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Category Archives for "Networking"

Cloudflare recognized as a ‘Leader’ in The Forrester Wave for DDoS Mitigation Solutions

Cloudflare recognized as a 'Leader' in The Forrester Wave for DDoS Mitigation Solutions
Cloudflare recognized as a 'Leader' in The Forrester Wave for DDoS Mitigation Solutions

We’re thrilled to announce that Cloudflare has been named a leader in The Forrester WaveTM: DDoS Mitigation Solutions, Q1 2021. You can download a complimentary copy of the report here.

According to the report, written by, Forrester Senior Analyst for Security and Risk, David Holmes, “Cloudflare protects against DDoS from the edge, and fast… customer references view Cloudflare’s edge network as a compelling way to protect and deliver applications.”

Unmetered and unlimited DDoS protection for all

Cloudflare was founded with the mission to help build a better Internet — one where the impact of DDoS attacks is a thing of the past. Over the last 10 years, we have been unwavering in our efforts to protect our customers’ Internet properties from DDoS attacks of any size or kind. In 2017, we announced unmetered DDoS protection for free — as part of every Cloudflare service and plan including the Free plan — to make sure every organization can stay protected and available.

Thanks to our home-grown automated DDoS protection systems, we’re able to provide unmetered and unlimited DDoS protection for free. Our automated systems constantly analyze traffic samples asynchronously as to avoid impact to performance. They scan for Continue reading

HTTP Protocol, Web Page Waterfalls and Complexity

One aspect of networking is that some understanding of the protocols using the network is required. As HTTPS replaces nearly all other protocols I would suggest that everyone needs a working understanding of how a web page is fetched by a web browser. WebPageTest is a community tool that reads web pages and then displays […]

How to execute an object file: Part 1

Calling a simple function without linking

How to execute an object file: Part 1

When we write software using a high-level compiled programming language, there are usually a number of steps involved in transforming our source code into the final executable binary:

How to execute an object file: Part 1

First, our source files are compiled by a compiler translating the high-level programming language into machine code. The output of the compiler is a number of object files. If the project contains multiple source files, we usually get as many object files. The next step is the linker: since the code in different object files may reference each other, the linker is responsible for assembling all these object files into one big program and binding these references together. The output of the linker is usually our target executable, so only one file.

However, at this point, our executable might still be incomplete. These days, most executables on Linux are dynamically linked: the executable itself does not have all the code it needs to run a program. Instead it expects to "borrow" part of the code at runtime from shared libraries for some of its functionality:

How to execute an object file: Part 1

This process is called runtime linking: when our executable is being started, the operating system will invoke the dynamic Continue reading

HPE debuts new Opportunity Engine for fast AI insights

HP Enterprise has announced what it calls the Software Defined Opportunity Engine (SDOE), a cloud-based machine-learning platform that enables partners that sell HPE gear to cut the time to create custom sales proposals from weeks to just 45 seconds.In a blog post announcing the service, HPE Storage senior vice president and general manager Tom Black said SDOE does away with an outdated IT infrastructure-buying process at a time when digital transformation has never been more critical.To read this article in full, please click here

HPE debuts new Opportunity Engine for fast AI insights

HP Enterprise has announced what it calls the Software Defined Opportunity Engine (SDOE), a cloud-based machine-learning platform that enables partners that sell HPE gear to cut the time to create custom sales proposals from weeks to just 45 seconds.In a blog post announcing the service, HPE Storage senior vice president and general manager Tom Black said SDOE does away with an outdated IT infrastructure-buying process at a time when digital transformation has never been more critical.To read this article in full, please click here

Impact of Azure Subnets on High Availability Designs

Now that you know all about regions and availability zones (AZ) and the ways AWS and Azure implement subnets, let’s get to the crux of the original question Daniel Dib sent me:

As I understand it, subnets in Azure span availability zones. Do you see any drawback to this? You mentioned that it’s difficult to create application swimlanes that way. But does subnet matter if your VMs are in different AZs?

It’s time I explain the concepts of application swimlanes and how they apply to availability zones in public clouds.

Impact of Azure Subnets on High Availability Designs

Now that you know all about regions and availability zones (AZ) and the ways AWS and Azure implement subnets, let’s get to the crux of the original question Daniel Dib sent me:

As I understand it, subnets in Azure span availability zones. Do you see any drawback to this? You mentioned that it’s difficult to create application swimlanes that way. But does subnet matter if your VMs are in different AZs?

It’s time I explain the concepts of application swimlanes and how they apply to availability zones in public clouds.

New Year, New Name: Insights Platform Is Now Internet Society Pulse


In order to align better with the Internet Society’s brand strategy, and to further differentiate our platform from other products with similar names, we have decided to rename our measurement platform.

As of 1 March, 2021, Insights will be known as Internet Society Pulse.


The new URL is: https://pulse.internetsociety.org/

A redirect will be implemented so that anyone navigating to the previous URL will be automatically taken to Internet Society Pulse.

And, if you follow us on Twitter, you’ll see that our handle has been changed from @isoc_insights to @isoc_pulse.

The platform’s look and feel will not change.

Looking Ahead

We launched Insights in early December 2020 and are extremely proud of the impact that the platform has had in just three short months. We’re looking forward to ramping up the platform further in 2021 and will be adding three new focus areas throughout the year:

In 2021, we’ll also expand our analysis and reporting offerings, increase our engagement with the Internet measurements community, bring on board more data partners and add new features to the platform.

