BrandPost: WaveLogic Ai: Laying the Foundation for the Adaptive Network

Today’s networking challenges Network operators know it all too well: Streaming video, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the evolution to 5G are putting massive pressure on today’s networks, requiring capacity increases by orders of magnitude and the ability to respond to even greater unpredictability in traffic patterns.The optical network sits at the heart of communications, interconnecting people, data centers, and an increasing number of devices across any distance, from across the street to across the ocean. Yet, for all the critical functions and agility they need to provide to meet today’s web-scale demands, most networks are weighed down with manual processes and hardware inflexibility.To read this article in full, please click here

Network Break 190: Aruba Joins SD-WAN Party; Cisco Buys Into WiFi Location Services

Take a Network Break! Aruba Networks rolls out a new SD-WAN platform plus a grand strategy for branch management, Cisco acquires July Systems for its wireless location services technology, and AT&T sells dozens of data centers for $1.1 billion.

But AT&T may take that cash and pour it into the acquisition of a digital ad exchange company, Deutsche Telecom announces big layoffs in its T-Systems unit, and Australian telco Telstra splits off its legacy infrastructure unit into a standalone business.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) vendor lifts the curtain on why WAFs get bought but rarely used, HPE pledges $4 billion for edge computing, and Intel bids a terse goodbye to its CEO.

Coffee Talk: Mellanox

Stay tuned after the news for a sponsored conversation with Mellanox, where Greg and guests dive into data center fabrics using VXLAN and EVPN. For more information, head over to Mellanox.com/packetpushers. And check out these links:

Performance Report by The Tolly Group – Mellanox

Controllerless VXLAN With BGP EVPN – Mellanox (PDF)

Is it Time to Upgrade to VXLAN – Mellanox blog

VXLAN Eye on Mellanox – Mellanox via YouTube

Sponsor: Packet Pushers Ignition

The Packet Pushers have launched a brand new Continue reading

ThousandEyes provides data, visualization tools for multi-cloud environments

For most businesses, the decision of “to cloud or not to cloud” has been answered with a resounding yes. The burning question now is which cloud provider to use, and that has no easy answer because every cloud provider has different pricing models and strengths and weaknesses.The reality is that almost every business of any significant size will embrace the concept of multi-cloud where a combination of Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and others are used.Multi-cloud rapidly becomes the norm Several factors are driving companies to multi-cloud — some business related and others technical that will continue to force this architecture upon companies. Pricing considerations and avoiding being beholden to a single vendor are a couple of issues that business leaders might be concerned with, whereas tools, innovation and functionality are factors that developers and IT individuals would prioritize when making a choice.To read this article in full, please click here

ThousandEyes provides data, visualization tools for multi-cloud environments

For most businesses, the decision of “to cloud or not to cloud” has been answered with a resounding yes. The burning question now is which cloud provider to use, and that has no easy answer because every cloud provider has different pricing models and strengths and weaknesses.The reality is that almost every business of any significant size will embrace the concept of multi-cloud where a combination of Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and others are used.Multi-cloud rapidly becomes the norm Several factors are driving companies to multi-cloud — some business related and others technical that will continue to force this architecture upon companies. Pricing considerations and avoiding being beholden to a single vendor are a couple of issues that business leaders might be concerned with, whereas tools, innovation and functionality are factors that developers and IT individuals would prioritize when making a choice.To read this article in full, please click here

Using Webpack to bundle your Workers modules

Using Webpack to bundle your Workers modules

A brief introduction to bundling your Service Worker scripts.

Using Webpack to bundle your Workers modules
Photo by Joyce Romero / Unsplash

// The simplest Service Worker: A passthrough script
addEventListener('fetch', event => {
  event.respondWith(fetch(event.request))
})

The code above is simple and sweet: when a request comes into one of Cloudflare’s data centers, passthrough to the origin server. There is absolutely no need for us to introduce any complex tooling or dependencies. Nevertheless, introduce we will! The problem is, once your script grows even just a little bit, you’ll be tempted to use JavaScript’s fancy new module system. However, in doing so, you’ll have a little bit of trouble uploading your script via our API (we only accept a single JS file).

