IDG Contributor Network: Platform9 is the latest to ease the container deployment woes

The Docker initiative has been an amazing thing to watch.Over only a few short years, Docker has taken a pre-existing technology (the concept of Linux containers) and built a massive ecosystem around it. In the process, Docker (the company, as distinct from the open source project) has built itself an incredible valuation that it needs to try and live up to.+ Also on Network World: How Docker can transform your development teams +But that valuation, and attempt to justify it, are somewhat countered by the fact that Docker also relies on an ecosystem of vendors that all try to justify their existence. Thus the challenge remains: what should Docker (the company) do for itself, and what should it leave for third-party vendors to resolve?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SDNSkills Plan Moving Forward

Hi to those of you subscribing and following. For those of you who have been watching of late, this is a brief note to let you know what’s going on, and what my plan is for ramping back up with writing posts here in this blogspace. Short version: I expect to be back to normal by August sometime, and I may post a few items here and there in the mean time.

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Riding the new Wi-Fi wave (part 1)

Wireless mesh networking has been around for many years with business-level products and services, but it’s been pretty scarce in the home network space. The most famous user of a wireless mesh network (in which Wi-Fi clients talk to access nodes that can talk to other nodes, instead of a single router) is the wireless audio provider Sonos. But for the most part, improvements in Wi-Fi meant you still bought a singular router that you’d connect to a modem (or you have a combination modem/router given to you by your broadband provider). If you wanted to extend your network or improve coverage in parts of your house, you would need to buy a repeater/extender, which created an extra “hop” for network traffic (not optimal for services/apps that have a need for speed).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Fictiv aims to reinvent prototyping

I have a particular interest in the manufacturing of physical goods. For close to 25 years, I have been involved with a boutique, New Zealand-based manufacturer of backpacks and workwear. Cactus Equipment has been designing and making its own products for years.As opposed to the regular model of spec'ing a product from Far Eastern design and manufacturing houses, Cactus designs in house and then manufacturers in its own New Zealand factory, as well as a number of outsourced but still New Zealand-based facilities. So, the realities of trying to get a product designed and prototyped is something I'm well aware of. The design and sourcing combined with the difficulty in accessing resources makes product engineering a difficult task.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Mobile broadband satellite breakthrough: Vehicles stay connected while on the move

Despite a slew of new broadband satellite projects up and running and in the pipeline, there’s a still a drawback to mobile satellite Internet compared to traditional wireless mobile networks. One big problem with satellite has always been that it’s hard to stay locked onto the transmission beam when you’re moving.Airlines get away with it for their cabins because the aircraft moves in a relatively stable manner, making it easier to point the antenna and grab the signal. But automobiles don’t move like that, explains the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Where Is the Explosion of Overlay Virtual Networks

Three years ago I was speaking with one of the attendees of my overlay virtual networking workshop @ Interop Las Vegas and he asked me how soon I thought the overlay virtual networking technologies would be accepted in the enterprise networks.

My response: “you might be surprised at the speed of the uptake.” Turns out, I was wrong (again). Today I’m surprised at the lack of that speed.

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Tech pros share advice for new computer science graduates

Computer science graduates are in demand. Last year, 76% of computer science graduates were working full time within six months of finishing school -- the highest full-time employment rate among new college graduates and well above the 58% average across all majors, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).But as veterans in the tech world know, earning a degree is just the beginning of a new professional’s education. To help this year’s newcomers navigate the transition from academic life to the professional world, we asked tech pros to share their best advice for computer science graduates entering the workforce. Here’s what they had to say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech pros share advice for new computer science graduates

Computer science graduates are in demand. Last year, 76% of computer science graduates were working full time within six months of finishing school -- the highest full-time employment rate among new college graduates and well above the 58% average across all majors, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).But as veterans in the tech world know, earning a degree is just the beginning of a new professional’s education. To help this year’s newcomers navigate the transition from academic life to the professional world, we asked tech pros to share their best advice for computer science graduates entering the workforce. Here’s what they had to say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New products of the week 6.20.16

New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.BetterCloud WorkflowsKey features: BetterCloud Workflows automate user provisioning, deprovisioning and access management within Google for Work applications, giving IT greater control over data, costs and time in the modern, cloud-first workplace. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New products of the week 6.20.16

New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.BetterCloud WorkflowsKey features: BetterCloud Workflows automate user provisioning, deprovisioning and access management within Google for Work applications, giving IT greater control over data, costs and time in the modern, cloud-first workplace. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

China Topples United States As Top Supercomputer User

For the first time since the Top 500 rankings of the most powerful supercomputers in the world was started 23 years ago, the United States is not home to the largest number of machines on the list – and China, after decades of intense investment and engineering, is.

