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
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?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.
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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 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
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).
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
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
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
Linux Shell Recursively Remove Whitespace Lines From All Files
How to Remove the lines with only white space from all files in a directory tree.Weekend Reads 072420
Blame it on the webinar yesterday… I’m late again. 
However, there have been multiple reported attempts to exploit the transfer market as part of malicious operations — such as the hijacking of dormant address space and spamming — which, judging by exchanges between operators in mailing Continue reading
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
Linux Shell Recursively Remove Whitespace Lines From All Files
This is just a quick post to outline how to remove the lines with only white space from all files in a directory tree. I found another method to do this with the application I am using but I wanted to keep this handy one liner in my back pocket for future reference. Dark Magic The...Heavy Networking 531: Hyperscale Multi-Cloud Networking With Arrcus (Sponsored)
Today's Heavy Networking podcast examines a new multi-cloud networking product from sponsor Arrcus. Arrcus streamlines and secures multi-cloud networks via its new ArcEdge and ArcOrchestrator products that connect the data center and edge locations to the cloud. Our guest are Keyur Patel, CTO of Arrcus; and Sree Kannan, VP of Product Management.
The post Heavy Networking 531: Hyperscale Multi-Cloud Networking With Arrcus (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Heavy Networking 531: Hyperscale Multi-Cloud Networking With Arrcus (Sponsored)
Today's Heavy Networking podcast examines a new multi-cloud networking product from sponsor Arrcus. Arrcus streamlines and secures multi-cloud networks via its new ArcEdge and ArcOrchestrator products that connect the data center and edge locations to the cloud. Our guest are Keyur Patel, CTO of Arrcus; and Sree Kannan, VP of Product Management.Video Meetings and Learning Styles
Have you noticed that every meeting needs to be on video now? Of course, that’s a rhetorical question. It’s one of the first and most constant things that is brought up in the pandemic-influenced tech community of today. Meetings that used to be telephone-only or even wordy emails are now video chats that take half an hour or more. People complain that they are spending time and money to spruce up their office to look presentable at 720p to people that likely aren’t paying attention anyway. It’s a common complaint. But have you ever thought about why?
Listening and Looking to Learn
There are three major styles of learning that get brought up in academic courses.
- Physical, or kinesthetic, learners learn best from touching things. They want to manipulate and feel things as they learn. They like to gesture when they talk. They also get bored quickly when things are taking too long or they have to sit still too much.
- Visual learners learn best from seeing things. They like to look around and tend to think in pictures. They would rather see something instead of hearing someone speak.
- Auditory learners like to hear things being spoken. They want to Continue reading
A (Fairly) Non-Technical Guide to Routing Security Basics
On the MANRS website, we write about routing security. We dig into the details of technical problems, research the origins of route leaks and hijacks, analyze trends and statistics related to networks around the globe via the MANRS Observatory, and generally get pretty nerdy about how to improve the routing system that underpins the Internet. Last week, we took a step back and published a series of posts regarding Routing Security Basics.
This 5-part series covers the following topics:
- What Is Routing?
- How Does Routing Work?
- What’s Wrong with Routing?
- What Are Routing Incidents?
- What are the MANRS Actions?
While it’s difficult to explain routing security without assuming some baseline knowledge, our intent is for these posts to be as non-technical as possible to help non-experts understand this sometimes-complicated topic.
It all started with a Twitter thread on a Friday afternoon, comparing routing security to online dating. We then expanded this silly analogy into a series of blog posts. Follow along as Juan, Maria, and Bad Guy Chad help us explain the types of routing incidents that happen and how the simple, concrete MANRS actions can help.
We hope you’ll read the Routing Security Basics posts, and if you’re Continue reading