Lenovo wants consumers to take Google Tango for granted, so does Google

Gamers and R&D labs creating new applications for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been the source of enthusiasm for this new category. But most people have only a superficial opinion—or no opinion—about these exciting emergent technologies because they haven’t become relevant in their lives. The two early use cases, games and immersive 360-degree video, represent large future businesses that few people have experienced.Yesterday, Lenovo introduced the Phab2 Pro, which is both an AR device and has all the features of an Android smartphone. It’s a more approachable form of AR because the consumer looks through the Phab2 Pro like a looking glass and doesn’t feel awkward donning a strange-looking headset or visor. It feels normal—like taking a picture or video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Journey to the CCDE

On May the 17th I passed the CCDE practical in Madrid and became Swedens 2nd CCDE, CCDE #20160011. This post describes my journey to passing the CCDE practical in my 1st attempt and the materials that I used to do so. Lost in Transit

The post Worth Reading: Journey to the CCDE appeared first on 'net work.

3 ways to improve security as you embrace containers

3 ways to improve security as you embrace containers

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.In enterprise IT, disruptive technologies become commercially viable faster than you can say “Moore’s Law.”  However, if corporate culture and processes don’t evolve in conjunction with the pace of technology, it can inhibit the benefits of even the most awesome of enterprise apps. One area of IT where corporate culture has stymied progress is cyber security, but the rise of software containers — arguably one of the most disruptive enterprise technologies on the horizon - provides an opportunity to get application security right, or at least make it a whole lot better.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Packet Blast: Top Tech Blogs, June 10

Intralinks adds security layers for high value content collaboration using SharePoint and other systems  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.   Recently I was engaged by a large corporation for a writing project to support a product launch. This project had a small team of people who needed to collaborate on developing some promotional materials using content that had to remain confidential until launch day.The company was so protective of the content's secrecy that it provided me with a company-issued laptop computer, VPN access to their network, and a login ID for their network. In particular, I was given behind-the-firewall access to the SharePoint repository where the in-progress documents were kept. This way I was fully integrated into the internal team for the duration of the project, and the confidential documents would never have to leave the safety of the company's network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The IoT market is unlikely to create a gorilla

In his book The Gorilla Game, management consultant Geoffrey Moore identifies a tendency for some technology sectors to develop winner-take-all outcomes. The Internet of Things (IoT) market looks like a textbook example, as many industrial customers (original equipment manufacturers) are looking to consolidate around a single platform, a slice of enabling technology. It is surprising, therefore, that no IoT gorilla has yet emerged from the mist.+ More on Network World: Most powerful Internet of Things companies +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cracked spoofs wireless carriers’ ads

It's open season on wireless carriers' silly and confusing commercials.Sure, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile have been the butt of jokes for some time now, and justifiably so, for the flimflam they spew about their amazing speeds and bargain pricing. SNL, for example, skewered Verizon a few years back in a skit that depicted all the jargon spewed by Verizon as "an old person's nightmare."Comedy Central's Amy Schumer more recently sent up those mobile phone ads that feature perky young women interacting with customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cracked spoofs wireless carriers’ ads

It's open season on wireless carriers' silly and confusing commercials.Sure, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile have been the butt of jokes for some time now, and justifiably so, for the flimflam they spew about their amazing speeds and bargain pricing. SNL, for example, skewered Verizon a few years back in a skit that depicted all the jargon spewed by Verizon as "an old person's nightmare."Comedy Central's Amy Schumer more recently sent up those mobile phone ads that feature perky young women interacting with customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tools: Conn-check

conn-check – A deployment utility to check connectivity between services conn-check is a small utility, written in Python using the Twisted network library, that verifies outgoing connections from your application servers to services it depends on, e.g. databases, caches, web service APIs, etc.conn-check is used not only to verify network dependency changes at deploy time, […]

The post Tools: Conn-check appeared first on EtherealMind.

Optimizing TLS over TCP to reduce latency

The layered nature of the Internet (HTTP on top of some reliable transport (e.g. TCP), TCP on top of some datagram layer (e.g. IP), IP on top of some link (e.g. Ethernet)) has been very important in its development. Different link layers have come and gone over time (any readers still using 802.5?) and this flexibility also means that a connection from your web browser might traverse your home network over WiFi, then down a DSL line, across fiber and finally be delivered over Ethernet to the web server. Each layer is blissfully unaware of the implementation of the layer below it.

But there are some disadvantages to this model. In the case of TLS (the most common standard used for sending encrypted data across in the Internet and the protocol your browser uses with visiting an https:// web site) the layering of TLS on top of TCP can cause delays to the delivery of a web page.

