Radisys Propels 5G, Contributes Virtual EPC to Open Source Group

M-CORD plans to reach 5G faster than standards groups can.

Cisco/Ericsson: Assessing the mega-deal a year later

When it was announced a year ago, the Cisco/Ericsson partnership was hailed as “the right move for us right now,” according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins to create the networks of the future.While the partnership has done well – the companies say they have closed 60 deals together -- Ericsson is being battered financially this year and the impact that will have on the partnership could change it in the future.+More on Network World: Cisco CEO Robbins: Wait til you see what’s in our innovation pipeline+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco/Ericsson: Assessing the mega-deal a year later

When it was announced a year ago, the Cisco/Ericsson partnership was hailed as “the right move for us right now,” according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins to create the networks of the future.While the partnership has done well – the companies say they have closed 60 deals together -- Ericsson is being battered financially this year and the impact that will have on the partnership could change it in the future.+More on Network World: Cisco CEO Robbins: Wait til you see what’s in our innovation pipeline+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco/Ericsson: Assessing the mega-deal a year later

When it was announced a year ago, the Cisco/Ericsson partnership was hailed as “the right move for us right now,” according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins to create the networks of the future.While the partnership has done well – the companies say they have closed 60 deals together -- Ericsson is being battered financially this year and the impact that will have on the partnership could change it in the future.+More on Network World: Cisco CEO Robbins: Wait til you see what’s in our innovation pipeline+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Need for ‘smart’ regulation of IoT security is as obvious as is it unlikely

Security expert Bruce Schneier has a new essay out that makes this case: The only way to prevent the exploitation of insecure internet of things devices from causing catastrophic damage is government regulation, noting “our choice is between smarter government involvement and stupider government involvement.”His premise would appear unassailable. The problem is we don’t necessarily get to choose; sometimes the difference between smarter and stupider is foisted upon us.Schneier writes of the growing IoT threat: It's a form of invisible pollution. … And, like pollution, the only solution is to regulate. The government could impose minimum security standards on IoT manufacturers, forcing them to make their devices secure even though their customers don't care. They could impose liabilities on manufacturers, allowing companies like Dyn to sue them if their devices are used in DDoS attacks. The details would need to be carefully scoped, but either of these options would raise the cost of insecurity and give companies incentives to spend money making their devices secure. …To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Need for ‘smart’ regulation of IoT security is as obvious as is it unlikely

Security expert Bruce Schneier has a new essay out that makes this case: The only way to prevent the exploitation of insecure internet of things devices from causing catastrophic damage is government regulation, noting “our choice is between smarter government involvement and stupider government involvement.”His premise would appear unassailable. The problem is we don’t necessarily get to choose; sometimes the difference between smarter and stupider is foisted upon us.Schneier writes of the growing IoT threat: It's a form of invisible pollution. … And, like pollution, the only solution is to regulate. The government could impose minimum security standards on IoT manufacturers, forcing them to make their devices secure even though their customers don't care. They could impose liabilities on manufacturers, allowing companies like Dyn to sue them if their devices are used in DDoS attacks. The details would need to be carefully scoped, but either of these options would raise the cost of insecurity and give companies incentives to spend money making their devices secure. …To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

17% off Nest Cam Indoor Security Camera – Deal Alert

Look after your home 24/7 in crisp 1080p HD. With Nest Cam Indoor, you can check in, even when you’re out, and even at night with its built-in high-quality night vision. Nest Cam features a versatile magnetic stand that lets you put it anywhere. See who’s there, listen in and speak up to get their attention. With Nest Aware, you can get a special alert if Nest Cam sees a person, and save 10 or 30 days of continuous video history in the cloud. Then speed through it in seconds and quickly find the moment you’re looking for in Sightline. Nest's indoor camera is a best-seller on Amazon with 4 out of 5 stars from over 4,000 people (read reviews). Its typical list price of $199 has been reduced 17% to $166.00 on Amazon. Amazon also features a bundle of three cameras that will deepen the discount even further. Right now it's just $454.97 for the pack of three.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

InfiniBand will reach 200-gigabit speed next year

InfiniBand is set to hit 200Gbps (bits per second) in products that were announced Thursday, potentially accelerating machine-learning platforms as well as HPC (high-performance computing) systems.The massive computing performance of new servers equipped with GPUs calls for high network speeds, and these systems are quickly being deployed to handle machine-learning tasks, Dell’Oro Group analyst Sameh Boujelbene said.So-called HDR InfiniBand, which will be generally available next year in three sets of products from Mellanox Technologies, will double the top speed of InfiniBand. It will also have twice the top speed of Ethernet.But the high-performance crowd that’s likely to adopt this new interconnect is a small one, Boujelbene said. Look for the top 10 percent of InfiniBand users, who already use 100Gbps InfiniBand, to jump on the new stuff, she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

InfiniBand will reach 200-gigabit speed next year

InfiniBand is set to hit 200Gbps (bits per second) in products that were announced Thursday, potentially accelerating machine-learning platforms as well as HPC (high-performance computing) systems.The massive computing performance of new servers equipped with GPUs calls for high network speeds, and these systems are quickly being deployed to handle machine-learning tasks, Dell’Oro Group analyst Sameh Boujelbene said.So-called HDR InfiniBand, which will be generally available next year in three sets of products from Mellanox Technologies, will double the top speed of InfiniBand. It will also have twice the top speed of Ethernet.But the high-performance crowd that’s likely to adopt this new interconnect is a small one, Boujelbene said. Look for the top 10 percent of InfiniBand users, who already use 100Gbps InfiniBand, to jump on the new stuff, she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Apps be nimble, apps be quick

