Now more than ever, our networks and infrastructure require security
that keeps pace not only with cybercrime, but with the demands of
ubiquitous streaming, a myriad of devices and accelerated cloud
evolution. This explosive growth and fluid environment means that
organizations need more muscle from their firewalls.
To address this trend, Juniper Networks is introducing a new services processing card (SPC3) for the SRX5400, 5600 and 5800 Next-Generation Firewalls. With
up to 11x performance gains, this new card transforms the SRX5000 line
of Services Gateways into one of the most powerful firewalls on the
market. With the addition of the SPC3 Advanced Security Acceleration
card, next-generation firewall services can run without slowdowns or
interruptions. And when business needs call for additional capacity,
expansion is modular, making scalability simple.
Powerful. Scalable. Extensible.
Service providers today are encountering an explosion of mobile
devices, IoT connections and media traffic streaming. The SRX5000 line
with SPC3 Advanced Security Acceleration is 5G ready, delivering
performance and scale with capacity to spare. For maximum uptime, SPC3
cards can be added to any of the SRX5000 chassis without service
interruption, assuring the highest uptime and security continuity. With
SPC3 Advanced Security Acceleration, the SRX5000 line is ideal for Gi
firewall, roaming firewall and security gateway use cases, assuring
maximum defense.
As enterprises build out their clouds, the SRX5000 line with SPC3 is the optimal choice for defending the data center edge with next-generation firewall
security features along with SSL decryption to mitigate threats hidden
in encrypted traffic. For multicloud, it delivers high performance and
protected connectivity with maximum session capacity. In a headquarters
environment, the SRX5000 line with SPC3 can act as a multi-services gateway to support large-scale VPN hubs.
Providing customers with grow-as-you-go expandability, the
SRX5000 line with SPC3 enables customers to support the scale and
performance needs of today with future-proof expandability when higher
performance, greater scale and/or additional security is required.
Accelerated NGFW for the Unified Cybersecurity Platform
As an integral part of Juniper’s unified cybersecurity platform,
the SRX5000 line of Services Gateways with SPC3 delivers the power,
scalability and extensibility needed to fully activate next-generation
security features with seamless integration with malware detection,
threat behavior analytics and automated policy and remediation
capabilities.
SRX5400, 5600 and 5800 Next-Generation Firewalls running SPC3 are the
best choices for enterprise customers and service providers that need a
high-performance and scalable next-generation security solution.
Saturday, 3 November 2018
Sunday, 7 October 2018
Edge computing is the place to address a host of IoT security concerns
Edge computing
can greatly improve the efficiency of gathering, processing and
analyzing data gathered by arrays of IoT devices, but it’s also an
essential place to inject security between these inherently vulnerable
devices and the rest of the corporate network.
First designed for the industrial IoT (IIoT), edge computing refers places placing an edge router or gateway locally with a group of IIoT endpoints, such as an arrangement of connected valves, actuators and other equipment on a factory floor.
Because the lifespan of industrial equipment is frequently measured in decades, the connectivity features of those endpoints either date back to their first installation or they’ve been grafted on after the fact. In either case, the ability of those endpoints to secure themselves is seriously limited, since they’re probably not particularly powerful computing devices. Encryption is hard to cram into a system-on-a-chip designed to open and close a valve and relay status back to a central control pane.
A lot of connected IIoT devices have known, exploitable vulnerabilities, but operators might not have the ability to know for certain what systems they have on their networks. “The hardest thing about these older systems that have been connected over the past 25 years is that you can’t easily do discovery on them,” he said. Operators don’t know all the devices they have, so they don’t know what vulnerabilities to patch.
It’ll be decades, Habibi said, before many IIoT users – whose core devices can date back to the 1980s and even the 1970s – update this important hardware.
The edge model also helps IIoT implementations in an operational sense, by providing a lower-latency management option than would otherwise be possible if those IIoT endpoints were calling back to a cloud or a data center for instructions and to process data.
Most of the technical tools used to secure an IoT network in an edge configuration are similar to those in use on IT networks – encryption, network segmentation, and the like. Edge networking creates a space to locate security technologies that limited-capacity endpoints can’t handle on their own.
Mike Mackey is CTO and vice president of engineering at Atonomi, makers of a blockchain-based identity and reputation-tracking framework for IIoT security. He said edge computing adds an important layer of trust between a company’s backend and its potentially vulnerable IIoT devices.
“[N]ow you’re adding network translation to the end-to-end communication between that IoT device and whatever it’s ultimately communicating with, which, today, is typically the cloud,” he said.
Other experts, such as Windmill Enterprise CEO Michael Hathaway, also highlighted that widely used cloud-based backends pose problems of their own. Enterprises are losing control over their security policies and access with every new cloud service they subscribe to, he said.
“Enterprise customers can be very nervous about hooking up an automation system directly to the Internet – it needs a last layer of intelligence and security,” Hathaway said.
Consequently, some of the most effective IIoT implementations can be those that leave the existing structures and networks in place – hence the popularity of the edge architecture, which works both as a buffer and a link between the IT network and a company’s operational technology.
Russ Dietz, chief product security officer at GE Digital, said that old-yet-irreplaceable technology already on the factory floor plays an enormous role in shaping the IIoT infrastructure laid on top of it.
“Over time, we might migrate to a fully digital world where we blend those two together, but because industrial is going to live in this very long-tail environment, we have to be able to provide separate trust for both of those,” he said. “So we may weight how much we trust sensors in a different category than how much we trust a control system.”
