Fitbit’s IPO filing shows a strong pulse

Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers, has filed to go public and revealed some strong sales numbers in its pitch.The company seeks to raise as much as US$100 million, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday, though the amount is subject to change. Fitbit plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT.”The filing reveals what seems to be a healthy business. The company sold roughly 10.9 million devices in 2014, more than double what it sold in 2013 and more than eight times as many as it sold in 2012.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD puts faith back in x86, downgrading its ARM effort

Two years ago, AMD tried to cut its reliance on the plodding x86 design by building server chips around ARM, the hot architecture driving mobile devices. That hasn’t worked out, and the company is now putting its faith back in x86.At an investor meeting on Wednesday, AMD further delayed its ARM-based server chip code-named Seattle and cut a major project that could have bridged the gap between its x86 and ARM chips. AMD executives also took responsibility for misreading the fast-growing server market, which is dominated by Intel x86 chips.AMD is still developing ARM-based server chips, but instead of mainstream servers, those chips will now be aimed mainly at storage, networking and other infrastructure equipment. That’s a downgrade from AMD’s focus over the last two years to make ARM servers the centerpiece of server rooms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Visual aids for networkers

Because a picture is worth 1,024 words. Much of what we study are abstract concepts invisible to the human eye. Sure, we know what boxy hardware looks like, and two of our three physical signal transmission media (excluding wireless) are things we can reach out and touch, but most of what we work on is untouchable – ghosts […]

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Quentin Demmon

Quentin Demmon
Network Engineer at Healthcare Specialty Benefits Management company

Quentin Demmon is a network engineer, hobbyist weightlifter (Olympic style), and wannabe philosopher. He is excited to be blogging about his CCIE journey in gory, melodramatic detail. Follow him on twitter, facebook, and instagram.
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The post Visual aids for networkers appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Quentin Demmon.

Facebook’s software smarts put cold storage on a power diet

When it comes to storage, Facebook is learning to do more with less.For backup copies of older content, the social network is building “cold storage” facilities that are designed to keep data available without some of the expensive, power-sucking features found in a traditional data center. Facebook says it’s built in strong protection against data loss while reducing the overhead of additional storage.These are data centers designed to hold more than an exabyte of data—1,000 petabytes—with no redundant electrical systems, while consuming less than one-sixth as much power as a conventional facility. And they store all that data on cheap, consumer-grade media.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAA: Big tech challenges for massive Washington, DC warbirds flyover

It will be one of the largest gatherings of flying WWII aircraft in history as 56 famous vintage warbirds will fly through restricted airspace over the National Mall Friday in remembrance of the 70th anniversary of VE-Day or Victory in Europe Day.The huge flyover, dubbed the “The Arsenal of Democracy,” of so many different types of aircraft – from seaplanes to fighters and the only flying B-29 Superfortress – was no easy undertaking. Reuters P-38 Lightning (right); P-51 (left)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Four cool vendors in the Internet of Things

What’s cool?The Internet of Things presents unique challenges to businesses considering the secure use of these devices. Gartner has taken a look at some of the vendors trying to address these concerns and has designated four of them cool. It’s not an exhaustive list, Gartner says, but it highlights interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AMD developing mega-chip that combines CPUs and GPUs

AMD will battle Intel for computer performance supremacy with a new high-speed chip that could be the fastest when it ships.The chip will combine many CPUs and graphics processors in a single package. It will deliver multiple teraflops of performance, and will be targeted at high-end graphics, supercomputing and data modeling.The chip doesn’t have a name yet, and could be released in the next two years, said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president at AMD, during an investor meeting on Wednesday.There is no chip that mixes CPUs and GPUs, and AMD wants to introduce the concept to high-performance computing, Norrod said.For decades, AMD and Intel have been locked in a leapfrogging race, one-upping each other by increasing their chips’ clock speeds. At the height of the chip wars in 2011, AMD claimed a Guinness World Record for achieving the “highest frequency of a computer processor” with its eight-core FX chip, which ran at a clock speed of 8.4GHz. The silliness of the chip battles dissipated soon after, though chip makers still love to parade high-performance chips as a sign of technological progress.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Appeals court judge shoots down DOJ’s defense of NSA phone program

A U.S. appeals court judge shredded the government’s defense of an extensive National Security Agency program targeting the phone records of the nation’s residents.Judge Gerard Lynch, writing for a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, picked apart the Department of Justice’s arguments for the phone records collection program, revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in mid-2013.The appeals court ruled that Congress didn’t authorize the massive phone records collection in the Patriot Act of 2001, the antiterrorism law the past two U.S. presidents have used as a basis for the collection. A representative of the U.S. White House’s National Security Council noted that President Barack Obama’s administration is working with Congress to create a more limited program.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Appeals court judge shoots down DOJ’s defense of NSA phone program

