Upcoming Webinar: Network Troubleshooting

I’m teaching a webinar on troubleshooting theory on the 20th; register here. From the course description:

This training focuses on the half-split system of troubleshooting, which is widely used in the electronic and civil engineering domains. The importance of tracing the path of the signal, using models to put the system in context, and the use of a simple troubleshooting “loop” to focus on asking how, what, and why are added to the half-split method to create a complete theory of troubleshooting. Other concepts covered in this course are the difference between permanent and temporary fixes and a review of measuring reliability. The final third of the course contains several practical examples of working through problems to help in applying the theory covered in the first two sections to the real world.

Casual Dress Considered Harmful?

I remember a time long ago—but then again, everything seems like it was “long ago” to me—when I was flying out to see an operator in a financial district. Someone working with the account asked me what I normally wear… which is some sort of button down and black or grey pants in pretty much any situation. Well, I will put on a sport jacket if I’m teaching in some contexts, but still, the black/grey pants and some sort of button down are pretty much a “uniform” for me. The person working on the account asked me if I could please switch to ragged shorts, a t-shirt, and grow a pony tail because … the folks at the operator would never believe I was an engineer if I dressed to “formal.”

Now I’ve never thought of what I wear as “formal…” it’s just … what I wear. Context, however, is king.

In other situation, I saw a sales engineer go to a store and buy an entirely new outfit because he came to the company’s building wearing a suit and tie … The company in question deals in outdoor gear, and the location was in a small midwestern town, Continue reading

Apple Silicon M1 Chips and Docker

Revealed at Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ event on Nov 10th, Docker was excited to see new Macs feature Apple silicon and their M1 chip. At Docker we have been looking at the new hypervisor features and support that are required for Mac to continue to delight our millions of customers. We saw the first spotlight of these efforts at Apple WWDC in June, when Apple highlighted Docker Desktop on stage. Our goal at Docker is to provide the same great experience on the new Macs as we do today for our millions of users on Docker Desktop for Mac, and to make this transition as seamless as possible. 

Building the right experience for our customers means getting quite a few things right before we push a release. Although Apple has released Rosetta 2 to help move applications over to the new M1 chips, this does not get us all the way with Docker Desktop. Under the hood of Docker Desktop, we run a virtual machine, to achieve this on Apple’s new hardware we need to move onto Apple’s new hypervisor framework. We also need to do all the plumbing that provides the core experience of Docker Continue reading

Network Break 310: Kemp Acquires Flowmon; Networking Startup Isovalent Nabs $29 Million VC Bucks

This week's Network Break discusses a serious flaw in some Aruba switches, why Kemp acquired Flowmon, what makes a networking startup worth a $29 million investment, what Extreme Networks is up to with its AWS Outpost competitor, how Cisco is spinning a tough financial quarter, and more tech news.

The post Network Break 310: Kemp Acquires Flowmon; Networking Startup Isovalent Nabs $29 Million VC Bucks appeared first on Packet Pushers.

The Week in Internet News: A Change in U.S. Internet Policy?

Winds of change: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will significantly change U.S. government policy focused on the Internet, Vox.com says. A Biden administration is likely to bring back net neutrality rules and push for policies that widen Internet access and make it more affordable. The Biden team may also provide more subsidies to lower-income people and open up more radio frequency bands for high-speed 5G networks.

Accessing growth: The growth of Indonesia’s digital economy depends on equal access to the Internet, but 12,000 villages across the country still lack access, Kompas.com reports. Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is pushing for digital infrastructure to be distributed throughout the country. The government has a 2021 budget of 30 trillion rupiahs ($2.1 billion USD) to develop information and communication technology infrastructure.

Lowering the Zoom: Video-conferencing service Zoom has settled a U.S. Federal Trade Commission complaint saying that it overstated its encryption protections for several years, TechCrunch says. “Zoom’s misleading claims gave users a false sense of security … especially for those who used the company’s platform to discuss sensitive topics such as health and financial information,” the agency said. Zoom has agreed to start a vulnerability management Continue reading

AMD At A Tipping Point With Instinct MI100 GPU Accelerators

It is hard enough to chase one competitor. Imagine how hard it is to chase two different ones in different but complementary markets while at the same time those two competitors are thinking about fighting each other in those two different markets and thus bringing even more intense competitive pressure on both fronts.

AMD At A Tipping Point With Instinct MI100 GPU Accelerators was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

New Content: Graph Algorithms – Flows and Connectivity

Last week we enjoyed the second half of Graph Algorithms lecture by Rachel Traylor, this time focusing on flow- and connectivity challenges.

After an easy start defining flows and walking us through various maximum flow algorithms, Rachel explained circulations and saturating flows, switched into high gear with (supposedly painless) intro to linear programming and minimum cost flow problems, and concluded with dynamic flows and using flows to explore graph connectivity.

You’ll need Standard or Expert ipSpace.net subscription to watch the videos.

New Content: Graph Algorithms – Flows and Connectivity

Last week we enjoyed the second half of Graph Algorithms lecture by Rachel Traylor, this time focusing on flow- and connectivity challenges.

After an easy start defining flows and walking us through various maximum flow algorithms, Rachel explained circulations and saturating flows, switched into high gear with (supposedly painless) intro to linear programming and minimum cost flow problems, and concluded with dynamic flows and using flows to explore graph connectivity.

