LAN & WAN - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• 5 free Ethernet tools you should check out

  Nothing in life is free – except some tools to help you manage and improve the performance of your Ethernet networks. Here are five we found to do just that:

• New Cisco switches take aim at big data centers, data applications

  Cisco is unveiling two new configurations of its recently-launched Nexus 9000 switches, a new 40G Nexus switch. In addition, Cisco is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its UCS server.

• Dell unveils fabric switch, SDN controller

  Dell this week rolled out products designed to help customers build and scale cloud environments.

• Cisco gets fresh mid-range router competition

  OneAccess, the branch office router company that's a major competitor to Cisco overseas, is launching new products for the mid-range router market.

• 11 tips to prepare for SDN

  Making the leap to SDN? Don't jump in blind. It helps to know what software-defined networking is, first off, and then what it can do for you.

• Forum created to push optical SDNs

  SDN start-up Vello Systems this week said it is forming an organization to promote open source and software-defined networking principles to optical enterprise networking.

• At Goldman Sachs SDN is déjà vu all over again

  Goldman Sachs has been doing SDNs for a long time. It just wasn't called SDNs when the investment giant invested in network programmability. It was just a bunch of APIs, software development kits and other code used to cobble together a large number of various specialized networks – trading, investment banking and the like -- across the globe.

• Cisco execs address defective memory component issues with routers, switches

  Cisco executives in a roundtable session with reporters this week addressed the industry's memory component degradation issue in products developed between 2005 and 2010. Cisco's taking a $655 million charge to address remediation actions customers are taking to replace products that include the defective memory components.

• Cisco revamps enterprise product pricing

  SAN JOSE -- In an effort simplify enterprise customer procurements, Cisco is implementing a licensing model for data center, WAN and access product purchases.

• Revisiting Cisco's newest data center

  We were last in Cisco's new data center in Allen, Texas, in the fall of 2010 when the company was just putting the finishing touches on the 160,000 square foot building with 35,000 square feet of "raised floor" (they still use that lingo even though this facility doesn't use raised floors).

• SDNs move from theory to reality

  SDNs have gone from concept to reality.

• NEC scales OpenFlow SDNs

  NEC this week rolled out a new version of its SDN software that includes an OpenFlow-based method for interconnecting data centers.

• Brocade seeks SDN edge with early OpenFlow 1.3 support

  Brocade this week announced broad support for OpenFlow 1.3 across its IP product line to extend SDNs beyond research and academia and into commercial and enterprise networks.

• Is SDN your next security nightmare?

  The big buzzword in networking these days is Software-Defined Networking (SDN), a de-coupling of the data plane and the control plane that allows you to manage physical devices via a software-based controller sitting on a general purpose server.

• Inside the tiny Kansas town battling cable lobbyists over municipal broadband

  When the Kansas state senate proposed legislation barring local governments from providing high-speed Internet to their citizens, one small community, which was effectively exempt from the legislation, spoke out the loudest.