IDG Contributor Network: How IoT data exchange services will impact IoT development

While the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has many investors and innovators enamored with hardware development so they can churn out millions of their own IoT-connected devices, wise industry insiders are uncovering the true IoT goldmine: data exchange services. Data sharing, exchanging and selling is rapidly coming to define the IoT market more than anything else, and investors are quickly hopping on board to cash in on this new phenomenon.So how exactly are the industry leaders of tomorrow tapping into data exchange services to fuel their success? How will recent developments in data exchange services impact IoT development, and what steps should sensible IoT developers take now to capitalize on them?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How IoT data exchange services will impact IoT development

While the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has many investors and innovators enamored with hardware development so they can churn out millions of their own IoT-connected devices, wise industry insiders are uncovering the true IoT goldmine: data exchange services. Data sharing, exchanging and selling is rapidly coming to define the IoT market more than anything else, and investors are quickly hopping on board to cash in on this new phenomenon.So how exactly are the industry leaders of tomorrow tapping into data exchange services to fuel their success? How will recent developments in data exchange services impact IoT development, and what steps should sensible IoT developers take now to capitalize on them?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Brief Look at VMware’s Three Cloud Approaches

I’m at VMworld 2017 this week (obviously, based on my tweets and blog posts), and in the general sessions Monday and yesterday VMware made a big deal about how VMware is approaching cloud computing and cloud services. However, as I’ve been talking to other attendees, it’s become clear to me that many people don’t understand the three-pronged approach VMware is taking.

I should start out by saying that this post hasn’t been officially reviewed by VMware (none of my stuff is) and may not align with the “approved” marketing approach, so keep that in mind. This is just me speaking.

As I see it, the three cloud approaches are as follows:

  1. Private cloud
  2. VMware Cloud on AWS
  3. VMware Cloud Services for native cloud workloads

The first option (private cloud) is, I think, pretty much self-explanatory. VMware is offering VMware Cloud Foundation to help streamline some of the infrastructure management in this space, and then the VMware SDDC stack (vSphere, vSAN, and NSX) are layered on top. Couple that with a cloud management platform/automation platform such as OpenStack (VIO would be a good option) or vRealize Automation, and you have a private cloud. (I’m glossing over a few details, but you Continue reading

Automation Tools in Building Network Automation Solutions Online Course

A network engineer interested in attending the Building Network Automation Solutions online course sent me this question:

Does the course cover only Ansible, or does it also cover other automation tools like Python?

The course focuses on how you’d build a network automation solution. Selecting the best tool for the job is obviously one of the major challenges, and so one of the self-study modules describes various automation tools and where you could use them to build a full-blown solution.

Read more ...

ReFS integrity is not on by default

I really don’t like the trend of filesystem authors to only care about filesystem integrity by default. How about having seat belt for your data integrity by default and let people turn it off if they want to compromise correctness for performance?

What I didn’t know is that ReFS integrity is not on by default. Only metadata integrity.

It’s also not visible or changeable in the UI (which is why I assumed they’d done the right thing), which is strange to me, this being Windows. No, you have to drop down into Microsoft’s crappy CLI.

How to check if it’s turned on.

Check files in one directory

PS E:\> Get-Item '*' | Get-FileIntegrity

FileName                       Enabled Enforced
--------                       ------- --------
E:\SomeDirectory               False   True
E:\SomeOtherDirectory          False   True
E:\SomeFile.txt                False   True
[...]

Fuck you, Microsoft.

Check recursively

Of course Get-Item doesn’t do recursion. Why would it? That would make sense.

PS E:\> Get-Children -Recurse 'E:\SomeDirectory' | Get-FileIntegrity

FileName                       Enabled Enforced
--------                       ------- --------
E:\SomeDirectory\foo.txt       False   True
[...]

How to enable it

Both commands are needed. The first command sets the new default for the root directory, and the second adds checksums to all existing files and directories.

An Inside Look at the Docker Captains Program

Since launching the Docker Captains over a year ago, we’ve received a lot of questions: What is a Docker Captain? What do Captains do? How do I become a Captain? So who better to answer that than the Docker Captains themselves? At DockerCon Austin, we asked the Docker Captains to share their favorite thing about wearing the Captain’s hat.

What is a Captain?

Captains are Docker experts that are leaders in their communities, organizations or ecosystems. As Docker advocates, they are committed to sharing their knowledge and do so every chance they get!

What do Captains do?

Captains are advisors, ambassadors, coders, contributors, creators, tool builders, speakers, mentors, maintainers and super users and are required to be active stewards of Docker in order to remain in the program.

In addition to sharing their knowledge with the community, Captains provide insight and feedback to Docker. They have direct access to our technical teams, and are first to hear about and try upcoming features, product releases and big announcements.

What do Captains get? 

