Thursday 30 April 2020

We're not Finnished yet: Nokia chalks up €200m sales hit to 'COVID-19 issues'

Insists: It was the supply chain! We'll get the sales back later this year

Nokia Oyj told the market this morning that it estimates the novel coronavirus has "had an approximately €200m negative impact" on its Q1 2020 sales, mostly due to "supply chain challenges" but insisted the sales would be "shifted to future periods", rather than being lost to the ledger entirely.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/30/nokia_q1_2020/

Vodafone issues a stay of execution for Demon domain hold-outs

Expiration pushed to 1 September due to COVID-19 challenges

Vodafone has declared a stay of execution for the venerable Demon sub domain, extending the licence until September 2020.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/30/demon_extension/

Alibaba takes VMware where AWS and Microsoft don't – behind the Great Firewall

Only in China ‘for the moment’ which leaves the world to conquer

VMware’s partnership with Alibaba has borne fruit behind the Great Firewall…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/30/alibaba_vmware_service_china_launch/

Free-speech-loving Cloudflare hooks up with China’s biggest retailer JD

The spice must flow seems to be the gist of it, along with JD's cloudy ambitions

Cloudflare has often taken a stance on freedom of speech issues and now it’s vastly extended its reach into China – where the government routinely censors its citizens.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/30/cloudflare_jd_partnership/

Past three months were a rollercoaster for Microsoft: Ad spending down, PCs and gaming flat, cloud climbing amid work-from-home demand

COVID-19 had 'minimal net impact' on sales, Windows giant claims

Microsoft on Wednesday revealed its financial figures for the past three virus-addled months – and there was some up, and some down.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/30/microsoft_2020_q3/

Wednesday 29 April 2020

Apple chucks $3 at iPhone users for killing FaceTime on iOS 6 because it didn't want to pay connectivity charges

Millions to go to lawyers after legal brouhaha ends in settlement

Apple has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by folks upset that the iGiant broke FaceTime overnight on their iPhones. The settlement amounts to a few bucks a device, meaning the Cupertino giant almost certainly made a net profit in the process.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/29/apple_facetime_settlement/

Who's still using Webex? Not even Cisco: Judge orders IT giant to use rival Zoom for virtual patent trial

It would be rather awkward if Switchzilla's own video-link app fell over mid-proceedings, wouldn't it?

A judge has ordered Cisco to use arch-rival Zoom rather than its own video-conference offering Webex to virtually attend a patent-infringement trial.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/29/cisco_use_zoom/

Family meeting! Chocolate Factory makes its business-like video-chat service free to anyone with a Google account

Oh goody. Yet another tech support channel for relatives to abuse

Google is making its Meet video-chat service free to anyone who wants it, as long as you have a Google account.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/29/google_meet_free/

Mystery cloud added 10,000 new AMD EPYC CPUs in under ten days to handle demand for you know what

Chip challenger announces 40 percent Q1 growth, but lowers guidance

Chip challenger AMD has posted a strong set of Q1 results and made the now-rare decision to provide guidance for the remainder of the year but also lowered its guidance for the remainder of the year.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/29/amd_q1_fy2020/

Resistance is futile: Some Cisco security appliances are ticking time bombs of fail thanks to faulty resistors

After 18 months, they can just fall over. The fix is asking Borgzilla for a new one

Resistors, which cost a few cents apiece, are bricking pricey Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASAs).…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/29/cisco_asa_resistor_failure/

Like life for a lot of us, Google's 2020 was going relatively fine until March hit. Ad sales nosedive, but yay for cloud and Chromebooks?

Does anything really matter when you have $100bn in the bank and pocketing nearly $7bn a quarter in profit?

