IDG Contributor Network: To improve IT efficiency, start with the org chart

IT is a peculiar appliance and has resisted change in the form of overall transparency and/or standardization, perhaps in part due to its unique nature.Generally speaking, IT does not have a great track record in welcoming parties to the decision-making process and even resists efforts to increase transparency. Because IT displaces or eliminates other forms of resource consumption, trying to apply efficient IT principles can invite the threshold question of ‘Why?’ Some people think, “If I can avoid an airplane trip, ride in my car, overnight delivery or firing up a printing press, isn’t that enough?”+ Also on Network World: America’s data centers are getting a lot more efficient +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Dockercast episode with Mano Marks from Docker

In case you missed it, we launched Dockercast, the official Docker Podcast last month including all the DockerCon 2016 sessions available as podcast episodes.

In this podcast, we meet Mano Marks, Director of Developer Relations at Docker.  Mano catches us up on a lot of the new cool tImage result for mano markshings that are going on with Docker.  We get into the new Docker 1.12 engine/swarm built-in orchestration. We also talk about some cool stuff that is happening with Docker and Windows as well as Raspberry Pi and Docker.

You can find the latest #Dockercast episodes on the Itunes Store or via the SoundCloud RSS feed.

 

 


New #dockercast episode w/ host @botchagalupe & our very own @manomarks as a guest!
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Google will shore up one of its biggest cloud weaknesses next year

Google is making a major change to its cloud platform infrastructure that will help shore up one of the company's biggest weaknesses relative to competitors like Microsoft and Amazon.On Thursday, Urs Hölzle, the company's senior vice president of technical infrastructure, unveiled eight forthcoming regions around the world for the company's cloud services. The regions are all slated to launch in 2017 and will be comprised of multiple data centers for companies looking to run high-availability applications.Having a broad distribution of cloud infrastructure is important to Google's competitive chances. More and more countries are requiring that some types of data are stored in particular geographic locations. And even with high-speed networks, a large distance between where an application is hosted and where its users are located will lead to a slowdown.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

24% off Sphero 2.0, The App-Enabled Robotic Ball – Deal Alert

Sphero 2.0 is the app-enabled ball that does it all. Intelligent and well-rounded, Sphero lets you play, learn, and explore. Create obstacle courses, turn your living room into a video game with augmented reality apps, upgrade family game night with multiplayer fun, or learn to program with their free SPRK lessons. This virtually unstoppable companion is waterproof, pet-proof, and ready for any adventure. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 300 people (read reviews) and its list price of $130 is currently discounted 24% to $99. At sub-$100, maybe a fun option to kick off the inevitable holiday shopping you're trying not to think about.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft opens up its ‘million dollar’ bug-finder

Microsoft is previewing a cloud-based bug detector, dubbed Project Springfield, that it calls one of its most sophisticated tools for finding potential security vulnerabilities.Project Springfield uses "whitebox fuzzing," which uncovered one-third of the "million dollar" security bugs during the development of Windows 7. Microsoft has been using a component of the project called SAGE since the mid-2000s to test products prior to release, including fuzzing both Windows and Office applications. [ From Docker containers and Nano Server to software-defined storage and networking improvements, Windows Server 2016 is packed with great additions: Get the scoop on Windows Server 2016 from InfoWorld. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows Report newsletter. ] For this project, SAGE is bundled with other tools for fuzz testing, featuring a dashboard and other interfaces that enable use by people without an extensive security background. The tests are run using Microsoft's Azure cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft opens up its ‘million dollar’ bug-finder

Microsoft is previewing a cloud-based bug detector, dubbed Project Springfield, that it calls one of its most sophisticated tools for finding potential security vulnerabilities.Project Springfield uses "whitebox fuzzing," which uncovered one-third of the "million dollar" security bugs during the development of Windows 7. Microsoft has been using a component of the project called SAGE since the mid-2000s to test products prior to release, including fuzzing both Windows and Office applications. [ From Docker containers and Nano Server to software-defined storage and networking improvements, Windows Server 2016 is packed with great additions: Get the scoop on Windows Server 2016 from InfoWorld. | Stay up on key Microsoft technologies with the Windows Report newsletter. ] For this project, SAGE is bundled with other tools for fuzz testing, featuring a dashboard and other interfaces that enable use by people without an extensive security background. The tests are run using Microsoft's Azure cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

16% off ChargeTech 27,000mAh Portable Battery Pack with AC Outlet & USB Ports – Deal Alert

