File systems unfit as distributed storage backends: lessons from ten years of Ceph evolution

File systems unfit as distributed storage backends: lessons from 10 years of Ceph evolution Aghayev et al., SOSP’19

Ten years of hard-won lessons packed into just 17 pages (13 if you don’t count the references!) makes this paper extremely good value for your time. It’s also a fabulous example of recognising and challenging implicit assumptions. In this case, the assumption that a distributed storage backend should clearly be layered on top of a local file system. Breaking that assumption allowed Ceph to introduce a new storage backend called BlueStore with much better performance and predictability, and the ability to support the changing storage hardware landscape. In the two years since it’s release, 70% of all Ceph users had switched to running BlueStore in production.

Ceph is a widely-used, open-source distributed file system that followed this convention [of building on top of a local file system] for a decade. Hard lessons that the Ceph team learned using several popular file systems led them to question the fitness of file systems as storage backends. This is not surprising in hindsight.

Sometimes, things that aren’t surprising in hindsight can be the very hardest of things to spot!

What is a distributed Continue reading

Notes from OARC 31

Pica8’s Threshold Guns for Cisco, Legacy Vendors

Cumulus content roundup: October 2019

What could be scarier than non-scalable networking systems, outdated solutions and slow deployment time? Nothing. Luckily for you, there’s none of that in this months content roundup.

We kept busy with a very exciting announcement (hint: it has to do with campus networks) and we think you’ll be excited about it too. Read October’s content roundup to catch up with all the latest Cumulus news, releases, and what’s to come. Happy reading!

From Cumulus Networks:

The ease and importance of scaling in the enterprise: Out with the old and in with the new. Check out this blog by Finn Turner to find out how flexible, scalable network technologies are helping organizations smoothly take their network to the next level.

Securing open source: a brief look at dependency management: Ready to dive into dependency management? This post will cover three categories of dependency management, and which one is the right fit for your project.

How inspiration from your data center can modernize your campus network: While we originally designed Cumulus Linux for data center networking, we’ve now entered into the campus network. Not sure what that entails? Read this informative post by Scott Ciccone to find out about all Continue reading

Cisco Boosts SD-WAN With Microsoft Azure vWAN Support

Boeing’s insecure networks threaten security and safety

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing's insecure networks leave the company--and potentially its aircraft--at risk of exploitation. Security researcher Chris Kubecka uncovered these threats in April, and new reporting by CSO's J.M. Porup reveals little has been done to patch these vulnerabilities. They both join Juliet to discuss how Kubecka discovered this information and what it means for national security and passenger safety.

Boeing’s unsecure networks threaten security and safety

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing's unsecure networks leave the company--and potentially its aircraft--at risk of exploitation. Security researcher Chris Kubecka uncovered these threats in April, and new reporting by CSO's J.M. Porup reveals little has been done to patch these vulnerabilities. They both join Juliet to discuss how Kubecka discovered this information and what it means for national security and passenger safety.

Cisco SVP: Security’s Worst Enemy Is Complexity

VMware amps security with in-house, Carbon Black technology

VMware is moving quickly to meld its recently purchased Carbon Black technology across its product lines with an eye toward helping users protect their distributed enterprises.VMware just closed the $2.1 billion buy of cloud-native endpoint-security vendor Carbon Black in October and in the process created a new security business unit that will target cybersecurity and analytics to protect networked enterprise resources. More about edge networkingTo read this article in full, please click here

VMware amps security with in-house, Carbon Black technology

VMware is moving quickly to meld its recently purchased Carbon Black technology across its product lines with an eye toward helping users protect their distributed enterprises.VMware just closed the $2.1 billion buy of cloud-native endpoint-security vendor Carbon Black in October and in the process created a new security business unit that will target cybersecurity and analytics to protect networked enterprise resources. More about edge networkingTo read this article in full, please click here

Qumulo Eyes More OEMs As It Refreshes HPE Partnership

Companies who offer software-defined products, by definition, rely on hardware providers in order to offer something useful to customers. …

Qumulo Eyes More OEMs As It Refreshes HPE Partnership was written by Michael Feldman at The Next Platform.

Meet Me in San Jose Next Week 3/4/5 Nov.

I will be flying into San Jose early for TFD20. Most likely this is the only time I will be in the area over the next six to twelve months. 

The post Meet Me in San Jose Next Week 3/4/5 Nov. appeared first on EtherealMind.

