IDG Contributor Network: What the AWS outage can teach us about WAN deployments

The outage that hit Amazon Web Services' Simple Storage Service earlier this month might have been unusual in its impact, but not in its cause—a configuration error. Service providers suffer outages for all sorts of reasons. Backhoes take out local access loops. Seismic events and fishing trawlers cut underwater cables. And, yes, humans make mistakes.RELATED: SD-WAN: What it is and why you will use it one day About three years ago, I was called in by a customer to help address a problem in their MPLS network. At the time, I ran MPLS Experts, a predecessor of SD-WAN Experts, and had developed a reputation for knowing a thing or two about global MPLS/VPLS services. The customer was noticing packets with unknown IPs on its carrier-managed private network. After we reviewed the logs, the cause became apparent: One of the carrier techs had misconfigured the VRF/VFI identifiers, accidentally connecting a different customer to their private network.  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Crime ring used Amazon, eBay to sell stolen printer ink

Apparently, big bucks can be made selling stolen printer ink cartridges online.A dozen suspects are accused of pulling in more than US$12 million by selling the stolen cartridges and retail electronics on Amazon and eBay, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Wednesday.Sixty-four-year-old Richard Rimbaugh allegedly led the operation for more than 20 years by recruiting people to steal the goods from retail stores across 28 states.Rimbaugh and his "theft crews" allegedly went out each week to steal new merchandise, which also included computer software, Schneiderman said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Crime ring used Amazon, eBay to sell stolen printer ink

Apparently, big bucks can be made selling stolen printer ink cartridges online.A dozen suspects are accused of pulling in more than US$12 million by selling the stolen cartridges and retail electronics on Amazon and eBay, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Wednesday.Sixty-four-year-old Richard Rimbaugh allegedly led the operation for more than 20 years by recruiting people to steal the goods from retail stores across 28 states.Rimbaugh and his "theft crews" allegedly went out each week to steal new merchandise, which also included computer software, Schneiderman said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The FCC chief’s call to action could push 5G along faster

U.S. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has pledged his agency will respond more quickly to new technology proposals, a move that might influence the direction of 5G development around the world.Pai was appointed by President Donald Trump in January. In his first major policy address on Wednesday, Pai directed Federal Communications Commission staff to follow a little-known section of U.S. communications law that says the agency should decide within a year whether a new technology or service is in the public interest."Going forward, if a petition or application is filed with the FCC proposing a new technology or service, we'll supply an answer within a year," Pai said in his speech at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD reveals Ryzen 5 prices as it sidesteps performance questions

As AMD reveals its Ryzen 5 prices and release date, the company marks an important transition: After launching its eagerly awaited Ryzen 7 chip for high-end PCs, AMD hopes to parlay that goodwill into mainstream success.AMD said it will ship its Ryzen 5 desktop processors on April 11, the same day it will begin accepting its first orders for the chip. All of the four new Ryzen 5 chips will be priced at less than $250, the same price range that Intel currently offers for its own Core i5 chips at. However, the number of cores and threads that the Ryzen 5 offers pushes into Intel’s Core i7 territory, potentially offering much more value for the price.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Smackdown: Office 365 vs. G Suite management

When you choose a productivity platform like Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google’s G Suite, the main focus is on the platform’s functionality: Does it do the job you need?That’s of course critical, but once you choose a platform, you have to manage it. That’s why management capabilities should be part of your evaluation of a productivity and collaboration platform, not only its user-facing functionality.You’ve come to the right place for that aspect of choosing between Office 365 and Google G Suite.[ InfoWorld’s deep look: Why (and how) you should manage Windows 10 PCs like iPhones. | The essentials for Windows 10 installation: Download the Windows 10 Installation Superguide today. ] Admin console UI. Both the Office 365 and G Suite admin consoles are well designed, providing clean separation of management functions and clear settings labels, so you can quickly move to the settings you want and apply them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Smackdown: Office 365 vs. G Suite management

When you choose a productivity platform like Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google’s G Suite, the main focus is on the platform’s functionality: Does it do the job you need?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

10 steps to becoming a horrible IT boss

It’s legendary: A CIO promotes his best developer into a management role, losing an excellent programmer and gaining a bad manager.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

10 offbeat trackers and wacky wearables

10 offbeat trackers and wacky wearables Image by CIOAre you feeling worn out by wearables? Can’t stand the thought of strapping yet another heart-rate-sensing, step-counting, sleep-tracking watch around your wrist? I feel your pain. As someone who frequently reviews activity trackers, I don’t often see bold new features in mainstream devices. But if you look closely at small startups around the globe, you’ll start to notice some cool, slightly crazy, definitely out-there devices that go far beyond counting steps. Some of the claims these device developers make will likely make your eyes roll. Nonetheless, here are 10 wacky wearables and oddball devices that may also pique your curiosity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google makes AI talent play with Kaggle buy

If you're a company entrenched in an arms race for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, you could do worse than tapping into a pool of thousands of data scientists to augment your digital products and services.That's the pole position Google holds after acquiring crowdsourcing platform Kaggle last week for an undisclosed sum. Some 600,000 professional data crunchers use Kaggle to build prediction models for such heady challenges as cancer detection and heart disease diagnoses. And experts say Kaggle could help Google facilitate broader adoption of AI technologies."Data science and machine learning is now global and this is a validation of the idea that Google recognizes that most of the smartest people in the world work for somebody else," Neil Jacobstein, who chairs the artificial intelligence and robotics track at Singularity University, told CIO.com. "This is potentially a very positive move, I think, that could make everybody more competitive."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to get started as an IT consultant

