EARLY ACCESS Q&A: New Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins heads into “hyper-connected” mode

When Cisco Systems employees head into work Monday they’ll encounter something they haven’t seen in two decades: A new boss. Chuck Robbins – formerly senior vice president of worldwide operations – takes over as CEO from John Chambers, one of the most visible and quotable figures in business.In this early-access interview with John Gallant, chief content officer of IDG US Media, Robbins sets out his priorities for Cisco and his new management team, and talks about the opportunities and challenges facing the network giant. Robbins dissects the competitive landscape and explains why so-called ‘white box’ data center gear and software-defined networks are not the threats to Cisco that some pundits contend. He also describes his vision for the “hyper-connected architecture” that will speed customer digitization efforts and help IT capture the value in the Internet of Things. Finally, Robbins talks about life at Cisco under a leader not named John.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SDxCentral Weekly News Roundup — July 24, 2015

Yeehaw, it's Friday! The SDxCentral roundup is here.

MikroTik CCR1072-1G-8S+ Review (Part 2) – BGP Performance

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Here is Part 1 of the CCR1072-1G-8S+ review in case you missed it!

CCR1072-1G-8S+ Ultimate BGP Performance test

After many days of testing, Part 2 is finally here! Welcome to the stubarea51.net BGP gauntlet. We subjected the CCR1072 to different types of network torture stress testing. Continuing on from our initial review, we chose BGP as the first way to test the limits and capacity of the CCR1072-1G-8S+.

Here is an overview of our lab environment to test the new CCR

• CCR1072-1G-8S+
• CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+
• CRS-125-24G-1S+
• x86 VMs on ESXi 6.0 for upstream BGP peering
• (2) ESXi 6.0 Hosts with 20 Gb (4×10) connectivity
• Multimode 10 gig SFP+ using 50/125 OM3 fiber

All RouterOS devices were loaded with the latest stable code (6.30.1 at the time of testing)

Network Design of the StubArea51 LAB setup for BGP testing

For this series of testing, we took our two ESXi 6.0 hosts and built a number of VMs using RouterOS and Ubuntu to supply the 1.21 Gigawatts 3.6 Million routes we would need to beat up on the CCR1072 for a few days. If you’re not familiar with the RIPE Routing Information Service Continue reading

/bin/sh – checking for bash vs dash incompatibilities

I have been investigating a problem where an application would install on RHEL/CentOS, but not on Ubuntu. I tracked it down to a problem with shell scripts that assumed that /bin/sh was bash. Ubuntu uses dash by default, so some ‘bashisms‘ don’t work. This will be old news to Ubuntu types that migrated to dash a while back, but I normally use CentOS/RHEL systems, and/or well-behaved cross-platform scripts. Luckily ‘checkbashisms‘ can help with figuring out what changes are needed.

I don’t want to go into the history of Unix shells, but there are probably more shell variants than there are *nix variants. Some are very different, and completely incompatible. But others are only different in subtle ways, and most things works without modification. If your script explicitly calls the required shell with “#!/bin/zsh” or “#!/bin/csh”, all will be fine. The problem comes when your script starts with “#!/bin/sh”. That will call the system shell, which can vary across different systems. If you’re using that, your script should be portable, and only implement a subset of possible functionality. People get in the habit of using “/bin/sh”,  but using shell-specific features. That’s when things get ugly when you run Continue reading

CloudFlare headed to HostingCon 2015. Thanks for the memories and let’s create some more!

The CloudFlare team is heading to HostingCon 2015 in San Diego next week. We are excited to meet colleagues from the industry, reconnect with partners, and make new friends.

