Oracle hits back at modular Java critics

With voting on a module system for Java set to close within the Java community, a high-ranking official at Oracle is again defending the plan amid criticism from Red Hat.Modularity is the main feature in Java 9, which is due to arrive July 27—if the disagreement over modularization does not hold up the release. Oracle's Mark Reinhold, chief architect in the company's Java platform group, sent out an email on an openjdk mailing list Monday, arguing the issues being brought up have already been covered.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT worker who trained H-1B-holding replacement aims for Congress

Craig Diangelo was an IT worker at Northeast Utilities in Connecticut until he completed training his H-1B-visa-holding replacement. He was one of about 200 who lost their jobs in 2014 after two India-based IT offshore outsourcing firms took over their work at what is now called Eversource.Diangelo, at first, was quiet, bound by severance agreements signed with the company. Then he started speaking out. Craig Diangelo Craig DiangeloTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to check for the Intel Active Management exploit that lets hackers take over your PC

If you think you're immune from a scary exploit found in Intel's Active Management Technology just because you're a consumer, think again.The exploit, disclosed on May 1, lets bad actors bypass authentication in Intel's remote management hardware to take over your PC. This hardware, built into enterprise-class PCs, lets IT administrators remotely manage fleets of computers—install patches and software, and even update the BIOS as though they were sitting in front of it. It is, in essence, a God-mode.Here's the fine print: Many early news reports said "consumer PCs are unaffected." But what Intel actually said was, "consumer PCs with consumer firmware" are unaffected.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to check for the Intel Active Management exploit that lets hackers take over your PC

If you think you're immune from a scary exploit found in Intel's Active Management Technology just because you're a consumer, think again.The exploit, disclosed on May 1, lets bad actors bypass authentication in Intel's remote management hardware to take over your PC. This hardware, built into enterprise-class PCs, lets IT administrators remotely manage fleets of computers—install patches and software, and even update the BIOS as though they were sitting in front of it. It is, in essence, a God-mode.Here's the fine print: Many early news reports said "consumer PCs are unaffected." But what Intel actually said was, "consumer PCs with consumer firmware" are unaffected.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 things you need to know about IoT security

Security, trust and data integrityImage by ThinkstockThe emergence of IoT is altering our personal technology security paradigm and is a game-changer in customer/business interaction, in part due to the wide scope of available data and sheer number of devices collecting this data. McKinsey & Company estimates the IoT ecosystem will generate $6 trillion in value by 2025. Successful IoT offerings rely on the perception of benefit they can deliver to businesses and consumers while creating a proportionate foundation of security, trust, and data integrity. There are important ways that IoT technology can reduce data security risk while improving customer experience in a connected world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 things you need to know about IoT security

Security, trust and data integrityImage by ThinkstockThe emergence of IoT is altering our personal technology security paradigm and is a game-changer in customer/business interaction, in part due to the wide scope of available data and sheer number of devices collecting this data. McKinsey & Company estimates the IoT ecosystem will generate $6 trillion in value by 2025. Successful IoT offerings rely on the perception of benefit they can deliver to businesses and consumers while creating a proportionate foundation of security, trust, and data integrity. There are important ways that IoT technology can reduce data security risk while improving customer experience in a connected world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 things you need to know about IoT security

Security, trust and data integrityImage by ThinkstockThe emergence of IoT is altering our personal technology security paradigm and is a game-changer in customer/business interaction, in part due to the wide scope of available data and sheer number of devices collecting this data. McKinsey & Company estimates the IoT ecosystem will generate $6 trillion in value by 2025. Successful IoT offerings rely on the perception of benefit they can deliver to businesses and consumers while creating a proportionate foundation of security, trust, and data integrity. There are important ways that IoT technology can reduce data security risk while improving customer experience in a connected world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

15 of the highest paying jobs in IT

Technology offers some of the highest paying and diverse jobs of any industry. While traditional tech roles like software engineer and product manager are still in high demand as CIOs struggle to find skilled IT pros, roles in sales, marketing and business development all offer healthy salaries and an alternate path into the industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

ServiceNow taps AI to automate everyday workflows

ServiceNow is bringing enhanced machine-learning capabilities to its Now Platform for business process automation to help customers prevent outages, automatically route service requests, and predict and benchmark IT performance.The AI capabilities will be offered through the upcoming Intelligent Automation Engine, announced at the company's Knowledge conference in Orlando Tuesday. The move strengthens ServiceNow's base in IT management while making further inroads into other areas of the enterprise.The machine-learning capabilities will be brought into ServiceNow's cloud services for security, customer service, and HR. The Intelligent Automation Engine's algorithms are based on technology the company acquired through its purchase of DxContinuum in January.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 Emerging Wireless Standards To Watch

IDG Contributor Network: Holographic Wi-Fi visually maps environments

Wi-Fi’s explosive growth is gaining even more momentum.Recently the Wi-Fi Alliance launched a certified program for “meter-level accuracy for indoor device location data” using its technology. Now, that location add-on tool is about to be joined by a kind of three-dimensional, Wi-Fi-derived holographic imaging. Both use the ubiquitous Wi-Fi data network we’ve come to know and love.Holographic Wi-Fi is a way to create three-dimensional images of spaces. It’s achieved by coupling Wi-Fi radio with graphical holograms.+ Also on Network World: Wi-Fi expanding to indoor location services + Some uses for the technology could be tracking products as they’re manufactured and move along in the production process, as well as searching for victims buried in collapsed buildings, say researchers from the Technical University of Munich who are developing the system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Holographic Wi-Fi visually maps environments

