Explain the Cloud Like I’m 10

“Todd, can you explain ‘The Cloud’? What is it?” I was asked this question at lunch by Joe, a fellow tour member on a recent trip Linda (my wife) and I took to France.

It was not a question I was expecting on vacation, but with many years of experience as a programmer, a lot of it spent in cloud computing, it’s a question I should have been able to knock out of the park.

Except I didn’t. My answer stank. I hemmed and hawed. I stuttered and sputtered. I could tell that nothing I said was making any sense. I gave a horrible answer, and it has haunted me ever since.

While talking, I noticed a lot of other people at the table were interested in my answer as well. It seemed a lot of smart people were confused about the cloud.

When I got back home I did a lot of research. I was trying to redeem myself by finding the perfect book to recommend. I couldn't find one! So I decided to write Explain the Cloud Like I'm 10. It's the answer I wish I'd given Joe in Continue reading

Big changes coming for the application delivery controller market

Application delivery controllers (ADCs) have long been a critical piece of infrastructure.  They sit between applications and infrastructure and are the only piece of technology that can speak the language of both applications and networks. I have often characterized the ADC as the “Rosetta Stone” of the data center, as it’s the key to being able to translate application speak to the network and vice versa.IT is undergoing a rapid modernization process, and things such as software-defined everything, the cloud, containers and other initiatives are having a profound impact on infrastructure.Also on Network World: Enterprise network trends to watch 2018 To understand how these trends are impacting ADCs, I recently conducted an Application Delivery Controller Survey to get a pulse of IT professionals who work with ADCs. The demographics of the survey were 100 U.S.-based respondents across a variety of industry verticals and company sizes and is an accurate representation of the current opinions of ADCs with respect to IT modernization.To read this article in full, please click here

Big changes coming for the application delivery controller market

Application delivery controllers (ADCs) have long been a critical piece of infrastructure.  They sit between applications and infrastructure and are the only piece of technology that can speak the language of both applications and networks. I have often characterized the ADC as the “Rosetta Stone” of the data center, as it’s the key to being able to translate application speak to the network and vice versa.IT is undergoing a rapid modernization process, and things such as software-defined everything, the cloud, containers and other initiatives are having a profound impact on infrastructure.Also on Network World: Enterprise network trends to watch 2018 To understand how these trends are impacting ADCs, I recently conducted an Application Delivery Controller Survey to get a pulse of IT professionals who work with ADCs. The demographics of the survey were 100 U.S.-based respondents across a variety of industry verticals and company sizes and is an accurate representation of the current opinions of ADCs with respect to IT modernization.To read this article in full, please click here

Worth Reading: MEC the Future

If there’s anything our industry is good at, it’s creating ever new hype cycles and continuing to fall into the same traps of overestimating what they can do for mankind as a whole, or at least for network operators. And now comes MEC… Multi-access Edge Computing, formerly known as Mobile Edge Computing, and it’s all the rave. To be honest, it’s been around for a while. Up till now it was mostly tied to mobile, in general and 5G specifically, but according to some people it has such potential that it was worth being renamed (keeping the same acronym) and rolled into the topologies of networks of all kinds. So why the hype, and is it real this time? —Andreas Hegers @ ECI

IDG Contributor Network: The rise of modular plug terminated links

A modular plug terminated link (MPTL) is nothing more than an Ethernet cable that is terminated with a female socket (jack) on one side and a male plug on the other, whereas a standard permanent link is terminated with sockets on both sides of the cable. Simple, right? Wrong.Installing is one thing, testing is another The name modular plug terminated link is new, but the practice of installing LAN cabling with a socket on one side and a plug on the other goes back to the beginning of twisted pair cabling. An MPTL makes perfect sense to anyone who wants to connect a networked device by plugging the cable directly into the device. Installers of IP security cameras have been doing this since the advent of IP CCTV.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The rise of modular plug terminated links

A modular plug terminated link (MPTL) is nothing more than an Ethernet cable that is terminated with a female socket (jack) on one side and a male plug on the other, whereas a standard permanent link is terminated with sockets on both sides of the cable. Simple, right? Wrong.Installing is one thing, testing is another The name modular plug terminated link is new, but the practice of installing LAN cabling with a socket on one side and a plug on the other goes back to the beginning of twisted pair cabling. An MPTL makes perfect sense to anyone who wants to connect a networked device by plugging the cable directly into the device. Installers of IP security cameras have been doing this since the advent of IP CCTV.To read this article in full, please click here

Happy Automating to All!

Ansible-Holiday-2017

We're pretty busy working on features and updates during the year, but we wanted to have a little fun with playbooks again this holiday season. Last year we created the festive playbook and this year we're celebratating with "naughty or nice" cow-back output plugins. If your playbook completes successfully you'll be greeted by this friendly holiday cow...

But if your playbook fails...it just might get a visit from Krampus!

The "nice" plugin can be found here and the "naughty" plugin can be found here. Special thanks to our Senior Engineering Manager James Laska for the "nice" callback plugin!