Google parent Alphabet’s financial figures for its first quarter of 2020 were a mixed bag. Two months of business as usual, if not better than usual, then a miserable March as advertisers shut their wallets amid the coronavirus pandemic.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/29/google_q1_2020/

Tuesday 28 April 2020

Guess which cloud giant Zoom picked to handle millions more video calls? Bzzt, wrong answer: It's Oracle

No wonder Larry Ellison went on YouTube to heap praise on the web-conferencing upstart

A few weeks ago a baseball-capped Larry Ellison stuck a short video on YouTube praising Zoom to the skies, calling it "an essential service." Now we have an idea why.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/zoom_oracle_cloud/

Outages batter UK's Virgin Media into wee hours as broadband failures spike 72% globally

'Not caused by a spike in usage or a lack of network capacity,' says Brit ISP

Broadband outages have soared since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, per data from US network intelligence firm ThousandEyes. Among the most recent victims is Virgin Media, which suffered intermittent failures across the UK and Ireland starting yesterday early evening, and continuing into the early hours of the morning.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/virgin_media_outages/

Thought Microsoft's licence plans were Kafkaesque? How about a Kafka extension for Azure Functions?

Also: Java 8 support? Linux? Ah yes – that would be the new Microsoft

Microsoft has slung a Kafka Extension for Azure Functions out to preview as well as sneaking in Java 8 support for Linux hosting.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/azure_functions_kafka_extension/

Windows 10 gets a little more G-shaped: G Suite admins can now manage Microsoft's OS, and that includes remote wipe

Google shores up security for biz users

Google has upped security for business customers using its G Suite package, including Windows 10 administration, data loss prevention rules, and access rules based on where you are and what device you are using.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/google_ups_security_for_business_users/

Now might not be the best time to visit, but AWS just turned on a new region in Milan

Good option for locals and lowest latency for Austria, Bulgaria and Greece too

AWS has opened a new region in Milan, Italy.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/aws_milan_region_opens/

UEFI the right to cloud security: Google makes shielded VMs its default cloudy option

As Azure adds Intel's much-probed SGX to its confidential zone

Google’s decided UEFI the right to secure cloud VMs, by making its Shielded VMs the default option in its cloud.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/google_makes_shielded_vms_default/

US threatens to turf out four Chinese telcos amid concerns over national security... and COVID-19, doctors, schools, jobs, communists, etc

It's pin-everything-on-China season

America's communications watchdog will ban four Chinese telcos from operating in the Land of the Free from next month, citing a vague national security threat.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/fcc_chinese_telcos/

Monday 27 April 2020

We all want high-performance, multi-gigabit switching. So, too, do hackers trying to siphon your corporate data...

Security and privacy are critical pillars – while the sheer volume and diversity of devices pose enormous challenges

Sponsored  Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, businesses and organisations have struggled to adapt to the “new normal” in business operations connecting employees, customers, partners and stakeholders in the supply chain. Many business continuity plans have entailed intuitive self-service workflows with streamlined network on-boarding so users and endpoint devices can gain network access simply and securely.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/27/commscope_security_mandate/

FTP is crusty and mostly dead, right? AWS just started supporting it anyway

Somebody’s got to help you run legacy apps with dignity

AWS has just launched a cloudy FTP service.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/27/aws_adds_ftp_and_ftps_to_new_transfer_family/

Wi-Fi management is still more rubbish than it ought to be – here’s how AI can help

Extra intelligence for end-to-end means less fuzzy video calls. Infradata reveals more

Webcast  While the traditional methods of “unified communications” have started to fall by the wayside as analogue phone lines have shifted to VoIP, and fax machines move to museums, there’s been concern among the connected working population that the same kind of care and attention that would go into making traditional comms networks flourish hasn’t always been leveled at convincing overburdened office Wi-Fi connections do similar.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/27/wifi_is_still_more_rubbish/

Friday 24 April 2020

Infor feels the lure of Azure as ERP underdog's customers in retail express reservations about Amazon's cloud

Platform is 'tightly' integrated with AWS S3, but now an alternative is needed

Few CEOs are upstaged by their own kitchens but, watching Infor supremo Kevin Samuelson drone on about industry disruption, the spotless gleam of his chrome and white backdrop spoke more to viewers of this week's Infor Inspire virtual conference than he did.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/24/infor_on_azure/

Elevating cost-cutting to a whole new level with million-dollar bar bills

The curse of RS-232 strikes again in part two of our serial series

On Call  While the days may seem to be blurring a little at the moment, we can assure you that it is Friday, which means it is time for another in The Register's series of reader experiences at the hands of the On Call telephone.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/24/on_call/

Is your company data in the firing line of America's wide-reaching CLOUD Act?

