Friday Networking Field Day Thoughts

I’m wrapping up Networking Field Day 30 this week and as is always the case there was a lot of great discussion from both the presenters and the delegates outside of the presentations. It’s one of the reasons why I love doing this job even after almost ten years. I get to meet fun people and have an impact on so many things in the tech industry.

  • Network-as-a-Service is coming. We recorded a roundtable discussion about it and I think the impact that it’s going to have on mid-sized businesses is massive. It’s going to be like cloud. Not just in operational capability. It’s also going to be a huge driver for what you can do with your network in support of applications. The snowflakes may melt under the weight of the cookies we make from the cookie cutter deployments.
  • It feels like a lot of companies are trying to find what’s next. Part of that is coming from the ways that organizations are changing their outlook for what an office should be after the pandemic shutdowns. But still others are realizing they can’t use the same revenue stream for the next five years and hope to survive. This isn’t Continue reading

IT to shoulder more responsibility for data center sustainability

Cutting-edge server chips are turning heads for their potential to boost performance, but next-generation processors also run hotter than older designs, and data-center operators will struggle to figure out what to do with limited guidance from chip makers.At the same time, there’s going to be increased scrutiny on the role that IT equipment can play in energy efficiency efforts. These interrelated trends are among the top predictions Uptime Institute is making for data centers this year.“Operators will struggle with new, hotter server chips,” said Jacqueline Davis, research analyst at Uptime, during a web conference on the institute’s 2023 data-center predictions. Meanwhile, “energy-efficiency focus is going to expand to include the IT equipment itself, something that we think is overdue.”To read this article in full, please click here

IT to shoulder more responsibility for data center sustainability

Cutting-edge server chips are turning heads for their potential to boost performance, but next-generation processors also run hotter than older designs, and data-center operators will struggle to figure out what to do with limited guidance from chip makers.At the same time, there’s going to be increased scrutiny on the role that IT equipment can play in energy efficiency efforts. These interrelated trends are among the top predictions Uptime Institute is making for data centers this year.“Operators will struggle with new, hotter server chips,” said Jacqueline Davis, research analyst at Uptime, during a web conference on the institute’s 2023 data-center predictions. Meanwhile, “energy-efficiency focus is going to expand to include the IT equipment itself, something that we think is overdue.”To read this article in full, please click here

Deploy production grade automation technology at scale with Red Hat and F5

 

The complexity of enterprise networks is increasing with the widespread adoption of networks spanning on premises data centers and cloud.  To meet the challenge of this complexity, automation technology specifically designed for a NetOpps approach for Hybrid Cloud environments has been jointly developed by Red Hat and F5.  Its focus on security, scale, and speed are all goals inherent in a NetOpps strategy that allow teams to thrive in the increasingly complex world of enterprise networking.

Network teams also need to work well with groups across the IT stack while also taking advantage of the benefits of infrastructure as code.  When everyone speaks the same language and uses the same revision control tools to deploy and update their infrastructure, IT infrastructure is more reliable, secure, downtime is reduced, and organizations save money.

F5 and the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform delivers the features and functionality needed for a NetOpps team - with a powerful automation platform designed for simplicity and inter team cooperation. You will learn how F5 and Red Hat assist network teams transitioning to a NetOps workflow, while reducing risk and increasing productivity.  From on-prem to the cloud, F5 and Red Hat can Continue reading

Internet disruptions overview for Q4 2022

Internet disruptions overview for Q4 2022
Internet disruptions overview for Q4 2022

Cloudflare operates in more than 250 cities in over 100 countries, where we interconnect with over 10,000 network providers in order to provide a broad range of services to millions of customers. The breadth of both our network and our customer base provides us with a unique perspective on Internet resilience, enabling us to observe the impact of Internet disruptions.

While Internet disruptions are never convenient, online interest in the 2022 World Cup in mid-November and the growth in online holiday shopping in many areas during November and December meant that connectivity issues could be particularly disruptive. Having said that, the fourth quarter appeared to be a bit quieter from an Internet disruptions perspective, although Iran and Ukraine continued to be hotspots, as we discuss below.

Government directed

Multi-hour Internet shutdowns are frequently used by authoritarian governments in response to widespread protests as a means of limiting communications among protestors, as well preventing protestors from sharing information and video with the outside world. During the fourth quarter Cuba and Sudan again implemented such shutdowns, while Iran continued the series of “Internet curfews” across mobile networks it started in mid-September, in addition to implementing several other regional Internet shutdowns.