“You can’t possibly have provided a cookie-cutter solution,” said Hathaway, adding that, while the tools and approaches used will have commonalities, everyone’s security needs will be different.
The eventual hope for most IIoT deployments is that they provide enough machine-generated data to help businesses make smart decisions for the future, according to Simon Dowling, CTO of edge compute vendor ORI.
Protecting the data those machines send back for analysis – whether at the edge layer or back in the cloud or data center – is of paramount importance.
“As we’re moving towards a world where there is – whether it’s industrial IoT or it’s more commercial/consumer-focused IoT – a level of expectation that these devices will provide more meaningful action,” he said.
And if businesses want to stay on top of cybersecurity threats, they have to realize that it’s not simply a matter of pushing out updates and getting the latest and greatest technology up and running on their systems, said Aruba/HPE's vice president of strategic partnerships, Mike Tennefoss. It’s also understanding the way those updates and additions will tie into the operational technology stack.
“Security is the heart and soul of IT, and what you see happening is that IT systems and processes of cybersecurity are pushing down deeper and deeper into the operational technologist’s realm,” he said.
First designed for the industrial IoT (IIoT), edge computing refers places placing an edge router or gateway locally with a group of IIoT endpoints, such as an arrangement of connected valves, actuators and other equipment on a factory floor.
Because the lifespan of industrial equipment is frequently measured in decades, the connectivity features of those endpoints either date back to their first installation or they’ve been grafted on after the fact. In either case, the ability of those endpoints to secure themselves is seriously limited, since they’re probably not particularly powerful computing devices. Encryption is hard to cram into a system-on-a-chip designed to open and close a valve and relay status back to a central control pane.
IIoT can be a security blind spot
As a result, IIoT is a rich new target opportunity for malicious hackers, thanks in large part to the difficulty of organizing and gaining visibility into what’s happening on an IIoT, according to Eddie Habibi, CEO of PAS Global, an industrial cybersecurity company who has been working in the industrial control and automation for about 15 years.A lot of connected IIoT devices have known, exploitable vulnerabilities, but operators might not have the ability to know for certain what systems they have on their networks. “The hardest thing about these older systems that have been connected over the past 25 years is that you can’t easily do discovery on them,” he said. Operators don’t know all the devices they have, so they don’t know what vulnerabilities to patch.
It’ll be decades, Habibi said, before many IIoT users – whose core devices can date back to the 1980s and even the 1970s – update this important hardware.
Edge networks provide security
That’s where the edge comes in, say the experts. Placing a gateway between the industrial endpoints and the rest of a company’s computing resources lets businesses implement current security and visibility technology without ripping and replacing expensive and IIoT machinery.The edge model also helps IIoT implementations in an operational sense, by providing a lower-latency management option than would otherwise be possible if those IIoT endpoints were calling back to a cloud or a data center for instructions and to process data.
Most of the technical tools used to secure an IoT network in an edge configuration are similar to those in use on IT networks – encryption, network segmentation, and the like. Edge networking creates a space to locate security technologies that limited-capacity endpoints can’t handle on their own.
Mike Mackey is CTO and vice president of engineering at Atonomi, makers of a blockchain-based identity and reputation-tracking framework for IIoT security. He said edge computing adds an important layer of trust between a company’s backend and its potentially vulnerable IIoT devices.
“[N]ow you’re adding network translation to the end-to-end communication between that IoT device and whatever it’s ultimately communicating with, which, today, is typically the cloud,” he said.
Other experts, such as Windmill Enterprise CEO Michael Hathaway, also highlighted that widely used cloud-based backends pose problems of their own. Enterprises are losing control over their security policies and access with every new cloud service they subscribe to, he said.
“Enterprise customers can be very nervous about hooking up an automation system directly to the Internet – it needs a last layer of intelligence and security,” Hathaway said.
Consequently, some of the most effective IIoT implementations can be those that leave the existing structures and networks in place – hence the popularity of the edge architecture, which works both as a buffer and a link between the IT network and a company’s operational technology.
Russ Dietz, chief product security officer at GE Digital, said that old-yet-irreplaceable technology already on the factory floor plays an enormous role in shaping the IIoT infrastructure laid on top of it.
“Over time, we might migrate to a fully digital world where we blend those two together, but because industrial is going to live in this very long-tail environment, we have to be able to provide separate trust for both of those,” he said. “So we may weight how much we trust sensors in a different category than how much we trust a control system.”
Edge networks must fit unique sets of needs
According to Hathaway, it’s important to recognize that not all edge solutions are created equal, and that different businesses will have different requirements for an edge computing deployment. An automotive manufacturer might need to track a lot of process-oriented data and rate information about productivity, while an oil-production facility is likely to need to track things like pressures and volumes through a vast array of pipelines.“You can’t possibly have provided a cookie-cutter solution,” said Hathaway, adding that, while the tools and approaches used will have commonalities, everyone’s security needs will be different.
The eventual hope for most IIoT deployments is that they provide enough machine-generated data to help businesses make smart decisions for the future, according to Simon Dowling, CTO of edge compute vendor ORI.
Protecting the data those machines send back for analysis – whether at the edge layer or back in the cloud or data center – is of paramount importance.
“As we’re moving towards a world where there is – whether it’s industrial IoT or it’s more commercial/consumer-focused IoT – a level of expectation that these devices will provide more meaningful action,” he said.
