Why 2×2 Wave 2 access points make no sense

Everyone loves the latest and greatest technology. A new iPhone comes out, and people camp out at the stores to buy one. Microsoft releases a new version of Xbox, and they’re sold out for months.Sometimes, though, the newest thing doesn’t make sense because the incremental value of the innovation is limited. In technology, this doesn’t happen very often, but I believe there’s a current “latest and greatest” that provides limited value—and that’s the 2x2 Wave 2 access points (AP) that are now available from many of the mainstream Wi-Fi providers.Before I explain my opinion on this, it’s worth doing a quick refresh of Wave 1 versus Wave 2 because it’s important to understand the principals of Wave 2. Below are the benefits of 802.11ac Wave 2 versus Wave 1: To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If software eats everything, are network engineers on the menu?

If you're a network engineer, don't rush out and learn a programming language. To compete in the new world of software-defined networking, it might be more important to start thinking like a programmer.That was one of the ideas that emerged this week from an Open Networking User Group debate that generated healthy feedback from users in the audience.The days of managing individual switches and routers and configuring them with proprietary CLIs (command-line interfaces) are numbered, four panelists at the ONUG spring conference in San Francisco said on Tuesday. Though SDN hasn't worked its way into every enterprise, new approaches to enterprise IT and the availability of public clouds just a few clicks away are driving companies toward more agile and automated networks, they said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If software eats everything, are network engineers on the menu?

If you're a network engineer, don't rush out and learn a programming language. To compete in the new world of software-defined networking, it might be more important to start thinking like a programmer.That was one of the ideas that emerged this week from an Open Networking User Group debate that generated healthy feedback from users in the audience.The days of managing individual switches and routers and configuring them with proprietary CLIs (command-line interfaces) are numbered, four panelists at the ONUG spring conference in San Francisco said on Tuesday. Though SDN hasn't worked its way into every enterprise, new approaches to enterprise IT and the availability of public clouds just a few clicks away are driving companies toward more agile and automated networks, they said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows 10 adoption faster than any previous OS

Eighty-five percent of enterprises will have started Windows 10 deployments by the end of 2017, with nearly two-thirds of organizations completing their Windows migration in less than a year. That’s the main takeaway from a new report from Gartner.Gartner surveyed firms in six countries (the U.S., the U.K., France, China, India and Brazil) between September and December of 2016, and they spoke to 1,014 respondents who were involved in decisions for Windows 10 migration.The time to evaluate and deploy Windows 10 dipped slightly, from 23 months for previous operating systems to 21 months for Windows 10. Large businesses that are yet to start the migration are delaying because of legacy applications, a typical problem with every OS version. They are delaying upgrading until 2018, according to Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Should your next big hire be a chief A.I. officer?

As companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to communicate with customers, make sense of big data and find answers to vexing questions, some say it's time to think about hiring a chief A.I. officer.A chief artificial intelligence Officer – or CAIO -- could round out your C-level execs, sitting at the big table with your CIO, CFO, CTO and CEO.[ For more on A.I. in the workplace, see Computerworld’s Artificial intelligence in the enterprise: It’s on. ] "A.I. is going to be really important to some companies – enough to have top officers who will focus on just that," said Steve Chien, head of the artificial intelligence group for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And beyond that, you'll want every employee thinking about how A.I. can improve what they do and you'll want a chief A.I. officer overseeing all of that. They should be constantly thinking about how A.I. can improve things."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Users have little confidence their company can protect their mobile device

A survey sponsored by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. found that 64 percent of respondents are doubtful that their organization can prevent a mobile cyberattack, leaving employees' personal information vulnerable to theft.Alvaro Hoyos, chief information security officer at OneLogin, said that number does not surprise him. He said the employees might not know the ins and outs of their company's security controls. IT departments typically don’t go out of the way to communicate all the security controls that they are relying on to secure your IT environment.He said companies should use their security awareness training to help users understand what risks you their employers are addressing with technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Users have little confidence their company can protect their mobile device

A survey sponsored by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. found that 64 percent of respondents are doubtful that their organization can prevent a mobile cyberattack, leaving employees' personal information vulnerable to theft.Alvaro Hoyos, chief information security officer at OneLogin, said that number does not surprise him. He said the employees might not know the ins and outs of their company's security controls. IT departments typically don’t go out of the way to communicate all the security controls that they are relying on to secure your IT environment.He said companies should use their security awareness training to help users understand what risks you their employers are addressing with technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Salt and SaltStack on Software Gone Wild

Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Git, GitLab… the list of tools you can supposedly use to automate your network is endless, and there’s a new kid on the block every few months.

