Tech Bytes: Measuring End User Experience Of SaaS And Web Apps With ThousandEyes (Sponsored)
Today's Tech Bytes podcast explores end user experience with sponsor ThousandEyes. ThousandEyes offers end point agents that measuring application experience and network performance from the end-user perspective. These agents capture real-time session data or run scheduled synthetic tests to provide visibility into the performance of SaaS applications as well as local network conditions.
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Tech Bytes: Measuring End User Experience Of SaaS And Web Apps With ThousandEyes (Sponsored)
Today's Tech Bytes podcast explores end user experience with sponsor ThousandEyes. ThousandEyes offers end point agents that measuring application experience and network performance from the end-user perspective. These agents capture real-time session data or run scheduled synthetic tests to provide visibility into the performance of SaaS applications as well as local network conditions.Forging A Path to Continuous, Risk-based Security with VMware NSX Service Mesh
The shift to multi-cloud, microservices-based architectures is well underway across enterprises. VMware NSX has long provided secure connectivity between private and public clouds while offering consistent policy management within hybrid cloud environment with our Service-defined Firewall. More than a year ago, VMware NSX-T expanded beyond just supporting ESX-based VMs to cover workloads running on bare metal servers, multiple hypervisors, and containers.
However, as the adage goes, the only constant is change. So, it goes with application architectures. As enterprises embrace cloud-native architectures, applications are becoming even more distributed and heterogenous. We see this particularly in some of our forward leaning customers – payment providers, financial institutions, retailers, technology vendors, etc. – are they’re driving us to further evolve our security thinking.
Customers are containerizing their new applications with Kubernetes, and exploring solutions such as VMware Tanzu, Project Pacific, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, and other platforms and managed services. They leverage a mix of open source and multiple SaaS services for various functions such as observability, analytics, and cost optimization. Yet, they also need to communicate with their existing VM-based applications. These customers want a common framework for identity, policy, and compliance, one that can deal with assets that are Continue reading
Network Break 274: Let’s Encrypt Revokes Millions Of Certificates; Microsoft Pitches SMB Over QUIC
Let's Encrypt revokes millions of digital certs, Microsoft proposes SMB over QUIC for file access without a VPN (and an easier way to get through firewalls), big vendors offer extended free trials of conferencing software for companies considering remote work, Microsoft pays hourly workers full salaries during work slowdowns, and more. We analyze these and other stories on the latest Network Break podcast.
The post Network Break 274: Let’s Encrypt Revokes Millions Of Certificates; Microsoft Pitches SMB Over QUIC appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Network Break 274: Let’s Encrypt Revokes Millions Of Certificates; Microsoft Pitches SMB Over QUIC
Let's Encrypt revokes millions of digital certs, Microsoft proposes SMB over QUIC for file access without a VPN (and an easier way to get through firewalls), big vendors offer extended free trials of conferencing software for companies considering remote work, Microsoft pays hourly workers full salaries during work slowdowns, and more. We analyze these and other stories on the latest Network Break podcast.The Week in Internet News: New Bill May Weaken Encryption
Unintended consequences: New legislation in the U.S. Senate to crack down on child exploitation online may lead to limits on encryption, many critics say. The EARN IT Act would give Attorney General William Barr the authority to create new rules to protect children, potentially including encryption backdoors, as Barr as called for, Wired.com reports. The bill put new conditions on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has for years protected websites from lawsuits targeting user-generated content and comments.
Voluntary steps: Meanwhile, Google, Facebook Microsoft, Twitter, Snap, and Roblox have agreed to adopt 11 voluntary principles to prevent online child sexual exploitation, CNet notes, although some critics have also suggested these rules are the first step toward weakening encryption.
Not so fast: In other encryption news, security certificate issuer Let’s Encrypt has delayed a plan to revoke more than 1 million certificates because of a recently discovered bug in its CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) code, Ars Technica reports. But because of confusion over a very short window for websites to renew their certificates, Let’s Encrypt gave them more time.
