TechNewSources

Sunday, July 22, 2018

AWS Adding AI, Machine Learning and Compute Services to Its Cloud

Today’s topics include @AWS adding #AI and compute services to its #cloud lineup, and @Micron and @Intel terminating their #3DXPoint joint development program. At this week’s @Amazon Web Services NYC Summit 2018, executives announced new capabilities for the company’s #artificialintelligence, #machinelearning and #compute #services on the AWS cloud. Dr. Matt Wood, AWS’ general manager for machine learning, announced two updates to the #SageMaker service, which enables users to build and deploy models in the cloud. SageMaker Streaming Algorithms streams large amounts of training data from the S3 storage service into SageMaker, while SageMaker Batch Transform allows users to dump large files or file sets into SageMaker for testing or training.

http://www.eweek.com/cloud/aws-adding-ai-machine-learning-and-compute-services-to-its-cloud

Thursday, July 19, 2018

AT&T Caters to Customers That Prefer a Full Cisco NFV Stack

For its business customers that want to use virtual network functions ( #VNFs ) but prefer a @Cisco-based infrastructure, @AT&T is providing the Cisco 5000 Series Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS) hardware and Cisco software. ENCS will provide AT&T customers in nearly 90 countries and territories with a fully virtualized platform based on the Cisco Enterprise #NFV architecture. And these customers will also get access to a library of VNFs. The first two VNFs AT&T will provide are for #routing and #security

https://www-sdxcentral-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/att-caters-to-customers-that-prefer-a-full-cisco-nfv-stack/2018/07/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sdxcentral.com%2Farticles%2Fnews%2Fatt-caters-to-customers-that-prefer-a-full-cisco-nfv-stack%2F2018%2F07%2F

The 10 Top Hyper-Converged Platforms Of 2018 (So Far)

Hyper-Converged Boom Sales from hyper-converged systems hit $1.3 billion in the first quarter 2018, skyrocketing 76 percent year over year as businesses around the globe are increasing investment in data center technologies that eliminate silos and boost business-centric decisions. Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) combines storage, computing, networking and software into a single system aimed at reducing complexity and boosting scalability. Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2020, 20 percent of business-critical applications currently deployed on three-tier IT infrastructure will transition to HCI. The largest IT vendors in the world have been focusing R&D efforts in recent years on creating hyper-converged solutions as many customers steer towards a hybrid cloud approach. Here are the ten coolest hyper-converged products tearing through the market in 2018. (For more on the biggest news of 2018, check out "CRN's Tech Midyear In Review.").

Cisco HyperFlex

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant leverages its Unified Computing System (UCS) as the platform for its flagship HyperFlex hyper-converged infrastructure appliance. HyperFlex, launched in 2016, integrates UCS, UCS Manager, and data and storage management software. This year, Cisco rolled out significant updatesto the platform to position the solution for hybrid cloud, tighten integration with software solutions, and add support for containers. One key addition was support for Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. According to first quarter 2018 market data from IDC, Cisco owns 4.9 percent share of the hyper-converged systems market, generating $60 million in sales for the quarter, up 145 percent year over year.

Dell EMC VxRack SDDC
HCI market share leader Dell EMC has a large product line of hyper-converged solutions, although its VxRack SDDC infrastructure offering is one of the most powerful. The rack-scale software-defined solution is integrated with physical and virtual networking delivered through Cisco switches and VMware NSX software, along with vSphere, vSAN and SDDC Manager. The solution is optimized for predictable performance, scalability and delivering a simple path to hybrid cloud with an automated elastic cloud infrastructure. Customers can also easily create a foundation for a complete VMware private cloud with VxRack SDDC. Dell EMC took home hyper-converged market share gold in the first quarter 2018, capturing nearly 30 percent share with sales topping $363 million, up 142 percent year over year.

