Charter-Time Warner deal would get tough regulatory scrutiny

Charter Communications' planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable faces a regulatory review by the same federal officials who were widely blamed for nixing the recent proposed merger of Time Warner with Comcast.The $55 billion deal (plus $23 billion in debt) between TWC and Charter, announced Tuesday, led immediately to an unusual three-sentence challenge by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler that succinctly stated: "The Commission will look to see how American consumers will benefit if the deal were to be approved."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rubrik and Converged Data Management

Rubrik today announced a new Series B investment (of $41 million) and introduced their r300 Series Hybrid Cloud Appliance, powered by what they’re touting as a “Converged Data Management” platform. Wow—that’s a mouthful, isn’t it? It sounds a bit like buzzword bingo, but after having spent a bit of time talking to Rubrik last week, there are some interesting (in my opinion) things going on here.

So what exactly is Rubrik doing? Here’s the “TL;DR” for those of you that don’t have the patience (or the time) for anything more in-depth: Rubrik is targeting the secondary storage and backup/recovery market with a solution that combines a distributed file system, a distributed metadata service, clustering, and a distributed task scheduler to provide a scale-out backup/recovery solution that also seamlessly integrates cloud storage platforms for long-term retention. The catch-phrase they’re using is “Time Machine for cloud infrastructure” (I wonder how our good friends in Cupertino will react to the use of that phrase?).

Here’s a bit more detail on the various components of the solution:

  • Rubrik has its own distributed file system (imaginatively named the Rubrik Cloud-Scale File System) that was designed from scratch to store and manage versioned data. The Continue reading

Here’s how Android apps can track you without asking permission

Researchers in Denmark say that it’s child’s play to track your Android phone via Wi-Fi even if the Wi-Fi is nominally turned off – and even if you didn’t let an app track your location.Apps distributed via Google Play have to enumerate the precise permissions they require in order to function – something simple like a flashlight doesn’t (or shouldn’t, anyway) require anything more than access to the camera, so that it can use the flash. More complicated apps with deeper features might need more extensive permissions, including access to the phone’s location data, whether that’s obtained via GPS or Wi-Fi.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Seven best practices for cloud security | Richard Stallman: Windows OS is malware +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Italian court bans UberPop, threatens fine

A judge in Milan banned UberPop in Italy on Tuesday, ruling that the car-hailing service constitutes unfair competition for taxi drivers.Judge Claudio Marangoni said a complaint lodged by taxi drivers’ associations and trade unions was well-founded and the UberPop smartphone app linking private drivers with passengers is provoking a rapid growth in illegal taxi services.Marangoni gave San Francisco-based Uber, which controls a global business estimated to be worth around US$40 billion, 15 weeks to comply with his order or face a fine of €20,000 (US$22,000) per day.Uber had indicated it would appeal a negative ruling and seek to change Italian and European regulations that affect its operations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Building a CCIE Wireless v3 Home Lab on the “Cheap”

With the new version of the CCIE Wireless lab coming in September, many people will be looking to start preparing for their lab attempts. But one look at the hardware list for the exam shows that fully replicating the lab will be out of reach for just about everyone, unless your work already has a spectacular lab. But as with most every track, you can typically practice most things on a home lab without breaking the bank if you look at alternative options.

Before I list out my recommendations for a home lab, know that it will have some significant limitations. It’s not something that you could become fully lab ready on. Also, you will have a hard time following along with the workbooks that I’ll be putting out due to the restricted number of devices and the restricted feature sets available to them. But for self-directed study, this will allow you to practice a large portion of the v3 blueprint.

Recommended Hardware

These recommendations assume that you are starting a lab from scratch and don’t have existing equipment to pull from. If you have better stuff than what I recommend, use them.

WLCs

You will probably want to use Continue reading

Over 4 billion people still have no Internet connection

The number of people using the Internet is growing at a steady rate, but 4.2 billion out of 7.4 billion will still be offline by the end of the year.Overall, 35.3 percent of people in developing countries will use the Internet, compared to 82.2 percent in developed countries, according to data from the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). People who live in the so-called least developed countries will the worst off by far: In those nations only 9.5 percent will be connected by the end of December.This digital divide has resulted in projects such as the Facebook-led Internet.org. Earlier this month, Facebook sought to address some of the criticism directed at the project, including charges that it is a so-called walled garden, putting a limit on the types of services that are available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Over 4 billion people still have no Internet connection

The number of people using the Internet is growing at a steady rate, but 4.2 billion out of 7.4 billion will still be offline by the end of the year.Overall, 35.3 percent of people in developing countries will use the Internet, compared to 82.2 percent in developed countries, according to data from the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). People who live in the so-called least developed countries will the worst off by far: In those nations only 9.5 percent will be connected by the end of December.This digital divide has resulted in projects such as the Facebook-led Internet.org. Earlier this month, Facebook sought to address some of the criticism directed at the project, including charges that it is a so-called walled garden, putting a limit on the types of services that are available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Bootstrapping Servers into Ansible

As part of a lab rebuild I’ve been doing over the last few weeks (funny how hardware failures can lead to a lab rebuild), I’ve been expanding the use of Ansible for configuration automation. In this post, I’m going to share the process I’ve created for bootstrapping newly-built servers into Ansible.

I developed this Ansible bootstrapping process to work in conjunction with the fully automated Ubuntu installation method that I described in an earlier post. The idea is that I would be able to boot a new server (virtual or physical), choose a configuration from the PXE menu, and a few minutes later have a built Ubuntu system. Then, with a single command, I could “bootstrap” the server into an Ansible configuration automation system. This latter part—configuring systems to work with Ansible—is what I’ll be describing here.