This year’s conference marks a milestone of sorts. It’s our fifth time at HostingCon and we’ve come full circle - our first HostingCon took place in San Diego. Here are some fun facts on what we’ve accomplished since our first HostingCon in 2011:

• 25 new data centers expanded our network to a total of 36 worldwide
• 2M+ customers served
• 800+ conference attendees transported in our signature limo service. If you haven’t already, sign up to arrive in style.
• 2,500+ Nerf guns delivered. Check out the new models this year in celebration of Railgun 5.0 launch
• 3,000+ CloudFlare t-shirts bringing smiles to our partners

Today, CloudFlare is trusted by over 5,000 partners who offer performance and security to millions of customers accelerating and protecting websites, APIs, and mobile apps. We work hard to deliver real savings for our partners. For example, over the past month we saved our partners more than 25 petabytes in aggregate bandwidth (roughly equivalent to 350 hours of HDTV video); stopped 65 billion+ malicious attacks that would Continue reading

Apple Pay rival CurrentC to start rolling out next month

CurrentC, an electronic payment system backed by many of the biggest retailers in the U.S., will begin a limited public roll-out in August, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.The smartphone-based technology is intended to rival payment services from Apple, Google and Samsung, and an August launch would be in line with the “mid-2015” schedule the company told IDG News Service in April.CurrentC will offer the same type of convenience as its rivals, enabling consumers to pay at participating retail outlets by phone. But rather than rely on the phone’s wireless NFC (near-field communications) chip, the first-generation CurrentC involves the customer scanning a barcode on a retail terminal to initiate payment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Honda’s trippy Dream Drive is an awesome use of virtual reality

As I climbed into the Honda Pilot SUV, I didn’t have high hopes.I was trying out Honda’s Dream Drive, a prototype technology that pairs an Oculus Rift headset with data about the car’s movements to produce a virtual reality simulation.The car was going to drive around the parking lot at Honda’s new R&D center here in Mountain View, California, and the headset would let me gaze into another world as we drove along.“I bet it will be a race track with cars whizzing by,” I thought as I put on the headset. Perhaps I’m jaded, but I’ve tried many VR demonstrations and while fun they often feel a bit lacking and uninspired.And sure enough, there was the race track. I could see spectators to the left, the pits to the right, and sponsorship banners (Honda’s, of course) on a gantry above the first straight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HTIRW: NOG World

Network Operators Groups (NOGs) are integral to the running of the Internet. They're also great resource for network engineers. Providers tend to build large, complex networks, and they are generally very open about sharing how they're doing it -- from tools to techniques to equipment to processes.

The post HTIRW: NOG World appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Cisco ‘Hackers’ Ad Highlights Pivot To Security

Cisco: Hackers are under your bed.

Facebook prevails in shareholder lawsuit over IPO

An appeals court has ruled that shareholders cannot sue Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg in a case that accused the company of withholding key financial information from the public until after its IPO.The shareholders alleged that Facebook had failed to share its projections for mobile ad sales prior to the offering, disclosing them only to analysts who then relayed the information to certain investors.The plaintiffs complained that Facebook’s stock was “hammered” after it went public and the market learned of the lower forecasts. Facebook’s shares opened at just over US$42 on the Nasdaq on May 18, 2012, and fell to the low $30-range in the ensuing days. The stock has since risen strongly, trading at around $96 on Friday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Show 247 – ThousandEyes Network Visibility – Sponsored

How do you manage networks you don't control? Our sponsor ThousandEyes joins us to talk about how to get visibility into every network your organization relies on, enabling you to resolve issues faster, improve application delivery, and run your business more smoothly.

The post Show 247 – ThousandEyes Network Visibility – Sponsored appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Show 247 – ThousandEyes Network Visibility – Sponsored

How do you manage networks you don't control? Our sponsor ThousandEyes joins us to talk about how to get visibility into every network your organization relies on, enabling you to resolve issues faster, improve application delivery, and run your business more smoothly.

Author information

Ethan Banks

Co-host at Packet Pushers

Ethan Banks, CCIE #20655, has been managing networks for higher ed, government, financials and high tech since 1995. Ethan co-hosts the Packet Pushers Podcast, which has seen over 3M downloads and reaches over 10K listeners. With whatever time is left, Ethan writes for fun & profit, studies for certifications, and enjoys science fiction. @ecbanks

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The post Show 247 – ThousandEyes Network Visibility – Sponsored appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Ethan Banks.

PlexxiPulse—Disrupting The IT Channel

We’re honored that CRN has included Plexxi in this year’s 2015 Emerging Vendors List, an annual list that features up-and-coming technology vendors that have launched innovative new products that generate opportunities within the channel. Our team believes that the next generation of IT is upon us and we are honored to be recognized for our innovative solutions for the next generation of IT. To learn more about our predictions for what’s next in IT, take a look at this recent blog post by Bob Noel, Director of Solutions Marketing here at Plexxi.