A U.S. appeals court judge shredded the government’s defense of an extensive National Security Agency program targeting the phone records of the nation’s residents.Judge Gerard Lynch, writing for a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, picked apart the Department of Justice’s arguments for the phone records collection program, revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in mid-2013.The appeals court ruled that Congress didn’t authorize the massive phone records collection in the Patriot Act of 2001, the antiterrorism law the past two U.S. presidents have used as a basis for the collection. A representative of the U.S. White House’s National Security Council noted that President Barack Obama’s administration is working with Congress to create a more limited program.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco VIRL Exclude From Launch

<hr> One of the few pet-peeves with Cisco’s VIRL has been waiting for a bunch of things to start, when I just needed a couple from that simulation. Not sure if this is a new update though it’s...

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5 Reasons to Attend Cumulus Linux Boot Camp

Sure, you’re smart and can figure out Cumulus Linux on your own. Or maybe you can’t spare 8 hours for training. If you don’t think you have the time or can benefit from attending the Cumulus Linux Boot Camp as you get started with open networking, here are five good reasons to think again.

1. Save Time

Yes, you can actually SAVE time deploying and managing your network by investing time in training. Our Cumulus Linux Boot Camp is an instructor-led, hands-on training course for networking and sysadmins, optimized to get you going quickly with open networking using Cumulus Linux. You could read the documentation and try to figure things out on your own, but why not maximize your time by leveraging a course where the essential information is gathered in a single place, presented in a methodical order?

2. Access Experts

Our class is taught by technical trainers and consultants who are well-versed with open networking. It’s a great venue to get answers to your questions.

3. Get Stick Time on Switches

This course includes hands-on labs using switches in our Cumulus Workbench. You’ll run through practical exercises and be provided with lab answers and sample code to increase Continue reading

Cisco ACI users up, TCO down

While Cisco’s SDN customers are trending up, the TCO benefits of its solution are trending down. At its recent Cisco Partner Summit, Insieme SVP Soni Jiandani held up a slide that claimed over 2,655 customers for the Nexus 9000 switch and over 585 customers for the Application Centric Infrastructure APIC controller.The slide was tweeted by CEO-in-waiting Chuck Robbins:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lyft turns to Verizon for an edge against Uber

Lyft is looking to better compete against larger rival Uber through a partnership with Verizon Wireless.Lyft’s ride-hailing app will now come preloaded on select Verizon Android smartphones, under a national partnership with the carrier that Lyft is announcing Thursday. The change will go into effect immediately for the newest Android smartphones, Lyft said. It didn’t specify which handsets are included. The partnership does not change the way Lyft’s app works.The deal, the first of its kind between the companies, will get Lyft’s app in front of more potential users. Lyft’s service, which lets people request rides through their smartphones, is currently available in 65 cities across the U.S. Uber is active in more than 300 cities and nearly 60 countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lyft turns to Verizon for an edge against Uber

Lyft is looking to better compete against larger rival Uber through a partnership with Verizon Wireless.Lyft’s ride-hailing app will now come preloaded on select Verizon Android smartphones, under a national partnership with the carrier that Lyft is announcing Thursday. The change will go into effect immediately for the newest Android smartphones, Lyft said. It didn’t specify which handsets are included. The partnership does not change the way Lyft’s app works.The deal, the first of its kind between the companies, will get Lyft’s app in front of more potential users. Lyft’s service, which lets people request rides through their smartphones, is currently available in 65 cities across the U.S. Uber is active in more than 300 cities and nearly 60 countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Overwhelmed – CCDE

I am preparing for the CCDE written exam, which I have coming up at CLUS.

There are so much material to go through, both to read as well as watch CL presentations, it can be a bit overwhelming at times.

So if you are thinking about going down this path, learn how to speed-read :)

Just under a month until we leave for the US. We are looking very much forward to the break!

Just a quick thought for the day!

Cloud disasters can and will happen. Are you prepared?

It's going to happen, and happen to you and your organization. No, I'm not a salesguy, otherwise bereft of booth babes at RSA. I'm a systems engineer going back to the days of SNA, DSLAMs, CSU/DSUs, ARCNet over NetWare, and other ancient interconnect. Stuff happens.So, whatchya gonna do? What is your plan?Did you notice how none of this cloud stuff talks to none of this cloud stuff among competing vendors? Even the mighty Open Data Center Alliance can't help you if you don't have a plan, and haven't tried to do a failover successfully.This year, thankfully, we dodged a number of hurricanes and tornadoes. The snows were gruesome, but it was rare to see data centers go down because of it. The cloud usually kept on ticking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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