IDG Contributor Network: The need for software archaeology

Having lived in the world of IT for a while, I often find myself having to "call BS" during a vendor briefing. Why is that? Vendor representatives start a conversation with something like "we are the only ones to offer this capability" or "we are the first in the industry to solve this problem" when there are examples of the same capability from technology offered in the in the past. They do this in the hopes of breaking through industry chatter and, as a result, booking a meeting with my team or me.IT really hasn't been around all that long When considered in the abstract, IT really hasn't been around all that long. In that short time, practitioners spoke of "working in the computer department," "working in data processing," "working in information systems" or " working in IT."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

So, You Want to Program Quantum Computers?

The jury is still out when it comes to how wide-ranging the application set and market potential for quantum computing will be. Optimistic estimates project that in the 2020s it will be a billion-dollar field, while others expect the novelty will wear off and the one company behind the actual production of quantum annealing machines will go bust.

Ultimately, whichever direction the market goes with quantum computing will depend on two things. First, the ability for applications of sufficient value to warrant the cost of quantum systems have to be in place. Second, and connected to that point, is the …

So, You Want to Program Quantum Computers? was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

Windows Desktop apps are now in the Windows Store

Developers can now distribute their Windows desktop apps to people shopping through Windows 10's app store, with an update from Microsoft Wednesday.It's a move powered by Project Centennial, which lets developers take older Windows apps (known in Microsoft parlance as Win32 apps), port them to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and then sell them on the Windows Store. The first of those apps are rolling out over the coming days, and developers can now submit their Centennial-converted apps for future release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Law firm CIO: ‘I run more video than CBS’

The challenges as the head of IT for a major international law firm with 700 attorneys, 1,500 total employees and 20 separate offices around the world aren’t exactly small, but Baker Donelson CIO John D. Green is up to the task – even when that task changes a little every day.Different parts of Baker Donelson’s sprawling practice have different needs, said Green, who sat down with Network World Tuesday at Riverbed’s Disrupt event in New York. The real estate practice, tax, and patent and trademark practices, among others, have their own software, all of which Donelson has to support.MORE: Riverbed upgrades set sights on the SD-WAN edge, cloud integrationTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Law firm CIO: ‘I run more video than CBS’

The challenges as the head of IT for a major international law firm with 700 attorneys, 1,500 total employees and 20 separate offices around the world aren’t exactly small, but Baker Donelson CIO John D. Green is up to the task – even when that task changes a little every day.Different parts of Baker Donelson’s sprawling practice have different needs, said Green, who sat down with Network World Tuesday at Riverbed’s Disrupt event in New York. The real estate practice, tax, and patent and trademark practices, among others, have their own software, all of which Donelson has to support.MORE: Riverbed upgrades set sights on the SD-WAN edge, cloud integrationTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brocade’s big new router is all about network size, automation

Brocade this week rolled out a big data center router its says will handle and help manage the massive amounts of traffic expected to cross enterprise networks in the not-to-distant future.The Brocade SLX 9850 expands the Brocade data center routing family and supports 15x more total capacity than the current Brocade MLXe box via a 230Tbps non-blocking chassis fabric capacity for 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.+More on Network World: Brocade CEO says they've built an easy button for IP networks, are benefiting from SDN/NFV+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Brocade’s big new router is all about network size, automation

Brocade this week rolled out a big data center router its says will handle and help manage the massive amounts of traffic expected to cross enterprise networks in the not-to-distant future.The Brocade SLX 9850 expands the Brocade data center routing family and supports 15x more total capacity than the current Brocade MLXe box via a 230Tbps non-blocking chassis fabric capacity for 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.+More on Network World: Brocade CEO says they've built an easy button for IP networks, are benefiting from SDN/NFV+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Violin, still pushing flash speeds, looks to the cloud

In flash storage these days, it takes more than speed to win over many enterprises.Violin Memory, an early player in enterprise flash, made strides more than a decade ago with storage arrays that outran spinning-disk systems for applications that needed data fast. Then the giants of the data center got into the game, and enterprises started looking at flash for their primary storage instead of targeted uses.That leaves Violin catching up. It’s added data services like replication and deduplication – the company calls its suite of integrated services the most complete in flash storage – and on Wednesday the company is announcing what it calls the industry’s highest performance all-flash array for primary storage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enough with “firewalls”

A mythical conversation on firewalls, and some observations

“Let’s put the firewall here, so it can protect the servers in this part of the network.”
“How would you define a firewall?”
“You know, the appliance that, well, protects servers and other machines from outside threats…”
“And how does it do this?”
“By filtering the traffic using some sort of stateful mechanism, and network address translation, and deep packet inspection, and blocking certain ports, and…”
“In other words, it’s a bunch of services on a single device?”
“Yes…”
“Then maybe we should think in terms of services instead of appliances.”

