FireHost Picks VMware NSX Over Cisco ACI

In the cloud and security realm, VMware's NSX has landed a notable customer.

Free Networking Books

It’s hard to believe in our ‘you are the product’ monetized world but there are some really good, high quality, free networking books out there, with absolutely no strings attached (think Ultron). Here’s a quick list of the one’s I know about. Please do let me know about any others you are aware of in […]

Author information

Steven Iveson

Steven Iveson, the last of four children of the seventies, was born in London and has never been too far from a shooting, bombing or riot. He's now grateful to live in a small town in East Yorkshire in the north east of England with his wife Sam and their four children.

He's worked in the IT industry for over 20 years in a variety of roles, predominantly in data centre environments. Working with switches and routers pretty much from the start he now also has a thirst for application delivery, automation, SDN, virtualisation and related products and technologies. He's published a number of F5 Networks related books, is a regular contributor at DevCentral and was an F5 DevCentral MVP for 2014.

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China, iPhone 6 help Apple to another record quarter

Apple achieved its second straight quarter of record results as demand for the new iPhone 6 surged and China became Apple’s second most important market after the U.S.The company sold 61.2 million units of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus during the the first three months of 2015, blasting past the 44 million [m] it shipped during the same quarter of last year when the iPhone 5S was still new on the market.Those sales helped Apple to a net profit of $13.6 billion [b], up by almost 33 percent, on revenue of $58 billion [b] for the quarter, up 27 percent. That’s above the $55 billion [b] Apple had said it was expecting and the $56 billion [b] consensus expectation from financial analysts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

China, iPhone 6 help Apple to another record quarter

Apple achieved its second straight quarter of record results as demand for the new iPhone 6 surged and China became Apple’s second most important market after the U.S.The company sold 61.2 million units of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus during the the first three months of 2015, blasting past the 44 million [m] it shipped during the same quarter of last year when the iPhone 5S was still new on the market.Those sales helped Apple to a net profit of $13.6 billion [b], up by almost 33 percent, on revenue of $58 billion [b] for the quarter, up 27 percent. That’s above the $55 billion [b] Apple had said it was expecting and the $56 billion [b] consensus expectation from financial analysts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NASA exploring half-million dollar fast computing challenge

NASA is looking at developing a public competition that would pit competitors in developing fast, powerful computers that would help support advanced applications.According to NASA, despite tremendous progress made in the past few decades, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools in particular are too slow for simulation of complex geometry flows, particularly those involving flow separation and combustion applications. To enable high-fidelity CFD for multi-disciplinary analysis and design, the speed of computation must be increased by orders of magnitude, the space agency said.+More on Network World: The zany world of identified flying objects+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Massachusetts drafts regulations for car-hailing services like Uber, Lyft

Drivers for Web-based, ride-hailing services in Massachusetts would be subject to criminal background checks by the state and their company if a bill unveiled Friday by the state’s governor becomes law.That safety provision is just one outlined in a bill that is designed to regulate companies like Uber and Lyft without stifling themThe proposed law would place such services in a new regulatory category called transportation network companies” and require them to obtain a special license from the state Department of Public Utilities, which oversees other modes of transportation. To cover the cost of this oversight, the companies would be subject to a yearly tax based on the revenue they earn in the state. Details on how the tax would be calculated weren’t provided.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook adds free video calling to Messenger

Users can now place free video calls with Messenger, as Facebook continues to extend the app beyond simple text-based chats.With the feature, Facebook is also taking a jab at competing products like Apple’s FaceTime, Microsoft’s Skype and Google Hangouts. Facebook previously allowed video calling through its site on the desktop, but not within its Messenger app.The video calling feature is available in the iOS and Android Messenger apps. iOS users will be able to video chat with Android users, and vice versa. It began rolling out Monday in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries including Mexico, Nigeria and Uruguay, with availability in more regions slated for the coming months, Facebook said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP buys Aruba and next thing you know Dell is reselling Aerohive WiFi gear

