Verizon deals with Microsoft, Nokia aim at making private 5G easier

Verizon’s recent announcements of new partnership deals with Microsoft and with Nokia are designed to create a unified platform for businesses to use as they build their own edge deployments, according to experts.Those deals will see Verizon offer Azure integration natively on its 5G Edge networking platform, as well as partnering for private 5G delivery with Nokia, with the latter agreement focusing on areas where Verizon does not already have a public networking presence, like Europe and Asia-Pacific. The company already has partnerships in place with AWS and IBM, among other major edge technology players.To read this article in full, please click here

Understanding Inner Loop Development and Pull Rates

We have heard feedback that given the changes Docker introduced relating to network egress and the number of pulls for free users, that there are questions around the best way to use Docker as part of your development workflow without hitting these limits. This blog post covers best practices that improve your experience and uses a sensible consumption of Docker which will mitigate the risk of hitting these limits and how to increase the limits depending on your use case. 

If you are interested in how these limits are addressed in a CI/CD pipeline, please have a look at our post: Best Practices for using Docker Hub for CI/CD. If you are using Github Action, have a look at our Docker Github Actions post.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following:

Determining Number of Pulls

Docker defines pull rate limits as the number of manifest requests to Docker Hub. Rate limits for Docker pulls are based Continue reading

Gartner crystal ball: Look to neuromorphic computing, DNA storage

Gartner is taking a swing at predicting future trends in IT, flagging neuromorphic computing and DNA storage technologies, and an expanded responsibility for CIOs to deliver digital-business outcomes.Future technologies are resetting everything as current technologies are being stressed to their limits, and conventional computing is hitting a wall,  Daryl Plummer, distinguished research vice president and Gartner fellow told the virtual audience at the firm’s IT Symposium/Xpo Americas.The industry is on a roller-coaster ride that will lead the "reset of everything," Plummer said. The future technologies Gartner forecasts will impact the industry the most have three key common threads: they promote greater innovation and efficiency in the enterprise; they are more effective than the technologies that they are replacing; and they have a transformational impact on society, Plummer said.To read this article in full, please click here

Gartner crystal ball: Look to neuromorphic computing, DNA storage

Gartner is taking a swing at predicting future trends in IT, flagging neuromorphic computing and DNA storage technologies, and an expanded responsibility for CIOs to deliver digital-business outcomes.Future technologies are resetting everything as current technologies are being stressed to their limits, and conventional computing is hitting a wall,  Daryl Plummer, distinguished research vice president and Gartner fellow told the virtual audience at the firm’s IT Symposium/Xpo Americas.The industry is on a roller-coaster ride that will lead the "reset of everything," Plummer said. The future technologies Gartner forecasts will impact the industry the most have three key common threads: they promote greater innovation and efficiency in the enterprise; they are more effective than the technologies that they are replacing; and they have a transformational impact on society, Plummer said.To read this article in full, please click here

A video walk through of EVPN multihoming

You may have overheard someone talking about EVPN multihoming but do you know what it is? If you have, are you up to speed on the latest around it? I walk you through it all, beginning to end, in this three part video series. Watch all three below.

Chapter 1:

EVPN multihoming provides support for all-active server redundancy. In this intro to EVPN multihoming you will hear an overview of the feature and how it compares with EVPN-MLAG.


Chapter 2:

In this episode we dive into the various unicast packet flows in a network with EVPN multihoming. This includes, new data plane constructs such as MAC-ECMP and layer-2 nexthop-groups that have been introduced for the express purpose of EVPN-MH.


Chapter 3:

PIM-SM is used for optimizing flooded traffic in network with EVPN-MH. In this episode we walk through the implementation aspects of flooded traffic, including DF election and Split horizon filtering.


Want to know more? You can find more resources about EVPN and all things networking in our resource hub here.

ACI Fabric Access Policies Part 1: VLAN Pool

 

Introduction

 

Everything in ACI is managed as an Object. Each object belongs to a certain Class. As an example, when we create a VLAN Pool, we create an object that belongs to Class VlanInstP. Classes, in turn, are organized in Packages, Class VlanInstP belongs to Package fvns (fv = fabric virtualization, ns namespace). Figure 1-1 illustrates the classes that we are using in this chapter when we create Fabric Access Policies. Lines with an arrow represent Parent-Child structure and dotted lines represent a relationship (Rs) between classes. We will get back to Rs in becoming sections.



Figure 1-1: ACI Fabric Access Policies.

Continue reading

Docker and Snyk Extend Partnership to Docker Official and Certified Images

Today we are pleased to announce that Docker and Snyk have extended our existing partnership to bring vulnerability scanning to Docker Official and certified images. As the exclusive scanning partner for these two image categories, Snyk will work with Docker to provide developers with insights into our most popular images. It builds on our previous announcement earlier this year where Snyk scanning was integrated into the Docker Desktop and Docker Hub. This means that developers can now incorporate vulnerability assessment along each step of the container development and deployment process.

Docker Official images represent approximately 25% of all of the pull activity on Docker Hub. Docker Official images are used extensively by millions of developers and developer world wide teams to build and run tens of millions of containerized applications. By integrating vulnerability scanning from Snyk users are now able to get more visibility into the images and have a higher level of confidence that their applications are secure and ready for production.

Docker Official images that have been scanned by Snyk will be available early next year.

