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Enable Extensions on Azure Arc Connected Machines with Ansible Automation Platform

Last year, I blogged about how to use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to migrate Azure Arc-enabled servers from Azure Log Analytics Agents (MMA/OMS) to Azure Monitor Agent (AMA).  Azure Arc supports a number of other extensions that can add additional value to your Arc-enabled infrastructure.  Since my previous article, all of these extensions have been added to the azure.infrastructure_config_demos collection that contains a role for managing Arc-enabled server VM extensions with Ansible.

Each extension offers unique capabilities to your Arc-enabled fleet, such as logging, vulnerability scanning, key vault cert sync, update management, and more.  Enabling these extensions is simple for small numbers of machines. When you need to scale out the work of enabling and configuring these extensions across hundreds or thousands of devices, then Ansible Automation Platform can help!

This article covers how to use Ansible Automation Platform to enable VM extensions supported in the azure.infrastructure_config_demos collection.  Within the collection, there are a number of playbooks and roles; the following are pertinent to this post.

File or Folder	Description
playbook_enable_arc_extension.yml	Playbook that will be used as a job template to enable Azure Arc extensions.
playbook_disable_arc_extension.yml	Playbook that will be used Continue reading

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Twenty-five open-source network emulators and simulators you can use in 2023

I surveyed the current state of the art in open-source network emulation and simulation. I also reviewed the development and support status of all the network emulators and network simulators previously featured in my blog.

Of all the network emulators and network simulators I mentioned in my blog over the years, I found that eighteen of them are still active projects. I also found seven new projects that you can try. See below for a brief update about each tool.

Active projects

Below is a list of the tools previously featured in my blog that are, in my opinion, still actively supported.

Cloonix

Cloonix version 28 was released in January 2023. Cloonix stitches together Linux networking tools to make it easy to emulate complex networks by linking virtual machines and containers. Cloonix has both a command-line-interface and a graphical user interface.

The Cloonix web site now has a new address at: clownix.net and theCloonix project now hosts code on Github. Cloonix adopted a new release numbering scheme since I reviewed it in 2017. So it is now at “v28”.

Cloudsim

CloudSim is still maintained. Cloudsim is a network simulator that enables modeling, simulation, and experimentation of emerging Cloud computing Continue reading

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Twilio announces fresh round of layoffs, impacting 17% of its workforce

Cloud communications firm Twilio has announced that it plans to reduce its global workforce by about 17%, within months of laying off over 800 employees. In addition to the layoffs, the company is also undergoing an internal restructuring to create two business units, Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications, according to a company blog post.As of September 30, 2022, Twilio had 8,992 employees, of which 816 were laid off in the fourth quarter of 2022. The company is now expected to lay off an additional 1,400 employees in the new round of layoffs.This fresh round of layoffs is meant to help the company “spend less, streamline, and become more efficient,” Jeff Lawson, chief executive officer and co-founder of Twilio, said in the blog post. “To do that, we’re forming two business units: Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications. And today, I’m unfortunately bearing the news that we’re parting ways with approximately 17% of our team.”To read this article in full, please click here

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MUST READ: Machine Learning for Network and Cloud Engineers

Javier Antich, the author of the fantastic AI/ML in Networking webinar, spent years writing the Machine Learning for Network and Cloud Engineers book that is now available in paperback and Kindle format.

I’ve seen a final draft of the book and it’s definitely worth reading. You should also invest some time into testing the scenarios Javier created. Here’s what I wrote in the foreword:

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades. It was one of the exciting emerging (and overhyped) topics when I attended university in the late 1980s. Like today, the hype failed to deliver, resulting in long, long AI winter.

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MUST READ: Machine Learning for Network and Cloud Engineers

Javier Antich, the author of the fantastic AI/ML in Networking webinar, spent years writing the Machine Learning for Network and Cloud Engineers book that is now available in paperback and Kindle format.

I’ve seen a final draft of the book and it’s definitely worth reading. You should also invest some time into testing the scenarios Javier created. Here’s what I wrote in the foreword:

---

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades. It was one of the exciting emerging (and overhyped) topics when I attended university in the late 1980s. Like today, the hype failed to deliver, resulting in long, long AI winter.

