Automation helps network providers weather coronavirus disruptions
Automation can play an important role in maintaining IT operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, say network pros from Netflix, Zoom, Dropbox and Equinix.
Zoom’s videoconferencing platform has exploded in popularity as stay-at-home mandates have swept the globe, and some of the credit for being able to keep up with demand goes to automation.
“We have automation in place so that we can quickly scale our infrastructure – the network as well as the compute infrastructure – with very little human intervention,” said Alex Guerrero, senior manager of SaaS operations at Zoom.
That has translated into being able to maintain service levels at a time when traffic levels are in flux and physical access to network infrastructure is constrained.
Guerrero took part in a virtual panel last week designed to provide an inside look at network operations at Zoom, Netflix, Dropbox and Equinix during the pandemic. (See related story: Providers address capacity, supply-chain challenges brought on by COVID-19)
Industry-wide, network programming skills have become more important as companies navigate the shift to software-defined networking and embrace automation to combat the complexity of IT infrastructure management.
Software fluency is a required skill for Zoom’s network team, which uses programming tools including Ansible and Puppet. Senior network engineers at Zoom need to “know more than Perl today. They need to be able to script in some other language,” Guerrero said.
Zoom isn’t alone in relying on automation to quickly scale networks and infrastructure. Data-center provider Equinix has seen traffic levels rise between 10% and 40% over the last few months, and its customers have been accelerating their plans to scale network capacity. Having the physical capacity, along with automation capabilities, has made it possible for Equinix to absorb the uptick in volume, said Bill Long, senior vice president of core product management at Equinix.
At Dropbox, network teams are also relying on automation capabilities to keep pace with increasing demand for the company’s cloud storage platform. “[Automation] is one of the main things that we’re doing with networking today,” said Dzmitry Markovich, senior director of engineering at Dropbox. “We rarely touch those devices manually.”
Panelists on the webcast also talked about how they’re supporting their own corporate IT staff and adjusting to new patterns of work.
“We are operating in a very uncertain time,” said Dave Temkin, senior vice president of network and systems infrastructure at Netflix. “One of the things that I’ve told my team, frankly, is that I don’t look at this as a race. I don’t even look at this as a power walk. We really don’t know how long we’re going to be in this mode for. And so I want to ensure that our customers have a great quality of service, but I also want to make sure that my teams feel supported.”
Going from working in an office to working from home, without the usual social interactions, can be a painful transition that requires support, Markovich said. “I’ve seen it in our company. I’ve seen it in different companies. I see how people struggle. So that’s important to keep in mind.”
Dropbox is taking the opportunity to learn best practices from its employees who are used to working remotely. Keeping track of productivity is also important. “We track our productivity every single week, because we make different decisions within the company on what the next week will look like,” Markovich said. “When everyone is working from home, it’s easy to lose momentum… You need to have a clear metric to understand.”
At Equinix, network teams are settling into remote work. “We have network operation centers around the world. Those are all now work-from-home. And it’s going great,” Long said.
While the pandemic has caused companies to quickly shift IT operations and investments, it’s not clear which changes will remain once travel restrictions are lifted. “How much of these shifts that we’re seeing now, that actually work pretty well – how many of those are going to stick and become the new normal?” Long said. “And how many are we going to revert to old ways of doing things?”
It’s too early to know, obviously. IT hiring – which is challenging even under normal conditions – is another unknown. “How do we even recruit? Hire? Onboard? Train?” said Kentik CEO Avi Freedman, who moderated the panelists. “There’s a lot we don’t know about how long this is going to last, which creates stress.”
One thing that seems clear is demand for software-fluent network engineers is unlikely to abate.
“When we hire network engineers and network automation people, we require everyone to be able to code,” Dropbox’s Markovich said. Five years from now, “there will be no job” for network engineers who haven’t learned network automation skills, he said.
- Published in Networking, Technology Industry
SKYPE MEET NOW IS MICROSOFT’S EFFORT TO MAKE SKYPE CALLS AS EASY AS POSSIBLE
This may be rival Zoom’s moment, but Skype is trying to stay in the game.
With millions of people currently connecting via online video and chat, Skype is promoting Skype Meet Now, a free, simple way of connecting via Skype without a subscription or even a download.
Announced Friday, Skype Meet Now is essentially a web-based version of Skype, with additional conveniences: a permanent link that you can toss into a text message or email, background blurring, and even a stored cloud recording of the call and files. Users can go to the Skype Meet Now webpage, click the Create a free meeting link, and get a shared meeting link to send to friends.
Skype Meet Now debuted as a Skype Insider feature in December, and has now emerged into the main release cycle. Microsoft acknowledged Skype Meet Now in passing at its big consumer services launch this week, though the company seems to be pushing Microsoft Teams—with its own integrated video and chat features, even for consumers—far more enthusiastically than the Skype application.
