Technology Short Take #68

Welcome to Technology Short Take #68, my erratically-published collection of links, articles, and posts from around the web—all focused on today’s major data center technologies. I’ve been trying to stick to a schedule that has these posts published on a Friday, but given the pending holiday weekend I wanted to get this out a bit early. As always, I hope that something I’ve included here proves useful to you.

Networking

Box Shuttle makes it easier to ditch on-prem file storage

Businesses that want to get their files out of on-premises data centers and into the cloud now have a new option from Box. On Wednesday, the company launched Box Shuttle, which includes tools and consulting services to help businesses move potentially terabytes of data from legacy applications into the Box cloud.Box will work with customers to develop a migration plan for getting their data out of private data centers into its cloud service. It will help figure out what content customers should keep, archive and delete.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Configuring OpenSwitch

The following configuration enables sFlow monitoring of all interfaces on a white box switch running the OpenSwitch operating system, sampling packets at 1-in-4096, polling counters every 20 seconds and sending the sFlow to an analyzer (10.0.0.50) on UDP port 6343 (the default sFlow port): 
switch(config)# sflow collector 10.0.0.50
switch(config)# sflow sampling 4096
switch(config)# sflow polling 20
switch(config)# sflow enable
A previous posting discussed the selection of sampling rates.  Additional information can be found in the OpenSwitch sFlow User Guide.

See Trying out sFlow for suggestions on getting started with sFlow monitoring and reporting.

Terror-suspect database used by banks, governments, has been leaked

A database described by some as a "terrorism blacklist" has fallen into the hands of a white-hat hacker who may decide to make it accessible to the public online.The database, called World-Check, belongs to Thomson Reuters and is used by banks, governments and intelligence agencies to screen people for criminal ties and links to terrorism.Security researcher Chris Vickery claims to have obtained a 2014 copy of the database. He announced the details on Tuesday in a post on Reddit."No hacking was involved in my acquisition of this data," he wrote. "I would call it more of a leak than anything, although not directly from Thomson Reuters."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Terror-suspect database used by banks, governments, has been leaked

A database described by some as a "terrorism blacklist" has fallen into the hands of a white-hat hacker who may decide to make it accessible to the public online.The database, called World-Check, belongs to Thomson Reuters and is used by banks, governments and intelligence agencies to screen people for criminal ties and links to terrorism.Security researcher Chris Vickery claims to have obtained a 2014 copy of the database. He announced the details on Tuesday in a post on Reddit."No hacking was involved in my acquisition of this data," he wrote. "I would call it more of a leak than anything, although not directly from Thomson Reuters."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

System Software, Orchestration Gets an OpenHPC Boost

System software setup and maintenance has become a major efficiency drag on HPC labs and OEMs alike, but community and industry efforts are now underway to reduce the huge amounts of duplicated development, validation and maintenance work across the HPC ecosystem. Disparate efforts and approaches, while necessary on some levels, slow adoption of hardware innovation and progress toward exascale performance. They also complicate adoption of complex workloads like big data and machine learning.

With the creation of the OpenHPC Community, a Linux Foundation collaborative project, the push is on to minimize duplicated efforts in the HPC software stack wherever …

System Software, Orchestration Gets an OpenHPC Boost was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

Datanauts 040: Hands-On Learning Series – CoreOS & AppVeyor

Todays Datanauts show is all about learning new technologies. Ethan and Chris have each spent time digging into a technology thats unfamiliar to them: building a DNS service using CoreOS for Ethan, and using AppVeyor to built a test environment for PowerShell scripts for Chris. The post Datanauts 040: Hands-On Learning Series – CoreOS & AppVeyor appeared first on Packet Pushers.

SAP’s ERP app for SMBs gets an overhaul for digital transformation

The digital transformation imperative is becoming increasingly urgent for companies large and small, and SAP wants to help. On Wednesday, the ERP giant set its sights squarely on SMBs with an updated app that's been enriched with analytics and other key features.Originally announced last year, SAP Business One 9.2 is the latest version of SAP's ERP app for small and medium-size businesses, and it's now generally available both on-premises and in the cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mobile ransomware use jumps, blocking access to phones

The number of users infected with mobile ransomware is skyrocketing, as hackers try to expand the number of potential victims they can target.Compared with a year ago, almost four times as many users are being attacked by mobile ransomware, security firm Kaspersky Lab said on Wednesday.It's a troubling trend. Ransomware has typically targeted PCs by encrypting all the information that is inside the targeted machines, and then holding the data hostage in exchange for money.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Mobile ransomware use jumps, blocking access to phones

The number of users infected with mobile ransomware is skyrocketing, as hackers try to expand the number of potential victims they can target.Compared with a year ago, almost four times as many users are being attacked by mobile ransomware, security firm Kaspersky Lab said on Wednesday.It's a troubling trend. Ransomware has typically targeted PCs by encrypting all the information that is inside the targeted machines, and then holding the data hostage in exchange for money.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iPhone 7 to feature radically new home button design

