How Hadoop helps Experian crunch credit reports

Experian has implemented a new data analytics system designed to shrink from months to hours the time it takes to processes petabytes of data from hundreds of millions of customers worldwide. The information services company is deploying the software, a data fabric layer based on the Hadoop file processing system, in tandem with microservices and an API platform, that enables both corporate customers and consumers to access credit reports and information more quickly. Experian Experian CIO Barry Libenson.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This company is using Amazon Snowmobile to transfer petabytes of data to the cloud

One of the most dramatic announcements from Amazon Web Services at its 2016 re:Invent conference was the announcement of Snowmobile: It’s a 45’ semi truck that trailers a data center on wheels. Customers can load it up with up to 100 petabytes of data per Snowmobile, which is then driven to an AWS data center and loaded into the company’s cloud. It begs the question: Who’s actually using this? DigitalGlobe (DGI) is one company. +MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Amazon will literally truck your data into its cloud + To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hottest Enterprise Networking & IT Startups of 2017

So many cool networking and IT startups, so little time to write about them all. One way that we at least acknowledge their presence, however, is by running this interactive timeline of funding announcements.First out of the gate this year are companies such as CloudCraze, NGDATA and Klipfolio (OK, it's a stretch to call Klipfolio a startup, given that the business was founded in 2001, but it did re-launch into the cloud in 2011...and the company just got fresh funding).MORE: Hottest Enterprise Networking & IT Startups of 2016To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Essentials Of Multiprocessor Programming

One near constant that you have been seeing in the pages of The Next Platform is that the downside of having a slowing rate at which the speed of new processors is increasing is offset by the upside of having a lot more processing elements in a device. While the performance of programs running on individual processors might not be speeding up like we might like, we instead get huge capacity increases via today’s systems by having the tens through many thousands of processors.

You have also seen in these pages that our usual vanilla view of a processor or …

The Essentials Of Multiprocessor Programming was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

IDG Contributor Network: Compuware Total Test brings unit testing to mainframe Cobol development

Compuware, a supplier known for its focus on making mainframes a home for today's applications, not a hospice, recently announced an enhancement to its Total Test agile development tool. The goal is to provide DevOps tools to the mainframe world.Compuware Total Test Here's what Compuware has to say about Total Test: The world’s largest enterprises run their business on Cobol—but can’t nimbly update that code in response to changing business needs due to quality concerns, antiquated processes and loss of application expertise. Compuware is addressing this critical issue with the first fully automated mainframe unit testing solution that empowers in-house, outsourced, expert and novice developers alike to immediately validate code changes. This Java-like unit testing effectively eliminates the notion of Cobol as “legacy” code that can’t be updated with the same speed and confidence as other code—providing large enterprises with unprecedented agility. The release of Topaz for Total Test underscores Compuware’s leadership of a mainframe renaissance encompassing agile, DevOps, continuous delivery and the generational shift in platform stewardship. As a result of this innovation, enterprise IT organizations can now ease and accelerate the entire mainframe application lifecycle. Features include:To read this article in full or to leave Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Compuware Total Test brings unit testing to mainframe Cobol development

Compuware, a supplier known for its focus on making mainframes a home for today's applications, not a hospice, recently announced an enhancement to its Total Test agile development tool. The goal is to provide DevOps tools to the mainframe world.Compuware Total Test Here's what Compuware has to say about Total Test: The world’s largest enterprises run their business on Cobol—but can’t nimbly update that code in response to changing business needs due to quality concerns, antiquated processes and loss of application expertise. Compuware is addressing this critical issue with the first fully automated mainframe unit testing solution that empowers in-house, outsourced, expert and novice developers alike to immediately validate code changes. This Java-like unit testing effectively eliminates the notion of Cobol as “legacy” code that can’t be updated with the same speed and confidence as other code—providing large enterprises with unprecedented agility. The release of Topaz for Total Test underscores Compuware’s leadership of a mainframe renaissance encompassing agile, DevOps, continuous delivery and the generational shift in platform stewardship. As a result of this innovation, enterprise IT organizations can now ease and accelerate the entire mainframe application lifecycle. Features include:To read this article in full or to leave Continue reading

Ericsson & Cisco Tout ‘Evolved’ WiFi

Another facet to the 14-month-old partnership.

