BGP: The Application Networking Dream

There was an interesting article last week from Fastly talking about using BGP to scale their network. This was but the latest in a long line of discussions around using BGP as a transport protocol between areas of the data center, even down to the Top-of-Rack (ToR) switch level. LinkedIn made a huge splash with it a few months ago with their Project Altair solution. Now it seems company after company is racing to implement BGP as the solution to their transport woes. And all because developers have finally pulled their heads out of the sand.

BGP Under Every Rock And Tree

BGP is a very scalable protocol. It’s used the world over to exchange routes and keep the Internet running smoothly. But it has other power as well. It can be extended to operate in other ways beyond the original specification. Unlike rigid protocols like RIP or OSPF, BGP was designed in part to be extended and expanded as needs changes. IS-IS is a very similar protocol in that respect. It can be upgraded and adjusted to work with both old and new systems at the same time. Both can be extended without the need to change protocol versions Continue reading

Microsoft and SAP deepen partnership with Azure and Office integrations

SAP and Microsoft have expanded an existing partnership to offer new products to users of the Azure and Office 365 cloud services, focused on better integrating the two companies' offerings. Azure customers will be able to use SAP HANA in Microsoft's public cloud, expanding the reach of that popular relational database service. SAP is also integrating its services including Fieldglass, Concur and SuccessFactors with Microsoft Office 365, so users can get the benefits of Microsoft's communications, collaboration, calendar and document editing tools.This all fits into Microsoft's ongoing strategy of partnering broadly with a variety of companies, including those that compete against it in some businesses. Teaming up with SAP can make Azure and Office 365 more appealing to companies that are already tied into SAP's ecosystem, and drive adoption of each company's products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How the IoT keeps Ben & Jerry’s ice cream safe

If a dropped ice cream cone is one of the saddest images in the world, then the loss of tens of thousands of dollars of ice cream—especially Ben & Jerry’s ice cream—is a tragedy. It’s also a huge financial hit, and one that Udder Ventures experienced when a new walk-in freezer malfunctioned at its Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop in the Haight-Asbury section of San Francisco. The equipment wasn’t installed perfectly—it wasn’t localized for temperature variances in San Francisco properly, said John Slater, Udder Ventures’ chief euphoria officer (the managing member of the company). So, it kept tripping the system, and when the system tripped, the freezer shut off—and the ice cream melted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 Startups That Will Change The Way You Think About Cloud

Firefox’s market share is bigger than that of all Microsoft’s browsers combined

Firefox now has more desktop users than both Microsoft's web browsers combined -- but it's a rivalry that is increasingly irrelevant as Google Chrome has almost twice the share of Firefox and Microsoft together.The latest figures from Statcounter show that Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer combined had a 15.5 percent share of worldwide desktop browser usage in April, a decline from 15.8 percent in March.The effect of Microsoft's new Edge browser is, it seems, marginal, with Windows 10 users apparently preferring other browsers.The boost to Microsoft's overall browser share that it might have expected from the launch of the Windows 10 with Edge hasn't happened yet, Statcounter said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US says proposed Chinese regulations could fragment the Internet

The U.S. has warned of fragmentation of the Internet if China goes ahead with proposed rules that would require compulsory registration of Internet domain names in China through government-licensed providers.The regulations for the administration of Internet domain names would also forbid the registration of websites containing any one of nine categories of broadly and vaguely defined prohibited content, and create a blacklist of ‘forbidden characters’ in the registration of domain names, “adding an extra layer of control to China’s Great Firewall,” two top U.S. officials in charge of Internet policy and administration, wrote in a statement Monday. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US says proposed Chinese regulations could fragment the Internet

The U.S. has warned of fragmentation of the Internet if China goes ahead with proposed rules that would require compulsory registration of Internet domain names in China through government-licensed providers.The regulations for the administration of Internet domain names would also forbid the registration of websites containing any one of nine categories of broadly and vaguely defined prohibited content, and create a blacklist of ‘forbidden characters’ in the registration of domain names, “adding an extra layer of control to China’s Great Firewall,” two top U.S. officials in charge of Internet policy and administration, wrote in a statement Monday. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

House lawmakers work to replace the hated H-1B lottery

Two U.S. House lawmakers are involved in a bipartisan effort to change how H-1B visas are allocated, moving away from a random lottery and using salary offers instead.The legislation by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has not yet been introduced. It's uncertain whether it will be put forward anytime soon or whether this effort to reach a bipartisan agreement will stick. While staffers have met to discuss the bill, and Issa has indicated support for a joint effort, it has little chance unless Issa is firmly behind it.+ RELATED: With H-1B visa, diversity doesn’t apply +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple patches 67 bugs in OS El Capitan, refreshes Safari and iTunes

Apple yesterday updated OS X El Capitan to version 10.11.5, patching nearly 70 vulnerabilities as it began to wind down changes prior to the next iteration launching later this year.OS X 10.11.5 offered few non-security bug fixes and no new features; in other words, it was a typical late-life refresh of an edition.Apple on Monday also patched the older OS X Mavericks (from 2013) and OS X Yosemite (2014), and issued updates to both iTunes and the firm's Safari browser.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords Of the 67 security flaws fixed in El Capitan, a dozen also applied to Mavericks and 14 to Yosemite, according to Chris Goettl, director of product management at Salt Lake City-based LANDESK, which makes systems and asset management software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple patches 67 bugs in OS El Capitan, refreshes Safari and iTunes

