What is a network switch, and how does it work?

Modern networks are critical for any enterprise. Networks deliver business applications, multimedia messages and key data to end users around the world. A fundamental element that networks have in common is the network switch, which helps connect devices for the purpose of sharing resources within a local area network (LAN).What is a network switch? A network switch is a physical device that operates at the Data Link layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model -- Layer 2. It takes in packets sent by devices that are connected to its physical ports, and forwards them to the devices the packets are intended to reach. Switches can also operate at the Network Layer (Layer 3) where routing occurs.To read this article in full, please click here

Aryaka rolls out cloud-based web gateway for SASE-focused WAN offering

Long-time WAN provider Aryaka today released a version of its Zero Trust WAN product that incorporates a new Secure Web Gateway and Firewall-as-a-Service as it works toward a SASE-enabled WAN offering.The idea is to provide a much more updated version of WAN to enterprise customers-– where SD-WAN traditionally lived in a box in branch offices, the pandemic and the evolving SASE model prompted a more flexible rethink. Now, Aryaka’s latest model is an entirely cloud-based offering, routing secure traffic to branch offices or remote employees while being able to employ robust security technologies via Aryaka’s own cloud.To read this article in full, please click here

Automate Calico Cloud and EKS cluster integration using AWS Control Tower

Productive, scalable, and cost-effective, cloud infrastructure empowers innovation and faster deliverables. It’s a no-brainer why organizations are migrating to the cloud and containerizing their applications. As businesses scale their cloud infrastructure, they cannot be bottlenecked by security concerns. One way to release these bottlenecks and free up resources is by using automation.

What if you could automate the deployment and integration of your container security services with your cluster’s environment?

In a joint blog post with AWS Marketplace, AWS Sr. Cloud Application Architect, Deepak Sihag, joins Tigera’s Technical Marketing Engineer, Joseph Yostos, to walk you through the process of activating, deploying, and configuring Calico Cloud in your AWS Control Tower environment. And of course, how to automate the process of connecting Calico Cloud to your EKS cluster.

Blog highlights

Aside from showing you how you can fully leverage the preconfigured resources of AWS Control Tower, the solution walkthrough also highlights:

  • Event-driven automation to connect an EKS cluster with Calico Cloud
  • AWS CloudFormation deployment
  • Detailed runthrough of prerequisite configurations
  • Step-by-step guide on how to automate Calico Cloud and EKS cluster integration using AWS Control Tower
  • How to clean up your account to avoid incurring costs

Why read the blog?

As the Continue reading

VMware embraces DPUs to stretch the use of CPUs

While it is clearly early in the game, VMware has made a bunch of moves recently to ensure that DPUs and the smartNICs they enable are an equal part of enterprise networking environments of the future.VMware is a leading proponent of using digital processing units to free-up server CPU cycles by offloading networking, security, storage, and other processes in order to rapidly and efficiently supporting edge- and cloud-based workloads.Competitors—and partners in some cases—including Intel, Nvidia, AWS, and AMD, also have plans to more tightly integrate DPU-based devices into in firewalls, gateways, enterprise load balancing, and storage-offload applications.To read this article in full, please click here

VMware embraces DPUs to stretch the use of CPUs

While it is clearly early in the game, VMware has made a bunch of moves recently to ensure that DPUs and the smartNICs they enable are an equal part of enterprise networking environments of the future.VMware is a leading proponent of using digital processing units to free-up server CPU cycles by offloading networking, security, storage, and other processes in order to rapidly and efficiently supporting edge- and cloud-based workloads.Competitors—and partners in some cases—including Intel, Nvidia, AWS, and AMD, also have plans to more tightly integrate DPU-based devices into in firewalls, gateways, enterprise load balancing, and storage-offload applications.To read this article in full, please click here

Used servers: Bargain or too good to be true?

Enterprise IT teams are always on the lookout for ways to save money or gain operational efficiencies. One approach is to purchase used data center equipment such as servers, rather than investing in brand new systems and paying top dollar.There’s no shortage of resellers who cater to this market. Some equipment resellers specifically target gear from hyperscalers, because the hyperscalers replace their hardware at a fast pace, and the equipment they turnover can be more powerful than what most enterprises use today.Those in the business of selling used equipment say demand for their offerings is high.To read this article in full, please click here

Used servers: Bargain or too good to be true?

