IDG Contributor Network: The Emergency Alert System: Failure IS an option

Even a failed result can be a successful test If you live in the United States, it's likely that you've fallen asleep with the television on only to be woken in the middle of the night by shrill tones blaring from your television set, followed by a deep baritone voice letting you know that there is no active nuclear attack or alert and what you experienced was only a test. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) was designed as a tiered distribution mechanism, very much like a pyramid, with the President of the United States positioned at the pinnacle. As you move down the tiers of the pyramid, you become more regionalized and localized in the coverage area that is served. Using this logic, any participating station in the chain can initiate an emergency alert message, and by default, the information will trickle down to the lower tiers as stations monitor the tier above them. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iOS 10 slower off the uptake mark

iPhone and iPad owners adopted Apple's iOS 10 at a slower tempo during its first dozen days than they did last year's upgrade, according to data from an analytics vendor.At the 12-day mark, iOS 10 accounted for 41.9% of all iOS editions detected by Mixpanel, whose metrics platform is widely used by mobile app developers to track usage and user engagement.That was significantly lower than the 52.4% accumulated by iOS 9 last year at the same post-release point, but slightly higher than iOS 8's 40.6% in September 2014.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD 25 iOS 10 features that will change your life +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why you should embrace SaaS ID management

Adopting single sign-on software to federate access to corporate applications is a key task priority for many CIOs seeking to make employees more efficient without sacrificing security.Experian has consolidated identity management with a single cloud application, laying the foundation for a hybrid cloud computing model that supports its credit scoring software. The company has standardized on software from startup Okta, which has quickly become a favorite among CIOs seeking to gain efficiencies in anything from adopting cloud and mobile services to onboarding employees. Experian CIO Barry Libenson.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

These new features in Office 365 can help users work smarter

Microsoft is going big on features powered by machine learning in its productivity services, with the announcement of a handful of updates to Office 365 on Monday.As part of its Ignite conference in Atlanta, Georgia, the company unveiled a set of new capabilities for Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel and Sway. Microsoft faces tight competition in the productivity space, and these services may help the company compete with Google for market share among businesses. Microsoft Microsoft Word's Tap feature makes it easier for users to bring information from other Office files into a document. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker Announces Commercial Partnership with Microsoft to Double Container Market by Extending Docker Engine to Windows Server

With industry analysts declaring Windows Server with more than 60% of the x86 server market, and citing Microsoft Azure as the fastest-growing public cloud, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft, even at its current scale, is further extending its leadership as a strategic, trusted partner to enterprise IT.

It is this industry leadership that catalyzed our technical collaboration in the Docker open source project back in October 2014, to jointly bring the agility, portability, and security benefits of the Docker platform to Windows Server.  After two years of joint engineering, we are excited to unveil a new, commercial partnership to extend these benefits for both Windows developers targeting Windows Server and enterprise IT professionals.

Specifically, the commercial partnership entails:

  • The Commercially Supported Docker Engine aka “CS Docker Engine”, Docker, Inc.’s tested, validated, and supported package of Docker Engine, will be available to Windows Server 2016 customers at no additional cost
  • Microsoft will provide Windows Server 2016 customers enterprise support for CS Docker Engine, backed by Docker, Inc
  • Docker and Microsoft will jointly promote Docker Datacenter to enable IT Pros to secure the Windows Server software supply chain and manage containerized Windows Server workloads, whether on-prem, in the Continue reading

Verizon’s shift into digital media is much bigger than Yahoo’s data breach

Yahoo will recover from the latest news about its email data breach that happened in 2014. Looming much larger than the breach is the post-merger challenge Yahoo faces as part of Verizon. It is what Richard Windsor of Radio Free Mobile calls the irrelevant challenge. Can Yahoo’s assets pose a relevant challenge to Google, Facebook and other digital media companies after the merger?+ Also on Network World: A requiem for Yahoo +In the mobile-first world, Yahoo repeatedly missed the opportunity to convert its fixed internet users to mobile. Windsor suspects that most of Yahoo’s 600 million mobile monthly active users (MAU) are Yahoo email users. Though this sized audience is not insignificant, Yahoo does not have relevant mobile engagement with multiple mobile apps. How can post-merger Verizon, Yahoo and AOL turn its billions of MAU mobile users into an ecosystem that prints money like Google with search, Gmail, Maps and Youtube and like Facebook with Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Rare Tour Of Microsoft’s Hyperscale Datacenters

