Essential Android business apps

Despite the tendency to feel that getting work done from your smartphone means you’re “always working,” there are still those moments when it’s liberating to be able to finish off a quick task or respond to a company message without opening your computer.I find that the real key is knowing the type of work you want to do and getting your setup right. This is especially important when you head off on a trip or you’re at a conference where you’re more likely to have access to your phone when you’re crammed in a presentation or running from one room to another.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch If you’re looking for a guide on what you need, or just some ideas for getting started, let us offer you a helping hand. There are plenty of good apps and services that you may not have heard of, or maybe you just need a tip about how to make them work best for you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

If we show you how to back up your PC for free, will you finally do it?

If we show you how to back up your PC for free, will you finally do it? Beyond simple hard drive failure, your PC could fall prey to user error, thieves, and all sorts of nefarious malware. The only way to ensure that none of your personal files or programs are lost in a catastrophe is to back up everything regularly.While backing up your data can be as simple as dumping critical files on an external hard drive every now and again, you’ll ideally want backups that let you recover not just yesterday’s version of a lost file, but last Tuesday’s as well. Backups should be easy to do, or they won’t get done. And ideally, you should have more than one backup in more than one location.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

16 top HR software suites compared — an essential buyer’s guide

Seven out of 10 companies say that “employee engagement” is critical to their organization’s success, according to an oft-cited Gallup poll. Now those companies are counting on HR software to help them get a clearer picture of their workforce and encourage greater engagement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Why you need a data protection officer

With enforcement of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set to begin on May 25, 2018, organizations that handle any personal data relating to EU residents must begin preparing now, if they haven't already.Most organizations will need to designate a data protection officer (DPO), says Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum (ISF), a global, independent information security body that focuses on cyber security and information risk management."The GDPR is putting data protection practices at the forefront of business agendas worldwide," Durbin said in a statement earlier this month. "Its scope is unmatched by any other international law, and we estimate that more than 98 percent of ISF members will be affected by its requirements because they process the personal data of EU residents, or are based in the EU. For most organizations, the next 18 months will be a critical time for their data protection regimes as they determine the applicability of the GDPR and the controls and capabilities they will need to manage their compliance and risk obligations."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why you need a data protection officer

With enforcement of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set to begin on May 25, 2018, organizations that handle any personal data relating to EU residents must begin preparing now, if they haven't already.Most organizations will need to designate a data protection officer (DPO), says Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum (ISF), a global, independent information security body that focuses on cyber security and information risk management."The GDPR is putting data protection practices at the forefront of business agendas worldwide," Durbin said in a statement earlier this month. "Its scope is unmatched by any other international law, and we estimate that more than 98 percent of ISF members will be affected by its requirements because they process the personal data of EU residents, or are based in the EU. For most organizations, the next 18 months will be a critical time for their data protection regimes as they determine the applicability of the GDPR and the controls and capabilities they will need to manage their compliance and risk obligations."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Study: 62% of security pros don’t know where their sensitive data is

Ask organizations today about the value of data and you’re likely to hear it measured in terms of competitive advantage, customer experience and revenue generation. As Dante Disparte and Daniel Wagner put it in a December 2016 HBR article, data is “becoming a centerpiece of corporate value creation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Study: 62% of security pros don’t know where their sensitive data is

Ask organizations today about the value of data and you’re likely to hear it measured in terms of competitive advantage, customer experience and revenue generation. As Dante Disparte and Daniel Wagner put it in a December 2016 HBR article, data is “becoming a centerpiece of corporate value creation.”“Today most organizations are data-driven to one degree or another. Data contributes not only to brand equity, but to what constitutes product and service delivery in globally connected and hyper-competitive markets,” the pair wrote.But the value of data security is still largely defined “in terms of risk, cost, and regulatory compliance,” notes Forrester Research in the executive summary of a new report commissioned by data protection software provider Varonis Systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) – Initial Feedback

Recently I had a chance to try using Cisco’s Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) software in anger. I must confess that sometimes anger was the right word, but at other times it definitely made me smile. Based on the state of the documentation it’s clear that there are a couple of areas where very few people have spent time digging in (if they had, the same errors wouldn’t be in the documentation for at least 5 releases of DCNM), so on that basis I’m using this post—and more to follow—to document some of the fun things I have discovered along the way. For reference, I am running DCNM version 10, so there have been nine previous versions of DCNM in which the behavior can be perfected, and I gather that version 10 is a big step up from version 9.

To put my testing in context, I have a specific FabricPath Leaf-Spine topology already designed, and I am only using the aspects of DCNM pertinent to my particular needs for an Ethernet LAN fabric. I say this up front because I know that I am not using all of DCNM’s functionality, and perhaps I’m missing out on some of the fabric automation Continue reading

D-Wave’s $15 million quantum computer runs a staggering 2,000 qubits

For D-Wave, the path to quantum computers being widely accepted is similar to the history of today's computers. The first chips came more than 30 years ago, and Microsoft's Basic expanded the software infrastructure around PCs. Quantum computers are a new type of computer that can be significantly faster than today's PCs. They are still decades away from replacing PCs and going mainstream, but more advanced hardware and use models are still emerging. "A lot of that is unfolding and will have a similar dramatic change in the computing landscape," Vern Brownell, D-Wave's CEO, said in an interview. D-Wave is the only company selling a quantum computer. It sold its first system in 2011 and is now pushing the speed limits with a new quantum computer called the D-Wave 2000Q, which has 2,000 qubits.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Toward The Self-Driving Data Center

BT Openreach to trial Dark Fibre Access in August 2017

When the government owns the fibre and copper cabling but leaves the operation and revenue extraction to commercial companies you get competitive telecoms

Openreach’s DFA product will allow rival internet service providers (ISPs) access to the company’s fibre-optic cables, which technically means that they can install their own equipment at either end of the optical fibre, within Openreach’s cable ducts.

