IDG Contributor Network: Chaos in the enterprise: How to have confidence in the cloud

Most enterprises across the globe are currently at some stage of the digital transformation journey, and there is no doubt that cloud is a key driving factor. No sector is immune to the impact of digital transformation, particularly as the influx of digital and data-driven challengers shows no sign of abating and legacy businesses find themselves forced to modernize rapidly, sometimes just to maintain their competitive position.Enterprises face myriad challenges when it comes to moving applications and data to the cloud. On the one hand, there is increasing pressure to reap the benefits of cloud services. These include the agility to increase infrastructure capacity with no additional capital expenses and to quickly deploy new services as mandated by the business needs. On the other hand, enterprises have legacy systems and applications that cannot be virtualized or migrated to the cloud. In addition, in many sectors, such as financial services, there is a raft of governance, compliance and regulatory (GRC) requirements that impact cloud strategy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why the Red Hat-Amazon partnership is a big deal in the cloud

It’s a hybrid and multi-cloud world, at least according to Red Hat.So this week at its Summit in Boston the company that is known for commercializing open source projects for enterprises has taken steps to further facilitate how users of its application development tools can manage workloads across public clouds and on-premises systems.Here are the key details: Red Hat announced native access to Amazon Web Services products in its Red Hat OpenShift product. OpenShift is the company’s platform as a service (PaaS) application development software, and it’s also the company’s main tool for helping enterprises deploy application containers, including those from Docker.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco bolsters analytics clout with Saggezza buy

Cisco kept the checkbook open by making a second purchase in less than a week, this time grabbing the analytics and data science technology from Saggezza for an undisclosed amount.On May 1 Cisco padded its SD-WAN portfolio with SD-WAN player Viptela for $610 million.Saggezza is a privately held company founded in 2006. The name Saggezza derives from the Latin word for wisdom, or insight, according to the company’s website. It’s products, TruVantage – aimed at financial institutions and Lube Insights – a cloud-based application offer data analytics support for IT operations, visualization applications and business process optimization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco bolsters analytics clout with Saggezza buy

Cisco kept the checkbook open by making a second purchase in less than a week, this time grabbing the analytics and data science technology from Saggezza for an undisclosed amount.On May 1 Cisco padded its SD-WAN portfolio with SD-WAN player Viptela for $610 million.Saggezza is a privately held company founded in 2006. The name Saggezza derives from the Latin word for wisdom, or insight, according to the company’s website. It’s products, TruVantage – aimed at financial institutions and Lube Insights – a cloud-based application offer data analytics support for IT operations, visualization applications and business process optimization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: What is Docker’s Moby Project?

Being an Austinite, I enjoyed having DockerCon local, and I co-authored a guide to visiting Austin in the hopes that attendees would enjoy having DockerCon in Austin as well.During DockerCon 2017, a few major announcements were made, including the Moby Project. What is the Moby Project? It's a framework to assemble specialized container systems without reinventing the wheel. The Moby Project is to Docker what Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. - Solomon Hykes, Docker CTO/FounderTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco and Viptela – The Price of Development Debt

Cisco finally pulled themselves into the SD-WAN market by acquiring Viptela on Monday. Viptela was considered to be one of, if not the leading SD-WAN vendor in the market. That Cisco decided to pick them as an acquisition target isn’t completely surprising. But one might wonder why?

IWANna New Debt

Cisco’s premier strategy for SD-WAN up until last week was IWAN. This is their catch-all solution designed to take the various component pieces being offered by SD-WAN solutions and replicate them on Cisco hardware. IWAN has served as a vehicle for Cisco to push things like the APIC-EM solution, Cisco ONE licensing, and a variety of other enhanced technologies like NBAR and PfR.

Cisco has packaged these technologies together because they have spent a couple of decades building these protocols up to be the best at what they do in the industry. NBAR was the key to application QoS years ago. PfR and OER were the genesis of Cisco having the ability to intelligently route packets to destinations. These protocols have formed the cornerstone of their platform for many, many years.

So why is IWAN such a mess? If you have the best of breed technology built into a router Continue reading

Raspberry Pi roundup, Star Wars edition: Holochess, blasters, and, obviously R2-D2

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, the second of the two “star” franchises that form such a foundational part of nerd culture. Consequently, this is a special Star Wars edition of your faithful Raspberry Pi roundup.It’s easy to see what Star Trek “means” as a part of nerdery – it’s a mostly hopeful vision of the future, where the adults mostly act like adults and the better angels of our natures win out much more often than our demons. Star Wars is harder to pin down. As lots of people have said, it’s really more fantasy than sci-fi, but it’s one where many have chosen to let their imaginations roam freely.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Cool ways to celebrate Star Wars Day + Raspberry Pi roundup: Searching for Pi, steampunk laptops, Code Angels, and a visit to Competitor CornerTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Raspberry Pi roundup, Star Wars edition: Holochess, blasters, and, obviously R2-D2

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, the second of the two “star” franchises that form such a foundational part of nerd culture. Consequently, this is a special Star Wars edition of your faithful Raspberry Pi roundup.It’s easy to see what Star Trek “means” as a part of nerdery – it’s a mostly hopeful vision of the future, where the adults mostly act like adults and the better angels of our natures win out much more often than our demons. Star Wars is harder to pin down. As lots of people have said, it’s really more fantasy than sci-fi, but it’s one where many have chosen to let their imaginations roam freely.+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Cool ways to celebrate Star Wars Day + Raspberry Pi roundup: Searching for Pi, steampunk laptops, Code Angels, and a visit to Competitor CornerTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Vodafone Taps Mirantis for Managed Open Cloud Services

Mirantis will update the software weekly to reduce downtime.