Aerohive Networks announced Monday that Dell will begin reselling its wireless LAN and related management products -- not a shocker in light of longtime Dell OEM partner Aruba Networks being snapped up by HP in a multi-billion deal last month.Aerohive says Dell is a good fit in that the 802.11ac access points and HiveManager NG cloud-based management platform help to fill out Dell's line-up of products spanning from the data center to endpoints. "We believe there is a large demand from customers that like doing business with 'pure play' access layer solution providers vs. large networking companies like Cisco and HP," says Bill Hoppin, Aerohive VP of Business Development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP buys Aruba and next thing you know Dell is reselling Aerohive WiFi gear

Aerohive Networks announced Monday that Dell will begin reselling its wireless LAN and related management products -- not a shocker in light of longtime Dell OEM partner Aruba Networks being snapped up by HP in a multi-billion deal last month.Aerohive says Dell is a good fit in that the 802.11ac access points and HiveManager NG cloud-based management platform help to fill out Dell's line-up of products spanning from the data center to endpoints. "We believe there is a large demand from customers that like doing business with 'pure play' access layer solution providers vs. large networking companies like Cisco and HP," says Bill Hoppin, Aerohive VP of Business Development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP buys Aruba and next thing you know Dell is reselling Aerohive WiFi gear

Aerohive Networks announced Monday that Dell will begin reselling its wireless LAN and related management products -- not a shocker in light of longtime Dell OEM partner Aruba Networks being snapped up by HP in a multi-billion deal last month.Aerohive says Dell is a good fit in that the 802.11ac access points and HiveManager NG cloud-based management platform help to fill out Dell's line-up of products spanning from the data center to endpoints. "We believe there is a large demand from customers that like doing business with 'pure play' access layer solution providers vs. large networking companies like Cisco and HP," says Bill Hoppin, Aerohive VP of Business Development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Going with the flow: The psychology of mobile app design

In psychology, flow, also known as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus: a writer writing an article, a professional athlete competing at peak performance, or even a shopper suddenly convinced to buy that random thing, and have the ability to buy it when the urge strikes. Understanding the flow of a person and how personalized applications and information seamlessly fits into the daily routines of people is quickly becoming a major part of information experience and design.The idea of flow was originally devised in the 1970's when Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi and his fellow researchers began researching the concept after Csíkszentmihályi became fascinated by artists who would essentially get lost in their work. During the interviews ,several people described their "flow" experiences using the metaphor of a water current carrying them along.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

3 new types of 3D printers

Although the cost of 3D printers continues to drop so that more people have them in their homes, it’s not like most homes have one. But innovative minds keep turning out new and improved 3D printers, such as the following three new types: one can print soft and cuddly objects from fabric; another includes actuators that allow an object to morph after being exposed to external stimuli; the last has a retrofit kit to change 3D printers into 3D food printers.Disney 3D-prints soft objects from fabric You know how little kids can be super attached to one particular item like a toy or a blanket? And if that item gets lost or destroyed, it’s a red alert unless you can find another exactly like the first. If that beloved object is a soft cuddly toy, wouldn’t be great if you could 3-D print another? Disney Research has come up with a 3D printer that can create soft interactive objects like a printed fabric bunny.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why the LSO Market Will Be Billions of Dollars

Carrier SDN will drive new software called Lifecycle Service Orchestration, the next step beyond OSS/BSS.

