IT service providers prepare for potential H-1B visa changes

While new U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent proclamations related to immigration have centered on his plans for a Mexican border wall and bans on Syrian refugees, the IT outsourcing industry is anticipating details on his strategy for reforming the H-1B visa program.Trump railed against the shifting of U.S. jobs overseas during his campaign and called for raising the minimum salary for H-1B holders to $100,000 per year, from the current threshold of $60,000 per year.ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: 8 ways to jumpstart your career A purported draft of an executive order recently published called for an investigation into the impact of such nonimmigrant visa programs on American workers and directed the Department of Homeland Security to "consider ways to make the process for allocating H-1B visas more efficient and ensure that beneficiaries of the program are the best and the brightest.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Booted up in 1993, this system still runs — but not for much longer

In 1993, President Bill Clinton was in the first year of his presidency, Windows NT 3.1 and Jurassic Park were both released, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, and Phil Hogan, an IT application architect, booted up a brand-new Stratus Technologies fault tolerant server. A lot has changed in 24 years, but one thing hasn't: The Stratus server is still in operation and Hogan -- who works at steel products maker Great Lakes Works EGL in Dearborn Mich. -- continues to keep it that way. This is a fault tolerant server, which means that hardware components are redundant. Over the years, disk drives, power supplies and some other components have been replaced but Hogan estimates that close to 80% of the system is original.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Booted up in 1993, this server still runs — but not for much longer

In 1993, President Bill Clinton was in the first year of his presidency, Windows NT 3.1 and Jurassic Park were both released, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, and Phil Hogan, an IT application architect, booted up a brand-new Stratus Technologies fault tolerant server.A lot has changed in 24 years, but one thing hasn't: The Stratus server is still in operation and Hogan -- who works at steel products maker Great Lakes Works EGL in Dearborn Mich. -- continues to keep it that way.This is a fault tolerant server, which means that hardware components are redundant. Over the years, disk drives, power supplies and some other components have been replaced but Hogan estimates that close to 80% of the system is original.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Booted up in 1993, this server still runs — but not for much longer

In 1993, President Bill Clinton was in the first year of his presidency, Windows NT 3.1 and Jurassic Park were both released, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed, and Phil Hogan, an IT application architect, booted up a brand-new Stratus Technologies fault tolerant server.A lot has changed in 24 years, but one thing hasn't: The Stratus server is still in operation and Hogan -- who works at steel products maker Great Lakes Works EGL in Dearborn Mich. -- continues to keep it that way.This is a fault tolerant server, which means that hardware components are redundant. Over the years, disk drives, power supplies and some other components have been replaced but Hogan estimates that close to 80% of the system is original.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US tech industry says immigration order affects their operations

The U.S. tech industry has warned that a temporary entry suspension on certain foreign nationals introduced on Friday by the administration of President Donald Trump will impact these companies' operations that are dependent on foreign workers.The Internet Association, which has a number of tech companies including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft as its members, said that Trump’s executive order limiting immigration and movement into the U.S. has troubling implications as its member companies and firms in many other industries include legal immigrant employees who are covered by the orders and will not be able to return back to their jobs and families in the U.S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Office 365 subscriptions for consumers plunged 62% in 2016

Four years after the introduction of Office 365 for consumers, Microsoft last week said subscriptions to the productivity software had reached nearly 25 million.Subscribers, however, were harder to find last year than in 2015, according to the numbers Microsoft reported: Additions to Office 365's rolls were down 62% in 2016 compared to the year before.During an earnings call with Wall Street analysts last week, CEO Satya Nadella touted revenue increases for the Office products aimed at consumers -- which include Office 365 -- and of the latter said that the company had, "continued to see an increase in ... subscriber base."That it did.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The best office apps for Android

It's 2017. You shouldn't have to worry about whether that old budget spreadsheet will open on your tablet or whether the document in your inbox will look right on your phone. In this day and age, having office apps that work seamlessly and consistently across devices should be a given. Everything should, as the cool kids say, "just work."Yet here we are, in an era where mobile devices are as critical to productivity as desktop computers -- and our virtual office tools are still anything but universal. Features that function smoothly on one product or platform don't always work the same on another. For business users in particular, that can be a serious problem.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: 3 services for managing all your cloud storage accounts

If you're like most people, you live part -- or most -- of your computing life in the cloud. And odds are that you use more than one cloud-based storage service, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and others. Do you find yourself tearing your hair out when you try to remember on which service you've stored what files? Do you wish you could easily move or copy those files between your cloud services, or between the services and your local storage?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Why IT innovation follows failure

All IT organizations strive for innovation. To succeed in today's digital market you to adapt to the needs of your customers, outflanking your competitors and disrupting the status quo. So what's the most important thing IT leaders of innovative IT companies do that set them apart?"Failure is the most important element of innovation. As an IT leader, it's hard enough to know what you want; then you're taking into account what your competitors are doing, what your customers want and need, what your employees can and cannot accomplish. It's almost impossible not to fail in these high-pressure situations, but that's where innovation sparks," says Tom Willerer, chief product officer for online learning technology and MOOC provider Coursera.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to eliminate insider threats

