Worth Reading: Increasing the strength of the root zone

A few weeks ago, on Oct. 1, 2016, Verisign successfully doubled the size of the cryptographic key that generates Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) signatures for the internet’s root zone. With this change, root zone Domain Name System (DNS) responses can be fully validated using 2048-bit RSA keys. This project involved work by numerous people within Verisign, as well as collaborations with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). —Circle ID

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How switching to Macs is paying off for IBM

Last year, IBM made a bold decision. The company let its employees choose between a Windows PC or a Mac for their own work machines. IBM staffers prefer Macs, so the company bought up 30,000 of them. This year, IBM has 90,000 Macs in use. But Macs are expensive, as we all know, so IBM must be spending a fortune on making the switch…right? Apparently not.IBM said Wednesday at the Jamf Nation User Conference that it’s actually saving money on each Mac: $273 to $543 per Mac over four years, compared to a Windows PC over the same time period. And no, that’s not because Microsoft is charging more. Fletcher Previn, IBM’s vice president of workplace as a service (yeah, that’s a real title), said Microsoft is giving IBM its best pricing ever. But Macs are still cheaper over their lifetime, and using them results in fewer service calls.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Gartner: By 2020, you’ll say more to a machine than to your spouse

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The message at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo is to prepare for a fast move to augmented reality, the decline of mobile apps, and a major shift away from web browsing to voice interaction.Many users will expect businesses, universities and governments to respond to these shifts, the market research firm said at its annual conference.Here's what Gartner sees arriving soon:1. By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality environments.A.R. will be "overlaying data on top of environments," said Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer. For instance, when you walk into a grocery store, "all the data about the different items will be floating in the air in front of those items," he said. The bulky and boxy glasses that customers need to see the augmented reality at the store will get more fashionable and will be easier to wear. A.R. also will be used in online shopping.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Celebrating 12 years of Ubuntu

Happy birthdayImage by Thinkstock/UbuntuFounder Mark Shuttleworth announced the first public release of Ubuntu – version 4.10, or “Warty Warthog” – on Oct. 20, 2004. The idea behind what would become the most recognizable and widely used Linux distributions ever was simple – create a Linux operating system that anybody could use. Here’s a look back at Ubuntu’s history.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Meet us in Washington, DC for NANOG 69!

What’s better: Amazon’s Availability Zones vs. Microsoft Azure’s regions

Although they both offer core IaaS features like virtual machines, storage and databases the leading public cloud providers, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, take very different approaches in offering cloud services, including at the most basic level of how their data centers are constructed and positioned around the world.+MORE FROM NETWORK WORLD: What’s behind the Amazon, Microsoft and Google’s aggressive cloud expansions? (With an interactive map!) +Both companies’ clouds are made up of regions: AWS has 14 and Microsoft has 30. But those numbers aren’t quite an apples-to-apples comparison.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

19% off HooToo Shuttle Type C Hub With Charging, HDMI Output, Card Reader, 3 USB 3.0 Ports – Deal Alert

Here's an adapter you might want to have on hand. This highly rated all-in-one style adapter from HooToo charges and powers your laptop, while allowing you to connect multiple peripherals, transfer data, and even extend/mirror your screen to an external display in 4k. Ports include USB Type-C, HDMI, 3 x USB 3.0 Ports, and an SD Memory Card slot. Its display port is capable of outputting 4K UHD or Full HD 1080p video to HDTV, monitor or projector.  Its Mac-inspired design features a unibody aluminum alloy exterior, ionized finish, reinforced TPE cable coating, and Mac-style LED activity indicator. EMI protection prevents interference with wireless devices. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 180 people on Amazon (read reviews). Its list price of $79.99 has been reduced 19% to $64.99. See the discounted HooToo Shuttle now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

19% off HooToo Shuttle Type C Hub With Charging, HDMI Output, Card Reader, 3 USB 3.0 Ports – Deal Alert

Here's an adapter you might want to have on hand. This highly rated all-in-one style adapter from HooToo charges and powers your laptop, while allowing you to connect multiple peripherals, transfer data, and even extend/mirror your screen to an external display in 4k. Ports include USB Type-C, HDMI, 3 x USB 3.0 Ports, and an SD Memory Card slot. Its display port is capable of outputting 4K UHD or Full HD 1080p video to HDTV, monitor or projector.  Its Mac-inspired design features a unibody aluminum alloy exterior, ionized finish, reinforced TPE cable coating, and Mac-style LED activity indicator. EMI protection prevents interference with wireless devices. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 180 people on Amazon (read reviews). Its list price of $79.99 has been reduced 19% to $64.99. See the discounted HooToo Shuttle now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ericsson’s Financial Troubles Unlikely to Impact Cisco Partnership — Yet

Buying each other wouldn't necessarily solve the companies' problems.

Verizon’s Data-Center Sale Is About to Really Happen

Q3 earnings call promises 'early Q4' news.

