Linux, PCs and Trump’s ‘Buy American’ problem

Some PCs are assembled in the U.S., but not many. This includes those from Lenovo, the China-based firm that runs a factory in North Carolina. Apple operates a Mac Pro assembly plant in Austin, but makes many of its other products overseas.Lenovo and Apple may have an edge in selling PCs to the U.S., under President Donald Trump's recently signed "Hire American, Buy American" executive order signed this week, say analysts.All PCs are made with components sourced globally, but vendors that assemble products in the U.S. may gain preference. Trump's executive order doesn't spell out how "buying American" will work for IT suppliers -- if it happens at all.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s in the fine print of your disaster recovery vendor agreement?

Sign on the bottom lineImage by ThinkstockDisaster-recovery solutions require several complex, moving parts coordinated between your production site and the recovery site. Service-level agreements are ultimately the most accurate way to determine where responsibility is held for disaster-recovery process and execution. It’s important to have SLA documentation around these critical aspects of recovery so that customers have commitments from their vendor. It’s also important that a service provider’s agreements contain service-credit backed SLAs for additional accountability. When considering DRaaS vendors, ask your potential partner how far they are willing to go in protecting your business and your data, and if these promises will be reimbursable if not met. Bluelock's Brandon Jeffress reviews what is essential to be in an ironclad SLA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s in the fine print of your disaster recovery vendor agreement?

Sign on the bottom lineImage by ThinkstockDisaster-recovery solutions require several complex, moving parts coordinated between your production site and the recovery site. Service-level agreements are ultimately the most accurate way to determine where responsibility is held for disaster-recovery process and execution. It’s important to have SLA documentation around these critical aspects of recovery so that customers have commitments from their vendor. It’s also important that a service provider’s agreements contain service-credit backed SLAs for additional accountability. When considering DRaaS vendors, ask your potential partner how far they are willing to go in protecting your business and your data, and if these promises will be reimbursable if not met. Bluelock's Brandon Jeffress reviews what is essential to be in an ironclad SLA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Accelerating SDN Deployment

Apple’s Mac Pro gets crushed on features by new HP Zbook laptops

Apple's Mac Pro has been ignored for so long that even Windows 10 mobile workstations are catching up on features and performance.Take HP's latest Zbook laptop workstations , which were announced on Friday. These heavy built laptops -- which is why they are called mobile workstations -- have comparable memory and storage capacity technology to the Mac Pro, but excel in other areas.The laptops feature Thunderbolt 3 ports, DDR4 memory, Intel's latest Kaby Lake-based Core and Xeon processors, and the latest GPUs from Nvidia and AMD.By comparison the Mac Pro has Thunderbolt 2 ports, an old AMD GPU, DDR3 memory and Intel Xeon processors based on the Ivy Bridge architecture, which were released in 2013.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Significant Milestone in Our Five-Year SmartZone Journey

By: Yogesh Ranade, Principal Director of Product Management We’re proud and excited to announce that SmartZone 3.5 Operating System (OS) is now available for our customers and partners. This latest release powers the industry’s highest-capacity controller portfolio, including our new SmartZone 300 (SZ300) high-scale control and management appliance. Check out our support site, and download the latest OS... Read more →

Video: Routing on Hosts Deep Dive

Wondering how exactly routing on hosts works? Dinesh Dutt explained the details in this 10-minute video during the Leaf-and-Spine Fabric Designs webinar.

CRTC Decision Creates a Canadian Framework for Net Neutrality

A Road to Open Networking:  Focused Deliverables, Measurable ROI, Same Sheet of Music

Every day at Pica8 we are supporting a global customer base involved in creative, leading–edge applications using the PicOS NOS on white box switches.  We develop the software to meet the latest challenges of complex protocol sets, high performance switching requirements and operational demands.

We often face the RFI/RFQ that appears to be boilerplate for incumbent switching solutions – the protocol set is classic legacy L2/L3, and is comprehensive.  Customers may have working solutions, but they wonder if they can achieve better ROI with “white box” and independent Network Operating System software.  It can be difficult – DevOps and network programmability call for organizational transformation, and a problem-free rollout may be elusive.

Here’s a project example that elucidates the gradual approach that gets people involved and engaged. After describing a sequence of steps, I’ll highlight the transformation that has been achieved.  And YES, CLI is not dead.

Steps to Deployment

–          Team responds to an RFI for access and data center network switches
–          Customer provides an RFI response, and Pica8 receives customer-defined Proof of Concept requirements
–          Participate in PoC onsite lab testing, get the scorecard – 2 months
–          Roll up sleeves and deliver Continue reading

Fake heads and robot probes: testing smartphones prior to launch

On the shelves of a laboratory near San Francisco sit tanks and tanks of mysterious-looking liquids. Labels identify some as simulations of human heads, while others relate to muscles.It sounds like the ghoulish headquarters of a mad scientist, but it isn't. It's the Silicon Valley offices of UL, a product testing organization previously known as Underwriters Laboratory, and these liquids play an important part in smartphone safety.You might not know UL, but you can probably find its logo on a number of products around your home. Martyn Williams Two UL logos are seen on a computer power supply. The company tests products to ensure they meet safety requirements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fake heads and robot probes: testing smartphones prior to launch

On the shelves of a laboratory near San Francisco sit tanks and tanks of mysterious-looking liquids. Labels identify some as simulations of human heads, while others relate to muscles.It sounds like the ghoulish headquarters of a mad scientist, but it isn't. It's the Silicon Valley offices of UL, a product testing organization previously known as Underwriters Laboratory, and these liquids play an important part in smartphone safety.You might not know UL, but you can probably find its logo on a number of products around your home. Martyn Williams Two UL logos are seen on a computer power supply. The company tests products to ensure they meet safety requirements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

International Cognitive And Cloud Business Machines

International Business Machines has gone through so many changes in its eleven decades of existence, and it is important to remember that some days. If IBM’s recent changes are a bit bewildering, as they were in the late 1980s, the middle 1990s, and the early 2010s in particular, they are perhaps nothing compared the changes that were wrought to transform a maker of meat slicers, time clocks, and tabulating equipment derived from looms.

