IDG Contributor Network: Containers and virtual machines: Which is best for you?

If you want to stop someone from driving a car, you can take away the keys. Quick, easy and effective. Alternatively, removing the wheels and engine will work, too.A container is an OS extension that takes away keys, leaving the OS intact. A virtual machine (VM) reworks the architecture, separating the car from the wheels and engine. Taking the keys is easy, but the driver might have spares, and a car can be hot-wired in about a billion ways. Removing the wheels and engine is a lot of trouble, but the car won’t move without them. And when you mount snow tires, that removable wheel architecture is handy.Time-sharing computers Containers and VMs go back to the beginning of time-sharing, an outstanding advance in mid-twentieth century computing. A single time-sharing computer supports multiple users running multiple tasks at the same time. Each user thinks they control the entire machine.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: CIOs: Stop talking about tech, start talking about value

Remember scrambling like mad for new technology?I know people who camped out overnight to secure their place in line for the latest version of a smartphone. Others significantly overpaid or added their names to pre-order lists months in advance—just to make sure they had the most up-to-date device. When the iPad2 was released back in 2011, some stores sold out within 10 minutes even though it was estimated that 60 percent of consumers purchasing the tablet already owned the original version launched only the year before. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: CIOs: Stop talking about tech, start talking about value

Remember scrambling like mad for new technology?I know people who camped out overnight to secure their place in line for the latest version of a smartphone. Others significantly overpaid or added their names to pre-order lists months in advance—just to make sure they had the most up-to-date device. When the iPad2 was released back in 2011, some stores sold out within 10 minutes even though it was estimated that 60 percent of consumers purchasing the tablet already owned the original version launched only the year before. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple now has more cash than the U.K. and Canada, combined!

Apple has long been known keeping a big rainy day fund. But according to Lee Pinkowitz, a Georgetown University professor of finance quoted in the Wall Street Journal, “they’re saving for a millennial flood."The numbers are truly astonishing. The company has some $250 billion—a quarter of a trillion!—in cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term securities, including corporate paper, U.S. Treasury bond and money-market funds, the Journal said. Add it up, and it’s more than the total foreign-currency reserves held by many countries— including plenty of pretty big countries, like Mexico and Indonesia. In fact, as the Journal notes, it’s more than the foreign reserves of the U.K. and Canada … combined.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S will take on Chrome OS

Microsoft hopes a new Windows 10 operating system called Windows 10 S will usurp Chromebook's domination in education and provide a better way for students to learn.The new version of Windows, announced at an event in New York Tuesday, is targeted at teachers, students, artists and creators. It's got features very similar to that of Chrome OS in Chromebooks, which dominates the education market.It has a traditional Windows 10 desktop look, and will only run applications downloaded from the Windows App store. That means all applications will be verified and secure.Windows 10 acts like a "container" that will run secure apps. A version of Microsoft's Office Suite will also come to Windows 10 S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Acer R11 Chromebook—Average Chromebook, awesome emulation laptop

I'm not much of a ChromeOS user these days. Almost every aspect of Google's services has been removed from my life (Google Search, GMail, etc.), and, well, I just don't have much need for a system centered entirely around Google at this point.But I had the chance to use the Acer Chromebook R11 (the CB5-132T-C9KK model), so I decided to see just how useful it could be for someone like me—someone who really doesn't use Google other than for YouTube and the occasional Hangouts video chat (for the friends I can't seem to persuade to use anything else).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The move toward enterprise security technology integration

Last week, I wrote about the move toward cybersecurity vendor and technology consolidation, along with a growing emphasis on technology integration in the enterprise. Here’s some additional data that reinforces those conclusions. As part of a recent ESG research project, 176 cybersecurity and IT professionals were presented with several statements and asked whether they agreed or disagreed with each one. Here are the results:  82% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "My organization is actively building a security architecture that integrates multiple individual product." This is likely part of a SOAPA (security operations and analytics platform architecture) project. 81% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "Cybersecurity product integration has become an important consideration of our security procurement criteria." In other words, stand-alone point tools don’t make the purchasing cut in most cases. 78% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "The security products my organization buys are regularly qualified on their integration capabilities." This aligns with the previous point.  73% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "My organization tends to select best-of-breed products." Once again, the data reflects that Continue reading

The move toward enterprise security technology integration

Last week, I wrote about the move toward cybersecurity vendor and technology consolidation, along with a growing emphasis on technology integration in the enterprise. Here’s some additional data that reinforces those conclusions. As part of a recent ESG research project, 176 cybersecurity and IT professionals were presented with several statements and asked whether they agreed or disagreed with each one. Here are the results:  82% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "My organization is actively building a security architecture that integrates multiple individual product." This is likely part of a SOAPA (security operations and analytics platform architecture) project. 81% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "Cybersecurity product integration has become an important consideration of our security procurement criteria." In other words, stand-alone point tools don’t make the purchasing cut in most cases. 78% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "The security products my organization buys are regularly qualified on their integration capabilities." This aligns with the previous point.  73% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: "My organization tends to select best-of-breed products." Once again, the data reflects that Continue reading

