Tech pros’ favorite tools increase IT efficiency

Content is core to the work of Densho, an organization whose mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were held in internment camps during World War II.In the past, Densho needed a complex storage environment to house its 30TB of production data, says Geoff Froh, deputy director and CIO at the nonprofit organization based in Seattle.“The two-tier infrastructure was composed of high-performance SAN hardware and high-capacity consumer-grade NAS appliances. The SAN was expensive, difficult to manage and not scalable. The NAS gear was unreliable and lacked the IOPS to handle our workload,” Froh recalls.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fave Raves: 34 tech pros share favorite IT products

Fave Raves 2015We asked, and IT pros answered. Their favorite tech products keep people productive and enterprise assets running safely and efficiently. Check out the must-haves.SEE ALSO: Security pros name their must-have tools | Go-to storage and disaster recovery products | IT pros in retail are sold on these 6 products | Tech pros' favorite tools increase IT efficiency | To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VCDX-NV Interview: Ron Flax On The Importance Of Network Virtualization

Ron Flax is the Vice President of August Schell, a reseller of VMware products and IT services company that specializes in delivering services to commercial accounts and the federal government, particularly intelligence and U.S. Department of Defense. RonFlaxRon is a VCDX-NV certified network virtualization professional and a VMware vExpert. We spoke with Ron about network virtualization and the NSX career path.

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The most exciting thing about network virtualization, I think, is the transformative nature of this technology. Networks have been built the same way for the last 20 to 25 years. Nothing has really changed. A lot of new features have been built, a lot of different technologies have come around networks, but the fundamental nature of how networks are built has not changed. But VMware NSX, because it’s a software-based product, has completely altered everything. It enables a much more agile approach to networks: the ability to automate the stand-up and tear-down of networks; the ability to produce firewalling literally at the virtual network interface. And because things are done at software speed, you can now make changes to the features and functions of networking products at software speed. You no longer have to deal with Continue reading

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 16

In antitrust case, EC could have a tough time proving Google abuseA European Commission victory in its antitrust case against Google is not a sure bet. The narrowly defined case, focusing on search results that allegedly favor Google Shopping, indicates that the Commission thought that broad charges would not stick, legal experts say. And to successfully conclude the case, the Commission must show that Google’s actions harm not just competitors, but consumers as well, which could be a stretch.Israeli camera tech may be lens on future Apple productsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 16

In antitrust case, EC could have a tough time proving Google abuseA European Commission victory in its antitrust case against Google is not a sure bet. The narrowly defined case, focusing on search results that allegedly favor Google Shopping, indicates that the Commission thought that broad charges would not stick, legal experts say. And to successfully conclude the case, the Commission must show that Google’s actions harm not just competitors, but consumers as well, which could be a stretch.Israeli camera tech may be lens on future Apple productsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Do I Get Started with SDN and Virtualization?

Here’s a short question I got from one of my readers:

I am a CCIE in SP/DC & working as Technical Architect in US. I follow your website but I don’t know where to start for SDN/Virtualization/Openstack…

I guess he’s not alone, so here’s a long list of resources I put together in the last 5+ years.

Before I get started: you’ll find links to most of these resources on ipSpace.net SDN Resources page.

Read more ...

YouTube flaw allowed copying comments from one video to another

An Egypt-based security researcher said Google has fixed an interesting vulnerability he and a colleague found in YouTube.Ahmed Aboul-Ela wrote on his blog that he and a fellow researcher, Ibrahim Mosaad, wanted to find a problem in a feature on YouTube “that not many bug hunters have tested.”They focused on a setting in YouTube that holds comments for review before they’re published. If that feature is enabled, comments are then listed in a control panel labeled “held for review.”Aboul-Ela wrote he intercepted the http request that is sent to Google when a comment is approved. The request contains two parameters: “comment_id” and “video_id.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CCNP RS – a road traveled

A former colleague who started following the blog asked about the study program used for the CCNP R/S. By the time an email reply was typed up I realized I had a blog post. Since this is fresh on the brain, here’s a breakdown.  Important note: I took the previous version of these exams. In […]

Author information

Quentin Demmon

Quentin Demmon
Network Engineer at Healthcare Specialty Benefits Management company

Quentin Demmon is a network engineer, hobbyist weightlifter (Olympic style), and wannabe philosopher. He is excited to be blogging about his CCIE journey in gory, melodramatic detail. Follow him on twitter, facebook, and instagram.

The post CCNP RS – a road traveled appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Quentin Demmon.