The lack of a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack may not be the only big design change Apple introduces when it rolls out the iPhone 7 later this year. According to sources, and most recently a report from analysts Cowen and Company (via Business Insider), the home button on the iPhone 7 will be like nothing Apple has ever shipped before.Specifically, the iPhone 7's home button may sit flush with the entire device itself and will not be able to be pressed down. Instead, Apple will incorporate Force Touch technology such that when a user taps the home button, it will trigger a series of vibrations that will mimic the feeling of a pressed button.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iPhone 7 to feature radical new home button design

The lack of a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack may not be the only big design change Apple introduces when it rolls out the iPhone 7 later this year. According to sources, and most recently a report from analysts Cowen and Company (via Business Insider), the home button on the iPhone 7 will be like nothing Apple has ever shipped before.Specifically, the iPhone 7's home button may sit flush with the entire device itself and will not be able to be pressed down. Instead, Apple will incorporate Force Touch technology such that when a user taps the home button, it will trigger a series of vibrations that will mimic the feeling of a pressed button. While this may seem a bit far fetched, note that Apple already employs such technology on the company's MacBook line. And having used Apple's MacBook, I can attest that Apple's scheme of haptic feedback truly does mimic the feeling of a physical button.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

55% off DinoFire Wireless 2.4GHz Presentation Remote – Deal Alert

From executives to graduate students, anyone who presents can appreciate a good clicker. This one from DinoFire is currently discounted 55%, from $32.99 down to just $14.99, and receives an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 200 customers (read reviews). Its generous 98-foot range lets you wander confidently around the room. It features up, down and red light buttons, as well as an on/off switch and low battery indicator. The DinoFire remote supports MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, ACD See, website, iWork (Keynote & Numbers & Pages) Google Slides, and most major operating systems. Simply plug the receiver into your USB port and you're ready to go. When not in use, the receiver plugs into the remote for transporting in one piece. See the discounted presentation remote now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

802.11ac Wi-Fi gear driving strong WLAN equipment sales

The first quarter of 2016 has seen a 20% increase in wireless LAN equipment sales compared to the same period a year ago, according to a study released by IHS Technology, which credited the proliferation of 802.11ac wireless gear for the uptick.While the $1.2 billion in total sales represents a quarter-on-quarter downturn of 14%, that’s merely a seasonal demand issue, said IHS. Yet the year-on-year sales increase has been accomplished with equipment prices remaining relatively flat.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Top 5 storage vendors shows massive shift to the cloud + Resold hard drives on eBay, Craigslist are often still ripe with leftover dataTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

802.11ac Wi-Fi gear driving strong WLAN equipment sales

The first quarter of 2016 has seen a 20% increase in wireless LAN equipment sales compared to the same period a year ago, according to a study released by IHS Technology, which credited the proliferation of 802.11ac wireless gear for the uptick.While the $1.2 billion in total sales represents a quarter-on-quarter downturn of 14%, that’s merely a seasonal demand issue, said IHS. Yet the year-on-year sales increase has been accomplished with equipment prices remaining relatively flat.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Top 5 storage vendors shows massive shift to the cloud + Resold hard drives on eBay, Craigslist are often still ripe with leftover dataTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Salesforce now accessible from Outlook

The lovefest between Microsoft and Salesforce.com continues, this time with a new connector for Outlook that links Salesforce connections to the Outlook contact and calendar manager.Microsoft made the announcement via the Office blog, noting that sales reps rely on two primary tools Customer Relational Management (CRM) and email. "Yet, CRM and email have traditionally been disconnected tools, and sales reps have had to spend valuable time toggling between these apps," the company noted.Manually adding contacts or calendar events from email to CRM or having to move back and forth between the two waste a lot of time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Need to integrate a few apps to solve a business problem? There is recipe for that

 Vijay Tella has been neck deep in application integration technology for years, first as the SVP of engineering at TIBCO, the company that introduced the information bus, and then at Oracle, where he helped launch the company’s booming middleware platform. Today Tella is founder and CEO of Workato, a company that is putting integration tools directly into the hands of app users.  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with Tella to learn more about how he is trying to democratize the world of app integration. Workato founder and CEO Vijay TellaTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Avaya’s edge network adapter is an IoT onramp

Avaya today released the 1.0 version of its Open Networking Adapter (ONA), a device the size of a deck of cards that plugs into any Ethernet-enabled machine and automatically connects it to a broader network while enforcing strict security policies on network traffic.Avaya’s ONA is a network edge device meant to usher in an era of connected devices to create an internet of things environment. The first use case Avaya is targeting with ONA is the health care industry with a custom software GUI for controlling the ONAs.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Top 5 Storage vendors shows a massive shift to the cloud | Why Brexit could cause major data privacy headaches for US companies + ONA is a small proxy device with two Ethernet inputs on each end. The aluminum casing holds a dual core CPU running Open vSwitch. It’s equipped with two-factor authentication so that when the device is on boarded for the first time there’s a key that’s shared between the ONA and a software defined networking (SDN) controller to verify it. The device doesn't store any data, so if it were stolen, it would be a brick without the 2FA connection. “It Continue reading

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