Networking

Start-up Cumulus Networks this week has emerged with a Linux network operating system designed for programmable data centers like the ones Google and Facebook are building.

US telecommunications giant, AT&T, and global infrastructure consultancy, Opus International Consultants, have partnered to provide global networking services to connect 2500 Opus employees at 76 offices in five countries under one virtual roof.

The Wi-Fi Alliance unveiled a certification program for 802.11ac Wi-Fi (also known as 5G Wi-Fi) designed to make sure devices using the wireless technology interoperate with older hardware.

Alcatel-Lucent will refocus on IP networking and ultra-broadband access in mobile and fixed-line networks as it seeks to return to profitability by 2015.

Enterasys this week unveiled new switches, software and management products to enhance the automation and centralized control of data center operations.

IT upheaval is inevitable -- like it or not.

IDG Enterprise's CEO spells out the future of big data, mobility and the impact of 50 billion connected devices by 2020.

Bob Metcalfe, Dave Boggs and the rest of the scientists at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1973 were a lot like young developers at a Silicon Valley startup today.

A router is the heart of your network, so it deserves to be chosen carefully. Any router will share your Internet connection amongst your computers and other networkable devices (smartphones, tablets, and so on), but better models provide features that will enhance your network and its performance. Whether you're seeking a business- or consumer-class router, here are the eight most essential features to look for.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept first suggested in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, the co-founder of Auto-ID Center at MIT. And it's popular again--thanks to mobility and the maturing of tracking technologies like RFID, NFC, and QR codes, according to Claus Mortensen, principal of emerging technologies at IDC Asia-Pacific.

When HP first announced it was retrenching more than 25,000 staff worldwide and the depth of its financial problems, Nermin Bajric spoke exclusively to the HP PPS South Pacific vice-president, Robert Mesaros. Now, six months later, he and Mesaros met again to discuss what has happened at HP since.

D-Link A/NZ business sales and marketing manager, Ettore Alterisio, talks about the company’s increasing focus into the SMB space and the trends surrounding the current networking space.

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst is coming up on his five-year anniversary at the helm, following his arrival in December 2007. Under Whitehurst's leadership, Red Hat's revenue has grown from US$523 million in its fiscal 2008 to more than $1.1 billion in its fiscal 2012, without deviating from its core strategy of open-source infrastructure software.

Founder, Nir Zuk, on the vendor’s approach to the local market

NICTA CEO, David Skellern, who has been in his post since 2007 and has 20 years in the ICT sector, was one of several keynote speakers discussing strategies for Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) at the recent CeBIT show. He sat down with ARN to discuss the viability of the largest ICT infrastructure project in Australia’s history, as well as Internet filtering and why our industry needs more unity. Skellern will be retiring next year to head over to the UK.

Gibbs reviews two products from Satechi and is impressed by a paper that explains the power of social network analysis

By building on the natural strengths of PCI Express (PCIe) -- it's everywhere, it's fast, it's low power, it's affordable -- and by adding some straightforward, standards-compliant extensions that address multi-host communication and I/O sharing capabilities, a universal interconnect now exists that substantially improves on the status quo in high-performance cloud and data center installations.

My first column in this series for Network World debuted in December 1992. Due to the changing nature of publishing in this Internet-impacted world, this is about the 809th and last column.

IT professionals, perhaps more than anyone, have a sense of just how fast things are changing in this information-driven world. But Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index, an ongoing study of global IP traffic, adds perspective that may influence some of your thinking when it comes to long-range capacity planning.

Vendors are rebuilding the mainframe with converged infrastructure, collapsed kit or integrated compute platforms -- whatever you want to call it. And customers are loving it.

Have a presentation or a favorite video hiding in your smartphone? One of these five mobile projectors will let you show off.

If your network has between 1,000 and10,000 devices and computers, you have a midsized network. Your servers, connections and other resources suffer the same problems as larger networks, but your budget for keeping the network healthy is less than what large enterprises enjoy.

Connecting remotely to network servers is a fact of life for millions of end users. Whether working from a PC or a mobile device, users rely on secure, reliable remote connections to maintain their productivity.

Most of the products tested (except Windows Server 2012), use Oracle's Java in one form or another, at least for client access and also in some cases within the management interface. With numerous vulnerabilities recently discovered in Java, leading to guidance from Department of Homeland Security and others to disable it entirely, this raised some questions about usability and possibly even security of the devices tested.

Offering Wi-Fi can be a good way to increase return customers and boost revenue in retail stores, hotels, cafes, etc. And it provides convenience for contractors and associates working in corporate offices and conference rooms. Though visitors might have 4G mobile devices or laptops, Wi-Fi can provide a faster, higher quality connection.