video. And recently there has been an explosion in the number of team messaging products. All of these products help workers conduct virtual meetings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP recalls over 100,000 more laptop batteries for fire hazard

HP is expanding its recall of laptop batteries with overheating issues that can cause computer damage and even fire. The company is recalling an additional 101,000 batteries in some laptops sold between March 2013 through October 2016. This is an expansion of the recall initiated in June 2016, which involved HP recalling 41,000 batteries. The batteries are in laptop brands including HP, Compaq, ProBook, Envy, Compaq Presario, and Pavilion laptops. Battery packs sold separately are also affected. Batteries are being recalled in the U.S, Canada and Mexico. Most are in the U.S., while 3,000 are being recalled in Canada, and 4,000 in Mexico. The laptops were sold through big-box retailers and online.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Saudi Arabia again hit with disk-wiping malware Shamoon 2

The disk-wiping Shamoon malware, which was used in attacks that destroyed data on 35,000 computers at Saudi Aramco in 2012, is back; the Shamoon variant prompted Saudi Arabia to issue a warning on Monday.An alert from the telecoms authority, seen by Reuters, warned all organizations to be on the lookout for the variant Shamoon 2. CrowdStrike VP Adam Meyers told Reuters, “The Shamoon hackers were likely working on behalf of the Iranian government in the 2012 campaign and the more-recent attacks. It's likely they will continue.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Saudi Arabia again hit with disk-wiping malware Shamoon 2

The disk-wiping Shamoon malware, which was used in attacks that destroyed data on 35,000 computers at Saudi Aramco in 2012, is back; the Shamoon variant prompted Saudi Arabia to issue a warning on Monday.An alert from the telecoms authority, seen by Reuters, warned all organizations to be on the lookout for the variant Shamoon 2. CrowdStrike VP Adam Meyers told Reuters, “The Shamoon hackers were likely working on behalf of the Iranian government in the 2012 campaign and the more-recent attacks. It's likely they will continue.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Research: Wired Ethernet: Intel® Ethernet X520 to XL710 -… |Intel Communities

This balance is also important when looking at the interaction within a server between the network cards (which have some on-board buffering) and the DPDK managed buffer resources on the host. A better tuning of the buffer sizes can eliminate potential packet losses. This paper is summarizing what to do when going from one type of network card to another one that has different on-board buffer behavior. It also has the potential to explain and fix certain packet loss issues going from one generation of a NIC card to another (e.g. when moving from Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter X520 to Intel® Ethernet Controller XL710)

Basically it comes down to configuring the RX descriptors.

So, to avoid packet losses due to CPU core being interrupted when using Fortville (or when using Niantic and SRIOV), the number of RX descriptors should be configured high enough, for instance to 2048.

Wired Ethernet: Intel® Ethernet X520 to XL710 -… |Intel Communities : https://communities.intel.com/community/wired/blog/2017/01/09/intel-ethernet-x520-to-xl710-tuning-the-buffers-a-practical-guide-to-reduce-or-avoid-packet-loss-in-dpdk-applications

Link to local version PDF File for my future self (hi there!)

X520_to_XL710_Tuning_The_Buffers.pdf

The post Research: Wired Ethernet: Intel® Ethernet X520 to XL710 -… |Intel Communities appeared first on EtherealMind.

IDG Contributor Network: 5 deadly mistakes in agile IT operations

IT operations is under a set of conflicting mandates and pressures.The business wants IT operations to be more agile and to be a partner in the process of bringing more business functionality online (also knows as digitization).The executives in charge of IT (most often the CIO) want IT operations to be more cost effective, which means spending either needs to be reduced or not grow as quickly as it has in the past.Application owners want two inherent conflicting objectives. They want IT operations to guarantee that their infrastructure will provide excellent performance for their applications, and they simultaneously want IT operations to feel more like a cloud provider with a rich set of self-service options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 5 deadly mistakes in agile IT operations

IT operations is under a set of conflicting mandates and pressures.The business wants IT operations to be more agile and to be a partner in the process of bringing more business functionality online (also knows as digitization).The executives in charge of IT (most often the CIO) want IT operations to be more cost effective, which means spending either needs to be reduced or not grow as quickly as it has in the past.Application owners want two inherent conflicting objectives. They want IT operations to guarantee that their infrastructure will provide excellent performance for their applications, and they simultaneously want IT operations to feel more like a cloud provider with a rich set of self-service options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloud services accounted for half of revenue growth at SAP in 2016