And if businesses want to stay on top of cybersecurity threats, they have to realize that it’s not simply a matter of pushing out updates and getting the latest and greatest technology up and running on their systems, said Aruba/HPE's vice president of strategic partnerships, Mike Tennefoss. It’s also understanding the way those updates and additions will tie into the operational technology stack.
“Security is the heart and soul of IT, and what you see happening is that IT systems and processes of cybersecurity are pushing down deeper and deeper into the operational technologist’s realm,” he said.
Saturday, 1 September 2018
Juniper Bringing 400GbE to PTX, QFX, MX Switches and Routers
Juniper Networks officials are continuing to push their product
portfolios toward 400 Gigabit Ethernet as they eye the bandwidth demands
that will be coming with the migration to 5G networks and the
increasing adoption of such modern technologies as cloud computing, 4K
video, and augmented and virtual reality.
As part of the 400GbE roadmap unveiled July 24, the company later this year and in 2019 is bringing 400GbE capabilities to its PTX, QFX and MX series switch and router lineups aimed at data centers, WANs, enterprises and telecommunications for use cases such as cloud services, hyperscale environments, network backbones and data center interconnects. The refresh of the switches and routers is the most recent step in Juniper’s push toward 400GbE, including the announcement last month of its 400GbE-capable Penta Silicon.
In addition, company officials said plans are underway for new generations of ExpressPlus and Q5 silicon to support 400GbE, as well as other features.
According to Manoj Leelanivas, executive vice president and chief product officer at Juniper, the work the vendor is doing around 400GbE—not only with upgrades to its products but its work to ensure the QSFD-DD spec for 400GbE kept the same interface densities as those with 100GbE—will give businesses an easy migration path and improve both bandwidth and costs.
“Customers will realize the economic benefits of a 400GbE solution that breaks the historic cost-per-bit economics cycle that has been seen time and time again,” Leelanivas wrote in a post on the company blog. “Delivering routing and switching platforms that offer investment protection when transitioning from 100GbE to 400GbE will also inspire our customers to pursue new applications—thanks to the significant amount of bandwidth now available to them.”
The industry is primed for the arrival of 400GbE shipments. According to a report earlier this year by analysts at Crehan Research, initial shipments of 400GbE switches will come this year and grow significantly. By 2022, most of the Ethernet network bandwidth in data centers will be 400GbE. Shipments of 100GbE systems will surpass those of 40GbE, three years after initial shipments hit the market, illustrating the demand for faster networks.
"Beginning with high-density 100GbE systems, we entered a new era of much faster data center switch upgrades, and that trend is predicted to continue with 400GbE," Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan research, said in a statement in January. "With its expected market-leading price per gigabit and no foreseeable shortage of demand for higher-speed networking capacity in cloud data centers, 400GbE should surpass a million ports shipped in less time than it took 100GbE to reach that threshold."
Organizations are increasing the capacity of their data centers to address growing high-performance applications and as the connectivity in their servers moves to 50GbE and 100GbE uplinks, according to Juniper officials. The vendor is enhancing its QFX series of switches with 400GbE capabilities, including the 3U (5.25-inch) QFX10003, which will offer 32x400GbE and can scale up to 160x100GbE. It will be powered by the next-generation Q5 silicon and offer a deep buffer enabled by Hybrid Memory Cube, which will enable it to handle spikes in network traffic and reduce application latency, they said.
It will be available in the second half of this year.
The 1U (1.75-inch) QFX5220 will run on merchant silicon and offer 32x400GbE, as well as 50GbE, 100GbE and 400GbE interfaces for server and inter-fabric connectivity. The switch will be available in the first half of 2019.
For the WAN, Juniper officials introduced the 3U PTX10003 Packet Transfer Router for backbone, peering and data center interconnect applications. The system can be used for high-density 100GbE ad 400GbE deployments and is aimed at scale-out and cloud environments. The router, due in the second half of the year, includes native MACsec support for 160x100GbE and FlexE support for 32x400GbE interfaces.
As part of the 400GbE roadmap, Juniper officials also pointed to the MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform, which was announced in June and is powered by the new Penta Silicon and offers 400GbE interfaces.
As part of the 400GbE roadmap unveiled July 24, the company later this year and in 2019 is bringing 400GbE capabilities to its PTX, QFX and MX series switch and router lineups aimed at data centers, WANs, enterprises and telecommunications for use cases such as cloud services, hyperscale environments, network backbones and data center interconnects. The refresh of the switches and routers is the most recent step in Juniper’s push toward 400GbE, including the announcement last month of its 400GbE-capable Penta Silicon.
In addition, company officials said plans are underway for new generations of ExpressPlus and Q5 silicon to support 400GbE, as well as other features.
According to Manoj Leelanivas, executive vice president and chief product officer at Juniper, the work the vendor is doing around 400GbE—not only with upgrades to its products but its work to ensure the QSFD-DD spec for 400GbE kept the same interface densities as those with 100GbE—will give businesses an easy migration path and improve both bandwidth and costs.
“Customers will realize the economic benefits of a 400GbE solution that breaks the historic cost-per-bit economics cycle that has been seen time and time again,” Leelanivas wrote in a post on the company blog. “Delivering routing and switching platforms that offer investment protection when transitioning from 100GbE to 400GbE will also inspire our customers to pursue new applications—thanks to the significant amount of bandwidth now available to them.”
