Earlier Data Networking
Cisco unwraps Unified Access boxes in East London
Cisco took its life in its hands today by choosing the heart of East London to take the wraps off two shiny boxes to be sold under its Unified Access architecture banner.
Senior vice president for enterprise, Rob Soderberry unveiled the Catalyst 3850 unified access switch at the opening of CiscoLive, saying it combined the best …
WTF is... Weightless?
Weightless, the would-be world standard that allows devices to talk to devices without human intervention, reaches its first major release milestone this spring.
Version 1.0 of the technology specification is set to be published in March or April and then it will be able to begin making the much-hyped but yet to be delivered ‘ …
Juniper to build its own software-defined networking stack
Juniper Networks is not, it turns out, all that enthusiastic about the OpenFlow technology that is at the heart of a lot of software-defined network (SDN) strategies these days. But don't be confused. That does not mean that Juniper doesn't believe in SDN or has not been quietly putting together its own SDN battle plan to take …
WTF is... WebRTC?
Feature Last week’s release of Firefox 18.0 saw the not-for-profit browser gaining “preliminary” support for a technology called WebRTC. Folk downloading the browser afresh or updating from a previous release may have been keener on Firefox’s new support for Apple’s “retina” displays or the browser’s promised JavaScript performance leap …
Soz, switch-fondlers: Doesn't look like 2013 is 10Gb Ethernet's year
It is becoming increasingly unlikely that 2013 will be the year that sees widespread adoption of 10 gigabit Ethernet. Of course we'll be told it will be, just as we have been told for years that wholesale shift is right on the horizon. The reason? It's not a question of technological capability – the technology for 10GbE has …
IBM borgs StoredIQ for big data build-out
Everybody is crazy about storing any kind of data their employees and systems generate in the hopes that they can turn all that big data into money.
But the dirty little secret is that this hoarding tendency has risks as well as rewards. Keeping some kinds of data is as financially harmful as not processing other kinds. And that …
Ethernet sales fizzle, but self-aware networks set to explode
The switching and server markets are loosely coupled, just like the machines themselves in the data center. When one goes up or down, the other tends to either lead or follow, depending on the technology transitions underway in both markets at any given time. The server market is in a bit of a slump, and the Ethernet switch …
Samba 4 arrives with full Active Directory support
The team behind the Samba Project has released version 4.0 of its open source Windows interoperability software suite, the first version to offer full compatibility with Microsoft's Active Directory protocols.
The Samba stack is by far the most popular solution for networking non-Microsoft platforms with Windows machines, but …
Pica8 bundles up OpenFlow controller, switches for SDN newbies
Ethernet switch maker Pica8 was one of the vendors that first jumped onto the OpenFlow software-defined networking bandwagon. But with all the major switch makers making noise about how they are doing SDN, Pica8 has to do something. Its rivals are setting up SDNs using open source OpenFlow virtual switches or controllers or by …
Chinese state media accuses Cisco and other US giants of spying
State mouthpieces in China have published a series of articles attacking Cisco, accusing the networking giant of being complicit in US attacks on its infrastructure.
The first coverage seems to have appeared as the cover story in China Economic and Information Technology Magazine, and doesn't mince words in laying into Cisco, …
How IT will evolve to photonics
Replacing electronics with photonics will one day be an important way to run IT while consuming far less power than is the case today. But while that idea looks great on paper, the research is still young.
The Internet’s voracious appetite for electricity needs some near-term solutions, so asThe Register followed-up the our …
Cisco to acquire Meraki for $1.2bn
Cisco has acquired cloud rival Meraki.
Meraki attracted much attention in around 2006, thanks to Google investing in the then-startup and its products that made it possible to dole out a few megabytes of free WiFi from its access points. That functionality was popular among early adopters who liked the idea of free WiFi and were …
Forget what vendors think: What’s YOUR vision for the data centre?
Research Given the chance, any IT vendor or service provider will launch into their company’s vision for the future... your future.
If it’s Salesforce.com or Google, that will be a future in which you wave goodbye to all of your servers, storage and networking kit.
If it’s IBM, HP or Microsoft, their crystal ball will envision you …
Cisco sets ex-CIA spook to hunt down leaking staffer
Updated Cisco appears to be rather annoyed that one of its staff has been leaking memos to the press, and its vice president of global labs (and former CIA operative) Michael Quinn has sent a chilling email to staff warning he will hunt down the culprit.
"The person or persons whom felt it was cool or correct to share this internal memo …
Juniper in shock dump of biggest supplier
Juniper Networks has dumped its biggest manufacturer Plexus from a huge contract to make switches and network gear.