Dell EMC XC Core
Dell's platform is part of the popular Dell Technologies and Nutanix XC Series of hyper-converged solutions. The XC Core uses the same Dell EMC hardware and software as the XC Series appliances, but the software is licensed and support directly by Nutanix. The new solution, based on Dell PowerEdge servers, lets customers buy Nutanix software licenses from channel partners and then add the licenses to pre-validated XC Core systems that are configured, built and tested by Dell. The XC Series have been deployed by thousands of customers in almost every major vertical thanks to its ability to tailor processors, memory and storage configurations to meet specific use cases.

HPE SimpliVity

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's primary hyper-converged offering HPE SimpliVity drives around 80 percent of the company's total HCI revenue. HPE SimpliVity, managed by VMware vCenter, is based on a software-defined scale-out storage architecture that can scale from a single node to eight clustered nodes plus an additional 16 network-only nodes. It features always-on in-line compression and deduplication data services leveraging the HPE OmniStack Accelerator Card to provide consistent performance for virtualized production workloads. In June, the Palo Alto Calif.-based company said it plans to bring its InfoSight predictive analytics software to SimpliVity by the end of 2018. HPE captured 5 percent of the hyper-converged market in first quarter 2018 reaching $61 million in sales, up 112 percent year over year.

Maxta Hyperconvergence Software

Maxta's hyperconvergence software supports every major server brand -- including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell EMC and Cisco -- as well as multiple hypervisors and containers. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor's application-centric platform allows customers to choose software only or have the software pre-installed on existing server platforms with the ability to scale storage and compute independently. With application-defined performance policies, customers can easily consolidate different applications on the same cluster while improving performance. recently joined forces with distributor Arrow Electronics to offer hyper-converged bundled, pre-configured systems on servers from Intel, Dell, Lenovo and Supermicro.

https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/data-center/300106721/the-10-top-hyper-converged-platforms-of-2018-so-far.htm

Intel Teases Upcoming QLC SSD For Datacenters

@Intel has started production of their first datacenter #PCIe #SSD using #QLC #3DNAND #flashmemory, which stores four bits per memory cell. This isn't a full product announcement and we don't even have a proper name for the new SSD, just a mention that it is part of a new D5 product family for datacenters—which may signal a reorganization of Intel's naming scheme for SSDs. Intel will be sharing more information in a few weeks at Flash Memory Summit August 7-9, where Intel VP Rob Crooke is scheduled to give a keynote speech on August 8. Earlier this year, Intel confirmed that they would be producing QLC SSDs in the second half of 2018, and that they were putting up to 20TB in a 2.5" U.2 drive, but it is not yet clear whether that configuration is one that's going into mass production at this time. Intel is expecting this to be the first QLC SSD available for this market segment. Micron has already launched an enterprise SATA SSD using QLC NAND. No consumer SSDs with QLC NAND have been announced yet. Samsung, Toshiba and Western Digital have been talking about their QLC NAND for at least a year, but of them only Toshiba has confirmed plans to mass produce QLC on the current 64L 3D NAND process. Samsung has put off QLC until their 96L generation, which has just entered mass production but only of small TLC dies so far, so they are unlikely to be in mass production of QLC SSDs until late this year or early next year.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13100/intel-teases-upcoming-qlc-ssd-for-datacenters

Big Switch Takes the Fast Path to Hybrid Cloud Via On-Prem VPCs

@BigSwitch Networks will help enterprises set up virtual #privateclouds ( #VPC s) in their on-premises data centers, modeling the VPCs they use in the big #publiccloud s. Big Switch is doing this to make it easy for enterprises to adopt #hybridcloud. When businesses set up their accounts with the major public cloud providers, they create VPCs. For @Amazon Web Services ( #AWS) it’s called AWS VPC; for @Microsoft it’s #Azure #vNet; and for @Google it’s Google Cloud Platform VPC.
https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/big-switch-takes-the-fast-path-to-hybrid-cloud-via-on-prem-vpcs/2018/07/