The industry is primed for the arrival of 400GbE shipments. According to a report earlier this year by analysts at Crehan Research, initial shipments of 400GbE switches will come this year and grow significantly. By 2022, most of the Ethernet network bandwidth in data centers will be 400GbE. Shipments of 100GbE systems will surpass those of 40GbE, three years after initial shipments hit the market, illustrating the demand for faster networks.
"Beginning with high-density 100GbE systems, we entered a new era of much faster data center switch upgrades, and that trend is predicted to continue with 400GbE," Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan research, said in a statement in January. "With its expected market-leading price per gigabit and no foreseeable shortage of demand for higher-speed networking capacity in cloud data centers, 400GbE should surpass a million ports shipped in less time than it took 100GbE to reach that threshold."
Organizations are increasing the capacity of their data centers to address growing high-performance applications and as the connectivity in their servers moves to 50GbE and 100GbE uplinks, according to Juniper officials. The vendor is enhancing its QFX series of switches with 400GbE capabilities, including the 3U (5.25-inch) QFX10003, which will offer 32x400GbE and can scale up to 160x100GbE. It will be powered by the next-generation Q5 silicon and offer a deep buffer enabled by Hybrid Memory Cube, which will enable it to handle spikes in network traffic and reduce application latency, they said.
It will be available in the second half of this year.
The 1U (1.75-inch) QFX5220 will run on merchant silicon and offer 32x400GbE, as well as 50GbE, 100GbE and 400GbE interfaces for server and inter-fabric connectivity. The switch will be available in the first half of 2019.
For the WAN, Juniper officials introduced the 3U PTX10003 Packet Transfer Router for backbone, peering and data center interconnect applications. The system can be used for high-density 100GbE ad 400GbE deployments and is aimed at scale-out and cloud environments. The router, due in the second half of the year, includes native MACsec support for 160x100GbE and FlexE support for 32x400GbE interfaces.
As part of the 400GbE roadmap, Juniper officials also pointed to the MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform, which was announced in June and is powered by the new Penta Silicon and offers 400GbE interfaces.
Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Red Hat's only business plan is to keep changing plans
At the recently concluded Red Hat Summit, Red Hat
CEO Jim Whitehurst said old-fashioned business planning is dead. It's
being replaced trying multiple ideas at once, dumping those that don't
work, and doing all this as quickly as possible.
Before your eyes glaze over, keep in mind Red Hat has had 64 straight quarters of revenue growth. The company, while best known for its Linux operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), has transformed itself into a cloud power with Red Hat OpenShift. And, it's well on its way to becoming the first billion-dollar-a-quarter open-source company. Red Hat knows business.
Drawing from his keynote speech and a pair of interviews, Whitehurst explained, "In a world that is less knowable, where we're solving problems in a more bottom-up approach, our ability to effectively plan into the future is much less than it has been in the past."
That's because, Whitehurst explained, in today's world, you must live with ambiguity. Yesterday's business planning was for "companies that were optimized for a world that moved at a slower place". These old tools aren't optimized for today's world.
For example, Whitehurst said he's spoken recently to COO of a large bank. "They wanted to talk about what their major strategic technology initiatives should be for the next three years. I said, 'Time out. The likelihood that you'll choose the right initiative is next to none.' We don't even know how payment systems will look in three years."
Does that sound crazy to you? Think about it. Whitehurst cited the
example of car companies. "If you were GM a few years ago, you planned
on how to compete against Ford and Chevy. Now Uber has changed all that.
We don't even know if people will continue to buy cars." Banks? Who
knows what Blockchain will do to banks.
Whitehurst cited big data as one instance where old-style planning could have hurt your company. "For example, there were hundreds of big data programs They've been winnowed down to two or three winners." But, at the start, had you bet the farm on one and it turned out not to be a winner, you'd have wasted your time and energy
The prime problem is, "When you plan, you need to make assumptions. We can't do that now. You're trying to plan for a world that probably won't exist."
So, in our "uncertain, volatile world, where you can be blindsided by orthogonal competitors coming in, you have to recognize that you can't always plan or know what the future is," said Whitehurst.
Instead, you configure your company for "change without necessarily knowing what the change will be. You must empower your staff with the knowledge and tools to make the right business decisions. This is done with "a greater level of engagement by people across the organization, to ultimately be able to react at a faster speed to changes that happen."
The best way to do this is with an Agile application development approach of trying, learning, and then modifying business decisions on the fly. To do this you must make the best use of business programs not so much "automating what people are doing and more about helping to better enable people with tools and technology," Whitehurst said.
To make this work, Whitehurst said executives must use those tools to engage with staff in real time to make the right decisions and take advantage of opportunities.
How? At Red Hat, he said, "We try ten things in 90 days, and we'll kill most of them. We go into it knowing that's what's going to happen but from that we'll learn and make decisions. We try to make small bets and iterate quickly."
That doesn't always mean Red Hat makes the right plans, Whitehurst admitted. "When we started OpenShift, we weren't using Kubernetes. In a traditional organization, we'd ride our old plan into the ground. But, when we saw Kubernetes winning, we switched to Kubernetes and OpenShift is a winner."
So, in Red Hat's business "plans", Red Hat recognizes it "doesn't know where the future is going, but we're willing to admit we're wrong and we can pivot to a new plan that will succeed."