Indian banks replace millions of debit cards after possible breach

Indian banks have asked customers to change the PINs, and in some cases blocked access, to 3.2 million debit cards after concerns about a security breach.The issue surfaced in September when some banks complained that their customers' cards were used fraudulently mainly in China and the U.S. while the account holders were in India, the National Payments Corporation of India said late Thursday.India's top government-controlled bank, the State Bank of India, said earlier this week that after card network companies like Visa and MasterCard had informed various banks of a potential risk to some cards because of a data breach, it had taken the precautionary measure of blocking the cards identified by the networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Indian banks replace millions of debit cards after possible breach

Indian banks have asked customers to change the PINs, and in some cases blocked access, to 3.2 million debit cards after concerns about a security breach.The issue surfaced in September when some banks complained that their customers' cards were used fraudulently mainly in China and the U.S. while the account holders were in India, the National Payments Corporation of India said late Thursday.India's top government-controlled bank, the State Bank of India, said earlier this week that after card network companies like Visa and MasterCard had informed various banks of a potential risk to some cards because of a data breach, it had taken the precautionary measure of blocking the cards identified by the networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The tape disk debate clouded

Save for the frequently used business critical data and the all-time low prices of disk storage, any CFO talking to an open-minded systems administrator will come to the conclusion that tape wins all the time for data archiving.When you take several regulations—such as The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which requires data to be retained for six years from the date of its creation or the date when it was last in effect, whichever is later—and other regulators like Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Security Exchange Commission (SEC), you realize that extended retention of up to seven years is mandated by the aforementioned acts and regulatory bodies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: What the IoT means to you

In the broadest possible terms, the Internet of Things is the connectivity of things that are able to communicate data about themselves to the “network” or to be controlled from the network. This means that the Internet of Things is as nebulous, ubiquitous and diverse as the internet itself, examples of IoT devices could range from the iKettle to devices use sophisticated monitoring of HD video to support mission critical applications like traffic flow management. —ECI

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IDG Contributor Network: Mirantis and NTT launch their own partnership for OpenStack growth

It’s fascinating being a close observer of the OpenStack ecosystem. To be honest, the machinations and posturing among the different players feels almost like a John Le Carre novel with friends, enemies and seemingly dozens of shades in between.Two companies that epitomized this are Mirantis and Red Hat. Red Hat, the 800-pound gorilla in the open source world, has had long-term success commercializing various open-source projects, initially Linux, of course, but a host of others since.For its part, Mirantis is a much newer player and was borne after the advent of OpenStack. Mirantis is essentially trying to “out Red Hat Red Hat.” The two were, back in distant memory, close partners, with Red Hat investing in Mirantis and talking of potential acquisition plans. Red Hat went in a different direction, however, acquiring competing OpenStack service provider eNovance and embarking on a war of words with the upstart. In fairness, I have to point out that the war of words between the two has been mutual, with Mirantis doing its part to fuel the flames.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Puppet Unveils New Docker Build and Phased Deployments

Project Blueshift shifts into gear.

The Great Multi-Factor Authentication Debate — PCI Guru

The Council brings back the Assessor Session to this year’s Community Meeting and it takes only one question to get passions flowing. The question was to get a clarification of a comment made by Ralph Poore, Director, Emerging Standards at the Council, about multi-factor authentication (MFA). First a little background to get everyone up to […]

via The Great Multi-Factor Authentication Debate — PCI Guru

Wipro is buying cloud consultant Appirio for $500M

It's India meets Indianapolis: Bangalore-based consulting firm Wipro is buying Appirio for US$500 million to bulk up its cloud applications business.With more resources behind it, cloud services vendor Appirio will be in a better position to fight back against big consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte, which "have garnered disproportionate market share" in the cloud services market in recent years, Appirio CEO Chris Barbin wrote in a blog post explaining the deal.Appirio, based in Indianapolis, offers a range of cloud applications integration services, many of them built around Salesforce.com -- a logical fit since it grew out of Salesforce's AppExchange startup incubator. The 10-year-old company also partners with Workday, Google and Amazon Web Services, and numbers Facebook, eBay and Coca-Cola among its customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GuardiCore helps security teams see into apps and networks before they segment

The digital business era has brought with it a number of new tools and technologies, such as software-defined networking (SDN), Internet of Things (IoT), mobility and the cloud. These innovations enable businesses to increase their level of dynamism and be more distributed, but they also increase the complexity of securing the business. Old-school security methods and tools do not work in an environment where the perimeter is eroding and resources are becoming more virtual and cloud-centric.+ Also on Network World: Always be prepared: Monitor, analyze and test your security + To combat this, security professionals have embraced the concept of segmentation. The number of segmentation providers has exploded over the past few years, including VMware repositioning its NSX network virtualization product as a micro-segmentation solution. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GuardiCore helps security teams see into apps and networks before they segment

The digital business era has brought with it a number of new tools and technologies, such as software-defined networking (SDN), Internet of Things (IoT), mobility and the cloud. These innovations enable businesses to increase their level of dynamism and be more distributed, but they also increase the complexity of securing the business. Old-school security methods and tools do not work in an environment where the perimeter is eroding and resources are becoming more virtual and cloud-centric.+ Also on Network World: Always be prepared: Monitor, analyze and test your security + To combat this, security professionals have embraced the concept of segmentation. The number of segmentation providers has exploded over the past few years, including VMware repositioning its NSX network virtualization product as a micro-segmentation solution. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here