Networking

Networkworld

5 Hot network-automation startups to watch

With the combined challenges of tight IT budgets and scarcer technical talent, it’s becoming imperative for enterprise network pros to embrace automation of processes and the way infrastructure responds to changing network traffic.Not only can automation help address these problems, they can also improve overall application-response time by anticipating and addressing looming congestion. Modern applications, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, and architectures that incorporate IoT and hybrid cloud have yet to reach their true potential because network capacity seems to always lag behind demand.  A common problem is that too much networking infrastructure is still manually maintained and managed, but major vendors are starting to addressing these  issues, as are startups that seek to break bottlenecks through automation.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

5 firewall features IT pros should know about but probably don’t

Firewalls continuously evolve to remain a staple of network security by incorporating functionality of standalone devices, embracing network-architecture changes, and integrating outside data sources to add intelligence to the decisions they make – a daunting wealth of possibilities that is difficult to keep track of.Because of this richness of features, next-generation firewalls are difficult to master fully, and important capabilities sometimes can be, and in practice are, overlooked.Here is a shortlist of new features IT pros should be aware of.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

Cisco patches a security glitch affecting routers, switches and phones

Cisco has issued fixes for five security glitches that can be found in a wealth of its networked enterprise products – from switches and routers to web cameras and desktop VoIP phones.  The problems center around vulnerabilities in the implementation of the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) that could let remote attackers take over the products without any user interaction. While no public exploit has been found, an attacker simply needs to send a maliciously crafted CDP packet to a target device located inside the network to take advantage of the weakness, Cisco stated.Cisco’s CDP is a Layer 2 protocol that runs on Cisco devices and enables networking applications to learn about directly connected devices nearby, according to Cisco. It enables management of Cisco devices by discovering networked devices, determining how they are configured, and letting systems using different network-layer protocols learn about each other, according to Cisco.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

Cisco software fortifies industrial IoT security

Cisco is looking to better protect myriad edge-attached IoT devices with new security software that promises to protect industrial assets in one of the most disparate of network environments.The company rolled out what it called an overarching security architecture for Industrial IoT (IIoT) environments that includes existing products but also new software called Cisco Cyber Vision, for the automated discovery of industrial assets attached to Cisco’s extensive IIoT networking portfolio. More about edge networkingTo read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

IT pros need to weigh in on that ‘sassy’ security model

Cloud services that provide both network and security intelligence are gaining popularity because they are easy to consume and they improve agility. Similarly, a model known as SD-Branch is providing network and security functionality at the WAN edge on a single platform.Both of these trends have contributed to the development by Gartner of a network architecture known as the secure-access service edge or SASE, which “converges network (for example, software-defined WAN) and network security services (such as [secure web gateways], [cloud access security brokers] and firewall as a service).” SASE (pronounced “sassy”) would primarily be delivered as a cloud-based service, Gartner says.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

Cisco issues firewall, SD-WAN security warnings

Amongst Cisco’s dump of 27 security advisories today only one was rated as critical – a vulnerability in its Firepower firewall system that could let an attacker bypass authentication and execute arbitrary actions with administrative privileges on a particular device.The Firepower Management Center (FMC) vulnerability – which was rated at 9.8 out of 10 – comes from improper handling of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authentication responses from an external authentication server. With it, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to an affected device and gain administrative access to its web-based management interface.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

How to deal with the impact of digital transformation on networks

Digital transformation has increased the importance of the network, particularly the edge, where customers, employees, cloud applications and IoT devices connect to the enterprise. The legacy static and non-differentiated network edge of years past is no longer sufficient for many reasons, so as companies embark on digital-transformation plans, their networks must evolve.Networking pros should be looking at, among other things, improving security and embracing software-defined networking (SDN) that supports propagating changes quickly across the network in order to accommodate the many challenges digital transformation creates.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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Networkworld

What’s hot for Cisco in 2020

As the industry gets ready to gear up for 2020 things have been a  little disquieting in networking land.That’s because some key players – Arista and Juniper in particular – have been reporting business slowdowns as new deals have been smaller than expected and cloud providers haven’t been as free-spending as in the past.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
Worldwide IT spending has been on the slow side, Gartner said in October that worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2019, an increase of 0.4% from 2018, the lowest growth forecast so far in 2019. The good news: global IT spending is expected to rebound in 2020 with forecast growth of 3.7%, primarily due to enterprise software spending, Gartner stated.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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