Google, Honeywell resolve patent dispute over Nest thermostats

Google and Honeywell have signed a patent cross-license agreement that resolves a long-standing patent dispute over thermostats made by Nest Labs, the home automation startup the Internet giant acquired.The proceedings in the case have been pending in court for about four years, awaiting the results of a reexamination of the patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to court records. The companies said Thursday they believe that the patent accord “promotes product innovation and consumer choice in the market for smart home products.” The financial and other details of the deal between the two companies were not disclosed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Setting Up DC Fabric Simulation With OpenSwitch and GNS3

Note: This article was originally published here.

In the previous post I covered the basics about setting up the OpenSwitch Appliance using GNS3. The setup was fairly simple: two switches connected to each other and exchanging LLDP packets. In this post we will setup a more elaborate network to simulate a DC fabric (although it may be a bit overkill of a setup). The setup will be the basis for the next posts about configuring this fabric using Ansible.

One of the first questions when setting up a complex topology with GNS3 that most people will do is: how do I connect it to the external world outside of the simulation? For VirtualBox machines that we are using, the options are limited. The one I found to work reliably across platforms was to use a NAT connection. This has the disadvantage that we have limited connectivity from the external world toward the internal network, but this could be also a security advantage to prevent accidental propagation of control protocols from our simulated environment.

Since the purpose of this lab is going to be to play with Ansible, we are going to need a Linux machine to run it. So, we will setup the following Continue reading

Using Terraform to Build an etcd2 Cluster on OpenStack

In this post I’ll build on my earlier introduction to Terraform to show a practical example of using Terraform to build a CoreOS-based etcd2 cluster on OpenStack. This information is based upon a demo that I created for a session at the Austin OpenStack Summit in late April, so all the files I reference in this post are available in the GitHub repo for that session.

You may recall that Terraform is a platform-independent orchestration tool that allows you to create configurations (in either Terraform format or JSON format) specifying resources to be created/modified/deleted. This allows users to take an “infrastructure as code” approach where infrastructure configuration can be declaratively defined and managed via well-known version control mechanisms. In my previous post, I used JSON for the Terraform configurations; in this post, I’ll use the “standard” Terraform format.

As in the intro to Terraform post, I’ll use three different files:

  • The vars.tf file, which contains variables we’ll reference later
  • The main.tf file, which has the actual resource definitions
  • The output.tf file, which will provide some feedback to the user on the resources being created by Terraform (in this case, IP addresses)

Note that there’s no Continue reading

Ethernet: Are there worlds left to conquer?

LAS VEGAS -- Apparently Ethernet isn’t all THAT ubiquitous. That is judging by the number of new applications, speed changes and future options for the networking standard that were discussed at the Interop symposium here.“We are now beyond the ‘let’s just go faster’ development of Ethernet and are now looking at developing Ethernet for specific applications,” said David Chalupsky, Ethernet Alliance BASE-T subcommittee chair and principal engineer at Intel.+More on Network World: Ethernet everywhere!+That’s not to say Ethernet won’t continue to get faster – it is. There is currently work to develop 50Gbps, 200Gbps and 400Gbps Ethernet in the next three years. But perhaps more telling, the Ethernet community is also looking to standardize on slower speeds 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 25Gbps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ethernet: Are there worlds left to conquer?

LAS VEGAS -- Apparently Ethernet isn’t all THAT ubiquitous. That is judging by the number of new applications, speed changes and future options for the networking standard that were discussed at the Interop symposium here.“We are now beyond the ‘let’s just go faster’ development of Ethernet and are now looking at developing Ethernet for specific applications,” said David Chalupsky, Ethernet Alliance BASE-T subcommittee chair and principal engineer at Intel.+More on Network World: Ethernet everywhere!+That’s not to say Ethernet won’t continue to get faster – it is. There is currently work to develop 50Gbps, 200Gbps and 400Gbps Ethernet in the next three years. But perhaps more telling, the Ethernet community is also looking to standardize on slower speeds 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 25Gbps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ethernet: Are there worlds left to conquer?

LAS VEGAS -- Apparently Ethernet isn’t all THAT ubiquitous. That is judging by the number of new applications, speed changes and future options for the networking standard that were discussed at the Interop symposium here.“We are now beyond the ‘let’s just go faster’ development of Ethernet and are now looking at developing Ethernet for specific applications,” said David Chalupsky, Ethernet Alliance BASE-T subcommittee chair and principal engineer at Intel.+More on Network World: Ethernet everywhere!+That’s not to say Ethernet won’t continue to get faster – it is. There is currently work to develop 50Gbps, 200Gbps and 400Gbps Ethernet in the next three years. But perhaps more telling, the Ethernet community is also looking to standardize on slower speeds 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 25Gbps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ethernet: Are there worlds left to conquer?

LAS VEGAS -- Apparently Ethernet isn’t all THAT ubiquitous. That is judging by the number of new applications, speed changes and future options for the networking standard that were discussed at the Interop symposium here.“We are now beyond the ‘let’s just go faster’ development of Ethernet and are now looking at developing Ethernet for specific applications,” said David Chalupsky, Ethernet Alliance BASE-T subcommittee chair and principal engineer at Intel.+More on Network World: Ethernet everywhere!+That’s not to say Ethernet won’t continue to get faster – it is. There is currently work to develop 50Gbps, 200Gbps and 400Gbps Ethernet in the next three years. But perhaps more telling, the Ethernet community is also looking to standardize on slower speeds 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 25Gbps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloud Foundry Is Crossing The Chasm

IT managers at the world’s largest organizations have a lot of reasons to envy hyperscalers, including the fact that they seem to be flush with cash and it looks like they can buy or build just about anything their hearts desire.