And afterwards? "We intentionally don't go back to the plan and see if we're executing against old plans. As soon as you commit to a rigorous plan, you double down and [make] rigorous bad decisions." Instead, Red Hat is "open to change and we hold people accountable for how hard they're working, not how closely they've stuck to a plan."
Is this efficient in the way old business plans were? No. But we're not living in the 20th century. Sure, if your business is Apple, Amazon, or Walmart, you can still focus on ironing out the least inefficiencies in your supply chain. Good for you. But, for many businesses today "innovation is core important than efficiency," concluded Whitehurst.
Based on Red Hat's impressive track record, he's got a point.
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Linux and Open Source
Before your eyes glaze over, keep in mind Red Hat has had 64 straight quarters of revenue growth. The company, while best known for its Linux operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), has transformed itself into a cloud power with Red Hat OpenShift. And, it's well on its way to becoming the first billion-dollar-a-quarter open-source company. Red Hat knows business.
Drawing from his keynote speech and a pair of interviews, Whitehurst explained, "In a world that is less knowable, where we're solving problems in a more bottom-up approach, our ability to effectively plan into the future is much less than it has been in the past."
That's because, Whitehurst explained, in today's world, you must live with ambiguity. Yesterday's business planning was for "companies that were optimized for a world that moved at a slower place". These old tools aren't optimized for today's world.
For example, Whitehurst said he's spoken recently to COO of a large bank. "They wanted to talk about what their major strategic technology initiatives should be for the next three years. I said, 'Time out. The likelihood that you'll choose the right initiative is next to none.' We don't even know how payment systems will look in three years."
Whitehurst cited big data as one instance where old-style planning could have hurt your company. "For example, there were hundreds of big data programs They've been winnowed down to two or three winners." But, at the start, had you bet the farm on one and it turned out not to be a winner, you'd have wasted your time and energy
The prime problem is, "When you plan, you need to make assumptions. We can't do that now. You're trying to plan for a world that probably won't exist."
So, in our "uncertain, volatile world, where you can be blindsided by orthogonal competitors coming in, you have to recognize that you can't always plan or know what the future is," said Whitehurst.
Instead, you configure your company for "change without necessarily knowing what the change will be. You must empower your staff with the knowledge and tools to make the right business decisions. This is done with "a greater level of engagement by people across the organization, to ultimately be able to react at a faster speed to changes that happen."
The best way to do this is with an Agile application development approach of trying, learning, and then modifying business decisions on the fly. To do this you must make the best use of business programs not so much "automating what people are doing and more about helping to better enable people with tools and technology," Whitehurst said.
To make this work, Whitehurst said executives must use those tools to engage with staff in real time to make the right decisions and take advantage of opportunities.
How? At Red Hat, he said, "We try ten things in 90 days, and we'll kill most of them. We go into it knowing that's what's going to happen but from that we'll learn and make decisions. We try to make small bets and iterate quickly."
That doesn't always mean Red Hat makes the right plans, Whitehurst admitted. "When we started OpenShift, we weren't using Kubernetes. In a traditional organization, we'd ride our old plan into the ground. But, when we saw Kubernetes winning, we switched to Kubernetes and OpenShift is a winner."
So, in Red Hat's business "plans", Red Hat recognizes it "doesn't know where the future is going, but we're willing to admit we're wrong and we can pivot to a new plan that will succeed."
And afterwards? "We intentionally don't go back to the plan and see if we're executing against old plans. As soon as you commit to a rigorous plan, you double down and [make] rigorous bad decisions." Instead, Red Hat is "open to change and we hold people accountable for how hard they're working, not how closely they've stuck to a plan."
Is this efficient in the way old business plans were? No. But we're not living in the 20th century. Sure, if your business is Apple, Amazon, or Walmart, you can still focus on ironing out the least inefficiencies in your supply chain. Good for you. But, for many businesses today "innovation is core important than efficiency," concluded Whitehurst.
Based on Red Hat's impressive track record, he's got a point.
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Linux and Open Source
Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Analyst Reports: Juniper a Leader in Enterprise Networking
There are countless ways to analyze a market so it’s no
surprise that different analysts will come to different conclusions when
evaluating companies. In this year’s enterprise data center analysis,
it’s different. We feel the major analyst firms have reached the same
conclusion: Juniper Networks is a leader in the enterprise networking
space.
The Results
Earlier this year, Forrester Research listed Juniper as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking, Q1 2018.
And we believe that finding has also been reached by being named a Leader in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking 2018, where they write:
We believe Gartner has comprehensive criteria when evaluating companies for the Magic Quadrant. Some of the criteria involves a vendor’s competitive offering, compelling vision to move the industry forward and traction in the marketplace. Juniper is confident in the execution and strategy that we believe is being recognized by various analysts.
Execution
We have grown our enterprise business to north of approximately $1.4 billion in annual revenue. Built by the best engineering team in the industry and backed by a world-class support and services organization, we have the breadth and depth of portfolio to solve enterprise needs from data center to branch, from hardware to software, from routing and switching to security and from transport to orchestration.
Vision
A company’s strategy reflects its take on how the market will evolve. Our strategy is centered on the transformation the cloud is driving across all corners of the market. Our focus is on engineering simplicity for our customers and partners and helping them in their transition to the cloud.
Our Difference
Whether it’s building private clouds or leveraging public clouds, the race to the cloud is on. Increasingly, enterprises are choosing multicloud. Juniper’s multicloud-ready hardware powered by Junos combined with our multicloud management solution underpinned by Contrail Enterprise Multicloud, we are well-positioned to help enterprises navigate this migration.
