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Category Archives for "Networking"

IDG Contributor Network: DSL reaches speeds of 170 Mbps

While those of us interested in obtaining the fastest download speeds possible closely watch, and then seize on, fiber and upgraded cable rollouts, salivating over speeds of 100 Mbps and up, it's easy to forget the many people still can't get cable and rely on lowly, twisted-pair DSL. DSL download speeds at common ISPs range from 14 to 43 Mbps, according to Ookla's Speedtest.net. Crosstalk between lines has restricted bandwidth, for one thing.However, things might be about to change, particularly in Europe.G.fast technologyG.fast is a fiber-to-the node (FTTN) DSL technology that has obtained accelerated speeds of 170 Mbps over a quarter mile in the lab, and 1 Gbps over a less-usable 100 yards in the same setting. It works best over short distances.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon bumps up its 100G metro fiber-optic network

Verizon on Tuesday announced new technology to bolster its super-fast 100 Gbps fiber-optic network serving metro areas, but didn't reveal where the work will be done or other details.The vague announcement raised the question of whether Verizon is simply trying to show its competitive value against Google and AT&T, which have both announced fiber Internet services in a number of cities.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 5 free Ethernet tools you should check out "I think Verizon is trying to play catch up to the others without saying it that way," said independent analyst Jeff Kagan. "The only question I still have is will Verizon be a real competitor or is this mostly just talk to cover their butts in the rapidly changing marketplace?"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Startup Rubrik goes all-in-one with backup appliance

All-in-one boxes are hot in data centers, and the concept is starting to expand into backup and recovery.A Silicon Valley startup called Rubrik will start shipping a system later this year that combines software for backup, recovery and deduplication with commodity hardware for storage capacity and networking. Rubrik will sell the appliance in standard configurations so customers can just add more boxes as their needs grow.It’s an alternative to the way backup and recovery systems are typically built today, with specialized backup software from one vendor combined with deduplication from another provider and installed on storage hardware from yet another company, said Rubrik co-founder and CEO Bipul Sinha. Like makers of so-called hyperconverged computing, storage and networking platforms, Rubrik can make life easier for IT shops, Sinha said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP boxes up the cloud for the enterprise

Enterprises that wish to enjoy the benefits of cloud computing but still prefer to keep computational resources in-house should take a look at a new cloud system offered by Hewlett-Packard.A preconfigured package of hardware and software, the HP Helion Rack “is designed to help enterprises deploy private clouds much faster,” said Ken Won, director of HP Helion marketing.A private cloud allows an organization to offer cloud services, such as virtual machines, on internal networks. For example, employees could use a private cloud to provision their own IT resources. Or, a company may want to set up a cloud computing infrastructure itself to run cloud services on behalf of their customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Despite its design, One M9 unlikely to be HTC’s knight in shining armor

The One M9 may be a knockout, but it’s not likely to save HTC. The device looks similar to its predecessor at a time when competitors have multiplied and stepped up their game, making it even harder for the struggling company to make a mark in the high-end segment.Design has, since the launch of the first One model, been HTC’s biggest strength. The One M9, however, doesn’t have the same wow factor as its predecessors since the design is no longer as groundbreaking.“To most consumers the One M9 will look almost identical to the One M8, which preceded it, and that’s a big challenge for HTC,” said Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NFV and SDNs will make up the cloud

If McLuhan was right, what we know today as "The Cloud" will be resources linked through massively and continuously variable software-designed networks using largely software-defined linking. Your compute might be in Dallas, but let's store the data in Germany where the privacy laws suit our regulatory/compliance needs.In the bad old days, huge racks filled with "datacomm" equipment and -48v racks of batteries to back them up were anchors in data communications. A big logo sat on the cabinets, claiming space for a carrier. Inside, lots of CSUs/DSUs lived, circuits and monitoring equipment running furiously, and hopefully, 24/7/365.25. The AT&T Cabinet wasn't much different than the Sprint or Verizon cabinet, and Level 3 seemed newer, at least judging by the age of the paint on the rack. Somewhere in that rack was a jack, your jack, fiber, Ethernet, SONET, ATM, and with the jack you were connected to: someplace else.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dutch service providers must delete retained telecom data

Dutch telecom providers have to delete data that had been retained under the now-scrapped data retention law, unless it is needed for business purposes.The Dutch data retention law that required ISPs and telecommunications operators to store customer metadata for police investigations was scrapped by the District Court of the Hague earlier this month for violating fundamental privacy rights.While most providers were quick to stop collecting the data, uncertainty remained about what should happen with the data that was already collected and stored when the law was in force.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Does EMC Need A Network?

EMCnetwork

Network acquisitions are in the news once again. This time, the buyer is EMC. In a blog article from last week, EMC is reportedly mulling the purchase of either Brocade or Arista to add a networking component to its offerings. While Arista would be a good pickup for EMC to add a complete data center networking practice, one must ask themselves “Does EMC Really Need A Network?”

Hardware? For What?