Bad certificates: Meanwhile, hackers have come up with a way to disguise malware as security certificate updates, Continue reading
Cisco Deploys SDN, Optical Transport for 5G in Asia
Bharti Airtel is preparing to deploy 5G with an “IP over Ethernet over fiber” network that it...
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Cloudflare for Teams Free for Small Businesses During Coronavirus Emergency
There are a lot of people and businesses worldwide that are currently suffering, so I don't want to waste any time in getting to the point.
Beginning today, we are making our Cloudflare for Teams products free to small businesses around the world. Teams enables remote workers to operate securely and easily. We will continue this policy for at least the next 6 months. We're doing this to help ensure that small businesses that implement work from home policies in order to combat the spread of the virus can ensure business continuity. You can learn more and apply at: https://www.cloudflare.com/smallbusiness
We've also helped launch an online hub where small businesses can see technology services available to them for free or a substantial discount from multiple companies, during the Coronavirus Emergency: https://openforbusiness.org
To understand more about why we're doing this, read on.
The IT Strain of WFH
We have a team at Cloudflare carefully monitoring the spread of the SARS-Coronavirus-2, which is responsible for the COVID-19 respiratory disease. Like at many other companies, we have heeded the advice of medical professionals and government agencies and are increasingly allowing employees to work from home in impacted regions in order Continue reading
Automation Story: Zero-Touch Provisioning
Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is a solved problem if you believe the networking vendors… and yet numerous network automation projects involve at least some ZTP functionality. It seems that smart organizations investing in premium people (instead of premium vendors) prefer the Unix way of solving problems: take a number of small versatile tools, and put them together to build a solution that fits your requirements.
Anne Baretta did exactly that and combined Oxidized, FreeZTP, Ansible and custom web UI to build a ZTP solution that addresses the needs of his organization.
Notes
- Patrick Ogenstad covered numerous ZTP details in our network automation course.
Automation Story: Zero-Touch Provisioning
Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is a solved problem if you believe the networking vendors… and yet numerous network automation projects involve at least some ZTP functionality. It seems that smart organizations investing in premium people (instead of premium vendors) prefer the Unix way of solving problems: take a number of small versatile tools, and put them together to build a solution that fits your requirements.
Anne Baretta did exactly that and combined Oxidized, FreeZTP, Ansible and custom web UI to build a ZTP solution that addresses the needs of his organization.
Notes
- Patrick Ogenstad covered numerous ZTP details in our network automation course.
Postcard From San Francisco (RSAC 2020)
There was plenty to see and hear at this years RSA conference, not the least of which was the VMware announcement of a modern data center security solution for today’s private and public clouds
I can report there was brisk business at the the booth with plenty of questions on our solution. Booth duty is not everyone’s favorite but I always look forward to the opportunity to hear directly from customers. There are often questions we don’t have the answers to, but it helps us keep our focus in the areas that matter the most.
My colleague Vivek has already done a fantastic job blogging on our intrinsic security story and our announcements at this year’s event. I wanted to share some great explainer videos from our executive team.
Unshackle Legacy Security Restrictions for 2020 and Beyond
In this 20 minute video, Part#1, Tom Gillis, VMware SVP/GM of Networking and Security, covers how new data center and branch security approaches can prevent attacks in the enterprise.
Part#2 is a live demonstration of how to protect lateral traffic in the DC
In this second of two 20 minute videos, Tom is joined onstage by Continue reading
Fixing a Thinkpad T420 battery problem on Linux
I upgraded my T420 because Ubuntu Mate 19.10 now supports the Nvidia Optimus drivers and includes a utility that lets me switch between Intel and Nvidia graphics cards. However, the upgrade seemed to break the power management on my laptop. When running on the battery, the laptop would suddenly lose power after only 10 minutes, even when the battery still shows ninety percent charge.
I installed Linux Advanced Power Management, TLP. TLP solved my problem. Also, for good measure, I upgraded the BIOS because, while troubleshooting this issue, I discovered is was very out of date.