Stay up to date by signing up to our mailing list and Continue reading

Cisco closes $4.5B deal on optical powerhouse Acacia

After some legal wrangling earlier this year, Cisco has closed the $4.5 billion deal for optical maker Acacia Communications, Inc. Cisco coveted Acacia for its high-speed, optical interconnect technologies that let data center operators, webscale companies and service providers offer ever-faster service access to widely distributed resources. It also reinforces Cisco’s commitment to optics as a critical building block for networks of the future. “Acacia offers a complete portfolio of long-distance data-transmission solutions that address the full range of applications in the data-center-interconnect and wide-area network segments for metro, regional, long haul, and subsea links,” wrote Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Optical Systems and Optics Group in a blog about the acquisition.To read this article in full, please click here

Cisco closes $4.5B deal on optical powerhouse Acacia

After some legal wrangling earlier this year, Cisco has closed the $4.5 billion deal for optical maker Acacia Communications, Inc. Cisco coveted Acacia for its high-speed, optical interconnect technologies that let data center operators, webscale companies and service providers offer ever-faster service access to widely distributed resources. It also reinforces Cisco’s commitment to optics as a critical building block for networks of the future. “Acacia offers a complete portfolio of long-distance data-transmission solutions that address the full range of applications in the data-center-interconnect and wide-area network segments for metro, regional, long haul, and subsea links,” wrote Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Optical Systems and Optics Group in a blog about the acquisition.To read this article in full, please click here

Attend Future:NET 2021 – A Premier Networking Event

What is Future:NET? 

Sponsored by VMware, Future:NET 2021 is the premier thought leadership event on networking of the year. Scheduled for March 23 in AMER and March 24 in EMEA and APJ, the event will be simulcast live around the world—showcasing authentic, in-depth discussions led by the who’s-who of networking leaders. Come prepared to hear open, honest, and sometimes lively conversations about the future direction of networking. 

How is Future:NET 2021 Different from Previous Years? 

Future:NET has always been an invite-only, in-person event held during VMworld U.S. This year, we are taking it to the next level with a virtual format that will be broadcast live to a global audience on a new, interactive online platform. This will preserve the intimate, authentic feel of past events while allowing participants to share valuable insights with change agents around the world. 

Why Attend Future:NET? 

Future:NET is a different kind of industry event. While other networking conferences have been reduced to vendor showcases, Future:NET disallows product pitches in favor of open debates that foster in-depth conversation among professionals across the industry. This will not be a VMware showcase or a think tank. Future:NET is a vendor-agnostic industry event led by those who have forecasted, created, or disseminated change and who are lured by new technology and its ability to transform the world. Hear from luminaries such as Albert Greenberg from Azure, Bikash Koley from Google Cloud, Nick McKeown of Stanford University, Pere Monclus from VMware, and Vijoy Pandey from Continue reading

Rethinking BGP on the DC Fabric (part 5)

BGP is widely used as an IGP in the underlay of modern DC fabrics. This series argues this is not the best long-term solution to the problem of routing in fabrics because BGP is not ideal for this use case. This post will consider the potential harm we are doing to the larger Internet by pressing BGP into a role it was not originally designed to fulfill—an underlay protocol or an IGP.

My last post described the kinds of configuration required to make BGP work on a DC fabric—it turns out that the configuration of each BGP speaker on the fabric is close to unique. It is possible to automate configuring each speaker—but it would be better if we could get closer to autonomic operation.

To move BGP closer to autonomic operation in a DC fabric, there are several things we can do. First, we can allow a BGP speaker to peer with any other BGP speaker it receives an open message from—this is often called promiscuous mode. While each router in the fabric will still need to be configured with the right autonomous system, at least we won’t need to configure the correct peers on each router (including the Continue reading

Network Break 322: Juniper Mist-ifes 128 Technology; US Telcos Spend Big For 5G Spectrum

On today's Network Break we discuss a slate of Juniper announcements around new integrations with its Mist platform, plus new switches. HPE acquires a SaaS company for controlling cloud and infrastructure costs, US telcos spend $81 billion on spectrum for 5G, and we dive into the latest round of financial results from SolarWinds, VMware, and Nutanix.

The post Network Break 322: Juniper Mist-ifes 128 Technology; US Telcos Spend Big For 5G Spectrum appeared first on Packet Pushers.

DDoS Mitigation with Juniper, sFlow, and BGP Flowspec

Real-time DDoS mitigation using BGP RTBH and FlowSpec, DDoS protection of local address space, Pushing BGP Flowspec rules to multiple routersMonitoring DDoS mitigation, and Docker DDoS testbed demonstrate how sFlow and BGP Flowspec are combined by the DDoS Protect application running on the sFlow-RT real-time analytics engine to automatically detect and block DDoS attacks.

This article discusses how to deploy the DDoS Protect application in a Juniper Networks environment. Juniper has a long history of supporting BGP Flowspec on their routing platforms and Juniper has added support for sFlow to their entire product range, see sFlow available on Juniper MX series routers.

First, Junos doesn't provide a way to connect to the non-standard BGP port (1179) that sFlow-RT uses by default. Allowing sFlow-RT to open the standard BGP port (179) requires that the service be given additional Linux capabilities. 

docker run --rm --net=host --sysctl net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=0 \
sflow/ddos-protect -Dbgp.port=179

The above command launches the prebuilt sflow/ddos-protect Docker image. Alternatively, if sFlow-RT has been installed as a deb / rpm package, then the required permissions can be added to the service.

sudo systemctl edit sflow-rt.service
Type the above command to edit the Continue reading

Tech Bytes: Law Firm Relies On Aruba EdgeConnect To Support Work-From-Anywhere (Sponsored)

On today's Tech Bytes podcast, sponsored by Aruba, we talk with Scott Shaw, Chief Technology Officer at law firm FordHarrison about his SD-WAN deployment. Shaw was able to retire legacy routers, boost performance of critical applications, and enable the law firm's work-from-anywhere strategy.

The post Tech Bytes: Law Firm Relies On Aruba EdgeConnect To Support Work-From-Anywhere (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.