Can gamification solve enterprises’ engagement problem?

If 90 percent of the world’s workforce were suddenly struck with a debilitating illness that rendered them unable to perform to their fullest potential, it would be declared a global crisis.In enterprises, that statistic is more or less the norm.Just 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs, a recent Gallup report found—meaning that they’re “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.”The remaining 87 percent? Not so much. They’re either “not engaged or indifferent—or even worse, actively disengaged and potentially hostile—to their organizations.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Lightbulbs get smarter with included Wi-Fi and speakers

If your place is larger than an apartment, there's a good chance that you spend a bit of time, periodically, going around changing lightbulbs.It's one of those things. Like cutting the grass and placing the garbage cans at the curb, it's the price you pay.Replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs can go some of the way towards solving this onerous time-absorber. GE claims its screw-in LED light bulb replacements last 25 years, for example.They cost a bit more, but they do save on work. You shouldn't have to change them as often—if at all.Multifunction light bulbs Well, one Chinese LED light bulb manufacturer reckons it has solved this, and a couple of other home issues too. It has a solution to the problem of expiring bulbs, Wi-Fi dead spots in the home, and also the issue of trailing wires for audio speakers—all within the light bulb.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Lightbulbs get smarter with included Wi-Fi and speakers

If your place is larger than an apartment, there's a good chance that you spend a bit of time, periodically, going around changing lightbulbs.It's one of those things. Like cutting the grass and placing the garbage cans at the curb, it's the price you pay.Replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs can go some of the way towards solving this onerous time-absorber. GE claims its screw-in LED light bulb replacements last 25 years, for example.They cost a bit more, but they do save on work. You shouldn't have to change them as often—if at all.Multifunction light bulbs Well, one Chinese LED light bulb manufacturer reckons it has solved this, and a couple of other home issues too. It has a solution to the problem of expiring bulbs, Wi-Fi dead spots in the home, and also the issue of trailing wires for audio speakers—all within the light bulb.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Magnificent 7

Blog-post-Supermicr-01

Our Cumulus Networks team is very excited that Supermicro has joined our Open Hardware partner program, the latest major IT systems provider to join the industry-wide open networking movement.

Now there are Seven. 

Supermicro is a leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server, blade, storage, and networking technology for Green Computing – worldwide. Cumulus Linux on Supermicro bare-metal switches further extends the reach of the Supermicro solutions, enabling rapid deployment of a highly scalable, cost effective software-defined network infrastructure for data center, cloud, enterprise IT, big data and HPC.

As our seventh Open Hardware partner, Supermicro is now part of a very impressive list of providers on the Cumulus Linux HCL: Agema, Dell, Edge-Core, HP, Penguin, Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT), and Supermicro.

What does it mean for the industry? Open Networking is inevitable and Cumulus Networks is leading the way.

Major changes are underway in the IT industry that improve data center networking, allowing organizations of all sizes to leverage efficient technology that was developed by the world’s largest cloud operators. The resulting data center networks scale more easily, enable much faster innovation, and cost significantly less to build and operate. With data center infrastructure leaders like Supermicro embracing Continue reading

Managing your Out-of-Band Network with Linux

Initially when I was asked to blog about out-of-band management I thought to myself, as most people would, “this is too basic!”  What new thing could I cover?  Generally speaking, out-of-band management, like management in general, is an afterthought.  With that typical attitude, we make the mistake of placing low value on access to our network devices, seeing it as a simple back door when in reality it could provide so much more.

The idea of creating the Cumulus® RMP (Rack Management Platform) came about after talking to several customers whose approach was to purchase low-end switching platforms to meet their out-of-band management needs.  These closed network platforms provide such limited feature sets that it’s easy to dismiss their usefulness.  The team sat down and came up with the idea to “complete the rack.” Why not provide the same open networking capabilities that Linux servers and Cumulus® Linux® switches offer for out-of-band management? Thus Cumulus RMP was created.

Typical Deployment Scenarios

In general there are two basic scenarios when it comes to out-of-band management.  The first provides a simple but versatile L2 flat design leveraging VLANs to manage the switches and servers in the rack.  The Cumulus RMPs Continue reading

LG out to prove the G3 wasn’t a fluke with new flagship smartphone

The success of LG Electronics’ G3 has put the company under pressure to dazzle the market with the G4, set to debut Tuesday. The company is hoping that an improved display, upgraded camera and a new design will do the trick.LG has in the last couple of weeks done its best to steal some of the spotlight from already available Android-based smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC’s One M9, with a string of teasers and a program to let 4,000 people test the device before launch.The G4 is an important product for LG because the G3 pretty much put the company on the map, according to Ken Hong , global communications director at LG.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Second HTTPS snooping flaw breaks security for thousands of iOS apps

