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Category Archives for "Networking"

Google’s Niantic Labs to become independent company

Two days after announcing a sweeping reorganization, Google has detailed its first departure. Niantic Labs, an augmented reality unit of Google, will be spun off into an independent company.The split, which is unusual for Google, means that Niantic Labs won’t be part of Alphabet, the new holding company that is expected to be formed later this year to include Google and other parts of the company.The move was announced by Niantic Labs in a Google+ post on Wednesday, and confirmed by Winnie King, a spokeswoman for Google.She said the split would allow Niantic to accelerate its growth, “which will help them align more closely with investors and partners in the entertainment space,” but didn’t provide any more details.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Use SAP’s mobile platform? Patch now to avoid these ‘high risk’ vulnerabilities

Three high risk vulnerabilities in SAP Mobile could give attackers access to encrypted information stored in mobile devices, security firm Onapsis reported Wednesday.All three vulnerabilities were recently fixed by SAP, but systems are only safe if the patches are applied.“SAP runs so many of the world’s largest enterprises that any vulnerability must be taken very seriously,” said Nicholas Taylor, CEO of Netlogx, another security provider.One of the flaws enables keystream recovery and could allow an attacker with access to a vulnerable device to decrypt credentials and other sensitive information stored within, Onapsis said. The attacker could then potentially connect to other business systems to access additional data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco’s new CEO hints at deals in software and security

Chuck Robbins has only been in the job three weeks but the new CEO of Cisco Systems is already dropping hints about acquisitions.On Wednesday, Cisco reported growth in its revenue and profits for the quarter just ended, and in a conference call to discuss the results Robbins was asked about Cisco’s plans for long term growth.“We’ll continue to be very acquisitive going forward, especially in areas like software and security,” he said.They’re two of the areas Cisco has flagged as growth opportunities in the past. They’re also areas where it can generate recurring revenue from subscriptions, something it wants to do more of.Cisco has already been on something of an acquisitions streak, with six purchases announced in less than five months. They include Internet security provider OpenDNS, which it’s buying for $635 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s Surface Hub collaboration tool delayed until 2016

People who pre-ordered the Surface Hub from Microsoft were notified Wednesday that their mega-display and conference room collaboration tool won’t arrive until 2016, at least four months after Microsoft originally planned.Pre-orders for the Surface Hub, which is a massive touch-sensitive and camera-equipped display designed to help people work together in an office and across the Web, opened July 1. Following strong demand for the devices, Microsoft said two weeks later that it would be reworking its manufacturing processes to keep up with interest, and would have to delay the devices’ roll-out. Wednesday’s announcement means companies that planned to install the devices know when to expect their new hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon preps super-fast 10Gbps broadband

Verizon engineers have finished lab and field tests of a new fiber optic network capable of 10Gbps, or 10 times the speed of Google Fiber and some other currently-available networks. A popular Verizon FIOS service now offering 75Mbps speeds can transfer a two-hour HD movie in 17 minutes; the new 10Gbps network can transfer the same movie in just 8 seconds, according to Shweta Jain, a FIOS engineer at Verizon. She spoke in a Verizon video to announce the successful testing. Verizon hasn't said where the service will first be offered and at what cost. The company will seek proposals for equipment and software later this year to support commercial development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DOJ calls for encryption balance that includes law enforcement needs

It’s possible for companies to design their encryption systems to allow law enforcement agencies to access customer data with court-ordered warrants while still offering solid security, U.S. Department of Justice officials said.When DOJ and FBI officials raised recent concerns over end-to-end encryption on Android and iOS mobile phones, some security experts suggested it was difficult or unsafe to build in provider access to encrypted consumer data. But many companies already offer encryption while retaining some access to user information, two senior DOJ officials said Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dropbox adds U2F support for better security

Two-factor authentication is often held up as a best practice for security in the online world, but Dropbox on Wednesday announced a new feature that’s designed to make it even tougher.Whereas two-step verification most commonly involves the user’s phone for the second authentication method, Dropbox’s new U2F support adds a new means of authenticating the user via Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) security keys instead.What that means is that users can now use a USB key as an additional means to prove who they are.“This is a very good advancement and adds extra security over mobile notifications for two-factor authentication,” said Rich Mogull, CEO with Securosis.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ten scary hacks I saw at Black Hat and DEF CON