Open-source chip mimics Linux’s path to take on closed x86, ARM CPUs

If you're buying a PC or server, you've likely considered chips based on x86 or, perhaps less often, the ARM architecture.But like Linux in software, an open-source chip project is out to break the dominance of proprietary chips offered by Intel, AMD, and ARM.The RISC-V open-source architecture, created by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2010, is open to all who want to use it. The RISC-V design can be modified for PCs, servers, smartphones, wearables, and other devices.A startup called SiFive is the first to make a business out of the RISC-V architecture. The company is also the first to convert the RISC-V instruction set architecture into actual silicon. The company on Thursday announced it has created two new chip designs that can be licensed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The BlackBerry KeyOne – a surprising phone with a hardware keyboard

Here's a surprise: BlackBerry is back with a new handset and it's pretty good.I know, I know, you've heard this before. Several times over the last few years BlackBerry has attempted to make a comeback and each time it's come to nothing, so what's different now?For the first time the iconic BlackBerry hardware keyboard has been married with Android in the BlackBerry KeyOne. Combine those with several software apps from BlackBerry and the KeyOne is worth a look if you're shopping for a new smartphone, particularly if you spend a lot of time on email, social media or messaging.The handset is produced by TCL, a Chinese phone maker that recently acquired rights to the BlackBerry brand for smartphones. BlackBerry, based in Canada, is still responsible for the software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The BlackBerry KeyOne – a surprising phone with a hardware keyboard

Here's a surprise: BlackBerry is back with a new handset and it's pretty good.I know, I know, you've heard this before. Several times over the last few years BlackBerry has attempted to make a comeback and each time it's come to nothing, so what's different now?For the first time the iconic BlackBerry hardware keyboard has been married with Android in the BlackBerry KeyOne. Combine those with several software apps from BlackBerry and the KeyOne is worth a look if you're shopping for a new smartphone, particularly if you spend a lot of time on email, social media or messaging.The handset is produced by TCL, a Chinese phone maker that recently acquired rights to the BlackBerry brand for smartphones. BlackBerry, based in Canada, is still responsible for the software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell EMC Launches Hybrid Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure Stack

Enterprise should use public and private clouds, Dell EMC says.

The BlackBerry KeyOne: A surprising phone with a hardware keyboard

The BlackBerry KeyOne packs in productivity features and is worth a look if you're in the market for a new phone. It's the first time BlackBerry's iconic keyboard has been paired with Android.

Apple joins ‘Made in America’ trend with $1 billion fund to promote U.S. manufacturing

Manufacturing jobs (any jobs, really) are a hot-button topic these days, and our President has made no secret of his desire for big companies, and Apple in particular, to make more products here. In a Wednesday interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple is creating a fund to promote advanced manufacturing in the United States, and seeding it with $1 billion to start.CBNC.com has the video and a complete transcript of the wide-ranging conversation, and it’s worth a watch. These are the points that most piqued our interest—OK, and one that just made us laugh.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Facebook plans to bring Messenger to business

NEW ORLEANS -- As the head of product for Facebook Messenger, Stan Chudnovsky is responsible for one of the most popular consumer products in the world. And yet, despite Messenger’s 1.2 billion monthly active users, he’s convinced that the app can continue its growth and add more functions if users and business embrace the app as a channel for business-to-consumer communications.More than 60 million businesses have a presence on Facebook and at least 20 million are active on Messenger today, but Facebook continues to develop APIs, bots and other means to expedite connections between people and business, Chudnovsky said this week at the Collision conference. “We need to make it obvious that you can make a connection between people and businesses,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Phone smarts: 6 essential tips for Android users

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years of covering Android, it’s that most people don’t know half the stuff their phones can do—even when it comes to the platform’s most basic features.For business users in particular, some of Android’s foundational options can enhance productivity and eliminate annoyances. So look over this how-to collection and see if there’s anything you’re missing or maybe forgot—then hang onto it as a reference for friends, family members, and colleagues who ask for advice in the future.[ Android is now ready for real usage in the enterprise. Read InfoWorld’s in-depth guide on how to make Android a serious part of your business. | Get the best office apps and the 38 best business-worthy apps for your Android device. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobile Tech Report newsletter. ] 1. How to find and manage files on your phone IDG Solid Explorer File Manager offers advanced features for managing your phone’s files.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 Chrome extensions that make you more productive in Gmail

While Gmail alone can dramatically improve your email efficiency, Gmail and Chrome together make a one-two productivity punch that’s hard to beat. Here are four Chrome extensions that help reduce the time you spend in your inbox so you can focus on the work that really matters.Send from Gmail Typically when you click on an email address link, it will open your default email client and you have to toggle between it and your browser to compose your message and cut-and-paste any links. Send from Gmail saves you time and keystrokes by streamlining this process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to strike ransomware out

Swing and a missImage by Victor GrigasMost businesses are ill prepared to handle a ransomware attack. In fact, according to a new study released by Carbonite, 68 percent of survey respondents believe their company is “very vulnerable” or “vulnerable” to a ransomware attack. Respondents stated that if their company didn’t pay ransom, it was because they had a full and accurate backup. Without backup, they have no other way to get their most valuable asset back.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to strike ransomware out

Swing and a missImage by Victor GrigasMost businesses are ill prepared to handle a ransomware attack. In fact, according to a new study released by Carbonite, 68 percent of survey respondents believe their company is “very vulnerable” or “vulnerable” to a ransomware attack. Respondents stated that if their company didn’t pay ransom, it was because they had a full and accurate backup. Without backup, they have no other way to get their most valuable asset back.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here