Take the power of an AC Outlet with you wherever you go. This battery pack from ChargeTech is the first battery pack not to be limited by USB ports. Compact enough to fit your purse, backpack, or briefcase, it can handle laptops, lights, projectors, and even medical devices up to 85 watts -- almost anything you can think of. The included international adapter allows ChargeTech to work in any country around the globe. Take it on your travels or let your friends from other countries use it while they visit. This product averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 300 people on Amazon (read reviews). Its typical list price has been reduced 16% to $189. See the discounted ChargeTech portable battery pack now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft adds SharePoint support to OneDrive

Quite a lot of news came out of the Microsoft Ignite 2016 conference, most of which we have already covered. But there's more, as Microsoft announced a big upgrade to its OneDrive cloud storage service.Microsoft wants to provide a single sync client for all of its cloud storage services, whether its OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint, and it has been for some time. To achieve this, it has added the ability to sync SharePoint Online document libraries with OneDrive folders,and added an "activity center" to the OneDrive sync client to allow you to view synchronization and file activity at a glance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloudflare Traffic Manager: The Details

Cloudflare's investment into building a large global network protects our customers from DDoS attacks, secures them with our Web Application Firewall and Universal SSL, as well as improving performance through our CDN and the many network-level optimizations we're constantly iterating on.

Building on these products, we just introduced Cloudflare Traffic. To explain the benefits, we'll dive into the nitty-gritty details of how the monitoring and load-balancing features of Traffic Manager can be configured, and how we use it within our own website to reduce visitor latency, and improve redundancy across continents. We'll do a similar post on Traffic Control soon.

We're also kicking off the Early Access program for Traffic Manager, with details at the end of this post.

The Details

One of our primary goals when building Traffic Manager was to make it available to everyone: from those with just two servers in a single region, to those with 400 scattered across the globe (and everything in between). We also wanted to solve some of the key limitations of existing products: slow failover times (measured in minutes), and a lack of granular decision making when failing over.

  • We can failover within seconds for proxied ("orange clouded") records. Connecting clients Continue reading

White House to data scientists: We need you

It's been nearly two years since President Obama created the U.S. chief data scientist role, and the man currently in the job had an urgent message Thursday for attendees at Strata+Hadoop World: We need you."We are at the first step in making data work for every American," said DJ Patil in a keynote speech at the show. "It's only going to make a difference when people like you step up and show that it's not just feasible but scalable."As chief data scientist in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Patil's mission is to "responsibly unleash the power of data to benefit all Americans," he said, with an emphasis on the word "responsibly" and the focus on inclusion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft puts AI front and center with research overhaul

Microsoft has announced the formation of its AI and Research Group, which it says will help the company democratize artificial intelligence use across individuals and organizations.The group unites Microsoft Research, which has been its own unit since 1991, with more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers working on the company’s artificial intelligence products. 20-year Microsoft veteran Harry Shum will lead the group as executive vice president, and the group is hiring.MORE: Microsoft research on why Micro Datacenters really matter to mobile's futureTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Passwords will be wirelessly transmitted through bodies

Low-frequency transmissions created by off-the-shelf biometric devices, such as fingerprint sensors, can be diverted through the body and can securely transmit password-like authentication.The off-the-shelf biometric sensors, such as touchpads, are “re-purposed to send out information,” says Shyam Gollakota, University of Washington assistant professor of computer science and engineering and senior author on the research paper, in a University of Washington article. The secret passphrases and such are confined to the human body, so they can’t be eavesdropped on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: the growing problem of bots that fight on line

“An increasing number of decisions, options, choices, and services depend now on bots working properly, efficaciously, and successfully,” say Taha Yasseri and pals at the University of Oxford in the U.K. “Yet, we know very little about the life and evolution of our digital minions.” This raises an interesting question. How do bots interact with each other? And how do these interactions differ from the way humans interact? —MIT Technology Review

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How social media is shaping the 2016 presidential election

When the leading candidates for America's next presidency traded barbs this week during the first presidential debate, political operatives and energized voters were hard at work sharing opinions (and insults) on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Much of today's political discourse starts on social media, and the medium often amplifies vitriol and slants information.The 2016 presidential election isn't the first event for which social media has been used as a political tool, but today it carries tremendous weight and influence over the electorate. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both use social to their advantages, but it's often the surrogates, supporters and influencers who shape perceptions, according to whatever views serve their preferred candidate's interests.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

White House to bolster STEM education, close skills gap

On paper, the Obama administration has taken many steps toward advancing education and training in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math -- a critical policy priority for many businesses that say they struggle to hire qualified workers.[ Related: Obama expands STEM education and training efforts ]But White House officials are quick to acknowledge that more work needs to be done, particularly in recruiting girls and minority students into computer science and other technical fields. They are hoping that a newly launched advanced placement course will help attract more interest in computer science by integrating the field with other disciplines and emphasizing real-world applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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