Introducing Spectrum with Load Balancing

We’re excited to announce the full integration of Cloudflare Spectrum with Load Balancing. Combining Spectrum with Load Balancing enables traffic management of TCP connections utilising the same battle tested Load Balancer our customers already use for billions of HTTP requests every day.

Customers can configure load balancers with TCP health checks, failover, and steering policies to dictate where traffic should flow. This is live in the Cloudflare dashboard and API — give it a shot!

TCP Health Checks

You can now configure Cloudflare’s Load Balancer health checks to probe any TCP port for an accepted connection. This is in addition to the existing HTTP and HTTPS options.

Health checks are an optional feature within Cloudflare’s Load Balancing product. Without health checks, the Cloudflare Load Balancer will distribute traffic to all origins in the first pool. While this is in itself useful, adding a health check to a Load Balancer provides additional functionality.

With a health check configured for a pool in a Load Balancer, Cloudflare will automatically distribute traffic within a pool to any origins that are marked up by the health check. Unhealthy origins will be dropped automatically. This allows for intelligent failover both within a pool and amongst Continue reading

Keynote address from Tim Cook to European Parliament

Passionate advocation for privacy by Tim Cook as the voice of Apple in this speech to European Parliament.

The post Keynote address from Tim Cook to European Parliament appeared first on EtherealMind.

Arista joins Juniper, Cisco in 400G Ethernet race

Arista joined the parade toward high-speed Ethernet with new switches capable of supporting 400G speeds and aimed at hyperscale cloud and data-center networks.The Arista 7060X4 Series platforms are based on the Broadcom 12.8Tbps Tomahawk 3 silicon and feature 32 400G ports. Each 400G port can be split into four 100G ports for a total of 128 100G ports in a 1U chassis. Arista also enhanced its EOS operating system to better support traffic management, load balancing, buffering and routing for the high-speed boxes.   [ Related: MPLS explained -- What you need to know about multi-protocol label switching Over time, Ethernet speed transitions have been the primary driver for improving both the throughput and price-performance of data-center networks. 400G Ethernet is the next major transition on this journey, Andreas Bechtolsheim, Arista’s chief development officer, wrote in a blog about the announcement.To read this article in full, please click here

Preparing for the Intent-Based Network

Arista joins Juniper, Cisco in 400G Ethernet race

Arista joined the parade toward high-speed Ethernet with new switches capable of supporting 400G speeds and aimed at hyperscale cloud and data-center networks.The Arista 7060X4 Series platforms are based on the Broadcom 12.8Tbps Tomahawk 3 silicon and feature 32 400G ports.  Each 400G port can be split into four 100G ports for a total of 128 100G ports in a 1U chassis.  Arista also enhanced its EOS operating system to better support traffic management, load balancing, buffering and routing  for the high-speed boxes.   [ Related: MPLS explained -- What you need to know about multi-protocol label switching Over time, Ethernet speed transitions have been the primary driver for improving both the throughput and price-performance of data-center networks. 400G Ethernet is the next major transition on this journey, Andreas Bechtolsheim, Arista’s Chief Development Officer wrote in a blog about the announcement.To read this article in full, please click here

Join Us: Immerse Yourself in Networking and Security at VMworld Europe

We are looking forward to a fantastic show at VMworld 2018 Europe. We have a ton of great content on networking and security to share with you including breakouts, labs, activities, and parties! You’ll have prime opportunities to learn about the Virtual Cloud Network, the latest on the NSX product portfolio, and network with your peers and VMware experts.

To get you started for a packed week of learning and fun, we highly recommend attending our two showcase keynotes:

First, at the NSX Keynote: Building the Network of the Future with the Virtual Cloud Network (Tuesday, 06 November, 14:00 – 15:00), you’ll hear Tom Gillis, the new GM of NSBU lead discussions on:

• VMware’s vision for networking with the Virtual Cloud Network
• The latest and greatest innovations across the NSX product portfolio
• Joint solutions we are bringing to the cloud with IBM
• A special conversation with key customers about how they are using NSX today
• And, demonstrations showing the entire product portfolio in action including NSX Data Center, NSX Cloud, NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud, and AppDefense

Next, at the Security Keynote: Transforming Security in a Cloud and Mobile World, (Wednesday, 07 November, 14:00 – 15:00), Tom Corn, Continue reading

What’s the Big Deal with Validation?

