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Ericka Chickowski

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10 Ways Software-Defined Networking Will Change IT

September 30, 2013 03:30 PM

When networking professionals converge upon New York for Interop this week, software-defined networking (SDN) stands to establish itself as a major theme throughout session talks and informal conversations. As the industry watches the results of early adopter case studies and hears pundits advocate for this new means of controlling the network fabric, consensus is building for the potential that SDN could be an IT game-changer. Here's how, in the words of experts from around the industry.

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8 Mobile Tools For Security Pros

August 15, 2013 02:19 PM

The influx of employee-owned mobile devices into the workplace has certainly thrown many IT security professionals for a loop, but the same devices that are introducing so much chaos to established security practices also have a lot of potential to be used to bring back some order. The following mobile security tools are a good start for security admins looking for utilities to help them get their job done more efficiently.

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9 Technologies Security Researchers Will Break At Black Hat

July 29, 2013 05:14 PM

This week's Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas will showcase hacks, tools and ideas that will once again challenge the way we think about IT security. Here are nine technologies that will be on the firing line as security researchers discuss and demonstrate vulnerabilities and exploits.

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8 Things You Should Know About DevOps

July 15, 2013 04:02 PM

Called a cultural and professional movement, DevOps seeks to better integrate development and IT operations teams to accelerate application delivery. Read on to find out what the DevOps movement is about and the benefits it can provide enterprise organizations.

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10 Signs OpenStack Has Come Into Its Own

June 25, 2013 05:33 PM

OpenStack continues to build momentum in the tech industry. Since its inception in 2010, OpenStack has made considerable strides as an open source IaaS project. Enterprises are seeking ROI with their OpenStack pilot projects, brand-name IT companies such as HP and Juniper are doubling down on OpenStack initiatives, and venture capitalists are throwing cash at OpenStack startups in an attempt to help the market make good on the hype -- and profit in the process. Here are 10 recent OpenStack developments.

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Bio

An award-winning freelance writer, Ericka Chickowski specializes in coverage of information technology and business innovation. She has focused on information security for the better part of a decade and regularly writes about the security industry as a contributor to Dark Reading. Chickowski's perspectives on business and technology have also appeared in dozens of trade and consumer magazines, including Channel Insider, Consumers Digest, Entrepreneur, InformationWeek, Network Computing and SC Magazine.

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Editor's Choice

2013 SDN Survey: Growing Pains

In this report, we'll look at the state of Software-defined networking in the marketplace and examine the survey results. We'll also outline what a typical SDN infrastructure looks like in 2013, including a controller, programmable infrastructure, applications and network multitenancy. We'll dig into both OpenDaylight and OpenFlow, two open source initiatives that are shaping SDN from outside. Finally, We'll offer guidance for network professionals on how to approach bringing SDN into their own environments.
Get full survey results now! »

Vendor Turf Wars

The enterprise tech market used to be an orderly place, where vendors had clearly defined markets. No more. Driven both by increasing complexity and Wall Street demands for growth, big vendors are duking it out for primacy -- and refusing to work together for IT's benefit. Must we now pick a side, or is neutrality an option?
Get the Digital Issue »

WEBCAST: Software Defined Networking (SDN) First Steps

Software defined networking encompasses several emerging technologies that bring programmable interfaces to data center networks and promise to make networks more observable and automated, as well as better suited to the specific needs of large virtualized data centers. Attend this webcast to learn the overall concept of SDN and its benefits, describe the different conceptual approaches to SDN, and examine the various technologies, both proprietary and open source, that are emerging.
Register Today »

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How Data Center Infrastructure Management Software Improves Planning and Cuts Operational Cost

Business executives are challenging their IT staffs to convert data centers from cost centers into producers of business value. Data centers can make a significant impact to the bottom line by enabling the business to respond more quickly to market demands. This paper demonstrates, through a series of examples, how data center infrastructure management software tools can simplify operational processes, cut costs, and speed up information delivery.

Impact of Hot and Cold Aisle Containment on Data Center Temperature and Efficiency

Both hot-air and cold-air containment can improve the predictability and efficiency of traditional data center cooling systems. While both approaches minimize the mixing of hot and cold air, there are practical differences in implementation and operation that have significant consequences on work environment conditions, PUE, and economizer mode hours. The choice of hot-aisle containment over cold-aisle containment can save 43% in annual cooling system energy cost, corresponding to a 15% reduction in annualized PUE. This paper examines both methodologies and highlights the reasons why hot-aisle containment emerges as the preferred best practice for new data centers.

Monitoring Physical Threats in the Data Center

Traditional methodologies for monitoring the data center environment are no longer sufficient. With technologies such as blade servers driving up cooling demands and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley driving up data security requirements, the physical environment in the data center must be watched more closely. While well understood protocols exist for monitoring physical devices such as UPS systems, computer room air conditioners, and fire suppression systems, there is a class of distributed monitoring points that is often ignored. This paper describes this class of threats, suggests approaches to deploying monitoring devices, and provides best practices in leveraging the collected data to reduce downtime.

Cooling Strategies for Ultra-High Density Racks and Blade Servers

Rack power of 10 kW per rack or more can result from the deployment of high density information technology equipment such as blade servers. This creates difficult cooling challenges in a data center environment where the industry average rack power consumption is under 2 kW. Five strategies for deploying ultra-high power racks are described, covering practical solutions for both new and existing data centers.

Power and Cooling Capacity Management for Data Centers

High density IT equipment stresses the power density capability of modern data centers. Installation and unmanaged proliferation of this equipment can lead to unexpected problems with power and cooling infrastructure including overheating, overloads, and loss of redundancy. The ability to measure and predict power and cooling capability at the rack enclosure level is required to ensure predictable performance and optimize use of the physical infrastructure resource. This paper describes the principles for achieving power and cooling capacity management.