IDG Contributor Network: If the cloud is so great, why are so many businesses unsatisfied?

Cloud computing has become common in enterprise IT, and the hype around it remains as adoption soars. Research by IDG shows that 70 percent of enterprises currently use at least one cloud application, and in 2018, organizations with cloud-only IT infrastructure will become the majority.The global market for cloud services was worth $148 billion in 2016, according to Synergy Research Group, and it is growing by 25 percent annually. Amazon Web Services (AWS) alone reached $3.23 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2016, while Microsoft Azure, the second-largest cloud provider, announced Thursday that revenue has nearly doubled in the past year, giving it an annual run rate of $14 billion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: If the cloud is so great, why are so many businesses unsatisfied?

Cloud computing has become common in enterprise IT, and the hype around it remains as adoption soars. Research by IDG shows that 70 percent of enterprises currently use at least one cloud application, and in 2018, organizations with cloud-only IT infrastructure will become the majority.The global market for cloud services was worth $148 billion in 2016, according to Synergy Research Group, and it is growing by 25 percent annually. Amazon Web Services (AWS) alone reached $3.23 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2016, while Microsoft Azure, the second-largest cloud provider, announced Thursday that revenue has nearly doubled in the past year, giving it an annual run rate of $14 billion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

13% off LOGITECH G430 Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset – Deal Alert

Powered by advanced Dolby technology, these 7.1 surround sound headphones position you in the center of an immersive 360-degree sound field. They let you hear every detail in every direction, just as the game developer intended. Enemy fire. Sirens. Your opponent’s footsteps. When you hear what you can’t see, you win. The headset averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 2,400 reviewers on Amazon (see reviews), where their typical list price of $45.75 has been reduced to $39.99. See the deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

1984 is the new Bible in the age of Trump

He has provided us with Betsy DeVos, a secretary of education nominee who is widely believed to oppose public education, and who promotes the truly Orwellian-sounding concept of "school choice," a plan that seems well-intentioned but which critics complain actually siphons much-needed funds from public to private education institutions.

IDG Contributor Network: 3 ways to improve employee productivity

It’s the beginning of a new year, and like many of you, I find this is a great time to jump-start my resolve to accomplish more and better—whether that means de-cluttering my desk, better managing my inbox or taking a hike to re-focus.Of course, making a New Year’s resolution to improve productivity can be extremely beneficial in the workplace, as well. We all know employee productivity is essential for driving revenue, but the U.S. Department of Labor reported in August that labor productivity growth in the non-farm business sector is lower now than during any of the previous 10 business cycles.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco’s Tetration Costs Far Less than $3M for Most Customers

There's also a software-only Tetration Cloud for AWS.

On the ‘net: Getting to know…

Russ White is on LinkedIn’s Infrastructure Engineering team, working on next-generation network design and architecture. He has worked in networking since the late 1980s, and has a long history contributing knowledge back to the networking community. A short list of his contributions to the field include being a published author, having published several papers in the Internet Protocol Journal, and serving in the past as a an organizational council co-chair for the Internet Society. He is also a member of the IETF Routing Area Directorate. —LinkedIn Engineering Blog

The post On the ‘net: Getting to know… appeared first on 'net work.

Cisco amps-up Tetration platform with better security, reduced footprint, AWS cloud option

Cisco has rolled out a second release of its Tetration Analytics package with features such as a smaller footprint and a cloud service that will go a long way toward making the system alluring to more data center customers.Announced in June of last year, Cisco’s Tetration Analytics is a turnkey analytics package that gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data and machine learning.Tetration software sensors support Linux and Windows server hosts, while hardware sensors are embedded in Cisco network switch ASICS: Nexus 9200, Nexus 9300-EX and Nexus 9500-EX, to collect flow data at line rate from all the ports. Per Cisco once in place, the Tetration platform learns its enterprise environment and any policies IT has in place. From there it can learn which applications are dependent on each other throughout their data center and into the cloud. It can monitor server behavior patterns and group servers more efficiently.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco amps-up Tetration platform with better security, reduced footprint, AWS cloud option

Cisco has rolled out a second release of its Tetration Analytics package with features such as a smaller footprint and a cloud service that will go a long way toward making the system alluring to more data center customers.Announced in June of last year, Cisco’s Tetration Analytics is a turnkey analytics package that gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data and machine learning.Tetration software sensors support Linux and Windows server hosts, while hardware sensors are embedded in Cisco network switch ASICS: Nexus 9200, Nexus 9300-EX and Nexus 9500-EX, to collect flow data at line rate from all the ports. Per Cisco once in place, the Tetration platform learns its enterprise environment and any policies IT has in place. From there it can learn which applications are dependent on each other throughout their data center and into the cloud. It can monitor server behavior patterns and group servers more efficiently.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco amps-up Tetration platform with better security, reduced footprint, AWS cloud option

Cisco has rolled out a second release of its Tetration Analytics package with features such as a smaller footprint and a cloud service that will go a long way toward making the system alluring to more data center customers.Announced in June of last year, Cisco’s Tetration Analytics is a turnkey analytics package that gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data and machine learning.Tetration software sensors support Linux and Windows server hosts, while hardware sensors are embedded in Cisco network switch ASICS: Nexus 9200, Nexus 9300-EX and Nexus 9500-EX, to collect flow data at line rate from all the ports. Per Cisco once in place, the Tetration platform learns its enterprise environment and any policies IT has in place. From there it can learn which applications are dependent on each other throughout their data center and into the cloud. It can monitor server behavior patterns and group servers more efficiently.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facing visa issues, Indian outsourcers have strength in numbers