Attackers can potentially snoop on the encrypted traffic of over 25,000 iOS applications due to a vulnerability in a popular open-source networking library.The vulnerability stems from a failure to validate the domain names of digital certificates in AFNetworking, a library used by a large number of iOS and Mac OS X app developers to implement Web communications—including those over HTTPS (HTTP with SSL/TLS encryption).The flaw allows attackers in a position to intercept HTTPS traffic between a vulnerable application and a Web service to decrypt it by presenting the application with a digital certificate for a different domain name. Such man-in-the-middle attacks can be launched over insecure wireless networks, by hacking into routers or through other methods.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Interop attendees: Please share your coolest & funniest show photos with us on Instagram

The annual Interop networking show in Vegas this week is sure to be busy between all the SDN, cloud, mobility, security and other talks, a show floor packed with exhibitors from ABC Trading Solutions to Zippy Technology (truly), parties and other Vegas activities. We'll have a handful of editors at the show, but could use your help in capturing the coolest and funniest scenes from the show.We invite you to tag any photos you post to Instagram with #nww15 and we'll round up the best as part of our show coverage. We challenge you to find a funny SDN scene!(If you don't already follow us on Instagram, here you go.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Traceroute and Not-so-Equal ECMP

I came across an odd little issue recently involving equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing and traceroute. Traceroutes from within our network to destinations out on the Internet were following two different paths, with one path being one hop longer than the other. This resulted in mangled traceroute output, impeding our ability to troubleshoot.

The relevant network topology comprises a mesh of two edge routers and two core switches. Each edge router has a number of transit circuits to different providers, and advertises a default route via OSPF to the two core switches below. The core switches each load-balance traffic across both default routes to either edge routers.

topology.png

Because each edge router has different providers, some destinations are routed out via edge1 and others via edge2, which means sometimes a packet will be routed to edge2 via edge1, or vice versa.

two_paths.png

Routers typically employ a hash function using layer three and four information from each packet to pseudo-randomly distribute traffic across equal links. Typically, all packets belonging to a flow (e.g. all packets with the same source and destination IP and port numbers) follow the same path.

However, in this case traceroute packets were being split across two path of unequal Continue reading

Traceroute and Not-so-Equal ECMP

I came across an odd little issue recently involving equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing and traceroute. Traceroutes from within our network to destinations out on the Internet were following two different paths, with one path being one hop longer than the other. This resulted in mangled traceroute output, impeding our ability to troubleshoot.

The relevant network topology comprises a mesh of two edge routers and two core switches. Each edge router has a number of transit circuits to different providers, and advertises a default route via OSPF to the two core switches below. The core switches each load-balance traffic across both default routes to either edge routers.

topology.png

Because each edge router has different providers, some destinations are routed out via edge1 and others via edge2, which means sometimes a packet will be routed to edge2 via edge1, or vice versa.

two_paths.png

Routers typically employ a hash function using layer three and four information from each packet to pseudo-randomly distribute traffic across equal links. Typically, all packets belonging to a flow (e.g. all packets with the same source and destination IP and port numbers) follow the same path.

However, in this case traceroute packets were being split across two path of unequal Continue reading

Traceroute and Not-so-Equal ECMP

I came across an odd little issue recently involving equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing and traceroute. Traceroutes from within our network to destinations out on the Internet were following two different paths, with one path being one hop longer than the other. This resulted in mangled traceroute output, impeding our ability to troubleshoot.

The relevant network topology comprises a mesh of two edge routers and two core switches. Each edge router has a number of transit circuits to different providers, and advertises a default route via OSPF to the two core switches below. The core switches each load-balance traffic across both default routes to either edge routers.

topology.png

Because each edge router has different providers, some destinations are routed out via edge1 and others via edge2, which means sometimes a packet will be routed to edge2 via edge1, or vice versa.

two_paths.png

Routers typically employ a hash function using layer three and four information from each packet to pseudo-randomly distribute traffic across equal links. Typically, all packets belonging to a flow (e.g. all packets with the same source and destination IP and port numbers) follow the same path.

However, in this case traceroute packets were being split across two path of unequal Continue reading

In theory…

I don’t normally peruse the reviews of my books — while I appreciate well thought out criticism, I normally find personal notes from folks who’ve read my books more profitable for mining out where I’m falling down on the job as a writer than reviews posted on book seller or book review sites. But one specific book review caught my eye the other day that I think points to a larger issue in the world of engineering, especially network engineering. The reviewer stated, in essence, that there was not enough practical application in my more recent tomes, and that I’m covering the same information over and over again.

