A Secure Supply Chain for Kubernetes, Part 2

Two weeks ago we shared how the upcoming release of Docker Enterprise Edition (Docker EE) is able to secure the software supply chain for Kubernetes; just as it does for Docker Swarm through a combination of scanning for vulnerabilities and implementing image promotion policies. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at another part of this solution – Docker Content Trust and image signing.

When combined with granular Role Based Access Controls [RBAC] and the secure clustering features of Docker EE, organizations get a secure container platform solution that is ready for the enterprise.

Restricting Unverified Kubernetes Content

As discussed in Part 1 of this blog post, organizations typically have a “supply chain” for how applications progress from a developer’s laptop to production, whether that is on-premises or in the cloud. For larger organizations, the team that handles QA and testing is not always the same team that develops the applications. There may also be a separate team that handles staging and pre-production before an application is pushed to production. Since an application can pass through several teams before it gets deployed, it’s important for organizations to be able to validate the source of the application.

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Why Do We Need the Virtual Central Office When We Already Have CORD?

It harks back to the age-old preference for one controller over another.

Practical Computational Balance: Contending with Unplanned Data

In part one of our series on reaching computational balance, we described how computational complexity is increasing logarithmically. Unfortunately, data and storage follows an identical trend.

The challenge of balancing compute and data at scale remains constant. Because providers and consumers don’t have access to “the crystal ball of demand prediction”, the appropriate computational response to vast, unpredictable amounts of highly variable complex data becomes unintentionally unplanned.

We must address computational balance in a world barraged by vast and unplanned data.

Before starting any discussion of data balance, it is important to first remind ourselves of scale.  Small …

Practical Computational Balance: Contending with Unplanned Data was written by James Cuff at The Next Platform.

Routing Design: OSPF or EIGRP?

Routing Design: OSPF or EIGRP?

Building vs. buying your engineering staff

Should I build it or buy it? It’s an age old question often used in reference to furniture, websites and risky home remodeling projects (DIY is fun, I swear!). Same goes for your engineering team — should I hire and build out an engineering staff or should I outsource an engineering team?

According to a 2016 study done by Deloitte, 72% of organizations with over $1 billion in revenue are outsourcing their IT functions. However, only 31% of them plan to increase this spending in the following year. Could this allude to investments for inhouse staff? Maybe. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss the pros and cons of creating an inhouse vs. outsourcing engineering staff.

Building vs. buying engineering — two methods

Let’s start with some simple definitions.

Building an engineering team: We’re talking about hiring people. When I say building, I mean recruiting talent, hiring them full time, offering benefits and keeping them engaged with exciting projects. I also mean hiring experts in the field who are lifelong learners and are excited about innovation. In time, they give back to the company through their developed expertise, loyalty and institutional knowledge. Those are your people.

Buying an engineering Continue reading

History of Hardware Switching

On this episode of the history of networking, we talk to Tony Li about the origin and history of the Cisco Silicon Switching Engine.

Using Python to Snake Closer to Simplified Deep Learning

On today’s episode of “The Interview” with The Next Platform, we discuss the role of higher level interfaces to common machine learning and deep learning frameworks, including Caffe.

Despite the existence of multiple deep learning frameworks, there is a lack of comprehensible and easy-to-use high-level tools for the design, training, and testing of deep neural networks (DNNs) according to this episode’s guest, Soren Klemm, one of the creators of Python based Barista, which is an open-source graphical high-level interface for the Caffe framework.

While Caffe is one of the most popular frameworks for training DNNs, editing prototxt files in …

Using Python to Snake Closer to Simplified Deep Learning was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

ONF’s New Stratum Project Targets The Data Plane

Tel Aviv, Israel: Cloudflare’s 135th Data Center Now Live!

Our newest data center is now live in Tel Aviv, Israel! This expands our global network even further to span 135 cities across 68 countries.

High-Tech in Israel

Although Israel will only be turning 70 this year, it has a history so rich we’ll leave it to the textbooks. Despite its small size, and young age, Israel is home to one of the largest tech scenes, often referred to as Start-up Nation.

Haifa’s Matam technology park houses a few tech giants’ offices including Intel, Apple, Elbit, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, Philips and more. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv serves a true hipster capital, with a high concentration of great coffee shops to serve its many startup employees and founders.

Some brag-worthy Israeli inventions include flash drives, Waze and cherry tomatoes. This is due to Israel’s excellent education. Israel is home of the top universities in the world, bringing Israel to be one of the top five nations in scientific publication per capita output. Israel also has one of the highest PhD and MD degrees per capita, and among of the highest nobel laureates per capita as well. Israeli mothers, your nagging has paid off.

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Quitting My CCIE Status

Univa Taps Open Source Community to Bolster Enterprise HPC

The open source efforts will operate as Project Tortuga.

Worth Reading: Do IP transfers impact network operations?

Last year, a record number of IPv4 addresses were transferred into the APNIC region — over 10.6 million — thanks to the reciprocal inter-RIR transfer policies between APNIC, ARIN and RIPE NCC. —Sanjaya @APNIC

Future wireless networks will have no capacity limits

In what may turn out to be a precursor to the demise of wired connections, a scientist claims that ultimately, wireless networks won’t have a capacity ceiling.Researchers have generally thought there was a maximum to the amount of data that could be sent within certain bandwidths, spaces and over a period, even using the best antennas. However, massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antennas will provide for unlimited and thus vast streams of data to be communicated over the airwaves, says Emil Björnson and his fellow researchers at Swedish Linköping University. He says his group has discovered that capacity limit calculations used for the new antennas, expected to be used widely in 5G, are wrong.To read this article in full, please click here

NetScout Extends Service Assurance to VMware, WiFi Infrastructures

The new version will help users identify performance issues more quickly.

PQ 143: The Strange Dynamics Of Buying & Selling Enterprise IT

Enhancing Application Performance with NSX

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DNS OARC 28

Data Protection in the Public Cloud: 6 Steps

Data Protection in the Public Cloud: 6 Steps