Indian outsourcing companies deliver services ranging from software coding to running business processes for customers in the U.S., Europe and other countries by taking advantage of low-cost, highly-skilled staff on their home turf.These companies also sometimes send people to deliver services onsite to customers.This time-tested model, backed by state-of-the-art facilities in India, could now be challenged by President Donald Trump's plan to bring jobs back to the U.S. North America accounted for 62 percent of fourth quarter revenue for Infosys, one of India’s key outsourcers. + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD 5 tech battles facing Trump +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Facebook and Google are battling internet terrorism

WASHINGTON -- Social media heavyweights like Facebook and YouTube have been working with the U.S. government and other international partners as they look to take a more active role in combating terrorist propaganda and other extremist messages that have gained traction online.Officials from the popular social network and YouTube parent Google addressed the issue here at a recent tech policy conference, where they described efforts to go beyond simply removing extremist content, and actually engaging in counter-messaging programs to present alternative narratives to those advanced by groups like ISIS."We're really focused on utilizing the strength that comes out of YouTube to push back on these messages," said Alexandria Walden, Google's counsel on free expression and human rights. "We know the power of our platform, and so we know that the best way to counter messages of hate and violence is to promote messages that push back against that, that push back against the hate and extremism and xenophobia around the world."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Facebook and Google are battling internet terrorism

WASHINGTON -- Social media heavyweights like Facebook and YouTube have been working with the U.S. government and other international partners as they look to take a more active role in combating terrorist propaganda and other extremist messages that have gained traction online.Officials from the popular social network and YouTube parent Google addressed the issue here at a recent tech policy conference, where they described efforts to go beyond simply removing extremist content, and actually engaging in counter-messaging programs to present alternative narratives to those advanced by groups like ISIS."We're really focused on utilizing the strength that comes out of YouTube to push back on these messages," said Alexandria Walden, Google's counsel on free expression and human rights. "We know the power of our platform, and so we know that the best way to counter messages of hate and violence is to promote messages that push back against that, that push back against the hate and extremism and xenophobia around the world."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

In major AI win, Libratus beats four top poker pros

Marking a major step forward for artificial intelligence (AI), Libratus, an AI developed by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), has resoundingly beaten four of the best heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em poker players in the world in a marathon, 20-day competition.After 20 days and a collective 120,000 hands played, Libratus closed out the competition Monday leading the pros by a collective $1,766,250 in chips."I'm just impressed with the quality of poker Libratus plays," pro player Jason Les, a specialist in heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em like the other three players, said at a press conference yesterday morning. "They made algorithms that play this game better than us. We make a living trying to find vulnerabilities in strategies. That's what we do every day when we play heads-up no-limit. We tried everything we could and it was just too strong."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Net neutrality policy still up in the air under Trump

During his campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump called the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules a "top-down power grab," leading many observers to expect a quick repeal.Trump's presidency is still in its infancy and it's unclear what his administration will do about the hot-button issue.It's difficult to determine what direction the unpredictable Trump administration will take, said Nathan White, senior legislative manager at Access Now, a digital rights group."The world is a very complicated place right now," he said. "I don't think we can get too far out front and predict the future."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Net neutrality policy still up in the air under Trump

During his campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump called the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules a "top-down power grab," leading many observers to expect a quick repeal.Trump's presidency is still in its infancy and it's unclear what his administration will do about the hot-button issue.It's difficult to determine what direction the unpredictable Trump administration will take, said Nathan White, senior legislative manager at Access Now, a digital rights group."The world is a very complicated place right now," he said. "I don't think we can get too far out front and predict the future."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tim Cook: Apple may take legal action over immigration restrictions

After sending an email to employees expressing Apple’s opposition to the Trump administration’s new immigration restrictions, Apple CEO Tim Cook is now making a forceful stand.“More than any country in the world, this country is strong because of our immigrant background and our capacity and ability as people to welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds,” Cook told the Wall Street Journal. “That’s what makes us special. We ought to pause and really think deeply through that.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung’s Tizen 4.0 OS is in development and due out in September

A new version of Samsung's Tizen OS, version 4.0, is now under development for mobile devices, wearables and smart gadgets and is due for release in September. Tizen is mainly used in Samsung products. The release date of Tizen 4.0 is listed on the OS's developer website, which also states that the first beta of the OS will come out in June. The Tizen 4.0 release date is listed as part of the Tizen .NET roadmap. The page states that "the first official version of Tizen .NET will be released in September 2017 as a part of Tizen 4.0." The page went up recently, and an image detailing the roadmap seems to have  typographical errors. The chart is supposed to show a timeline for Tizen .NET releases extending into 2017, but the release date of Tizen 4.0 is listed for September 2016, in an apparent mistake.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AT&T Quietly Buys FiberTower for Millimeter Wave Assets

FiberTower will give AT&T more mmWave spectrum.

ARM Server Chips Challenge X86 in the Cloud

The idea of ARM processors being used in datacenter servers has been kicking around more most of the decade. The low-power architecture dominates the mobile world of smartphones and tablets as well as embedded IoT devices, and with datacenters increasingly consuming more power and generating more heat, the idea of using highly efficient ARM chips in IT infrastructure systems gained steam.

That was furthered by the rise of cloud computing environments and hyperscale datacenters, which can be packed with tens of thousands of small servers running massive numbers of workloads. The thought of using ARM-based server chips that are more …

ARM Server Chips Challenge X86 in the Cloud was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.