While hyperscalers have to cope with scale issues, they do not have as much complexity, so they can pick a technology and run with it. Enterprises, on the other hand, are merging and acquiring all the time and have lots of silos of existing applications that cannot be thrown away.

The need to support existing as well as new …

Cloud Foundry Is Crossing The Chasm was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Businesses can now buy apps in bulk from the Windows Store

App developers now have an easier way to sell their wares to businesses running Windows 10. On Thursday, Microsoft said developers can submit paid apps for inclusion in the Windows Store for Business, a version of the online store for Windows 10 that companies can use to distribute software to their employees over the web. (The store previously offered only free applications.) The move means independent app developers have an easier way to get their wares in front of large enterprise customers, and businesses have an easier way to purchase apps for their users and distribute them across a large population of Windows 10 PCs and tablets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open-source really could help get you a job, study finds

Experience in the open-source world is a valuable asset for technology job-seekers, and it’s getting more so over time, according to the latest Open-Source Jobs Report, which was published today by Dice and the Linux Foundation.The report, which surveyed tech hiring managers, found that nearly two-thirds were planning to increase open-source hiring more than other areas of their business in the near future, and that 59% had definite plans to add open-source workers.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: A look at Apple's rise in the enterprise with IBM's help | Former insider’s book explores morality of offshore outsourcing +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple partners with SAP in new enterprise push

Apple has stepped up its efforts to target enterprise customers through a new partnership with SAP.The companies will deliver native apps for the iPhone and iPad that tap SAP's Hana in-memory computing platform, as well as a new iOS software development kit (SDK)."SAP is the ideal partner to help us truly transform how businesses around the world are run on iPhone and iPad," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.As part of the deal, SAP will develop native iOS apps using Apple's Swift programming language. An app might enable a field maintenance worker to order parts or schedule service, for example; another might allow a doctor to share the latest patient data with other healthcare workers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Meet EMILY, the robotic life-guard that may save you from drowning some day

It might be the fastest, most important water buoy ever invented. That would be the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard or EMILY – a 25lb, 4ft-long, bright orange, red and yellow colored cylindrical buoy powered by a jet engine similar to a mini jet ski, and travels up to 22 MPH.+More on Network World: 26 of the craziest and scariest things the TSA has found on travelers+“EMILY is made of Kevlar and aircraft-grade composites and is virtually indestructible,” said inventor Tony Mulligan, CEO of Hydronalix, a maritime robotics company that developed EMILY along with the Office of Naval Research. “The devices can be thrown off a helicopter or bridge and then driven via remote control to whoever needs to be rescued.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Meet EMILY, the robotic life-guard that may save you from drowning some day

It might be the fastest, most important water buoy ever invented. That would be the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard or EMILY – a 25lb, 4ft-long, bright orange, red and yellow colored cylindrical buoy powered by a jet engine similar to a mini jet ski, and travels up to 22 MPH.+More on Network World: 26 of the craziest and scariest things the TSA has found on travelers+“EMILY is made of Kevlar and aircraft-grade composites and is virtually indestructible,” said inventor Tony Mulligan, CEO of Hydronalix, a maritime robotics company that developed EMILY along with the Office of Naval Research. “The devices can be thrown off a helicopter or bridge and then driven via remote control to whoever needs to be rescued.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Newer Wi-Fi’s faster, but it needs a fast wire behind it

The next time you want to complain about slow Wi-Fi, think about saving your vitriol for wires instead.So-called gigabit Wi-Fi, or 802.11ac, is slowly starting to show up in homes, buildings and public hotspots, but it’s not delivering a gigabit to smartphones, according to an analysis by research company OpenSignal. That’s partly because of how wireless works and how the newest technology is being rolled out, but it also reflects the performance of the wired networks that Wi-Fi taps into.OpenSignal used its free connection-monitoring app, running on thousands of smartphones, to learn what kinds of Wi-Fi networks users were on and what kind of speed they were getting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Newer Wi-Fi’s faster, but it needs a fast wire behind it

The next time you want to complain about slow Wi-Fi, think about saving your vitriol for wires instead.So-called gigabit Wi-Fi, or 802.11ac, is slowly starting to show up in homes, buildings and public hotspots, but it’s not delivering a gigabit to smartphones, according to an analysis by research company OpenSignal. That’s partly because of how wireless works and how the newest technology is being rolled out, but it also reflects the performance of the wired networks that Wi-Fi taps into.OpenSignal used its free connection-monitoring app, running on thousands of smartphones, to learn what kinds of Wi-Fi networks users were on and what kind of speed they were getting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon strike taking trickle-down toll on business customers

With the strike by Verizon union members now in its fourth week – and no settlement appearing near -- frustrations born of service delays and cancelations remain primarily the bane of consumers, although business customers are also taking on collateral damage, some of which may not be visible to the untrained eye.That’s the view of David Rohde, a longtime industry watcher and senior consultant at TechCaliber in Washington D.C.“Customers are asking their Verizon (Enterprise) account teams for, you name it – an inventory of current services, a next response to a bid for new services, a network management request that can’t otherwise be handled automatically – and the answer is coming back very frequently that those people aren’t around right now so you’re going to have to wait,” Rohde writes in a recent blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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