Multicloud also means multi-vendor, so we have built our portfolio on the principles of being open. We believe multicloud is about managing resources as a single, cohesive infrastructure with consistent policies and operations regardless of what vendors you use. Customers choose us to stitch together all the disparate parts of their network, where each component is not only insertable and manageable, but also replaceable.
Whether it’s leading the standards push for open protocols, developing richly programmable interfaces to our software or supporting the open source community through efforts like Tungsten Fabric (previously OpenContrail), Juniper is tackling the future in a way that avoids unnecessary lock-in.
We are also different in our view that the future is not just an incremental turn of the crank. Where some companies’ portfolios are mostly derivative work built as a follow-on to their legacy efforts, we have built a portfolio that leverages technology and innovation to leapfrog the status quo. Yes, it is good to reduce cost, but the architectures that harness multicloud will be more than cost-cutting deployments. This is about operational transformation, and that requires a different way of thinking.
More than Just Products
Cloud and multicloud are, at their core, an evolution of operations. Gone are the days when individual enterprise silos can be architected, deployed and managed separately. The power of multicloud is about bringing the full enterprise network together as a cohesive entity.
And such change requires more than just products. Enterprises might start with technology, but their successful path to the cloud will be dependent on navigating the tooling and process implications of multicloud. Only those companies with global reach within their support and services organizations will be well-equipped to act as stewards along the journey.
Ultimately, incumbents in any industry make their living on selling ‘here’. Competitors try to carve out their place in the market by selling ‘there’. At Juniper, we think of things differently. We provide value by helping our customers get from ‘here’ to ‘there’.
For more information, please visit: www.juniper.net/dc-leader
Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking, Andrew Lerner, Joe Skorupa, July 2018.
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Juniper Networks..
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
The Results
Earlier this year, Forrester Research listed Juniper as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking, Q1 2018.
And we believe that finding has also been reached by being named a Leader in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking 2018, where they write:
We believe Gartner has comprehensive criteria when evaluating companies for the Magic Quadrant. Some of the criteria involves a vendor’s competitive offering, compelling vision to move the industry forward and traction in the marketplace. Juniper is confident in the execution and strategy that we believe is being recognized by various analysts.
Execution
We have grown our enterprise business to north of approximately $1.4 billion in annual revenue. Built by the best engineering team in the industry and backed by a world-class support and services organization, we have the breadth and depth of portfolio to solve enterprise needs from data center to branch, from hardware to software, from routing and switching to security and from transport to orchestration.
Vision
A company’s strategy reflects its take on how the market will evolve. Our strategy is centered on the transformation the cloud is driving across all corners of the market. Our focus is on engineering simplicity for our customers and partners and helping them in their transition to the cloud.
Our Difference
Whether it’s building private clouds or leveraging public clouds, the race to the cloud is on. Increasingly, enterprises are choosing multicloud. Juniper’s multicloud-ready hardware powered by Junos combined with our multicloud management solution underpinned by Contrail Enterprise Multicloud, we are well-positioned to help enterprises navigate this migration.
Multicloud also means multi-vendor, so we have built our portfolio on the principles of being open. We believe multicloud is about managing resources as a single, cohesive infrastructure with consistent policies and operations regardless of what vendors you use. Customers choose us to stitch together all the disparate parts of their network, where each component is not only insertable and manageable, but also replaceable.
Whether it’s leading the standards push for open protocols, developing richly programmable interfaces to our software or supporting the open source community through efforts like Tungsten Fabric (previously OpenContrail), Juniper is tackling the future in a way that avoids unnecessary lock-in.
We are also different in our view that the future is not just an incremental turn of the crank. Where some companies’ portfolios are mostly derivative work built as a follow-on to their legacy efforts, we have built a portfolio that leverages technology and innovation to leapfrog the status quo. Yes, it is good to reduce cost, but the architectures that harness multicloud will be more than cost-cutting deployments. This is about operational transformation, and that requires a different way of thinking.
More than Just Products
Cloud and multicloud are, at their core, an evolution of operations. Gone are the days when individual enterprise silos can be architected, deployed and managed separately. The power of multicloud is about bringing the full enterprise network together as a cohesive entity.
And such change requires more than just products. Enterprises might start with technology, but their successful path to the cloud will be dependent on navigating the tooling and process implications of multicloud. Only those companies with global reach within their support and services organizations will be well-equipped to act as stewards along the journey.
Ultimately, incumbents in any industry make their living on selling ‘here’. Competitors try to carve out their place in the market by selling ‘there’. At Juniper, we think of things differently. We provide value by helping our customers get from ‘here’ to ‘there’.
For more information, please visit: www.juniper.net/dc-leader
Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Networking, Andrew Lerner, Joe Skorupa, July 2018.
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Juniper Networks..
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Sunday, 1 July 2018
Brand and Technology – How the Digital Experience Affects Brand Loyalty
Marketing departments have long been key technology drivers – until
recently with the consent of the IT department. The tech team have been
more than happy to support laptops with PowerPoint installed, specialist
marketing software and customer databases for instance.
In recent years marketers have had a tempting choice of tools, such as marketing automation, SEO and CRM, to help them gain a competitive advantage.