In Episode 77 of Software Gone Wild we explored Salt, its internal architecture, and how you can use it with Mircea Ulinic, a happy Salt user/contributor working for Cloudflare, and Seth House, developer @ SaltStack, the company behind Salt.

Upcoming Cloudflare events: Berlin May 5-7, Austin & Portland May 11

Attending JS Conf EU, CSS Conf, or OSCON in the next couple of weeks? Live in Berlin or Austin or Portland? Come over and join Cloudflare devs in the area at our upcoming events.

JS Conf EU 2016. Photo by Holger Blank.

In Berlin? Attending JS Conf EU or CSS Conf EU?

If you’re at JS Conf EU (May 6-7) or CSS Conf EU (May 5):

• Be sure to make it to John Fawcett’s session, “Invisible Code: Building JavaScript Libraries For Non-Technical People.”
• Made a Cloudflare App? Drop by the Cloudflare Hacker Lounge to show me and I have a special gift for you.
• Started working on a Cloudflare App and have questions? Drop by the Cloudflare Hacker Lounge and get them answered.

Just happen to be in Berlin? Tweet @qiqing and @IcyApril to come hang out with us in person.

Cloudflare Apps Preview. Visualize your app here.

In Austin? Attending OSCON?

Join the core developers of Cloudflare Apps for the inaugural Cloudflare meetup in Austin. It will feature an introduction by Zack Bloom (tech lead) to the new Cloudflare Apps including details of how apps get created, moderated, installed, and served to millions of users Continue reading

Intel projects decline in chip prices, and AMD’s Ryzen is one reason

Intel is forecasting a "slight decline" in its premium chip prices for the remainder of the year, and AMD's Ryzen chips could have played a part in that.Prices of Intel's chips in both desktops and laptops went up in the first quarter. That helped drive up the quarterly revenue for Client Computing Group -- which deals in PC chips -- to $8 billion, which was up 6 percent compared to the same quarter last year.But Intel's PC chips now face serious competition from AMD's new Ryzen chip, which was released last month. Ryzen chips offer competitive performance, and are priced significantly lower.AMD's fastest Ryzen 7 1800X chip -- targeted at gamers -- has eight cores and is priced at $499. A comparable chip like Intel's Core i7-6900K is priced at $1,089. Intel's fastest gaming chip is the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition chip, which is priced at $1,723.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC asks whether to ‘keep, modify, or eliminate’ net neutrality rules

A U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposal to scrap the foundation for its own 2015 net neutrality rules nevertheless asks for public comment on whether it should "keep, modify, or eliminate" basic protections.FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal, announced Wednesday, would remove the FCC's two-year-old classification of broadband as a broadly regulated, telecom-like service. But the text of the plan, released Thursday, suggests the FCC will consider retaining some rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing web-based content and services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fired IT workers to file discrimination lawsuit

The University of California IT workers replaced by an offshore outsourcing firm intend to file a lawsuit challenging their dismissal. The lawsuit may be filed as early as next week.It will allege that the tech workers at the university's San Francisco campus were victims of age and national origin discrimination.The IT employees lost their jobs in February after the university hired India-based IT services firm HCL. Approximately 50 full-time university employees lost their jobs, but another 30 contractor positions were cut as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAQ: How to skip a Windows 10 upgrade

Enterprises that try to slow down Microsoft's upgrade train by skipping one of the twice-yearly Windows 10 refreshes will have to hustle to stay in support, according to the company's latest scheduling disclosures.Corporate users of Windows 10 may have as little as two months to deploy a feature upgrade after passing on the one prior. Only if IT administrators are willing to roll out a consumer-quality version -- one that Microsoft has not yet given the approved-for-business green light -- will they have up to six months to upgrade employees' PCs.Those limitations come from Microsoft's latest pledge to support any given Windows 10 feature upgrade for 18 months, and the company's long-standing timeline on how it moves each upgrade from development to release, first to consumers and then to commercial customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