How JetBlue uses tech to help customers take flight

When you think of good customer service, Amazon and Zappos may come to mind, but a major commercial airline may not. JetBlue is working to change that perception by incorporating new technologies that focus on improving customer service, streamlining transactions and making flights more enjoyable.The customer-facing technology transformation at JetBlue ramped up three years ago with the appointment of its new CIO, Eash Sundaram. He says JetBlue needed to be about customer service and technology as much as it was about getting passengers to their destinations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP switches fortify campus SDNs

HP this week strengthened its campus networking portfolio with modules for a switch chassis it announced almost a year ago, and an SDN-based management application.The additions are intended to improve an enterprise’s ability to support mobility, security, application performance and network monitoring in the campus. They are consistent with the industry trend in campus networking to better integrate wired and wireless infrastructure and applications.+ MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Aruba Networks is different from HP’s failed wireless acquisitions +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP switches fortify campus SDNs

HP this week strengthened its campus networking portfolio with modules for a switch chassis it announced almost a year ago, and an SDN-based management application.The additions are intended to improve an enterprise’s ability to support mobility, security, application performance and network monitoring in the campus. They are consistent with the industry trend in campus networking to better integrate wired and wireless infrastructure and applications.+ MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Aruba Networks is different from HP’s failed wireless acquisitions +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Can gamification solve enterprises’ engagement problem?

If 90 percent of the world’s workforce were suddenly struck with a debilitating illness that rendered them unable to perform to their fullest potential, it would be declared a global crisis.In enterprises, that statistic is more or less the norm.Just 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs, a recent Gallup report found—meaning that they’re “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.”The remaining 87 percent? Not so much. They’re either “not engaged or indifferent—or even worse, actively disengaged and potentially hostile—to their organizations.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Lightbulbs get smarter with included Wi-Fi and speakers

If your place is larger than an apartment, there's a good chance that you spend a bit of time, periodically, going around changing lightbulbs.It's one of those things. Like cutting the grass and placing the garbage cans at the curb, it's the price you pay.Replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs can go some of the way towards solving this onerous time-absorber. GE claims its screw-in LED light bulb replacements last 25 years, for example.They cost a bit more, but they do save on work. You shouldn't have to change them as often—if at all.Multifunction light bulbs Well, one Chinese LED light bulb manufacturer reckons it has solved this, and a couple of other home issues too. It has a solution to the problem of expiring bulbs, Wi-Fi dead spots in the home, and also the issue of trailing wires for audio speakers—all within the light bulb.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Lightbulbs get smarter with included Wi-Fi and speakers

If your place is larger than an apartment, there's a good chance that you spend a bit of time, periodically, going around changing lightbulbs.It's one of those things. Like cutting the grass and placing the garbage cans at the curb, it's the price you pay.Replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs can go some of the way towards solving this onerous time-absorber. GE claims its screw-in LED light bulb replacements last 25 years, for example.They cost a bit more, but they do save on work. You shouldn't have to change them as often—if at all.Multifunction light bulbs Well, one Chinese LED light bulb manufacturer reckons it has solved this, and a couple of other home issues too. It has a solution to the problem of expiring bulbs, Wi-Fi dead spots in the home, and also the issue of trailing wires for audio speakers—all within the light bulb.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Magnificent 7

Our Cumulus Networks team is very excited that Supermicro has joined our Open Hardware partner program, the latest major IT systems provider to join the industry-wide open networking movement.

Now there are Seven. 

Supermicro is a leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server, blade, storage, and networking technology for Green Computing – worldwide. Cumulus Linux on Supermicro bare-metal switches further extends the reach of the Supermicro solutions, enabling rapid deployment of a highly scalable, cost effective software-defined network infrastructure for data center, cloud, enterprise IT, big data and HPC.

As our seventh Open Hardware partner, Supermicro is now part of a very impressive list of providers on the Cumulus Linux HCL: Agema, Dell, Edge-Core, HP, Penguin, Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT), and Supermicro.

What does it mean for the industry? Open Networking is inevitable and Cumulus Networks is leading the way.

Major changes are underway in the IT industry that improve data center networking, allowing organizations of all sizes to leverage efficient technology that was developed by the world’s largest cloud operators. The resulting data center networks scale more easily, enable much faster innovation, and cost significantly less to build and operate. With data center infrastructure leaders like Supermicro embracing Continue reading