Global IT challenges: Privacy, standardization, transformation top the list

It's one of an IT leader's biggest nightmares: Imagine you've got a division in Russia, which has very strict privacy laws regarding employees' rights to control their information, and there are 12 employees who refuse to allow their information to leave company walls.Whether it's introducing new UPS products or services such as My Choice to the marketplace, or implementing large-scale integrated capabilities like World Wide Express Saver Freight -- which rely on multiple systems -- "we choreograph the deployments across our teams and systems. We would first beta-test the releases in the individual markets such as the U.S., Europe and Asia, prior to executing the global deployment, testing all facets of the solution including the installation and functionality," Costides says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

IT managers critique enterprise flash-storage products

The market for enterprise flash array storage is highly competitive, with traditional storage vendors battling against innovative startups. Tech buyers are typically looking at factors such as ease of use, improved data management, performance, deduplication algorithms, a small footprint and low power usage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

IT managers critique enterprise flash-storage products

The market for enterprise flash array storage is highly competitive, with traditional storage vendors battling against innovative startups. Tech buyers are typically looking at factors such as ease of use, improved data management, performance, deduplication algorithms, a small footprint and low power usage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

White House software code sharing policy gains steam

The White House has released its Federal Source Code policy that promotes reuse of new source code developed by government agencies across the federal government.The new policy also sets up a pilot program “that requires agencies, when commissioning new custom software, to release at least 20 percent of new custom-developed code as Open Source Software (OSS) for three years,” Tony Scott, U.S. CIO and Anne E. Rung, chief acquisition officer, wrote in a memorandum to heads of departments and agencies on Monday.The federal government spends every year over US$6 billion on software through more than 42,000 transactions, but agencies that procure custom-developed source code do not necessarily make their new code broadly available for reuse by the federal government.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

George Washington didn’t tweet here, but you may get 5G

Some people frown on Pokémon Go hunts in historic areas, but a new FCC ruling could make it even more tempting to risk a glare and a wagging finger.On Monday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced a deal to made it easier for mobile operators and building owners to install cellular gear on many old buildings, including some in historic districts. Just because those structures may evoke the past doesn’t mean they can’t have the screaming 5G wireless speeds of the future.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CS101: Algorithms

First in this series is the subject of Algorithms. This topic is very interesting to me because when I first strived to understand what exactly they were, I was expecting something a lot more complicated than what they turned out to be. I think, shamefully, that Hollywood may have had an influence on this, as the term “algorithm” is one of many terms abused by “cyber” movies and the like, portrayed to be some sort of ultimate cyber weapon in the war against Ellingson Mineral Company.

The reality is much simpler. “Algorithm” is defined as “a set of steps that are followed in order to solve a mathematical problem or to complete a computer process”. It really is that simple. Think of a mathematical problem that you’d need to solve yourself (ignoring for the moment that there’s likely a 3rd party library that has already done this).

A common example is the calculation of the Fibonacci sequence. Forget about writing code for a minute, and think about the problem in plain English. Given a starting sequence (1, 1), how do you continue calculating and adding numbers to this sequence, to produce N number of Fibonacci numbers?

New Series: CS 101

Historically, my background is far closer to the systems side of things, but as I’ve picked up software development experience over the past few years, I’ve come to appreciate the fundamentals of computer science that others in my shoes may not have been exposed to. That said, I have been working on a pseudo-formal blog series on computer science fundamentals. These fundamentals have a wide variety of applications. Those with more of an IT-focused background will learn that even if you don’t use graph theory, or optimize algorithms in your day job, many of these concepts are at the crux of many of the technologies that we use every day.

CS101: Algorithms

First in this series is the subject of Algorithms. This topic is very interesting to me because when I first strived to understand what exactly they were, I was expecting something a lot more complicated than what they turned out to be. I think, shamefully, that Hollywood may have had an influence on this, as the term “algorithm” is one of many terms abused by “cyber” movies and the like, portrayed to be some sort of ultimate cyber weapon in the war against Ellingson Mineral Company.

New Series: CS 101

Historically, my background is far closer to the systems side of things, but as I’ve picked up software development experience over the past few years, I’ve come to appreciate the fundamentals of computer science that others in my shoes may not have been exposed to. That said, I have been working on a pseudo-formal blog series on computer science fundamentals. These fundamentals have a wide variety of applications. Those with more of an IT-focused background will learn that even if you don’t use graph theory, or optimize algorithms in your day job, many of these concepts are at the crux of many of the technologies that we use every day.

CS101: Algorithms

First in this series is the subject of Algorithms. This topic is very interesting to me because when I first strived to understand what exactly they were, I was expecting something a lot more complicated than what they turned out to be. I think, shamefully, that Hollywood may have had an influence on this, as the term “algorithm” is one of many terms abused by “cyber” movies and the like, portrayed to be some sort of ultimate cyber weapon in the war against Ellingson Mineral Company.

