Preparing for your Windows Server upgrade

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

f you’ve been clinging to Windows Server 2003 trying to ignore the fact that Microsoft will officially end support July 14, 2015, you’re playing with fire. One the updates stop, you’ll be exposed to troubling security and compliance risks. Take note that in 2013 alone, 37 updates were issued by Microsoft for Windows Server 2003/R2.

Yet upgrading servers is a resource challenge as well as a mindset issue. The top barrier for migration, according to a survey, is the belief that existing systems are working just fine, and many users worry about software incompatibility.

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IF { you like this blog } THEN { donate to my annual charitable campaign }

I am raising money for the Mt. Washington Observatory (MWO), a non-profit organization engaged in weather research in New Hampshire. I am joining the 15th annual Seek The Peak fundraiser for the MWO. The idea is simple: hike to the summit, with pledgers backing the adventure. If you've gotten value from the Packet Pushers podcast or this blog, I'd appreciate it if you'd donate to my Seek the Peak campaign. For the first three networking vendors that donate $1,000 or more, I'll have my picture taken at the Mt. Washington summit sign with your wearable and thank you in a blog post here.

Breach detection: Five fatal flaws and how to avoid them

IT Security today is not about defending a (non-existent) perimeter, but about protecting the organization’s attack surface, which has changed dramatically due to the cloud, mobility, BYOD, and other advances in corporate computing that have caused fundamental shifts in network architecture and operations.

Practically speaking, it means you need to monitor what is occurring inside the firewall just as much (if not more) than what is outside trying to make its way in. Think of it as a post breach mindset based on a “1,000 points of light” model as opposed to a “moat and castle” model of defense.

In theory its evolutionary, but given the accelerated pace in which security organizations have matured, it is not necessarily an easy transition to make. Not only has the threat landscape changed, but there has been constant flux in the leadership, skills, tools and budget required.

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How to check your Docker container – video

Once you've configured a Docker container, you'll probably want to see how it's configured. In this video excerpt from the Pearson/Addison-Wesley training course "Docker Containers LiveLessons", Christopher Negus will show you how to use commands such as docker inspect - View container information Pid - Check process ID of a running container IPAddress - See the IP address of a running container Binds - See bind mounts nsenter - Access a running container's name spaces Watch the video:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Computex 2015: The powerful, wacky, and important PC gear you need to know about

Computex keeps it realOne of the last major tech expos of the year just took place in Taiwan, and with it came a flood of major PC news as manufacturers rush to prepare for Windows 10 and the crucial holiday shopping season.Intel provided more Skylake details and introduced Broadwell-H chips, Microsoft dropped a Windows 10 release date, AMD revealed a new processor of its own, and crazy peripherals and gaming gear were everywhere. (How does a 128GB flash drive mice the size of a dime and Decepticon-like laser-projected mice sound?) Here's all the most interesting and momentous news from Computex, compiled in one handy-dandy spot in no particular order.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AnsibleFest Presentations

Untitled_design_3First, we'd like to thank EVERYONE who attended, was a sponsor, or just followed along online via the AnsibleFest hashtag. While we will have a more in-depth recap, which will include video, we wanted to make sure the speaker's slides were easily available to everyone.

From Ansible:

Bill Nottingham - Ansible Tower 2.2

 

 

James Cammarata - Ansible V2 and beyond

Brian Coca - Ansible Tips & Tricks
Alan Norton - Betterment - Cyansible
Walter Bentley - Rackspace - Operating Your Openstack Cloud Using Ansible

Irakli Nadareishvili - API Academy- Building a Docker-ized Microservice In Node, Using Ansible

Worth Reading 06:04

It’s been a bit of a crazy week — out to SFO, where I saw a lot of old friends, for NANOG. I picked up the top shirt on my pile this morning, and discovered it’s an old NANOG shirt, SFO in 2004 (!). The good news is the NANOG folks get their videos on line really fast — and all of them are worth watching. The channel is here, but I’d like to especially point out the talks on active monitoring, QUIC, and OpenConnect. Yes, my presentation is there, too.

One point to remember is that as the “network guy,” you stand between people and their funny cat videos. While people get mad about plumbing, they seem to get irate about their network access — because it’s all virtual it all seems so easy, I guess. It doesn’t help that the modern face of IT tends to be large companies that have a virtual monopoly and totally horrible customer service. But whatever the reason, it means you have to be extra careful not to step on people’s toes when you’re doing network engineering — the perception doesn’t have to be reality to impact your life.