I’ve never actually had this conversation, but I’ve had many similar ones across my times as a network engineer. I’ll admit, in fact, that it took a lot of conversations like this (with me on the receiving end) to grock the difference between a service and an appliance, and to see that my constant thinking in terms of appliances (or even devices) was actually hindering my ability to design networks. Let me give you two specific reasons you should think of security services, instead of security appliances.

First, When you disaggregate the “things a firewall Continue reading

Volkswagen is founding a new cybersecurity firm to prevent car hacking

As cars become more computerized, they're also facing a greater risk of being hacked. That’s why Volkswagen is founding a new cyber security company devoted to protecting next-generation vehicles.On Wednesday, the automaker said it would partner with a former Israeli intelligence agency director to jointly establish a new company, called Cymotive Technologies.It’s unclear how much Volkswagen is investing in the new firm, but security experts have been warning that internet-connected cars and self-driving vehicles could one day be a major target for hackers.Even older cars from Volkswagen are vulnerable. Last month, researchers said that millions of vehicles from the automaker can be broken into by exploiting the remote control key systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Volkswagen is founding a new cybersecurity firm to prevent car hacking

As cars become more computerized, they're also facing a greater risk of being hacked. That’s why Volkswagen is founding a new cyber security company devoted to protecting next-generation vehicles.On Wednesday, the automaker said it would partner with a former Israeli intelligence agency director to jointly establish a new company, called Cymotive Technologies.It’s unclear how much Volkswagen is investing in the new firm, but security experts have been warning that internet-connected cars and self-driving vehicles could one day be a major target for hackers.Even older cars from Volkswagen are vulnerable. Last month, researchers said that millions of vehicles from the automaker can be broken into by exploiting the remote control key systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe fixes critical flaws in Flash Player and Digital Editions

Adobe Systems has fixed more than 30 vulnerabilities in its Flash Player and Digital Editions products, most of which could be exploited to remotely install malware on computers.The bulk of the flaws, 26, were patched in Flash Player on all supported platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux.Twenty-three of those vulnerabilities can lead to remote code execution and the remaining three can be used for information disclosure or to bypass security features, Adobe said in an advisory.Adobe advises users to update Flash Player version 23.0.0.162 on Windows and Mac or version 11.2.202.635 on Linux. The new version of the Flash Player extended support release, which only receives security patches, is now 18.0.0.375.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe fixes critical flaws in Flash Player and Digital Editions

Adobe Systems has fixed more than 30 vulnerabilities in its Flash Player and Digital Editions products, most of which could be exploited to remotely install malware on computers.The bulk of the flaws, 26, were patched in Flash Player on all supported platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux.Twenty-three of those vulnerabilities can lead to remote code execution and the remaining three can be used for information disclosure or to bypass security features, Adobe said in an advisory.Adobe advises users to update Flash Player version 23.0.0.162 on Windows and Mac or version 11.2.202.635 on Linux. The new version of the Flash Player extended support release, which only receives security patches, is now 18.0.0.375.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Linux’s lack of software is a myth

When I first started dabbling with Linux back in the 1990s, a lot of various types of software was missing for me to be able to use it full time.Games. Video editing tools. High-quality productivity software. Those three categories were the most critical for me (and from what I’ve seen, for most people). Sure, there were some projects in those categories, but not many—and they were not typically overly robust or polished. + Also on Network World: Ultimate guide to Linux desktop environments +So, I kept dabbling. I’d use Linux for a few weeks, then go back to a different system (Mac OS, Windows, OS/2, you name it). There just always seemed to be something—some critical piece of software—missing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: HPE trims back

The trouble that Dell and HPE found themselves in is that they did not build platforms fast enough as the market shifted away from selling or reselling licensed software and putting platforms together piecemeal for customers and towards companies using a public cloud as a platform or companies using a set of open source components figuring it out on their own. Frankly, companies like IBM, HPE, and Dell charge too much for such integration services, they take too long, and companies are always dependent on others to make changes to that platform because they lack expertise. —The NExt Platform

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Extreme swallows Zebra’s WLAN biz for $55 million

Looking to fill in some gaps in its own wireless LAN portfolio – such as security and managed services -- and jump into some new vertical markets like retail and transportation, Extreme Networks said it would buy Zebra Technologies wireless business for $55 million in cash.With the purchase, Extreme will get Zebra’s wireless LAN 802.11ac high-speed wireless access portfolio, which includes Zebra’s WiNG wireless operating system, NSight advanced network troubleshooting package as well as a managed service suite that Extreme does not currently offer, said Extreme President and CEO Ed Meyercord.+More on network World: CEO Ed Meyercord talks about Enterasys merger and an expanding set of software capabilities undergirding Extreme’s wired-wireless switches+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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