IT Automation is in the Spotlight at AWS Re:Invent (and OpsWorks Configuration Management is Just Part of the Story)

Cloud automation

Configuration management is just the start

Automation is getting a lot of attention at AWS:ReInvent this year, as people are noticing that automation is drastically accelerating the pace of innovation within IT organizations. Whether they’re part of a DevOps initiative, attempting to modernize their existing processes, or migrating systems and applications to the cloud, infrastructure-as-code style automation is playing an increasingly bigger part in these efforts - and ‘configuration management’ is getting most of the attention.

In a recent study, IDC’s Melinda-Carol Ballou predicts that the configuration management portion of I&O spending will grow at 8% over the next several years… but the predicted growth of configuration management in public clouds is north of 31%. Similarly, in a separate report, Mary Johnston Turner and David Laing forecast the Automation component of Infrastructure spending in the public cloud to grow at almost 35% - compared to just 12% overall.

The trend is clear: configuration management is seen as critical to cloud adoption and migration. So it’s not surprising that Amazon Web Services announced that it is updating its Opsworks service offering. As environments grow in size, scope, and complexity (which is the new normal in the era of the cloud), the Continue reading

2016’s notable deaths in technology, science & inventions

Paying respectsImage by Network World staffThe worlds of networking, computing, science and inventions have lost pioneering and influential figures in 2016, from those who brought us networked email to the earliest PCs to movie icons. Here’s our modest tribute to these innovators worth remembering. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Clickbait and the Avaya feeding frenzy

A friend I respect a great deal once told me that using Latin makes you sound smart. So, here I go, consciously throwing the term horror vacui your way. Horror vacui is a concept originally from Aristotle that, according to Porter, ‎Park ‎and Daston, “By the thirteenth century, scholastic writers were beginning to attribute to nature … a kind of force by which nature resists allowing a vacuum to form.” Something of this character seems to be happening as people rush to fill the void of no official news about the current business challenges Avaya faces. In absence of any real information, a narrative has evolved in the past several weeks that has not been positive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How to architect the network so IoT devices are secure

Just as the internet changed everything, a new revolution known as the Internet of Things (IoT) promises to produce even greater disruption.  Primarily because IoT sensors will be utilized everywhere—in hospitals to monitor medical devices, in factories to supervise operations, in buildings for controlling temperature and lighting, etc.  Data from these sensors will be used for operations management, predictive maintenance and much more. Meanwhile, all of these applications are typically integrated with an enterprise’s IT infrastructure. As such, they are introducing a variety of new security challenges.+ Also on Network World: DDoS attacks using IoT devices follow The Manchurian Candidate model + Just like in current IT environments, there is no security silver bullet that can protect IoT devices from every possible cyber threat.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How to architect the network so IoT devices are secure

Just as the internet changed everything, a new revolution known as the Internet of Things (IoT) promises to produce even greater disruption.  Primarily because IoT sensors will be utilized everywhere—in hospitals to monitor medical devices, in factories to supervise operations, in buildings for controlling temperature and lighting, etc.  Data from these sensors will be used for operations management, predictive maintenance and much more. Meanwhile, all of these applications are typically integrated with an enterprise’s IT infrastructure. As such, they are introducing a variety of new security challenges.+ Also on Network World: DDoS attacks using IoT devices follow The Manchurian Candidate model + Just like in current IT environments, there is no security silver bullet that can protect IoT devices from every possible cyber threat.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: How do I start an IXP?

The hard part with establishing an IXP is not really the technical part, but building a community and trust. Also, an IXP needs to be sustainable beyond the establishment phase. This includes having enough funds to operate and to upgrade equipment in the future as technology develops and traffic grows. Most IXPs ensure this by setting up a mutual or membership association so that the users of the IXP have equal say in the operation of the IXP. This is by far the most successful model of IXPs today. —APNIC

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Save 53% Plus an Extra $15 on Oral-B Pro 5000 Bluetooth Rechargeable Toothbrush – Deal Alert

The Oral-B Floss Action rechargeable electric toothbrush features a dentist-inspired round head and MicroPulse bristles for a superior interdental clean. The specialized bristles are designed to reach deep between teeth and remove more plaque than a regular manual toothbrush. A Visible Pressure Sensor on the PRO 5000 lights up to alert you when you are brushing too hard, which may cause harm. Download the Oral-B App on your smartphone and use Bluetooth technology to get real-time feedback while you clean for improved brushing habits. The highly rated brush lists for $160, but it's currently discounted 53% off to $75 on Amazon, where you'll also find an additional $15 off coupon that will be applied at checkout. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A year after terrorist attacks, phone privacy laws unchanged – but watch out for Trump

One year ago, 14 people were killed and 22 injured by a husband-and-wife pair of domestic terrorists who attacked a training session of government employees in San Bernardino, Calif. Although the perpetrators were killed in a gun battle with law enforcement within hours of the attack, the FBI’s interest in one terrorist’s iPhone precipitated a public standoff with Apple that captured its own share of national headlines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why Amazon’s new machine learning tools are so important

The fact that Amazon Web Services announced three new machine learning services this week shouldn’t come as a surprise. Machine learning, artificial intelligence and cognitive computing are hot buzzwords for cloud vendors and the world was waiting to see how AWS would address it at its re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. What may be surprising is how Amazon is positioning these new machine learning tools. +MORE AT NETOWRK WORLD: A peek inside Amazon’s cloud – from global scale to custom silicon | Cool tech at AWS re:Invent +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