Lenovo Leaps Forward With Next-generation Thinkagile Composable Cloud Platform

@Lenovo Data Center Group (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY), one of the fastest growing #hyperconvergedinfrastructure ( #HCI) vendors according to IDC, – with HCI revenue growing at almost twice the market growth rate in Q1 2018 (149.1% compared to 76.3%)—is further expanding its ThinkAgile portfolio to provide an innovative solution for customers who desire the agility of the #publiccloud and the security of a #privatecloud. To address this growing customer trend, Lenovo – together with @Cloudistics – has developed the #ThinkAgile CP Series composable cloud platform, a ‘cloud-in-a-box’ that offers all of the conveniences and ease-of-use of a public cloud environment secured behind the customer’s own #datacenter #firewall. Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series – with fully-integrated infrastructure, application marketplace and end-to-end automation of software-defined network, compute and storage – delivers a turnkey cloud experience that can be easily and centrally managed from anywhere through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) portal. “As a global company that is unencumbered by legacy, Lenovo is uniquely positioned to not only listen to our customers and understand their pain points, but also develop revolutionary solutions that eliminate IT roadblocks and accelerate their business growth,” said Roderick Lappin, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing of Lenovo Data Center Group. “The ThinkAgile CP Series is another example of how Lenovo is driving the industry forward by enabling customers to truly own their cloud experience in a secure, scalable and streamlined way.” “Cloudistics’ private cloud computing platform cuts down application deployment cycles by 90%, which translates to faster time to revenue,” said Najaf Husain, Chief Executive Officer of Cloudistics. “We make private clouds as easy to use as the public cloud but with the control and performance enterprise customers want. Our partnership with Lenovo enables us to unleash a next-generation composable cloud platform to the market that is easy to implement, deploy, operate, maintain and support.” The ThinkAgile CP Series features fully integrated high availability, backup, remote replication, usage metering, live help and support and multilayered, multitenant security. Customers can leverage a curated application marketplace (which they can extend with their own offerings) for rapid deployment and enjoy simple, plug-and-play scale-out of disaggregated units of compute and storage capacity. Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series provides a premium experience for midmarket and enterprise customers seeking to take advantage of agile methodologies using a private cloud ecosystem. The platform is ideal for businesses or organizations that want the benefits of the public cloud, without compromising control, data security, application performance and service delivery. “ICP had been an early adopter of the Cloudistics’ cloud platform as well as a Lenovo reseller. After hearing about these two companies coming together to deliver the Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series, the entire ICP team jumped at the chance to position the new series to our valued customers,” said Sal Saglik, Director of Business Development, ICP Corp. “The ease of use, rapid deployment and scalability of ThinkAgile CP will allow us to deliver a cloud-like experience in a complete and secure solution without the costs and complexities of the public cloud.” “The simplicity of the platform significantly changed our work output,” said Scott Whitehouse, IT Director at Integreon. “We are able to easily import applications, assign cloud computing resources and launch applications on-demand based on our organizational needs in a fraction of the time it used to take us.” The Lenovo ThinkAgile CP Series is available through Lenovo and Cloudistics sales representatives and channel partners. Customer trials and proof-of-concept testing will begin in North America and Europe in August 2018 with further global rollout, including China, later this year. For more information, please visit http://www.lenovo.com/thinkagilecp

https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=226681

Samsung Will Spend $9 Billion in 2019 to Add NAND Flash Memory Production Capacity

@DigiTimes, citing South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, said that @Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) is set to spend $9 billion on capital expenditures related to #NAND flash memory manufacturing in 2019. This figure, the report says, is an increase from the roughly $6.4 billion it will spend in 2018. First, let's go over capital expenditure basics so that you know what this means broadly. Then, I'll try to explain what it means for investors in Samsung, as well as other NAND flash memory makers.

https://www-fool-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.fool.com/amp/investing/2018/07/19/samsung-will-spend-9-billion-in-2019-to-add-nand-f.aspx?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Finvesting%2F2018%2F07%2F19%2Fsamsung-will-spend-9-billion-in-2019-to-add-nand-f.aspx

