Network Break 255: Adtran Gets Into SD-WAN; Google Preps Chrome To Block HTTP Mixed With HTTPS

Today's Network Break analyzes Adtran's entry into the SD-WAN market, a new IBN product from Lumina Networks, the latest software upgrade from NTOP, Google's timeline for blocking HTTP elements in HTTPS sessions in Chrome, plus a couple of detailed follow-ups, and a Tech Bytes show.

The post Network Break 255: Adtran Gets Into SD-WAN; Google Preps Chrome To Block HTTP Mixed With HTTPS appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Kill the restructure | The IT Skeptic

Don't underestimate engineers. They are smarter than people comprehend.

The post Kill the restructure | The IT Skeptic appeared first on EtherealMind.

Optimizing Environment Setup in Ansible Playbooks

Have you ever seen an Ansible playbook where 90% of the code prepares the environment, and then all the work is done in a few template and assemble modules? Here’s an alternative way of getting that done. Is it better? You tell me ;)

150 successful machine learning models: 6 lessons learned at Booking.com

150 successful machine learning models: 6 lessons learned at Booking.com Bernadi et al., KDD’19

Here’s a paper that will reward careful study for many organisations. We’ve previously looked at the deep penetration of machine learning models in the product stacks of leading companies, and also some of the pre-requisites for being successful with it. Today’s paper choice is a wonderful summary of lessons learned integrating around 150 successful customer facing applications of machine learning at Booking.com. Oddly enough given the paper title, the six lessons are never explicitly listed or enumerated in the body of the paper, but they can be inferred from the division into sections. My interpretation of them is as follows:

1. Projects introducing machine learned models deliver strong business value
2. Model performance is not the same as business performance
3. Be clear about the problem you’re trying to solve
4. Prediction serving latency matters
5. Get early feedback on model quality
6. Test the business impact of your models using randomised controlled trials (follows from #2)

There are way more than 6 good pieces of advice contained within the paper though!

We found that driving true business impact is amazingly hard, plus it is difficult to isolate Continue reading

Xilinx unveils open source FPGA platform

The Vitis unified software platform from FPGA vendor Xilinx is the result of five-year project to create software development tools using familiar languages like C++ and Python to develop a wide range of applications for its reprogrammable chip.The beauty of FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) is their configurable, adaptable nature. That's also what makes programming them a king-sized challenge. They're difficult to work with for an unskilled programmer who is not well versed in hardware, and they often require esoteric languages.Vitis supports heterogeneous architectures including Xilinx’s Zynq SoCs, MPSoCs, and Versal ACAPs. Vitis is designed to enable highly optimized, domain-specific acceleration to a wide array of applications, from cloud deployments, to machine learning and AI, to IoT and desktop applications. Think of it as being for Xilinx what CUDA is to Nvidia.To read this article in full, please click here

Building A File System That’s Primed for the Times

One of the temptations of IT companies that skate on the cutting edge is that they get enamored with their own inventions, forgetting that customers are a lot more interested in practical solutions than whiz-bang technology. …

Building A File System That’s Primed for the Times was written by Michael Feldman at The Next Platform.

Deepening Storage Hierarchies Spark New Set of Challenges

Storage hierarchies just aren’t what they used to be.

In the good old days, you stored files on hard disk or magnetic tape.  …

Deepening Storage Hierarchies Spark New Set of Challenges was written by Michael Feldman at The Next Platform.

Get Used to the Ever-Expanding Storage Hierarchy

The storage landscape is being transformed thanks to the introduction of technologies like NVM-Express, and newer types of non-volatile memory (NVM). …

Get Used to the Ever-Expanding Storage Hierarchy was written by Michael Feldman at The Next Platform.

How you charge your mobile phone could compromise its battery lifespan

Convincing research that wireless chargers aren't good (yet)

The post How you charge your mobile phone could compromise its battery lifespan appeared first on EtherealMind.

Site-to-Site OpenVPN on VyOS

The tutorial discusses configuration of site-to-site VPN on VyOS using preshared-key. Static key configuration offers the simplest setup, and is ideal for point-to-point VPNs or proof-of-concept testing. The advantages of using static key are simple setup and no X509 PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) to maintain. The disadvantages are limited scalability - one client, one server setup and the lack of perfect forward secrecy - key compromise results in a total disclosure of previous sessions. Also, a secret key must exist in plain-text form on each VPN peer and it must be exchanged using a pre-existing secure channel.

Our lab consists of two remote sites (Picture 1). The router running network OS - VyOS is presented on each side, connecting computers PC and PC2 to to a particular LAN network. The both VyOS routers are configured forOpenVPN site-to-site mode and the routers also perform NAT (PAT) and firewall services.

Picture 1 - Network Topology

1. VyOS Site1 Configuration

1.1 Hostname, IP addresses, SSH

vyos@vyos:~$ configure
vyos@vyos# set system host-name Site1

yos@vyos# commit
vyos@vyos# save

vyos@Site1# set interfaces ethernet eth1 address 10.0.0.254/24
vyos@Site1# set interfaces ethernet eth0 address 11.0.2.1/24

vyos@Site1# set service ssh

vyos@Site1# commit
Continue reading

BlueShore Taps HPE Primera: ‘Way Easier, Way Less Waste’

Worth Reading: Anycast DNS in Enterprise Networks

Anycast (advertising the same IP address from multiple servers/locations) has long been used to implement scale-out public DNS services (the whole root DNS system runs on massive anycast), but it’s not as common in enterprise networks.

The blog posts written by Tom Bowles should get you there. He started with the idea and described his implementation using Infoblox DNS.