VMware Joins Open-O to Pursue its Telco NFV Strategy

Other big NFV vendors must grapple with decision to join open source projects.

Dell will ship first the 32-inch 8K display, the UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD

Dell is heralding computer users into an era beyond 4K with its new 32-inch UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD 8K monitor, which is a sight to behold. But there's a caveat: Most PCs may not be ready for this cool display. The monitor will ship on March 23 for US $4,999, Dell announced Thursday. It'll be available in about 12 countries, in limited quantities. The 8K monitor has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, which is about four times that of 4K. It will feature 33.2 million pixels and more than 1 billion colors. It has a video refresh rate of 60Hz and a viewing angle of 178 degrees. It looks sleek -- it is slim and built into an aluminum cover. There's a thin 9.7-millimeter bezel around it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dell will ship first the 32-inch 8K display, the UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD

Dell is heralding computer users into an era beyond 4K with its new 32-inch UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD 8K monitor, which is a sight to behold. But there's a caveat: Most PCs may not be ready for this cool display.The monitor will ship on March 23 for US $4,999, Dell announced Thursday. It'll be available in about 12 countries, in limited quantities.The 8K monitor has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels, which is about four times that of 4K. It will feature 33.2 million pixels and more than 1 billion colors. It has a video refresh rate of 60Hz and a viewing angle of 178 degrees.It looks sleek -- it is slim and built into an aluminum cover. There's a thin 9.7-millimeter bezel around it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Plone dismisses claim that flaw in its CMS was used to hack FBI

The security team behind Plone, a content management system that powers many enterprise websites, has dismissed claims that hackers have access to information about an unpatched critical vulnerability.The dismissal comes after a hacker who uses the online alias CyberZeist published a list of log-in credentials and hashed passwords that he claimed were obtained by hacking into the FBI.gov website by using a Plone zero-day exploit.CyberZeist, who claims to act in the name of the Anonymous hacktivist movement, said in a post on Pastebin Monday that he didn't find the Plone vulnerability himself, but he was asked to test it out by the person who did.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Plone dismisses claim that flaw in its CMS was used to hack FBI

The security team behind Plone, a content management system that powers many enterprise websites, has dismissed claims that hackers have access to information about an unpatched critical vulnerability.The dismissal comes after a hacker who uses the online alias CyberZeist published a list of log-in credentials and hashed passwords that he claimed were obtained by hacking into the FBI.gov website by using a Plone zero-day exploit.CyberZeist, who claims to act in the name of the Anonymous hacktivist movement, said in a post on Pastebin Monday that he didn't find the Plone vulnerability himself, but he was asked to test it out by the person who did.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to Extend Ansible Through Plugins

Did you know a large portion of Ansible’s functionality comes from the Ansible plugin system? These important pieces of code augment Ansible’s core functionality such as parsing and loading inventory and Playbooks, running Playbooks and reading the results. Essentially, Ansible uses plugins to extend what the system is doing under the hood.

In this blog, I’ll review each of these plugins and offer a high-level overview on how to write your own plugin to extend Ansible functionality.

Action Plugins

One of the core critical plugins used by Ansible are action plugins. Anytime you run a module, Ansible first runs an action plugin.

Action plugins are a layer between the executor engine and the module and allow for controller-side actions to be taken before the module is executed. A good example of this is the template module. If you look at template.py in the modules directory, it’s basically a Python stub with documentation strings, everything is done by the action plugin. The template action plugin itself creates the template file locally as a temporary file, and then uses the copy or file modules to push it out to the target system.