Juniper had said that it was cutting the number of suppliers it uses and Plexus announced yesterday that it was one of the firms getting the axe.
"This is very surprising news to us given our recent communications …
Huawei reaches out to critical German hacker over router flaws
Huawei’s efforts to improve its information security credentials have appeared to receive a boost after CISO John Suffolk revealed the Chinese tech giant is engaging with a researcher who exposed flaws in some of its routers.
Former UK government CIO Suffolk told Reuters at a security summit in New Delhi that he's sending a team …
Huawei gets US gov nod to supply Clearwire network
There was some good news for Huawei in its ongoing tussle with US lawmakers after wireless broadband provider Clearwire said it had received government approval to upgrade its network using kit from the Chinese tech giant.
The firm is an existing customer of Huawei and said it would be continuing the relationship to upgrade its …
Added flash fails to get network adapters out of QLogic's doors
QLogic reported revenues of $117.9m for its second fiscal 2013 quarter ending 30 September, down 13.5 per cent on the year-ago quarter, and down 9.6 per cent on the first 2013 quarter. It made a profit of $11.9m, way down on the year-ago quarter's $28.7m and the preceding quarter's $18.4m. The business is shrinking.
QLogic Q2 …
Cisco: Data centers are getting their cloudy acts together
When you are trying to take over the data center moving out from the switch and into servers, as Cisco Systems is trying to do, you have to try to figure out the lay of the land so you can pick your targets and start shooting. That, in a nutshell, is why Cisco has put together its latest Global Cloud Index, complete with lots of …
Cisco lobbied telco customers to steer clear of Huawei
Lawmakers aren't the only ones who have been pushing to block Chinese networking companies, including Huawei and ZTE, from bidding on US telecom contracts. According to The Washington Post, some of the strongest pressure has come from the Chinese firms' US-based competitors, in particular Cisco.
The networking giant has been …
Cisco drops ZTE after claims of sanction-busting Iran sales
Cisco has confirmed that is has ended all sales agreements with ZTE, reportedly in response to an internal investigation into whether the Chinese firm was selling American hardware to Iran in defiance of sanctions.
According to Reuters, an investigation by Cisco determined that its hardware was being shipped to Iran illegally by …
Only buy Huawei or ZTE if you like being SPIED ON - US politicos
Huawei and ZTE, China's top makers of telecoms kit, should be locked out of the US market because their technology poses a security risk, a US House of Representatives group said today.
The Intelligence Committee believes there is a threat of Chinese state influence on the two companies that would make them a liability in the …
Riverbed plunks ESXi hypervisor in Steelhead WAN optimizers
Riverbed Technology's Steelhead WAN optimization appliances are growing up to be proper server citizens now that they can run VMware's ESXi bare-metal hypervisor. Riverbed is also kicking out two new Steelhead CX appliances and upgrading its RIOS operating system with some nips and tucks to help it do a better job of optimizing …
HP previews OpenFlow virty network controller
Everybody has their own twist and take on software-defined networks, or SDN, these days as virtualization moves on from servers and storage and into the still crufty world of networking. Server vendors who bought into networking to bolster themselves are now scrambling to be players in virtual networks when all they thought they …
Network boffins say Terabit Ethernet is TOO FAST
The IEEE consensus group in charge of developing future networking standards has some words for anyone who was hoping to see Terabit Ethernet in the next few years: not so fast.
In July, the IEEE Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment ad hoc group issued a report stating that global demand for network bandwidth is growing at such an …
A10 seduces app load balancing biz spurned by Cisco
Cisco Systems has stopped development on its Application Control Engine load balancer modules for its high-end switches and routers, and now networking rivals are trying to raid Cisco's installed base. Upstart A10 Networks has struck first with a Cisco ACE trade-in deal.
A10 is offering Cisco ACE shops a credit of $24,000 as …
Sun men bump bellies in Cisco v Arista freaky trade battle
High frequency trading and certain parallel computing tasks need low-latency switches with as little jitter as possible, and they are willing to pay a hefty premium for those qualities. This was one of the founding premises of switch upstart Arista Networks, and Cisco Systems has revved up its Nexus 3000 series switches to try …
Arista touts next-gen switch as malleable as a T-1000 Terminator
Nobody has had his fingers in so much of the data centre pie as Andy Bechtolsheim, founder of Sun Microsystems, Granite Systems, Kealia, and Arista Networks. When Bechtolsheim and his team of techies at Arista say they have come up with their own way of doing software-defined networks (SDN) with their switches, people will stop …
Cisco EOLs ACE load balancer platform
Cisco is exiting the data centre load balancing market, confirming that it is ceasing development on its Application Control Engine product line.