2017 NFV Report Series Part 2: Orchestrating NFV – MANO and Service Assurance Report Available Now

Download now to learn the latest on NFV MANO and Service Assurance

Google Cloud growth is outpacing the company’s ad business

Google is still an advertising company, but the tech titan’s cloud business is growing faster than its advertising revenue. That’s one of the key take-aways from the company’s first quarter earnings report released Thursday.Google Cloud Platform is one of the fastest-growing lines of revenue across Alphabet, the parent company that includes Google and other businesses like self-driving car maker Waymo, company CFO Ruth Porat said on a conference call with analysts. That growth is driven in part by a change in the way companies are working with Google Cloud.“Over the last several months, we have noticed a change in the types of conversations that Diane [Greene] and her team are having with customers,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. “Increasingly, we are being asked to partner for mission-critical projects and full migrations, moving data from on-prem data centers to the cloud. We are seeing a meaningful shift, and this momentum is resulting in a fast-growing business.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hands on with the unusual Acer Predator Triton 700 gaming laptop

To prove it's going big in PCs, Acer held a product launch event at world's largest IMAX screen in New York City. It made a big statement with the Predator Triton 700, a super-thin laptop with some unusual features.At first glance, the Triton 700 looks like any other thin gaming laptop. The surprises start when you open it up. The keyboard and touchpad trade locations. The keyboard is placed at the bottom, while the extended touchpad is above it.The oversized touchpad is also transparent, giving a glimpse into cooling components of the laptop, like its unique AeroBlade cooling fan. That design was inspired by transparent gaming desktops, and it is something gamers will love, said Eric Ackerson, senior product and marketing manager at Acer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

14% off iRobot Roomba 960 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner – Deal Alert

Roomba 960 seamlessly navigates room to room to clean an entire level of your home, recharging itself after working for up to 75 minutes, and then resuming until the job is done. Featuring the revolutionary AeroForce Cleaning System, Roomba 960 delivers up to 5x the air power and requires less maintenance. Just press clean or schedule Roomba on the go with the iRobot Home App, from which you can also monitor its cleaning status. Roomba works on all floor types, and at just 3.6 inches tall, is specifically designed to fit under most furniture, beds and kickboards. The 960 features the iAdapt camera, which helps Roomba continually build and update its map of rooms within a home. The very full featured Roomba 960 averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon and is currently discounted $100 off its typical list price, making it available right now for $599. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NetOps – Getting Started

If you’re reading this, you may be a network engineer like me, and you probably find the term ‘NetOps’ to be nebulous, as many trendy terms are in the industry. Or maybe you’re a software developer with experience in DevOps, but you have just been exposed to some networking problems and wonder whether NetOps might... Read more →

F5’s new CEO shares his early impressions, his vision for the app delivery powerhouse

 F5’s new President and CEO, Francois Locoh-Donou, took over the reins of the application delivery networking company April 3, replacing longtime leader John McAdam who retired in 2015 but stepped back into the position when his replacement resigned in December of that year for “personal conduct matters.”  Locoh-Donou was mostly recently COO of Ciena, a telecom equipment supplier.  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix talked with Locoh-Donou yesterday about his plans and ambitions for F5 after Locoh-Donou hosted his first F5 quarterly earnings call (Q2 revenue up 7% year-over-year to $518 million).  Given your history in the technology business, are there any experiences in particular that will guide you in this new role?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

F5’s new CEO shares his early impressions, his vision for the app delivery powerhouse

 F5’s new President and CEO, Francois Locoh-Donou, took over the reins of the application delivery networking company April 3, replacing longtime leader John McAdam who retired in 2015 but stepped back into the position when his replacement resigned in December of that year for “personal conduct matters.”  Locoh-Donou was mostly recently COO of Ciena, a telecom equipment supplier.  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix talked with Locoh-Donou yesterday about his plans and ambitions for F5 after Locoh-Donou hosted his first F5 quarterly earnings call (Q2 revenue up 7% year-over-year to $518 million).  Given your history in the technology business, are there any experiences in particular that will guide you in this new role?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here