Let me begin here — I’m not writing this as a defense of my own writing so much as to think through a habit of mind I think doesn’t really help us as an engineering community.

As far as the facts on the ground go, the reviewer is right on both counts, and wrong on both counts. Let’s imagine, for a moment, that you want to understand how a car works. You approach three different people — one a race car driver, another a top flight mechanic, and another an engineer who Continue reading

Wireshark Certified Network Analyst !!

Well, I finally took the time to buckle down and take the WCNA – Wireshark Certified Network Analyst. Once I finished up with the exam I can happily say I successfully past the exam which I have to admit is pretty cool. Protocol Analysis is definitely an interesting set of technologies to learn & know, it is also […]

WINDOWS IS COMING? WINDOWS IS HERE!

WINDOWS...is_here

Back in June, we told you that Windows was coming. We’ve continued to improve the support, with the help of the outstanding Ansible community, and we’d like to highlight some of the improvements in Ansible 1.9. We now offer additional modules, support for domain authentication, and more.

For more information on Ansible’s Windows support, check out our Windows page, or our Ansible Intro to Windows documentation.

As always, we couldn’t do this without our outstanding Ansible community. Thanks to Chris Church, Jon Hawkesworth, Trond Hindenes, Peter Mounce, Chris Hoffman, Paul Durivage, and more!

The 23 top Apple Watch apps you should get

After a long wait since its introduction last fall -- including eight months and two events -- the Apple Watch is finally reaching customers. Some who managed to order at midnight PT on April 10 are getting their watches now; others who ordered a few minutes later will have to wait until mid-May. That's how quickly the Watch sold out. (I'm somewhere in between; my order went in quickly enough to be in the first batch sold, but I haven't yet received my Watch. At least I can read over the newly posted Apple Watch User Guide while I wait.)+ ALSO: 4 lessons the iPhone should learn from the Apple Watch +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hands on: The first Apple Watch apps for road warriors

Now that the Apple Watch is here, does it do enough useful things to be a standard item for executives, road warriors, and other digital denizens? The Apple Watch's home screen icons can be hard to read, but you can arrange them as you please with the same approach you use on an iPhone's home screen. Yes, you can do useful things on the Apple Watch, but few are that useful. Some are, in fact, downright stupid or useless. In this article, I'll show you which of 30 early Apple Watch apps likely to appeal to business users fall into which category.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 mobile work habits from around the world

Mobile has us working all the time in all kinds of placesImage by ShutterstockThanks to Apple, Samsung, BlackBerry and other mobile movers and shakers, the entire world seems to be on call every waking moment. We're constantly working on our mobile devices, whether in the car, in front of the television, or on the toilet. We're working on vacation and feeling guilty about it. Mobile work has become embedded in every country's culture.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Three Areas of Impact on the Networking Industry

The state of the networking industry is undergoing a transformation. Both hardware and software have given way to the realization that applications and infrastructure are less about the individual functions of the sub-components of the overall system and more about the workflows that are being expressed against the technology as a whole.

Workflows, however, are also sub-components of the overall business logic that is being described, and ultimately expressed against the infrastructure. Micro-services and/or services oriented architectures are fundamentally changing many facets of technology, both in business practice and in features and functionality of the technology. They’re enabling a more agile and flexible technological landscape, and are helping to define administrative boundaries with respect to overall operations of the infrastructure.

Impact on Infrastructure

When looking at technology overall there is an obvious pattern emerging in all realms of the hardware that is enabling the industry. Programmability: the desire to express logic against infrastructure much in the same way that we’re able to express logic in the context of an application. “Infrastructure as code” is a phrase I’m sure we’ve all heard over the last couple of years, and this is something that is definitely being attained with the ecosystem of Continue reading

First steps with Python and Junos

I’m just spending the day trying to get my head around some very basic automation, so I thought I would install Python 2.7 and work through some of the tutorials on the Techwiki to see how I get on.

The tutorial I’m following is called Python for Non-Programmers and offers an easy way in for people like me.  Of course as with a lot of open-source stuff, you don’t just download Python and get started – there are various dependencies, and dependencies with dependencies that you need to install first.  If at the end of all that you’ve not forgotten what your name is or why you were doing all this shenanigans in the first place you can count yourself as winning.

Installation on a Windows machine is documented nicely here, but there are a few things which are out of date.

One part where it tells you run an executable to install ‘lxml’ but there isn’t one when you click the link provided.  So instead you need to install it with a program called pip, which can be found in C:Python27scripts by default.  pip is not in the PATH envirronment variable by default Continue reading

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