Security researchers and hackers gathered in Las Vegas over the past week to show off and learn about the latest vulnerabilities that affect devices and software that the world relies on every day. Black Hat and DEF CON, the world’s top security conferences, did not disappoint.Hackers can mess with the music in your car, and then cause you to crashThe highlight of this year’s Black Hat conference was a remote hack of the Jeep Cherokee and other Fiat Chrysler vehicles demonstrated by security researches Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SEC charges 32 in press release hacking, stock trading scheme

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged 32 defendants with fraud in an international scheme that used stolen, yet-to-be-published press releases from hacked websites to conduct stock trades.The SEC’s charges are on top of wire fraud conspiracy and other charges announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday. The nine DOJ defendants also face SEC charges. The other SEC defendants are eight people and 15 companies.Indictments unsealed Tuesday in the district courts for New Jersey and Eastern New York accused the DOJ defendants of stealing approximately 150,000 confidential press releases from the servers of Marketwired, PR Newswire Association and Business Wire.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT/IT: The Future of Network Engineering

Two different articles caught my attention this last week. They may not seem to be interrelated, but given my “pattern making mind,” I always seem to find connections. The first is an article from Network Computing discussing the future of network engineering skill sets.

It’s a new day in enterprise technology, with Chuck Robbins at the helm of Cisco. But John Chambers left a lasting dark impression with the audience at Cisco Live in June. He essentially dropped a hand grenade, predicting the end of IT as we know it, and walked offstage.

Patrick Hubbard goes on to talk about the hand grenade John Chambers left in the room 3 that there would be major mergers, failures, and acquisitions in the next twenty years, leaving the IT industry a very different place. The takeaway? That individual engineers need to “up their game,” learning new technologies faster, hitting the books and the labs on a more regular basis. Given the view in the industry of Cisco as a “safe harbor” for IT skills, this is something of a hand grenade in the room, coming from Chambers at Cisco Live.

The second article predicts a hand grenade, as well, though of a Continue reading

Alibaba’s cloud and mobile business soar, but total revenue disappoints

Alibaba Group’s cloud computing and mobile business are surging, but its reported revenue in the second quarter missed analysts’ estimates, amid a slowing Chinese economy.In the quarter ended June 30, Alibaba generated over $3.2 billion in revenue, up 28 percent year over year, but short of the $3.39 billion consensus expectation from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.The e-commerce giant raked in a net profit of US$4.9 billion, for a 150 percent increase, but the huge profit increase largely came from its film production arm, Alibaba Pictures. In June, the company reduced its stake in Alibaba Pictures, and “deconsolidated” it from the financial results. This resulted in a major gain for Alibaba’s investment income.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FIS seeks to boost financial software portfolio with $9.1B Sungard acquisition

Fidelity National Information Services is buying financial software vendor SunGard for US$9.1 billion to broaden its range of enterprise banking and capital market offerings.The deal, announced Wednesday, ends SunGard’s bid to go public. The Wayne, Pennsylvania, company filed for an initial public offering in June, about 10 years after being acquired by a group of private equity firms. The firms that purchased SunGard for approximately $11 billion in 2005 include Bain Capital, Silver Lake Management and Blackstone Group.Some of the firms involved with the 2005 buyout were also SunGard customers. The vendor’s software covers a range of financial services functions including tax and compliance, insurance, retail banking and retirement administration. SunGard’s annual revenue totals $2.8 billion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SDN and the Trough Of Understanding

gartner_net_hype_2015

An article published this week referenced a recent Hype Cycle diagram (pictured above) from the oracle of IT – Gartner. While the lede talked a lot about the apparent “death” of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), there was also a lot of time devoted to discussing SDN’s arrival at the Trough of Disillusionment. Quoting directly from the oracle:

Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

As SDN approaches this dip in the Hype Cycle it would seem that the steam is finally being let out of the Software Defined Bubble. The Register article mentions how people are going to leave SDN by the wayside and jump on the next hype-filled networking idea, likely SD-WAN given the amount of discussion it has been getting recently. Do you know what this means for SDN? Nothing but good things.

Software Defined Hammers

Engineers have a chronic case of Software Defined Overload. SD-anything ranks right up there with Fat Free and New And Improved as the Most Overused Marketing Terms. Every solution release in the last two years Continue reading

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