CloudFlare’s New Dashboard

When we started CloudFlare, we thought we were building a service to make websites faster and more secure, and we wanted to make the service as easy and accessible as possible. As a result, we built the CloudFlare interface to put basic functions front and center and designed it to look more like a consumer app than the UI for the powerful network it controlled.

Over time, we realized there was a lot more to CloudFlare. In 2011, we added the concept of Apps, and a myriad of additional performance and security features from Rocket Loader to Railgun were added too. All these additional settings got buried under a lowly gear menu next to each site in a customer's account.

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While still easier to navigate than the average enterprise app, using our UI could be a frustrating experience. For instance, imagine you wanted to turn on Rocket Loader for multiple sites. You'd have to go to My Websites, click the gear menu next to one of your domains, navigate to CloudFlare Settings, select the Performance Settings tab, scroll to Rocket Loader, then toggle it on. Then you had to go back to My Websites and repeat the process again for Continue reading

Twitter blames weak sales on lackluster ads, drops forecast

Twitter failed to meet revenue estimates for the first quarter, and is lowering its expectations for the rest of the year, due to weaker than expected performance of some of its ads products, the company said Tuesday.Total sales for the period that ended March 31 were $436 million, Twitter reported, up 74 percent from the previous year. Analysts, however, were expecting sales of roughly $457 million, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Financial Network.The company’s stock plummeted by nearly 20 percent toward the end of trading on Tuesday, to around $42. Twitter typically publishes financial data after markets close, but they appeared online, apparently in error, during the trading session.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Twitter blames weak sales on lackluster ads, drops forecast

Twitter failed to meet revenue estimates for the first quarter, and is lowering its expectations for the rest of the year, due to weaker than expected performance of some of its ads products, the company said Tuesday.Total sales for the period that ended March 31 were $436 million, Twitter reported, up 74 percent from the previous year. Analysts, however, were expecting sales of roughly $457 million, according to estimates compiled by Thomson Financial Network.The company’s stock plummeted by nearly 20 percent toward the end of trading on Tuesday, to around $42. Twitter typically publishes financial data after markets close, but they appeared online, apparently in error, during the trading session.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DMVPN for IPv6

As you probably already know, every DMVPN network consists of multiple GRE tunnels that are established dynamically. At the beginning, every Spoke in the Cloud is supposed to build a direct tunnel to the Hub. Then, once the Control Plane converges, the Spokes can possibly build tunnels with other DMVPN device(s), of course assuming that our DMVPN deployment (aka “Phase”) allows for that. 

In most cases DMVPN tunnels will be deployed over an IPv4 backbone, interconnecting different sites running IPv4. But since GRE is a multi-protocol tunneling mechanism, we can use it to carry different protocol traffic, like for example IPv6. Frankly, in the newer versions of IOS code you could even change the underlying transport from IPv4 to IPv6. This basically means that you can use an IPv4 OR IPv6 network to tunnel IPv4 OR IPv6 traffic.

In this particular article I am going to discuss a scenario in which the Transport/NBMA network (“Underlay”) uses IPv4 addresses, but the goal will be to use the DMVPN to interconnect sites enabled only for IPv6.

As you can see from the topology below, our private sites are configured with prefixes starting with 2192:1:X::/64, and the VPN (“Overlay”) subnet used is Continue reading

The LG G4 smartphone wins on flexibility, loses on design

LG Electronics’ G4 is a high-end smartphone with a removable battery and a microSD card slot, but its design falls short when compared with other expensive devices.Last year, LG had a hit with the G3, thanks to its high-resolution screen and aggressive pricing, but the company may have trouble replicating that success with the G4, announced on Tuesday.The phone has a 5.5-inch, 1440 by 2560 pixel screen and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, which isn’t as powerful as the Snapdragon 810. LG thinks the Snapdragon 808 offers a better balance between performance and power efficiency. The G4 feels fast enough, so the company might be on to something, and the screen looks impressive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Musing: Generalist to Specialist and Back Again

Recently I’ve been musing on IT Generalists vs Specialists. We used to have more generalist roles, covering all parts of the stack. ITIL then pushed us towards greater specialisation. I believe that we’ve gone back to valuing the Generalist, as the person who can glue components together. Will the pendulum swing again?

Generalists: Soup-to-Nuts

When I started working in IT, our roles were more generalist in nature. We did everything. To set up a new app, we racked the servers and switches, installed the OS, configured the network, installed the DB & application, and made it all work.

We weren’t specialists in any one area, but we knew how everything fitted together. So if something broke, we could probably figure it out. If we had to investigate a problem, we could follow it through all layers of the stack. When we found the problem, we had license to fix it.

