Monday, February 23, 2015

6 ways 'shadow IT' can actually help IT

  Talented startup aims to deliver software defined cloud | Why Apple isn't likely to compete with Tesla

 
  Network World Voices of Networking  

6 ways 'shadow IT' can actually help IT
Users love shadow IT, but IT departments hate the very idea. It doesn't have to be that way. Read More
 


WHITE PAPER: IBM

It's all about the customer
This white paper fleshes out some of the key business and information technology trends and issues facing insurance markets. It reviews how insurers can respond through processes, distribution and the customer's increasing desire for self-service, but also highlights the need to communicate quickly with friendly, knowledgeable staff. Read More

In this Issue


WHITE PAPER: IBM

Human Capital Management
This white paper addresses 10 major challenges that HR organizations face and describes how enterprise content management tools can increase efficiency, reduce costs and minimize risk. Read Now

Talented startup aims to deliver software defined cloud
One of the ways you can tell that software defined networking (SDN) has the power to change the vendor landscape is by the number of startups that have emerged. Over the past few years, we've seen startups pop up to address the evolution of the data center and the WAN. For this reason, I always tend to keep my eyes open for companies generating buzz in the marketplace in this area. In my recent travels, I was made aware of another "stealth-mode" startup that's building a solution to address a new use case for SDNs. According to its website, Avni Networks addresses the "transformation of the Data Center to Virtual Clouds for the Applications Economy." From what I can tell, there seems to be some buzz around what this company is up to, which made me curious about learning more.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Why Apple isn't likely to compete with Tesla
With nearly $200 billion in cash on its balance sheet, Apple can do almost anything – including buying Tesla at a relatively affordable market cap of just $25 billion. But the swashbuckling Elon Musk's electric vehicle and reusable SpaceX rocket depend on technological breakthroughs and big capital investments over long periods before seeing a payback. That just isn't how Apple rolls.The abbreviation for research and development at Apple should be r&D (small r, big D) because the company keeps the riskier research small and invests big in development. The battery breakthroughs needed for mainstream electric vehicles are still on the horizon, and Apple doesn't have the cultural disposition to put its battery patents in the public domain to stimulate innovation as Tesla did. Nor does Apple have the stomach to make big investments to achieve speculative economies of scale needed for a mass-produced electric vehicle like Telsa has in its battery Gigafactory. No one at Apple has ever said anything like JB Straubel, Chief Technical Officer and Co-founder of Tesla Motors, has said:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Apple Car to be released in 2020, report claims
  In just a week's time, the news cycle around Apple has transitioned from the impending launch of the Apple Watch to reports that the company is actively working to develop an electric car.More than just an anonymously sourced rumor, a number of reputable publications have all reported that Apple is looking to get into the car industry. Tthe Wall Street Journal, for example, reported a few days ago that Tim Cook has already authorized the development of a 1,000 strong team to get things rolling.Stoking the Apple car rumors considerably is a recent report from Bloomberg which relays that Apple has designs to begin vehicle production as early as 2020. Now given that the car manufacturing process for a veteran automaker-- from design to production -- can often take upwards of 7 years, a five year time frame for a newbie like Apple seems curiously short.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Microsoft targets June for Windows 10 completion
Microsoft has not provided a release date for Windows 10 beyond the nebulous third quarter of this year. Before it is released to the public, it has to go through the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) process, where the final code is given to hardware vendors so they can pre-load their PCs for market.So in keeping with the notion of a Q3 release, the tech site Neowin, which focuses on Microsoft news, claims that Microsoft is targeting June for its Windows 10 RTM.June, they argue, makes sense if you want to take advantage of back-to-school buying around August. It takes about a month to fulfill laptop orders, so if Best Buy, Staples, NewEgg.com, Fry's, etc., want to have stock for August, they will have to place orders in June/July.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 


: IBM

Where client satisfaction and employee empowerment meet
In this eBook, learn how different industries use dynamic and sophisticated case management to turn customer information into strategies that fortify them against their competition. Read More

