BiB 48: Gluware at Network Field Day 18

I broadly consider Gluware an automation engine that can deliver effective automation inside an brownfield network. That is, its multi-vendor, multi-technology (e.g. switches / firewalls, routers, QOS,) and works with the existing tooling such as CLI. So you don’t have to buy new hardware to start the SDN process. Thats a useful way to start […]

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Iraq Protests Lead To Two-Day Blackout

After a week of widespread protests against corruption and poor government services, the Iraqi government declared a state of emergency last week.  And as part of that measure, the government ordered the disconnection of the fiber backbone of Iraq that carries traffic for most of the country.

On Monday, Internet services in Iraq were coming back online (however, social media site are still blocked according to independent measurement outfit NetBlocks). The blackout, which lasted almost 48hrs, was clearly visible in our Internet Intelligence Map (screenshot below):

A history of government-directed outages

Government-directed Internet outages have become a part of regular life in Iraq.  Just yesterday, the government ordered its latest national outage to coincide this year’s last 6th grade placement exam.

The first government-directed outage in Iraq that we documented occurred in the fall of 2013 and revolved around a pricing dispute between the Iraqi Ministry of Communications (MoC) and various telecommunications companies operating there.  While the intention of this outage was to enforce the MoC’s authority, it served mainly to reveal the extent to which Iraqi providers were now relying on Kurdish transit providers operating outside the control of the central government – a topic Continue reading

Ansible Galaxy: Doin’ It Right

Ansible-Galaxy-Blog-Post

Over the years many things have contributed to the success of Ansible, including the flexibility of the tool itself, and a vibrant community that has contributed nearly 1,700 modules to the Ansible project, and imported nearly 17,000 roles to Ansible Galaxy. Not sure where to start or need an example of how to automate a thing? There’s probably a module for that and a few roles on Galaxy to get you started. This is all thanks to the community!

Since its inception, the Galaxy website hasn’t really changed much. There’s been a few minor releases with bug fixes here and there, but nothing big and exciting. For much of its existence, Galaxy has been maintained by the community team to keep it humming along as an open hub for the publishing of shared Ansible roles. In this way, Galaxy helps to facilitate the community’s enthusiasm for sharing Ansible roles.

Now, we’re changing up the status quo, with some big, cool updates planned for Galaxy. The goal is to make it an even better place for the community and partners to find and share Ansible content. Today, the expanded and dedicated Galaxy team is pleased to announce the release of an Continue reading

Internet infrastructure will be inundated as sea levels rise, says report

By 2033, over 4,000 miles of underground fiber will be beneath sea water, and hundreds of data centers will be affected, reseachers at University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oregon say. The conduits carrying the internet cables and the cables themselves are not designed for it — they’re water-resistant but not waterproof. That means global communications will get disrupted if action isn’t taken to mitigate the risk, the experts say.New York, Miami, and Seattle are the three major U.S. conurbations that the group says are most susceptible to metro-area cable inundation. However, the effects would ripple through the internet. And Los Angeles would be hit in its long-haul installations.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet infrastructure will be inundated as sea levels rise, says report

By 2033, over 4,000 miles of underground fiber will be beneath sea water, and hundreds of data centers will be affected, reseachers at University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oregon say. The conduits carrying the internet cables and the cables themselves are not designed for it — they’re water-resistant but not waterproof. That means global communications will get disrupted if action isn’t taken to mitigate the risk, the experts say.New York, Miami, and Seattle are the three major U.S. conurbations that the group says are most susceptible to metro-area cable inundation. However, the effects would ripple through the internet. And Los Angeles would be hit in its long-haul installations.To read this article in full, please click here

Complexity Sells

Networks are complex. But why? There are two fundamental reasons. The first is complexity is required to solve hard problems, specifically in the area of resilience. The second is that complexity sells. In this short take, I look at the second reason in a little more depth.

Announcing our second year on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking

We couldn’t be happier to report that Cumulus Networks has been placed on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking in the Visionaries category — for the second year in a row. This acknowledgement and honor once again solidifies not only our place in the industry, but also open networking’s place as a whole. The report states, “Cumulus continues to pioneer a vision based on open components, disaggregation of switching hardware/software and automation.” We couldn’t agree more, and we’re excited to be driving the industry forward into efficiency, flexibility, simplicity and innovation.

Gartner’s 2018 Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking gives an assessment of the current data center networking solutions for enterprises, and evaluates where they fall on ability to execute as well as completeness of vision. Without further ado, here is this year’s quadrant:

A few key highlights: 

  • Cumulus was mentioned continually throughout the report in relation to hardware support, enterprise growth and leaders in the disaggregation and open networking movement. Most notably, Gartner highlighted our growth with enterprise customers, which helped us differentiate ourselves on the quadrant from other vendors. The report states, “Cumulus grew its enterprise customer count by more than 200 over the past Continue reading

Clark County Embraces Intrinsic Security with VMware NSX Data Center

Allen Tyson is a Senior Network Analyst at Clark County, located in the State of Nevada. Clark County encompasses the City of Las Vegas, and sees 47 million visitors each year. With roughly 10,000 employees and 38 departments, Allen has a large network to maintain.

Alex Berger, Networking and Security Product Marketing Manager, spoke with Allen about software-defined networking (SDN), and what led Clark County to choosing VMware NSX Data Center.

 

The Power of Social Media Communities

When a forward-thinking Deputy Chief Information Officer began talking about SDN, Allen did his due diligence to decide on the best option for Clark County. He took to social media to determine whether that choice would be NSX Data Center or Cisco ACI.

“First thing I did was I got on Twitter,” Allen explains. “It seemed like NSX was capable of doing a little bit more [than Cisco ACI] and it also seemed like the communities behind NSX and the people who were using NSX and the ability that I had to get a response from people was greater on the NSX side. And so, I started looking more into NSX.”

Allen was looking for stories from other customers with similar Continue reading

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