Toward Enterprise Security Technology Integration

Last week, I posted a blog about the move toward cybersecurity vendor and technology consolidation along with a growing emphasis on technology integration in the enterprise. Here’s some additional data that reinforces these conclusions.  As part of a recent ESG research project, 176 cybersecurity and It professionals were presented with several statements and asked whether they agreed or disagreed with each one (note: I am an ESG employee).  Here are the results:  82% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘My organization is actively building a security architecture that integrates multiple individual product.’  This is likely part of a SOAPA (i.e. security operations and analytics platform architecture) project. 81% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘Cybersecurity product integration has become an important consideration of our security procurement criteria.’  In other words, stand-alone point tools don’t make the purchasing cut in most cases. 78% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘The security products my organization buys are regularly qualified on their integration capabilities.  This aligns with the previous point.  73% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘My organization Continue reading

Toward Enterprise Security Technology Integration

Last week, I posted a blog about the move toward cybersecurity vendor and technology consolidation along with a growing emphasis on technology integration in the enterprise. Here’s some additional data that reinforces these conclusions.  As part of a recent ESG research project, 176 cybersecurity and It professionals were presented with several statements and asked whether they agreed or disagreed with each one (note: I am an ESG employee).  Here are the results:  82% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘My organization is actively building a security architecture that integrates multiple individual product.’  This is likely part of a SOAPA (i.e. security operations and analytics platform architecture) project. 81% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘Cybersecurity product integration has become an important consideration of our security procurement criteria.’  In other words, stand-alone point tools don’t make the purchasing cut in most cases. 78% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘The security products my organization buys are regularly qualified on their integration capabilities.  This aligns with the previous point.  73% of survey respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement: ‘My organization Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: NetOps: Are you ready? How can you start?

NetOps focuses on the philosophies, practices and tools in building and operating the network to deliver and respond quickly to application and user service needs. In my previous post, I described NetOps and why you should care. Ties from NetOps to agile software development and DevOps are essential, as these practices are now the source of many of the requests for network changes.The methods of NetOps can help you to create a network that is not only available with high levels of reliability, performance and security, but is also agile in configuration, capacity and operations. In short, NetOps enables the network to be both available and agile.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: NetOps: Are you ready? How can you start?

NetOps focuses on the philosophies, practices and tools in building and operating the network to deliver and respond quickly to application and user service needs. In my previous post, I described NetOps and why you should care. Ties from NetOps to agile software development and DevOps are essential, as these practices are now the source of many of the requests for network changes.The methods of NetOps can help you to create a network that is not only available with high levels of reliability, performance and security, but is also agile in configuration, capacity and operations. In short, NetOps enables the network to be both available and agile.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Datacenter Does Not Revolve Around AWS, Despite Its Gravity

If the public cloud computing market were our solar system, then Amazon Web Services would be Jupiter and Saturn together and the remaining five fast-growing big clouds would be like the inner planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,  and that pile of rocks that used to be a planet mixed up with those clouds that are finding growth a bit more challenging  – think Uranus and Neptune and maybe even Pluto if you still want to count it a planet.

This analogy came to us in the wake of Amazon’s reporting of its financial results for the first quarter of

The Datacenter Does Not Revolve Around AWS, Despite Its Gravity was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Microsoft reportedly will separate Edge from OS updates

It’s no secret that Microsoft’s Edge browser, the revamped browser that shipped with Windows 10 as a replacement for Internet Explorer, is struggling to gain any sort of traction. As IE fades rapidly, Google Chrome has been picking up share, while Edge remains stubbornly at 5 percent share.As I illustrated last week, Edge doesn’t really have one. It’s painfully slow. I should not be able to watch a website load piece by piece in 2017 on a broadband connection.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Red Hat kicks off annual Summit by leaning dev-wards

Red Hat’s annual summit opened today with the announcement of three new products aimed with uncharacteristic directness at developers, rather than the company’s usual target of IT operations staff.Openshift.io is the company’s free SaaS development environment, specifically designed for cloud-native apps, that lets geographically far-flung teams work together and automatically containerizes code for easy deployment. The environment builds on open source projects like Kubernetes-focused development platform fabric8, IDE Eclipse Che, and automation server Jenkins.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Red Hat CEO: Open-source innovation is always user-led + Which Linux distros should newbies use?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Red Hat kicks off annual Summit by leaning dev-wards

Red Hat’s annual summit opened today with the announcement of three new products aimed with uncharacteristic directness at developers, rather than the company’s usual target of IT operations staff.Openshift.io is the company’s free SaaS development environment, specifically designed for cloud-native apps, that lets geographically far-flung teams work together and automatically containerizes code for easy deployment. The environment builds on open source projects like Kubernetes-focused development platform fabric8, IDE Eclipse Che, and automation server Jenkins.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Red Hat CEO: Open-source innovation is always user-led + Which Linux distros should newbies use?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here