How to Get Your Apps off Windows 2003 and Into the Cloud with Docker Enterprise

Docker Windows Containers with Docker Enterprise

A huge number of companies are still running apps on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 in the data center. They want to move to a modern, secure, supported platform which gives them the flexibility to run in the data center today – and in any cloud tomorrow. Docker gives them that flexibility, and you can move your apps to Docker without changing any code.

That was the focus of our recent webinar, where we showed several apps currently running on Windows Server 2003, and packaged them to run as Docker Windows containers. We showed all the steps to migrate the apps with no code changes, and then we ran them in Docker Enterprise on a Windows Server 2016 VM running in Azure.

You can watch the full video of the webinar here – it comes in at just over 60 minutes:

In the webinar, you see the portability that Docker Enterprise gives you. The applications we move are a mixture of older web technologies – static HTML, classic ASP and ASP.NET WebForms. The apps from the demo and the Dockerfiles are on GitHub here. They could be 15-year old apps and you Continue reading

Today, Chrome Takes Another Step Forward in Addressing the Design Flaw That is an Unencrypted Web

The following is a guest post by Troy Hunt, awarded Security expert, blogger, and Pluralsight author. He’s also the creator of the popular Have I been pwned?, the free aggregation service that helps the owners of over 5 billion accounts impacted by data breaches.

Tweet

I still clearly remember my first foray onto the internet as a university student back in the mid 90's. It was a simpler online time back then, of course; we weren't doing our personal banking or our tax returns or handling our medical records so the whole premise of encrypting the transport layer wasn't exactly a high priority. In time, those services came along and so did the need to have some assurances about the confidentiality of the material we were sending around over other people's networks and computers. SSL as it was at the time was costly, but hey, banks and the like could absorb that given the nature of their businesses. However, at the time, there were all sorts of problems with the premise of serving traffic securely ranging from the cost of certs to the effort involved in obtaining and configuring them through to the performance hit on the Continue reading

Worth Reading: I can’t stop wasting time

There are so many distractions when you are a freelancer. From kids coming into your home office or time sucks like Facebook, you need to focus and be more efficient. The key is arming yourself with the right tools for the job. —Carrie Cousins @WebDesignerDepot

Cumulus content roundup: July

Time for another Cumulus content roundup! We’ve been really busy this summer, so there’s a little bit of everything in this post: videos, industry news articles, new podcast episodes and even an entire book! So if you’ve got room on your summer reading list, be sure to add EVPN in the Data Center. Or, if you’ve got too much to do and can’t find time to sit down and read, grab a pair of headphones and listen to the latest episode of Kernel of Truth while you work. The choice is yours!

New from Cumulus

Kernel of Truth episode 03 — Linux: the kernel, the community & beyond: You can’t name an open networking podcast “Kernel of Truth,” and NOT have an episode dedicated to the Linux kernel! Listen to our discussion about the Linux community and why Linux belongs in the data center.

EVPN in the Data Center: This eBook cuts through the fog and explains how you can deploy this technology seamlessly in your data center. You’ll discover why EVPN can be simpler to use in data centers than in service provider networks.

Vault Systems customer video: As a cloud provider for the Australian government, Continue reading

BrandPost: Converging IT and Network Teams: A Cloud Native Automation Platform is the Catalyst for Successful Operations

Executive summaryNetwork automation is an imperative if operators are to deliver services with sustainable levels of agility and profitability. Automation enables the network to adapt to events and demands rapidly and efficiently, and supports a new speed of digital business. However, operators cannot buy all the automation they need off-the-shelf: they need to build and/or customize it for their own purposes and environments. This means overcoming cultural, organizational and technical barriers, bridging the separate and often antagonistic roles IT and network departments play today in managing the physical network.Network virtualization and its emphasis on automation has started to break down technical barriers as IT, and network organizations increasingly need to work in each other’s domains. Network organizations are investigating software-defined networking (SDN) as a means of automating key manual interactions with network elements, and IT organizations are being asked to support network functions directly with data center/cloud components and associated automation. It is clearly desirable for the two departments to start sharing tools, knowledge, best practices, cloud-native software development and operations (DevOps) approaches as their roles converge. Operators that encourage this cross-domain fertilization accelerate the cultural change necessary to build an automated and adaptive network.To read this Continue reading

MPLS Intro Series – VPNv4 Packet Walk

In our last article, we configured and tested a basic VPNv4 configuration. In this article, we will do a hop by hop analysis of each device and look at a packet capture for a couple of the steps in the label switched path. We are using the exact same topology and router names. For the example, I have shut down the connection between P4 and PE2 so no load balancing will occur and we have a deterministic path to analyze.