You can read more about it from Snyk here and you can catch Docker CEO Scott Johnson and Snyk CEO Peter McKay Continue reading

Gartner: COVID-era infrastructure trends you should know about

COVID-19 has turned the world inside out, and the impact on infrastructure and operations teams is significant.That's the conclusion of Gartner research vice president Jeffrey Hewitt, who detailed the core infrastructure trends that IT executives can expect to see in the next 12-18 months. Hewitt shared the research at Gartner's IT Symposium/Xpo 2020 Americas event, which is being held virtually this week. (Related story: Gartner's top 9 strategic technology trends for 2021)"The situations created by COVID-19 have had a significant impact on the world," Hewitt said. "This impact is having an influence on almost all of the trends that infrastructure and operations leaders will be facing going forward."To read this article in full, please click here

Gartner: COVID-era infrastructure trends you should know about

COVID-19 has turned the world inside out, and the impact on infrastructure and operations teams is significant.That's the conclusion of Gartner research vice president Jeffrey Hewitt, who detailed the core infrastructure trends that IT executives can expect to see in the next 12-18 months. Hewitt shared the research at Gartner's IT Symposium/Xpo 2020 Americas event, which is being held virtually this week. (Related story: Gartner's top 9 strategic technology trends for 2021)"The situations created by COVID-19 have had a significant impact on the world," Hewitt said. "This impact is having an influence on almost all of the trends that infrastructure and operations leaders will be facing going forward."To read this article in full, please click here

Day Two Cloud 071: It’s Not Too Late To Make DevOps Work

Technology is accelerating like crazy, with new tools, services, open-source projects, and processes. If you're trying to make DevOps work in your organization, you might feel like you're perpetually behind. This Day Two Cloud episode is here to say: You're going to be OK. You can still engage with DevOps to move your career and your organization forward. Our guest to tell you how is April Edwards, a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft.

Day Two Cloud 071: It’s Not Too Late To Make DevOps Work

Technology is accelerating like crazy, with new tools, services, open-source projects, and processes. If you're trying to make DevOps work in your organization, you might feel like you're perpetually behind. This Day Two Cloud episode is here to say: You're going to be OK. You can still engage with DevOps to move your career and your organization forward. Our guest to tell you how is April Edwards, a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft.

The post Day Two Cloud 071: It’s Not Too Late To Make DevOps Work appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Dell launches Apex, a per-use hardware-leasing program

All of the major IT hardware suppliers to one degree or other have adopted a consumption model, which is a fancy word for leasing. Rather than the outright purchase of hardware, customers lease it, usage is monitored, and the customer pays a monthly use fee.Now Dell Technologies has announced it is expanding its as-a-service capabilities with Project APEX, to simplify how customers and partners access Dell technology on-demand.APEX will cover an array of Dell products —storage, servers, networking, hyperconverged infrastructure, PCs, and broader solutions. Project APEX will unify the company’s as-a-service and cloud strategies, technology offerings, and go-to-market efforts previously sold under the On Demand monicker.To read this article in full, please click here

Dell launches Apex, a per-use hardware-leasing program

All of the major IT hardware suppliers to one degree or other have adopted a consumption model, which is a fancy word for leasing. Rather than the outright purchase of hardware, customers lease it, usage is monitored, and the customer pays a monthly use fee.Now Dell Technologies has announced it is expanding its as-a-service capabilities with Project APEX, to simplify how customers and partners access Dell technology on-demand.APEX will cover an array of Dell products —storage, servers, networking, hyperconverged infrastructure, PCs, and broader solutions. Project APEX will unify the company’s as-a-service and cloud strategies, technology offerings, and go-to-market efforts previously sold under the On Demand monicker.To read this article in full, please click here

The Cloudflare Radar 2020 Elections Dashboard

The Cloudflare Radar 2020 Elections Dashboard
The Cloudflare Radar 2020 Elections Dashboard

There is significant global attention around the upcoming United States election. Through the Athenian Project and Cloudflare for Campaigns, Cloudflare is providing free protection from cyber attacks to a significant number of state and local elections' websites, as well as those of federal campaigns.

One of the bedrocks of a democracy is that people need to be able to get access to relevant information to make a choice about the future of their country. This includes information about the candidates up for election; learning about how to register, and how to cast a vote; and obtaining accurate information on the results.

A question that I’ve been increasingly asked these past few months: are cyberattacks going to impact these resources leading up to and on election day?

Internally, we have been closely monitoring attacks on the broader elections and campaign websites and have a team standing by 24x7 to help our current customers as well as state and local governments and eligible political campaigns to protect them at no cost from any cyberattacks they may see.

The good news is that, so far, cyberattacks have not been impacting the websites of campaigns and elections officials we are monitoring and protecting. Continue reading

Validate Ansible YAML Data with JSON Schema

When I published the Optimize Network Data Models series a long while ago, someone made an interesting comment along the lines of “You should use JSON Schema to validate the data model.

It took me ages to gather the willpower to tame that particular beast, but I finally got there. In the next installment of the Data Models saga I described how you can use JSON Schema to validate Ansible inventory data and your own YAML- or JSON-based data structures.

To learn more about data validation, error handling, unit- and system testing, and CI/CD pipelines in network automation, join our automation course.

Validate Ansible YAML Data with JSON Schema

When I published the Optimize Network Data Models series a long while ago, someone made an interesting comment along the lines of “You should use JSON Schema to validate the data model.

It took me ages to gather the willpower to tame that particular beast, but I finally got there. In the next installment of the Data Models saga I described how you can use JSON Schema to validate Ansible inventory data and your own YAML- or JSON-based data structures.

To learn more about data validation, error handling, unit- and system testing, and CI/CD pipelines in network automation, join our automation course.