We wish you many successful playbooks this season and happy automating to all! 

twitter-logo.png Tweet #HappyAutomating

IDG Contributor Network: ‘A (Networking) Christmas Carol’

Our story begins on a cold Christmas Eve in 1966, five minutes after my uncle stopped by our house to show off his new analog car phone. He worked for IBM at the time, and I can still remember him opening the door of his car Vanna White-style to reveal the status symbol inside.We’ve all been visited by old, curmudgeonly RF. As networking professionals, we know the joys of RF present, and there are enough predictions articles this time of year to get us excited about the future.If networking were A Christmas Carol, it might go something like this.The ghost of RF past The first of the RF spirits takes us to the 1980s, when cellular, WiFi and automotive connectivity were young and innocent. RF was so old you could see it, hanging in the air like a damp, grey fog.To read this article in full, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: ‘A (Networking) Christmas Carol’

Our story begins on a cold Christmas Eve in 1966, five minutes after my uncle stopped by our house to show off his new analog car phone. He worked for IBM at the time, and I can still remember him opening the door of his car Vanna White-style to reveal the status symbol inside.We’ve all been visited by old, curmudgeonly RF. As networking professionals, we know the joys of RF present, and there are enough predictions articles this time of year to get us excited about the future.If networking were A Christmas Carol, it might go something like this.The ghost of RF past The first of the RF spirits takes us to the 1980s, when cellular, WiFi and automotive connectivity were young and innocent. RF was so old you could see it, hanging in the air like a damp, grey fog.To read this article in full, please click here

30% off APC 1500VA Compact UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector

An APC UPS provides backup power power and surge protection to power and protect your PC or Mac, network router, gaming consoles like Xbox and PS4, AV and other business electronics from the dangers of power surges, spikes, lightning and power outages. By powering your critical electronics with a backup battery during blackouts, you ensure personal and professional connectivity when it matters most. Improvements in efficiency, size and surge protection come at an affordable price, making the Back-UPS Pro mini-tower battery backup UPS models a perfect solution for your power protection needs. Right now the Back-UPS Pro from APC averages 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $170 is discounted 30% to $119. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here

30% off APC 1500VA Compact UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector

An APC UPS provides backup power power and surge protection to power and protect your PC or Mac, network router, gaming consoles like Xbox and PS4, AV and other business electronics from the dangers of power surges, spikes, lightning and power outages. By powering your critical electronics with a backup battery during blackouts, you ensure personal and professional connectivity when it matters most. Improvements in efficiency, size and surge protection come at an affordable price, making the Back-UPS Pro mini-tower battery backup UPS models a perfect solution for your power protection needs. Right now the Back-UPS Pro from APC averages 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $170 is discounted 30% to $119. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here

30% off APC 1500VA Compact UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector

An APC UPS provides backup power power and surge protection to power and protect your PC or Mac, network router, gaming consoles like Xbox and PS4, AV and other business electronics from the dangers of power surges, spikes, lightning and power outages. By powering your critical electronics with a backup battery during blackouts, you ensure personal and professional connectivity when it matters most. Improvements in efficiency, size and surge protection come at an affordable price, making the Back-UPS Pro mini-tower battery backup UPS models a perfect solution for your power protection needs. Right now the Back-UPS Pro from APC averages 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $170 is discounted 30% to $119. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here

Chapterthon 2017 Winner: Closing the Digital Gap

We are excited to announce the winner of Chapterthon 2017.

As we truly believe that Internet Society and our community have an important role to promote the use of the Internet for education, we organized the Chapterthon 2017 on Digital Schools.

Chapterthon is a global Chapters marathon, where our chapters can participate by developing a project within a timeline and budget to achieve the common goal of improving education by using the Internet.

During the past months, 31 Chapters from all the regions have worked hard to extend the education benefits of the Internet to their communities. Connecting schools to the Internet, teaching coding to girls, training teachers and parents, raising awareness about the safe use of the Internet, developing an online platform for a school and helping to create educational, and local content are just some examples of the amazing work our chapters have done.

Each project has proven us once more that the Internet plays an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on Education. Each project has contributed to shaping the future of children, parents and teachers.

While all the projects have left an important mark on local schools, the Internet Society community members have voted Continue reading

Inside Cisco’s DNA Center – the dashboard for intent-based networking

Cisco’s DNA Center is a new network automation software that the company has positioned as the interface for its ambitious intent-based networking (IBN) strategy.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What is intent-based networking? | Why intent-based networking could be a big deal +Launched in the summer of 2017, the IBN plan to build an intuitive network has a variety of components that include DNA Center, which is the provisioning dashboard for managing the campus and branch networks.To read this article in full, please click here

Inside Cisco’s DNA Center – the dashboard for intent-based networking

Cisco’s DNA Center is a new network automation software that the company has positioned as the interface for its ambitious intent-based networking (IBN) strategy.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What is intent-based networking? | Why intent-based networking could be a big deal +Launched in the summer of 2017, the IBN plan to build an intuitive network has a variety of components that include DNA Center, which is the provisioning dashboard for managing the campus and branch networks.To read this article in full, please click here

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