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Akamai targets cloud computing’s middle ground with Connected Cloud

CDN (content delivery network) giant Akamai Technologies today announced that it will discount cloud egress pricing, add ISO, SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance, and build out enterprise-scale cloud computing sites and distributed points of presence in over 50 cities as part of a new initiative — dubbed Connected Cloud — aimed at filling a niche between the hyperscalers and edge computing.The idea is to fulfill what the company sees as unmet demand. In Akamai's view, modern applications are ncreasingly being broken into a range of different microservices. In many cases, those microservices need to be distributed across a geographically wide area, creating different computing needs than those addressed by most cloud vendors.To read this article in full, please click here

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Akamai targets cloud computing’s middle ground with Connected Cloud

CDN (content delivery network) giant Akamai Technologies today announced that it will discount cloud egress pricing, add ISO, SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance, and build out enterprise-scale cloud computing sites and distributed points of presence in over 50 cities as part of a new initiative — dubbed Connected Cloud — aimed at filling a niche between the hyperscalers and edge computing.The idea is to fulfill what the company sees as unmet demand. In Akamai's view, modern applications are ncreasingly being broken into a range of different microservices. In many cases, those microservices need to be distributed across a geographically wide area, creating different computing needs than those addressed by most cloud vendors.To read this article in full, please click here

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A look at Internet traffic trends during Super Bowl LVII

The Super Bowl has been happening since the end of the 1966 season, the same year that the ARPANET project, which gave birth to the Internet, was initiated. Around 20 years ago, 50% of the US population were Internet users, and that number is now around 92%. So, it's no surprise that interest in an event like Super Bowl LVII resulted in a noticeable dip in Internet traffic in the United States at the time of the game's kickoff, dropping to around 5% lower than the previous Sunday. During the game, Rihanna's halftime show also caused a significant drop in Internet traffic across most states, with Pennsylvania and New York feeling the biggest impact, but messaging and video platforms saw a surge of traffic right after her show ended.

In this blog post, we will dive into who the biggest winners were among Super Bowl advertisers, as well as examine how traffic to food delivery services, social media and sports and betting websites changed during the game. In addition, we look at traffic trends seen at city and state levels during the game, as well as email threat volume across related categories in the weeks ahead of the game.

Cloudflare Continue reading

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Wireless Worth Watching in 2023

Wireless power transfer, Wi-Fi 6 versions, life after 3G network shutdowns, and home networking challenges top the list.

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Cisco observability: What you need to know

Observability may be the latest buzzword in an industry loaded with them, but Cisco will tell you the primary goal of the technology is to help enterprises get a handle on effectively managing distributed resources in ways that have not been possible in the past.The idea of employing observability tools and applications is a hot idea. Gartner says that by 2024, 30% of enterprises implementing distributed system architectures will have adopted observability techniques to improve digital-business service performance, up from less than 10% in 2020.“Today’s operational teams have tools for network monitoring, application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, call monitoring, and more, but they rarely intermingle to provide a cohesive view of what’s going on across the enterprise,” according to Carlos Pereira, Cisco Fellow and chief architect in its Strategy, Incubation & Applications group.To read this article in full, please click here

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Cisco observability: What you need to know

Observability may be the latest buzzword in an industry loaded with them, but Cisco will tell you the primary goal of the technology is to help enterprises get a handle on effectively managing distributed resources in ways that have not been possible in the past.The idea of employing observability tools and applications is a hot idea. Gartner says that by 2024, 30% of enterprises implementing distributed system architectures will have adopted observability techniques to improve digital-business service performance, up from less than 10% in 2020.“Today’s operational teams have tools for network monitoring, application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, call monitoring, and more, but they rarely intermingle to provide a cohesive view of what’s going on across the enterprise,” according to Carlos Pereira, Cisco Fellow and chief architect in its Strategy, Incubation & Applications group.To read this article in full, please click here

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Cloudflare mitigates record-breaking 71 million request-per-second DDoS attack

This was a weekend of record-breaking DDoS attacks. Over the weekend, Cloudflare detected and mitigated dozens of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks. The majority of attacks peaked in the ballpark of 50-70 million requests per second (rps) with the largest exceeding 71 million rps. This is the largest reported HTTP DDoS attack on record, more than 35% higher than the previous reported record of 46M rps in June 2022.

The attacks were HTTP/2-based and targeted websites protected by Cloudflare. They originated from over 30,000 IP addresses. Some of the attacked websites included a popular gaming provider, cryptocurrency companies, hosting providers, and cloud computing platforms. The attacks originated from numerous cloud providers, and we have been working with them to crack down on the botnet.

Over the past year, we’ve seen more attacks originate from cloud computing providers. For this reason, we will be providing service providers that own their own autonomous system a free Botnet threat feed. The feed will provide service providers threat intelligence about their own IP space; attacks originating from within their autonomous system. Service providers that operate their own IP space can now sign up to the Continue reading

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Tech Bytes: Event-Driven Automation With Nokia’s SR Linux Event Handler Framework (Sponsored)

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk about Event Handler, a new automation feature in Nokia’s SR Linux network OS that lets you automatically run scripts to fix problems when an event occurs. Nokia is our sponsor, and our guest is Roman Dodin, Product Line Manager at Nokia.