How Big Batteries at Data Centers Could Replace Power Plants

The cutting edge in American efforts to green the power sector can be found in a shipping container sitting in the parking lot of a sprawling @Microsoft Corp. data center in southern Virginia. A team of engineers assembled here to conduct a series of tests to simulate the interaction between a data center and a grid operator. Their question: Can extensive battery systems installed at #datacenters like this one be used to help grid operators smooth out the small spikes and drops in electric demand that occur throughout the day? It’s technical, tedious work, but the implications for the electric system are sweeping. If they succeed, power companies might not need to build new natural gas power plants. Directly powering data centers with the wind and sun becomes a real possibility. Microsoft engineers even talk about reimagining the way electricity is bought and sold.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-big-batteries-at-data-centers-could-replace-power-plants/

Pure Storage Announces New Converged Infrastructure Solutions to Accelerate Entire Spectrum of Analytics

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- @PureStorage (NYSE: PSTG), the all-flash storage platform that helps innovators build a better world with data, today announced #FlashStack™ with FlashBlade™ to accelerate data warehouses. The company also announced that AIRI™ and AIRI™ Mini, the #AI -ready infrastructure solutions from Pure Storage and @NVIDIA, are now available with @Cisco Nexus ethernet switches. Cisco and Pure Storage customers can now establish a spectrum of data analytics to turn data into innovation, no matter what phase in their data journey. In time, more data will live in "hot" or "warm" tiers, where value can easily be extracted. With this shift, organizations must leverage the latest tools of extraction, and the storage models that allow these tools to work most effectively and efficiently. "Data is the lifeblood of today's economy and the fuel for innovation. New cures, new industries, new possibilities will arise – all because of data. This new era demands a new data mindset and strategy," said Michael Sotnick, VP Partners, Services & Business Development, Pure Storage. "For organizations to stand the test of time, they must understand how to innovate and differentiate through data." AI-Ready-Infrastructure Data is the fuel driving today's AI revolution. While many pioneers have pushed the limits of what's possible with AI within their own industries, the vast majority of enterprises have had to struggle to get started. Today, not all data's value is easily accessible. Without fast, easy access, data becomes an organization's most expensive asset rather than its most valuable. AI needs to reach more enterprises faster, and provide value immediately. Pure Storage is working with Cisco to make this reality for customers with AIRI, the industry's first solution to simplify AI-at-scale, powered by the NVIDIA DGX-1. "The days where value is measured in dollar per GB have passed. Value is now measured in simulations per day. The industry focuses on outcome orientation because simplicity, performance and resiliency afford us the time to do so," said Ed Horley, VP of Engineering at IT solutions provider Groupware Technology. "With AIRI, customers can begin their AI initiatives within hours and its simple scalable design allows it to grow with your AI needs. By eliminating these infrastructure complexities, customers can focus on what's important - creating innovative products and services." AIRI is the industry's first complete AI-ready infrastructure, architected by Pure Storage and NVIDIA to extend the power of NVIDIA DGX™ systems. Powered by FlashBlade storage and NVIDIA DGX-1 servers, AIRI offers enterprises a simple, fast, and future-proof infrastructure. It is configured with four NVIDIA DGX-1 Systems, four petaFLOPS of deep learning performance, Pure FlashBlade 15x 17TB Blades, 1.5M NFS IOPS, and two 100Gb switches with RDMA. AIRI Mini is powered by one Pure Storage FlashBlade, configured with 7x17TB blades, two NVIDIA DGX-1 servers, Cisco 100 GbE switches, supporting GPUDirect RDMA for maximum distributed training performance, and delivers two petaFLOPS of deep learning performance. All software comes included, so that data scientists can get started on their projects by simply turning the system on. FlashStack Powered by FlashBlade While some organizations are using Data Lakes or AI data pipelines, many organizations still deploy most of their mission critical work on a data warehouse. FlashStack powered by FlashBlade, purpose-built for Oracle Data Warehouse, is an integrated infrastructure solution validated by Cisco. "While AIRI is the perfect fit for organizations that need to deploy AI, there are many organizations just dipping their toes into single server solutions," said Matt Burr, GM of FlashBlade, Pure Storage. "For organizations that need an interim step between single-server and AIRI, FlashStack is the solution." There are three primary problems with existing data warehouse solutions: Performance – Data warehouse appliances historically have not kept up with data growth. Pricing – When compute and storage are coupled, as is with warehouse appliances, organizations end up buying too much of one or the other. Flexibility – An inflexible appliance is only effective for a single workload. Data warehouses aren't protected for the future when data pipeline and AI are involved. The new FlashStack, built on FlashBlade and engineered specifically to modernize the Oracle Data Warehouse, delivers more than 2x faster performance than the next-best system. Customers only pay for the amount of compute and blades needed for their project or initiative. FlashStack for FlashBlade is ready for extension into modern analytics and AI when ready. AIRI and AIRI Mini are available now through select reseller partners. FlashStack for FlashBlade is available now through all FlashStack certified reseller partners. Please visit our website for more information.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pure-storage-announces-new-converged-infrastructure-solutions-to-accelerate-entire-spectrum-of-analytics-300682743.html

