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Category Archives for "Networking"

Citigroup is cutting costs by making storage simpler

Citigroup is using software-defined storage to build an infrastructure that could last 25 years – while generations of hardware come and go.The financial services company needs to transform its storage architecture to deal with growing and changing demands, says Dan Maslowski, global head of storage and engineered systems. By simplifying its architecture, Citigroup expects to slash its operational expenses, which make up most of its storage costs.Citigroup’s need for storage is growing so fast that if costs don’t go down, the company’s spending on storage might eat up its entire IT budget in a few years, Maslowski told an audience at the Storage Developer Conference in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

56% off Cambridge SoundWorks OontZ Angle 3XL Water Resistant Wireless Bluetooth Speaker – Deal Alert

The OontZ Angle 3XL was designed and engineered by Cambridge SoundWorks to be their most powerful, best sounding speaker yet. Features a powerful 40 Watt AMP, delivering 20 Watts RMS loud enough to fill even large rooms with high quality sound. Perfect for parties, playing outdoors, at the pool and at the beach. Distortion-free even at maximum volume. IPX5 water resistance means it'll be OK with accidental splashes or rain. A built-in USB power bank can charge your iPhone or Smartphone while you're enjoying music. Other features include: Up to 8 hours of battery play time; Built in mic for speakerphone capability; Play from laptops, PCs and non-Bluetooth devices using the included 3.5mm audio cable connected to the aux-in jack. The Angle 3XL is highly rated on Amazon with 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 750 customers (read reviews). Right now its list price has been reduced a generous 56% to just $110. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Is today’s network cost structure indicative of the future?

I’ve been a fan of software-defined networking (SDN) since my first conversation about software-based firewalls for an application deployment in 2004. Our goal was to leverage the concepts of grid computing to grow and shrink the web and application server environments in response to load, and we got the idea to throw the firewall into the mix. What made our approach possible was the ocean’s depth of software development knowledge on our team tempered by a puddle’s depth knowledge of networking.+ Also on Network World: Survey shows growing interest in SDN, where and how companies might deploy the tech +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Is today’s network cost structure indicative of the future?

I’ve been a fan of software-defined networking (SDN) since my first conversation about software-based firewalls for an application deployment in 2004. Our goal was to leverage the concepts of grid computing to grow and shrink the web and application server environments in response to load, and we got the idea to throw the firewall into the mix. What made our approach possible was the ocean’s depth of software development knowledge on our team tempered by a puddle’s depth knowledge of networking.+ Also on Network World: Survey shows growing interest in SDN, where and how companies might deploy the tech +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

60% off HDMI 2.0 High Speed 4k-Ready Gold Plated 6ft Cable – Deal Alert

If you're looking for cables that can keep up with the high demands of today's video tech, you may want to consider this cable from SecurOMax, currently discounted 60%. This heavy duty, high quality 6ft HDMI 2.0 cable will drive full 4K 60hz 2160P. Something that older HDMI cables just can't pull off. It features more expensive, thicker 28 AWG wiring which enables 18 GBPS speed required for all HDMI 2.0 features. Its connectors are 24K gold-plated, with soldering points covered by a thick aluminum shell to achieve better shielding and lower SNR. Ethernet & audio return channels eliminate extra network and audio cables. All of this while also being backwards compatible. The cable by SecurOMax averages an impressive 4.7 out of 5 stars from over 1,000 customers (91% rate a full 5 stars: read reviews), and right now its price has been reduced significantly to just $11.99. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo reportedly to confirm massive data breach

Following reports that Yahoo will confirm a data breach that affects hundreds of millions of accounts, some users reported Thursday on Twitter and elsewhere that they were prompted to change their email password when trying to log in.Yahoo launched an investigation into a possible breach in early August after someone offered to sell a data dump of over 200 million Yahoo accounts on an underground market, including usernames, easy-to-crack password hashes, dates of birth and backup email addresses.The company has since determined that the breach is real and that it's even worse than initially believed, news website Recode reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo reportedly to confirm massive data breach

Following reports that Yahoo will confirm a data breach that affects hundreds of millions of accounts, some users reported Thursday on Twitter and elsewhere that they were prompted to change their email password when trying to log in.Yahoo launched an investigation into a possible breach in early August after someone offered to sell a data dump of over 200 million Yahoo accounts on an underground market, including usernames, easy-to-crack password hashes, dates of birth and backup email addresses.The company has since determined that the breach is real and that it's even worse than initially believed, news website Recode reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Keeping up with incident response

A fire department in a large city certainly has a difficult job, but its mission is fairly straightforward. When a fire is detected, the fire department dispatches an appropriately sized staff to assess, contain and put out the fire, clean up, investigate what happened, and prepare themselves for the next blaze.Yup, it's a pretty simple process when a manageable number of fires are burning. But what would happen if there were hundreds or thousands of simultaneous infernos?My guess is that a senior fire chief (and perhaps other participants from local government and law enforcement) would have to make decisions on which blazes to resource and which to ignore. These decisions would certainly be based upon information analysis and best practices, but there is still some risk that the disregarded fires would end up being far worse than expected, turn into disasters, and call into question the judgement of all involved.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fixing the mixed content problem with Automatic HTTPS Rewrites

CloudFlare aims to put an end to the unencrypted Internet. But the web has a chicken and egg problem moving to HTTPS.

Long ago it was difficult, expensive, and slow to set up an HTTPS capable web site. Then along came services like CloudFlare’s Universal SSL that made switching from http:// to https:// as easy as clicking a button. With one click a site was served over HTTPS with a freshly minted, free SSL certificate.

Boom.

Suddenly, the website is available over HTTPS, and, even better, the website gets faster because it can take advantage of the latest web protocol HTTP/2.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Many otherwise secure sites suffer from the problem of mixed content. And mixed content means the green padlock icon will not be displayed for an https:// site because, in fact, it’s not truly secure.

Here’s the problem: if an https:// website includes any content from a site (even its own) served over http:// the green padlock can’t be displayed. That’s because resources like images, JavaScript, audio, video etc. included over http:// open up a security hole into the secure web site. A backdoor to trouble.

Web browsers have known this was a problem Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: AT&T’s AirGig shows wireless internet over power lines is possible

High-speed wireless internet could soon be delivered over power lines, according to a major mobile network operator that announced positive test results of a proposed system.AT&T says its project, called AirGig, will deliver multiple gigabit-speed wireless internet by creating broadband signals that will emanate from the power lines crossing the country and beyond.The company says it won’t actually connect its equipment directly to the powerline cables but will simply use the wires as way to send modulated radio signals to individuals’ homes, smartphones, tablets and so on. The equipment sits atop the utility poles and uses the existing wires for transmitting and receiving.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SourceFire & AMP showing up on CCNP: Security

Looks like the SITCS Exam, that is part of the CCNP: Security exam is going from v1.0 to v1.5. SITCS is the exam oriented around ‘Implementing Cisco Threat Control Soluation’. Now, it only makes sense as the original version of this exam was more geared towards Cisco IPS & CX which has since been EoX’ed some time […]

Google’s Allo is an early personal assistant, not a late-to-market messaging app

Allo is a child that Google just sent to school to become your personal assistant. The first release looks like a messenger app because it is a common user interface (UI) that almost all smartphone users know, and it is conversational. Like a child learns to speak through conversation with adults, Allo will learn to be a personal assistant through quadrillions of messaging conversations if it succeeds as the next big platform.Google Now and Apple’s Siri are rudimentary compared to the personal assistant that Google Allo could become. Google Now’s and Siri’s voice to text is pretty accurate, but the user is limited to a fixed set of commands, navigate, play music, search, etc.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here