Cuba

In Continue reading

T-Mobile, Xfinity are tops in latest Ookla speed test report

Network intelligence provider Ookla’s latest research shows that T-Mobile had the fastest mobile network in the US, and that Xfinity edged out several competitors for the top spot among fixed providers in the fourth quarter of 2022, the company announced this week.The median download speed for T-Mobile customers, Ookla said, reached over 151Mbps, marking a sharp increase from the company’s 116Mbps mark in the previous quarter, which was already good enough to make T-Mobile the fastest mobile carrier by a distance.Verizon and AT&T posted gains — rising from around 58Mbps in the third quarter to 69Mbps and 65Mbps, respectively — but both were far behind T-Mobile. Looking at 5G performance specifically, T-Mobile again led the way by a considerable margin, posting an average 216Mbps download speed, compared to 128Mbps from Verizon and 85Mbps from AT&T.To read this article in full, please click here

Pros and cons of managed SASE

AmerCareRoyal, which provides disposable products for the food service and hospitality industries, is the product of six mergers and acquisitions over the past several years, and its former network security setup couldn’t keep up.Jeff DeSandre, who joined the company as CIO in 2019, wanted an SD-WAN platform that came with more advanced management options and firewalls. After looking at the market, he added threat detection and response capabilities to his wish list. “I was focused on getting our arms quickly around our wide area network and securing our edge, and then making sure that the solution I went with could scale to my long-term roadmap,” he says.To read this article in full, please click here

Pros and cons of managed SASE

AmerCareRoyal, which provides disposable products for the food service and hospitality industries, is the product of six mergers and acquisitions over the past several years, and its former network security setup couldn’t keep up.Jeff DeSandre, who joined the company as CIO in 2019, wanted an SD-WAN platform that came with more advanced management options and firewalls. After looking at the market, he added threat detection and response capabilities to his wish list. “I was focused on getting our arms quickly around our wide area network and securing our edge, and then making sure that the solution I went with could scale to my long-term roadmap,” he says.To read this article in full, please click here

SASE enables augmented reality for glass manufacturer

O-I Glass, Inc., is a $4.6B manufacturer of distinctive glass bottles and jars; its customer roster includes producers of Scotch whiskey, French wine, German cola, Spanish olive oil, Caribbean rum, New Zealand pale ale, smoothie shots, juices, mineral water, milk, and yogurt.Headquartered in Ohio, O-I had been running an MPLS network to connect its 25,000 employees spread across 70 plants in 19 countries. But change was needed, says CIO Rodney Masney, to keep pace with the migration of applications to the cloud, the shift of workers to home offices, and the company’s efforts to re-imagine the glass manufacturing process.To read this article in full, please click here

Hedge 162: Geoff Huston and Going Dark

Encrypt everything! Now! We don’t often do well with absolutes like this in the engineering world–we tend to focus on “get it down,” and not to think very much about the side effects or unintended consequences. What are the unintended consequences of encrypting all traffic all the time? Geoff Huston joins Tom Ammon and Russ White to discuss the problems with going dark.

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AnsibleFest 2022 Quick Take: expanding to AWS, Event-Driven Automation and Project Wisdom

ansiblefest quick take

AnsibleFest 2022 was our first in-person event in a few years, and it delivered some exciting news that will impact the growth and expansion of automation for our customers in the months to come. We had more than 450 organizations represented in person in Chicago. Our keynotes featured Red Hat, IBM Research, and Rockwell Automation. During the two days, we announced several new features and capabilities to make adopting automation more accessible. In addition, IDC analyst Jevin Jensen recently published his opinions and insights on AnsibleFest 2022 that we break down below . 

 

What did we announce? 

Each day of the event featured keynotes, one on the Current State of Automation and one on The Future of Automation. There was a lot of excitement over the many announcements, including: 

  • New Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offering for AWS
  • By offering Ansible Automation Platform as a pre-integrated service that can be quickly deployed from cloud marketplaces, we are meeting our customers where they are, while giving them the flexibility to deliver any application, anywhere, without additional overhead or complexity. Whether you are automating your hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environments, Ansible Automation Platform acts as a single platform. This platform Continue reading

Survey: NetOps is essential but undervalued in making multi-cloud decisions

By 2024, 88% of enterprises will use two or more infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers, according to research by EMA, which believes that network infrastructure and operations teams must take a leadership role in defining network architecture that ensures the performance and security of their multi-cloud digital services.EMA recently polled a group of these enterprises, surveying 351 IT stakeholders, including 39% in network engineering, 21% in the CIO suite, 15% on cloud teams, and 11% in cybersecurity.EMA found that networking teams and network technology have become more important in 81% of multi-cloud strategies in recent years. Unfortunately, only 24% of research participants firmly believe that their networking teams have enough influence over cloud decision-making.To read this article in full, please click here

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