Dropbox to pay security researchers for bugs

Dropbox said Wednesday it will pay rewards to independent researchers who find software flaws in its applications, joining a growing list companies who see merit in crowdsourcing parts of their security testing.The popular file storage service previously publicly recognized researchers, but did not pay a reward, also sometimes referred to as a bug bounty.“In addition to hiring world class experts, we believe it’s important to get all the help we can from the security research community, too,” wrote Devdatta Akhawe, a Dropbox security engineer.Facebook, Google, Yahoo and many other large companies pay researchers rewards that are often determined by the seriousness of the software flaw. Running such programs are more efficient than hiring more security engineers since a company’s applications are analyzed by a larger number of people with diverse security skills.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AirDroid app fixes severe authentication vulnerability

AirDroid, a popular management tool for Android devices, has fixed a severe authentication software flaw in its Web interface that could give a hacker complete control over a mobile phone.The problem was fixed in an update released last month, wrote Matt Bryant, a consultant with the security company Bishop Fox, who discovered the flaw. Versions 3.0.4 and earlier of the tool are affected.AirDroid lets people manage their phone from a Windows or Mac tablet or through a Web interface. To do that, it asks for a lot of permissions, such as the ability to send text messages, turn on a camera and have access to the phone, among many others.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ISDN error codes

000 0001 1 Unallocated (unassigned) number 000 0010 2 No route to specified transit network 000 0011 3 No route to destination 000 0110 6 Channel Unacceptable 000 0111 7 Call awarded and being delivered in an established channel 001 0000 16 Normal call clearing 001 0001 17 User busy 001 0010 18 No user […]

ISDN error codes

000 0001 1 Unallocated (unassigned) number 000 0010 2 No route to specified transit network 000 0011 3 No route to destination 000 0110 6 Channel Unacceptable 000 0111 7 Call awarded and being delivered in an established channel 001 0000 16 Normal call clearing 001 0001 17 User busy 001 0010 18 No user […]

Dynamic Kubernetes installation/configuration with SaltStack

I’ve been playing more with SaltStack recently and I realized that my first attempt at using Salt to provision my cluster was a little shortsighted.  The problem was, it only worked for my exact lab configuration.  After playing with Salt some more, I realized that the Salt configuration could be MUCH more dynamic than what I had initially deployed.  That being said, I developed a set of Salt states that I believe can be consumed by anyone wanting to deploy a Kubernetes lab on bare metal.  To do this, I used a few more of the features that SaltStack has to offer.  Namely, pillars and the built-in Jinja templating language.

My goal was to let anyone with some Salt experience be able to quickly deploy a fully working Kubernetes cluster.  That being said, the Salt configuration can be tuned to your specific environment.  Have 3 servers you want to try Kubernetes on?  Have 10?  All you need to do is have some servers that meet the following prerequisites and tune the Salt config to your environment.

Environment Prerequisites
-You need at least 2 servers, one for the master and one for Continue reading

WWDC 2015 to kick off on June 8

Apple yesterday announced that WWDC 2015 will kick off on June 8 and run through June 12. The event will take place at San Francisco's Moscone West event center and, per usual, will showcase upcoming versions of OS X and iOS.“The App Store ignited an app ecosystem that is simply amazing, forever changing the lives of customers and creating millions of jobs worldwide,” Apple's Phil Schiller said in a press release. “We’ve got incredible new technologies for iOS and OS X to share with developers at WWDC and around the world, and can’t wait to see the next generation of apps they create.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent just as John Chambers predicted

ALLEN, TX -- Nokia’s $16.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent is an example of the industry shifting just as Cisco predicted, its CEO said this week.Cisco CEO John Chambers has said that the IT industry in in for some “brutal” consolidation with perhaps only two or three of the top five companies standing in five years. Alcatel-Lucent may be vanishing if Nokia’s offer to swallow the company up is approved.“The market is playing out just as we expected,” Chambers said during an exclusive interview with Network World at Cisco IT Data Center Day here. “It’s going to be brutal, with some musical chairs. They missed market transitions so now they have to move rapidly.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent just as John Chambers predicted

ALLEN, TX -- Nokia’s $16.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent is an example of the industry shifting just as Cisco predicted, its CEO said this week.Cisco CEO John Chambers has said that the IT industry in in for some “brutal” consolidation with perhaps only two or three of the top five companies standing in five years. Alcatel-Lucent may be vanishing if Nokia’s offer to swallow the company up is approved.“The market is playing out just as we expected,” Chambers said during an exclusive interview with Network World at Cisco IT Data Center Day here. “It’s going to be brutal, with some musical chairs. They missed market transitions so now they have to move rapidly.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here