VMware NSX: From Turning Point to Tipping Point

I’m very excited that I get the opportunity to report on another exceptional quarter for VMware NSX. As a company, we’re demonstrating that NSX will be an important growth driver for the foreseeable future. We added more than 200 new NSX customers in the quarter, and have more than 120 customers that have spent more than $1M on NSX. Organizations such as Shutterfly, TriZetto, Riverside County, and Royal Bank of Scotland are all making commitments to NSX as a foundational part of their IT future. Production deployments also continued to accelerate. We have more than 340, and in Q1 added the equivalent of one new NSX production deployment each day.

NSX is, indisputably, the leading software network overlay. NSX is proving equally valuable across all hardware underlays. Most notably, we’re starting to see customer proof points of something we’ve said all along – VMware NSX and Cisco ACI can be successfully deployed in the same environment to address different pain points. Just look at customers such as Sugar Creek and Hutto ISD; even the channel recognizes this as reported by CRN.

Executing On the NSX Plan, Reaching the Turning Point

The plan for growing NSX in the market was very Continue reading

EMC’s latest VCE nodes aim to make clouds easy

One way to get enterprises and service providers to adopt cloud infrastructure is to make it easier to set up and use. That’s what EMC is doing with Neutrino, a new type of hardware-software node for the VCE VxRack platform.The VxRack System 1000 with Neutrino nodes can run any workload on any node in the rack, and on any of several cloud software stacks. If OpenStack is best for one job, Hadoop is best for another, and VMware Photon is ideal for a third application, each can run on the appropriate stack. As long as there’s capacity somewhere in the rack, it doesn’t matter where each is hosted.“It allows any of the hardware in the nodes to be provisioned to any software stack,” said Jeremy Burton, EMC’s president of products and marketing. This will help enterprises and service providers deliver IaaS (infrastructure as a service) to their users and customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NYC scowls at LTE-U in open letter

The City of New York became the latest entity to weigh in on the subject of LTE-U, as an open letter from the mayor’s office to policymakers at the 3GPP standards body pushes for thorough protection for existing Wi-Fi.LTE-U, a carrier technology designed to take the load off of existing networks by using the unlicensed frequency bands where Wi-Fi lives, has provoked widespread concerns about interference and disruption. The technology’s inventors, Qualcomm and Ericsson, and the carriers have insisted that LTE-U contains features that will enable it to co-exist peacefully with Wi-Fi, but many others, from the cable industry to Google and Microsoft, have expressed serious doubts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Gotchas to configuring Calico with Docker

© Calico project - Metaswitch
Setting up Calico with Docker has been documented with step-by-step commands on the Calico github page and I will not be repeating them here again. I am going to use this as a scratch pad for the gotchas that I learnt from following that article on github. I hope it helps some of you.

Docker networking has seen a lot of improvements both in the native libnetwork library as well as other projects & solutions. Docker container networking especially across two physical hosts is an interesting problem with various solutions out there with their own pros and cons. You could go with flannel, a L2 overlay, VXLAN overlay to facilitate multi-host container networking or choose a pure L3-only solution like Calico. Speaking of the various choices for container networking I came across this article that compares the network glue : underlay/ overlay solutions using different parameters. Feel free to check that out if you want to get an idea into what each of these (VXLAN, flannel & Calico) offer but then of course making your own comparisons and benchmarks will not only provide with the differences/features you are looking for but also Continue reading

Containers: Most developers still don’t understand how to use them

Nine out of 10 developers are likely or very likely to boost their use of containerized applications in the coming year, according to a new survey of 300 developers by Shippable.“Companies are realizing the productivity and flexibility gains they were expecting, and use of container technology is clearly on the rise,” said Shippable CEO Avi Cavale in a statement.Those are optimistic words, and almost 90 percent seems like a strong vote of confidence for containers such as Docker and others, validating the intense hype the technology has generated in the last couple years. Perhaps that’s why more than half of developers (52 percent) told Shippable, which sells a continuous delivery platform, they already use containers in production, at least for new applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

25 Mother’s Day gifts with geek appeal

Not the same old flowers, chocolate and jewelryThis isn’t a gadget-heavy list of Mother’s Day gift ideas. It’s a collection of gifts inspired by science, technology, engineering and math. The tech quotient is low, but the design bar is high. Each of these gifts shows how artists, craftspeople and industrial designers can put a geeky spin on the usual jewelry, flowers and accessories.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

25 Mother’s Day gifts with geek appeal

Not the same old flowers, chocolate and jewelryThis isn’t a gadget-heavy list of Mother’s Day gift ideas. It’s a collection of gifts inspired by science, technology, engineering and math. The tech quotient is low, but the design bar is high. Each of these gifts shows how artists, craftspeople and industrial designers can put a geeky spin on the usual jewelry, flowers and accessories.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Who will manage IoT in the enterprise?

Most IT departments throughout enterprises are about to relinquish control of the Internet of Things, a research firm says.IoT will not generally be managed by IT, reckons Bob O’Donnell. His company, TECHnalysis Research, recently completed an online study about which department will be running IoT within organizations.Surprisingly, operations, facilities and manufacturing was the principal selection, the researcher found (with 42 percent). It will be the “most common department to be responsible for IoT projects,” O’Donnell says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Label Switched Multicast – Packet Walk

This post is going to follow a multicast packet as it moves through a sample MPLS network using Label Switched Multicast (LSM). I’ll show how the packet moves through the network by looking at the forwarding tables on different routers and also by doing some packet captures.