If you want to study how datacenter design has changed over the past two decades, a good place to visit is Quincy, Washington. There are five different datacenter operators in this small farming community of around 7,000 people, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Intuit, Sabey Data Centers, and Vantage Data Centers, and they have located there thanks to the proximity of Quincy to hydroelectric power generated from the Columbia River and the relatively cool and arid climate, which can be used to great advantage to keep servers, storage, and switches cool.

All of the datacenter operators are pretty secretive about their glass …

A Rare Tour Of Microsoft’s Hyperscale Datacenters was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Here’s how Microsoft is using containerization to protect Edge users

One of the biggest security risks for computer users is their web browser. According to Microsoft, 90 percent of phishing emails use the browser to initiate attacks, which can then be used to help attackers establish a beachhead inside a company. Microsoft is aiming to better protect users and organizations from the threats that they face with a new feature called Windows Defender Application Guard. It's designed to isolate Microsoft Edge from the rest of the files and processes running on a user's computer and prevent computer exploits from taking hold. This is a move that could drive greater adoption of Microsoft's browser in the enterprise, at a time when the company is fiercely competing with Google in that space. Security of company assets is a big problem for enterprises, and Microsoft is offering them another way to help protect their users without requiring those users to be security experts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Here’s how Microsoft is using containerization to protect Edge users

One of the biggest security risks for computer users is their web browser. According to Microsoft, 90 percent of phishing emails use the browser to initiate attacks, which can then be used to help attackers establish a beachhead inside a company. Microsoft is aiming to better protect users and organizations from the threats that they face with a new feature called Windows Defender Application Guard. It's designed to isolate Microsoft Edge from the rest of the files and processes running on a user's computer and prevent computer exploits from taking hold. This is a move that could drive greater adoption of Microsoft's browser in the enterprise, at a time when the company is fiercely competing with Google in that space. Security of company assets is a big problem for enterprises, and Microsoft is offering them another way to help protect their users without requiring those users to be security experts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amsterdam to Zhuzhou: Cloudflare network expands to 100 cities

Amsterdam to Zhuzhou: Cloudflare network expands to 100 cities

We’re excited to kick off Cloudflare’s sixth birthday celebrations by announcing data center locations in 14 new cities across 5 continents. This expansion makes our global network one of the largest in the world, spanning 100 unique cities across 49 countries. Every new Cloudflare data center improves the performance, security and reliability of millions of websites, as we expand our surface area to fight growing attacks and serve web requests even closer to the Internet user.

Each birthday has given us the opportunity to thank our customers with new announcements, from our automatic IPv6 Gateway to making SSL free and easy for all to unveiling our China network. Launching 14 new data center locations is one of many gifts to our users we’ll reveal this week.

Amsterdam to Zhuzhou: Cloudflare network expands to 100 cities

Cloudflare global network (orange: new data center, purple: existing data center)

Africa

Six years ago, within weeks of Cloudflare launching, we passed a major milestone: serving one billion web requests across our network every month. Since then, our traffic has grown 10,000x, and we now see over a billion web requests every month just from the country of Angola — located on the western coast of southern Africa and three times the geographic size Continue reading

Introducing Docker for Windows Server 2016

Today, Microsoft is announcing general availability of Windows Server 2016 at the Ignite conference in Atlanta. For Windows developers and IT-pros, the most exciting new Windows feature is containers, and containers on Windows Server 2016 are powered by Docker.