Tune to find out from IONOS exactly how safe your information is from Uncle Sam's prying eyes

Webcast  When Microsoft loudly and publicly challenges the US government on remote data access, you can bet the Feds and lawmakers won't just sit still and take it.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/24/us_cloud_act_privacy_ionos/

Cisco UCS servers slugged by 'This SSD will self-destruct in 40,000 hours' firmware farrago

As Firepower kit hit by rare and ridiculous ‘silkscreen ID flaw’

A Friday challenge for NetAdmins: solve a silkscreen ID bug in a Cisco Firepower appliance.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/24/cisco_ucs_ssd_warning/

Microsoft admits pandemic caused Azure ‘constraints’ and backlog of customer quota requests

Warehoused servers were ready, but then the world discovered Teams

Microsoft has admitted that some Azure regions have experienced coronavirus-caused capacity constraints and customers haven’t been able to get all the cloud they want.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/24/microsoft_admits_to_azure_constraints/

Thursday 23 April 2020

Google Cloud CEO says Istio will be handed to a foundation. The Reg: But what about..? Google: That will be all.

When? Which foundation? What about Knative? Mountain View has nothing to add

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has stated that Istio, a key component in the Kubernetes platform, will be donated to a foundation, despite previous strong hints that the firm would never do so.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/23/google_cloud_ceo_says_istio/

Work from home surge may work in Wi-Fi 6's favour, reckons analyst house

Research ponders whether lockdown may lead folk to update dusty networking kit for sitting room setups

The COVID-19 pandemic looks set to have both short and long-term implications for the tech industry, themselves a reflection of changes in the established working culture. A new white paper from ABI Research highlights the growing need for modern home Wi-Fi kit to cope with an increasingly remote workforce.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/23/covid19_wifi_6/

AWS is now African AF as it opens Cape Town region in South Africa

Named AF-SOUTH-1 and near some handy routes to Europe and West Africa

AWS has opened its first region in Africa and named it AF-SOUTH-1.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/23/aws_south_africa_region_af_south_1_opens/

IBM Watson GPU cluster Brexits from London to Frankfurt, because GDPR

Users have migration work to do in the next month. Good thing nobody's busy right now, eh?

IBM will lift and shift a GPU cluster from London to Frankfurt, thanks to Brexit.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/23/ibm_watson_gpu_cluster_brexits/

Google shifting workloads to run when the sun will shine and the wind will blow

Already time-shifting inside some bit barns with electricity-source-predict-ometer

Google has revealed that it will try to shift work around its cloud to follow the availability of electricity generated by renewable resources.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/23/google_schedules_wokloads_based_on_co2_impact/

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Internet root keymasters must think they're cursed: First, a dodgy safe. Now, coronavirus upends IANA ceremony

Pandemc lockdowns forces new measures on crucial crypto process than underpins world's DNS

IANA – the body that oversees the internet's IP addresses and domain names – must think it's under a curse in its quest to protect the 'net. Last time it was a malfunctioning safe that blocked its important work to keep the global network glued together.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/22/iana_delay_coronavirus/

Google and Cisco, sitting in a (spanning) tree, cloud N-E-T-W-O-R-K-I-N-G

Borg SD-WANS can now drive Chocolate Factory virty cloud networks and the workloads therein

Cisco will extend its SD-WAN service into Google's Cloud.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/22/google_and_cisco_sd_wan_alliance/

