6 steps for setting up a server room for your small business

NOTE: This story was originally published in September 2013 and updated in April 2017.Bringing IT in-house and setting up dedicated on-premises servers can be intimidating for a small business, especially given the recent focus on online services. Moreover, resources designed to help tend to assume a medium-sized or enterprise installation, which may not necessarily work well for setting up a small server room or even a closet for a branch office.With some understanding of the basics, though, setting up your own server room for your small business network need not be an arcane process. Here are some tips for getting started.Rack-mount equipment makes sense It's not uncommon for small businesses to begin operation by stacking server hardware and network appliances on a desk or shelf. Though such a deployment is inexpensive, the pile of equipment invariably expands into an unmanageable mess with the growth of the company. Exposed equipment is also completely open to physical tampering and is a ticking time bomb for accidents such as coffee spills, dust or even workers tripping over wires.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 steps for setting up a server room for your small business

NOTE: This story was originally published in September 2013 and updated in April 2017.Bringing IT in-house and setting up dedicated on-premises servers can be intimidating for a small business, especially given the recent focus on online services. Moreover, resources designed to help tend to assume a medium-sized or enterprise installation, which may not necessarily work well for setting up a small server room or even a closet for a branch office.With some understanding of the basics, though, setting up your own server room for your small business network need not be an arcane process. Here are some tips for getting started.Rack-mount equipment makes sense It's not uncommon for small businesses to begin operation by stacking server hardware and network appliances on a desk or shelf. Though such a deployment is inexpensive, the pile of equipment invariably expands into an unmanageable mess with the growth of the company. Exposed equipment is also completely open to physical tampering and is a ticking time bomb for accidents such as coffee spills, dust or even workers tripping over wires.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Informatica CEO talks of why data quality is key to successful digital transformation

If you want to be successful in your digital transformation initiatives, clean up your data first. That’s the message from Anil Chakravarthy, CEO of Informatica, whose master data management products help companies get a 360-degree view of customers, suppliers and other key assets. In this installment of the IDG CEO Interview Series, Chakravarthy spoke with Chief Content Officer John Gallant about the data quality and integration issues that hamstring innovation and digital transformation efforts. He also discussed how the nearly 25-year-old company’s decision to go private in 2015 was spurred by its own digital transformation strategy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Experts contend Microsoft canceled Feb. updates to patch NSA exploits

Microsoft delayed its February security update slate to finish patching critical flaws in Windows that a hacker gang tried to sell, several security experts have argued."Looks like Microsoft had been informed by 'someone,' and purposely delayed [February's] Patch Tuesday to successfully deliver MS17-010," tweeted Matt Suiche, founder of Dubai-based security firm Comae Technologies.MS17-010, one of several security bulletins Microsoft issued in March, was just one of several cited Friday by the Redmond, Wash. developer when it said it had already patched most of the vulnerabilities exploited by just-leaked hacking tools.Those tools -- 12 different Windows exploits -- had been included in a large data dump made April 14 by a hacker group dubbed Shadow Brokers, which is believed to have ties to Russia. The exploits, as well as a trove of documents, had been stolen from the National Security Agency (NSA), Shadow Brokers claimed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Experts contend Microsoft canceled Feb. updates to patch NSA exploits

Microsoft delayed its February security update slate to finish patching critical flaws in Windows that a hacker gang tried to sell, several security experts have argued."Looks like Microsoft had been informed by 'someone,' and purposely delayed [February's] Patch Tuesday to successfully deliver MS17-010," tweeted Matt Suiche, founder of Dubai-based security firm Comae Technologies.MS17-010, one of several security bulletins Microsoft issued in March, was just one of several cited Friday by the Redmond, Wash. developer when it said it had already patched most of the vulnerabilities exploited by just-leaked hacking tools.Those tools -- 12 different Windows exploits -- had been included in a large data dump made April 14 by a hacker group dubbed Shadow Brokers, which is believed to have ties to Russia. The exploits, as well as a trove of documents, had been stolen from the National Security Agency (NSA), Shadow Brokers claimed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook’s Caffe2 AI tools come to iPhone, Android, and Raspberry Pi

New intelligence can be added to mobile devices like the iPhone, Android devices, and low-power computers like Raspberry Pi with Facebook's new open-source Caffe2 deep-learning framework.Caffe2 can be used to program artificial intelligence features into smartphones and tablets, allowing them to recognize images, video, text, and speech and be more situationally aware.It's important to note that Caffe2 is not an AI program, but a tool allowing AI to be programmed into smartphones. It takes just a few lines of code to write learning models, which can then be bundled into apps.The release of Caffe2 is significant. It means users will be able to get image recognition, natural language processing, and computer vision directly on their phone. That task is typically offloaded to remote servers in the cloud, with smartphones then connecting to it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At $175, this ransomware service is a boon to cybercriminals

Cybercriminals have another easy-to-use ransomware kit to add to their arsenals, thanks to a new variant called Karmen that hackers can buy on the black market for $175.A Russian-speaking user called DevBitox has been advertising the ransomware in underground forums, security firm Recorded Future said in a blog post on Tuesday.  Karmen is what experts call ransomware-as-a-service -- a particularly worrisome trend. Amateur hackers with little technical know-how can buy access to them, and in return, they’ll receive a whole suite of web-based tools to develop their own ransomware attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At $175, this ransomware service is a boon to cybercriminals