The first version of Docker was released in 2013, and in the 3 years since launch, Docker has completely transformed how Linux developers and ops build, ship and run apps. With Docker Engine and containers now available natively on Windows, developers and IT-pros can begin the same transformation for Windows-based apps and infrastructure and start reaping the same benefits: better security, more agility, and improved portability and freedom to move on-prem apps to the cloud.

For developers and IT-pros that build and maintain heterogenous deployments with both Linux and Windows infrastructure, Docker on Windows holds even greater significance: The Docker platform now represents a single set of tools, APIs and image formats for managing both Linux and Windows apps. As Linux and Windows apps and servers are dockerized, developers and IT-pros can bridge the operating system divide with shared Docker terminology and interfaces for managing and evolving complex microservices deployments both on-prem and in the cloud.

Running Containers on Windows Server

Continue reading

What’s in your code? Why you need a software bill of materials

Writing secure applications doesn't mean simply checking the code you've written to make sure there are no logic errors or coding mistakes. Attackers are increasingly targeting vulnerabilities in third-party libraries as part of their attacks, so you have to check the safety of all the dependencies and components, too.In manufacturing, companies create a bill of materials, listing in detail all the items included when building a product so that buyers know exactly what they're buying. Processed food packaging, for example, typically tells you what's inside so that you can make an informed buying decision.[ Also on InfoWorld: 19 open source GitHub projects for security pros. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security newsletter. ] When it comes to software, untangling the code to know what libraries are in use and which dependencies exist is hard. It's a challenge most IT teams don't have the time or resources to unravel.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The best new features in Windows Server 2016

As we’ve come to expect from new versions of Windows Server, Windows Server 2016 arrives packed with a huge array of new features. Many of the new capabilities, such as containers and Nano Server, stem from Microsoft’s focus on the cloud. Others, such as Shielded VMs, illustrate a strong emphasis on security. Still others, like the many added networking and storage capabilities, continue an emphasis on software-defined infrastructure begun in Windows Server 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The best new features in Windows Server 2016

As we’ve come to expect from new versions of Windows Server, Windows Server 2016 arrives packed with a huge array of new features. Many of the new capabilities, such as containers and Nano Server, stem from Microsoft’s focus on the cloud. Others, such as Shielded VMs, illustrate a strong emphasis on security. Still others, like the many added networking and storage capabilities, continue an emphasis on software-defined infrastructure begun in Windows Server 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

7 hidden features in macOS Sierra you may have missed

There’s a lot going on in macOS SierraSiri, Universal Clipboard, Auto Unlock with Apple Watch—these are just three of the features that Apple showcases for macOS Sierra, the latest version of the company’s Macintosh operating system that made its debut last Tuesday. We go over the marquee features in our review, but there are a few features that go unheralded. We’ll shine a little bit of the spotlight on them in this slideshow. These are less glamourous, but they make your Mac a lot easier to use.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The best online backup service for securely encrypting your data

Many people resist backing up their data to an online backup service like MozyHome, Carbonite, or Backblaze because they worry their data will be poked through by company employees, hijacked by criminals, or provided to law enforcement or government agents without due process. The sanctity of your data boils down to whether the encryption key used to scramble your data can be recovered by anyone other than yourself. Below I outline the various methods and levels of encryption that can be employed by these services, and then evaluate six of the best options for home users. Several give subscribers full control of their encryption. If you’re already using a service, it’s possible you can even upgrade to take advantage of greater ownership options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hillary Clinton’s email has vanished but why can’t yours?

The warnings about the longevity of email are regular and ominous: Don’t be careless with it. Email is forever.Indeed, in some very high-profile cases it seems that way. Former CIA director and retired US Army General David Petraeus lost his job and his reputation, and "gained" a criminal record in 2012, when emails from an account he thought was private exposed his mishandling of classified information and an affair with his biographer.Much more recently – just in the past couple of weeks – a trove of embarrassing correspondence from the email account of former secretary of state Colin Powell was posted on the website DCLeaks.com. In the words of an anonymous television anchor, they upended the perception of Powell, also a retired four-star US Army general, as a stoic diplomat and revealed him to be, “just as gossipy as everyone else.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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