Free ebook for every reader: Unleash the power of your Apple fleet with Jamf

Get ahead of the trend: Home is the new office

Promo  The era of the daily commute and the nine-to-five workday at the office is coming to an end. More organisations than ever before have been forced to adopt part- or full-time remote working – and the ongoing global health crisis is swiftly completing the transformation.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/22/ebook_jamf_apple_it_management/

Facebook takes $5.7bn stake in Jio – India's largest mobile telco

WhatsApp gets a leg-up into m-commerce

Facebook has announced a US$5.7bn investment in Jio, India's biggest mobile telco.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/22/facebook_invests_in_indian_mobile_carrier_jio/

Zuck loves free speech so much Facebook will censor 'anti-state' content in Vietnam after telcos 'crippled' access

Fine, fine, we'll ban whatever the government says is illegal, just give us back access, says US giant

Facebook has given in to Vietnamese government demands, and agreed to remove any content considered “anti-state” after telcos in the nation reportedly cut off access to the social network's systems.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/22/facebook_vietnam_anti_government/

New York Attorney General probes Charter over claims it forced staff to work in offices amid coronavirus pandemic

Workers complain to The Register of unnecessary COVID-19 risk

US telco Charter Communications is facing an investigation from the New York State Attorney General for potentially putting employees at unnecessary risk during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/charter_investigation_covid19/

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Watch live online: How to build the next iteration of your business using hybrid cloud

It’s time to strengthen your enterprise apps with the help of Nutanix

Webcast  You are still trying to decide whether public cloud computing is right or wrong for you. Maybe the snag is regulation, maybe it's GDPR, maybe you fear the loss of control and ballooning management costs, or maybe your applications just work better on your IT infrastructure.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/live_webcast_nutanix/

Who can we count on to slow Huawei's continuous growth? US prez Donald Trump and COVID-19

The world's crappest superheroes

Huawei has posted its lowest revenue growth in years – the result of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, as well as a campaign by President Trump to sow seeds of fear, uncertainty and doubt about the Chinese biz.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/huawei_q1_2020/

Microsoft puts a stop to auto-updates of Azure Service Fabric 'until further notice'

Redmond reckons you've probably got enough on your plate right now

Microsoft is pausing automatic upgrades for its Azure Service Fabric "until further notice" as the Windows giant reacts to the current COVID-19 situation.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/azure_service_fabric_7_1/

Are you fixing that switch? Or setting it up as a Minecraft server?

Cisco shows off how you can brick it on a Catalyst 9300

Cisco has published a guide to running Minecraft on its switches.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/minecraft_server_cisco_switch/

AWS announces new single-purpose on-prem hardware and tie-in storage tier

Cloud colossus has gone very niche with video-shifter

AWS has announced a very niche piece of on-prem tech and a related new cloud storage tier.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/aws_elemental_link/

Free demo: See how Comarch plans to ease your cloud journey

Follow a step-by-step guide to the Cloud Infraspace suite

Promo  In these competitive times, a growing number of businesses are tempted by cloud computing, due to its much-touted ability to help them respond quickly to market changes and grab opportunities thrown up by new technologies.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/free_demo_comarch_cloud_infraspace/

Scaleway disarms its ARM64 cloud, cites unreliable hardware as the reason

So why not just buy new servers? That’s where this gets curly

One of the few clouds to offer 64-bit Arm-compatible servers is dropping the architecture.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/scaleway_arm64_cloud_end_of_life/

China Mobile reveals COVID-19 scarcely touched Q1 revenue and profit

Although it did kick a hole in product sales and put a rocket under TXT

China Mobile has issued un-audited Q1 results that reveal the impact of the novel coronavirus on the world’s largest mobile carrier, and perhaps on China itself.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/21/china_mobile_q1_20_preliminary_results/

Monday 20 April 2020

With the economy in turmoil, Alibaba to spend big on pipes and plumbing to catch up with Western rivals

