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Stories by John Dix

  • Healthcare provider finds SDN is the proper Rx

    William Hanna, vice president of technical services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), went out looking for a way to add capacity to a backup network and found what he wanted in Software Defined Networking (SDN) tools from Alcatel-Lucent. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix sat down with Hanna to learn about the process and experience.

  • How GE uses social tools to support its digital strategies

    Rich Narasaki is global manager, digital marketing in the GE corporate global brand marketing group and, as such, works with and supports the digital strategy efforts of the company's eight primary business divisions. While not a member of the IT team, Narasaki works with IT and marketing constantly, so Network World Editor in Chief John Dix tracked him down to get his perspective on how digital strategy plays out in such a huge operation.

  • Unplugging the data center

    Nathan McBride joined AMAG Pharmaceuticals in 2008 with an ambitious goal: to rebuild IT using as little internal infrastructure as possible. He succeeded.

  • Driving innovation at Fidelity Investments

    Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with assets under administration of $4.7 trillion, and it didn't get there by using yesterday's technology. In fact, the company has a standalone group, Fidelity Center for Applied Technology – more commonly referred to as Fidelity Labs -- whose job it is to take the long view, to examine technologies years before they become mainstream and help the firm get a leg up.

  • The promise of the seamless cloud

    Using the cloud to complement on-premise IT resources is one of the nirvana states envisioned for cloud computing, letting you architect for normal workloads and then burst to the cloud when necessary.

  • New methods for addressing insider threats: A roundtable discussion

    Technology advances have made it easier to detect subtle, anomalous end-user behavior, such as installation of unusual apps on endpoint devices, or suspicious deviations from baseline activity. This roundtable discussion examines methods to build monitoring, control and context into enterprise insider threat protection efforts – both when dealing with privileged users and regular employees.

  • 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).

  • Inside Cisco's private Cloud

    Do private Clouds work? You bet they do, says Cisco, which has more than two years of experience under its belt with its Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services (CITEIS) Cloud. 

  • Call centers as social media hubs

    Contact centers are changing rapidly with the arrival of cloud technology and the ability to interact with customers over new social channels, including Twitter. The transformation has implications for everything from how companies deal with customers to the role agents play and how internal groups are best organized. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix caught up with the CEO of LiveOps, Marty Beard, for his take on where we stand and where we're headed.

  • Capital letter 'S,' 'D,' 'N' will never happen: VMware exec

    Rack and stack that network and then walk away and leave it alone. VMware's NSX technology will provide all the control necessary going forward, says Steve Mullaney, senior vice president and general manager of VMware's Networking & Security Business Unit.

  • University of Florida gets 100Gbps link to Internet2, upgrades campus research net to 200Gbps

    The University of Florida is just putting the wraps on a remarkable year of IT upgrades. The school, which has a 2,000-acre campus and more than 900 buildings, installed a new supercomputer in a new data center, installed a 100Gbps link to Inernet2, and upgraded its Campus Research Network from 20G to 200Gbps while adding support for Software Defined Networking (SDN). Network World Editor in Chief John Dix got the lowdown on all of the developments from Erik Deumens, director of research computing.

  • Where we stand with SDN

    One gauge of industry progress on the software-defined networking front is the momentum of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), the user-lead group that is spelling out the core SDN standards and championing the cause.

  • A Q&A with the Chair of the Open Networking Foundation's Migration Group

    For an inside look at the goals, expectations and plans of the ONF's recently created Migration Group and how it hopes to help companies make the transition to SDN, Network World Editor in Chief John Dix caught up via e-mail with the chair of the group, Justin Joubine Dustzadeh, CTO & VP of Technology Strategy, Networks, Huawei.