Insider threats are a major security problemImage by ThinkstockFor years, the primary security objective has been to protect the perimeter—the focus on keeping outsiders from gaining access and doing harm. But statistics prove that more risk exists within an organization. Indeed, many compliance regulations require monitoring of systems to identify and eliminate insider threat. According to Forrester, 58 percent of breaches are caused from internal incidents or with a business partner’s organization. And 55 percent of attacks are originated by an insider as cited in the 2015 IBM Cyber Security Intelligence Index.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to eliminate insider threats

Insider threats are a major security problemImage by ThinkstockFor years, the primary security objective has been to protect the perimeter—the focus on keeping outsiders from gaining access and doing harm. But statistics prove that more risk exists within an organization. Indeed, many compliance regulations require monitoring of systems to identify and eliminate insider threat. According to Forrester, 58 percent of breaches are caused from internal incidents or with a business partner’s organization. And 55 percent of attacks are originated by an insider as cited in the 2015 IBM Cyber Security Intelligence Index.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 Software-Defined Storage Trends

VRF Series Article 3 – Creating a Shared Services VRF

For those following the VRF Series, we currently have a topology built that consists of a segmented Layer 3 first hop network and remotely networked by carrying the isolation from the BrWan router to Main. This article covers, shared services, the next step in our journey to understanding VRFs for Segmented Layer 3 Networks.

The configuration focus is solely on the router Main. The shared services VRF that will be created could serve as a place to connect something that all other VRFs must have access to. Organizations should evaluate their requirements closely before deploying this configuration.

An organization that requires stateful inspection between two areas may choose to connect two or more VRFs together using an L4 or Next Generation Firewall (we will cover this in Article 5). The security ramification of having a shared services VRF, as described in this article, is that devices connected in this area could be used as a proxy into other areas. Therefore, careful planning and proper device level security is important prior to deploying this type of architecture.

The technologies covered here include:

• IGP w/ Route Redistribution (EIGRP)
• BGP w/ Route Redistribution
• VRFs with Route Targets/Route Distinguisher vlaues

The logic of Continue reading

The Relentless Yet Predictable Pace Of InfiniBand Speed Bumps

High performance computing in its various guises is not just determined by the kind and amount of computing that is made available at scale to applications. More and more, the choice of network adapters and switches as well as the software stack that links the network to applications plays an increasingly important role. And moreover, networks are comprising a larger and larger portion of the cluster budget, too.

So picking the network that lashes servers to each other and to their shared storage is important. And equally important is having a roadmap for the technology that is going to provide …

The Relentless Yet Predictable Pace Of InfiniBand Speed Bumps was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

IDG Contributor Network: Hackers could use hidden mal-audio to attack Google Now

There's a fabulous story about a slew of Amazon Echo devices that took it upon themselves to order expensive doll houses from the ecommerce retailer all because a news show host uttered the phrase “Alexa ordered me a dollhouse” on air. The machines heard it from the TV switched on in the room.Researchers say it’s not an unlikely scenario. They say not only can attackers issue mal-audio voice commands to any AI listening device that is in audible range, but they can also do it using hidden voice commands. Those are commands that might not even be noticed by the user.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: TechDemocracy: Helping execs and boards ensure cybersafety

I sit on a number of not-for-profit and commercial boards of directors. I am lucky in that I have a pretty good understanding of how their technology landscape can introduce risks into the business. As someone who spends much of his time in the tech world, I can bring this knowledge and awareness into the companies I work with. But that isn't the usual way things work. Most boards of directors are made up of individuals who have little or no awareness of their organization's technology footprint and the impacts it can have when something goes wrong. This is the problem space that TechDemocracy, a global cyberrisk assurance solution provider, is trying to solve with its Intellicta platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: 6 ways to launch a targeted cyberattack

The threat of a targeted attack for any business is real and substantial. It's vital to ensure that your organization can identify constantly evolving threats, find abnormal and suspicious activity, and take effective action to keep your data safe. Consider that, on average, attackers are in a network for more than 140 days before they're detected, and 60% of network intrusions are eventually traced back to credentials, according to according to Microsoft. Most successful targeted attacks follow six steps or stages, though it's important to remember that these steps often run in parallel. Multifaceted attacks are common, so a robust threat response plan should address all six steps and avoid jumping to conclusions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A message from Internet Society President and CEO, Kathy Brown

New products of the week 1.30.17

New products of the weekImage by NSSOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Blue Medora vRealize Operations Management Pack for Amazon AuroraImage by bluemedoraTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 highly useful & entertaining podcasts for IT & network pros

While I acknowledge that my first choices for podcast listening tend toward entertainment (All Songs Considered, The Moth, This American Life), I also encourage myself to consume to those that might help me better understand networking and keep up on the general technology scene. Here’s a short list of podcasts that enterprise IT pros might find useful --and even enjoyable.Voices from DARPA I’ll admit that this podcast intimidated me before I first listened to it, but it’s actually quite digestible even if you’re not a Ph.D. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency kicked off the series in September and pumps out one or two episodes per month, based on interviews by Ivan Amato with program managers from DARPA’s six technical offices (Biological Technologies, Defense Sciences, Information Innovation, Microsystems Technology, Strategic Technology, and Tactical Technology). Topics have included “Molecule Man”, “Space Sentinel” and “The Semiconductor Whisperer”, the latter of which gives a great short history of semiconductors and a look to the future. All episodes so far are less than 30 minutes long and several are under 20 minutes long. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here