Cross vCenter Networking & Security with VMware NSX

NSX 6.2 was released on August 20, 2015. One of the key features in NSX 6.2 is Cross vCenter Networking and Security. This new capability scales NSX vSphere across vCenter boundaries. Now, one can span logical networking and security constructs across vCenter boundaries irrespective of whether the vCenters are in adjacent racks or across datacenters (up to 150ms apart). This enables us to solve a variety of use cases including:

  • Capacity pooling across vCenters
  • Simplifying data center migrations
  • Cross vCenter and long distance vMotion
  • Disaster recovery

With Cross vCenter Networking & Security one can extend logical switches (VXLAN networks) across vCenter boundaries enabling a layer 2 segment to span across VCs even when the underlying network is a pure IP / L3 network. However, the big innovation here is that with NSX we can also extend distributed routing and distributed firewalling seamlessly across VCs to provide a comprehensive solution as seen in the figure below.

Cross vCenter-Networking-and-Security

Of course, there are a more details behind how this feature works and how we solve some really cool challenges in a simple elegant manner with network virtualization which we will cover  at VMworld 2015 in the session NET5989. In the meanwhile if Continue reading

U.S. readies sanctions against China for cyber-spying

The U.S. government is working on a sanctions package against Chinese firms and individuals for cyber-espionage activities against U.S. companies, the Washington Post reported. This move comes after months of cyber-attacks on companies and government agencies which have been linked to China.The sanctions will impose costs for economic cyber-spying and not government-to-government intelligence activities. As a result, the incidents the package will cover do not include the Office of Personnel Management breach from earlier this year, because that attack was deemed to be part of traditional intelligence.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Behind the scenes: Security operations at the Little League World Series

Each year in late August, the Little League World Series (LLWS) in South Williamsport, Pa., kicks-off. However, before the games, there’s a ramp –up on security at the Little League Baseball World Series Complex, which requires months of preparation and planning. Part of this ramp-up requires implementing temporary, yet supremely effective, security measures on top of what’s already in place, says Jim Ferguson, Director of Security for the LLWS. The LLWS has been fortunate to have several electronic security companies, including AXIS Communications, Extreme Networking, and Lenel, volunteer their time and equipment for the event for the past 17 years, Ferguson says. These companies donate cameras, access control, and wireless networking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Will self-driving cars become terrorists’ best friends?

Uber snapped up car hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. Miller, who had worked on Twitter's security team, and Valasek, who had been working as Director of Vehicle Security Research at IOActive, will now join "dozens of autonomous vehicle experts hired from Carnegie Mellon University" working at Uber's Advanced Technologies Center.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Will self-driving cars become terrorists’ best friends?

Uber snapped up car hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. Miller, who had worked on Twitter’s security team, and Valasek, who had been working as Director of Vehicle Security Research at IOActive, will now join “dozens of autonomous vehicle experts hired from Carnegie Mellon University” working at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cool but costly: Google OnHub review roundup

The initial round of reviews for OnHub, Google’s fancified entry into the home router market, are out, and the consensus is that it’s a neat gadget, but possibly not worth the $200 you’ll fork over to get it.At the moment, the OnHub is essentially a standard home Wi-Fi router that runs Google’s software instead of the bare-bones configuration pages common to home routers. You plug it into your Ethernet connection, download the Android or iOS app, and manage everything from your smartphone. Given that the average home user probably doesn’t know how to do much besides turn their usual router off and on again for troubleshooting, a robust, convenient and user-friendly configuration experience is a solid step forward.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hottest products at VMworld 2015

Hottest products at VMworld 2015Image by Thinkstock, VWwareVirtualization, cloud, security are storage are among the hot trends of this year’s VMworld 2015 in San Francisco. Check out the latest and greatest of the new products being announced or displayed by vendors at VMworld 2015.Unity EdgeConnectManufacturer name: Silver PeakTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enabling the Software-Defined Data Center Vision

We’re excited to announce our latest tier 1 partnership, this time with VMware, which demonstrates the growing strategic role and importance that Cumulus Linux plays in rapidly building and scaling private and public clouds. VMware has announced VMware EVO SDDC — a software suite that provides a prescriptive and simple way for organizations to build and operate highly scalable and performant private clouds based on VMware’s software-defined data center (SDDC) architecture. With VMware EVO SDDC bundled with OEM hardware, VMware provides compute, storage and network virtualization, and now fully integrated physical networking solutions.

Cumulus Linux comes embedded in VMware EVO SDDC, which also includes a hardware management system (HMS) component with software integration at the network layer.  The top of rack (ToR), spine, and management switches all run Cumulus Linux as the network OS on Dell and Quanta platforms.  Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions based on the suite will be available over time through an exclusive set of VMware partners.

This technology partnership is significant for several reasons. First, to have struck such a strategic OEM partnership with VMware is a ringing endorsement of the enterprise-grade quality of software that Cumulus Linux represents as well as the quality of engineering Continue reading

VMware NSX – It’s About the Platform Ecosystem

The basis of competition has shifted from individual products and technologies to platforms,

Best-In-Class Partners

Best-In-Class Partners

but with everyone aspiring to be a platform the bar is set high. A platform must be a value-creation entity, underpinned by a robust architecture that includes a set of well-integrated software artifacts and programming interfaces to enable reuse and extensibility by third parties. Platforms must support an ecosystem that can function in a unified way, foster interactions among its members and orchestrate its network of partners. And finally, platforms must adhere to the network effect theory which asserts that the value of a platform to a user increases as more users subscribe to it, in effect, creating a positive feedback loop.