Apple yesterday updated OS X El Capitan to version 10.11.5, patching nearly 70 vulnerabilities as it began to wind down changes prior to the next iteration launching later this year.OS X 10.11.5 offered few non-security bug fixes and no new features; in other words, it was a typical late-life refresh of an edition.Apple on Monday also patched the older OS X Mavericks (from 2013) and OS X Yosemite (2014), and issued updates to both iTunes and the firm's Safari browser.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords Of the 67 security flaws fixed in El Capitan, a dozen also applied to Mavericks and 14 to Yosemite, according to Chris Goettl, director of product management at Salt Lake City-based LANDESK, which makes systems and asset management software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprises Bullish On 100 GbE, Cloud, And SDN

RadiUID: Palo Alto User-ID and RADIUS

The Palo Alto User-ID feature is awesome as long as you can feed it IP-to-User mappings. PAN provides agents to do this which work in many environments, but not usually without Active Directory. I wrote RadiUID to perform this function is situations where all you have is RADIUS. Approx Reading Time: 5-15 Minutes You see, […]

The post RadiUID: Palo Alto User-ID and RADIUS appeared first on Packet Pushers.

RadiUID: Palo Alto User-ID and RADIUS

The Palo Alto User-ID feature is awesome as long as you can feed it IP-to-User mappings. PAN provides agents to do this which work in many environments, but not usually without Active Directory. I wrote RadiUID to perform this function in situations where all you have is RADIUS. Approx Reading Time: 5-15 Minutes You see, […]

The post RadiUID: Palo Alto User-ID and RADIUS appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Does the iPhone need a ‘panic button’?

A new ‘panic mode’ for your iPhone might help keep your data more secure. And with the current legal decisions regarding Touch ID, this iOS feature is now vital.

Don’t miss a day full of SDN, security, microsegmentation and hands-on NSX

Gabi Gerber (with a bit of help from my side) is organizing another set of SDN events in Zurich (Switzerland) in early June.

In the morning of June 7th we’ll talk about software-defined security:

IBM’s latest move may have cracked the code on a cheaper DRAM alternative

A cheaper alternative to DRAM just took a step closer to enterprise data centers as IBM unveiled a way to make it more dense.PCM (phase-change memory) is one of a handful of emerging technologies that aim to be faster than flash and less expensive than DRAM. They could give enterprises and consumers faster access to data at lower cost, but there are challenges to overcome before that happens.Density is one of those, and IBM says it’s achieved a new high in that area with a version of PCM that can fit three bits on each cell. That’s 50 percent more than the company showed off in 2011 with a two-bit form of PCM. Greater density lets IBM squeeze more capacity out of what is still a pricey technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM may have cracked the code on a cheaper DRAM alternative

A cheaper alternative to DRAM just took a step closer to enterprise data centers as IBM unveiled a way to make it more dense. PCM (phase-change memory) is one of a handful of emerging technologies that aim to be faster than flash and less expensive than DRAM. They could give enterprises and consumers faster access to data at lower cost, but there are challenges to overcome before that happens. Density is one of those, and IBM says it’s achieved a new high in that area with a version of PCM that can fit three bits on each cell. That’s 50 percent more than the company showed off in 2011 with a two-bit form of PCM. Greater density lets IBM squeeze more capacity out of what is still a pricey technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Riverbed debuts cloud, UC management features for SteelCentral

Riverbed baked several new features into the latest version of its SteelCentral application performance and network management suite, designed to help manage networking components and applications that live in the cloud and unified communications systems – as well as making the whole thing a little more intuitive.The new features, which are available for SteelCentral customers to download today, provide visibility into application traffic in Azure and AWS, as well as PaaS and containerized environments. They also offer newly integrated support for a range of unified communications applications, letting IT manage them from the same portal.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: New build of Windows 10 Anniversary Update preview tweaks Edge, Wi-Fi Sense + Half the Web's traffic comes from bots, and that's costing you more than you thinkTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enable nested virtualization on supported hardware. (Fixing WARNING KVM acceleration not available, using ‘qemu’ issue)

Source: http://samadhisoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/nested-boxes.jpg

Whats fun without pushing things to the limit, making them do things that they weren't designed for and creating something cool. If the end result isn't cool that's ok too. My take here is that giving something a try not only keeps you occupied  but also contributes to gaining knowledge. Insights acquired in this process of pushing boundaries is definitely worth all the effort. Nested Virtualization once was a cool thing and is still is for a lot of people out there. If you are on a modern x86 (Intel) architecture processor backed computer, it most probably will support nested virtualization.

© Warner Bros

For beginners out there, nested virtualization is nothing but the process of allowing a virtual medium such as a virtual machine or a container to be able to not only act as physical hardware but also further create another abstraction within itself. Think about it as a smaller container/box within a larger box. Although you can perceive the smaller box as the only box when seen from within, it isn't so. Now put a smaller box within it - that's nested virtualization. Each level of nesting does make it tighter Continue reading

Wholesale Voice Carriers Examine NFV

This wholesale work tends to be forgotten.