SDN: Concrete or Concept?

A question – specific to F5 technology – was raised during the panel session I moderated at Gartner DC 2012 that for me, at least, raised an interesting question. Well, actually it wasn’t just that question, but rather the question was the icing on the cake after hearing commentary from enterprise IT attendees on the subject of SDN.
Yes, there’s already a spate of SDN-washing, similar to cloud-washing, that’s going on in the market. While ONF certainly laid out a set of characteristics defining SDN, those characteristics are not a concrete list of requirements. It’s not, after all, an RFC, with an easy to evaluate list of “MUST NOT, MUST, SHOULD NOT, and SHOULD” requirements. As Captain Barbosa said, “…the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rule.”

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Teambox & Box Team to Target SharePoint

Teambox, a four-year-old cloud computing company headquartered in Barcelona with offices in the US, thinks it can redefine collaboration and business communications by teaming up with Box.
Its lightweight collaboration widgetry will now come with 15GB of free Box file storage per user.
It’s free for up to five users, five projects or 15GB of Box storage. Beyond that, pricing starts at $5 per user per month for unlimited storage. Discounts are offered for annual and two-year subscriptions and large teams.

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Apple, Microsoft and Windows 8

I’ve been using Windows 8 for my main work laptop since slightly before it came out and wanted to share my experience and opinion of this new operating system with everyone.

I think this is going to be a great operating system if you have a touchscreen, tablet or mobile device.  I have recently seen some of the cool new devices that support it from HP, Dell and others and I love how light and portable they are.

There is no doubt in my mind that Apple has had an irreversible impact on our daily home and business lives.  Windows has been the dominant way that most people interact with computers and the Internet up until a few years ago.  Today you have many more options.  You can check your tweets on your phone in the subway, text your wife while driving home (bad idea, but you can), surf the internet from your phone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus 7, Laptop, TV or even your desktop.  There are many more options to stay connected and get your work done.

Windows 8 from Microsoft is now part of this trend and is a leap forward for Microsoft.  It is much faster on my traditional laptop than Windows 7 was because it is optimized for laptops and other systems that don’t have the power of the latest Intel CPU and tons of memory.  The Start Screen (formally called Metro) is a better way to interact with your touch screen device than the traditional Windows desktop is.  The old Windows desktop is still available so you still have that option for your laptop or desktop that do not have a touch screen interface.

HP, Dell and other companies have also developed new hardware to take advantage of Windows 8.  They have slim, light and powerful Ultrabooks with touchscreens that are simply amazing.  I have also seen some laptops with touchscreens that have detachable displays that turn them into a tablet-like device.  This is a refreshing and interesting option for a new computer rather than the familiar computer that is “the same as the one I had before but faster.”

Apple started all of this with their iPad and MacBook Air.  Now we have many more options and can work anywhere, anytime and with cool new systems. Are you currently utilizing any of these new technologies? What are your thoughts?

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SDN the answer to network strain, says Ovum

With traditional network architectures struggling to cope with more dynamic applications and services, software-defined networking (SDN) provides the answer to operators’ challenges, according to research firm Ovum. The company believes SDN will be key in enabling future networks to become more flexible, scalable and intelligent.

Oracle Beats the Street

Oracle Tuesday came in with slightly better-than-expected results in its
second fiscal quarter ended November 30.

Revenues were up 3% to $9.1 billion, ahead of Wall Street’s consensus of
$9.03 billion. Oracle’s own guidance had estimated an increase of zero to
4%.

It cleared non-GAAP profits of 64 cents a share, up 19%, while the Street
was at 61 cents, and Oracle’s guidance was 59 cents-63 cents. On a GAAP
basis, the company earned 53 cents a share. Currency fluctuations reduced
profits by a penny a share no matter how they’re calculated.

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What’s driving cloud adoption among CIOs?

New research from Host Analytics and conducted by Dimensional Research has found that for four out of five business execs, the cloud is chosen for its value over anything else.

A similar number of employees surveyed said that it’s beneficial for them to use cloud applications.

The research, which covered over 300 CIOs and business executives, again found various benefits to cloud adoption, which may perhaps shift the balance as IT budgets are being prepared for 2013.

When asked for the reasons a cloud app was chosen over other, on-premise options, the disparity between business executives and CIOs was stark.

Value was the obvious factor for execs (80%), whereas compliance was the most important component for CIOs (58%); value (53%) and greater competitive advantage (51%) completed the top three.

Compliance is a vital, perhaps underrated reason for utilising the cloud. 61% of survey respondents said they have out of …

SecurityStockWatch.com “Media Sponsor” of Cloud Expo NY & Silicon Valley

SYS-CON Events announced today that SecurityStockWatch.com has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and the 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
SecurityStockWatch.com is the #1 security solutions portal for “Secure ID Solutions” and “Fraud Prevention Solutions.” We invite you to visit Google to verify our top rankings first hand. Our B2B and B2Gov channel reaches your target markets and based on our demographics and traffic, we can assure your company of an excellent business development opportunity. What is YOUR cloud computing solution?

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Gazzang Predicts 2013: The Year Big Data Goes Big Time

Wrapping up a year of impressive growth and product innovation, Gazzang, the Linux data security company, today made its 2013 predictions covering emerging trends in big data, the cloud and open source technology adoption.
“Buoyed by increasing adoption of and trust in cloud technologies, big data will move out of the shadows and start to creep into the boardroom,” said Larry Warnock, CEO of Gazzang. “While big data is already a conversation topic at most enterprises, it’s traditionally been relegated to IT and development projects. Next year, these organizations will start to see big data as a solution for driving better business intelligence, product innovation and customer service.”

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