How long will it take for internet of things Hello Barbie to be hacked?
Watch out world, here comes an internet-connected version of Barbie, complete with a wireless connection, microphone, speaker, advanced voice recognition capabilities, and a "customized cloud-based database of her owner's likes and dislikes" so Barbie can have "real" back and forth conversations with her owner. Hello Barbie is expected to sell for $75 by the holiday shopping season.Mattel showed off a "smart" Barbie prototype on Valentine's Day at the New York Toy Fair. The BBC reported that Hello Barbie will be able to play interactive games, tell stories, jokes and "listen to the child's conversation and adapt to it over time. For instance, if a child mentions that they like to dance, the doll may refer to this in a future chat."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Apple Watch launch projected to be 7 times more successful than Android Wear
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Apple placed its first Apple Watch orders with its manufacturing partner Quanta for 5 to 6 million watches. That's extremely bullish for Apple because only 720,000 Android Wear watches shipped in 2014 from such companies as Motorola, Samsung, and LG, while Pebble shipped 1 million smartwatches, according to market watcher Canalys. Apple's rosy forecast for its premium-priced watch appears aggressive when one considers that Canalys reported a total 4.6 million smart wearable bands shipped in 2014.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Brocade improves data center agility with new VDX fabric switch
While the networking industry has gone crazy over software defined networks (SDNs), Brocade has been one of the few vendors that have continued to evolve their fabric portfolio. Customers looking to improve the agility and level of automation do not need to make the jump to an SDN – instead, an Ethernet fabric can be used to accomplish these goals and provide an excellent foundation for a future SDN deployment.Earlier this month, Brocade announced a new fabric switch, the VDX 6940. The new switch set the current high water mark in the industry with respect to port density for a fixed form factor switch. The 6940-36Q is a 1RU switch with 36x40 Gig-E connections or 144x10 Gig-E connections (assuming breakouts are used). The 6940-144S is a 2RU switch with 96x10-Gig-E ports and either 12x40 Gig-E or 4x100 Gig-E ports. Both switches have a massive amount of capacity, making them ideal for on-demand scaling of a fabric by adding capacity to a spine horizontally as the number of leaf switches increases.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Former GM CEO warns Apple not to get into the car business
With all of the varying news reports claiming that Apple has plans to develop its own car, there has been a lot of debate regarding the wisdom behind such a strategy. While some Apple enthusiasts might understandably welcome an Apple inspired car, there are certainly no shortage of arguments to make against Apple entering an entirely new industry.Falling in the latter cam, former GM CEO Dan Akerson recently sat down for an interview with Bloomberg where he advised Apple that it has no idea what it's getting itself into.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 


WHITE PAPER: IBM

ACM Leadership Guide
Knowledge worker effectiveness has emerged as a top priority to both optimize the customer experience and help employees work more efficiently. See how advanced case management offers a solution to these challenges. Learn More

The era of personal unified communications is here
As an analyst, I've been covering the topic of unified communications (UC) for the better part of 15 years. It seems every year the industry proclaims the current year to be "the year of UC," but it never really happens. The one thing that's been consistent about UC is that the technology has been long on promise and short on deployments.Now, I'm not diminishing the value of UC. The value proposition for UC has always been high. UC is a highly transformative technology with the power to change the way we work, bring productivity to new heights, and significantly lower the cost of communications. Yet despite the potential, according to ZK Research, only 23% of businesses have UC deployed fully across the organization (disclosure: I am an employee of ZK Research). This begs the question, if the value proposition is so high, why are full deployments the exception and not the norm?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