TopSpin Security deploys realistic deceptions to lure and trap attackers

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  Every CISO knows it’s not enough to just use prevention tools to try to keep attackers out of the network. CISOs must have the mindset of “they will get in” and plan accordingly with detection tools.According to Gartner, the average time before a breach is detected is more than 200 days, and too often the breach is detected by an outside organization such as a credit card processor or a law enforcement agency. These facts are simply indefensible when a CISO is called before the Board of Directors to discuss preparedness for cyber incidents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

TopSpin Security deploys realistic deceptions to lure and trap attackers

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  Every CISO knows it’s not enough to just use prevention tools to try to keep attackers out of the network. CISOs must have the mindset of “they will get in” and plan accordingly with detection tools.According to Gartner, the average time before a breach is detected is more than 200 days, and too often the breach is detected by an outside organization such as a credit card processor or a law enforcement agency. These facts are simply indefensible when a CISO is called before the Board of Directors to discuss preparedness for cyber incidents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Implantable medical devices can be hacked to harm patients

It's possible to transmit life-threatening signals to implanted medical devices with no prior knowledge of how the devices work, researchers in Belgium and the U.K. have demonstrated.By intercepting and reverse-engineering the signals exchanged between a heart pacemaker-defibrillator and its programmer, the researchers found they could steal patient information, flatten the device's battery, or send malicious messages to the pacemaker. The attacks they developed can be performed from up to five meters away using standard equipment -- but more sophisticated antennas could increase this distance by tens or hundreds of times, they said."The consequences of these attacks can be fatal for patients as these messages can contain commands to deliver a shock or to disable a therapy," the researchers wrote in a new paper examining the security of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which monitor heart rhythm and can deliver either low-power electrical signals to the heart, like a pacemaker, or stronger ones, like a defibrillator, to shock the heart back to a normal rhythm. They will present their findings at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in Los Angeles next week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Implantable medical devices can be hacked to harm patients

It's possible to transmit life-threatening signals to implanted medical devices with no prior knowledge of how the devices work, researchers in Belgium and the U.K. have demonstrated.By intercepting and reverse-engineering the signals exchanged between a heart pacemaker-defibrillator and its programmer, the researchers found they could steal patient information, flatten the device's battery, or send malicious messages to the pacemaker. The attacks they developed can be performed from up to five meters away using standard equipment -- but more sophisticated antennas could increase this distance by tens or hundreds of times, they said."The consequences of these attacks can be fatal for patients as these messages can contain commands to deliver a shock or to disable a therapy," the researchers wrote in a new paper examining the security of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which monitor heart rhythm and can deliver either low-power electrical signals to the heart, like a pacemaker, or stronger ones, like a defibrillator, to shock the heart back to a normal rhythm. They will present their findings at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) in Los Angeles next week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Top 3 causes of storage bottlenecks

What are the leading causes of storage bottlenecks? They include mismanagement of virtual storage, applications with insufficient or the wrong type of storage, and poor storage design. Let’s explore these further.1.    Mismanagement of virtual storageIf you’re not monitoring your IT infrastructure, carving up your storage array or subsystem between numerous virtual machines (VMs) can be challenging. That’s because you have no visibility to the flow of traffic. Allocating your VMs to a logical unit number (LUN) without data to guide you is like building a highway without doing a traffic study to assess traffic volume at different times of the day and week. How would you know how many lanes are required to accommodate the traffic?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IPv6 Internet router using merchant silicon

Internet router using merchant silicon describes how a commodity white box switch can be used as a replacement for an expensive Internet router. The solution combines standard sFlow instrumentation implemented in merchant silicon with BGP routing information to selectively install only active routes into the hardware.

The article describes a simple self contained solution that uses standard APIs and should be able to run on a variety of Linux based network operating systems, including: Cumulus Linux, Dell OS10, Arista EOS, and Cisco NX-OS.

The diagram shows the elements of the solution. Standard sFlow instrumentation embedded in the merchant silicon ASIC data plane in the white box switch provides real-time information on traffic flowing through the switch. The sFlow agent is configured to send the sFlow to an instance of sFlow-RT running on the switch. The Bird routing daemon is used to handle the BGP peering sessions and to install routes in the Linux kernel using the standard netlink interface. The network operating system in turn programs the switch ASIC with the kernel routes so that packets are forwarded by the switch hardware and not by the kernel software.

The key to this solution is Bird's multi-table capabilities. The full Internet Continue reading

27% off WakaWaka Solar-Powered Flashlight and Smartphone Charger – Deal Alert

Perfect for emergencies, traveling or for anyone who spends time outdoors, the WakaWaka Power+ is a rugged, ultraefficient solar flashlight and charger designed to help people plug into the sun for power and light. It has full battery life after about 12 hours in the sun or 4 hours charged from a wall outlet. From there, the WakaWaka Power+ can get you out of a jam by completely charging your smartphone or USB device in about two hours. And the brilliant Dutch designed Power+ flashlight generates up to 150 hours of bright light whenever you need it. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its list price of $79 has been reduced 27% to $57.99. See the discounted Power+ solar light and charger on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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