If Ansible finds an action plugin with the Continue reading

50% off Rock Band Rivals Band Kit for PlayStation 4 – Deal Alert

Amazon has the kit slashed 50% right now down to $99.99 from its typical list price of $199.99. It includes the drum kit with four durable and responsive drum pads with reinforced metal kick pedal. And also includes Rock Band 4 game software and Rock Band Rivals expansion download code. The guitar is foldable and is an officially licensed Wireless Fender Jaguar Guitar. See the deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The downside of buying used gear via Glyde

Growing up in Rhode Island, the way to buy and sell used stuff was in the local newspaper, the Providence Journal. We had something in the classifieds called The Yankee Trader, where you could sell stuff in tiny, one- or two-line ads. You clipped out a form from the paper, filled it out and sent in $1 for the ad to run a few days later. You would contact the seller and meet to make the exchange. These days, those types of ads are dead in the water. I mean, it took 2-4 days just for your ad to run. Now there's eBay, Craigslist and a host of electronics resellers to buy and sell stuff immediately. Unfortunately, when buying from strangers all over the country, there are potential pitfalls—as I keep falling into. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The downside of buying used gear via Glyde and Gazelle

Growing up in Rhode Island, the way to buy and sell used stuff was in the local newspaper, the Providence Journal. We had something in the classifieds called The Yankee Trader, where you could sell stuff in tiny, one- or two-line ads. You clipped out a form from the paper, filled it out and sent in $1 for the ad to run a few days later. You would contact the seller and meet to make the exchange. These days, those types of ads are dead in the water. I mean, it took 2-4 days just for your ad to run. Now there's eBay, Craigslist and a host of electronics resellers to buy and sell stuff immediately. Unfortunately, when buying from strangers all over the country, there are potential pitfalls—as I keep falling into. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco extends Ericsson partnership with WiFi package

Looking to offer more complete network services offerings, Cisco and Ericsson have broadened their 14-month old partnership to include new wireless offerings.Specifically, the companies will offer a new service package called Evolved Wi-Fi Networks (EWN) which will include products and support from both companies. “EWN includes pre-integrated and verified offerings based on Ericsson and Cisco products and Ericsson's customer support, design and deployment services as well as Ericsson's managed services,” the companies stated. Ericsson said EWN can be offered as a fully managed service with the global reach of more than 180 countries.+More on Network World: Cisco/Ericsson: Assessing the mega-deal a year later+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mozilla: ‘IoT will be the first big battle of 2017,’ calls for responsible IoT

You need look no further than some of the stupid IoT devices being shown off at CES 2017 to be reminded that practically anything can be connected to the internet.Nokia’s Withings, L’Oreal’s innovation lab and Kerastase believe you would be better off by using Hair Coach, the world’s first smart hairbrush and companion app. It is just one of the many products that leaves me asking WHY? L’Orea Screenshot from L’Oreal videoTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mozilla: ‘IoT will be the first big battle of 2017,’ calls for responsible IoT

You need look no further than some of the stupid IoT devices being shown off at CES 2017 to be reminded that practically anything can be connected to the internet.Nokia’s Withings, L’Oreal’s innovation lab and Kerastase believe you would be better off by using Hair Coach, the world’s first smart hairbrush and companion app. It is just one of the many products that leaves me asking WHY? L’Orea Screenshot from L’Oreal videoTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AT&T’s next 5G wireless trial will shoot DirecTV Now to users’ homes

5G conjures up visions of super-fast smartphone service, but it could give consumers and enterprises a lot more. In the next few months, some residents of Austin, Texas, will get to watch DirecTV Now at home using a form of the still-emerging wireless technology.AT&T plans to start a trial of that service in the first half of this year. Instead of the cutting-edge mobile networks that are expected to beam multi-gigabit service to moving phones, it will use a fixed wireless network built on pre-standard 5G technology to reach users' homes.MORE: Check out our interactive timeline of 5G trialsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here