First, a (very) brief overview of Ansible. Ansible is a configuration automation tool that leverages standard SSH connections to remote devices in order to perform its work. Ansible is agentless, so no software has to be pre-installed on the managed servers, but this means Ansible has to authenticate against remote systems in order to establish these SSH connections. This authentication should, in ideal Continue reading

EMC scoops up Virtustream for cloud management in $1.2B deal

EMC is purchasing the privately held Virtustream software provider for approximately $1.2 billion to expand its portfolio of cloud management tools.Storage systems provider EMC will use Virtustream technology to aid customers moving to cloud-based services as an alternative to running data centers in-house. Virtustream's software can be used to manage complex enterprise applications, such as SAP's S/4HANA, so they can be run effectively on hosted infrastructure services.MORE M&A: 2015 Enterprise networking & IT M&A tracker Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Virtustream will be the basis of a new business unit at EMC. Rodney Rogers, the CEO of Virtustream, will lead the new business cloud services unit and report to EMC CEO Joe Tucci.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Watch Google I/O livestream here

Google I/O 2015 kicks off Wednesday, May 28, from the Moscone Center in San Francisco, at 9 a.m. PST (Noon EST.) So it’s just about smack-dab in the center of the working week, if you’re on the East Coast. That might well mean that you’re just sitting down to lunch, so you could do a lot worse than tune in right here for a live stream of the opening keynote. What, exactly, is going to be said, we don’t know, but the kickoff is generally where Google makes the biggest, splashiest announcements of the event. These may be big surprises, so make sure you’re not facing your monitor if you have to do a spit-take.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

7 key criteria for defining edge data centers

The explosion of the cloud and internet-based content has created the need to move the internet's "edge," closer to where the users are. Historically, the "edge" had been limited to tier-1 cities, such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. If a user in a tier-2 city, such as St. Paul, wanted to access internet-based content, the data would actually come from the closest edge location, in this case Chicago.If the user is just doing general browsing, it's hard to notice whether you're near or far from the edge. However, for any kind of mission-critical or real-time traffic like video, cloud-based applications, or gaming, the extra latency can significantly degrade performance and increase security risks.   To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Reflections on OpenStack Summit 2015 – A Market Maturing

I just came back from the OpenStack Summit 2015 in Vancouver and have finally caught my breath, so I can share some insights from this important event. It was incredible to bear witness to the continued growth of the OpenStack community in general and this event in particular. I still remember the very early summits when this industry was in its infancy. Back then, it seemed that most of the attendees were engineers conducting design sessions. This past week was gratifying to see how many real customers and actual OpenStack users were at the show. I would even go so far as to say they constituted the majority of the attendees.

Pic 1 for blog

Cumulus Networks co-founder and CTO Nolan Leake talks with visitors at the Cumulus Networks booth.

OpenStack Users Love Cumulus Networks

Cumulus Networks was very much present throughout the show — in our booth, in our partners’ booths, in panel sessions and, apparently, in the minds of many of the attendees. Cumulus Linux was seen as a universal network OS underlay for a variety of architectures. In addition to the sessions featuring our co-founder and CTO Nolan Leake, it was exciting to hear Cumulus Networks mentioned in many of the sessions I Continue reading

Research community looks to SDN to help distribute data from the Large Hadron Collider

When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) starts back up in June, the data collected and distributed worldwide for research will surpass the 200 petabytes exchanged among LHC sites the last time the collider was operational. Network challenges at this scale are different from what enterprises typically confront, but Harvey Newman, Professor of Physics at Caltech, who has been a leader in global scale networking and computing for the high energy physics community for the last 30 years, and Julian Bunn, Principal Computational Scientist at Caltech, hope to introduce a technology to this rarified environment that enterprises are also now contemplating:  Software Defined Networking (SDN).  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently sat down with Newman and Bunn to get a glimpse inside the demanding world of research networks and the promise of SDN.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hyundai now offers an Android car, even for current owners

Android Auto, a product that up until now was only talked about by industry insiders and journalists, just shipped this week.Well, it didn't really ship, because it is being released as a software update to the 2015 Hyundai Sonata that existing owners can download. It will also be factory-installed on new models. Android Auto is an attempt to incorporate the convenience and safety of pairing a smartphone to a car without the distraction. It also points out that the car has become a software-driven mobile device, not unlike computers and smartphones.See also: Volvo charges extra for self-driving car feature that brakes for pedestrians Android Auto reduces driver distraction from smartphone use by integrating the smartphone with the console stereo system that the industry calls a head-unit. It focuses the driver's attention in short, safe interactions with the console display when using Android apps. According to Hyundai, "at any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving, a number that has held steady since 2010." Distracted driving endangers drivers and their passengers, as well as those who share the road with them. According to the National Safety Board, Continue reading

Microsoft developing Cortana app for iOS, Android

Microsoft is bringing Cortana to iOS and Android smartphones, extending the voice-controlled personal assistant to platforms beyond Windows 10 and Windows Phone.Using the Cortana iOS and Android apps people will be able to dictate emails, set appointments and conduct Web searches by speaking commands, among other features. The app will also let people arrange to receive notifications like sports scores and flight information.Windows 10 will include a program called Phone Companion to help people set up on Cortana and sync their PCs with their smartphone, whether it runs iOS, Android or Windows Phone. The Phone Companion program will also let users sync OneNote, Music, Office and OneDrive between their Windows 10 PC and their Android, iOS or Windows Phone smartphone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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