Yahoo selling its ‘chicken coop’ data center design

Verizon has closed on the purchase of search engine pioneer Yahoo, thus ending the independent run of one of the original internet firms that launched in the early 1990s and the reign of error of Marissa Meyer. But the company is still having a fire sale of its patent portfolio, and one of them is a unique data center design.The company announced in 2009 an unusual data center design in Lockport, New York. The building was shaped like a chicken coop and would use outside air for cooling with a flywheel-based energy storage system, and it would have an annualized PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of under 1.1, which was better than what Google was reporting for its data centers at the time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 GbE switches set to lose share this year as 40, 100 GbE switches gain traction

For the first time since their debut on the market in the mid-2000s, 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches are set to lose share in the networking industry this year as service providers and hyperscale customers continue to adopt faster bandwidth 40 and 100 GbE switches, according to data from research firm IDC.IDC estimates that last year 10 GbE revenues stood at $6.15 billion, up from $5.44 billion in 2015. This year, IDC predicts 10 GbE switching revenues will fall to $5.94 billion.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Nokia rolls out its first 'petabit-class' router | SD-WAN, what it is and why you'll use it one day +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Today’s Your Last Chance To Buy Dad A Discounted Echo or Kindle Device – Deal Alert

Still need to get Dad a gift? Or a gift for yourself? The Amazon devices below are currently discounted for Father's day. Yes, Father's day is only 3 days away, but don't panic -- if you're a Prime member, order today you'll have it shipped in time, and for free. If you're not a Prime member, sign up for a free trial and you'll get the free 2-day shipping you need if you want to pull off this last minute plan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Monitoring SDN Networks: Featured Webinar in June 2016

Monitoring SDN Networks is the featured webinar of June 2017, and in the featured video Terry Slattery (CCIE#1026) talks about network analysis of SDN.

If you’re a trial subscriber, log into my.ipspace.net, select the webinar from the first page, and watch the video marked with star… and if you’d like to try the ipSpace.net subscription register here.

Trial subscribers can also use this month's featured webinar discount to get a 25% discount (and get closer to the full subscription).

Notes on open-sourcing abandoned code

Some people want a law that compels companies to release their source code for "abandoned software", in the name of cybersecurity, so that customers who bought it can continue to patch bugs long after the seller has stopped supporting the product. This is a bad policy, for a number of reasons.


Code is Speech

First of all, code is speech. That was the argument why Phil Zimmerman could print the source code to PGP in a book, ship it overseas, and then have somebody scan the code back into a computer. Compelled speech is a violation of free speech. That was one of the arguments in the Apple vs. FBI case, where the FBI demanded that Apple write code for them, compelling speech.

Compelling the opening of previously closed source is compelled speech. Sure, demanding new products come with source would be one thing, but going backwards demanding source for products sold before 2017 is quite another thing.

For most people, "rights" are something that only their own side deserves. Whether something deserves the protection of "free speech" depends upon whether the speaker is "us" or the speaker is "them". If it's "them", then you'll find all sorts of reasons Continue reading

The Difference Between Proper Devs and Me

I spend a lot of time poking around with code, and I can figure out most integration challenges, and simple code fixes. But I do not call myself a developer. I know, we can argue about what constitutes a developer, but I don’t really want to get into that. I’d just like to highlight something that showed the difference between the futzing about that I do, and the way a senior developer thinks about problems.

StackStorm Documentation Process

We use reStructuredText for StackStorm documentation. It’s a form of markup language, with everything is written in plaintext. It gets parsed into HTML (and potentially other formats). The use of special punctuation marks and indentation tells the parser how to render the HTML - e.g. inserting links, highlighting text, bullet points, etc.

When I want to update our documentation, I create a branch on our GitHub st2docs repo. I make my changes, then create a Pull Request against the master branch. When I do this, it triggers our CircleCI checks. These checks include attempting to build the documentation, and failing if there are any parsing errors. If I’ve made a mistake in my syntax, it gets caught at this point, and Continue reading

The Difference Between Proper Devs and Me

I spend a lot of time poking around with code, and I can figure out most integration challenges, and simple code fixes. But I do not call myself a developer. I know, we can argue about what constitutes a developer, but I don’t really want to get into that. I’d just like to highlight something that showed the difference between the futzing about that I do, and the way a senior developer thinks about problems.

StackStorm Documentation Process

We use reStructuredText for StackStorm documentation. It’s a form of markup language, with everything is written in plaintext. It gets parsed into HTML (and potentially other formats). The use of special punctuation marks and indentation tells the parser how to render the HTML - e.g. inserting links, highlighting text, bullet points, etc.

