A Guide to Open Source for IT Practitioners

It’s easy to see that open source is changing the way people think about infrastructure. However, as the saying goes: “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed”. As is normal, there will always be pockets of IT where active involvement in open source will just take some more time.

I’ve worked on open source for a few years now, and I have always wanted to publish a post that focuses on a few key ideas that I wish I could tell every new entrant into the world of open source. I feel like going in with the right expectations can really help any efforts here go much more smoothly. So if you’re accustomed to getting most if not all of your technology stack from a vendor, and you’re wondering about the open source craze, and trying to make sense of it all, this is for you. My goal with this post is to empower you to start getting out there and exploring the various communities behind the projects you may already have your eyes on.

Open Source is “Free as in Puppy”

Before some practical tips, I want to spend some time on expectations. This is crucially important Continue reading

A Guide to Open Source for IT Practitioners

It’s easy to see that open source is changing the way people think about infrastructure. However, as the saying goes: “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed”. As is normal, there will always be pockets of IT where active involvement in open source will just take some more time.

I’ve worked on open source for a few years now, and I have always wanted to publish a post that focuses on a few key ideas that I wish I could tell every new entrant into the world of open source. I feel like going in with the right expectations can really help any efforts here go much more smoothly. So if you’re accustomed to getting most if not all of your technology stack from a vendor, and you’re wondering about the open source craze, and trying to make sense of it all, this is for you. My goal with this post is to empower you to start getting out there and exploring the various communities behind the projects you may already have your eyes on.

Open Source is “Free as in Puppy”

Before some practical tips, I want to spend some time on expectations. This is crucially important Continue reading

What is a hypervisor?

Hypervisors often get overlooked as a technology in favor of the flashier concept of virtualization, but you can’t get to the fun of virtualization until you understand what a hypervisor does within a computing system.While the benefits of virtualization and cloud computing may now seem like old hat within the IT infrastructure, that wasn’t always the case, and it is hypervisor technology that has helped drive innovation in the world of cloud computing.Hypervisor definition A hypervisor is a process that separates a computer’s operating system and applications from the underlying physical hardware. Usually done as software although embedded hypervisors can be created for things like mobile devices.To read this article in full, please click here

What is a hypervisor?

Hypervisors often get overlooked as a technology in favor of the flashier concept of virtualization, but you can’t get to the fun of virtualization until you understand what a hypervisor does within a computing system.While the benefits of virtualization and cloud computing may now seem like old hat within the IT infrastructure, that wasn’t always the case, and it is hypervisor technology that has helped drive innovation in the world of cloud computing.Hypervisor definition A hypervisor is a process that separates a computer’s operating system and applications from the underlying physical hardware. Usually done as software although embedded hypervisors can be created for things like mobile devices.To read this article in full, please click here

Worth Reading: Big Software Failure

Why would anyone undertake a multi-year software project today? Or upgrade an in-house-hosted legacy application? Or build—or use—anything that behaved like a monolithic software application? Big software project failure data is legendary.11 There are myriad horror stories with titles like “9 VERY Scary ERP and ERP System Implementation Statistics.”12 The Standish Group actually labels their annual technology project analyses as “Chaos Reports.”14 They reported that 66% of all technology projects completely or partially failed in 2015. —Stephen J. Andriole @ The ACM

Why Cisco, McAfee Say Security Vendors Must Share Threat Intel to Beat the Baddies

Cyber Threat Alliance member companies shares threat information daily.

NTT DoCoMo and Huawei Tout High-Speed, Long-Distance mmWave Trial

Test results show 5G potential under ideal conditions.

BrandPost: SD-WAN: Why DIY + Co-Managed Approach is a Win-Win

The SD-WAN market continues to experience phenomenal growth. A September 2017 IDC SD-WAN survey highlights that 75 percent of U.S. enterprises plan to adopt an SD-WAN solution in the next two years. Enterprises are eager to embrace and deploy SD-WAN solutions because they provide many important benefits such as improving network and application performance and availability, reducing branch office complexity, lowering bandwidth and operational costs, and improving the performance of directly connecting users from branch locations to cloud-native applications.Today, enterprises implementing an SD-WAN solution can choose between a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach or selecting a managed SD-WAN service from a managed service provider (MSP). The DIY approach is appealing to enterprises that have in-house expertise in managing their WAN network environment and have invested the time to evaluate and select an SD-WAN solution that addresses their connectivity requirements. In this model, enterprises procure, own, deploy and manage the SD-WAN equipment, software and network connectivity in-house.To read this article in full, please click here

LiveAction Forms Service Provider Business Unit with LivingObjects Team and Tech

The LivingObjects founder and CEO will oversee the new LiveAction business unit.

Telefónica Selects CA Technologies for API Management

The deployment is part of the telco's digital transformation efforts.

5G Will Take its First Step Toward Standardization This Week

But Verizon and KT are still pushing ahead with pre-standard 5G.

IDC Predicts the vCPE and uCPE Market to Reach $3B by 2021

The vCPE software market is expected to grow at a 68.3 percent CAGR.

