Review: OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock

About six months ago I purchased an OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock to replace my Anker PowerElite Thunderbolt 3 Dock (see my review here). While there was nothing necessarily wrong with the Anker PowerElite, it lacked a digital audio port that I could use to send audio to a soundbar positioned under my monitor. (I’d grown accustomed to using a soundbar when my 2012 Mac Pro was my primary workstation.) In this post, I’ll provide a brief review of the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock.

Note that I’m posting this as a customer. I paid for the dock with my own money, and I have not received any compensation of any kind from anyone for this review.

First Impressions

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock feels well-built, but is larger than the Anker PowerElite. To be frank, I think I prefer the smaller footprint of the Anker PowerElite, but the added ports available on the OWC Thunderbolt Dock sealed the deal for me. Your priorities may be different, of course.

As one might expect, setup was truly “plug-and-play.” I connected all my peripherals to the dock—see below for the list of what I use on a regular basis—and then plugged Continue reading

Schneider Electric publishes data-center sustainability framework

French IT giant Schneider Electric has published a five-part framework meant to serve as a guide to minimizing the environmental impact of data center operations.Schneider is billing the framework as an industry first, but the company does specialize in power systems management so it’s not all self-congratulations. The framework is designed to help operators make their sites more environmentally friendly regardless of how far along they are in sustainability efforts.Data center power consumption is on pretty much everyone’s radar to varying degrees. Researchers have estimated that data centers worldwide account for between 1% and 2% of all power consumption. For hyperscalers like Google and Facebook, as well as for enterprises, power savings is equal parts benefit to the bottom line and being good corporate stewards.To read this article in full, please click here

Schneider Electric publishes data-center sustainability framework

French IT giant Schneider Electric has published a five-part framework meant to serve as a guide to minimizing the environmental impact of data center operations.Schneider is billing the framework as an industry first, but the company does specialize in power systems management so it’s not all self-congratulations. The framework is designed to help operators make their sites more environmentally friendly regardless of how far along they are in sustainability efforts.Data center power consumption is on pretty much everyone’s radar to varying degrees. Researchers have estimated that data centers worldwide account for between 1% and 2% of all power consumption. For hyperscalers like Google and Facebook, as well as for enterprises, power savings is equal parts benefit to the bottom line and being good corporate stewards.To read this article in full, please click here

Introducing DARTH: Distributed Analysis for Research and Threat Hunting

As targeting data centers, which mainly run workloads on Linux, has proven to be a very lucrative target for cyber criminals, Linux malware has become increasingly prevalent. Although still an emerging threat that’s somewhat less complex than its Windows counterpart, analysis of Linux malware remains challenging due to lack of analysis tools in the Linux world.

Luckily, both the Linux kernel and the Linux ecosystem provide a set of capabilities and tools that, when combined, potentially allow for the creation of malware analysis frameworks as powerful as those available on Windows.

This blog details what can be achieved by leveraging tools and an analysis pipeline specifically tailored for Linux, and introduces our Distributed Analysis for Research and Threat Hunting

(DARTH) framework. We provide a high-level overview of the framework, including core components and modules, as well as the design requirements that have led our research efforts in this area. We then discuss Tracer, a dynamic analysis module used in DARTH to collect various behaviors during malware execution in a controlled environment.

High Level Overview: Where DARTH Began

As part of our research, we often find ourselves running new types of analysis on large collections of malicious samples; building a scalable Continue reading

Cloudflare Radar’s 2021 Year In Review

Cloudflare Radar's 2021 Year In Review
Cloudflare Radar's 2021 Year In Review

In 2021, we continued to live with the effects of the COVID pandemic and Internet traffic was also impacted by it. Although learning and exercising may have started to get back to something close to normal (depending on the country), the effects of what started almost two years ago on the way people work and communicate seems to be here to stay, and the lockdowns or restrictions continue to have an impact on where and how people go online.

So, Cloudflare Radar's 2021 Year In Review is out with interactive maps and charts you can use to explore what changed on the Internet throughout this past year. Year In Review is part of Cloudflare Radar. We launched Radar in September 2020 to give anyone access to Internet use and abuse trends.