This post is part of a series I’m writing on LSM and if you’re not already familiar with LSM, I recommend you go back and read the previous posts.

After reading this post you will be able to precisely describe how LSM forwarding works in the data plane and will be able to do some basic troubleshooting.

Let’s get into the lab!

The Topology

I’m using the same sample network as the previous posts with three CEs all in the same VRF, three PEs and just a single P router. Each of the CEs and PEs is multicast enabled.

Sample LSM Topology
Sample LSM Topology

The scenario I’m going to be running here is CE1 sending an ICMP echo to the group 239.23.23.23. The receivers in this group are CE2 and CE3.

Between CE1 and PE1

I’m going to just gloss over the traffic exchanged between CE1 and PE1 since nothing changes here Continue reading

Cisco’s new campaign: ‘There’s never been a better time’ to be digital

Over the past 30-plus years, Cisco has almost single-handedly carried the flag for network-centric innovation. Its many brand campaigns along the way have told us that Cisco can “Empower the Internet Generation” and connect the “Human Network” and that “Tomorrow Starts Here.” Each of those branding initiatives was tied to a different era in networking. For example, “Tomorrow Starts Here” was targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT). Now that IoT is well underway, Cisco is changing its brand to be more reflective of the next wave in business: the “digital” era. This morning, Cisco’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karen Walker, outlined the thoughts behind Cisco’s new brand campaign of “There’s Never Been A Better Time.” Cisco’s tagline is supported by a number of use cases that explain what it is that there’s never been a better time to do. Below are a couple of examples that illustrate how “there’s never been a better time to make cities smarter” or “… to save the rhinos.” Along with the headline, Cisco provides stories and data points, quantifying the value of digitization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco’s new campaign: ‘There’s never been a better time’ to be digital

Over the past 30-plus years, Cisco has almost single-handedly carried the flag for network-centric innovation. Its many brand campaigns along the way have told us that Cisco can “Empower the Internet Generation” and connect the “Human Network” and that “Tomorrow Starts Here.” Each of those branding initiatives was tied to a different era in networking. For example, “Tomorrow Starts Here” was targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT). Now that IoT is well underway, Cisco is changing its brand to be more reflective of the next wave in business: the “digital” era. This morning, Cisco’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karen Walker, outlined the thoughts behind Cisco’s new brand campaign of “There’s Never Been A Better Time.” Cisco’s tagline is supported by a number of use cases that explain what it is that there’s never been a better time to do. Below are a couple of examples that illustrate how “there’s never been a better time to make cities smarter” or “… to save the rhinos.” Along with the headline, Cisco provides stories and data points, quantifying the value of digitization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Geek-Themed Meme: Password shenanigans

Truth be told, I am not a model citizen when it comes to password management, so the sentiment behind this latest installment of “Geek-themed Meme of the Week” resonated with me. And the discussion on Reddit that followed was interesting, too. Reddit [DON'T MISS: Geek-Themed Meme of the Week Archive]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Geek-Themed Meme: Password shenanigans

Truth be told, I am not a model citizen when it comes to password management, so the sentiment behind this latest installment of “Geek-themed Meme of the Week” resonated with me. And the discussion on Reddit that followed was interesting, too. Reddit A suggestion from the comments:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

U.S. uncovers $20M H-1B fraud scheme

The U.S. government has indicted a Virginia couple for running an H-1B visa-for-sale scheme the government said generated about $20 million.Raju Kosuri and Smriti Jharia of Ashburn, Va., along with four co-conspirators, were indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).The scheme involved, in part, setting up a network of shell companies and the filing of H-1B visas applications for non-existent job vacancies.Workers were required to pay their own visa processing fees and were treated as hourly contractors, the DOJ alleged. Treating H-1B workers as hourly contractors is in violation of the program rules, the government said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why your iPhone-unlocking fingerprint is susceptible to FBI search warrants

Should you be able to plead the Fifth when a judge forces you to use your fingerprints to unlock an iPhone?That’s the latest ongoing debate in a Los Angeles courtroom after a judge compelled a woman in custody to use Touch ID to unlock an iPhone. Legal experts are arguing that this goes against the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination because the authorities would then have access to potentially-incriminating personal data stored on the device.+ MORE IPHONE: Best Apple iPhone 7 design concepts of 2016  +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why your iPhone-unlocking fingerprint is susceptible to FBI search warrants

Should you be able to plead the Fifth when a judge forces you to use your fingerprints to unlock an iPhone?That’s the latest ongoing debate in a Los Angeles courtroom after a judge compelled a woman in custody to use Touch ID to unlock an iPhone. Legal experts are arguing that this goes against the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination because the authorities would then have access to potentially-incriminating personal data stored on the device.+ MORE IPHONE: Best Apple iPhone 7 design concepts of 2016  +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel’s Atom architecture to live on despite smartphone chip cancellations

Intel's Atom processor architecture will live on despite the recent cancellation of next-generation smartphone chips.The chip maker will continue the development and use of the processor architecture, which stresses power efficiency, though the chips may not necessarily carry the Atom label. Last week Intel canceled upcoming Atom smartphone chips code-named Broxton and Sofia.The next-generation Atom architecture, code-named Goldmont, will first appear in future Pentium and Celeron processors, code-named Apollo Lake, an Intel spokeswoman said. Current top-line Atom chips are based on an architecture named Airmont.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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