Skyhigh Networks Partners with Zscaler
The cloud access security broker, Skyhigh networks, announced that they have begun a partnership with Zscaler, a cloud security company, which will focus on securing cloud services. The two companies have stated they will be offering joint customers “increased visibility, comprehensive risk assessment and advanced threat protection.” Due to increased usage of cloud services, both companies have been continuing to forage ahead in the cyber-security realm by seeking out security measures that better protect clients who rely heavily on cloud services. With their integrated Skyhigh-Zscaler solution, the companies hope to offer end-to-end cloud security, enabling companies to obtain enhanced visibility into all their cloud services, while being able to view comprehensive security reports that identify malicious content to protect corporate data.
Midokura Improves Visibility into SDN Deployments
Midokura announced an upgrade to their MidoNet (MEM) network virtualization software that will provide increased visibility into encapsulated traffic in OpenStack clouds, including traffic aggregation reports, traffic counters and visibility into flow history. MEM 5.0 also includes upgrades that enable service chaining and port mirroring for virtual network monitoring and anomaly detection. This is in addition to their Level 4 services, which include source NAT, Load Balancing-as-a-Service, and Firewall-as-a-Service.
Upon releasing this MEM 5.0 upgrade, Midokura’s CTO Pino de Candia, is already discussing the release of MEM 5.2, which can be expected around July. He expects 5.2 to include features such as Kubernetes and vSphere integration, as well as integration with physical switches, starting with Cumulus Linux. These improvements to visibility into SDN deployments only helps to further the rising trend in network virtualization, as more and more companies continue to divest time and energy into increased innovations in the world of SDN.
Oracle Disbands Java Plugin
Oracle announced this past week that they are phasing out their Java browser plug-in, and don’t plan on integrating it with their next major version of JDK. “Many browser vendors have either removed or announced timelines for the removal of standards based plug-in support, eliminating the ability to embed Flash, Silverlight, Java and other plug-in based technologies,” reports Oracle’s product management analyst. Oracle recommends that developers who rely on Java browser plug-ins to consider alternatives, such as the plug-in-free Java Web Start technology. They also announced that early access releases of JDK 9 are available for download and testing here.
Ericsson Announces 4 New Solutions as 5G Era Moves Closer
Ericsson is paving the way for the future of 5G technology, and has started by launching four new solutions that will help communication service providers reach customers in the new age of 5G. According to their press release, the improvements include:
- Mobile Broadband for Everyone: offering mobile Internet accessible to everyone by doubling networking performance and improving efficiency by a factor of 3 while lowering TCO by 60 percent
- Delivering Extreme App Coverage: enhances LTE to become part of 5G with commercial Gigabit LTE downlink data speeds and hyper-scalable radio access network architecture for Cloud RAN
- Experience Centric Managed Services: adds function to monitor both performance and customer experience and makes networks truly experience-centric
- Revenue Manager: New Cloud-ready charging and billing production. Offers business agility, customer experience and operational efficiency necessary for digital transformations.
As the market evolves towards 5G, Ericsson plans on forging the path by enhancing network performance, improving operations efficiency and lowering the cost for mobile broadband coverage. In addition to these advancements, they are also continuing their effort to support worldwide mobile Internet access. As the 5G era comes to fruition, it will be interesting to see how the world will change in response to companies like Ericsson offering solutions that will help drive Internet availability closer and closer to worldwide, universal access.
CyberArk Announces Upgrades to CyberArk Viewfinity
CyberArk announced new capabilities for their upgraded CyberArk Viewfinity v5.5, which will now offer privileged account security to the endpoint. The benefits include enhanced, single privilege management and application control solutions to reduce the attacks, while being able to clock the progression of malware-based campaigns. This comes after CyberArk’s acquisition of Viewfinity late last year, with new integrations of the two companies services already rolling out. Customers can now hope to gain greater privilege management and application control features for their network. CyberArk Viewfinity v5.5 is now available in a SaaS, on premises, or Microsoft Group Policy deployment model.
Fastly Updates Timeline on TSL 1.0 and 1.1 Deprecation Plan
Given new updates by the PCI Security Standards Council, full deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will not be required until June 30th, 2018. Fastly put out a statement in response, citing that since 14% of the TLS traffic on the Fastly network would be affected by this, they have revised their plan to offer a phasing out approach to help give customers more control, while also ensuring ongoing security during the process. By June 30, 2016 they will offer customers who wish to enforce stricter security standard to migrate to hosts that only allow the use of TLS 1.2 for encrypted communication. By January 2017, the entire network will default to only allowing TLS 1.2 for encrypted communication, but will provide a way for customers who still require TLS 1.0 and 1.1 to migrate to hosts that support it. By June 2018, service to TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will be completely disbanding, but by then Fastly hope to have helped pave the transition to their TLS 1.2.
Microsoft Azure Makes PaaS Services and DevOps Tools Available
A week after the release of the first Technical Preview of Azure Stack, Microsoft has announced today that PaaS services and DevOps tools are now available to be deployed on top of the Technical Preview deployments. In their press release, they mention the availability of four specific services and tools, including:
- Web Apps feature in Azure App Service
- SQL and MySQL database resource (provides to support Web Apps data tier)
- Updated Azure SDK, including PowerShell support and cross-platform CLI support
- Native Visual Studio support for Azure Stack
Microsoft also released a statement regarding Web Apps and SQL/MySQL PaaS services, noting that they are in early stages of development and their release is to help gain feedback from the community to help support future upgrades. Together though, with the Technical Preview and now these additional tools, you now have a full line of Azure services available to help build your datacenter.