The VMware NSX network virtualization platform meets this criteria resoundingly. NSX is specifically designed to provide a foundation for a high-value, differentiated ecosystem of partners that includes some of the networking industry’s most significant players.  The NSX platform leverages multi-layered network abstractions, an extensible and distributed service framework with multiple entry points, and transparent insertion and orchestration of partner services. What distinguishes NSX from other platforms is its inherent security constructs which partner solutions inherit, and a context sharing and synchronization capability Continue reading

VMware CEO Gelsinger still committed to EMC Federation

Will the EMC Federation break up, as a flurry of recent reports have suggested? VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, for one, believes one of the most prominent alliances of companies in the technology industry is still the best management structure. “My view on this hasn’t changed,” Gelsinger told Network World in a wide-ranging interview. “Being bigger and more strategic as a whole is a more powerful position for the companies and we believe that, through this period, the Federation structure is the best one for both customers as well as for the companies and employees themselves.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI: Major business e-mail scam blasts 270% increase since 2015

The FBI this week said an e-mail scam that tricks businesses into paying invoices from what looks like established partners is growing exponentially.The FBI last year even gave the scam its own name -- business e-mail compromise (BEC) – which is a variant of the timeworn “man-in-the-middle” scam and usually involves chief technology officers, chief financial officers, or comptrollers, receiving an e-mail via their business accounts purportedly from a vendor requesting a wire transfer to a designated bank account, the FBI said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI: Major business e-mail scam blasts 270% increase since 2015

The FBI this week said an e-mail scam that tricks businesses into paying invoices from what looks like established partners is growing exponentially.The FBI last year even gave the scam its own name -- business e-mail compromise (BEC) – which is a variant of the timeworn “man-in-the-middle” scam and usually involves chief technology officers, chief financial officers, or comptrollers, receiving an e-mail via their business accounts purportedly from a vendor requesting a wire transfer to a designated bank account, the FBI said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Building Globally Distributed, Mission Critical Applications: Lessons From the Trenches Part 1

This is Part 1 of a guest post by Kris Beevers, founder and CEO, NSONE, a purveyor of a next-gen intelligent DNS and traffic management platform.

Every tech company thinks about it: the unavoidable – in fact, enviable – challenge of scaling its applications and systems as the business grows. How can you think about scaling from the beginning, and put your company on good footing, without optimizing prematurely? What are some of the key challenges worth thinking about now, before they bite you later on? When you’re building mission critical technology, these are fundamental questions. And when you’re building a distributed infrastructure, whether for reliability or performance or both, they’re hard questions to answer.

Putting the right architecture and processes in place will enable your systems and company to withstand the common hiccups distributed, high traffic applications face. This enables you to stay ahead of scaling constraints, manage inevitable network and system failures, stay calm and debug production issues in real-time, and grow your company and product successfully.

Who is this guy?

I’ve been building globally distributed, large scale applications for a long time.  Way back in the first dot-com boom, I bailed on college classes for Continue reading

Who’s really in charge at Cisco?

Chuck Robbins is officially the chief executive officer of Cisco, but that doesn’t mean he’s totally in charge.Several sources inside and outside of Cisco say the company’s star engineers and key innovators – Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain and Luca Cafiero – continue to report to former CEO John Chambers, who became the executive chairman of Cisco July 26 when Robbins succeeded him. The three, along with marketer Soni Jiandani, founded three companies funded and then acquired by Cisco under its “spin-in” model to insert it into new or disruptive markets, like storage area networking, data center switching and SDNs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Docker can transform your development teams

Waiting for the right build has been a historical problem with test environments, while differences between development, test and production have caused defects to escape in production. Virtual Machines solve these problems by sharing a copy of system data, but they can be slow and take gigabytes of disk space. Enter Docker, a lightweight, fast virtualization tool for Linux. The opportunity Docker presents  First, anyone on a technical staff can create a test environment on the local machine in a few seconds. The new process hooks into the existing operating system, so it does not need to “boot.” With a previous build stored locally, Docker is smart enough to only load the difference between the two builds. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CSO burnout biggest factor in infosec talent shortage

The real cause of the talent shortage in the information security field isn't a lack of new people entering the profession, but retention and churn at the highest levels, according to a new report by IDC. "It's a fairly common theme to suggest that we have better training in colleges, certificate courses, and all that sort of thing for entry-level folks," said IDC analyst and report author Pete Lindstrom. But in fact, at the entry level, expectations are basic and companies are willing to be flexible, are open to diverse backgrounds, and can train new hires. Jobs that require less than five years of experience are filled within just three months 85 percent of the time, and 99 percent are filled within six months, according to the IDC survey of senior infosec executives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cyber sharing bill shares too much, critics say

According to '70s hippie comics Cheech & Chong, “Everybody shares stuff, man.”Maybe if it’s weed. But, apparently not if it’s cyber threat information.Supposedly, creation of a federal framework for that kind of sharing among industries and government has been a priority for years for all parties involved – President Obama Congress and private sector enterprises that are under constant, ever-more-sophisticated attacks.But after years of proposals, there are still no results. And if privacy and civil liberties advocates prevail in the current dustup, there won’t be any results this year either.The latest effort – several bills on both the House and Senate side – have had varied success. Two House bills – the Protecting Cyber Networks Act, or PCNA (H.R. 1560) and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015, or NCPAA (H.R. 1731) – easily passed and were combined into one labeled H.R. 1560.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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