2 totally predictable iPhone trends that demonstrate Apple's power
A pair of fascinating yet utterly predictable news items crossed my desk last week. Both concerned how Apple's product decisions affected the behavior of millions of mobile users—and others—around the world.I'll explain why they're fascinating in a moment, but it's easy to show how predictable they were. I pretty much predicted both them myself!The two items I'm talking about are: iPhone thefts drop after "kill switches" installed iPhone 6 Plus owners use twice as much data as iPhone 6 users Kill switches change potential thieves' behaviorTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Reformatting won't remove invisible and persistent malware infecting hard drive firmware
Kaspersky Lab dropped a bombshell by revealing the most badass attack group that has ever been known. It smells like the NSA, although that is not certain; it has developed and deployed "invisible and persistent" Trojans to infect possibly "tens of thousands of victims" since at least 2001 and perhaps since 1996 when its command and control (C&Cs) were registered. A wise person would read GReAT's write-up on Securelist and Kaspersky Lab's news release about the Equation Group. The information from this article is primarily from Kaspersky's Equation Group questions and answers (pdf) report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Apple orders 5-6 million Apple Watch units; Gold model may cost more than $4000
  The Apple Watch will finally hit store shelves in April and we're finally starting to get more information regarding a) Apple's expectations for the device and b) just how expensive some of the models might be.Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal published an article relaying that Apple has ordered upwards of 6 million Apple Watch units from suppliers for the device's initial run. Apple has asked its suppliers in Asia to make a combined five to six million units of its three Apple Watch models during the first quarter ahead of the product's release in April, according to people familiar with the matter.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

Microsoft announces first major update to Office Online
Microsoft has rolled out its first major update to Office Online, the free web version of its office productivity apps that are designed for basic functionality compared with its big brother, Office 365.Office Online was previously branded as Office Web Apps and is available for free at Office.com or as part of an Office 365 subscription. It has the same standard productivity apps – Word, Excel, PowerPoint – with just basic features for working on those file formats.Office Online is meant for creating simple documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as doing some light editing in those formats while maintaining file compatibility with Office 365 and Office 2013. That doesn't necessarily mean it's not very powerful. It comes with Skype and OneDrive integration along with the Office apps themselves.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More
 

 

SLIDESHOWS

Best open source monitoring tools

We found all four products to be capable network monitoring tools that performed well in our basic tasks.

JOIN THE NETWORK WORLD COMMUNITIES

As network pros you understand that the value of connections increase as the number of connections increase, the so called network effect, and no where is this more evident than in professional relationships. Join Network World's LinkedIn and Facebook communities to share ideas, post questions, see what your peers are working on and scout out job applicants (or maybe find your next opportunity).

Network World on Facebook

Network World on LinkedIn

Join the IDG Contributor Network

The IDG Contributor Network is a collection of blogs written by leading IT practitioners about the technology, business opportunities and challenges you face everyday. We invite you to participate by applying to be a contributor today.

MOST-READ STORIES

1. Torvalds: 'People who start writing kernel code get hired really quickly"

2. Tens of thousands of home routers at risk with duplicate SSH keys

3. IBM busts the nasty myths of the millennial employee

4. Is the Samsung Galaxy S6 about to become the coolest Android phone ever?

5. You broke the network. Do you confess?

6. 15 cities that are hidden gems for tech job seekers

7. 5 tricks to improve poor TCP performance

8. HP latest to unbundle switch hardware, software

9. How Etsy makes Devops work

10. An LTE over Wi-Fi spectrum grab is coming


 
 

Do You Tweet?
Follow everything from NetworkWorld.com on Twitter @NetworkWorld.

You are currently subscribed to networkworld_voices_of_networking as networking.world@gmail.com.

Unsubscribe from this newsletter | Manage your subscriptions | Subscribe | Privacy Policy

When accessing content promoted in this email, you are providing consent for your information to be shared with the sponsors of the content. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information.

If you are interested in advertising in this newsletter, please contact: bglynn@cxo.com

To contact Network World, please send an e-mail to customer_service@nww.com.

Copyright (C) 2015 Network World, 492 Old Connecticut Path, Framingham MA 01701

** Please do not reply to this message. If you want to contact someone directly, send an e-mail to customer_service@nww.com. **

 


No comments: