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Category Archives for "Networking"

Spectral Clustering

Motivation

Clustering is a way to make sense of the data by grouping similar values into a group. There are many ways to achieve that and in this post we will be looking at one of the way based on spectral method. Spectral clustering provides a starting point to understand graphs with many nodes by clustering them into 2 or more clusters. This clustering technique can also be applied for analyzing general data. This technique is based on Linear algebra and Graph theory.

We will start with a very brief introduction of the prerequisite for the sake of completeness and one can skip the prerequisite topics if they already have the familiarity.

Prerequisite Topic

Eigen Vectors and Eigen Values

One way to interpret when we multiply a vector a matrix is that a matrix transforms the vector. For example: below is a vector \(\begin{pmatrix} 2\\1 \end{pmatrix}\)

Original Vector (3,2)

we apply a transformation by multiplying the above vector to a matrix

\[\begin{pmatrix} -1 & 3 \\ 2 & -2 \end{pmatrix}\]

The resultant vector \(\begin{pmatrix} 1\\2 \end{pmatrix}\) is in orange after transformation. Transformed Vector (1,3)

you can see how the vector changed its direction after the transformation. Now in case of Eigenvectors, which are special kinds of Continue reading

Your Automation Skills will Travel Well

In 2020 our automation skills may be the only thing that does travel! What I mean is that the automation skills being evangelized by so many in the networking community (Kirk Byers, David Bombal, Nick Russo, Jason Edelman and the Network to Code team, Hank Preston and Cisco DevNet and many more ....) will serve READ MORE

The post Your Automation Skills will Travel Well appeared first on The Gratuitous Arp.

Smart Network or Dumb?

Should the network be dumb or smart? Network vendors have recently focused on making the network as smart as possible because there is a definite feeling that dumb networks are quickly becoming a commodity—and it’s hard to see where and how steep profit margins can be maintained in a commodifying market. Software vendors, on the other hand, have been encroaching on the network space by “building in” overlay network capabilities, especially in virtualization products. VMWare and Docker come immediately to mind; both are either able to, or working towards, running on a plain IP fabric, reducing the number of services provided by the network to a minimum level (of course, I’d have a lot more confidence in these overlay systems if they were a lot smarter about routing … but I’ll leave that alone for the moment).

How can this question be answered? One way is to think through what sorts of things need to be done in processing packets, and then think through where it makes most sense to do those things. Another way is to measure the accuracy or speed at which some of these “packet processing things” can be done so you can decide in a more Continue reading

Cloudflare’s Network Shutdown Shows Why DNS Is a DevOps Problem

Cloudflare’s Jonathan Sullivan, NS1 chief technology officer and co-founder, told The New Stack. While Cloudflare — an NS1 competitor — did have DNS redundancy built into its infrastructure, the resulting traffic drop in its network infrastructure was about 50% throughout its network and resulted in a 27-minutes outage of Cloudflare Internet properties and services, Cloudflare Chief Technology Officer blog post. A router overload in the state of Georgia resulted in the Cloudflare outage. One way Cloudflare learned to prevent such an event from recurring was to set a limit on the Georgia router’s traffic for BGP sessions. This will result in the shutdown of Continue reading

What’s the Big Deal with Multi-Cloud Networking?

The other day I was pruning my apps on my phone to delete those that had not been used in a long time. Here are some that gave me pause: Business (Adobe, Concur, Dropbox, etc) E-commerce (Amazon, Grocery Shopping, Meal Delivery, Starbucks, etc) Financial Institutions G-Suite Apps Microsoft 365 Apps Home Automation (Amazon Alexa, Home … Continue reading What’s the Big Deal with Multi-Cloud Networking?

How to tailor SASE to your enterprise

Businesses considering the secure access service edge (SASE) model need to understand that there are numerous ways to implement it that can be tailored to their future needs and the realities of their legacy networks.As defined by Gartner, which coined the term, SASE calls for security to be built in as part of the network and delivered as a cloud service, but that might not fit the circumstances faced by all enterprises.READ about SD-WAN: How to buy SD-WAN technology: Key questions to consider when selecting a supplier • How to pick an off-site data-backup method •  SD-Branch: What it is and why you’ll need it • What are the options for security SD-WAN? Depending on their needs, it may make more sense to have SASE delivered as a managed service package or even in an architecture that includes privately owned security infrastructure that is managed from the cloud – alternatives that can achieve the same goals.To read this article in full, please click here

Network Break 294: Fortinet, Arrcus Target Multi-Cloud Networking; Innovium Rakes In More ASIC Funding

Today's Network Break analyzes multi-cloud networking announcements from Fortinet and Arrcus, discusses additional venture funding for ASIC-maker Innovium, looks at more consolidation in the SD-WAN market, and debates whether "Internet" should be capitalized.

The post Network Break 294: Fortinet, Arrcus Target Multi-Cloud Networking; Innovium Rakes In More ASIC Funding appeared first on Packet Pushers.

The Week in Internet News: Looking for a Broadband Miracle in Rural Canada

Creating a miracle: Residents of rural British Columbia, Canada, are pushing for better Internet access, with one resident saying getting access to good connectivity is like “hoping for a miracle,” the CBC reports. Local government leaders are working with community leaders and businesses to improve Internet services. Local leaders are researching options to establish a broadband Internet service in Clearwater, British Columbia, including the possibility of building new mobile towers.

Building their own: Meanwhile, a few hundred miles south in Klamath, California, Yurok tribal officials have announced a new project that they hope will significantly boost Internet speeds and expand coverage on their reservation, KRCR News reports. The$2.1 million project is funded by the U.S. Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. One of the goals is to better allow students to participate in distance learning.

No distance learning for you: In a related story, a study from Future Ready Schools finds that 16.9 million U.S. students lack home Internet access, Education Dive says. In addition, 3.6 million U.S. households lack a computer, impacting 7.3 million students, according to the study. About a third of Native American, Latino, and African-American students in the Continue reading

Are newer medical IoT devices less secure than old ones?

Experts differ on whether older connected medical devices or newer ones are more to blame for making healthcare networks more vulnerable to cyberattack.The classic narrative of insecure IoT centers on the integration of older devices into the network. In some industries, those devices pre-date the internet, sometimes by a considerable length of time, so it’s hardly surprising that businesses face a lot of challenges in securing them against remote compromise.To read this article in full, please click here

Introducing Workers Unbound

Introducing Workers Unbound
Introducing Workers Unbound

We launched Cloudflare Workers® in 2017 with the goal of building the development platform that we wished we had. We want to enable developers to build great software while Cloudflare manages the overhead of configuring and maintaining the infrastructure. Workers is with you from the first line of code, to the first application, all the way to a globally scaled product. By making our Edge network programmable and providing servers in 200+ locations around the world, we offer you the power to execute on even the biggest ideas.

Behind the scenes at Cloudflare, we’ve been steadily working towards making development on the Edge even more powerful and flexible. Today, we are excited to announce the next phase of this with the launch of our new platform, Workers Unbound, without restrictive CPU limits in a private beta (sign up for details here).

Introducing Workers Unbound

What is Workers Unbound? How is it different from Cloudflare Workers?

Workers Unbound is like our classic Cloudflare Workers (now referred to as Workers Bundled), but for applications that need longer execution times. We are extending our CPU limits to allow customers to bring all of their workloads onto Workers, no matter how intensive. It eliminates the choice Continue reading

Conference Preview: WISP Virtual Summit 2020

photo credit: Jeff Little

It seems like ages ago that we blocked out time in our schedules to fly to technical conferences and immerse ourselves with great people and content for an entire week.

In reality, it’s only been a few months but 2020 has made it seem like a lifetime.

However, those of us in tech are quick to adapt and virtual conferences are now a thing.

