US Senate leader to push for vote to renew NSA phone dragnet

The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to move forward on efforts to extend the section of the Patriot Act that the National Security Agency has used to collect millions of domestic telephone records.Congress is facing an effective deadline of this weekend to extend the phone records collection section of the antiterrorism law, with Section 215 of the Patriot Act expiring June 1 and lawmakers scheduled to take a weeklong break after finishing business this week.On Thursday, Senators were wrestling with three alternatives: allow the Patriot Act’s records collection program to expire, extend the program with no new limits, or pass a House of Representatives bill that aims to end bulk records collection but allows the NSA to search phone and business records in a more targeted manner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feds want terabit-speed optical SDN-based system

A branch in the US Department of Energy want to take software-defined network technology and combine it with a high-speed underlying optical system that will be capable of supporting large scientific applications.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+Specifically the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research in the Office of Science at the U.S. DOE said that networks are becoming too complicated to manage and control, especially as they provide critical support for sophisticated distributed extreme-scale science activities and Big Data-intensive scientific collaborations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feds want terabit-speed optical SDN-based system

A branch in the US Department of Energy want to take software-defined network technology and combine it with a high-speed underlying optical system that will be capable of supporting large scientific applications.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+Specifically the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research in the Office of Science at the U.S. DOE said that networks are becoming too complicated to manage and control, especially as they provide critical support for sophisticated distributed extreme-scale science activities and Big Data-intensive scientific collaborations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP’s profit slips 21 percent as services business stumbles

Hewlett-Packard has reported another drop in quarterly revenue and profit, with a notable 16 percent slide in its enterprise services business.The company said it’s on track to divide itself into two companies later this year, but made a last minute change to its leadership plans: CFO Cathie Lesjak will move to HP Inc., the division that will sell PCs and printers, and not to HP Enterprise, as originally planned.HP has been trying to expand its business for a few years without success, and the split is a bold gambit to see if can perform better as two companies. Revenue slipped 7 percent in the quarter ended April 30, to $25.5 billion—its 15th straight quarter of declining sales.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Next Step: Brocade

I am happy to announce that I am now a Product Manager at Brocade. This is a big move for me, and one I am very excited about. I will get to work on the future of networking with a lot of smart people .

Why Brocade?

It’s simple really:

He aha te mea nui o te ao?
He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!

What is the most important thing in the world?
It is people! It is people! It is people!

Brocade has hired a lot of very clever people. This includes several Tech Field Day delegates, such as @joshobrien77, @Cloudtoad and @DavidJohnGee. I want to learn & grow, and being surrounded by great people is one of the best ways to do that.

Of course there’s more to it than just people. The problem with attending events like Network Field Day is that it’s addictive. You spend a week talking with smart people about the future. Big discussions, about what’s wrong with the current state, and what the future could be.

Then you return to a job where you’re working with networks that haven’t changed operation in over a decade. Adding VLANs to a 3750 and editing Check Point firewall rules Continue reading

Salesforce Community Cloud gets recommendation tool to boost engagement

After launching its Community Cloud last August for companies trying to engage their customers online, Salesforce has now given the platform a major update.Community Cloud, designed to let companies create their own “LinkedIn-style” communities for customers, partners and employees, has a new Targeted Recommendations feature aimed at promoting user engagement in these sites.Powered by algorithms that analyze both structured and unstructured data, the new feature is designed to bring community members the most relevant content, including posts, resources, files and groups. Community managers can suggest content with specific information or post an announcement into the feed and direct it at a specific group, member type or individual. Within a fitness-related community, for example, one could offer a coupon for running shoes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PayPal hypes its mobile strengths ahead of IPO

As PayPal prepares for its upcoming IPO as an independent eBay spinoff, it wants to make at least one thing clear: It’s got mobile covered.Over the past couple years, the payments company has re-engineered its back-end technology to become a strongerplatform for merchants, letting them incorporate a wider range of features into their payments services and improve the checkout process for customers. Many of the changes have been aimed squarely at improving the payment process on mobile devices.Roughly one-third of transactions processed by PayPal now come from mobile devices, PayPal President and incoming CEO Dan Schulman said Thursday during an event in San Francisco. In 2010, mobile was responsible for only about 1 percent of the company’s transactions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PayPal hypes its mobile strengths ahead of IPO

As PayPal prepares for its upcoming IPO as an independent eBay spinoff, it wants to make at least one thing clear: It’s got mobile covered.Over the past couple years, the payments company has re-engineered its back-end technology to become a strongerplatform for merchants, letting them incorporate a wider range of features into their payments services and improve the checkout process for customers. Many of the changes have been aimed squarely at improving the payment process on mobile devices.Roughly one-third of transactions processed by PayPal now come from mobile devices, PayPal President and incoming CEO Dan Schulman said Thursday during an event in San Francisco. In 2010, mobile was responsible for only about 1 percent of the company’s transactions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

#Simple OpenStack Collaboration Day Recap

Untitled_designWe were excited to announce our Simple OpenStack Initiative earlier this week which kicked off with our Collaboration Day in Vancouver at the OpenStack Summit.