When I want to update our documentation, I create a branch on our GitHub st2docs repo. I make my changes, then create a Pull Request against the master branch. When I do this, it triggers our CircleCI checks. These checks include attempting to build the documentation, and failing if there are any parsing errors. If I’ve made a mistake in my syntax, it gets caught at this point, and Continue reading

61% off Jackery Bolt 6,000mAh Power Bank with Built-in Lightning and Micro USB Cables – Deal Alert

Reduce some of that cable clutter with the ultra compact Jackery Bolt 6,000mAh external battery charger that features a built-in Apple Lighting cable for your iPhone or iPad and a built-in micro-USB cable for other mobile devices. With an additional open USB port you can charge up to 3 devices at once. Powerful 6000 mAh capacity can fully charge an iPhone 6 at up to 3 times.  The Jackery Bolt averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 240 people on Amazon (read reviews), where its list price of $69.99 has been reduced 63% down to just $26.99. See the discounted external power bank now on Amazon. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Stretching the Business of Tape Storage to Extreme Scale

IPOs and major investments in storage startups are one thing, but when it comes to a safe tech company investment, all bets are still on tape.

The rumors of tape’s death are greatly exaggerated, but there have been some changes to the market. While the number of installed sites might be shrinking for long-time tape storage maker, SpectraLogic, the installation sizes of its remaining customers keeps growing, which produces a nice uptick in revenue for the company, according to its CTO, Matt Starr.

This makes sense since the relatively smaller backups and archives make better performance sense on disk—and many

Stretching the Business of Tape Storage to Extreme Scale was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

7 must-have network tools

Fave Raves is an annual feature from Network World that invites enterprise IT pros to share hands-on assessments of products they love. Several IT pros raved about their favorite network tools. Here’s what they had to say, in their own words. For more enterprise favorites, check out the full Fave Raves collection.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

7 must-have network tools

Fave Raves is an annual feature from Network World that invites enterprise IT pros to share hands-on assessments of products they love. Several IT pros raved about their favorite network tools. Here’s what they had to say, in their own words. For more enterprise favorites, check out the full Fave Raves collection.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

7 must-have network tools

Fave Raves is an annual feature from Network World that invites enterprise IT pros to share hands-on assessments of products they love. Several IT pros raved about their favorite network tools. Here’s what they had to say, in their own words. For more enterprise favorites, check out the full Fave Raves collection.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

CCIE/CCDE Re-certification: An Opportunity to Learn and Grow

I did not pass my CCDE re-certification last week.  Why write a blog about a “failure”?  Honestly?  Because I think we as an IT industry overly focus and give too many kudos to the passing only.  Not to the hours and hours of studying and learning… not to the lessons learned… not to the growth gained from the studying journey.  Just to the “pass/fail”.  Well damn… no wonder people cheat.  Their focus isn’t on the learning or the journey.  Just the passing.

I thoroughly believe the expression –

Sometimes you win….. Sometimes you learn.

Did I want to pass last week?  ROFL!  Are you kidding?  Of course I did!  Did I “deserve” to pass?  Well…. um…. err… not exactly.

See that 10% at the bottom of the “Written Exam Topics v2.1?”   Truth be told I didn’t quite exactly study that part very much.

So what is my plan now?

LEARN

Honestly in my job I am not doing much Cloud, SDN, or IoT.  AND I have to admit I am quite happy I am now essentially forced to learn these to a Continue reading

Nokia rolls out its first ‘petabit-class’ router

With internet traffic set to triple over the next five years or so, according to recent estimates from Nokia and Cisco Systems, Nokia thinks the time is right for a new range of high-end routers that can boost core capacity by a factor of six—and even help 10-year-old devices to double their capacity.Nokia predicts that by 2022, total internet traffic will reach 330 exabytes per month. (That's 330 million terabytes). For its part, Cisco forecasts it will grow at 24 percent per year from a base of 96 exabytes per month in 2016 to 278 exabytes per month in 2021.That traffic growth will be driven by three things, according to Nokia: cloud services, 5G mobile networks, and the Internet of Things.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia rolls out its first ‘petabit-class’ router

With internet traffic set to triple over the next five years or so, according to recent estimates from Nokia and Cisco Systems, Nokia thinks the time is right for a new range of high-end routers that can boost core capacity by a factor of six—and even help 10-year-old devices to double their capacity.Nokia predicts that by 2022, total internet traffic will reach 330 exabytes per month. (That's 330 million terabytes). For its part, Cisco forecasts it will grow at 24 percent per year from a base of 96 exabytes per month in 2016 to 278 exabytes per month in 2021.That traffic growth will be driven by three things, according to Nokia: cloud services, 5G mobile networks, and the Internet of Things.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here