For the analysis, we will examine the path from CE_Site_1 to 20.2.2.2 at CE_Site_2. For each device, we want to determine the egress interface, the next hop and any MPLS labels that should be present.

CE_Site_1 – forwarding a packet to destination 20.2.2.2

CE_Site_1#show ip cef 20.2.2.2
0.0.0.0/0
  nexthop 10.1.1.1 GigabitEthernet2

CE_Site_1 is using the default route with a next-hop of 10.1.1.1

PE1 – receive a packet on Gi4 (vrf RED), forwarding for destination 20.2.2.2

//based on physical topology, we know this will arrive on Gi4 of PE1
PE1#show vrf brief
  Name                             Default RD            Protocols   Interfaces
  BLUE                             110:210               ipv4        Gi5
  Mgmt-intf                                      Continue reading

MPLS Intro Series – Introduction to VPNv4

In the previous article, we took a look at building a simple label switched path (LSP) through an MPLS network. This article takes the configuration a step further and leverages multiple labels to connect and isolate VRFs over an MPLS core. This is known as MPLS VPNv4. My goal is to introduce a method to bring together VRF segmentation concepts and provide a framework for a scalable deployment.

Before we get started, I am going to rename the routers once again based on their target function. An LER in a VPNv4 configuration is known as a PE node. An LSR router is known as a P node. I am also introducing CE (customer edge) nodes into the topology.

Desired End State

In this example, we will allow CE_Site_1 to communicate with CE_Site_2. Likewise, we want CE_Site_3 to communicate with CE_Site_4.

Terms

• P Router – provider router, is considered transit in a label switched path, the term is often used interchangeably with LSR
• PE Router – provider edge router and sits on the provider side of the provider/customer interconnection. Has most of the intelligence and configuration for an LSP and allows a scale-out architecture. The term PE is more common Continue reading

2018 Internet Society Asia-Pacific & Middle East Chapters Meeting

The APAC & Middle East Chapters joined hands to organize their combined Regional Chapters Meeting from 11 to 12 May in Kathmandu, Nepal. 23 Fellows representing 18 regional Chapters and Women SIG were nominated by their respective Chapters/SIGs to participate in this meeting. Half of the meeting focused on collaboratively developing action plans that are aligned with the Internet Society’s 2018 campaigns, while the other half was to discuss and address regional and governance-related issues.

At the end of the workshop, 18 concrete plans were ready for implementation:

• 3 Community Networks plans (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Philippines)
• 5 Internet of Things plans (Bangladesh, India Mumbai, Sri Lanka, UAE, Yemen)
• 9 Collaborative Governance plans (India Trivandrum, India Delhi, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Palestine, PICISOC, Women SIG)
• 1 Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security plan (India Kolkata)

During the regional breakout sessions, Fellows from the APAC region voted for and discussed three major regional issues: 1) Cybersecurity, 2) Transition [of the Internet] to the younger generation, 3) Digital Literacy. They engaged in an open discussion and highlighted some of the specific issues under these topics, what is needed in the context of their region, and shared their plans to address them.

The regional Continue reading

Juniper Networks Infuses 400GbE Across Its Portfolio

“We believe we are the first to come to the market with 400 Gig,” says Juniper’s CTO.

MPLS Intro Series – Understanding a Simple LSP

In the previous article, we created an interesting situation with an iBGP configuration.  In that example, we made Edge2 aware of a route via BGP that the intermediary hops would not see. In this article, we will fix this problem using MPLS and label switching. Before getting started, I feel compelled to rename these routers based on their target role in an MPLS our network.

Terms

• MPLS – multiprotocol label switching – using labels or tags to forward packets over a network (as opposed to traditional destination based routing)
• LSR – Label switch router (transit router), aka P router, switches labels
• LER – Label edge router or Edge LSR, often called a PE router, may push (impose) labels
• LSP – Label Switched Path
• Push – insert/impose a lable
• Swap – change a label
• Pop – remove a label

As we left it in our previous configuration, the router on the right sees a route to 1.0.1.1 via BGP but it cannot reach that destination. It is worth mentioning that I disabled BGP sync (following the last example I shared in the previous article).