Application development used to happen inside an IT bubble, the purview of employees of Microsoft, for example, working on the next version of Word or Excel. Applications back in those days were built and deployed by experts onto desktop computers.Those days weren’t so long ago, and we certainly still use applications, but the way apps are developed, deployed and used has changed dramatically. Many of them still accomplish the same goals of workers—Microsoft Word, Office 365 or Google Docs still provide me the blank pages I need to write on—but their features have expanded beyond what we could have imagined to include sharing, instant edits and updates, notifications, and more.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why RAID Arrays Are Sinking

IDG Contributor Network: How a distributed databus enhances industrial IoT systems

A pulse is missing. Is it the patient? Or is the pulse monitor not functioning?Life-and-death IoT systems literally have no margin for error.How are readings from health sensors merged and analyzed immediately?How can single point of failures be eliminated?An IoT backbone to connect sensors, apps and analytics into a responsive system is needed. It has to be secure, flexible and scalable. The challenge of combining data from multiple sources Medical errors are the third leading cause of death.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The new Oracle? Maybe not, but Neo’s raise shows promise

Databases. Alongside networking, they're arguably one of the less exciting areas of the technology world.But no matter how boring they are, databases are, of course, a critical part of delivering technology. And we live in a changing time for the humble database, with new models challenging incumbent approached. A case in point is graph databases.For a quick primer, per Wikipedia, a graph database is a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries with nodes, edges and properties to represent and store data. A key concept of the system is the graph (or edge or relationship), which directly relates data items in the store. The relationships allow data in the store to be linked together directly and, in most cases, retrieved with a single operation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The new Oracle? Maybe not, but Neo’s raise shows promise

Databases. Alongside networking, they're arguably one of the less exciting areas of the technology world.But no matter how boring they are, databases are, of course, a critical part of delivering technology. And we live in a changing time for the humble database, with new models challenging incumbent approached. A case in point is graph databases.For a quick primer, per Wikipedia, a graph database is a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries with nodes, edges and properties to represent and store data. A key concept of the system is the graph (or edge or relationship), which directly relates data items in the store. The relationships allow data in the store to be linked together directly and, in most cases, retrieved with a single operation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Major cloud is infested with malware, researchers say

Cloud repositories are actively supplying malware, according to computer experts. And problematically, it’s insidious and hard to find.Hundreds of buckets have been undermined, says Xiaojing Liao, a graduate student at Georgia Tech who’s the lead author on a study that’s looking into the problem. Buckets are chunks of storage used in cloud operations.It’s “challenging to find,” Georgia Tech writes in an article on its website. The problem being that the resulting malware is quick to “assemble from stored components that individually may not appear to be malicious.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Major cloud is infested with malware, researchers say

Cloud repositories are actively supplying malware, according to computer experts. And problematically, it’s insidious and hard to find.Hundreds of buckets have been undermined, says Xiaojing Liao, a graduate student at Georgia Tech who’s the lead author on a study that’s looking into the problem. Buckets are chunks of storage used in cloud operations.It’s “challenging to find,” Georgia Tech writes in an article on its website. The problem being that the resulting malware is quick to “assemble from stored components that individually may not appear to be malicious.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Down the rabbit hole, part 5: Secure and private instant messaging

Instant messaging is hard.There are untold numbers of instant messaging networks (not even taking SMS into consideration)—with companies like Google having, all by themselves, created a half dozen competing applications and networks. And, if you want those messages to be secure? Well, things get even more difficult—there simply aren’t many options. In my ongoing quest to make my life as secure and private as possible, I’ve found three instant messaging networks that are worth talking about. They’re not perfect, but they are significant improvements over using the many, astoundingly insecure platforms out there (such as Google’s Hangouts or Apple’s iMessage). Let’s go over those here, with their benefits and pitfalls. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Down the rabbit hole, part 5: Secure and private instant messaging

Instant messaging is hard.There are untold numbers of instant messaging networks (not even taking SMS into consideration)—with companies like Google having, all by themselves, created a half dozen competing applications and networks. And, if you want those messages to be secure? Well, things get even more difficult—there simply aren’t many options. In my ongoing quest to make my life as secure and private as possible, I’ve found three instant messaging networks that are worth talking about. They’re not perfect, but they are significant improvements over using the many, astoundingly insecure platforms out there (such as Google’s Hangouts or Apple’s iMessage). Let’s go over those here, with their benefits and pitfalls. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Recruiting and retaining female IT talent: 8 concrete steps

(Insider Story)

L3 Virtualization and VRFs

I got into an interesting discussion with Johannes Luther on the need for VRFs and he wrote:

If VRF = L3 virtualization technologies, then I saw that link. However, VRFs are again just a tiny piece of the whole story.

Of course he’s right, but it turns out that VRFs are the fundamental building block of most L3 virtualization technologies using a shared infrastructure.