We are continuing to partner with forward thinking channel partners to carve a new path in the market and to make our solutions widely accessible. Thank you to CRN for the distinction and congratulations to all of this year’s Emerging Vendors!

Below please find a few of our top picks for our favorite news articles of the week. Enjoy!

Forbes: Big Data Will Select Your Next Strategic Partner
By Christine Crandall
In an increasingly competitive but cost conscious world businesses are always looking for new ways to gain competitive advantages and revenue streams.  Businesses are likely to be more successful in achieving their goals if they Continue reading

Hillary Clinton sent classified information via personal email

A government investigation has concluded that Hillary Clinton sent classified information through a personal email account while she served as Secretary of State, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.The internal review of Clinton’s use of a personal account by the Inspector General for the intelligence community examined just 40 emails of the thousands sent through the account and found four of them contained information that should have been classified as “secret,” the newspaper said. None of the emails were marked as such.At the time they were sent, that was the second highest level of classification in the U.S. government.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US govt guide aims to bolster security of mobile devices used in health care

Health care providers are increasingly using smartphones and tablets for tasks such as accessing and transferring medical records, and submitting prescriptions, but these devices may not be secure enough to protect sensitive medical information from hackers.That’s the conclusion of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose cybersecurity center released a draft guide Thursday to help health IT professionals shore up the mobile devices.“Mobile devices are being used by many providers for health care delivery before they have implemented safeguards for privacy and security,” the agency said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: DDoS attack size is getting bigger, security firm says

DDoS attacks aren't going away anytime soon. In fact, they're getting bigger, according to network security company Arbor Networks. But there's good news for potential attacks in the Internet of Things arena—some heat is off there.DDoS, or Distributed Denial-of-Service, attacks are where numerous compromised computers are used to target a single system. In simple terms, the sheer size of the blast of traffic overwhelms the system.Large attacks Arbor Networks says that "while very large attacks are what makes headlines, average attacks are approaching one gigabit per second, and are rapidly becoming a real problem for more and more enterprises."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chrysler recalls 1.4M cars that were vulnerable to remote hacking

Chrysler has launched a recall of 1.4 million recent model cars that were vulnerable to being remotely accessed and controlled by hackers.The recall comes days after Wired reported a demonstration by hackers in which they were able to access and control a Chrysler Jeep as it was being driven.The hack detailed in the Wired article took place under somewhat controlled conditions—the driver, a Wired writer knew that it was about to happen—but it occurred on the busy Interstate 64 near St. Louis. It culminated in the vehicle slowing down and causing something of a traffic obstacle for cars behind.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chrysler recalls 1.4M cars that were vulnerable to remote hacking

Chrysler has launched a recall of 1.4 million recent model cars that were vulnerable to being remotely accessed and controlled by hackers.The recall comes days after Wired reported a demonstration by hackers in which they were able to access and control a Chrysler Jeep as it was being driven.The hack detailed in the Wired article took place under somewhat controlled conditions—the driver, a Wired writer knew that it was about to happen—but it occurred on the busy Interstate 64 near St. Louis. It culminated in the vehicle slowing down and causing something of a traffic obstacle for cars behind.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Even without breaches, don’t count on websites to hide that you have an account with them

Companies often fail to hide if an email address is associated with an account on their websites, even if the nature of their business calls for this and users implicitly expect it.This has been highlighted by data breaches at online dating sites AdultFriendFinder.com and AshleyMadison.com, which cater to people looking for one-time sexual encounters or extramarital affairs. Both were vulnerable to a very common and rarely addressed website security risk known as account or user enumeration.In the Adult Friend Finder hack, information was leaked on almost 3.9 million registered users, out of the 63 million registered on the site. With Ashley Madison, hackers claim to have access to customer records, including nude pictures, conversations and credit card transactions, but have reportedly leaked only 2,500 user names so far. The site has 33 million members.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 Steps to Developing an Effective IoT Strategy

Jump-start a successful IoT journey.