The challenge to IT departments has been to assess, implement and integrate these tools in a timely way. As the recent Logicalis CIO Survey shows, the majority of CIOs say between 60-80% of their time is spent on day-to-day tasks. Little wonder then that, in the face of increased security threats and ‘keeping the lights on’, this has not been a top priority for their resources.
The result has been a rise in Shadow IT; the introduction of SaaS services, mobile devices, apps and other third party offerings into the corporate environment with little, if any, IT department involvement. So much so that, as the Logicalis CIO Survey has consistently shown, Shadow IT is increasingly accepted, even embraced.
But is this disconnect between marketing and IT something we should be concerned about?
The precise role of this marketing and IT marriage depends on the nature of the business – but in all cases, it is ever more important.
For disruptive digital businesses, like Uber, Airbnb and Amazon, technology is the brand, so it’s importance is glaringly obvious.
For longer established businesses, the picture is less clear-cut, but just as important. In these cases, the bare minimum is that day-to-day customer facing technology does not negatively affect the brand. Unfortunately there are all too many examples of companies getting this wrong.
I commented on this to a colleague in Melbourne and he agreed. He told me that the best-kept secret in Melbourne was a coffee chain that offered exceptional free Wi-Fi.
That certainly resonated with me. I don’t know how many times I have chosen meetings venues based on the quality of the Wi-Fi – even if the coffee isn’t great.
Similarly, one of the train operators in the UK offers free Wi-Fi for passengers. If you are on a standard class it is, as one Twitter user said, “like surfing through the eye of a needle.” Not great. If you are on First Class, you get a much better service.
The approach entrenches the existing negative feelings passengers have about the brand.
Cash machines that don’t work and faulty card readers in shops and restaurants all produce a sinking feeling in customers, borne from the disappointment that they cannot give a business their custom.
Why do you have to transfer me to someone else because “that’s on a different system”? Why do I get lost in the phone system and why, when I do get through, does my information not follow me, so I have to repeat the problem all over again? That question has already been answered – it’s on a different system.
It’s tough enough for call centre staff without throwing a tech spanner in the works.
Furthermore, 93% of consumers said they would take or consider taking legal action against a business that has been breached.
The question here is whether the marketing function is working with IT on data security and incident planning? Or is it only a marketing problem once the worst has happened?
The whole business needs to be involved and two important issues need to be addressed.
First, and strategically, the question should not be “what shall we do with this tech”? (be it AI, machine learning, data analytics or the entire digital transformation) but “what experience do our prospects, leads and customers want, and what tech would best deliver that?”
Second, resources need to be made available to IT departments to comfortably prioritise this: Only 25% of CIOs outsource more than 50% of their IT. Delivering greater revenue and better customer experiences doesn’t need to mean massive internal reorganisation.
Joanne Nelson, VP International Marketing, Logicalis, looks at the technology user experience and its influence on brand perception.
In recent years marketers have had a tempting choice of tools, such as marketing automation, SEO and CRM, to help them gain a competitive advantage.
The challenge to IT departments has been to assess, implement and integrate these tools in a timely way. As the recent Logicalis CIO Survey shows, the majority of CIOs say between 60-80% of their time is spent on day-to-day tasks. Little wonder then that, in the face of increased security threats and ‘keeping the lights on’, this has not been a top priority for their resources.
The result has been a rise in Shadow IT; the introduction of SaaS services, mobile devices, apps and other third party offerings into the corporate environment with little, if any, IT department involvement. So much so that, as the Logicalis CIO Survey has consistently shown, Shadow IT is increasingly accepted, even embraced.
But is this disconnect between marketing and IT something we should be concerned about?
Marketing and IT – Time to Hold Hands?
The short answer is ‘yes’. That is, as the march to digital transformation continues, businesses should be asking themselves just how well marketing and IT are working together to ensure customers’ experience of the brand is positive.The precise role of this marketing and IT marriage depends on the nature of the business – but in all cases, it is ever more important.
For disruptive digital businesses, like Uber, Airbnb and Amazon, technology is the brand, so it’s importance is glaringly obvious.
For longer established businesses, the picture is less clear-cut, but just as important. In these cases, the bare minimum is that day-to-day customer facing technology does not negatively affect the brand. Unfortunately there are all too many examples of companies getting this wrong.
Bad Wi-Fi and your Brand
While travelling in Australia last year, I was struck by the number of hotels that made a charge for Wi-Fi and internet access.I commented on this to a colleague in Melbourne and he agreed. He told me that the best-kept secret in Melbourne was a coffee chain that offered exceptional free Wi-Fi.
That certainly resonated with me. I don’t know how many times I have chosen meetings venues based on the quality of the Wi-Fi – even if the coffee isn’t great.
Similarly, one of the train operators in the UK offers free Wi-Fi for passengers. If you are on a standard class it is, as one Twitter user said, “like surfing through the eye of a needle.” Not great. If you are on First Class, you get a much better service.
The approach entrenches the existing negative feelings passengers have about the brand.
Bad Retail Tech
National newspapers have recently reported the chaos caused when a bank updated its online services. At the time of writing it is producing a maelstrom of negative brand chatter – and they are not alone.Cash machines that don’t work and faulty card readers in shops and restaurants all produce a sinking feeling in customers, borne from the disappointment that they cannot give a business their custom.
Bad Tech and Customer Service
So many calls to customer service lines are still plagued by, slow, faulty and siloed computer systems – and these are all issues that make it harder for staff to delight their customers.Why do you have to transfer me to someone else because “that’s on a different system”? Why do I get lost in the phone system and why, when I do get through, does my information not follow me, so I have to repeat the problem all over again? That question has already been answered – it’s on a different system.
