This week on Packet Pushers we talk with two VMware NSX customers who’ve implemented NSX in production. We'll look at SDN use cases including microsegmentation and network virtualization.
The post Show 292: VMware NSX Customer Stories – Real-World SDN Use Cases (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.
The shortest end-to-end network path doesn't always result in improved application performance.
Jacob Hess is an entrepreneur and systems engineer who has over 15 years experience in Information Technology. Working in both the customer and systems integrator environments he has designed and deployed many complex IT projects spanning the full stack of networking technologies. Jacob is also a United States Air Force veteran who served as a technical instructor and trained hundreds of network engineers to be job ready for the Department of Defense. He is the Co-founder & COO of Nexgent and is passionate about inspiring, creating, and empowering the next generation of IT engineers.
The post Worth Reading: Journey to the CCDE appeared first on 'net work.
This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.
In enterprise IT, disruptive technologies become commercially viable faster than you can say “Moore’s Law.” However, if corporate culture and processes don’t evolve in conjunction with the pace of technology, it can inhibit the benefits of even the most awesome of enterprise apps. One area of IT where corporate culture has stymied progress is cyber security, but the rise of software containers — arguably one of the most disruptive enterprise technologies on the horizon - provides an opportunity to get application security right, or at least make it a whole lot better.
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conn-check – A deployment utility to check connectivity between services conn-check is a small utility, written in Python using the Twisted network library, that verifies outgoing connections from your application servers to services it depends on, e.g. databases, caches, web service APIs, etc.conn-check is used not only to verify network dependency changes at deploy time, […]
The post Tools: Conn-check appeared first on EtherealMind.
The layered nature of the Internet (HTTP on top of some reliable transport (e.g. TCP), TCP on top of some datagram layer (e.g. IP), IP on top of some link (e.g. Ethernet)) has been very important in its development. Different link layers have come and gone over time (any readers still using 802.5?) and this flexibility also means that a connection from your web browser might traverse your home network over WiFi, then down a DSL line, across fiber and finally be delivered over Ethernet to the web server. Each layer is blissfully unaware of the implementation of the layer below it.

But there are some disadvantages to this model. In the case of TLS (the most common standard used for sending encrypted data across in the Internet and the protocol your browser uses with visiting an https:// web site) the layering of TLS on top of TCP can cause delays to the delivery of a web page.
That’s because TLS divides the data being transmitted into records of a fixed (maximum) size and then hands those records to TCP for transmission. TCP promptly divides those records up into segments which are then transmitted. Ultimately, Continue reading

Security is a global requirement. It is also global in the fashion in which it needs to be addressed. But the truth is, regardless of the vertical, the basic components of a security infrastructure do not change. There are firewalls, intrusion detection systems, encryption, networking policies and session border controllers for real time communications. These components also plug together in rather standard fashions or service chains that look largely the same regardless of the vertical or vendor in question. Yes, there are some differences but by and large these modifications are minor.
So the questions begs, why is security so difficult? As it turns out, it is not really the complexities of the technology components themselves, although they certainly have that. It turns out that the real challenge is deciding exactly what to protect and here each vertical will be drastically different. Fortunately, the methods for identifying confidential data or critical control systems are also rather consistent even though the data and applications being protected may vary greatly.
In order for micro-segmentation as a security strategy to succeed, you have to know where the data you need to protect resides. You also need to know how it flows through Continue reading
We’re excited to announce that VMware NSX, version 6.2.3, is now available for all customers with active support. As we evolve the NSX platform, we continue to place a high degree of emphasis on helping customers operationalize NSX, speed-up deployment, and integrate with more systems from our NSX ecosystem partners. This latest release introduces enhanced network monitoring and troubleshooting tools with expanded hardware partner integration.
Some of the top highlights include:
Native Visibility and Reporting
Resolve problems faster, visualize event trends, trigger alerts, and more, all in real-time with VMware vRealize Log Insight for NSX, now included with NSX Standard, Advanced and Enterprise licenses. This new capability introduces:
To learn more about vRealize Log Insight for NSX refer to the FAQ or visit the Log Insight product page here.
Improvements to NSX Management and Operations
Reduce Mean Time to Recovery with improved troubleshooting and operational capabilities. Key enhancements include:
In this episode of Network Matters with Ethan Banks, learn why the topic of DevOps has become so pervasive in IT media. Ethan explains what DevOps really means for most IT organizations, and how Infrastructure professionals can use concepts from DevOps to improve their own efficiency.