This blog post was initially sent to subscribers of my mailing list. Subscribe here.

In his Intent-Based Networking Taxonomy blog post Saša Ratković mentioned real-time change validation as one of the requirements for a true intent-based networking product.

Old-time networkers would instinctively say “sure, we need that” while most everyone else might be totally flabbergasted. After all, when you create a VM, the VM is there (or you’d get an error message), and when you write to a file and sync the file system the data is stored, right?

As is often the case, networking is different.

Microsoft Cloud Biz Drives Growth, but Competition Weighs

The company posted strong growth across its cloud operations but also saw some of that growth come in slower than what it had been reporting.

Check Point Buys Cloud Security Startup Dome9 for $175 Million

Dome9’s platform will add new capabilities — specifically cloud management and policy enforcement — to Check Point’s recently launched CloudGuard product portfolio.

OpenStack Says Its New StarlingX Edge Computing Project Is Important for IaaS

Jonathan Bryce, the executive director of the OpenStack Foundation, said that the scope of edge computing is extremely large, and StarlingX is needed to fill one of the spaces in the stack.

Alibaba Cloud Brings Its Blockchain Service to the Global Stage

The blockchain service is based on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric and the Alibaba Group financial affiliate’s blockchain platform.

Worth Reading: Service providers should adapt to open source

Network operators also need to learn the ways of the open source community, and not assume that using open source software is automatically going to save money. Benefiting from open source requires a different type of investment, in time and talent, panelists said, rather than in capex dollars paid directly to vendors. —Carol Wilson @Light Reading

The Cloud Vertical Continues to Haunt Juniper’s Revenues

The company lowered its guidance for the fourth quarter due to the slower pace of expected deployments in cloud.

Cisco, Nokia, Microsoft Back $85M Team8-Led Security Fund

These investors and other major companies also joined a Team8-led coalition that aims to rethink security by building it into network and cloud infrastructure.

Samsung, NEC Join Forces on 5G

The partnership will provide Samsung with access to the Japanese market and NEC with its first hardware foray outside of its home market.

Imposter Syndrome

NSX at VMworld 2018 Europe – The Technical Session Guide

Hola! VMworld 2018 Europe is around the corner and we look forward to connecting with our VMware NSX community in Barcelona.  Before we go into session recommendations, let us give you a recap on what we have been up to since VMworld US.

Since VMworld US in August 2018, we have announced general availability for NSX-T Data Center 2.3. NSX-T Data Center 2.3 extends NSX platform support to Bare Metal servers, enhances multi-cloud control in AWS & Azure, advances security with N/S service insertion, and has many more enhancements.

Our friends from vSphere have also released vSphere 6.7 Update 1 which gives NSX-T N-VDS visualization in the vCenter now.

For automation fans, we have a Concourse CI pipeline which automates the NSX-T install. This pipeline can be used to stand up entire NSX-T environments on vSphere clusters by filing a simple parameter file.

NSX-T Concourse Pipeline information

• NSX-T Data Center Pipeline Github repository
• How-to videos
  

Now, let’s talk about our VMworld Europe line-up. As usual, we have great technical deep-dives, deployment stories, and hands-on labs for you. For the technical enthusiasts who are interested in deep-dives and deployment strategies, here are a set of “geek” sessions to choose Continue reading

CenturyLink Will Use Cisco-Viptela to Expand Its Managed SD-WAN Offering

This is the second vendor CenturyLink is using for its managed SD-WAN. The company launched its service in 2016 using Versa Networks' platform.

The Plan For Europe’s Homegrown Exascale HPC

It has been a long time since Europe has had indigenous suppliers of the core components that go into high performance computing systems. …

The Plan For Europe’s Homegrown Exascale HPC was written by Dan Olds at .

AT&T Is Just Weeks Away From Launching Mobile 5G

Initially, the service will just be available in “parts” of 12 cities. The company plans to launch 5G in seven more markets in early 2019.