Still, consumers are reaching out with Skype, whose usage has skyrocketed recently while large swaths of the United States is sheltering in place. Similar to the surge in popularity of its rival Zoom, Skype has seen an increase to 40 million daily users, up 70 percent month over month in March, Microsoft said recently.
Using Skype Meet Now is simple: You create a free meeting, and Skype will launch its web app if you don’t already have the Skype app installed. Because the meeting link does not expire, you can reuse it. Calls can be recorded optionally and stored up to 30 days, Microsoft says, and shared media will be held “even longer,” according to the company. Up to 50 participants may be invited.
Microsoft’s Skype Meet Now requires either the “new” Chromium-based Edge or Google Chrome itself, Microsoft said.
This story, “Skype Meet Now is Microsoft’s effort to make Skype calls as easy as possible” was originally published by PCWorld.
- Published in Technology Industry
FCC WANTS TO ADD A NEW SWATH OF BANDWIDTH TO WI-FI 6
If approved, a Federal Communications Commission proposal would add the 6GHz band to the unlicensed spectrum used by Wi-Fi 6, making room to support more devices from a single Wi-Fi access point.
A proposed FCC rule would allow Wi-Fi 6 devices to make unlicensed use of an additional range of wireless spectrum, which would more than quadruple the number of channels available to Wi-Fi routers.
While that might be good news for enterprises seeking higher density Wi-Fi deployments, current license holders of the 6GHz spectrum are concerned about interference from unlicensed use.
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The driving factor, as ever, is the bottomless demand for spectrum caused by the increasing use of wireless just about everywhere, and the FCC’s announcement cites projections from Cisco that say about 60% of worldwide data traffic will move across Wi-Fi links within the next two years. Using the full 6GHz spectrum – all 1,200MHz of it – is part of the Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard that can’t be put into use until it is freed up by the FCC. With that spectrum extension in place the standard is known as Wi-Fi 6E, and devices with new silicon would be needed to implement it. (Wi-Fi 6E products are expected to hit shelves by the 2020 holiday season, per PC World.)
“By doing this, we would effectively increase the amount of spectrum available for Wi-Fi almost by a factor of five,” said FCC chair Ajit Pai in a statement. “This would be a huge benefit to consumers and innovators across the nation.”
But the incumbent licensed users of parts of the 6GHz spectrum – which are mostly businesses using microwave links for wireless backhaul and public safety services – aren’t pleased. The Utilities Technology Council is one of several groups that has been critical of earlier proposals to open the 6GHz band to broad-based unlicensed use, saying in response to Wednesday’s announcement that assurances that existing users would be protected from interference are unconvincing.
“We have and will continue to provide the FCC with technical detail demonstrating the very real interference potential from unlicensed use across all parts of the band and the need for thoroughly tested automated frequency coordination (AFC) to protect incumbent users,” the group said in a statement. “While we appreciate the FCC proposing to require AFC for the standard-power access points, these measures must also be applied to all unlicensed devices in the band to prevent interference to mission-critical utility communications systems.”
Farpoint Group principal and Network World contributor Craig Mathias said that it’s not going to be a smooth process, but argues that the opening of 6GHz spectrum is too great an opportunity to ignore.
“Yes, it’s a mess – spectral re-allocations always are,” he said. “[But] I don’t see any issues here that can’t be addressed, and more unlicensed spectrum is of course always desirable.”
Incumbent users of the 6GHz spectrum are unlikely to see the type of interference they’re particularly worried about, he added, given the nature of the connections currently in use and the proposed safeguards in the new rule that are specifically designed to protect existing networks.
“Point-to-point microwave links operate at fairly high power and use both directional antennas and error-checking protocols to ensure reliability and otherwise deal with typical radio issues beyond interference, like the various forms of fading,” said Mathias. “A nearby Wi-Fi transmitter will be operating at much lower power and use its own signal-integrity-management techniques as well. So – likely no issues in the vast majority of cases, especially if history is any guide.”
The FCC will vote April 23 at an open meeting on whether to make the proposal official.
This story, “FCC wants to add a new swath of bandwidth to Wi-Fi 6” was originally published by Network World.
- Published in Networking, Security
INTEL’S NEW ‘COMET LAKE-H’ CHIPS ARE SUITED FOR THE 16-INCH MACBOOK PRO
The so-called “world’s fastest mobile processor” may end up in Apple’s big pro laptop, but it’s not worth waiting for.
Apple has not announced an upgrade to the 16-inch MacBook Pro released late last year. But when it does sometime down the road, it’s likely to include the new CPU that Intel just announced. The “10th Gen Intel Core-H Series,” as it is officially named (or “Comet Lake-H” as the hardware enthusiasts call it) will offer clock speeds over 5GHz.