Chinese retail-'n'-cloud giant to splash $28bn as coronavirus pushes the online markets up

In a world so disrupted by COVID-19 that many are wondering where their next pay packet will come from, the biggest sellers of cloud tech are trying to prove who has the deepest pockets.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/20/with_the_economy_in_termoil/

US judge puts Amazon's challenge to Pentagon JEDI deal into force stasis

Giving military time to look at aspects of decision

US federal judge Patricia Campbell-Smith has slapped a hold [PDF] on Amazon's legal challenge to the $10bn Pentagon Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract to give the military time to "reconsider... aspects of the procurement" in the mega-contract.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/20/us_judge_deploys_freeze_beam/

Baby, I swear it's déjà vu: TalkTalk customers unable to opt out of ISP's ad-jacking DNS – just like six years ago

Have you tried turning it off and on again? Yes!

TalkTalk broadband users are complaining they can't opt out of its Error Replacement Service, which swaps NXDomain DNS results with an IP address. And if that sounds familiar, it should. Users of the budget ISP complained about the very same issue back in 2014.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/20/talktalk_error_replacement_service_opt_out_fail/

Saturday 18 April 2020

This hurts a ton-80: British darts champ knocked out of home tourney by lousy internet connection

Bet you thought the rural internet gap wouldn't cause this kind of disruption

Former darts world champion Gary Anderson says he cannot compete in upcoming remote tournaments due to his slow home internet connection.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/18/darts_champ_wifi/

Friday 17 April 2020

Open letter to Internet Engineering Task Force: Back off Cisco, not all members want to 'play to your tune'

A mini revolution against Switchzilla takes form in a corner of industry group

There is growing unrest at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) due to the power that some accuse Cisco of wielding over the global community of network designers, operators, vendors and academics.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/17/open_letter_to_internet_engineering/

As nice as Pai: FCC chairman comes out in favour of Ligado Networks' 5G proposal, despite criticism from airlines and military

Backing for use of L-Band spectrum for 5G

Ligado Networks, which is currently seeking approval for a terrestrial low-power 5G network, has won a powerful friend: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Ajit Pai.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/17/fcc_chairman_comes_out_in/

A paper clip, a spool of phone wire and a recalcitrant RS-232 line: Going MacGyver in the wonderful world of hotel IT

Part 1: No one expects the construction crew

On Call  Come with us to the 1980s, when computers cost proper money and RS-232 ruled the roost in another edition of Register reader recollections courtesy of On Call.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/17/on_call/

ICANN delays .org sell off after California’s attorney general intervenes at last minute, tears non-profit a new one over sale

DNS overseer accused of ignoring the very people it is supposed to represent

ICANN has again delayed a decision on the sale of the .org registry, pushing the issue off for another month multiple sources with knowledge of Thursday's meeting, have told The Register.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/17/icann_california_org_sale_delay/

Cloudflare goes retro with COBOL delivery service - Older coders: Who's laughing now? Turns out we're still vital

Dust off your COBOL code and give it new life in WebAssembly

Network infrastructure biz Cloudflare has implemented a way to run COBOL code on its serverless platform Cloudflare Workers.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/16/cloudflare_cobol/

Thursday 16 April 2020

FPGA biz Xilinx pops ACAP in Samsung's 5G network gear

That's the Versal Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform btw

US FPGA manufacturer Xilinx has inked a deal allowing electronics giant Samsung to use its Versal ACAP (Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform) in 5G infrastructure products.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/16/xilinx_versal_acap_samsung_5g_gear/

Techie yanked some cables and took Cloudflare’s dashboard and API down for four hours

Single point of failure, imprecise instructions and un-labelled cables are a bad, bad, mix

Cloudflare has admitted that a four-and-a-bit-hour outage today was caused by someone pulling out cables that should have been left in place, but which were yanked because techies were given unhelpfully imprecise instructions.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/16/cloudflare_outage/