Throughout this post, we’ll use contrived examples, shaky metaphors, and questionably accurate weather predictions to explain how to bundle your Service Worker with Webpack.

Webpack

Let’s just say Webpack is a module bundler. That is, if you have code in multiple files, and you tie them together like this:

app.js

// Import the CoolSocks class from dresser.js
import { CoolSocks } from './dresser'
import { FancyShoes } from './closet'

Then you can tell webpack to follow all of those Continue reading

If We Care About the Internet, We Have to Be Willing to Do Our Part

Whether it’s playing dungeons and dragons over voice chat with my college friends hundreds of miles away, reading the latest movie reviews for summer blockbusters I’ll watch once they come out on video, or simply paying electrical bills, the Internet has become an important part of my life.

Yet, while I have come to rely on the Internet, I don’t always do what is best for it.

I don’t always patch my connected devices or applications, leaving them vulnerable to compromise and use in a botnet. I don’t look for security when buying an app or a device, let alone look at the privacy policies.

While I know I am hurting the overall security of the Internet, I find myself thinking, “I’m just one person, how much damage could I do?”

Unfortunately, according to one recent survey, there are a lot of people who act just like me. 

The results from the 2018 CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust* suggest that many users fail to make security a priority as they shop for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. (IoT refers to “scenarios where network connectivity and computing capability extends to objects, sensors and everyday items not normally considered computers, allowing these devices to generate, exchange and consume data with minimal human Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Governments Shut Down Internet for School Testing

Couldn’t you just take their phones away? The government of Algeria told telecom carriers to shut down Internet service for several hours a day during high school testing season, according to several news reports. The government is trying to prevent the repeat of a situation in 2016, when exam questions were leaked online, reports Al Jazeera. The government of Iraq has taken similar action, the news agency says. It’s unclear how a short shutdown each day will prevent leaks.

Why IoT security is terrible: The headline is certainly catchy, but the IEEE Spectrum suggests that the Internet of things has some special security challenges including nation state hackers that are targeting the systems (although that’s true of other IT systems as well). Another of the six reasons: Many IoT systems, like your connected refrigerator, don’t have dedicated IT security workers looking out for them.

Score one for encryption: Using the encrypted WhatsApp, Syrian school girls banned from attending school in Islamic State-controlled territory, are taking pictures of school work and sharing it with each other, notes NakedSecurity, referencing a report on the BBC. “Education is everything, and it’s our weapon,” one of the girls says.

Not so fast, WhatsApp: Continue reading

The silver lining in the Intel CEO drama

I assume that by now you’ve heard the news that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has stepped down for reportedly violating the company's strict policy against having relationships with employees. As CFO Bob Swan takes the reigns, the question of who will replace Krzanich is front and center.Several analysts I’ve spoken to even before this happened said they think Intel needs to look to the outside for its next CEO. In its 50-year history, the company has had only six CEOs, all of them insiders. Intel has a reputation as a tough place to work; nobody treads water at Intel. In the volatile Silicon Valley, I found Intel was a place where people either came and went fast or hung around forever. If you are cut out for its culture, expect to be promoted up the food chain rather quickly.To read this article in full, please click here

The silver lining in the Intel CEO drama

I assume that by now you’ve heard the news that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has stepped down for reportedly violating the company's strict policy against having relationships with employees. As CFO Bob Swan takes the reigns, the question of who will replace Krzanich is front and center.Several analysts I’ve spoken to even before this happened said they think Intel needs to look to the outside for its next CEO. In its 50-year history, the company has had only six CEOs, all of them insiders. Intel has a reputation as a tough place to work; nobody treads water at Intel. In the volatile Silicon Valley, I found Intel was a place where people either came and went fast or hung around forever. If you are cut out for its culture, expect to be promoted up the food chain rather quickly.To read this article in full, please click here