Wi-Fi’s explosive growth is gaining even more momentum.Recently the Wi-Fi Alliance launched a certified program for “meter-level accuracy for indoor device location data” using its technology. Now, that location add-on tool is about to be joined by a kind of three-dimensional, Wi-Fi-derived holographic imaging. Both use the ubiquitous Wi-Fi data network we’ve come to know and love.Holographic Wi-Fi is a way to create three-dimensional images of spaces. It’s achieved by coupling Wi-Fi radio with graphical holograms.+ Also on Network World: Wi-Fi expanding to indoor location services + Some uses for the technology could be tracking products as they’re manufactured and move along in the production process, as well as searching for victims buried in collapsed buildings, say researchers from the Technical University of Munich who are developing the system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Workflow Enhanced Networking (WEN)

Software Defined Networking (SDN) offered lots of hope, a centralized control-plane, programmable network functions and authenticated network nodes. Once we all stopped laughing and rolling around the floor with rib ache, the reality of SDN dawned quickly. It was a nice academic thought and set of experiments, but for the masses, the original meaning of SDN has changed significantly. The software giants with mountains of cash will drive technology like this early and possibly pave the way for the rest of us eventually, but for the masses of enterprises that vendors serve and that have more immediate requirements, SDN isn’t something that’s had massive adoption. The question of ‘why’ is a pretty obvious place to start and you don’t have to look too far before you find answers.

I will not get in to the overlay and underlay arguments here. These have been done to death already. Lots of organizations and vendors offer various takes on the middle-ground, far left and far right. This isn’t a product pitch either.

This post is around the “next onwards step” as opposed to changing the world. I also ‘feel’, this is the natural pull as opposed to the industry push we’ve come to Continue reading

Have to choose between VMware NSX and Cisco ACI? You’re Not Alone

I keep getting questions along the lines of “should I go with VMware NSX or should I deploy Cisco ACI” every single week, and as you know it’s hard to answer anything but it depends without spending hours on the topic.

That’s exactly what we plan to do in Zurich next Tuesday (May 16th) in a DIGS workshop that will run in parallel with the Data Center & Cloud Day (part of the SIGS Technology Conference).

Colombo, Sri Lanka: Six million Internet properties now faster for six million Internet users

We are excited to add four new data centers this week to Cloudflare's growing network, beginning with Colombo, Sri Lanka. This deployment is our 112th data center globally, and our 38th in Asia.

Faster Performance

CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 image by Pavel Dobrovsky

Six million Internet properties using Cloudflare are now even faster across the island country of Sri Lanka. Previously, local visitors to Cloudflare customers were served out of our Singapore or Dubai data centers.

Latency (ms) decreases 4x to Cloudflare customers. Source: Cedexis

Sri Lanka added over one million Internet users in the past year alone. At ~30% Internet penetration, there is considerable room to grow.

Next Three Cities

Our deployments to be revealed later this week will provide additional redundancy to existing facilities in North America and Africa.

If you enjoy the idea of helping build one of the world's largest networks, come join our team!

Impatient For Fabrics, Micron Forges Its Own NVM-Express Arrays

There may be a shortage in the supply of DRAM main memory and NAND flash memory that is having an adverse effect on the server and storage markets, but there is no shortage of vendors who are trying to push the envelope on clustered storage using a mix of these memories and others such as the impending 3D XPoint.

Micron Technology, which makes and sells all three of these types of memories, is so impatient with the rate of technological advancement in clustered flash arrays based on the NVM-Express protocol that it decided to engineer and launch its own product …

Impatient For Fabrics, Micron Forges Its Own NVM-Express Arrays was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Low-cost Android phones to get iPhone features with new Qualcomm chips

Low-cost smartphones like the Moto G5 introduced a few months ago are shipping with soon-to-be-outdated chips from Qualcomm, which has announced successor chips.Qualcomm on Monday introduced the Snapdragon 630 and 660, which are massive upgrades to chips used in low-cost smartphones introduced over the last six months or so.And in a few months, you'll be able to buy low-cost smartphones with these new chips, with prices starting at US$200. The handsets will feature LTE download speeds equivalent to that in the iPhone 7 and have graphics processors capable of capturing 4K video.Additionally, the low-cost smartphones will charge up faster than ever. The chips support Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4, and smartphones can charge up to 50 percent in just 15 minutes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

German firms will streamline online login with a European bent

Several German firms are taking a stab at a single login process for accessing different online services -- an approach that could compete with U.S. offerings. The companies, which include automaker Daimler, insurance provider Allianz and Deutsche Bank, among others, announced the joint effort on Monday. Their goal: to create a platform that revolves around a “master key” for users that can access sites and services across industries.The platform will not only make online registration simpler, but also more secure, they said. To do so, the companies will incorporate top standards in data security, and comply with local European Union data protection laws.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

German firms will streamline online login with a European bent

Several German firms are taking a stab at a single login process for accessing different online services -- an approach that could compete with U.S. offerings. The companies, which include automaker Daimler, insurance provider Allianz and Deutsche Bank, among others, announced the joint effort on Monday. Their goal: to create a platform that revolves around a “master key” for users that can access sites and services across industries.The platform will not only make online registration simpler, but also more secure, they said. To do so, the companies will incorporate top standards in data security, and comply with local European Union data protection laws.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Dive into Deep Learning Chip Startup Graphcore’s Software Stack

The last two years have delivered a new wave of deep learning architectures designed specifically for tackling both training and inference sides of neural networks. We have covered many of them extensively, but only a few have seen major investment or acquisition—the most notable of which was Nervana Systems over a year ago.

Among the string of neural network chip startups, Graphcore stood out with its manycore approach to handling both training and inference on the same manycore chip. We described the hardware architecture in detail back in March and while its over $30 million in funding from a …

A Dive into Deep Learning Chip Startup Graphcore’s Software Stack was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.