The “smart money” says that EMC needs a network offering to help complete their vBlock offering now that the EMC/Cisco divorce is in the final stages. EMC has accelerated those plans from the server side by offering EVO:RAIL as an option for VSPEX now. Yes, VSPEX isn’t a vBlock. But it’s a flexible architecture that will eventually supplant vBlock when the latter is finally put out to pasture once the relationship between Cisco and EMC is done.

EMC being the majority partner in VCE has incentive to continue offering the package to customers to make truckloads of cash. But long term, it makes more sense for EMC to start offering alternatives to a Cisco-only network. There have been many, many assurances that vBlock will not be going away any Continue reading

Flash-based vulnerability lingers on many websites three years later

Flash files that are vulnerable to a serious flaw patched by Adobe Systems over three years ago still exist on many websites, exposing users to potential attacks.The vulnerability, known as CVE-2011-2461, was found in the Adobe Flex Software Development Kit (SDK) and was fixed by Adobe in November 2011. The development tool, which has since been donated to the Apache Software Foundation, allows users to build cross-platform rich Internet applications in Flash.The vulnerability was unusual because fixing it didn’t just require Flex SDK to be updated, but also patching all the individual Flash applications (SWF files) that had been created with vulnerable versions of the SDK.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

F5 leverages LineRate to go lightweight for software defined IT environments

A little over two years ago, application delivery controller market leader F5 Networks acquired LineRate Systems to jump into the software defined networking (SDN) game. There are a number of SDN solution providers that operate at layer 2/3, but LineRate delivers application-layer services into a software-defined environment. These services include security, acceleration, optimization, and intelligent traffic management.Late last week, F5 unveiled the first fruits of the acquisition when it announced a fully virtualized, lightweight load balancing product. The pure software solution enables customers to extend F5's Synthesis framework to any application regardless of where or how it's deployed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

‘When will IPv4 become obsolete?’

On Reddit’s forum devoted to networking – r/networking – a user asks: “I know that IPv4 is all out of addresses, and most devices are running both IPv4 and IPv6. How long is it going to take before we no longer see both addresses on a device, but only IPv6? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? Does anyone have an estimate?”Oh, yes, they do; in fact, 82 Redditors offer their views on the matter. Here are a few that represent the general tenor: Well since I still support IPX for some legacy apps ... in 100 years. Right after POTS dies. And then only after another 30 years. General IPv6 adoption is 18 months away. My college prof told me this in 1995, and he's still right. Not in our career lifetime. IPv6 will take off during the year of the Linux desktop. You'll pull IPv4 from my cold, dead hands... But there were also a fair number of more nuanced replies:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Crazy Busy

For too many of us, the hustle and bustle of electronic activity is a sad expression of a deeper acedia. We feel busy, but not with a hobby or recreation or play. We are busy with busyness. Rather than figure out what to do with our spare minutes and hours, we are content to swim in the shallows and pass our time with passing the time.

Server heating startup teams with energy company to heat Dutch homes

A Dutch utility is inviting five families to use radiator-sized servers to heat their living rooms for free.In a trial organized by local utility Eneco, Nerdalize will install its server radiators in five homes, using them to deliver cloud computing services to its clients.The households using the heater could save €400 (about US$440) on their annual heating bill, said Eneco spokesman Marcel van Dun .Nerdalize pays for the electricity, but doesn’t have to deal with the space and cooling costs of conventional cloud and co-location data centers, allowing it to sell its services for 30 to 55 percent less than more conventional cloud-providers, it said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VMware NSX Ninjas – VMware TAM Services

VMware Technical Account Managers combine deep expertise with insights from successful implementations to provide unparalleled value to Goal-SettingVMware customers’ business. Curtis Miller is a Technical Account Manager for VMware and in this post, which originally appeared on The VMware TAM Blog, he outlines how to help ensure success with VMware NSX TAM Services.

For networking, VMware NSX is a game-changer in the same way VMware vSphere was for data center servers. NSX virtualizes and consolidates legacy networking functionality back into a hypervisor. As a result, adding or changing network capabilities no longer requires the costly replacement of networking gear. It’s all software based—so upgrades are now just a right-click away.

The resulting cost savings are dramatic because network hardware is replaced far less often and used more efficiently. Deployment times and scalability improve substantially because networks can be created in minutes instead of weeks; and if demand falls, those resources can just as easily be reclaimed. Enhanced security via NSX’s micro-segmentation capabilities is another important benefit as well.

Read Curtis’ full blog here: http://blogs.vmware.com/tam/2015/03/ensuring-success-vmware-nsx-tam-services.html

Roger

Introduction to Network Design, Pre-CCDE Training

I am going to start an ONLINE Pre-CCDE  preparation course in Mid of April I realized that many people is not ready to start study CCDE study and they don’t know what they study before attend a CCDE Training or Bootcamps. Course will cover network design principles,theory of the; IGP, BGP, MPLS, VPNs, Qos, Multicast and… Read More »

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