Google wants to make programming quantum computers easier

Quantum computers are still in their infancy, but builders of the exotic machines want to encourage software developers to experiment with them. Programming the circuits on quantum machines is a real challenge . Instead of standard digital bits, which represent either 1 or 0, quantum computers use “qubits,” which can be in both states at once thanks to a phenomenon known as superposition. Qubits can also influence one another even if they’re not physically connected. Moreover, they stay in their delicate quantum state for no longer than the blink of an eye. Exploiting them requires completely different software, and only a small band of developers currently has the highly specialized knowledge to write such programs. Google wants to help change that. It has just released Cirq, a software toolkit that lets developers create algorithms without needing a background in quantum physics. Cirq is an open-source initiative, which means anyone can access and modify the software. Google likens it to its popular TensorFlow open source toolkit that has made it easier to build machine-learning software. For now, developers can use Cirq to create quantum algorithms that run on simulators. But the goal is to have it help build software that will run on a wide range of real machines in the future. The tech giant has also released OpenFermion-Cirq, a toolkit for creating algorithms that simulate molecules and properties of materials. Indeed, chemistry is among the applications in which quantum computers are likely to be of most use in the short term. One of the companies that worked with Google on Cirq’s development is Zapata Computing, whose early focus is on software for chemistry and materials (see “The world’s first quantum superstore—or so it hopes—is here”). Another Google partner is Quantum Benchmark, which helps people assess the performance of different kinds of quantum hardware for various applications. “Cirq gives us an accessible platform for providing our tools to users,” says Joseph Emerson, the firm’s CEO and founder. There are other open-source initiatives already under way that let developers build code for some existing quantum machines, but Google’s move is significant because the company has been at the forefront of developing powerful quantum processors like the Bristlecone chip in the image above, which holds the record for number of qubits (see our qubit counter here). Researchers working in the quantum field say that sharing code openly will help foster a more vibrant developer community, just as it has in other areas of software. “We’re at such an early stage in the development of quantum computing that it’s to everyone’s advantage that things are done out in the open,” says Andrew Childs, who is co-director of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science at the University of Maryland. The other thing that will foster interest is greater accessibility to quantum computers themselves, many of which still reside in academic labs. Companies like IBM and Rigetti Computing have already made their machines accessible to people who want to run algorithms on them, and Google looks set to follow suit. It says it plans to make the Bristlecone processor available via the computing cloud, and that developers will be able to use Cirq to write programs for it.

https://www-technologyreview-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.technologyreview.com/s/611673/google-wants-to-make-programming-quantum-computers-easier/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.technologyreview.com%2Fs%2F611673%2Fgoogle-wants-to-make-programming-quantum-computers-easier%2F

Google Spent a Decade Researching What Makes a Great Boss. They Came Up With These 10 Things