This year we’ve added a mobile vs desktop traffic chart, but also the attack distribution that shows the evolution throughout the year — the beginning of July 2021, more than a month after the famous Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, was the time of the year when attacks worldwide peaked.

There are also interesting pandemic-related trends like the (lack) of Internet activity in Tokyo with the Summer Olympics in town and Continue reading

5G wireless WAN will have benefits beyond 4G WWAN

With all the discussion about the positive impacts 5G can have on internet access for individuals and businesses, it’s vital that network engineers keep in mind that 5G’s not the only cellular option for enterprise WANs—4G already delivers many of those benefits.Nemertes did research with organizations that have made significant commitments to 4G-based wireless in their WANs and identified four common use cases across the organizations. Each of those uses will be improved in several ways with the coming broad availability of 5G. Let’s take a look.To read this article in full, please click here

ACE IaC – Another Industry First by Aviatrix

Today Aviatrix launched the self-paced version of Aviatrix Certified Engineer (ACE) Infrastructure as Code (IAC) training and certification. This is the industry’s first multi-cloud networking and security Infrastructure as Code training, that too in a self-paced format. ACE IaC brings together the concepts of DevOps by automating a multi-cloud network infrastructure through 3 hands-on labs. … Continue reading ACE IaC – Another Industry First by Aviatrix →

ACE IaC – Another Industry First by Aviatrix

Today Aviatrix launched the self-paced version of Aviatrix Certified Engineer (ACE) Infrastructure as Code (IAC) training and certification. This is the industry’s first multi-cloud networking and security Infrastructure as Code training, that too in a self-paced format. ACE IaC brings together the concepts of DevOps by automating a multi-cloud network infrastructure through 3 hands-on labs. … Continue reading ACE IaC – Another Industry First by Aviatrix →

Simplify NSX Security for Brownfield vSphere Deployments with NSX-T 3.2

Perimeter-only security controls are just not sufficient to address sophisticated attacks on mission-critical infrastructure. VMware NSX pioneered the “micro-segmentation” approach, in which granular security controls enable Zero-Trust Security. With micro-segmentation, each individual workload inside the network receives unprecedented protection from attacks originating from both external as well as internal threat actors. One of the primary reasons for NSX’s instant success in the industry was the fact that deploying Zero-Trust security across the infrastructure is quite easy and effectively mitigates malicious lateral movement with L4 and L7 Application controls. With the NSX 3.2 release, we are further simplifying the NSX Security deployment experience.

This blog captures why deploying NSX for micro-segmentation is already a simple experience, and how NSX 3.2 further simplifies that experience. Specifically, the following two key capabilities will be covered:

  1. NSX Distributed Security support for vSphere Distributed Switch-based workloads, and
  2. Embedded vCenter-based NSX Distributed Firewall workflows

Achieving Zero-Trust for Applications with NSX today

From the initial days of VMware NSX, we strongly believed that achieving micro-segmentation should not come at the cost of complexity.

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If you ask our customers, this is why they love NSX:

Equinix leads consortium that’s building fuel cells to power data centers

A partnership of seven organizations, including data center giant Equinix, announced plans to build fuel cells to power data centers. The group of mostly European companies is funded by a European Union clean energy initiative.Along with Equinix, the partners consist of infrastructure giant Vertiv, sustainable data center specialist InfraPrime, Italian utility Snam, German fuel cell manufacturer SOLIDpower, TEC4FUELS research center, and a research institute from Sweden called RISE.The project is called EcoEdge PrimePower (E2P2) and is funded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, a European Union initiative launched earlier this month with total funding of nearly $25 billion. E2P2 will get roughly $2.8 million of that.To read this article in full, please click here

Equinix leads consortium that’s building fuel cells to power data centers

A partnership of seven organizations, including data center giant Equinix, announced plans to build fuel cells to power data centers. The group of mostly European companies is funded by a European Union clean energy initiative.Along with Equinix, the partners consist of infrastructure giant Vertiv, sustainable data center specialist InfraPrime, Italian utility Snam, German fuel cell manufacturer SOLIDpower, TEC4FUELS research center, and a research institute from Sweden called RISE.The project is called EcoEdge PrimePower (E2P2) and is funded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, a European Union initiative launched earlier this month with total funding of nearly $25 billion. E2P2 will get roughly $2.8 million of that.To read this article in full, please click here

Announcing VMware HCX 4.3

VMware HCX, an application mobility platform, is a crucial part of an organization’s digital transformation journey. HCX simplifies application migration, workload rebalancing, and business continuity across data centers and clouds. This becomes increasingly important as organizations consolidate data centers, extend data centers to the cloud, or replace on-premises infrastructure.