IDG Contributor Network: Debunking today’s dominant automation myths

Automation is dominating a significant portion of the conversations trending among IT professionals. To those working in the industry, this comes as no surprise – the topic is not a new one. More and more enterprises are adopting automation as it quickly transforms from a luxury to a necessity.However, while there are well-defined benefits associated with automation, there are also important questions and misconceptions that remain. Smart IT teams must evaluate and analyze the pros, cons and impact of automation in their unique enterprise before moving forward.  The first step is debunking the most common automation myths with the facts.Myth: automation will completely replace jobs and employees This tops the list of the most significant automation myths. Some research studies do suggest that automation (especially in the form of robotics and artificial intelligence) will completely replace human jobs. This misconception must be clarified once and for all. There is no doubt that automation will have a noticeable impact on human jobs, but we can rest assured it will not replace them completely. Automation is assigning everyday tasks to computers to free up time for humans to be more creative and strategic.  This takes the meticulous tasks that Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Debunking today’s dominant automation myths

Automation is dominating a significant portion of the conversations trending among IT professionals. To those working in the industry, this comes as no surprise – the topic is not a new one. More and more enterprises are adopting automation as it quickly transforms from a luxury to a necessity.However, while there are well-defined benefits associated with automation, there are also important questions and misconceptions that remain. Smart IT teams must evaluate and analyze the pros, cons and impact of automation in their unique enterprise before moving forward.  The first step is debunking the most common automation myths with the facts.Myth: automation will completely replace jobs and employees This tops the list of the most significant automation myths. Some research studies do suggest that automation (especially in the form of robotics and artificial intelligence) will completely replace human jobs. This misconception must be clarified once and for all. There is no doubt that automation will have a noticeable impact on human jobs, but we can rest assured it will not replace them completely. Automation is assigning everyday tasks to computers to free up time for humans to be more creative and strategic.  This takes the meticulous tasks that Continue reading

Worth Reading: Chaos Engineering

Chaos engineering is, therefore, embracing the potential for failure and looking at it as an opportunity to become a more flexible, adaptable team with more flexible, adaptable architecture. And by accepting that you’ll have failure, you can control the failure and get to know your system — and by extension the team building it — better. —Jennifer Riggins @ The New Stack

Putting Docker Enterprise Edition on the Map with Kadaster and Capgemini

 As a government organization for the Netherlands, Kadaster is responsible for collecting and registering property and land rights, ships, aircraft and telecom networks. An important service for its citizens, registry information is available predominantly through online web services.

Beginning in 2011, Kadaster created a vision for their next generation technology platform which included a combination of SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS services. Today, Docker Enterprise Edition (Docker EE) is an essential part of this solution. At DockerCon Europe, Rick Peters from CapGemini discussed how they worked with Kadaster to deliver an agile application platform that now runs some of the most demanding workloads for the Dutch organization.

You can watch the talk here: 

Growth of Private Cloud Fuels Hunger for New Technologies

Beginning in 2012, Kadaster created one of the most successful private clouds in the Netherlands. Starting out as 300 virtual machines, the team did not think they would surpass 750 virtual machines, but blew well past that figure in just two years.

That rapid expansion was fueled by the easier self-service delivery model and the ability deploy apps more regularly and faster. Initially focused as a Java runtime platform powered by virtualization, the platform objectives shifted over Continue reading

Using two-factor SAML with Ansible Tower

In a previous post, I explained how Red Hat Ansible Tower works with SAML. A little known fact about Ansible Tower is that it supports two-factor SAML. More precisely, Ansible Tower can be configured to not disallow SAML with two-factor. Ansible Tower relies heavily on django-social-auth, which comes with a SAML backend, which relies heavily on python-saml. python-saml contains a default setting, specifically requestedAuthnContext, that, put simply, requests that the idp authenticate the user using a password. To reiterate, Ansible Tower will ask for the user to be authenticated by a password and not be given the choice to authenticate the user by two-factor.

In order to allow the IDP to choose two-factor, we need to not ask it to authenticate using password. More specifically, we need to not include the samlp:RequestedAuthnContext directive at all. Ansible Tower shouldn’t be making the presumption about the IDP’s authentication methods on the other side. Maybe the IDP supports calling the employee on the phone to authenticate. This is a decision that should be made by the IDP.

Let’s see how we make this happen. Create the file /etc/tower/conf.d/saml.py with the following content:

"SOCIAL_AUTH_SAML_SECURITY_CONFIG": {
	"requestedAuthnContext": False
}

Then issue Continue reading

25% off Logitech K780 Multi-Device Wireless Keyboard for Computer, Phone & Tablet – Deal Alert

Rewrite the rules of desktop typing. Logitech's K780 is the type-on-everything keyboard with full-size keys and a convenient number pad. Enjoy quiet, comfortable typing, on your Windows PC or Mac, and switch typing to your phone or tablet at the touch of a button. An integrated rubber stand holds your mobile devices within reach and always at the perfect typing angle. A generous two-year battery life virtually eliminates the need to switch out batteries. The K780 typically lists for $79.99, but right now is discounted 25% to $59.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full, please click here

Open networking drives forward with Cumulus Linux 3.5

‘Tis the season for spreading holiday cheer! As mentioned a few weeks ago, we at Cumulus feel so thankful for all the great success in 2017. Our focus and stated goal has been to disrupt and transform the future of networking. We are pioneering a new generation of hyper-scale, automated and open networks designed to drive network agility in an era of digital transformation.

As 2017 comes to a close, we know many of you are excited to celebrate the holidays. We’d like to give you even more to cheer for this season by announcing a few exciting enhancements to Cumulus Linux with our 3.5 release — all designed to help you create an agile, open network that gives you the web-scale benefits of automation, interoperability, cost savings and choice.

In our new release of Cumulus Linux 3.5, we bring you the following open networking benefits:

The industry’s most comprehensive VXLAN routing suite

Most legacy vendors offer either asymmetric routing or symmetric routing. For comparison, Cisco and Arista implement their VXLAN routing solution using symmetric mode. Juniper implements its VXLAN routing solution using asymmetric mode and some symmetric. With these different routing solutions, these vendor switches can’t operate Continue reading

The Network in 2018: Cloud, Containers, and Connections