ICANN’s founding CEO and chair accuse biz of abandoning principles in push for billion-dollar .org sale

Daming letter sent to California attorney general asks for six-month delay

Exclusive  ICANN has been accused by its founding CEO and original chair of abandoning the organization’s core principles and accepting commitments it knows it cannot enforce in order to push through the sale of the .org registry later this week.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/16/icann_abandon_core_values/

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Why cloud-managed Wi-Fi demand will surge with next enterprise tech refreshes

And why causing a Ruckus is a good thing

Sponsored  Pervasive virtualisation and cloud adoption have moved more apps to the cloud and made edge connectivity more prominent and wireless. The advent of new and more efficient Wi-Fi such as 802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6 is expected to prompt a new wave of refresh cycles for enterprises.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/15/cloud_management_demand_surge/

Pentagon watchdog sets phasers to none, clears $10bn JEDI contract process but leaves door open for lawsuits

Collective amnesia over claimed 'screw Amazon' comment

There is no evidence of wrongdoing or undue influence in the Pentagon’s controversial $10bn JEDI cloud contract award to Microsoft, the Defense Department’s internal watchdog has concluded.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/15/pentagon_watchdog_jedi/

Vodafone chief speaks out after 5G conspiracy nuts torch phone mast serving Nightingale Hospital in Brum

Will someone rid us of these turbulent twats

Vodafone CEO Nick Jeffrey has spoken out after arsonists targeted a phone mast serving the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/15/vodafone_chief_speaks_out_birmingham_phone_mast_torched/

Tuesday 14 April 2020

From Brit telly presenter Eamonn Holmes to burning 5G towers in the Netherlands: Stupid week turns into stupid fortnight for radio standard

Amazingly, contractor for massive UK TV channels differentiates himself from 'mainstream media'

Sleepy ITV daytime show This Morning isn't typically the venue for conspiratorial chatter. It's more Loose Women than Loose Change. Still, that didn't prevent Eamonn Holmes* from espousing the belief that the "mainstream media" is participating in a cover-up about the dangers of 5G.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14/5g_misinformation/

UK MPs fume after Huawei posts open letter stating: 'Disrupting our involvement in the 5G rollout would do Britain a disservice'

Conservative politicos including IDS voice anger over 'untimely special pleading'

An open letter from Huawei about the UK's 5G strategy in light of COVID-19 has provoked outrage among several key politicians in the country's ruling Conservative Party, who have denounced it as "hubristic" and "arrogant".…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14/uk_conservative_mps_fume_after_huawei_open_letter/

Monday 13 April 2020

ICANN suffers split-personality disorder as deadline for .org sale decision draws close

Staff trying to strike a deal; Board worried about corporate shell structure

With just seven days left until it has to make a decision on the $1.13bn sale of the .org registry to a private equity firm, DNS overseer ICANN appears in chaos.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/13/icann_org_selloff/

Thursday 9 April 2020

Still on-premises? Iron out your hybrid cloud plan with the help of Nutanix

Find out how to widen your cloud options while keeping control

Webcast  While it’s trendy to go entirely off-premises and hybridize your cloud, many will nod and smile at the suggestion while having no intention of actually doing it.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/09/nutanix_hybrid_cloud_webcast/

VMware’s cloudy capacity constraint stretches into third week

Only in one AZ of one region, but it's been working to add more hosts for two weeks and counting

VMware’s cloudy “capacity constraint” incident has stretched into a third week.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/09/vmware_au_cloud_brownout/

Wednesday 8 April 2020

SAP hits back in Oracle cloud spat: I am rubber, you are glue, we have twice as many ERP installations as you

Big words from co-CEO after Larry Ellison ribs vendor during earnings call

Death, taxes and vendor feuds seem the only certainties to which the disheartened technology careerist can cling in these troubled times.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/08/sap_oracle_cloud_spat/

Changing of the guard at Cloud Foundry: CTO made executive director, VMware veep becomes chairman of the board