Enterprise IT teams are always on the lookout for ways to save money or gain operational efficiencies. One approach is to purchase used data center equipment such as servers, rather than investing in brand new systems and paying top dollar.There’s no shortage of resellers who cater to this market. Some equipment resellers specifically target gear from hyperscalers, because the hyperscalers replace their hardware at a fast pace, and the equipment they turnover can be more powerful than what most enterprises use today.Those in the business of selling used equipment say demand for their offerings is high.To read this article in full, please click here

The 10 most powerful companies in enterprise networking 2022

Networking vendors have a lot on their plate. They need to innovate in areas like automation, AIOps, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), secure access service edge (SASE), visibility, and multi-cloud management.They must respond to customer preferences for subscription models and network as-a-service (NaaS) offerings. In a recent survey, IDC reported that 61% of organizations worldwide were interested in shifting to consumption-based models for IT investments rather than capital intensive purchases.To read this article in full, please click here

What we served up for the last Birthday Week before we’re a teenager

What we served up for the last Birthday Week before we're a teenager
What we served up for the last Birthday Week before we're a teenager

Almost a teen. With Cloudflare’s 12th birthday last Tuesday, we’re officially into our thirteenth year. And what a birthday we had!

36 announcements ranging from SIM cards to post quantum encryption via hardware keys and so much more. Here’s a review of everything we announced this week.

Monday

What In a sentence…
The First Zero Trust SIM We’re bringing Zero Trust security controls to the humble SIM card, rethinking how mobile device security is done, with the Cloudflare SIM: the world’s first Zero Trust SIM.
Securing the Internet of Things We’ve been defending customers from Internet of Things botnets for years now, and it’s time to turn the tides: we’re bringing the same security behind our Zero Trust platform to IoT.
Bringing Zero Trust to mobile network operators Helping bring the power of Cloudflare’s Zero Trust platform to mobile operators and their subscribers.

Tuesday

What In a sentence…
Workers Launchpad Leading venture capital firms to provide up to $1.25 BILLION to back startups built on Cloudflare Workers.
Startup Plan v2.0 Increasing the scope, eligibility and products we include under our Startup Plan, enabling more developers and startups to build the next big thing on top of Cloudflare.
workerd: Continue reading

Network Break 401: Google Teases Multi-Gig Home Broadband; New USB Cables Use Slightly Less Plastic

Today's Network Break covers three Google stories including Google Fiber's ambitions for multi-gig Internet and the killing of Stadia. We also discuss a rise in firewall sales, using plant-based materials in USB cables, and more IT news.

The post Network Break 401: Google Teases Multi-Gig Home Broadband; New USB Cables Use Slightly Less Plastic appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Monday Mobility Quick Thoughts

I’m getting ready for Mobility Field Day 8 later this week and there’s been a lot of effort making sure we’re ready to go. That means I’ve spent lots of time thinking about event planning instead of writing. So I wanted to share some quick thoughts with you ahead of this week as well as WLPC Europe next week.

  • I remain convinced than half of the objections that are raised by oversight organizations when it comes to adopting new technology come from the fact they got caught flat-footed and weren’t ready for it to be popular. Whether it’s the Wi-Fi 6E safety issue or the report earlier this year from the FAA about 5G and airports it just seems like organizations spend less time doing actual investigation and more time writing press releases about how they are ready to figure it all out yet.
  • I also remain cautiously optimistic that the new Apple devices rumored to be coming out later this year, namely the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro with M2 chips, will have Wi-Fi 6E support. Yes, the iPhone didn’t. It’s also a smaller device with less room to add new hardware. The iPad and MacBook have historically gotten Continue reading

Defending against future threats: Cloudflare goes post-quantum

Defending against future threats: Cloudflare goes post-quantum
Defending against future threats: Cloudflare goes post-quantum

There is an expiration date on the cryptography we use every day. It’s not easy to read, but somewhere between 15 or 40 years, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer is expected to be built that will be able to decrypt essentially any encrypted data on the Internet today.

Luckily, there is a solution: post-quantum (PQ) cryptography has been designed to be secure against the threat of quantum computers. Just three months ago, in July 2022, after a six-year worldwide competition, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), known for AES and SHA2, announced which post-quantum cryptography they will standardize. NIST plans to publish the final standards in 2024, but we want to help drive early adoption of post-quantum cryptography.

Starting today, as a beta service, all websites and APIs served through Cloudflare support post-quantum hybrid key agreement. This is on by default1; no need for an opt-in. This means that if your browser/app supports it, the connection to our network is also secure against any future quantum computer.

We offer this post-quantum cryptography free of charge: we believe that post-quantum security should be the new baseline for the Internet.

Deploying post-quantum cryptography seems like a Continue reading

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