That’s because TLS divides the data being transmitted into records of a fixed (maximum) size and then hands those records to TCP for transmission. TCP promptly divides those records up into segments which are then transmitted. Ultimately, Continue reading

Establishing a confidential Service Boundary with Avaya’s SDN Fx

Security is a global requirement. It is also global in the fashion in which it needs to be addressed. But the truth is, regardless of the vertical, the basic components of a security infrastructure do not change. There are firewalls, intrusion detection systems, encryption, networking policies and session border controllers for real time communications. These components also plug together in rather standard fashions or service chains that look largely the same regardless of the vertical or vendor in question. Yes, there are some differences but by and large these modifications are minor.

So the questions begs, why is security so difficult? As it turns out, it is not really the complexities of the technology components themselves, although they certainly have that. It turns out that the real challenge is deciding exactly what to protect and here each vertical will be drastically different. Fortunately, the methods for identifying confidential data or critical control systems are also rather consistent even though the data and applications being protected may vary greatly.

In order for micro-segmentation as a security strategy to succeed, you have to know where the data you need to protect resides. You also need to know how it flows through Continue reading

Gain Deep Insight Into Your NSX Network While Simplifying Management and Operations

We’re excited to announce that VMware NSX, version 6.2.3, is now available for all customers with active support. As we evolve the NSX platform, we continue to place a high degree of emphasis on helping customers operationalize NSX, speed-up deployment, and integrate with more systems from our NSX ecosystem partners. This latest release introduces enhanced network monitoring and troubleshooting tools with expanded hardware partner integration.

Some of the top highlights include:

Native Visibility and Reporting

Resolve problems faster, visualize event trends, trigger alerts, and more, all in real-time with VMware vRealize Log Insight for NSX, now included with NSX Standard, Advanced and Enterprise licenses. This new capability introduces:

• Centralized big data log management built for NSX
• Monitoring and dashboards for network virtualization and security

To learn more about vRealize Log Insight for NSX refer to the FAQ or visit the Log Insight product page here.

Improvements to NSX Management and Operations

Reduce Mean Time to Recovery with improved troubleshooting and operational capabilities.  Key enhancements include:

• Dashboards for health status of components and built-in monitoring of all critical systems communication channels
• Simplified filtering of firewall rules
• Enhancements to central CLI
• New partner services to enable packet capture and Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Ecommerce needs to up its game, says UPS

Retailers have to invest in digital tools such as inventory transparency if they want to retain customers, says shipper UPS in its new report on online shopping.If they don’t, fickle “shoppers will likely go elsewhere to more efficiently meet their needs,” the company says.UPS found that most online shoppers (58 percent) want to see a retailer’s inventory online while they are shopping, and 20 percent will check inventory status at alternate locations or on a retailer’s website when in the store.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DevOps: The Real Impact On IT Pros

Leaving Fixed Function Switches Behind For Universal Leafs

There are two competing trends in platform designs that architects always have to contend with. They can build a platform that performs a specific function and does it well, or create a more generic platform that sacrifices some efficiency but does a lot of jobs well. Sometimes you try to shoot the gap between these two poles.

That is precisely what Arista Networks, the networking upstart that has serial entrepreneur Andy Bechtolsheim as its chief development officer, is doing with a new line of what it is calling “universal leaf” switches. The leaf switches (does one say “leafs” or “leaves” …

Leaving Fixed Function Switches Behind For Universal Leafs was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

XML is toast, long live JSON

If you haven't heard much about XML lately, you're not the only one. XML has been rapidly falling out of favor with developers and has been replaced with a more flexible and faster format.XML, the Extensible Markup Language, rose from the SGML format in the 1990s. It reached the 1.0 spec in 1997 and grew from there. The primary appeal of XML is that it was ideal for transferring data between other formats. It required far fewer filters for data conversion to share data between different applications that might have their own proprietary format. That's one reason why with Office 2007, Microsoft shifted its Word and Excel file formats to XML-based format. Conversion to other formats was made much easier thanks to XML.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The PC Hardware Nerd Quiz

Separating the true nerds from the wannabesYou can tell from five feet away if a screw is used to install a power supply or an optical drive. You can recite how much cache was in a Northwood Pentium 4. If you’re that kind of nerd, you won't have any problem with our PC Nerd Quiz. Or will you? We’ve assembled a mix of challenging questions designed to separate the true nerds from the wannabes. Let's see how you do. Ready? First question... To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your Internet Really Is Down

SDN as an Abstraction Layer

During the Introduction to SDN webinar I covered numerous potential definitions:

• It’s the separation of control and data plane;
• It’s software-based packet forwarding;
• It’s open networking and whitebox switching;
• It’s network programmability and device APIs.

I find all of these definitions too narrow or even misleading. However, the “SDN is a layer of abstraction” one is not too bad (see also RFC 1925 section 2.6a).