Focus to be 'evolving the technology to a Kubernetes-based platform'

Cloud Foundry, home of open-source projects that simplify development and deployment of cloud-native applications, has named former CTO Chip Childers as exec director and VMware's Paul Fazzone as board chair.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/08/cloud_foundry_new_exec_director_chairman/

Ofcom waves DAB radio licences under local broadcasters' noses as FM switchoff debate smoulders again

Only half the nation prefers digital radio to analogue, though

Britain's airwaves are opening up to DAB versions of local radio stations, Ofcom has declared as it tries to shift more Brits away from AM and FM radio.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/08/ofcom_offers_dab_digital_local_radio_licences/

White House creates 'Team Telecom' to probe whether foreign telcos should be allowed near US networks

Speedier license applications possible, uncertainty remains for many

The White House has issued an executive order establishing a committee to help the Federal Communications Commission review the participation of foreign companies in US telecommunication services.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/white_house_team_telecom/

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Something something DANE cook: Microsoft pledges to wrap its email systems in secure anti-snooping protocol

Office 365 will finally get DNSSEC-based protection later this year

Microsoft will add DNSSEC and DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) to its email systems by the end of the year, the software giant has announced. That'll be a big thumbs up for the pair of internet security technologies.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/microsoft_dane_office/

Neustar wins back Colombia's controversial .co domain contract after slashing profit margin by 75 per cent

After claims of dodgy deals and rigged procedures, the contract is finally inked

After a controversial rebidding process that provoked industry outrage, accusations of corruption, and resignation calls for a government minister, Colombia's .co contract has been returned to its current operator, Neustar.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/neustar_wins_colombia/

Revenues up, taxes down: Google UK reports its slice of the Chocolate Factory pie

Blighty's wage bill tops £1bn as more staffers are added

Google's UK tentacle booked a jump in revenues for the year ended 30 June 2019 while still managing to cut its tax bill by more than £21m.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/google_uk_figures/

New IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says hybrid cloud will be bigger than mainframes, services, middleware

First day letter to staff calls for ‘maniacal focus’, OpenShift dominance and client love

IBM’s new CEO Arvind Krishna has revealed the letter he sent to staff on his first day in the job, and it’s big on hybrid cloud as a new platform for IBM’s future.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/arvind_krishna_becomes_ibm_ceo_letter_to_staff/

Minister slams 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories as 'dangerous nonsense' after phone towers torched in UK

Looks like Michael Gove has decided to listen to the experts for a change

UK Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has used a daily briefing to slam those advancing baseless theories that 5G radios are in some way responsible for the coronavirus.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/06/5g_coronavirus_theory_debunked/

Ethernet standards group leaves its name in the dust as it details new 800Gbps spec

Farewell, 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium. Arise, Ethernet Technology Consortium

The 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium has decided to ditch its name as it heads off in search of serious speed.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/ethernet_technology_consortium_rebrands_and_reveals_800gbps_spec/

GoDaddy gobbles 12 million dot-word domains – from .biz to .nyc – from Neustar, promises prices will go down

Could takeover actually not shaft internet domain holders?

The world’s largest seller of domain names, GoDaddy, is making a bid for market domination with the purchase of hundreds of dot-word registries including .biz, .co, .nyc, and .us, from Neustar.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/06/godaddy_neustar_bid/

Monday 6 April 2020

From Amanda Holden to petrol-filled water guns: It has been a weird week for 5G

Gov.UK to ask social networks to do their part...