You’ll need Standard or Expert ipSpace.net subscription to watch the videos.

Network, It’s Time to Modernize!

The network is a critical component of any IT environment. When it works, it’s “normal” and few notice it. But the smallest glitch can have devastating business impacts.  For over a decade, networking has been adapting to become more programmable, closer to applications, and easier to use. At the same, the number of devices increased drastically while and applications exponentially. More than ever, there is a need to adapt the network to the new paradigm of multi-cloud environments, and to make it on-demand, easy to use, and simple. The network should be transparent to applications and users, yet allow the most complex environments to communicate reliably.

Let’s dig into the three pillars of a Modern Network framework.

Modern App Connectivity Services

User experience is paramount in today’s world. Applications and data are increasingly distributed across multiple on-premises data centers and public, private, and multi-cloud environments. At the same time, users and devices (including IoT) are spreading out from a centralized corporate headquarters to branch offices, remote worksites, and, increasingly, home offices. This new reality means that, more and more, machines are talking to machines and applications are talking to applications, creating network complexity that can only be mitigated by Continue reading

When trusted relationships are formed, everyone wins!

When trusted relationships are formed, everyone wins!
When trusted relationships are formed, everyone wins!

Key Points:

  • Customer Success Managers offer continual strategic and technical guidance by way of interactive workshops, account reviews, tuning sessions and regular product updates.
  • Our product development and design teams constantly work on new features and product updates based on your input.
  • It’s a team effort. As part of our Premium Success offering, we can introduce you to Product Managers for in-depth conversations about our solutions and how they can apply to your business goals.
  • Cloudflare is always rapidly evolving and expanding our solutions! As technology advances, so does the sophistication of attacks. Through machine learning and behavioural analysis, we are able to ship new products to ensure you remain secure without impacting performance.

Reach out to your Customer Success Manager to gain more information on how they can accelerate your business.

The Success Story

Hi there. My name is Jake Jones and I’m a Customer Success Manager at Cloudflare covering the Middle East and Africa. When I look at what success means to me, it’s becoming a trusted advisor for my customers by taking a genuine interest in their priorities and helping them reach desired goals. I’ve learnt that successful partnerships are a byproduct of successful relationship building. Every Continue reading

Using AI to manage IoT sensor power

Sensor power loss is the scourge of IoT.Deploying millions of sensors is pretty much a useless endeavor if the devices continually run out of power. IoT sensors can't collect or transmit data without power.That's one reason researchers are exploring ambient energy harvesting. Numerous projects have shown that small amounts of power can be generated by converting ambient energy in the environment – from stray magnetic fields, humidity, waste heat, and even unwanted wireless radio noise, for example – into usable electrical energy to power the IoT.To read this article in full, please click here

Using AI to manage IoT sensor power

Sensor power loss is the scourge of IoT.Deploying millions of sensors is pretty much a useless endeavor if the devices continually run out of power. IoT sensors can't collect or transmit data without power.That's one reason researchers are exploring ambient energy harvesting. Numerous projects have shown that small amounts of power can be generated by converting ambient energy in the environment – from stray magnetic fields, humidity, waste heat, and even unwanted wireless radio noise, for example – into usable electrical energy to power the IoT.To read this article in full, please click here

Hybrid cloud keeps human-capital management firm nimble

Ceridian is betting on hybrid cloud, network virtualization and automation as it aims to improve IT service delivery, weed out inefficiencies and bolster security.The human capital management (HCM) company recently completed its transition to a cloud architecture, shuttering its on-premises data centers and migrating its applications and back-office systems to multiple clouds. "We are a true consumer of hybrid cloud technology," says CIO Warren Perlman. "We have operations in both [VMware Cloud on AWS] as well as native AWS, and also native Azure."To read this article in full, please click here

Why You Should Cancel Your Social Media Accounts

Over the past ten years, the world generally has noticed serious social media websites like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook which have all generated different ways for people to interact and connect with other people. Facebook is known as the biggest social website. Today we have more than a billion users that make use of Facebook. In the future, with kids growing up and joining the social media platform, the number of people will increase. Facebook has been used for both personal and business communication, and its usage has brought lots of advantages in terms of sharing ideas, increasing connectivity, and learning online.

But as time passes, some studies have merged networking online with different disorders that come from the minds of the users. These disorders include low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and a lot of others. Because social media is a product of the 21st century, lots of questions relating to their impact on the health of its users mentally haven’t gotten desired answers yet. Because these online services are linked to the general population, any confirmed connection in the future between these diseases and these social media platforms could turn to a serious problem.

Reasons You Should Cancel Your Continue reading

Hybrid cloud keeps human capital management firm nimble

Ceridian is betting on hybrid cloud, network virtualization and automation as it aims to improve IT service delivery, weed out inefficiencies and bolster security.The human capital management (HCM) company recently completed its transition to a cloud architecture, shuttering its on-premises data centers and migrating its applications and back-office systems to multiple clouds. "We are a true consumer of hybrid cloud technology," says CIO Warren Perlman. "We have operations in both [VMware Cloud on AWS] as well as native AWS, and also native Azure."To read this article in full, please click here