New Series: CS 101

Historically, my background is far closer to the systems side of things, but as I’ve picked up software development experience over the past few years, I’ve come to appreciate the fundamentals of computer science that others in my shoes may not have been exposed to. That said, I have been working on a pseudo-formal blog series on computer science fundamentals.

These fundamentals have a wide variety of applications. Those with more of an IT-focused background will learn that even if you don’t use graph theory, or optimize algorithms in your day job, many of these concepts are at the crux of many of the technologies that we use every day. If, like me, you’ve become bored with the endless cycle of IT certifications, learning these concepts could be a great addition to your skill set, as you can leverage these concepts to extrapolate details from some of the “closed” products we use from IT vendors.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the most important part of any of this is how this knowledge is applied. As you read the posts that I’ll release in the next few weeks, remember that understanding how to optimize a piece of code is useful, Continue reading

Open vSwitch Now a Linux Foundation Project

News emerged today that Open vSwitch (OVS) has formally moved over to the Linux Foundation. This is something that has been discussed within the OVS community for a while, and I for one am glad to see it happen.

Why am I glad to see it happen? The project can finally shed itself of the (unfair) claims that the governance under Nicira (and later VMware) wasn’t “open enough.” These accusations persisted despite numerous indications otherwise. Thomas Graf, an OVS committer—who does not work for VMware, for the record—came to this conclusion in his OVSCon 2015 presentation:

OVS is one of the most effective and well governed open source projects I’ve worked on.

Moving to the Linux Foundation allows OVS to continue to grow and flourish without continued accusations of unfair governance. The project intends to continue to use its existing governance model, in which technical leadership of the project is determined by the committers, and committer status is determined by your involvement in the project via code contributions and code reviews.

For more information, refer to the official Linux Foundation press release.

Deep Learning Chip Upstart Takes GPUs to Task

Bringing a new chip to market is no simple or cheap task, but as a new wave of specialized processors for targeted workloads brings fresh startup tales to bear, we are reminded again how risky such a business can be.

Of course, with high risk comes potential for great reward, that is, if a company is producing a chip that far outpaces general purpose processors for workloads that are high enough in number to validate the cost of design and production. The stand-by figure there is usually stated at around $50 million, but that is assuming a chip requires validation, …

Deep Learning Chip Upstart Takes GPUs to Task was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

NSF investing $12M in quantum systems to secure networks

While some are focused on threats to IT security posed by coming quantum computers, the National Science Foundation is putting $12 million into developing quantum technologies designed to protect data traversing fiber-optic networks. The NSF will support six interdisciplinary teams consisting of 26 researchers at 15 institutions to perform fundamental research under the Advancing Communication Quantum Information Research in Engineering (ACQUIRE) area within the NSF Directorate for Engineering's Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NSF investing $12M in quantum systems to secure networks

While some are focused on threats to IT security posed by coming quantum computers, the National Science Foundation is putting $12 million into developing quantum technologies designed to protect data traversing fiber-optic networks. The NSF will support six interdisciplinary teams consisting of 26 researchers at 15 institutions to perform fundamental research under the Advancing Communication Quantum Information Research in Engineering (ACQUIRE) area within the NSF Directorate for Engineering's Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT’S ALIVE! DARPA looks to build programmable, self-healing, living building materials

Perhaps one day we’ll see bridges that repair themselves or houses that could restore walls after a fire.Sounds a bit like science fiction yes but a new program announced by the masters of making science fiction fact, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, this week announced a program that would combine the structural properties of traditional building ingredients with attributes of living systems to offer a class of living material that could be grown where needed, self-repair when damaged and respond to changes in their surroundings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT’S ALIVE! DARPA looks to build programmable, self-healing, living building materials

Perhaps one day we’ll see bridges that repair themselves or houses that could restore walls after a fire.Sounds a bit like science fiction yes but a new program announced by the masters of making science fiction fact, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, this week announced a program that would combine the structural properties of traditional building ingredients with attributes of living systems to offer a class of living material that could be grown where needed, self-repair when damaged and respond to changes in their surroundings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Black Hat and DEF CON: The song remains the same

Yes, history repeats itself. I’m looking at the July 20-27, 2009, issue of Network World.The front page headlines are:- Black Hat to expose attacks- Microsoft’s embrace of Linux seen as strategic- Data Loss Prevention Clear Choice Test- Burning Questions:1) Are mobile Web apps ever going to grow up?2) How much longer are you going to hang onto that Ethernet cable?3) Do you have any idea how much money you’re wasting on international wireless services?I saw Network World's Tim Greene, author of the 2009 Black Hat article, sitting in the working press area, seven years later, typing furiously.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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