For the ambitious IT professional, there are a number of ways to take advantage of today’s hot job market. You could patiently climb the ladder at your organization or jump to an attractive opportunity at another company … or you can go into business for yourself as a consultant.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Want good cyber insurance? Read the fine print

One of the main reasons to buy insurance is to prevent the cost of an accident or other disaster from breaking the bank. But what if simply buying insurance threatens to break the bank?That scenario is starting to worry some organizations, for several reasons.First is the simple but powerful market force of supply and demand. More and more organizations, spooked by regular stories of catastrophic breaches – such as the compromise of more than 1.5 billion Yahoo! accounts, which took down its acquisition value by a reported $350 million – are seeking insurance. And when demand rises, the price tends to do so as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Want good cyber insurance? Read the fine print

One of the main reasons to buy insurance is to prevent the cost of an accident or other disaster from breaking the bank. But what if simply buying insurance threatens to break the bank?That scenario is starting to worry some organizations, for several reasons.First is the simple but powerful market force of supply and demand. More and more organizations, spooked by regular stories of catastrophic breaches – such as the compromise of more than 1.5 billion Yahoo! accounts, which took down its acquisition value by a reported $350 million – are seeking insurance. And when demand rises, the price tends to do so as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Expert: Apple may have deployed unauthorized patch by mistake

Last month, reports came out that Apple accidentally installed a fake firmware patch on internal development servers. That's a lesson to all companies to be careful about where they get their patches.What may have happened is that an Apple employee installed a patch shared by the hardware vendor's employee, instead of using the official release of the patch, said Chris Nietzold, senior platform engineer at security appliance manufacturer MBX Systems."They procured the firmware from an unofficial source and didn't follow the official release schedule," he said.The firmware included a potential security vulnerability and Apple reportedly ended its relationship with the supplier, Super Micro Computer, as a result.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Expert: Apple may have deployed unauthorized patch by mistake

Last month, reports came out that Apple accidentally installed a fake firmware patch on internal development servers. That's a lesson to all companies to be careful about where they get their patches.What may have happened is that an Apple employee installed a patch shared by the hardware vendor's employee, instead of using the official release of the patch, said Chris Nietzold, senior platform engineer at security appliance manufacturer MBX Systems."They procured the firmware from an unofficial source and didn't follow the official release schedule," he said.The firmware included a potential security vulnerability and Apple reportedly ended its relationship with the supplier, Super Micro Computer, as a result.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Expert: Apple may have deployed unauthorized patch by mistake

Last month, reports came out that Apple accidentally installed a fake firmware patch on internal development servers. That's a lesson to all companies to be careful about where they get their patches.What may have happened is that an Apple employee installed a patch shared by the hardware vendor's employee, instead of using the official release of the patch, said Chris Nietzold, senior platform engineer at security appliance manufacturer MBX Systems."They procured the firmware from an unofficial source and didn't follow the official release schedule," he said.The firmware included a potential security vulnerability and Apple reportedly ended its relationship with the supplier, Super Micro Computer, as a result.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pwnie Express eases security remediation with a risk-assessment tool

Pwnie Express is adding a tool that ranks the risks its security service finds on customer networks and makes it easier to remediate them.The new feature of the company’s Pulse service assesses potential vulnerabilities that its sensors detect in customers’ networks and issues a grade in each of four categories. This Device Risk Scorecard points out problems, prioritizes them by urgency and tells how to fix them.The scorecard looks at wireless infrastructure configuration, client connection behaviors, network host configuration, and shadow IT and rogue devices and computes a grade for each. Customers can drill down to find what discoveries account for low scores and follow the remediation suggestions to fix the problems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pwnie Express eases security remediation with a risk-assessment tool

Pwnie Express is adding a tool that ranks the risks its security service finds on customer networks and makes it easier to remediate them.The new feature of the company’s Pulse service assesses potential vulnerabilities that its sensors detect in customers’ networks and issues a grade in each of four categories. This Device Risk Scorecard points out problems, prioritizes them by urgency and tells how to fix them.The scorecard looks at wireless infrastructure configuration, client connection behaviors, network host configuration, and shadow IT and rogue devices and computes a grade for each. Customers can drill down to find what discoveries account for low scores and follow the remediation suggestions to fix the problems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Comparing Docker Containers to Virtual Machines

Cineca’s HPC Systems Tackle Italy’s Biggest Computing Challenges

With over 700 employees, Cineca is Italy’s largest and most advanced high performance computing (HPC) center, channeling their systems expertise to benefit organizations across the nation. Comprised of six Italian research institutions, 70 Italian universities, and the Italian Ministry of Education, Cineca is a privately held, non-profit consortium.

The team at Cineca dedicates itself to tackling the greatest computational challenges faced by public and private companies, and research institutions.  With so many organizations depending on Italy’s HPC centers, Cineca relies on Intel® technologies to reliably and efficiently further the country’s innovations in scientific computing, web and networking-based services, big data …

Cineca’s HPC Systems Tackle Italy’s Biggest Computing Challenges was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.