Let’s dig into some of the new and exciting features of HCX 4.3.0:

Transition to PostgreSQL

One of the key improvements HCX 4.3.0 introduces is the use of PostgreSQL. The goal is to replace the older databases and leverage some inherent advantages of PostgreSQL. From an end-user perspective, this transition will have no impact. Once the upgrade process is triggered, the system will automatically transition to the newer database in the backend, and all the data is seamlessly transferred to the new database.

Building Resiliency in HCX Network Extension

The second significant enhancement is the high availability of Network Extension appliances. Network Extension service is a critical part of HCX, and any disruption during normal migration activities can have a high impact on business operations. HCX 4.3.0 aims to minimize the impact of such disruptions by introducing a high availability (HA) feature for Network Extension Continue reading

Don’t let bad press about Open RAN sink your private 5G plans

Here’s a paradox for you. Why is a technology that’s supported at the planning level by 90% of the telcos, and by the majority of enterprises, getting a bunch of negative press? Why is something that’s both 5G and open not being applauded by all?I’m referring to the Open RAN model for 5G, of course, and the answer to all these “Why?” questions could say a lot about our industry and have a significant impact on enterprises looking at deploying private 5G networks or even consuming a 5G network slice of their own.To read this article in full, please click here

NSX Year in Review: 2021

With 2022 just around the corner, we can’t help but look back at the past year. 2021 was one for the books, as the world continued to navigate the ups and downs of the pandemic and the new way of working. It was also a big year for NSX, with many firsts, releases, awards and events. Before we head into the new year, take a quick trip down memory lane with us for an NSX year in review and reminisce on all the news we shared this year:

January

Shared on YouTube

January, besides marking the start of the new year, was the month of the -tion’s on YouTube. Our top-viewed videos this month were the classic NSX Introduction, Micro-segmentation, Network Evolution, NSX-T Migration, and NSX-T Federation. Check out the videos and let us know in the comments if any of the information in these creations got your attention.

February

Introduced HCX 4.0

Roses are red, violets are blue. Have you heard? HCX 4.0 is new! This major release focused on providing enhanced visibility, reducing service downtime during upgrades, and simplifying the reconfiguration of NSX security policies post-migration. Since February, Continue reading

Iron Mountain acquires ITRenew in sustainability move

Iron Mountain has been around for 60 years, and it's well known for providing storage and information management services that protect critical business assets and highly sensitive data. But it's probably is not the first name that comes to mind when you think of IT hardware. That’s not for lack of trying. Since 2017, Iron Mountain has invested more than $2 billion in building and buying data centers. It has a total of 18 around the world, and those data centers are powered by 100% renewable energy.Now it’s making inroads into the broader data-center supply chain with the acquisition of ITRenew, which specializes in IT asset disposal. With ITRenew, Iron Mountain sees opportunities to enhance the value of its environmental, social and governance offerings.To read this article in full, please click here

Iron Mountain acquires ITRenew in sustainability move

Iron Mountain has been around for 60 years, and it's well known for providing storage and information management services that protect critical business assets and highly sensitive data. But it's probably is not the first name that comes to mind when you think of IT hardware. That’s not for lack of trying. Since 2017, Iron Mountain has invested more than $2 billion in building and buying data centers. It has a total of 18 around the world, and those data centers are powered by 100% renewable energy.Now it’s making inroads into the broader data-center supply chain with the acquisition of ITRenew, which specializes in IT asset disposal. With ITRenew, Iron Mountain sees opportunities to enhance the value of its environmental, social and governance offerings.To read this article in full, please click here

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