Serverlist October: GitHub Actions, Deployment Best Practices, and more

Check out our ninth edition of The Serverlist below. Get the latest scoop on the serverless space, get your hands dirty with new developer tutorials, engage in conversations with other serverless developers, and find upcoming meetups and conferences to attend.

Sign up below to have The Serverlist sent directly to your mailbox.

VMware Project Maestro Orchestrates Telco Cloud

Huawei to Developers: Innovate, Make Money on 5G

Back to Bare Metal with Dell EMC and Ironic

Carrier Supporting Carrier with OSPF and LDP

I know we haven’t gotten to the point of actually discussing inter-as option B or option C but we did cover all of the mechanics required for them to work (at least briefly). Before we go there though – I did want to cover a different technology that can also help solve our end to end LSP problems. Carrier Supporting Carrier – or more commonly just referred to as CsC (or in Cisco parlance Carrier of Carriers or CoC (or maybe I have that backwards?)) is a means to nest MPLS VPN sessions. Think of it this way. If you’re a huge backbone provider (we’ll call you the “uber provider”) selling transport to customers (we’ll call them customer carriers) – there’s a good chance that those customer carriers will need a way to isolate their customer on their backbone. How do we do that? Well MPLS VPNs of course! However you, the uber provider, also need a means to keep the customer carriers isolated as they traverse your backbone. So what do we do? Sounds a lot like a carrier supporting a carrier huh? CsC to the rescue!

At this point you might be wondering how we got here. Continue reading

For Liberty Mutual, the Openness and Flexibility of the Cloud Means Better Business Outcomes

We had the chance recently to sit down with the Liberty Mutual Insurance team at their Portsmouth, New Hampshire offices and talk about how they deliver better business outcomes with the cloud and containerization.

At this point, Liberty Mutual has moved about 30 percent of their applications to the cloud. One of big improvements the team has seen with the cloud and Docker is the speed at which developers can develop and deploy their applications. That means better business outcomes for Liberty Mutual and its customers.

Here’s what they told us. You can also catch the highlights in this two-minute video:

On how tech is central to Liberty Mutual’s business

Mark Cressey, SVP and GM, IT Hosting Services: Tech and the digitization it’s allowed has really enabled Liberty Mutual to get deeply ingrained in our customers’ lives and support them through their major life journeys. We’re able to be more predictive of what our customer’s needs and get in front of them as a proactive step. How can we help? How can we assist you? Is this the right coverage? And even to the point where using real time information, we can warn them about approaching windstorms or warn our Continue reading

Electrodes for Neck Pain – Do They Work?

People suffering from severe neck pain who want to reduce their reliance on pain medications often turn to TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation)  treatments to relieve the pain, reducing their dependence on prescription medications to get the pain relief they so badly need. TENS uses electrodes for neck pain or back pain, and while some people swear by such treatments, others find themselves wondering whether or not TENS really work to relieve pain. Keep reading to learn more about these electrodes for neck pain.

Why Try Electrodes for Neck Pain

A TENS treatment consists of electrodes for neck pain and other bodily pains through electrical stimulation therapy. Found in physical therapy and pain clinics, TENS uses electrodes placed on the skin around a painful or injured area with a small electrical charge running through the device to temporarily reduce pain.

The use of electrodes for pain is believed to reduce pain by using electrical impulses to flood the nervous system and reduce the nerves’ ability to transmit pain signals to the brain, while at the same time producing the body’s natural pain relievers called endorphins. While some studies suggest that this type of therapy does work, other studies are not Continue reading

Owning Your Keys: The Technical and Human Side of Encryption

Ever wonder if your next doctor’s appointment will result in jail time? Luckily most of us never have to think about that. But LGBT Tech Executive Director Chris Wood says for people in countries where their truth is outlawed, the prospect of finding a trusted healthcare provider without encrypted messaging apps is worse than grim. It could be deadly.

Efforts to weaken encryption threaten our ability to keep our most vulnerable communities safe online. As the best tool available to protect our digital security, encryption helps ensure that data and messages are kept private and make it much more difficult for outside parties to get access to sensitive information. Encryption helps ensure that your digital bank transactions are secure, your passwords are kept safe, and your stored data can’t be accessed by any unintended parties.

This security tool protects all Internet users, but it is critical for vulnerable communities. For example, there is an alarming and growing threat of abusive partners using Internet-connected devices and other online tools to surveil and control their partners. This can make it even more difficult for victims to seek help. However, by using devices and services that encrypt web traffic, communications, and location info, Continue reading