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Tech Bytes: Event-Driven Automation With Nokia’s SR Linux Event Handler Framework (Sponsored)

Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we talk about Event Handler, a new automation feature in Nokia’s SR Linux network OS that lets you automatically run scripts to fix problems when an event occurs. Nokia is our sponsor, and our guest is Roman Dodin, Product Line Manager at Nokia.

The post Tech Bytes: Event-Driven Automation With Nokia’s SR Linux Event Handler Framework (Sponsored) appeared first on Packet Pushers.

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Network-as-a-service lets a shoe retailer take steps toward Zero Trust

Nigel Williams-Lucas, director of Information Technology at Maryland-based footwear retailer DTLR, faced a challenge that most IT execs will recognize: the business was pushing hard on digital transformation, and the IT infrastructure was struggling to keep pace.Store managers were seeking better data analytics and business intelligence from backend systems like inventory and sales. The business wanted IT systems to support customers ordering online and picking up at a physical store within two hours.The network needed to securely support real-time, bandwidth-intensive IP security cameras. And Williams-Lucas wanted to roll out beaconing technology, in which the network gathers information about customer in-store activity via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and can send discount offers to a customer’s phone based on where they are in the store and what they appear to be interested in.To read this article in full, please click here

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Network-as-a-service lets a shoe retailer take steps toward Zero Trust

Nigel Williams-Lucas, director of Information Technology at Maryland-based footwear retailer DTLR, faced a challenge that most IT execs will recognize: the business was pushing hard on digital transformation, and the IT infrastructure was struggling to keep pace.Store managers were seeking better data analytics and business intelligence from backend systems like inventory and sales. The business wanted IT systems to support customers ordering online and picking up at a physical store within two hours.The network needed to securely support real-time, bandwidth-intensive IP security cameras. And Williams-Lucas wanted to roll out beaconing technology, in which the network gathers information about customer in-store activity via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and can send discount offers to a customer’s phone based on where they are in the store and what they appear to be interested in.To read this article in full, please click here

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Network Break 417: Zoom Chief Raises Bar For CEO Pay Cuts; Fortinet Rolls Out New Firewall Chips

Take a Network Break! On this week's episode we discuss new chip hardware from Fortinet, Extreme integrating its SD-WAN into its network fabric, the US and UK governments sanctioning members of the Trickbot malware gang, more tech layoffs, why tech CEOs should feel more financial pain, and more.

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Network Break 417: Zoom Chief Raises Bar For CEO Pay Cuts; Fortinet Rolls Out New Firewall Chips

Take a Network Break! On this week's episode we discuss new chip hardware from Fortinet, Extreme integrating its SD-WAN into its network fabric, the US and UK governments sanctioning members of the Trickbot malware gang, more tech layoffs, why tech CEOs should feel more financial pain, and more.

The post Network Break 417: Zoom Chief Raises Bar For CEO Pay Cuts; Fortinet Rolls Out New Firewall Chips appeared first on Packet Pushers.

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BrandPost: Give Employees and Customers the Network Experience They Deserve

Today’s CEOs have three top priorities for their CIOs: improve the customer experience, strengthen IT and business collaboration, and improve the employee experience, according to the Foundry 2023 State of the CIO.There’s certainly room for improvement: 80% of respondents to a Juniper Networks survey said poor network connectivity interrupts their work, on average, two to three times per day.To read this article in full, please click here

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Multicasting Content in the Twilight of Social Media

During Cisco Live EMEA last week I had an interesting conversation with a few people at the show around social media and how the usage of the platforms appears to be changing thanks to decisions made by the smartest people in a given broom closet. With the acceleration of the demise of Twitter as a platform I couldn’t help but comment on the fact that social media is becoming less about conversation and more about broadcast, which seemed to catch some of the people in the conversation off guard.

Back and Forth

Ever since the beginning of my time on Twitter, I’ve seen the platform as conversational instead of content-focused. Perhaps that’s the reason why the idea of a tweet storm has irritated me so much over the past few years. Twitter is about talking to people. It’s about interacting with them and creating a conversation in the noise. Twitter allows us to connect to people and exchange ideas and viewpoints.

Contrast that with other platforms in the social media spectrum. Specifically I’m thinking of Youtube video or TikTok videos. These platforms are designed to create content and send it to a number of people to view. It’s multicasting content Continue reading