Research: Lessons from Evolve or Die

Google runs what is probably one of the largest networks in the world. Because of this, network engineers often have two sorts of reactions to anything Google publishes, or does. The first is “my network is not that big, nor that complicated, so I don’t really care what Google is doing.” This is the “you are not a hyperscaler” (YANAH) reaction. The second, and probably more common, reaction is: whatever Google is doing must be good, so I should do the same thing. A healthier reaction to both of these is to examine these papers, and the work done by other hyperscalers, to find the common techniques they are applying to large scale networks, and then see where they might be turned into, or support, common network design principles. This is the task before us today in looking at a paper published in 2016 by Google called Evolve or Die: High Availablility Design Principles Drawn from Google’s Network Infrastructure.

The first part of this paper discusses the basic Google architecture, including a rough layout of the kinds of modules they deploy, the module generations, and the interconnectivity between those modules. This is useful background information for understanding the remainder Continue reading

Cisco’s buying July Systems to bolster its Wi-Fi application options

Cisco took a step toward improving its mobile application family by saying it intended to buy privately held mobile firm July Systems for an undisclosed price.July Systems, founded in 2001, features its flagship product, Proximity MX, that offers what Cisco calls “an enterprise-grade location platform” with features such as instant customer activation, data-driven behavioral insights, contextual rules engine and APIs.The platform works with multiple location technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Beacons or GPS to sense the user’s device with or without an app installed. Proximity MX can engage the user with SMS, E-mail or push notifications or trigger a notification to the business user or system via API, SMS or E-mail, July says.    To read this article in full, please click here

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Digital businesses need a smarter network edge

As the world has become more cloud- and IoT-centric, the network has increased in value. That is why there has been so much focus on network evolution, particularly in the data center and the wide area network.One part of the network that has lagged in innovation, however, is the network edge. Over the years, the edge of the network has been considered by many to be a commodity. And for many businesses, it is in dire need of a refresh. I’ve talked to some organizations that are running network edge infrastructure that’s approaching 10 years old and haven’t even had a software upgrade in years.[ Related: Getting grounded in intent-based networking ] The network edge needs to evolve However, in the words of the esteemed song writer Bob Dylan, “The times, they are a changing” — and so is the role of the network edge.To read this article in full, please click here

Digital businesses need a smarter network edge

As the world has become more cloud- and IoT-centric, the network has increased in value. That is why there has been so much focus on network evolution, particularly in the data center and the wide area network.One part of the network that has lagged in innovation, however, is the network edge. Over the years, the edge of the network has been considered by many to be a commodity. And for many businesses, it is in dire need of a refresh. I’ve talked to some organizations that are running network edge infrastructure that’s approaching 10 years old and haven’t even had a software upgrade in years.[ Related: Getting grounded in intent-based networking ] The network edge needs to evolve However, in the words of the esteemed song writer Bob Dylan, “The times, they are a changing” — and so is the role of the network edge.To read this article in full, please click here

TunapandaNET Paves the Way for Kenya to Connect the Underserved

Currently, 53% of the world’s population is offline due to factors such as high cost of Internet infrastructure and lack of relevant local content. Internet access remains unaffordable in many economies in transition where people have to choose between the Internet and other vital necessities such as food and health. Maybe one day we will look back at this historic moment in which Community Networks were paving the way for equitable and meaningful access to technology.

Community Networks are an emerging complementary and sustainable solution to address the connectivity gap existing in underserved urban and rural areas around the world. Such networks rely on the active participation of local communities in the development and management of shared Internet infrastructure as a common resource.  Existing examples provide concrete evidence that community network development can prompt positive effects to help communities leverage on technology for socioeconomic empowerment. We have gained experience from Guifi.Net, Zenzeleni Network, Rhizomatica and Wireless For Communities, all successful projects proving that the technical side of the community network model can be replicated.

I asked Josephine Miliza a few questions to get deeper insight into the project. Josephine is a network engineer with a Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: The key to paying down technical debt

As business leaders, we make decisions every day that have the potential to create some level of technical debt. We choose to deploy a new business application that streamlines HR processes but may require frequent patching, or we expedite delivery of a new product feature knowing there will be increased management overhead. To some extent, technical debt is unavoidable, but when debt accumulates over time, it will limit business velocity and stifle an organization’s ability to innovate.For many enterprises, substantial technical debt is created by legacy applications, disparate platforms and processes, and outdated technology, and it is dragging down modernization initiatives. Organizations need to modernize their IT stack to compete in a digital economy, but – similar to the challenges of personal finance – you cannot begin to truly invest until you’ve paid off the debt you owe.To read this article in full, please click here

Prepare for the future without net neutrality

Net neutrality officially ended on June 11, 2018, and many people are concerned that this is the end of an open internet. Many supporters of it believe the internet should be regulated no different than the phone system or power utility and that this change will decrease the performance of it. Opponents of net neutrality, argue that the end of it will now increase competition among the various internet service providers (ISPs) and increase coverage, improve performance, and lower costs.What is net neutrality? Net neutrality became effective by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) under President Barack Obama in 2015. It is a set of rules that ensured ISPs treated all data transmissions, irrespective to content, that flowed through their infrastructure equally. Net neutrality protections prevented ISPs from slowing web services, blocking access to sites, or charging content organizations for faster delivery of streaming movies or videos. It is believed that antitrust laws did not go far enough in ensuring that all content received equal treatment.To read this article in full, please click here

Prepare for the future without net neutrality

Net neutrality officially ended on June 11, 2018, and many people are concerned that this is the end of an open internet. Many supporters of it believe the internet should be regulated no different than the phone system or power utility and that this change will decrease the performance of it. Opponents of net neutrality, argue that the end of it will now increase competition among the various internet service providers (ISPs) and increase coverage, improve performance, and lower costs.What is net neutrality? Net neutrality became effective by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) under President Barack Obama in 2015. It is a set of rules that ensured ISPs treated all data transmissions, irrespective to content, that flowed through their infrastructure equally. Net neutrality protections prevented ISPs from slowing web services, blocking access to sites, or charging content organizations for faster delivery of streaming movies or videos. It is believed that antitrust laws did not go far enough in ensuring that all content received equal treatment.To read this article in full, please click here

Debugging with intelligence via probabilistic inference

Debugging with intelligence via probabilistic inference Xu et al., ICSE’18

Xu et al. have built a automated debugger that can take a single failing test execution, and with minimal interaction from a human, pinpoint the root cause of the failure. What I find really exciting about it, is that instead of brute force there’s a certain encoded intelligence in the way the analysis is undertaken which feels very natural. The first IDE / editor to integrate a tool like this wins!

The authors don’t give a name to their tool in the paper, which is going to make it awkward to refer to during this write-up. So I shall henceforth refer to it as the PI Debugger. PI here stands for probabilistic inference.

We model debugging as a probabilistic inference problem, in which the likelihood of each executed statement instance and variable being correct/faulty is modeled by a random variable. Human knowledge, human-like reasoning rules and program semantics are modeled as conditional probability distributions, also called probabilistic constraints. Solving these constraints identifies the most likely faulty statements.

In the evaluation, when debugging problems in large projects, it took on average just 3 interactions with a developer to find the Continue reading

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