Comment  Amanda Holden is not an epidemiologist. She holds no degree in electrical engineering or physics. Her time is spent judging the (often self-contradictory) Britain's Got Talent, or sitting next to Phil Schofield on the couch of This Morning, where she earned notoriety by asking Brit astronaut Tim Peake if he stole any moon rocks on his mission to the International Space Station.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/06/5g/

Friday 3 April 2020

Cabinet Office dangles £15m for help ditching its Single Operating Platform for cloud-based ERP system

Project 'SOP2SaaS'... it just rolls off the tongue

The Cabinet Office is offering a £15m contract for a consultancy to help it shift central government enterprise applications to an as software-as-a-service delivery model, part of an ambitious refresh programme.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/03/uk_govenment_sop2saas/

Australian digital-radio-for-railways Huawei project derailed by US trade sanctions against Chinese tech giant

Uncle Sam's crackdown sparks 'force majeure event that cannot be overcome'

One of Huawei’s flagship projects in Australia has been called off because, as the state government put it, “trade restrictions imposed by the US government create a force majeure event that cannot be overcome.”…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/03/huawei_radio_sanctions/

Thursday 2 April 2020

Google Cloud Engine outage caused by 'large backlog of queued mutations'

Ad giant added memory to servers, restarted, watched things get worse ... is on top of things again now

A 14-hour Google cloud platform outage that we missed in the shadow of last week's G Suite outage was caused by a failure to scale, an internal investigation has shown.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/02/google_cloud_services_outage_caused/

Cisco rations VPNs for staff as strain of 100,000+ home workers hits its network

Following the moon to find capacity and sticking to safe sites as Chuck Robbins leads new weekly briefings

Cisco was surprised by how quickly it needed to adopt a global working from home policy, and is now rationing VPN use to safeguard its security.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/02/cisco_rations_staff_vpn/

Does the US CLOUD Act hang darkly over your data privacy?

How to combat the threat and comply with GDPR

Webcast  Here’s something that you may not know, something the cloud companies are not keen to shout about too loudly.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/02/webcast_combat_threat_comply_gdpr/

Wednesday 1 April 2020

Access Analysis, GuardDuty and Inspector gadgets not enough? Here comes another AI-driven security tool for AWS

What have you got for us, Detective?

Amazon's Detective has hit general availability, adding to a range of AWS security services, which at this point has become a little confusing.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/amazon_detective_another_security_tool/

Let's get digital... digital: Microsoft Ignite switches to online-only as 2020's tech calendar clears

2021 looking ever more virtual and distant. Did March feel like a year for you too?

Microsoft has switched its September Ignite event to a digital affair even as other organisers hope for a return to some semblance of "normal" by August.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/microsoft_ignite_goes_digital/

Who you gonna call? Google Cloud Platform's beta Service Directory is like a phone book for microservice discovery

Playing catch-up with AWS and not that smart, but some advantages over DNS

Google Cloud Platform's Service Directory, which aims to enhance microservice discovery, has hit beta.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/google_cloud_service_directory_beta/

Salesforce founder Marc Benioff tossed $2.3m in return for bumper company growth

Enterprise cloud rains bonus down on software supremo... that's this year's holiday sorted then

Salesforce.com has had a rummage down the back of the sofa and awarded CEO Marc Benioff $2.3m in small change.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/salesforce_mega_founder_gets_spare/

Watch online today: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration

Three secrets of success you need to know, according to Quadrotech

Webcast  You merged. You sold a company. You’re migrating to a sovereign data centre. Whatever the reason for your Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration, it can be one of the most important and stressful projects you will ever take on.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/webcast_practical_tips_office365_migration/

BT providing free meals to coax its healthy customer support staff back into office as calls rocket amid pandemic

We need to get people's nans on WhatsApp

BT has begun asking contact centre employees to return to work as it grapples with an increasing number of customer calls resulting from the UK-wide lockdown.…


via The Register - Data Centre: Networks
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/30/bt_free_meals_call_centre_staff/

SAP's locked-down offshore project managers develop remote work plans for clients

We've asked top tech companies if India's lockdown changes the service you receive. Most say no

India is the dominant source of offshored IT workers, and home to big facilities for plenty of global IT companies. India is also in lockdown and workers there cannot leave their homes except under limited cirumstances.…



via The Register - Data Centre: Cloud
https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/31/sap_project_managers_client_action_plans/