For the fixed wireless industry, in-person conferences are critical because most of the attendees are entrepreneurs.

For a small business owner in tech, going to a show is one of the best ways to evaluate content and business opportunities needed to stay competitive in a short amount of time.

The first virtual conference for Wireless ISPs

Thankfully, due to some amazing effort and collaboration in the WISP industry led by Preseem and supported by WISPA, we are about to kick off the first virtual conference for the fixed wireless industry on July 28th, 2020.

An enormous amount of work has gone into planning and preparation to replicate the experience of an in-person technical conference as much as possible.

First thing’s first….get registered

Kick off the registration process by visiting: https://wispvirtualsummit2020. Continue reading

The Edge Computing Opportunity: It’s Not What You Think

The Edge Computing Opportunity: It’s Not What You Think
The Edge Computing Opportunity: It’s Not What You Think

Cloudflare Workers® is one of the largest, most widely used edge computing platforms. We announced Cloudflare Workers nearly three years ago and it's been generally available for the last two years. Over that time, we've seen hundreds of thousands of developers write tens of millions of lines of code that now run across Cloudflare's network.

Just last quarter, 20,000 developers deployed for the first time a new application using Cloudflare Workers. More than 10% of all requests flowing through our network today use Cloudflare Workers. And, among our largest customers, approximately 20% are adopting Cloudflare Workers as part of their deployments. It's been incredible to watch the platform grow.

Over the course of the coming week, which we’re calling Serverless Week, we're going to be announcing a series of enhancements to the Cloudflare Workers platform to allow you to build much more complicated applications, lower your serverless computing bills, make your applications even faster, and prove that the Workers platform is secure to its core.

Matthew’s Hierarchy of Developers' Needs

Before the week begins, I wanted to step back and talk a bit about what we've learned about edge computing over the course of the last three years. When we Continue reading

How to Create an Online Networking Event Invite for a Zoom Party

Video conferencing is the best way to communicate with others if you are working remotely or you are a part of a global team. However, now it has become a basic necessity. We have all heard of Zoom, and this year, it has become very popular.

We see people celebrating birthdays and having cocktail parties on Zoom now. People now consider Zoom parties to be the most convenient and safe way of staying in touch with one another. It has become the new norm of networking online. However, creating Zoom parties requires a bit of learning, especially if this is your first time hosting a virtual party.

How to Set Up a Zoom Party

In this article we will talk about the steps to set up a Zoom party, especially for those who have not yet discovered how to do so.

First things first, use a laptop. Zoom has a mobile application too, but attending a virtual zoom party can be hard as you will have to keep holding the phone, which will soon become draining. Other than that, attending a Zoom party on a laptop is a lot more fun, you can see all the faces and eat Continue reading

Reflecting on my first year at Cloudflare as a Field Marketer in APAC

Reflecting on my first year at Cloudflare as a Field Marketer in APAC
Reflecting on my first year at Cloudflare as a Field Marketer in APAC

Hey there! I am Els (short form for Elspeth) and I am the Field Marketing and Events Manager for APAC. I am responsible for building brand awareness and supporting our lovely sales team in acquiring new logos across APAC.

I was inspired to write about my first year in Cloudflare, because John, our CTO, encouraged more women to write for our Cloudflare blog after reviewing our blogging statistics and found out that more men than women blog for Cloudflare. I jumped at the chance because I thought this is a great way to share many side stories as people might not know about how it feels to work in Cloudflare.

Why Cloudflare?

Before I continue, I must mention that I really wanted to join Cloudflare after reading our co-founder Michelle’s reply on Quora regarding "What is it like to work in Cloudflare?." Michelle’s answer as follows:

“my answer is 'adult-like.' While we haven’t adopted this as our official company-wide mantra, I like the simplicity of that answer. People work hard, but go home at the end of the day. People care about their work and want to do a great job. When someone does a good job, Continue reading