While only a back-alley in the Borg’s sprawling product line, the confirmation that ACE will be added to the Cisco end-of-life list will be a fillip for companies like F5, Radware, …
How to be a Puppet master: Make Amazon, VMware dance for YOU
Sysadmin blog Puppet, if you haven't heard of it, is automation software that takes on a role similar to Active Directory's group policy. Puppet can also handle application deployment, image deployment and anything else you can imagine that you would typically manage with scripts.
Puppet is both cross platform and very simple to use. Born as …
Intel shows off Seacliff Trail SDN-enabled switch
IDF 2012 Intel wants to dominate the networking and storage arenas, each worth about $25bn a year in sales, just as much as it ever wanted to dominate the server racket, which accounts for around $50bn a year in sales. And if its goal is to double the revenues of its Data Center and Connected Systems group to $20bn by 2016 – as general …
Speaking in Tech: In the cloud biz? Cut through the waffle and listen up
Podcast speaking_in_tech Greg Knieriemen podcast enterprise
Live from Chicago, it's a phenomenal techcast with some of the biggest brains in the cloudy business. Cloud and storage guru Ed Saipetch is manning the ship, live from Cloud Connect in Chicago, while Greg Knieriemen and Sarah Vela take the week off. Special guests this week …
Oh no, sysadmins! VMware touts data centre that runs ITSELF
Now that vCloud Suite 5.1 has arrived, VMware is pushing a new term: the software-defined data centre (SDD). It's easy at first to dismiss this as merely another marketing buzzword, meaningless PR babble like "cloud" or "synergy". If you poke your head behind the curtain, you'll find there's good reason for this newest bit of …
Ethernet switch sales sizzle
The server market may have stalled a bit as Intel, AMD, IBM, Oracle, and Fujitsu work through various stages of processor transitions, but the Ethernet switch market is going gangbusters.
According to the box counters at IDC, the worldwide market for Layer 2 and 3 switching gear that adheres to the Ethernet protocol accounted …
Indian gov ponders restrictions on Chinese networking gear
The Indian government is set to become the latest global power to restrict the use of Chinese-built telecoms and internet infrastructure technology, in what could be another blow to the ambitions of Huawei and ZTE as they look to grow abroad.
The country’s telecoms minister, Kapil Sibal, is currently considering the findings of …
'Intel made more virty cash than VMware'
VMworld 2012 Cisco and other networking hardware vendors needn't fear VMware's acquisition of virtual networking company Nicira, because they'll end up selling mountains of virtualisation-friendly kit.
That's the opinion of Raghu Raghuram, VMware's Executive Vice President of Cloud Infrastructure and Management, who says that when server …
Networking industry to collaborate on TERABIT Ethernet
Sensing mounting frustration that movies Linux ISOs aren't downloading fast enough, the IEEE has announced a new group that aims to bring wired Ethernet speeds up to 1Tbps by 2015 and as fast as 10Tbps by 2020.
The announcement comes shortly after the publication of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment report, which …
Make life easier on campus with a simpler LAN
The campus LAN is probably the most common network in use today, but its customary trio of layers is coming under examination as the need to reduce costs, add wireless access and increase performance continues to grow.
Back to basics: a campus LAN interconnects users in separate and multi-floored buildings in a smallish area, …
eBay fires up OpenStack cloud with Nicira network virt
If VMware needed another reason to justify its $1.26bn acquisition of network virtualization upstart Nicira, it need look no further than online auctioneer eBay.
Nicira created Open vSwitch, a virtual switch that plugs into server virtualization hypervisors and provides a networking abstraction layer that's akin to a hypervisor …
Huawei looking into critical router flaw claims
Chinese telecoms kit maker Huawei has said it is investigating claims by researchers that two of its router products contain serious vulnerabilities which could allow hackers to remotely take control of the devices.
Felix Lindner and Gregor Kopf of Berlin-based Recurity Labs announced their findings at the Defcon hacking show at …
Speaking in Tech: VMware is building the Death Star
Podcast speaking_in_tech Greg Knieriemen podcast enterprise
The "Stack Wars" are on and VMware is adding the final touches to its ultimate weapon ... Your hosts Greg Knieriemen, Ed Saipetch and Sarah Vela chat to special guest Dave Graham of Juniper Networks this week and discuss VMware's latest moves, Cisco's reactions, Google's …
Juniper disappointed by skittish service providers
Switch and router maker Juniper Networks, like rival Cisco Systems, has been adversely impacted by the skittish economy and has now been rattled by VMware's $1.26bn acquisition of network virtualizer Nicira. The conversation will quickly shift from what Juniper is doing to get an edge on Cisco to what it is going to do to blunt …