BT Openreach to trial Dark Fibre Access in August 2017 : https://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2017/01/24/bt-openreach-to-trial-dark-fibre-access-in-august-2017/

The post BT Openreach to trial Dark Fibre Access in August 2017 appeared first on EtherealMind.

MPLS over IP Encapsulations and Comparison between MPLS over LSP

Do you need an LSP for MPLS ? In this post, I will go through below topics. This is one of the points which network engineers struggle to understand as I have seen. What is an LSP (Label Switched Path) ? What was the purpose of having LSP in the first place? Do we need […]

The post MPLS over IP Encapsulations and Comparison between MPLS over LSP appeared first on Cisco Network Design and Architecture | CCDE Bootcamp | orhanergun.net.

New Webinar: PowerShell for Networking Engineers

Ansible (or Python+Paramiko/Netmiko) seems to be the tool used in most do-it-yourself network automation presentations and videos. Did you know there’s a scripting/automation alternative that’s hugely popular in parts of sysadmin and virtualization universe that almost nobody talks about in networking (because everyone is focused on huge data center fabrics and unicorns) – PowerShell (now also available on OSX and Linux).

Pompeo sworn in as CIA chief amid opposition from surveillance critics

Mike Pompeo was sworn in late Monday by U.S. Vice President Michael Pence as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, amid protests from surveillance critics who worry about his conflicting views on a number of key issues.The oath of office was administered to him after the Senate voted in favor of his confirmation in a 66-32 vote.Critics of Pompeo, a Republican representative from Kansas, are concerned that he may weigh in with the government on a rollback of many privacy reforms, including restrictions on the collection of bulk telephone metadata from Americans by the National Security Agency under the USA Freedom Act. There are also concerns that the new director may try to introduce curbs on the use of encryption and bring in measures to monitor the social media accounts of people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pompeo sworn in as CIA chief amid opposition from surveillance critics

Mike Pompeo was sworn in late Monday by U.S. Vice President Michael Pence as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, amid protests from surveillance critics who worry about his conflicting views on a number of key issues.The oath of office was administered to him after the Senate voted in favor of his confirmation in a 66-32 vote.Critics of Pompeo, a Republican representative from Kansas, are concerned that he may weigh in with the government on a rollback of many privacy reforms, including restrictions on the collection of bulk telephone metadata from Americans by the National Security Agency under the USA Freedom Act. There are also concerns that the new director may try to introduce curbs on the use of encryption and bring in measures to monitor the social media accounts of people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Best & most promising tech jobs of 2017 revealed

Data scientists continue to be in huge demand, and you won't fare badly either if you have expertise as a technical program manager, data engineer or DevOps engineer, according to the latest rankings from a couple of big jobs-related websites.Glassdoor on Monday released its annual list of the Best Jobs in America, and I've zeroed in on those most techie in nature (though of course practically any job on such a list has a tech component these days). Tops for the second straight year is the job of Data Scientist, based on three key factors: earning potential, job satisfaction and job openings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung sees 2016 profit jump despite Note 7 debacle

Samsung Electronics said its profit rose almost 20 percent in 2016 despite nearly flat sales and the costly recall of the Note 7 smartphone.The company reported an annual net profit of 22.7 trillion won (US$19.5 billion), up 19.2 percent, on sales of 201.9 trillion won (US$173.5 billion), up just 0.6 percent.Samsung saw some of its biggest sales gains in memory chips on the back of strong demand from smartphone makers. The company is one of the world's biggest memory chip manufacturers.The mobile division saw sales fall 3 percent in 2016 to 97.8 trillion won. It's Samsung's biggest division by sales and was hit by the recall of the Note 7 smartphone and slowing demand for high-end phones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft expands FastTrack migration service

Microsoft is expanding the free services it offers to help enterprise customers adopt its products.The company announced Monday that its FastTrack services now encompass Dynamics 365, Windows 10 and Microsoft Teams. Those come in addition to Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite, which were already covered under FastTrack.Each service is designed to help companies get the most out of products they've already subscribed to and adopt products that the company has recently released. FastTrack includes adoption guides, tools to find a Microsoft partner company to help with migration, and consulting help from Microsoft employees on particular issues.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE Acquiring Cloud Cruiser to Meter Cloud Usage

The company is already using the startup's tools to help provide a service called Flexible Capacity.

Turbonomic Secures $50M to Boost Performance Assurance Platform

The deal includes former GE CIO Gary Reiner joining its board.