"People leave managers, not companies." We've all heard it. Many of us have experienced it. But what makes people want to leave a manager in the first place? And if you happen to lead a team, what qualities can make you better? Those are the types of questions @Google set out to answer. In 2008, they began research into what makes a good manager, code-named Project Oxygen. They originally identified eight behaviors that were common among their highest performing managers, and began training all managers to develop those behaviors. Over time, Google saw a marked improvement in key metrics such as employee turnover, satisfaction, and performance. But as the company grew, the demands on managers also increased. Google continued their research. They refined it. They learned more. "We found that, over time, the qualities of a great manager at Google had grown and evolved with along with the company," wrote Melissa Harrell and Lauren Barbato earlier this year. Harrell works as a staffing services manager and Barbato as a people analyst. After taking a second look at its research, Google then "refreshed [its] behaviors according to internal research and Google and [employee] feedback, and put them to the test." This resulted in a new list, identifying two completely new behaviors (Nos. 9 and 10) and updating two others (Nos. 3 and 6). Here are the 10 behaviors of Google's best managers, along with some practical tips on how to develop these behaviors. (You can find more detailed advice on developing your management skills in my new book, EQ Applied: The Real-World Guide to Emotional Intelligence.)

https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/google-spent-a-decade-researching-what-makes-a-great-boss-they-came-up-with-these-10-things.html

Container storage: Docker in flash, HCI and software-defined

We found the big storage players all have @Docker Volume Plugins for their products and some are building out container storage management platforms. But what about other storage players – the flash specialists, the #softwaredefinedstorage makers, and the #hyperconverged infrastructure suppliers? To run containers – usually Docker, which has emerged as a de facto standard – you do not have to provision persistent storage because any capacity required lives and dies with the container. But that hasn’t been sufficient for many use cases to which containers have been put, so efforts have been made to develop ways of providing persistent storage for Docker. That is, storage that remains once the container has been spun down, which is needed for all sorts of reasons in enterprise scenarios. To provide persistent storage for Docker means, at the least, having Docker Volume plugins available, APIs (application programming interfaces) written to work with the storage product in question. It could also mean having integration with higher-level containers management platforms, such as Docker @Swarm, @Kubernetes or @Mesosphere Marathon. Efforts are being made to develop standardised ways to integrate plugins/APIs with these platforms, such as with the Container Storage Interface. All the biggest storage suppliers – @DellEMC, @HPE, @Hitachi Vantara, @IBM and @NetApp – have container storage covered by at least Docker Volume Plugins. Read more on containers and storage We look at what the big five storage array makers – Dell EMC, Hitachi, HPE, IBM and NetApp – are doing to provide persistent storage for container-based deployments. Containers such as those from Docker are agile, lightweight, and can be short-lived, but they and their data often need to be protected. We look at the key options available. Outside the top five, the picture is more patchy, as you might expect. On the one hand, Pure Storage, one of the all-flash array market leaders, provides plugins as well as its own software that integrates with the leading orchestration platforms. Other all-flash array, hyper-converged and software-defined storage makers offer Docker Volume Plugins. And yet others go a bit further with, for example, Kubernetes integration or products aimed at container environments. Meanwhile, some mid-range storage array makers appear not to address container storage at all, but presumably containers are just not in the plans of their customer base. Flash specialists’ container capabilities Kaminario All-flash array maker Kaminario has Docker plugins for its hardware via the Kaminario K2 Flocker Plugin. Pure Storage Part of the leading group in the all-flash array market, Pure Storage has recently added to its container storage capabilities with the release of Pure Service Orchestrator. This allows storage-as-a-service-style management of container storage in Pure FlashArray and FlashBlade arrays to provide persistent storage for Docker containers, with on-demand provisioning based on policies. Pure Service Orchestrator integrates with Kubernetes and Mesosphere Marathon container environments. Pure also has Docker storage plugins for FlashArray and FlashBlade that allow for persistent storage on those arrays. Western Digital WD recently introduced Docker container support “for select customers” in its ActiveScale 5.3 Object Storage System. ActiveScale is an archiving product that uses the S3 protocol to access a single namespace cluster that can scale up to tens of petabytes. WD also has its Intelliflash arrays, taken on when it acquired Tegile in 2017, but doesn’t appear to have addressed container storage capability in that line of products. Software-defined storage sellers Datacore Datacore doesn’t seem to have Docker Volume Plugins, but does offer a Kubernetes PersistentVolume API to orchestrate creation and operation of containerised operations and to integrate storage into Kubernetes, as well as working with Docker Swarm. Hedvig This software-defined storage maker offers Docker support via Docker Volume Plugins to provide persistent storage. Nexenta Nexenta has Docker Volume Plugins for its NexentaStor and NexentaEdge block, file and object storage software products. It also offers a NexentaEdge DevOps Edition, which is a small-scale free product that allows developers to experiment. It allows containerised applications access to persistent storage. Veritas Veritas offers its Hyperscale for Containers platform which delivers container workload deployment across software-defined storage to create a kind of hyper-converged infrastructure platform for containers. It delivers a so-called “intelligent workload deployment” model that aims to provide quality of service for container storage. Container capabilities in hyper-converged infrastructure Cisco Cisco’s Springpath hyper-converged products run Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor and it offers Docker Volume Plugins for them. Nutanix This hyper-converged pioneer offers a Docker Volume Plugin that allows customers to attach persistent storage to Docker volumes created in its Acropolis hypervisor.

