IDG Contributor Network: To 400G and beyond: the arrival of adaptive networks and the next technology boom

We live in a world in which we’re regularly streaming Netflix in 4K, using the power of the phones in our pockets to augment our realities with virtual gaming, and even watching basketball from a virtual courtside seat. Our networks have evolved to cater for these technologies, and each evolutionary step has brought with it a technological boom enabled by greater capacity, speed, automation, intelligence and programmability.The next step has arrived and it’s just in time, because when you thought we were finally content with, well, content, new technologies have emerged that push beyond what we ever thought possible.At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Intel Studios unveiled what it’s calling Volumetric Video – and it’s nothing short of stunning. Volumetric Video uses multiple cameras to shoot a 360-degree field of view, but it differs from standard 360-degree or VR video in that it captures footage “from the outside in”. To picture how it works, visualize the action scenes from The Matrix, in which the cameras pan around a frozen-in-mid-air Keanu Reeves. But now imagine being a viewer with the ability to zoom in on any part of that scene or look at any part of the Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: To 400G and beyond: the arrival of adaptive networks and the next technology boom

We live in a world in which we’re regularly streaming Netflix in 4K, using the power of the phones in our pockets to augment our realities with virtual gaming, and even watching basketball from a virtual courtside seat. Our networks have evolved to cater for these technologies, and each evolutionary step has brought with it a technological boom enabled by greater capacity, speed, automation, intelligence and programmability.The next step has arrived and it’s just in time, because when you thought we were finally content with, well, content, new technologies have emerged that push beyond what we ever thought possible.At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Intel Studios unveiled what it’s calling Volumetric Video – and it’s nothing short of stunning. Volumetric Video uses multiple cameras to shoot a 360-degree field of view, but it differs from standard 360-degree or VR video in that it captures footage “from the outside in”. To picture how it works, visualize the action scenes from The Matrix, in which the cameras pan around a frozen-in-mid-air Keanu Reeves. But now imagine being a viewer with the ability to zoom in on any part of that scene or look at any part of the Continue reading

Encoding data in dubstep drops

Encoding data in dubstep drops

[Warning: Those who can’t stand EDM/dubstep, oh boy do I have bad news for you in regards to this blog post]

Dubstep songs are often criticized as sounding extremely computer generated and often just too aggressi

BrandPost: Managed SD-WAN: New offerings must meet customer demand

In 2017, many service providers introduced their initial managed SD-WAN services to meet early market demand. Throughout the year, they thoroughly tested multiple SD-WAN technologies with the intention of selecting a lead platform for the initial service launch. There were many proofs of concept and beta tests prior to building the services wrap around those initial platforms. Providers developed their own trial programs and started to introduce services to their customers while completing all the necessary support to develop the platform as a fully managed service. Early offers generally included a handful of customers and, at times, restricted the service provider’s own network services.To read this article in full, please click here

Piloting “White Space” to connect the underserved of rural Tanzania

Beyond the Net Journal

As economies develop in Tanzania, rural residents have growing needs for communication and broadband access. However, mobile operators are reluctant to invest in remote areas due to the elevated infrastructure cost and the high percentage of people that can’t afford the payment of the services.

The Internet Society Tanzania Chapter, supported by Beyond the Net Funding Programme in partnership with The University of Dodoma will target the remote areas of Dodoma Region, where conventional deployments are not available. Together, they will build a pilot project using TV White Space equipment as a community network solution.

White Space Internet is not widely adopted so far, but has the potential to transform the way we use wireless Internet. Being a free form of broadband, it is as a good alternative to provide underserved communities with Internet access that is similar to that of 4G mobile. White Space power stations can be charged with solar panels and broadband can travel up to 10 kilometers through vegetation, buildings and other obstacles.

“It’s amazing how life has changed in Tanzania thanks to the Internet”, explains Jabhera Matogoro, project manager and coordinator of Microsoft Innovation Center at the University of Continue reading

It’s Back… The Contribute and Collaborate track returns to DockerCon 2018

A significant number of Docker early adopters, advanced container users and Open Source lovers come to DockerCon to contribute to open source projects and collaborate on technical system implementations. Last year, these activities were taking place at the Moby Summit scheduled on the last day of the conference. Listening to feedback from attendees who expressed interest in participating in such activities earlier in the week, we’ve decided to bring back the Contribute & Collaborate track to the main conference days!

DockerCon Contribute & Collaborate

The goal of this track is to raise awareness and educate users around the upstream components of the Docker Platform, provide a path for new contributors and unleash new opportunities for innovation and collaboration within the broader Cloud Native and Open Source communities.

This track is organized in 4 half days (one for each of the categories below). Each will start by a series of lightning talks during which maintainers will be introducing their projects and doing a brief demo. We’ll then break into smaller groups for roundtables and informal, interactive Birds-of-a-Feather discussions with maintainers. This time will be a great opportunity to collaborate with peers who share the same interest, ask questions to maintainers, get insights into project roadmaps Continue reading

Mellanox, Ixia and Cumulus: Part 2

This post is part two of three in a series looking at the joint presentations made by Mellanox, Ixia and Cumulus at Networking Field Day 17, in February 2018. More specifically, this post looks at what part Ixia has to play in the deployment of an Ethernet switch fabric built using Mellanox switches and running Cumulus Linux as the Network Operating System (NOS).

Cumulus/Mellanox/Ixia Logos

Ixia

What confused me most about a presentation from Mellanox, Ixia and Cumulus about Ethernet fabrics was to figure out what role Ixia would be playing in the disaggregated model. Mellanox makes the switch hardware and Cumulus makes the switch software, so Ixia fits, well, where exactly?

IxNetwork

IxNetwork is billed as an end-to-end validation solution which in many ways undersells what it’s all about. Rather than being just more traffic-generating test equipment, IxNetwork can emulate multiple switch and server devices so that a single piece of test hardware can be connected to what it believes is a large existing infrastructure, and that hardware’s behavior and resiliency can be validated. In the demo topology, IxNetwork connects to a physical Mellanox Spectrum switch running Cumulus Linux, emulating connected servers as well as an entire leaf/switch EVPN/VXLAN fabric, attached Continue reading

Using Sales People for Tech Support is Expensive

First published in Human Infrastructure Magazine in Oct 2017. When something goes wrong with a product, your first stop is likely to be tech support. Those painfully expensive maintenance agreements that you pay for every year get you access to ‘world class’ support services. ORLY? Hopefully the problems occur after you bought and deployed the […]
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