In his post, I describe how to install and configure TLP and how to upgrade the BIOS on a Lenovo Thinkpad T420.
Install TLP
The Mate Power Management utility is part of the Mate desktop environment and provides basic configurations for power management. I don’t know why installing TLP solved my battery problem. I can only suggest that, if you are seeing a similar problem with your battery, try installing TLP before you spend money on a new battery.
TLP is in the Ubuntu repositories. Install TLP using the following command:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install tlp tlp-rdw
$ sudo Continue readingCEX (Code EXpress) 06. Look into your dictionary.
Hello my friend,
We have discussed so far ordinary variables in string, numeric and Boolean formats and list variables. Today we’ll close the review of the variables by covering the last, and definitely not least, type of variables called Python dictionary. In fact, this one of the most useful for us from the network automation perspective.
Network automation training – boost your career
Don’t wait to be kicked out of IT business. Join our network automation training to secure your job in future. Come to NetDevOps side.
How does the training differ from this blog post series? Here you get the basics and learn some programming concepts in general, whereas in the training you get comprehensive set of knowledge with the detailed examples how to use Python for the network and IT automation. You need both.
What are we going to do today?
The Python dictionary is a structured data. At a glance it might be similar to the list from the syntax prospective. However, it has a significant difference: in the list each element has an index (numerical value starting from 0), whereas in the dictionary each element has a key (string value you define based on your logic). Continue reading
Why the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote in the U.S. is Important to Celebrate on International Women’s Day
Seven months ago, I joined Cloudflare to work on the Public Policy Team focusing on our democracy projects such as Project Galileo, Athenian Project and Cloudflare for Campaigns. Since I joined the team, I have learned a lot about how important cybersecurity protections are for organizations that are the target of sophisticated cyberattacks, while also learning about the complex election security environment in the United States and abroad.
It seems fitting that on International Women’s Day, a day people throughout the world are celebrating the achievements of women, we also celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement which was the tipping point that gave many women voting rights in the United States.
Since I have been working on Cloudflare’s election security projects, this day means something extra special to me and many of my colleagues who believe that voting is the cornerstone of democracy and that having access to information regarding voting and elections is essential.
Here are five reflections that I want to share on International Women’s Day and the Centennial Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment which granted women the right to vote in the United States:
1. The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States was Continue reading
Microsoft, Intel, Fortanix Execs Get Confidential at RSA
“Confidential computing is one of the most important and relevant new paradigms that you folks...
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Daily Roundup: OCP Blesses AT&T’s Disaggregated Security
AT&T works with Palo Alto Networks and Broadcom on a Disaggregated Scalable Firewall; serious...
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OCP Blesses AT&T’s Disaggregated Security Architecture Push
This programmable fabric with embedded security functions will allow network operators to deploy...
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Intel Vulnerability Serious But Unlikely, Experts Say
The bug would allow an attacker to exploit a known vulnerability in Intel's CSME to gain access to...
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How Cloudflare keeps employees productive from any location
Cloudflare employs more than 1,200 people in 13 different offices and maintains a network that operates in 200 cities. To do that, we used to suffer through a traditional corporate VPN that backhauled traffic through a physical VPN appliance. It was, frankly, horrible to work with as a user or IT person.
With today’s mix of on-prem, public cloud and SaaS and a workforce that needs to work from anywhere, be it a coffee shop or home, that model is no longer sustainable. As we grew in headcount, we were spending too much time resolving VPN helpdesk tickets. As offices around the world opened, we could not ask our workforce to sit as every connection had to go back through a central location.
We also had to be ready to scale. Some organizations are currently scrambling to load test their own VPN in the event that their entire workforce needs to work remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak. We could not let a single physical appliance constrain our ability to deliver 26M Internet properties to audiences around the world.
To run a network like Cloudflare, we needed to use Cloudflare’s network to stay fast and secure.
We built Cloudflare Access, part Continue reading