In return for their efforts, Captains get access to the existing captains community and Docker staff. They get ongoing training, private briefings and Slack chat channels where Captains Continue reading

BrandPost: Cloud Native – The Perfect Storm for Managed SD-WAN Services

We are excited to announce today that Silver Peak has joined MEF. With 130+ members, MEF’s new SD-WAN initiatives are intended to address implementation challenges and help service providers to accelerate managed SD-WAN service deployments. Some of this work involves defining SD-WAN use cases, and a key use case revolves around connecting distributed enterprises and users to cloud-hosted SaaS applications and IaaS.Enterprise CIOs continue to accelerate the pace of corporate digital transformation initiatives, often including plans to migrate enterprise applications to the cloud. Cloud-first is often the preferable choice for hosting new applications, enabling enterprises to securely connect users to applications from anywhere and across any type of WAN service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why You Should Attend AnsibleFest

AnsibleFest-SF-2017-Social-Image.png

It’s that time again! The time when automators from all over converge at the official event for all things Ansible — AnsibleFest San Francisco! Fresh off the heels from a packed house at AnsibleFest London in June, AnsibleFest San Francisco is shaping up to be the biggest AnsibleFest ever. With about a week before showtime, now’s the best time to start planning a trip to the “City by the Bay” for a fantastic event before it sells out.

To give a better idea of what to expect (and how to convince your manager to go), I’ve provided the top five reasons to go to AnsibleFest in San Francisco:

1. Expanded agenda and a session on Key Topics and Trends with Jim Whitehurst Red Hat CEO

We’ve heard your feedback, and listened: now more breakout sessions! We have made an unprecedented increase in sessions, up from 16 to 25, from customers, partners and the community. All session have been posted to the AnsibleFest agenda so you can see the better-than-ever lineup we have created.

2. All Ansible, all the time

Of course, we realize that Red Hat Summit is the company’s flagship event (I’ve been to seven of them), but Summit Continue reading

VMware’s Platform Revolves Around ESXi, Except Where It Can’t

Building a platform is hard enough, and there are very few companies that can build something that scales, supports a diversity of applications, and, in the case of either cloud providers or software or whole system sellers, can be suitable for tens of thousands, much less hundreds of thousands or millions, of customers.

But if building a platform is hard, keeping it relevant is even harder, and those companies who demonstrate the ability to adapt quickly and to move to new ground while holding old ground are the ones that get to make money and wield influence in the datacenter.

VMware’s Platform Revolves Around ESXi, Except Where It Can’t was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

BGP Persistent Oscillation

After Daniel Walton visited the History of Networking at the Network Collective, I went back and poked at BGP permanent route oscillations just to refresh my memory. Since I spent the time, I thought it was worth a post, with some observations. When working with networking problems, it is always wise to begin with a network, so…

For those who are interested, I’m pretty much following RFC3345 in this explanation.

There are two BGP route reflectors here, in two different clusters, labeled A and D. The metric for each link is listed on the links between the RR clients, B, C, and E, and the RRs; the cost of the link between the RRs is 1. A single route, 2001:db8:3e8:100::/64 is being advertised in with an AS path of the same length from three different eBGP peering points, each with a different MED. E is receiving the route with a MED of 0, C with a MED of 1, and B with a MED of 10.

Starting with A, walk through one cycle of the persistent oscillation. At A there are two routes—

edge MED IGP Cost
C    1   4
B    10  5 (BEST)

When A runs the bestpath calculation, Continue reading

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  • .NET developers dealing with Errors in Production: You know the pain of troubleshooting errors with limited time, limited information, and limited tools. Managers want to know what’s wrong right away, users don’t want to provide log data, and you spend more time gathering information than you do fixing the problem. To fix all that, Loupe was built specifically as a .NET logging and monitoring solution. Loupe notifies you about any errors and tells you all the information you need to fix them. It tracks performance metrics, identifies which errors cause the greatest impact, and pinpoints the root causes. Learn more and try it free today.

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AI and IoT: Like peanut butter and chocolate?

If you had to take a guess, what would you name as the two most prominent trends in technology right now? Like most people, I feel pretty confident in choosing artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), not necessarily in that order.But in a rare convergence, in turns out these two trends are even hotter together. In fact, the new hotness is the combination of AI and IoT, manifesting itself in a wide variety of form and implementations in locations around the world.IBM’s Watson wants to bring ‘cognitive computing’ to IoT At IBM, for example, the company opened a Watson Internet of Things headquarters in Munich, Germany, earlier this year. The lab pairs IBM with partners such as BMW, Bosch and Ricoh. The goal, per the company’s Watson IoT website, is to marry cognitive computing (the Watson AI platform) to vast arrays of IoT sensors. The company quotes an IDC report that claims IBM and Watson “can demonstrate the power of cognitive analytics in the IoT."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here