Stories by John Dix

  • SDN user group focuses on use cases

    The recent Open Networking User Group (ONUG) meeting in New York City attracted 400 participants, some of whom attended in-depth tutorial sessions about software defined networking (SDN) on day one, and others that stayed for the members-only closed door sessions on day two (vendors and press excluded). Network World Editor in Chief John Dix caught up with Nick Lippis, who co-founded the SDN user group with representatives from Fidelity Investments, for his assessment of what was learned.

  • ExtraHop mines the network to glean operations intelligence

    Jesse Rothstein, who was the lead architect of F5's flagship product line, founded ExtraHop in 2007 to develop products to derive IT operations intelligence from data gleaned from the network. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with Rothstein for an update on the company and what it has learned about things like virtual packet loss (hint: it can be the bane of highly virtualized environments).

  • Planning for SDN

    By John Dix | 24 September, 2013 19:23

    In our first Network World Spotlight, "Understanding SDN" we spelled out the basics. Here we catch you up on the status of the movement and begin to lay out how you get there from here, examining basic planning, what to look for in an SDN controller, and discussing what the Open Networking Foundation hopes to achieve with its new Migration Group.

  • You can't make it run better if you don't know where the problem lies

    Riverbed Technology is best known for its WAN optimization tools, but the company has branched out over the years through multiple acquisitions. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix caught up with Eric Wolford, president of the company's Products Group, to see how the company is trying to help customers squeeze more efficiency out of their IT resources.

  • SDN: The user view

    It is still early days in the emergence of software defined networking, so there aren't many users around to share their experiences and expectations, but there are a few. Network World's editor in chief tracked down Steve Wallace, executive director of InCNTRE, Indiana University's Indiana Center for Network Translational Research and Education, which is already using the technology in a production environment. The school is also playing a role in the tech's evolution.

  • The promise of software defined networking

    If you aren't intimately familiar with software defined networking, don't fret. Only 10 per cent of 450 IT practitioners at a recent Network World event raised their hands when asked if they understand SDN. But if the emerging technology lives up to its promise to redefine networking as we know it, there is no time like the present to dig in and learn more.

  • Google making steady progress in the enterprise

    Google Enterprise is making inroads on many fronts, winning converts to everything from its productivity tools to its cloud offerings. We recently caught up with President of Google Enterprise, Amit Singh, for a progress report and to discuss what comes next.

  • What's next for Wi-Fi?

    Wi-Fi is blossoming in the enterprise as organizations find new ways to leverage the wireless infrastructure and workers, having benefited from mobility, demand increased range and better performance (and support for all those devices they are bringing in from home). The industry is responding in kind, introducing new products and technologies, including gigabit Wi-Fi, and it is up to IT to bring it orchestrate this new mobile symphony.

  • A perspective on IP traffic growth

    IT professionals, perhaps more than anyone, have a sense of just how fast things are changing in this information-driven world. But Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index, an ongoing study of global IP traffic, adds perspective that may influence some of your thinking when it comes to long-range capacity planning.

  • SDN coming ... soon

    Software defined networking was a hot topic at the recent Interop conference in Las Vegas, where enthusiasm for the emerging technology overpowered any lingering doubts.

  • Why don't risk management programs work?

    When the moderator of a panel discussion at the recent RSA conference asked the audience how many thought their risk management programs were successful, only a handful raised their hands. So Network World Editor in Chief John Dix asked two of the experts on that panel to hash out in an email exchange why these programs don't tend to work.

  • Understanding Software Defined Networking

    If you aren't intimately familiar with Software Defined Networking, don't fret. Only 10% of 450 IT practitioners at a recent Network World event raised their hands when asked if they understand SDN. But if the emerging technology lives up to its promise to redefine networking as we know it, there is no time like the present to dig in and learn more.

  • Time is now for Internet retail tax

    On the face of it, the bill the Senate is considering to levy taxes on Internet retailers simply makes sense. The states are strapped for cash and we have a bifurcated system that requires local brick and mortar outlets to ante up while letting out of state online retailers off scot free.