Supercomputing is not just an academic or government endeavor, but it is an intensely nationalistic one given the enormous sums that are required to create the components of these massive machines, write software for them, and keep them running until some new approach comes along. And given that the machines support the …

China Topples United States As Top Supercomputer User was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

A Look Inside China’s Chart-Topping New Supercomputer

Much to the surprise of the supercomputing community, which is gathered in Germany for the International Supercomputing Conference this morning, news arrived that a new system has dramatically topped the Top 500 list of the world’s fastest and largest machines. And like the last one that took this group by surprise a few years ago, the new system is also in China.

Recall that the reigning supercomputer in China, the Tianhe-2 machine, has stood firmly at the top of that list for three years, outpacing the U.S. “Titan” system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We have a more detailed analysis …

A Look Inside China’s Chart-Topping New Supercomputer was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

Nvidia Rounds Out Pascal Tesla Accelerator Lineup

Nvidia wants for its latest “Pascal” GP100 generation of GPUs to be broadly adopted in the market, not just used in capability-class supercomputers that push the limits of performance for traditional HPC workloads as well as for emerging machine learning systems. And to accomplish this, Nvidia needs to put Pascal GPUs into a number of distinct devices that fit into different system form factors and offer various capabilities at multiple price points.

At the International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, Nvidia is therefore taking the wraps off two new Tesla accelerators based on the Pascal GPUs that plug into systems …

Nvidia Rounds Out Pascal Tesla Accelerator Lineup was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

What Will GPU Accelerated AI Lend to Traditional Supercomputing?

This week at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC ’16) we are expecting a wave of vendors and high performance computing pros to blur the borders between traditional supercomputing and what is around the corner on the application front—artificial intelligence and machine learning.

For some, merging those two areas is a stretch, but for others, particularly GPU maker, Nvidia, which just extended its supercomputing/deep learning roadmap this morning, the story is far more direct since much of the recent deep learning work has hinged on GPUs for training of neural networks and machine learning algorithms.

We have written extensively over …

What Will GPU Accelerated AI Lend to Traditional Supercomputing? was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

DockerCon 2016 Day 2 Keynote

This is a liveblog for the day 2 keynote of DockerCon 2016, which wraps up today in Seattle, WA. While today’s pre-keynote warm-up doesn’t include laser-equipped kittens, the music is much more upbeat and energetic (as opposed to yesterday’s more somber, dramatic music). If the number of laptops on the podium is any indicator (yesterday it was a cue to the number of demos planned), then today’s keynote will include a few demos as well.

Ben Golub kicks off the day 2 keynote—with the requisite coffee shot that is a sacrifice to the “demo gods”—and offers up some thanks to the supporters of last night’s party at the Space Needle. Golub quick reviews the key announcements and demos from the day 1 keynote (see my liveblog here). Today, though, will be focused on democratizing Docker in the enterprise. In referring to Docker’s adoption in the enterprise, Golub shares some numbers that vary widely, and admits that it’s really difficult to know what the real adoption rate is. He points to multiple “critical transformations” occurring within the enterprise: application modernization, cloud adoption, and DevOps (process/procedure/culture changes).

This leads Golub into a discussion of anti-patterns, or fallacies. The first fallacy he Continue reading

DockerCon 2016 Day 1 Keynote

This is a liveblog for the day 1 keynote of DockerCon 2016, taking place over the next couple of days in Seattle, WA. Before the keynote starts in earnest, Gordon the Turtle entertains attendees with some “special” Docker containers that affect the display on the main stage: showing butterflies, playing sounds, launching a Docker-customized version of Pac-Man, or initiating a full-out battle of laser-shooting kittens.

The keynote starts with Ben Golub taking the stage to kick things off. Golub begins his portion with a quick “look back” at milestones from previous Docker events and the history of Docker (the open source project). Golub calls out a few particular sessions—protein folding, data analysis in sports, and extending a video game—and then unveils that these sessions are being presented by kids under the age of 13.

This leads Golub into a review of the efforts of Docker (the company) to democratize containers:

  • Increasing usability
  • Enhancing portability
  • Extending community

Golub gives a “shout out” to the technologies underpinning modern Linux containers (namespaces, cgroups, etc., and their predecessors) and calls out the 2,900+ contributors to the open source Docker project. He then spends the next several minutes talking about various metrics—pull requests, containers Continue reading

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