Intel calls it the “world’s fastest mobile processor” and it’s the latest salvo in a growing battle between Intel and AMD in the laptop market. Apple has stuck with Intel chips for years and, assuming that continues, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is likely to get an upgrade to these processors later this year. Here’s what you can expect.
Over 5GHz (sometimes)
The best processor you can get in the 16-inch MacBook Pro is the 9th-generation Intel Core i9-9980HK. It’s an 8-core, 16-thread CPU with a core clock speed of 2.4GHz and maximum boost clock of 5.0GHz.
The fastest 10th Gen processor still has a base clock of 2.4GHz but top out at 5.3GHz (a 6 percent increase). There are now three other processors in the lineup that boost up to 5.0GHz or more, though.
It’s just like the 9th-generation processors, only with slightly faster clock speeds.
Of course, boost clock speeds are only achievable under the proper conditions. Intel lists the boost clock as “maximum single core turbo frequency” and thermal constraints are a big factor here. If you’re heavily utilizing multiple cores for long periods (like exporting a big 4K video project) you’re not going to get that top clock speed.
10th-generation (but not really)
Intel calls these 10th-generation parts, but that term is a little loose. The 2020 MacBook Air also features 10th-generation Intel CPUs; those are the new Ice Lake processors that are made on a 10nm process and incorporate a new microarchitecture named Sunny Cove. They feature a lot of efficiency improvements to allow the CPU to get more work done at a lower clock speed.
These chips, while stilled billed as 10th generation, are made on a 14nm process and are based on the older Skylake microarchitecture that Intel has been refining for years.
It’s far more apt to compare these new CPUs to the 9th-generation chips already in MacBook Pro. These are essentially the same processors with slightly higher boost clocks at the same thermal rating and with support for ever-so-slightly faster RAM.
Should you wait to buy?
If you’re considering a MacBook Pro, there’s no reason to wait for these processors. The small performance boost delivered by these chips isn’t likely to be felt in daily use—at least not so much so that you should hold out for them.
This launch has more to do with trying to counter AMD’s extremely impressive Ryzen 4000 series of mobile processors, which appear to deliver much better overall performance while using less power and fitting into smaller, lighter laptops. In fact, much of Intel’s marketing around these new chips is about how Windows users will see them in thinner and lighter designs.
If Apple’s next MacBook Pro update only replaces the current 9th generation processors with these Comet Lake-H chips, there’s nothing to get excited about. If there are other big changes in store—like a big increase in storage capacity at the same price or a switch to AMD chips—it would be worth the wait. The new processors also support Wi-Fi 6 (also knowns as 802.11ax), which is nice, but doesn’t seem like a key differentiator.
This story, “Intel’s new ‘Comet Lake-H’ chips are suited for the 16-inch MacBook Pro” was originally published by Macworld.
- Published in Technology Industry
TECH PITCHES IN TO FIGHT COVID-19 PANDEMIC
A growing number of tech companies and IT pros are working in a variety of ways to help fight the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Here’s a rundown of what some of them are doing to help fight COVID-19.
As IT pros around the world go all-out to support a workforce that’s suddenly fully remote, many technology workers and companies are also joining efforts to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in various ways, including developing products to combat the virus, tracking and predicting its spread, and protecting hospitals from cyberattacks.
CenturyLink donates high-speed internet to temp hospitals
As the number of temporary hospitals grows in the U.S. to help patients affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, CenturyLink said it’s donating mich-needed fast internet connections to the facilities.
“Grappling with the sudden need for more hospital beds and overflow capacity, local municipalities are transforming various facilities into temporary field hospitals,” the company said in a statement. The list of facilities the company is provisioning now includes:
. The U.S. Naval Ship Mercy, now operating at the port of Los Angeles. CenturyLink set up high-speed connectivity for the Mercy and a 1-gigabit Ethernet circuit connecting the Defense Information Systems Agency’s shored-based Naval Air Station North Island to the ship.
. The CenturyLink Field Event Center in Seattle, which got a 200 Mbps fiber connection.
. The Oregon State Fair and Exposition Center in Salem, Ore., which got a 1-gigabit Ethernet connection.
. Seattle, which got high-speed fiber internet connections at eight quarantine locations.
“This is the beginning of our essential work to assist healthcare workers on the front lines, as we respond where we are needed the most,” said Ed Morche, CenturyLink’s president of government and enterprise markets. “As these needs arise across the country, CenturyLink is coordinating with local government, hospitals, and the military to locate field hospitals on our network so we can provide immediate connectivity.”
Domo updates COVID-19 Global Tracker
Looking to bolster the data about the pandemic it’s already providing, analytics firm Domo has updated its free, interactive Coronavirus (COVID-19) Global Tracker with county-level infection statistics, stay-at-home orders and testing-by-state data.