SAP's revenue from cloud subscriptions and support grew so quickly in 2016, the company has raised its forecasts for 2017 and 2020.Full-year cloud revenue grew 31 percent compared to a year earlier, accounting for over half of the company's revenue growth. Total revenue reached €22.1 billion (US$23.8 billion), up €1.3 billion on 2015, while revenue from cloud subscriptions and support grew €707 million to €3 billion, the company reported Tuesday.Profit after tax rose to €3.6 billion from €3.1 billion in 2015.SAP is keen to see more of its software business move to the cloud because, unlike traditional software licenses that bring a bump in revenue at the moment a deal is signed, it represents a predictable source of revenue. Together with software support, the company says that the growth in cloud services means 61 percent of its revenue now comes from more predictable sources.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Court denies US government appeal in Microsoft overseas email case

A U.S. appeals court will not reconsider its groundbreaking decision denying Department of Justice efforts to force Microsoft to turn over customer emails stored outside the country.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a 4-4 decision Tuesday, declined to rehear its July decision that denied the DOJ access to the email of a drug trafficking suspect stored on a Microsoft server in Ireland. Microsoft has been fighting DOJ requests for the email since 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Court denies US government appeal in Microsoft overseas email case

A U.S. appeals court will not reconsider its groundbreaking decision denying Department of Justice efforts to force Microsoft to turn over customer emails stored outside the country.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a 4-4 decision Tuesday, declined to rehear its July decision that denied the DOJ access to the email of a drug trafficking suspect stored on a Microsoft server in Ireland. Microsoft has been fighting DOJ requests for the email since 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Unhappy developers lead to bad code and bad processes

Since Epicurus wrote in the third century BC about pain and pleasure, happiness and unhappiness has been a constant subject of conversation. Recently researchers from the University of Stuttgart studied the effects of software developers’ state of happiness on performance and found unhappy developers negatively affect the development process and software products.This might explain why some software companies treat their development teams to pingpong tables, foosball, cappuccino machines and other perks.A clearer understanding could lead to successful intervention, more effective than those perks, and (depending upon the costs) astonishing productivity benefits.Though not mentioned by the researchers, it sounds very similar to the work of author and TED Talk speaker Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his ideas about creating conditions that lead to a flow state, also called the zone of deep concentration, and undistracted, peak performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump’s federal hiring freeze won’t kill government IT hiring

If you are planning to apply for a federal IT job, President Donald Trump's federal hiring freeze makes it harder, but not impossible, to land a position with the U.S. government.On Monday, Trump signed an executive order preventing the filling of vacant positions or creating new jobs "except when necessary to meet national or public security responsibilities," said Trump Administration Press Secretary Sean Spicer at a briefing today.[To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page.]Defense agencies are big users of IT and appear to be unaffected by the freeze. Cybersecurity hiring is a major impetus at civilian agencies and, depending on how broadly the government defines IT jobs related to "public security," there could still be quite a bit of hiring.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump names net neutrality foe Ajit Pai to lead the FCC

President Donald Trump has named Commissioner Ajit Pai, an outspoken opponent of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, as the next head of the agency.The choice was widely expected after Trump’s election last November. Pai is the senior Republican on the commission, having served since 2012. He doesn’t need to be confirmed by the Senate because he is already on the Commission.Pai attacked the reclassification of broadband as a utility in 2015, saying it would place excessive burdens on service providers, other internet players and consumers. The expansion of broadband service through a competitive marketplace has been one of Pai’s themes as a commissioner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trump names net neutrality foe Ajit Pai to lead the FCC

President Donald Trump has named Commissioner Ajit Pai, an outspoken opponent of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, as the next head of the agency.The choice was widely expected after Trump’s election last November. Pai is the senior Republican on the commission, having served since 2012. He doesn’t need to be confirmed by the Senate because he is already on the Commission.Pai attacked the reclassification of broadband as a utility in 2015, saying it would place excessive burdens on service providers, other internet players and consumers. The expansion of broadband service through a competitive marketplace has been one of Pai’s themes as a commissioner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 new 2-in-1 devices to watch for in 2017

One trend at CES 2017 came in the form of 2-in-1 devices. These hybrid tablet-notebooks were everywhere -- Dell alone announced three hybrid devices, and companies like HP, Toshiba and ASUS also unveiled new tablet hardware.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 7 reasons to deploy Wi-Fi security in Enterprise mode Hybrids offer the flexibility of a tablet, with the functionality and performance of a notebook. After an initial lukewarm reception, they're finally taking off. These six devices unveiled at CES 2017 will lead the pack in the continuing shift to hybrid devices for both consumers and the enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: The HP Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms

Videoconferences can reduce an organization's travel expenses and make people more productive by virtually bringing far-flung employees together, but -- as we all know -- they can be frustrating to set up and conduct.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)