Optimize Your Data Center: Virtualize Your Servers

A month ago I published the video where I described the idea that “two switches is all you need in a medium-sized data center”. Now let’s dig into the details: the first step you have to take to optimize your data center infrastructure is to virtualize all servers.

For even more details, watch the Designing Private Cloud Infrastructure webinar, or register for the Building Next-Generation Data Center course.

BetterBack: How to fix your bad back

There’s one activity that dominates the athletic activities of pretty much everyone in IT and that activity is inactivity. Whether it’s in a car seat, a train, a bus, or in front of a computer, most of us are locked into a chair for 6 or more hours every day and what does this cost us? Along with all of the other health consequences (heart disease, muscle degeneration, strained necks, limp glutes (yewww), tight hips, … I could go on but it's pretty gruesome), sitting for long periods of time ruins our backs. We sit there every day squinting at our screens, slumped into postures that nature never intended us to hold for hours at a time then we wonder why we ache.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

For the remotest IoT gear, cellular and satellite are coming together

Many enterprises are looking to the Internet of Things to monitor and control assets they can't physically reach. Building networks that can cover all those assets is one of the big challenges of industrial IoT.Cellular networks cover people well, at least in developed countries, but total land area not as well. LPWANs (low-power wide-area networks) are emerging as an alternative for reaching endpoints over longer distances, thanks to their lower speed and power levels and designs optimized for IoT. But for truly global connectivity, satellite is really the only game in town. (And, more importantly, far out of town.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

For the remotest IoT gear, cellular and satellite are coming together

Many enterprises are looking to the Internet of Things to monitor and control assets they can't physically reach. Building networks that can cover all those assets is one of the big challenges of industrial IoT.Cellular networks cover people well, at least in developed countries, but total land area not as well. LPWANs (low-power wide-area networks) are emerging as an alternative for reaching endpoints over longer distances, thanks to their lower speed and power levels and designs optimized for IoT. But for truly global connectivity, satellite is really the only game in town. (And, more importantly, far out of town.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon Likes Pod Architecture for Data Centers

Big Switch, Dell, and Red Hat are its partners.

OpenStack cloud’s “killer use case”: Telcos and NFV

AUSTIN, Texas – Today, 114 petabytes of data traverse AT&T's network daily, and the carrier predicts a 10x increase in traffic by 2020. To help manage this, AT&T is transitioning from purpose-built appliances to white boxes running open source software. And according to AT&T Senior Vice President of Software Development and Engineering Sarabh Saxena, OpenStack has been a key part of this shift.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: OpenStack Director: Why open source should be the core of your cloud | Cool products from OpenStack Summit +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

TIA’s NFV Security Group Reflects Carriers’ Unease With Open Source

Carriers trust open source - but not too much.

55% off Wansview Wireless IP Security Camera – Deal Alert

This security camera from Wansview currently averages 4 out of 5 stars from 180 reviewers on Amazon (read reviews). It lists for $199.99, but with the current 55% discount you save $110 and can buy it for just $89.99.The unit has clarity up to 1920x1080, and and SD card slot (max 64GB supported) for video recording and playback. Horizontal 340 degree and vertical 90degree pan & tilt capability. 4x digital zoom, and IR LED night vision up to 26 feet. It also features a built-in mic and speaker for 2-way audio communication and connects easily to your smartphone for remote viewing. If enabled, it can send pictures or video when motion is detected.  See this feature-packed IP camera on Amazon and review buying options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Better SWIFT software design would have thwarted Bangladesh Bank cyber heist

In February, attackers tried to steal $951 million using the SWIFT bank transfer system by submitting transfer requests from the Central Bank of Bangladesh to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before the cyber heist was detected, attackers got away with $81 million by routing and laundering the funds through a bank account in the Philippines. Most of the transfers were thwarted for an unexplained reason.Reuters reported the details of the cyber heist based on an interview with defense contractor and security researcher BAE Systems. It wasn’t clear if BAE Systems worked independently, for SWIFT or for the Bangladesh Bank. The report exposes that the SWIFT software has the same design flaws as the Target point-of-sale (POS) system. Both imprudently relied on the assumption of an impenetrable perimeter for security.   The fault appears to be SWIFT’s—if BAE is correct in its report that “the malware registers itself as a service and operates within an environment running SWIFT’s Alliance software suite, powered by an Oracle Database.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Better SWIFT software design would have thwarted Bangladesh Bank cyber heist