Cybercriminals have another easy-to-use ransomware kit to add to their arsenals, thanks to a new variant called Karmen that hackers can buy on the black market for $175.A Russian-speaking user called DevBitox has been advertising the ransomware in underground forums, security firm Recorded Future said in a blog post on Tuesday.  Karmen is what experts call ransomware-as-a-service -- a particularly worrisome trend. Amateur hackers with little technical know-how can buy access to them, and in return, they’ll receive a whole suite of web-based tools to develop their own ransomware attacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Networking in Azure

Hybrid networking is a nice thing, but the question then is how do we define hybrid networking? For me, in the context of the connectivity to virtual networks, ExpressRoute’s private peering or VPN connectivity, it is the ability to connect cross-premises resources to one or more Virtual Networks (VNets). While this all works nicely, and we know how to connect to the cloud, how do we network within the cloud? There are at least 3 Azure built-in ways of doing this. In this series of 3 blog posts, my intent is to briefly explain… —Azure

The post Worth Reading: Networking in Azure appeared first on rule 11 reader.

Facebook wants you to hang out with your friends in VR

Facebook is making it possible to hang out with your friends in virtual reality using Spaces, a new app the company launched Tuesday for the Oculus Rift. The app will allow people to join a shared, immersive video call, represented by a personalized avatar.Using Spaces, people can hang out around a virtual reality table, share three-dimensional drawings and use the Rift’s built-in microphone to chat with one another. Users can also surround themselves and their friends with 360-degree photos and videos from Facebook’s library of content.People who don’t have a Rift headset can also be included in a Spaces hangout by using Facebook’s Messenger video calling functionality. Users will be able to view a Space from their smartphone, and have their video call shown inside the virtual reality environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Machine Learning Storms Into Climate Research

The fields where machine learning and neural networks can have positive impacts seem almost limitless. From healthcare and genomics to pharmaceutical development, oil and gas exploration, retail, smart cities and autonomous vehicles, the ability to rapidly and automatically find patterns in massive amounts of data promises to help solve increasingly complex problems and speed up  discoveries that will improve lives, create a heathier world and make businesses more efficient.

Climate science is one of those fields that will see significant benefits from machine learning, and scientists in the field are pushing hard to see how the technology can help them …

Machine Learning Storms Into Climate Research was written by Jeffrey Burt at The Next Platform.

401k, ROTH IRA, and NSX, Wait What?

Today is “tax day” here in the United States where the deadline to file your personal income taxes is due and many of us are looking at our tax burden, investments, and how to deal with the 4 million words in the U.S. tax code. So why not take this day to compare the complexity of taxes with the complexity of traditional data center networking and security. If legacy networking is the 1040-long form then NSX is the 1040-EZ form. Akin to the questions I have for my tax advisor, I sometimes get questions from customers about NSX asking: “We don’t need micro-segmentation, we have VLANs and Firewalls”, or “We don’t need network virtualization, we can do that today with routers and switches…If have to have network hardware anyways, why do I need network software as well?”

So, in the spirit of Tax Day here in the US, let’s compare hardware and software to what they really are…investments. And yes, different investments are taxed differently. Let’s think of traditional networking as a 401K and NSX as a ROTH IRA. Both are investments, and both get taxed.

  • Traditional networking investments are “tax-free” UNTIL you retire (or refresh Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: We’re all responsible for combating fake news

I spoke to a 5th grade class about identity theft the other day. I quickly discovered that these kids were struggling with EXACTLY the same problems most of us struggle with in our workplace and our personal lives. They were swimming in a sea of dubious information, not able to tell what was real and what was not, or if they were being scammed or by whom.“Sometimes I’m gaming,” said one kid, “and someone asks ‘What’s your real name?’ and I’m like, why does he need to know?”“I was on this chat board, and I could just tell this person was totally fake, but I didn’t know what to do,” said another kid.+ Also on Network World: What fake news means for IT—and how IT security can help fight it + The truth is, every day, in every possible way, we get bombarded with fake information. It doesn’t matter how old we are, how smart we are, whether we’re at home or at work. The world is full of falsity, whether it’s phishing, fake news or some weirdo trying to learn more about us when we’re playing a video game.To read this article Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: We’re all responsible for combating fake news

I spoke to a 5th grade class about identity theft the other day. I quickly discovered that these kids were struggling with EXACTLY the same problems most of us struggle with in our workplace and our personal lives. They were swimming in a sea of dubious information, not able to tell what was real and what was not, or if they were being scammed or by whom.“Sometimes I’m gaming,” said one kid, “and someone asks ‘What’s your real name?’ and I’m like, why does he need to know?”“I was on this chat board, and I could just tell this person was totally fake, but I didn’t know what to do,” said another kid.+ Also on Network World: What fake news means for IT—and how IT security can help fight it + The truth is, every day, in every possible way, we get bombarded with fake information. It doesn’t matter how old we are, how smart we are, whether we’re at home or at work. The world is full of falsity, whether it’s phishing, fake news or some weirdo trying to learn more about us when we’re playing a video game.To read this article Continue reading

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