ITIL takes over: Specialisation

Sometime around the early-mid 2000s the “ITIL Consultants” moved in. Their talk of structure, processes and SLAs seduced senior management. We couldn’t just have people who Got Shit Done. No, everyone needed to be placed in a box, with formal definitions around what they could & Continue reading

Microsoft Build: Windows 10 starts here

Build 2015 is where the Microsoft truly begins the work of selling Windows 10, starting with developers.“This is a really important Build for Microsoft, probably the most important developer conference it has ever done. The company is on the brink of launching a new wave of operating system technologies that will affect almost everything it delivers over the next few years,” said Al Hilwa, IDC analyst who covers enterprise development, by email.Held this week in San Francisco, with the first keynote kicking off Wednesday morning, Build 2015 also promises to provide developers with more information about how to prepare their applications for the cloud, and may even offer a glimpse into HoloLens, the Windows 10-based virtual reality headset.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Linux vendor Cumulus rolls out management pack

LAS VEGAS -- Linux network operating system developer Cumulus Networks this week at Interop rolled out a management platform that provides a common interface and operational process for data center racks.The Cumulus Rack Management Platform is based on the company’s Cumulus Linux network operating system code base. Out-of-band management switches running Cumulus RMP may be managed by the same Linux toolsets as both servers and data-plane switches running Cumulus Linux, the company says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ansible 1.9.1 Released

ANSIBLE_1.9.1_Released

Ansible 1.9.1 fixes several bugs, including:

* Fixed a bug related to Kerberos auth when using winrm with a domain account.

* Fixing several bugs in the s3 module.

* Fixed a bug with upstart service detection in the service module.

* Fixed several bugs with the user module when used on OSX.

* Fixed unicode handling in some module situations (assert and shell/command execution).

* Fixed a bug in redhat_subscription when using the activationkey parameter.

* Fixed a traceback in the gce module on EL6 distros when multiple pycrypto installations are available.

* Added support for PostgreSQL 9.4 in rds_param_group

* Several other minor fixes.

As always, this update is available via PyPi and releases.ansible.com now, and packages for distros will be available as soon as possible.

Ansible 1.9.1 Released

ANSIBLE_1.9.1_Released

Ansible 1.9.1 fixes several bugs, including:

* Fixed a bug related to Kerberos auth when using winrm with a domain account.

* Fixing several bugs in the s3 module.

* Fixed a bug with upstart service detection in the service module.

* Fixed several bugs with the user module when used on OSX.

* Fixed unicode handling in some module situations (assert and shell/command execution).

* Fixed a bug in redhat_subscription when using the activationkey parameter.

* Fixed a traceback in the gce module on EL6 distros when multiple pycrypto installations are available.

* Added support for PostgreSQL 9.4 in rds_param_group

* Several other minor fixes.

As always, this update is available via PyPi and releases.ansible.com now, and packages for distros will be available as soon as possible.

Xerox targets paper-laden enterprises with new mobile apps, services

The “paperless office” has long been held up as a goal for businesses large and small, but few have come even close. The average office worker, in fact, still generates roughly two pounds of paper waste every day, according to the U.S. EPA.Aiming to help cut a few more of the ties that bind businesses to paper, Xerox on Tuesday unveiled a raft of new automation services and mobile apps for enterprise users.Xerox’s Workflow Automation Solution for Supply Chain Optimization tool, for example, targets retailers with a new way to digitize, centralize, automate and govern the manual steps involved in the product life cycle. Using the Datawatch Managed Analytics Platform, the new offering can reduce labor and printing costs, Xerox says, as well as simplify inventory and invoice reconciliation and improve fill rates by syncing data and applying automated analytics at the store level.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LG bets on battery life over performance with new G4 smartphone

LG Electronics is giving its latest flagship smartphone, the leather-covered G4, a big removable battery and a power-efficient processor, hoping a long battery life will help it stand out among tough competitors.The G4, teased for weeks, was finally unveiled on Tuesday at events around the world. The company hopes to repeat the success it had last year with the G3 and compete head-on with the Galaxy S6 from Samsung, arguably the best Android-based smartphone. But LG has chosen a slightly different approach on the inside and the outside.Like Samsung, LG used premium materials other than plastic. But instead of using a mixture of aluminium and glass, LG covered the back of the G4 in leather. There are six colors to choose from: black, red, brown, blue, beige and yellow. For leather-averse people, there is a version of the phone with a ceramic back covered in a diamond pattern.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon opens marketplace for business customers

Amazon has opened a marketplace for businesses where they can purchase items ranging from basic office supplies like paper clips to sophisticated products such as lab supplies and tractor parts.Companies that use Amazon Business will receive free two-day shipping on orders costing more than US$49. Only U.S. businesses can shop at the marketplace, but it’s open to both domestic and international sellers.Amazon built the site in response to strong demand from businesses for an online shopping service similar to the company’s core marketplace for consumers, the company said Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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