Want to know even more? I covered numerous load balancing mechanisms including anycast in Data Centers Infrastructure for Networking Engineers webinar.

Contribute to the 2019 Network World State of the Network survey

Network World’s annual State of the Network study provides a comprehensive view of technology adoption trends among network IT.This definitive research focuses on technology implementation objectives and reveals how leading objectives change the way IT decision-makers do their jobs, as well as the way their organizations function.Survey results reveal trends about how network teams collaborate with other departments in the corporate structure, what factors derive technology investment, which way IT spending is moving and more.This year Network World is looking for IT pros’ experience with technologies including 5G, SD-WAN, Wi-Fi and Edge ComputingTo read this article in full, please click here

High performance computing: Do you need it?

In today's data-driven world, high performance computing (HPC) is emerging as the go-to platform for enterprises looking to gain deep insights into areas as diverse as genomics, computational chemistry, financial risk modeling and seismic imaging. Initially embraced by research scientists who needed to perform complex mathematical calculations, HPC is now gaining the attention of a wider number of enterprises spanning an array of fields."Environments that thrive on the collection, analysis and distribution of data – and depend on reliable systems to support streamlined workflow with immense computational power – need HPC," says Dale Brantly, director of systems engineering at Panasas, an HPC data-storage-systems provider.To read this article in full, please click here

High performance computing: Do you need it?

In today's data-driven world, high performance computing (HPC) is emerging as the go-to platform for enterprises looking to gain deep insights into areas as diverse as genomics, computational chemistry, financial risk modeling and seismic imaging. Initially embraced by research scientists who needed to perform complex mathematical calculations, HPC is now gaining the attention of a wider number of enterprises spanning an array of fields."Environments that thrive on the collection, analysis and distribution of data – and depend on reliable systems to support streamlined workflow with immense computational power – need HPC," says Dale Brantly, director of systems engineering at Panasas, an HPC data-storage-systems provider.To read this article in full, please click here

Fast Friday Thoughts – Networking Field Day 21

This week has been completely full at Networking Field Day 21 with lots of great presentations. As usual, I wanted to throw out some quick thoughts that fit more with some observations and also to set up some topics for deeper discussion at a later time.

• SD-WAN isn’t just a thing for branches. It’s an application-focused solution now. We’ve moved past the technical reasons for implementation and finally moved the needle on “getting rid of MPLS” and instead realized that the quality of service and other aspects of the software allow us to do more. That’s especially true for cloud initiatives. If you can guarantee QoS through your SD-WAN setup you’re already light years ahead of where we’ve been already.
• Automation isn’t just figuring out how to make hardware and software do things really fast. It’s also about helping humans understand which things need to be done fast and automatically and which things don’t. For all the amazing stuff that you can do with scripting and orchestration there are still tasks that should be done manually. And there are plenty of people problems in the process. Really smart companies that want to solve these issues should stop focusing on using Continue reading

Mavenir’s O-RAN Push Swells Into Stockholm

Network Operators in Latin America and the Caribbean Take Steps to Strengthen Routing Security

2019 has been a very good year for the Internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. In May, during the 31st meeting of LACNIC, several operators pledged to take steps to make routing security, and the Internet itself, stronger. They joined the MANRS initiative, which includes four simple and concrete steps to improve the Internet’s security and reliability. In August, NIC Mexico convened the second meeting of network operators in the country, during which routing security stood out as one of the main issues on the agenda.

The Internet Society also made progress on collaboration with National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and higher education institutions. During the TICAL 2019 meeting, we offered a workshop on MANRS in collaboration with RedClara, LACNIC, the University of Guadalajara, ANUIES, and the Autonomous University of Yucatán. This workshop was part of a series of virtual sessions started in April, which ended on October 2 during the ANUIES-TIC meeting with a long-term practical workshop.

As we head to the final stretch of the year, the 32nd meeting of LACNIC will be a new opportunity to work with network operators to improve the security of the Internet. From Panama we will advise anyone interested in Continue reading

Visit the VMware NSX Team at SpringOne Platform 2019

Come see VMware and the NSX team at SpringOne Platform in Austin, TX from October 7-11 in booth T1!

Why Attend SpringOne Platform?

SpringOne Platform is Pivotal’s annual conference for developers, IT operators and leaders, platform managers, and anyone else that wants to be part of one of the most vibrant software development communities in the world. Developers use Spring to build and run millions of mission-critical applications that organizations rely on every day. It enables developers to build software quickly, securely, and globally with modern distributed platform technologies like Kubernetes and Pivotal Application Service (PAS).

Realize the Value of DevOps with NSX and Pivotal

But this is a blog about networking, right? So why are we so excited to talk about SpringOne Platform, and why are we asking you to come have a chat with us? The answer gets at the heart of how VMware and Pivotal are enabling customers to realize the value of cloud-native apps and DevOps practices.

VMware’s NSX family of products gives developers and operators a continuous cloud networking fabric, built in software, that not only exists in the data center but also extends to public clouds and to the edge. Using a software-defined Continue reading

Heavy Networking 475: Anticipating 5G’s Impact On Enterprise Wi-Fi

On today's Heavy Networking podcast, Greg and Ethan engage in a thought experiment: Will 5G and private LTE allow enterprises to get rid of their own wireless networks and shift much of that responsibility on telcos and just let them do it? They explore this idea from the telco and enterprise perspectives.

The post Heavy Networking 475: Anticipating 5G’s Impact On Enterprise Wi-Fi appeared first on Packet Pushers.