In February, attackers tried to steal $951 million using the SWIFT bank transfer system by submitting transfer requests from the Central Bank of Bangladesh to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before the cyber heist was detected, attackers got away with $81 million by routing and laundering the funds through a bank account in the Philippines. Most of the transfers were thwarted for an unexplained reason.Reuters reported the details of the cyber heist based on an interview with defense contractor and security researcher BAE Systems. It wasn’t clear if BAE Systems worked independently, for SWIFT or for the Bangladesh Bank. The report exposes that the SWIFT software has the same design flaws as the Target point-of-sale (POS) system. Both imprudently relied on the assumption of an impenetrable perimeter for security.   The fault appears to be SWIFT’s—if BAE is correct in its report that “the malware registers itself as a service and operates within an environment running SWIFT’s Alliance software suite, powered by an Oracle Database.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US Marshals set to auction fraudster’s $1.5M high-end auto collection

It might have been a pretty nice life for Thomas Hauk -- for a while anyway -- but frauds usually explode and this one was nothing different.The US Marshals this week announced the auction of the Hauk’s spoils -- 25 vehicles, including Ferrari, Mclaren, BW and Porche cars worth more than $1.5 million.+More on Network World: 26 of the craziest and scariest things the TSA has found on travelers+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US Marshals set to auction fraudster’s $1.5M high-end auto collection

It might have been a pretty nice life for Thomas Hauk -- for a while anyway -- but frauds usually explode and this one was nothing different.The US Marshals this week announced the auction of the Hauk’s spoils -- 25 vehicles, including Ferrari, Mclaren, BW and Porche cars worth more than $1.5 million.+More on Network World: 26 of the craziest and scariest things the TSA has found on travelers+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Venture-backed Sirin Labs to sell phone for the privacy conscious

An international group of investors announced today that Sirin Labs, a startup with $72 million in venture funding, is planning to create a smartphone that combines premium performance and functionality with strong privacy protection.Sirin’s announcement gave few details about the device, internally dubbed the SP1, but the company says that interested parties won’t have long to wait for additional information, as it should go on sale within the next two months. The SP1’s design, according to Sirin, will attempt to graft high-end flagship features onto a far greater emphasis on security than most modern smartphones.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Top U.S. universities failing at cybersecurity education + Malvertising attack silently infects old Android devices with ransomwareTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Venture-backed Sirin Labs to sell phone for the privacy conscious

An international group of investors announced today that Sirin Labs, a startup with $72 million in venture funding, is planning to create a smartphone that combines premium performance and functionality with strong privacy protection.Sirin’s announcement gave few details about the device, internally dubbed the SP1, but the company says that interested parties won’t have long to wait for additional information, as it should go on sale within the next two months. The SP1’s design, according to Sirin, will attempt to graft high-end flagship features onto a far greater emphasis on security than most modern smartphones.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Top U.S. universities failing at cybersecurity education + Malvertising attack silently infects old Android devices with ransomwareTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: IoT Hub Throttling

IoT Hub is a service built to support millions of connections in a single region. We’re already dealing with serious-scale connectivity when we talk about the Internet of Things, and we impose the throttling limits on IoT Hub to protect against what otherwise looks like Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on the service. -Azure

The post Worth Reading: IoT Hub Throttling appeared first on 'net work.

What users love (and hate) about 4 leading firewall solutions

While always an integral part of a company’s security procedures, firewalls are becoming even more important as more companies move to the cloud and software defined networks. A firewall is a network security system that controls and monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic, based on preset security parameters. Firewalls create a barrier between a secure internal network and a potentially less-secure outside network. Four of the top firewall solutions on the market are Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco ASA, Sophos UTM and Palo Alto Networks WildFire, according to online reviews by enterprise users in the IT Central Station community.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

What users love (and hate) about 4 leading firewall solutions

While always an integral part of a company’s security procedures, firewalls are becoming even more important as more companies move to the cloud and software defined networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Brocade VNF Manager can prevent virtual network services sprawl

Brocade announced today the availability of its virtual network function (VNF) Manager. The product is a commercial version of OpenStack Tacker, an OpenStack lead project designed to make it easier to deploy and operate virtual network services. The initiative is compatible with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Framework.For those not familiar with NFV, the technology allows organizations to run network services as virtual functions instead of requiring a single appliance per function. NFV has many cost benefits, as it reduces the overall hardware that needs to be purchased and managed. More important, it gives network services the same level of agility as virtual servers and storage. Infrastructure agility is a core requirement of becoming a digital company, and NFV enables that at the network level. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AT&T Integrated Cloud to Include 105 Data Centers by Year’s End

Juniper’s Contrail does the orchestration.

Network Break 84: Is Bimodal IT BS?; OpenStack Advances

The latest episode of Network Break debates the merits of Bimodal IT and drills into OpenStack news from Walmart (yes, Walmart) and Dell. We also cover stories from Intel, Mesosphere, Cisco, Mellanox and F5.

The post Network Break 84: Is Bimodal IT BS?; OpenStack Advances appeared first on Packet Pushers.