It’s tough enough for call centre staff without throwing a tech spanner in the works.
Data Protection and Your Brand
In a 2017 survey a massive 70% of consumers stated they would stop doing business with an organisation if it experienced a data breach.Furthermore, 93% of consumers said they would take or consider taking legal action against a business that has been breached.
The question here is whether the marketing function is working with IT on data security and incident planning? Or is it only a marketing problem once the worst has happened?
One Strategy for the Whole Business
When it comes to technology and the customer experience, it is no good simply asking sales and marketing people to map the customer journey and build communications to fit.The whole business needs to be involved and two important issues need to be addressed.
First, and strategically, the question should not be “what shall we do with this tech”? (be it AI, machine learning, data analytics or the entire digital transformation) but “what experience do our prospects, leads and customers want, and what tech would best deliver that?”
Second, resources need to be made available to IT departments to comfortably prioritise this: Only 25% of CIOs outsource more than 50% of their IT. Delivering greater revenue and better customer experiences doesn’t need to mean massive internal reorganisation.
Joanne Nelson, VP International Marketing, Logicalis, looks at the technology user experience and its influence on brand perception.
Sunday, 10 June 2018
8 ways to build a future-proof organization
by Chris Gagnon and Aaron De Smet
Here is today’s reality: The average large firm reorganizes every 2-3 years and it takes over 18 months. With technology advances changing everything, wait and see isn’t an option.
Those who get it right are creating adaptive, fast-moving organizations that respond quickly and flexibly to opportunities and challenges. They move intelligent decision-making to the front lines. Their process functions more like a network and less like a chain of command. Gone is the standard, “safer” modus operandi.
One famous retailer empowers its call center employees and, in turn, delivers “wow” service. Instead of being a place typically associated with high stress and a slog for employees, this retailer gave each team member the freedom and authority to truly build relationships with customers. This has led to greater sales numbers, customer engagement and loyalty.
We have identified eight emerging characteristics of the organization of the future. We see versions of these elements so often, they provide at least the organizational outline to win:
Those who get it right create adaptive, fast-moving organizations that respond quickly and flexibly to opportunities and challenges. They move intelligent decision-making to the front lines. Their process functions more like a network and less like a chain of command. By combining urgency with agility, capability and identity, you generate an organization that can play fast and long. That’s the future.
Here is today’s reality: The average large firm reorganizes every 2-3 years and it takes over 18 months. With technology advances changing everything, wait and see isn’t an option.
Those who get it right are creating adaptive, fast-moving organizations that respond quickly and flexibly to opportunities and challenges. They move intelligent decision-making to the front lines. Their process functions more like a network and less like a chain of command. Gone is the standard, “safer” modus operandi.
One famous retailer empowers its call center employees and, in turn, delivers “wow” service. Instead of being a place typically associated with high stress and a slog for employees, this retailer gave each team member the freedom and authority to truly build relationships with customers. This has led to greater sales numbers, customer engagement and loyalty.
We have identified eight emerging characteristics of the organization of the future. We see versions of these elements so often, they provide at least the organizational outline to win:
- Worship speed. It’s an imperative. Look at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ April 2017 letter to shareholders. Bezos highlights making “high-velocity” decisions. “If you’re good at course correcting,” he contends, “being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure.”
- Shift to an emergent strategy. One that entails a relentless quest and an undefined end point. The pursuit should involve unceasing questioning of “How do we add value?” and an organizational platform that formulates an emergent mix of multiple strategies executed immediately.
- Unleash decision-making. Grasp how your organization operates and reflects its core proposition. This includes understanding how to handle “big-bet” decisions shaping your company’s future, “cross-cutting” decisions like pricing and new product launches, and low-stakes “delegated” and “ad hoc” decisions that arise unexpectedly.
- Reimagine your structure. The more interconnected your organization and the more decision-making diffuses, the easier it becomes to sustain high performance. Even the most hierarchical chain of command – the U.S. military – moved to decentralize decision authority to help beat back Al Qaeda’s Iraqi-based forces. Free your initiatives and decisions from unnecessary hierarchy.
- Personalize talent programs. New people analytics tools are helping organizations manage and develop their people with greater precision. After extensive training, for example, a fast-food restaurant chain identified and taught behaviors that inspired colleagues.
- Rethink your leadership model. Leadership can come from anyone. In agile organizations, leaders lead more by influence than control. When we ask executives how to solve a given issue, only a few consider how to create conditions in which an ecosystem can largely self-manage, where individuals learn and problems are avoided before they manifest. Yet, we believe the future will demand this.
- Adopt a recipe to run the place. Siloed firms execute a wide array of processes and practices differently across the organization, generating an incongruous hash. The healthiest firms able to sustain performance and renew over time employ a simpler approach. They don’t sample à la carte.
- Cultivate purpose, values and social connection. Future organizations will emphasize aligning around common principles. Participants will use defined rules of engagement in decision-making, collaborate to create value and earn the credibility to lead rather than have leadership imposed from above.
Those who get it right create adaptive, fast-moving organizations that respond quickly and flexibly to opportunities and challenges. They move intelligent decision-making to the front lines. Their process functions more like a network and less like a chain of command. By combining urgency with agility, capability and identity, you generate an organization that can play fast and long. That’s the future.
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