https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Container-storage-Docker-in-flash-HCI-and-software-defined

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

16 popular VPNs leak your data: Here's the full list

Increased concerns over data privacy have led to more companies investing in VPNs in recent years. Unfortunately, some of these networks fail to actually protect corporate data from outside sources, according to a new report from The Best #VPN. Of the 74 VPNs analyzed in the report, 16 were leaking data. DNS leaks, WebRTC and IP leaks, and Chrome extension leaks were the most common, the report found. "VPNs leak for a variety of reasons," the report stated. "DNS server issues and WebRTC API conflicts can cause your true location to shine through. The problem is that these often strike when you least expect it." Each VPN reviewed in the report went through an extensive leak-detection process, The Best VPN noted, in which the company established a connection with their servers and used six different third-party tools to reveal the IP address. SEE: Comparison chart: VPN service providers (Tech Pro Research) Here are the 16 VPNs that were found the leak data, according to the report:

Here are the 16 VPNs that were found the leak data, according to the report:

Hoxx VPN (free & paid version)
Hola (free version)
VPN Area (paid version)
VPN.ht (paid version)
SecureVPN (paid version)
DotVPN (free version)
Speedify (free version)
Betternet (free version)
Ivacy (free version)
Touch VPN (paid version)
Zenmate (free version)
Ace VPN (paid version)
AzireVPN (paid version)
BTGuard (paid version)
Ra4w VPN (paid version)
VPN Gate (free version)

Looking to switch your VPN? The report also named the top five leak-free VPNs to better protect your privacy:

ExpressVPN
NordVPN
Perfect Privacy
CyberGhost
Trust.Zone

https://www-techrepublic-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/article/16-popular-vpns-leak-your-data-heres-the-full-list/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.techrepublic.com%2Farticle%2F16-popular-vpns-leak-your-data-heres-the-full-list%2F

General Electric And Microsoft: A Match Made In Heaven

Summary General Electric and Microsoft announced an expanded agreement that has the potential to benefit both firms immensely. Strong growth and high margins associated with the transition to a digital global economy will create significant opportunities for both businesses. General Electric, as a firm already focused on IIoT, has some of the greatest chances to benefit from this transition. *Taken from Microsoft For all its faults and shortcomings, one thing the management team at General Electric (NYSE:GE) has done well on is the transition the world is making from analog to digital. The latest proof of this came on July 16th when management announced an expanded partnership with software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) that's geared toward capitalizing on the shift of industrial firms from a largely non-digital existence to a digital one. To investors in General Electric who are unhappy with the firm's performance, this may seem like another empty promise, but there's no denying that the upside potential from this could be a game-changer for the conglomerate. Digital is the future Earlier this year, I wrote an article about GE Digital, the digital operations within General Electric. In that article, I highlighted the growth the business generated, with sales rising from $3.1 billion in 2015 to $4 billion last year and with more growth on the horizon apparent based on incoming orders. For anybody not familiar with GE Digital, I recommend you read that piece before proceeding further. The general conclusion I had from that piece was that, based on what data we have available, shareholders could realize significant value creation in the long run. Now, with General Electric's expanded relationship with Microsoft, that picture could look even better. You see, according to the agreement, the two businesses will work together in an effort to provide operational technology and information technology to help companies in their transition to a more digital world. As part of this process, General Electric will seek to "standardize" GE Digital Predix offerings on Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing service created by Microsoft that serves as a scalable platform geared toward assisting its customers with computing, networking, storage, database management, analytics, and more. A special focus, it seems, will be on integrating the system with Azure's "native cloud capabilities", which includes Azure IoT and Azure Data and Analytics.

https://seekingalpha-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4188074-general-electric-microsoft-match-made-heaven?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fseekingalpha.com%2Farticle%2F4188074-general-electric-microsoft-match-made-heaven

Raspberry Pi supercomputers: From DIY clusters to 750-board monsters

While the $35 @Pi is by no means a computing powerhouse, in recent years enthusiasts have begun harnessing the power of armies of the tiny boards. There's a wide range of Pi clusters out there, from modest five-board arrangements all the way up to sprawling 750-Pi machines. If you're curious to find out more, then here's five Pi clusters built in recent years, starting with some you can try yourself and moving on to the Pi-based supercomputers being built by research labs.

https://www-techrepublic-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/article/raspberry-pi-supercomputers-from-diy-clusters-to-750-board-monsters/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.techrepublic.com%2Farticle%2Fraspberry-pi-supercomputers-from-diy-clusters-to-750-board-monsters%2F

Zones and DellEMC Isilon all in on Healthcare Storage

With DellEMC Isilon network-attached healthcare storage from Zones, you can turn your data from a burden into a blessing. As a Dell Technologies Titanium Partner and one of Dell Technologies largest partners , Zones holds certifications across all DellEMC lines of business but specifically with Symmetrix; Data Domain, Networker, VXrail, Isilon and more. Ask me how we can help you.

http://landingpage.zones.com/rs/682-WDI-326/images/Dell5Reasonstouch2.pdf?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=DellEMC&utm_campaign=Isilon

SonicWall details partner growth since split from Dell

SonicWall now has more than 25,000 partners in its SecureFirst partner program, adding more than 1,000 new partners since being acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners and hedge fund Elliott Management in November 2016.

Talking to Channelnomics about the launch of the SecureFirst program, SonicWall CEO Bill Connor said: "I don't know of any company that, in 20 months, went from zero to that many partners."

Connor also revealed that the company has updated the program so its partner tiers are no longer solely based on revenue, but on accreditations and certifications from the SonicWall University, part of the SecureFirst Partner program.

"Our higher metal partners obviously do more volume, but we're looking for them to be more expert and more accredited across our entire portfolio of solutions."

The firm claims SonicWall University is responsible for a 715 percent year-over-year increase in completed partner exams.

Cyber arms race

Connor said that mid-tier organizations "are caught in cross hairs of the cyber arms race, as they don't often have the people, resources or capital to protect themselves".

The chief exec said SonicWall has been taking data from its global threat sensor network for the past 18 months, identifying the top new threats and delivering the information to SonicWall University.

This, he said, enables partners to "go get an education on the type of threats that are happening, the volume and how to put our technology and their solutions in place to prevent those threats".

According to the newly released 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, the firm reported a 102 percent increase in malware attacks globally, and a 229 percent rise in ransomware attacks in the first half of 2018.

"We're here to serve the channel, make them the first defenders for the mid and small businesses around the world," Connor told Channelnomics.

https://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/3036132/sonicwall-details-partner-growth-since-split-from-dell

The 10 Best SDN Solutions Of 2018 (So Far)

Hottest SDN Tech Of 2018

Software is front and center in the networking world this year as customers demand more programmable, agile and less costly network solutions.

The increasing adoption of cloud-based services and need to reduce data center complexity is driving sales for technologies such as software-defined WAN and intent-based networking. The global software-defined networking solutions and services market is projected to increase 54 percent on a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next several years, reaching $88 billion by 2024, according to a research report by Global Market Insights.

CRN breaks down ten of the coolest and most sought-after software-defined networking technologies in the market so far in 2018.

(For more on the biggest news of 2018, check out "CRN's Tech Midyear In Review.").