LER2#show ip route | inc  1.0.1.1
B        1.0.1.1  Continue reading

Free Network Performance Test Tool: Wget

Clearing the TensorFlow to FPGA Path

Despite some of the inherent complexities of using FPGAs for implementing deep neural networks, there is a strong efficiency case for using reprogrammable devices for both training and inference. …

Clearing the TensorFlow to FPGA Path was written by Nicole Hemsoth at .

How edge networking and IoT will reshape data centers

The Internet as we have all known it mirrors the design of old mainframes with dumb terminals: The data path is almost entirely geared toward data coming down the network from a central location. It doesn’t matter if it’s your iPhone or a green text terminal, the fast pipe has always been down, with relatively little data sent up.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Multi-cloud monitoring keeps Q2 integrated operations center humming

Five years ago, Q2 had 240 servers. Today it has 8,500 servers. The company spent $150 million over the last five years building out its infrastructure, where it now hosts more than 4 petabytes of user data.“We’ve grown from 1.2 million users to 11.5 million users and reduced downtime to one-fifth of what it was during that same period,” says Lou Senko, CIO of Q2, which provides a digital banking platform for banks and credit unions. [ Related: How to plan a software-defined data-center network.] Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2’s cloud-based platform is aimed at helping smaller, community-based financial institutions compete with giants such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. “Local financial institutions have to compete against some big, big players,” Senko says. “It’s our technology that levels the playing field in the digital world.”To read this article in full, please click here

How edge networking and IoT will reshape data centers

The Internet as we have all known it mirrors the design of old mainframes with dumb terminals: The data path is almost entirely geared toward data coming down the network from a central location. It doesn’t matter if it’s your iPhone or a green text terminal, the fast pipe has always been down, with relatively little data sent up.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Multi-cloud monitoring keeps Q2 integrated operations center humming

Five years ago, Q2 had 240 servers. Today it has 8,500 servers. The company spent $150 million over the last five years building out its infrastructure, where it now hosts more than 4 petabytes of user data.“We’ve grown from 1.2 million users to 11.5 million users and reduced downtime to one-fifth of what it was during that same period,” says Lou Senko, CIO of Q2, which provides a digital banking platform for banks and credit unions. [ Related: How to plan a software-defined data-center network.] Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2’s cloud-based platform is aimed at helping smaller, community-based financial institutions compete with giants such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. “Local financial institutions have to compete against some big, big players,” Senko says. “It’s our technology that levels the playing field in the digital world.”To read this article in full, please click here

How edge networking and IoT will reshape data centers

The Internet as we have all known it mirrors the design of old mainframes with dumb terminals: The data path is almost entirely geared toward data coming down the network from a central location. It doesn’t matter if it’s your iPhone or a green text terminal, the fast pipe has always been down, with relatively little data sent up.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

MPLS Intro Series – Destination Routing

Yes, we are going to talk about destination routing. I know it sounds boring and archaic, and it is. But it is also necessary to contrast against another topic that I intend to introduce. As I scour PacketU, I see a substantial number of page views on articles about segmentation and VRFs. One thing I often tell my customers is that once a VRF-lite implementation reaches a certain scale, the configuration can become unwieldy.

This article is a first in a series where we will discuss MPLS. This technology enables VPNv4 and is a common method of networking. MPLS can connect VRFs without compromising their segmentation characteristics. In this first article, we are going to examine traditional destination-based routing. This is meant to nail down some of the typical behavior of an IPv4 routed network. These characteristics will not go away entirely, but it is important to understand how routing changes as we introduce label switching concepts.

Throughout this series, we will use a common topology. In later articles, we will expand as necessary to introduce the relevant topics.

To illustrate a point, I have pre-configured OSPF on all links and loopback 0 of all routers. In a minute, I will bring Continue reading

Infinera Acquires Optical Transport Rival Coriant for $430M

Both vendors were recently labeled as "challengers" by IHS Markit in the optical networking space behind heavyweights Cisco, Ciena, Huawei, and Nokia.

Replacing Linux with a Database System

When it comes to building extreme scale computing platforms, there are plenty of system design options but in supercomputing, the only practical choice for an OS is Linux. …

Replacing Linux with a Database System was written by Nicole Hemsoth at .