Yeah, and you thought turning GPUs into compute engines was a stretch.

Herman Hollerith, who graduated from Columbia University in 1879 when its engineering school was still …

International Cognitive And Cloud Business Machines was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Drupal fixes critical access bypass vulnerability

The Drupal project has released a patch to fix a critical access bypass vulnerability that could put websites at risk of hacking.The vulnerability does not have the highest severity level based on Drupal's rating system, but is serious enough that the platform's developers decided to also release a patch for a version of the content management system that's no longer officially supported.Successful exploitation of the vulnerability can lead to a complete compromise of data confidentiality and website integrity, but only Drupal-based websites with certain configurations are affected.To be vulnerable, a website needs to have the RESTful Web Services enabled and to allow PATCH requests. Furthermore, the attacker needs to be able to register a new account on the website or to gain access to an existing one, regardless of its privileges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Drupal fixes critical access bypass vulnerability

The Drupal project has released a patch to fix a critical access bypass vulnerability that could put websites at risk of hacking.The vulnerability does not have the highest severity level based on Drupal's rating system, but is serious enough that the platform's developers decided to also release a patch for a version of the content management system that's no longer officially supported.Successful exploitation of the vulnerability can lead to a complete compromise of data confidentiality and website integrity, but only Drupal-based websites with certain configurations are affected.To be vulnerable, a website needs to have the RESTful Web Services enabled and to allow PATCH requests. Furthermore, the attacker needs to be able to register a new account on the website or to gain access to an existing one, regardless of its privileges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

18% off AUKEY SoundTank Bluetooth Water Resistant Speaker with 30-Hour Playtime – DealPost

Weighing in at just over a pound, the AUKEY Sountank is the ideal lightweight, water resistant companion speaker for your all your adventures. The dual 5 watt speaker drivers  are powered by a 2600mAh rechargeable battery delivering up to 30 continuous hours of wireless audio.  Utilizing the latest in Bluetooth audio with A2DP, improved connection stability, faster pairing, lower latency, and lower power consumption from connected devices when wirelessly streaming audio across distances up to 33ft.  This speaker has a durable silicone casing providing a rugged layer of protection from daily wear and tear.  This speaker recently received a 4 out of 5 star rating (read review).  The Aukey's list price of $54.99 has been reduced 18% to $44.99. (See it on Amazon)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple will return heat generated by data center to warm up homes

Apple is building a new data center in Denmark, and it has some interesting ideas on how to power the data center with renewable energy, while also giving back to the community.Excess heat generated by the data center will be captured and returned to the local district's heating system, which will warm up homes in the community.The data center in the Jutland region will be partly powered by recycling waste products from farms. Apple is working with Aarhus University on a system that passes agricultural waste through a digester to generate methane, which is then used to power the data center.The digester reaction turns some of the waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer, which Apple returns to local farmers to use on their fields. It's a "mutually beneficial relationship," Apple said in its environment report for 2016, released this week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple will return heat generated by data center to warm up homes

Apple is building a new data center in Denmark, and it has some interesting ideas on how to power the data center with renewable energy, while also giving back to the community.Excess heat generated by the data center will be captured and returned to the local district's heating system, which will warm up homes in the community.The data center in the Jutland region will be partly powered by recycling waste products from farms. Apple is working with Aarhus University on a system that passes agricultural waste through a digester to generate methane, which is then used to power the data center.The digester reaction turns some of the waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer, which Apple returns to local farmers to use on their fields. It's a "mutually beneficial relationship," Apple said in its environment report for 2016, released this week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers use old Stuxnet-related bug to carry out attacks

Users that run unpatched software beware. Hackers have been relying on an old software bug tied to the Stuxnet worm to carry out their attacks.Microsoft may have initially patched the flaw in 2010, but it's nevertheless become the most widespread software exploit, according to security firm Kaspersky Lab.On Thursday, Kaspersky posted research examining the use of exploits, or malicious programs designed to take advantage of certain software flaws. Once an exploit goes to work, it can typically pave the way for other malicious programs to install onto a computer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers use old Stuxnet-related bug to carry out attacks

Users that run unpatched software beware. Hackers have been relying on an old software bug tied to the Stuxnet worm to carry out their attacks.Microsoft may have initially patched the flaw in 2010, but it's nevertheless become the most widespread software exploit, according to security firm Kaspersky Lab.On Thursday, Kaspersky posted research examining the use of exploits, or malicious programs designed to take advantage of certain software flaws. Once an exploit goes to work, it can typically pave the way for other malicious programs to install onto a computer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft commits to twice yearly updates to Windows 10, Office 365

Microsoft is offering IT pros some new guidance on when they can expect major feature updates for Windows 10, Office 365's client applications, and System Center Configuration Manager.Office and Windows are slated to receive two major patches per year, one in March and the other in September. SCCM will be updated in time with those releases to facilitate deployments. That means the next major update to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone 3, is due out in September.On top of that, Microsoft confirmed that each feature release of Windows 10 will be supported for 18 months after it is first made generally available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here