The weather, the setting and the conference overall have been just fantastic. I wanted to recap some of the discussions we had in during our collaboration day as it was the perfect jumpstart to this already great week.

We had solid participation from across the board -– networking and hardware leaders, consultants, cloud providers, etc. -- and it reinforced to me how much interest there is in Ansible, and how many angles there are to consider while trying to remain true to our mission of simplicity.

Ansible’s goal is to help everyone move faster to make OpenStack more viable. We really don’t have a horse in the race; we are not in the business of betting on who will get there first, or better.  We just want OpenStack to work, for all of us.

There were two high-level themes to the day --  undercloud and overcloud -- and lots of listening, learning and active discussions.

The Undercloud Discussion: OSAD and friends

Kevin Carter of Rackspace, PTL of the OS-Ansible-Deployment (OSAD) project, opened the day with Continue reading

Patent shows Apple’s interesting mobile Wi-Fi hotspot idea

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an Apple patent application today that suggests the company has explored a new kind of mobile hotspot technology that is easier to set up, provides a more reliable connection, and has a longer battery life.The patent application, first reported by Apple Insider, is for a small, cylindrical Wi-Fi hotspot device consisting of two pieces: one containing the networking hardware, the other a battery pack. Screw the two pieces together and you have a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Debunked: Your SSD won’t lose data if left unplugged after all

If you’re in a panic because the Internet told you that your shiny new SSD may lose data in “just a few days” when stored in a hot room, take a chill pill—it’s apparently all a huge misunderstanding, according to the man who wrote the original presentation all the fear is based on.In a conversation with Kent Smith of Seagate and Alvin Cox, the Seagate engineer who wrote the presentation that set the Internet abuzz, PCWorld was told we’re all just reading it wrong.“People have misunderstood the data that they’re looking at,” Smith said. Cox agreed saying there’s no reason to fret. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Weighing your options with Microsoft’s Windows servers

In the course of this year, almost 10 million antiquated Windows Server 2003 servers will have their applications and data removed and deployed on new servers, and the old servers will be shut down and disposed of. It is a natural assumption that the destination servers will be Server 2012, but that's not necessarily the case, nor should it be.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 10 (FREE!) Microsoft tools to make admins happier You have three choices from Microsoft: Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and the Azure cloud service. Here are the pros and cons of each.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP sells majority stake of China server, storage business to Tsinghua Holdings

Hewlett-Packard has sold a majority stake in its China server and storage business to Tsinghua Holdings as they launch a joint venture they expect will boost sales of HP enterprise hardware products in the country.Tsinghua will buy 51 percent of the joint venture, called H3C, for US$2.3 billion. H3C will include HP’s China-based server, storage and technology services assets, as well H3C Technologies, an HP networking equipment subsidiary in China.The transaction comes ahead of HP’s plan to split its enterprise and PC and printing business into separate companies, which is expected to happen by the end of the year. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will sell software and enterprise hardware, while HP Inc. will sell printers, PCs, mobile devices, monitors and accessories.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The 8 things we’re looking for at Google I/O 2015

Don’t call it a developer conference… …when it’s really Google Prom. OK, it’s also a developer conference, but isn’t that what you picture if I say the words “Google Prom?” I/O generally features at least a couple fairly major announcements from Google, and the 2015 edition isn’t expected to disappoint. Here are the seven things we’re looking for this time around.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The 7 things we’re looking for at Google I/O 2015

Don’t call it a developer conference… …when it’s really Google Prom. OK, it’s also a developer conference, but isn’t that what you picture if I say the words “Google Prom?” I/O generally features at least a couple fairly major announcements from Google, and the 2015 edition isn’t expected to disappoint. Here are the seven things we’re looking for this time around.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco bypassed Russia sanctions to continue sales: report

Cisco reportedly skirted sanctions in order to sell networking equipment to Russia’s military.In an investigative piece published this week, Buzzfeed alleges Cisco knowingly sold gear through straw companies fronting for Russian government and military institutions in violation of American sanctions. Cisco denies any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the scheme, allegedly perpetrated by its Russian operations, according to Buzzfeed.Cisco says some of the bogus customer names were errors, Buzzfeed reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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