EU Council OKs contentious data privacy plan, pushing reform forward

The EU Council has issued a long-awaited, hotly debated plan for online privacy, moving the EU’s reform of data-protection laws closer to reality.The Council says that the plan will give people more control over their personal data, but privacy groups say the proposal actually weakens privacy safeguards.Data protection reform is important for European citizens, tech companies and any business processing personal data in the EU. Current data protection rules stem from a 1995 law and urgently need an update for an era in which cloud computing, smartphones and high-speed Internet access are common.The Council plan revealed on Monday requires, among other things, that companies get unambiguous consent from individuals in order to be allowed to process personal data. Companies will also be obliged to implement appropriate security measures to protect personal data and notify affected people when breaches occur.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SpaceX wants you to build Elon Musk’s Hyperloop pod

Looking to hasten the development of a Hyperloop pod transportation prototype, SpaceX this week said it would open a public completion to build a half-scale passenger system capable of traveling at speeds in excess of 760MPH.SpaceX founder, entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2013, envisioned the Hyperloop concept. He proposed building a network of elevated pneumatic tubes where specially build passenger pods could zip between two points – in this case between San Francisco and Los Angeles at speeds over 760MPH. Reuters Elon MuskTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco vet to head SDN start-up

SDN start-up PLUMgrid has named a former Cisco veteran as its new CEO.Larry Lang, who left Cisco in 2009 after a 16-year career, is PLUMgrid’s new CEO. He replaces founder Awais Nemat, who has been appointed chairman of the board of directors.Lang held various positions in enterprise and service provider management and marketing at Cisco. His last role there was vice president and general manager of the company’s Services and Mobility business unit, responsible for Cisco’s mobile Internet strategy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Traction Watch: Talkdesk Lets Businesses Create a Call Center ‘In 5 Minutes’

Editor’s note: Traction Watch is a new column focused obsessively on growth, and is a companion to the DEMO Traction conference series, which brings together high-growth startups with high-potential customers. The next DEMO Traction will take place in Boston on September 16, 2015. Growth companies can apply to present, or those similarly obsessed can register here to attend. This is the fourth in a series of posts profiling the Spring 2015 Demo Traction Champions. Talkdesk was named a Traction Watch: Smart Data Champion. Read more about the winners in “Traction Watch: Meet The Spring 2015 DEMO Traction Champions.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Group asks FCC to make websites honor do-not-track requests

A consumer rights group wants the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to address growing online privacy concerns by requiring websites to honor do-no-track requests.Consumer Watchdog filed a formal petition on Monday calling for new FCC rules forcing companies like Google, Facebook, Pandora and Netflix to respect do-not-track requests from a visitor’s browser.While some websites do honor the requests, there’s no regulation requiring them to do so, and many do not, noted John Simpson, Privacy Project director at the organization. Many available tools for online users block targeted advertising based on online tracking, but don’t block data collection, he said. Specific regulations that require websites to honor a do-not-track request and spell out penalties if it’s not “are essential,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook’s privacy problems in Belgium highlight weaknesses in EU legislation

A Belgian privacy lawsuit targeting Facebook highlights the difficulties national regulators will face policing the activities of international Internet companies until new privacy laws are passed.The Belgian Commission for the Protection of Privacy is unhappy with the way Facebook handles the personal information of the nation’s citizens and in May asked it to change its policies in a number of “recommendations,” which have the force of law in the country.Facebook, though, maintains it doesn’t have to answer to the Belgian privacy watchdog as its international operations are run from Dublin, where the Irish Data Protection Commissioner oversees its compliance with the European Union Data Protection Directive as implemented under Irish law.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Silver Peak launches MPLS killer

WAN evolution has been on the mind of IT leaders for decades. Historically though, network managers seemed comfortable to just “talk the talk” when it came to actually moving away from a traditional hub and spoke, MPLS based network. The problem statement seems to be fairly well understood. Traditional WANs are expensive to run, offer little in the way of flexibility, are hard to secure and network managers typically have little visibility into the types of applications and traffic patterns that traverse the network. So, why haven’t more organizations evolved from a legacy network to something more current, like an Internet based WAN? The answer lies in the expression “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” Despite all the pain, the high cost and the static nature of traditional networks, they’re what we know. Whenever I talk to a network manager about the topic, interest is high, but so is the skepticism about whether an Internet based WAN could really support a businesses needs.   This is why so few of us want to be like Captain Kirk and “boldly go where no WAN manager has gone before”.To read this article in full or to Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: CEOs don’t care about mobile, IoT or wearables, says report

CEOs’ priorities are different from the rest of us when it comes to tech. For one thing, half of U.S. CEOs worry more about new industry entrants from the technology sector disrupting their businesses, than adopting devices as a strategy, according to a recent survey from analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PWC.Strategic importance CEOs aren’t getting over-excited about devices. Investment is being made, but more CEOs thought cybersecurity was strategically more important to them that mobile, IoT and wearables, the survey found. Mobile gets barely half of CEOs’ attention. Only 55 percent of those polled reckoned mobile tech for engagement with customers is strategically “very important” to their enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: CEOs don’t care about mobile, IoT or wearables, says report

CEOs’ priorities are different from the rest of us when it comes to tech. For one thing, half of U.S. CEOs worry more about new industry entrants from the technology sector disrupting their businesses, than adopting devices as a strategy, according to a recent survey from analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PWC.Strategic importance CEOs aren’t getting over-excited about devices. Investment is being made, but more CEOs thought cybersecurity was strategically more important to them that mobile, IoT and wearables, the survey found. Mobile gets barely half of CEOs’ attention. Only 55 percent of those polled reckoned mobile tech for engagement with customers is strategically “very important” to their enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Look Back at ONUG NYC 2015

ONUG Logo

I had a great time at the Open Networking Users Group meeting in NYC last month. Shortly afterward, I took a moment to think back on what I’d seen there, and that post was published on Gestalit.com. I won’t reproduce it here, so please take a moment to read my post at the source (gestaltit.com) and let me know what you think (here or there; either is fine). Topics covered include:

  • Containerized microservices
  • Software Defined WAN
  • Cross-functional teams
  • Adoption rates of new technologies

ONUG covered some cool stuff; I hope you enjoy the post.

 

Disclosure

My post at GestaltIT is a sponsored post as part of the ONUG Spring 2015 Tech Talk Series, part of the larger Tech Talks series.

If you liked this post, please do click through to the source at A Look Back at ONUG NYC 2015 and give me a share/like. Thank you!

GSM switch off good news for phone users, not for connected devices

Carriers around the world are converging on 2017 as the year to turn off their GSM networks, with three operators in Singapore announcing Monday their plans to reuse their GSM spectrum for other services.The end of GSM will free up more bandwidth for faster 3G and 4G network technologies—but will also force users of older connected devices that depend on GSM networks to upgrade or replace them.On Monday Singaporean operators M1, Singtel and StarHub became the latest operators to set a timetable for turning off their GSM networks. They will do so on April 1, 2017, following in the footsteps of Telstra in Australia, which plans to do so by the end of 2016, and AT&T in the U.S, which will flip the switch on Jan. 1, 2017.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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