“We’ve seen incredible interest in this free resource as organizations of all kinds seek to quickly understand how the virus is impacting the world in which they operate,” said Domo CEO and founder Josh James. “Easy access to consumable data can help inform critical decisions and actions that help navigate through this crisis. We’re seeing hundreds of customers — healthcare organizations, grocers, national retailers, logistics firms and many others — combine the underlying data sets with their own operational data to help them respond more quickly to the changing environment.”
Updated every 10 minutes, the tracker aggregates and cross-checks data from sources including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), Johns Hopkins University, Worldometer and Enigma.
WPI turns to 3D printing to create ventilators
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. are developing designs that could be used with 3D printers to create ventilators from readily available manual, handheld, bag valve mask (BVM) resuscitators.
“The WPI researchers are going to make designs of multiple devices and their components publicly available so anyone with a 3D printer and a background in electronics and mechanical engineering could use them to produce ventilators for their local hospitals,” according to WPI’s Sharon Gaudin. “A manufacturing company also could use the designs to produce ventilators quickly and at scale.”
“We’re taking things that are used every day in emergency medicine and finding a way to turn them into safe, reliable, and readily replicable ventilators that can save patients’ lives. And we’re sharing those designs with the world,” said Gregory Fischer, professor of robotics engineering and mechanical engineering and director of the PracticePoint Medical Cyber-Physcial Systems R&D Center.
The ventilators built from the WPI designs are meant to be used for more stable patients so commercial ventilators with more advanced sensing and control can be saved for critical patients hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Google Cloud offers COVID-19 Public Datasets
Google on Tuesday unveiled a COVID-19 Public Datasets program designed “to make data more accessible to researchers, data scientists and analysts,” the company said. “The program will host a repository of public datasets that relate to the COVID-19 crisis and make them free to access and analyze. These include the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (JHU CSSE) dataset, Global Health Data from the World Bank, and OpenStreetMap data.
“As with all data in the Google Cloud Public Datasets Program, Google pays for storage of datasets in the program. BigQuery also provides free queries over certain COVID-related datasets to support the response to COVID-19. Queries on COVID datasets will not count against the BigQuery sandbox free tier, where you can query up to 1TB free each month.”
In terms of limits and duration, the company pledged that the datasets will remain free until Sept. 15, and said queries of COVID data are free. But if “you join COVID datasets with non-COVID datasets, the bytes processed in the non-COVID datasets will be counted against the free tier, then charged accordingly to prevent abuse.
The datasets will be updated daily.
DigitalOcean offers developer cloud assets
For nonprofit groups working against the COVID-19 pandemic, DigitalOcean is offering $100,000 in infrastructure credits for new projects and up to $50,000 in cash donations to the company’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. (The company gives $100 for each proposed project that meets DigitalOcean requirements.)
The kinds of efforts it’s backing include:
. Applications or online resources designed to educate, coordinate help, or track the virus;
. Hackathons or virtual challenges related to the pandemic;
. Tools that teach others and enable and support online education;
. And projects that help SMBs affected by the coronavirus.
“Our community is full of innovators and technologists who are leveraging their skills to create tools, resources, and events with missions focused on the COVID-19 pandemic,” the company said on its website. “As always, we’re inspired by our community … and we’re committed to helping bring your impactful ideas to life.”
Kaleyra: Free text messaging for the Italian Red Cross
Cloud-based communications firm Kaleyra is supporting the Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana, CRI) with a free text-message service for volunteers and citizens dealing with the spread of COVID-19. By texting 4353535, the CRI can recruit health workers in affected areas, manage questions from citizens, and communicate quickly with volunteers, Kaleyra said. The toll-free number can be reached by all local operators to help direct essential medical services through text messages.
“The Coronavirus pandemic has forced all of us to change our habits — the way we travel, the way we live, and the way we work,” the company said in a March 26 blog post. “Work from home has become the new norm. Like many other businesses, we, too, are working remotely. We are doing our best to equip our employees and other stakeholders to work remotely as far as possible. Work from home however, does not mean the end of teamwork or business….”
The service for the CRI has seen more than 7,500 text messages since it went into operation in mid-March.
Ping: Free single sign-on, MFA for remote workers
Ping Identity, which provides cloud-based sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) security options, is offering six month of its services for free to new customers for unlimited apps and identities, or six months of free MFA for existing customers. The move comes in response to the rush by companies to have their employees work from home as the COVID-19 outbreak worsens worldwide.
“People around the world are being encouraged or required to work from home to stay healthy and do their part to slow the spread of COVID-19,” the company said on its website. “We want to do our part to help…. That’s why we’re providing enterprises with fast, free SSO and MFA for unlimited applications.”
According to Ping, customers who use its service get:
One-click access to all of their SaaS applications;
Strong authentication for VPN connections;
And increased productivity and security for at-home workers.
Ping provides identity security services to a wide variety of companies across numerous industries, including HP, Netflix, Chevron, Intuit and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, among others.
- Published in Technology Industry