A really good Continue reading

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, June 5

Records on 4 million people stolen in huge government data breachIn what may be one of the biggest data breaches ever affecting the U.S. government, hackers broke into the systems of the Office of Personnel Management and the records of approximately four million people have been stolen. Investigators suspect hackers based in China and have linked this latest intrusion to earlier hacks into health insurers Anthem and Wellspring, the New York Times reports. An executive of security firm iSight told the Times that researchers believe the hacking group is creating a huge database of personally identifiable information “that they can reach back to for further activity.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Video: Scale-Out NAT

Network Address Translation (NAT) is one of those stateful services that’s almost impossible to scale out, because you have to distribute the state of the service (NAT mappings) across all potential ingress and egress points.

Midokura implemented distributed stateful services architecture in their Midonet product, but faced severe scalability challenges, which they claim to have solved with more intelligent state distribution.

Read more ...

Acer says Predator 8 gaming tablet primed for September launch

Acer couldn’t keep the mystery around the launch of its highly-anticipated Acer Predator 8-inch gaming tablet bottled up for too long.The tablet could launch sometime in September, with a big event planned for Europe, said a representative at the Acer booth on the Computex show floor this week.The tablet was first shown on stage in April at a lavish event at the World Trade Center in New York. At the time, Acer CEO Jason Chen said during an interview that the tablet details were being finalized and more details would be shared at launch. However, no specific launch date was provided.But details about the tablet starting trickling out much earlier at Computex in Taipei this week. It will run on Android OS and have Intel’s Atom processor code-named Cherry Trail, which has two times faster graphics than the aging predecessor chip code-named Bay Trail. The Cherry Trail chip is also used in Microsoft’s Surface 3, which started shipping last month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft provides privacy dashboard ahead of Windows 10 launch

Microsoft gave its privacy policy and service agreement a facelift Thursday, and offered users a new central clearinghouse to manage privacy settings for all the data the company keeps about them.The newly-minted privacy dashboard (included in the Security and Privacy section of Microsoft’s account administration page) gives users links to control data stored for personalizing their experience on Bing, what apps and services use their information, whether Microsoft personalizes ads for them and whether the company can market to them via email. It’s part of a move by the company to unify and simplify most of its service agreements and privacy policies for various products under one document.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What outsourcing engagement model is right for you?

Outsourcing should be a strategic partnership, not a simple hand-off of duties to a third-party. Getting that right requires smart preparation.

Implemented correctly, strategic partnerships are a happy collaboration where expectations of delivery and results are clear from the start. By bringing in outside minds, it’s possible to innovate and drive your product to levels beyond what your internal team might have accomplished. New ideas can come from anywhere.

+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD IT outsourcing deal values hit 10-year low +

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Week in Review

This week was a busy one. I had the opportunity to speak at a local NYC Ansible meetup, to a group of high school computer science students, and then on a panel at AnsibleFest yesterday in New York. Here is a short recap.

NYC Ansible Meetup - Tuesday June 2

Clearly the presentation was about network automation with Ansible. That probably goes without saying since it was an Ansible meetup! I’ve used these slides in other presentations throughout the year, so some are repetitive, but they usually hit some key points on the topic of network automation. Unfortunately, I did not know this was being streamed lived when it took place, but luckily the organizers recorded it too. Link is below.

Note: the presentation doesn’t start until about the 30:30 mark. From there on out, it’s about half presentation and then half live demo of using Ansible for Network Automation.

Here is the link to the video: Network Automation with Ansible

High School Talk - Wednesday June 3

A local high school about 20 mins from where I grew up asked me to come in to talk about a career in IT. The school is the Pascack Valley Regional Continue reading

Facebook’s lean Android app is less than 1MB in size

Facebook has released a stripped down version of its Android app aimed at growing its service in developing countries and other areas with poor connectivity.The Facebook Lite app is less than 1MB in size—far less than the regular app—making it quick to download and install. It retains core features including the News Feed, status updates, photos and notifications, Facebook said. The company had been testing the app since at least January.The app started to roll out Thursday in some Asian countries, and will be available in parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe in the coming weeks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US reports massive breach of government personnel data

The U.S. is investigating a massive data breach that exposed personal information on around 4 million federal government workers, according to news reports Thursday.China is suspected of having a hand in the attack, described by an unnamed official as “one of the largest thefts of government data ever seen,” the Wall Street Journal reported.The attack targeted the Office of Personnel Management, a government agency tasked with hiring and retaining government workers. The same agency was breached last year, but this was apparently a separate attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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