Category: ITProNews

ITProNews

President Trump Signs Laws to Improve Broadband Availability and 5G Security

President Trump signed two bills into law Monday, aimed at improving both 5G security and broadband availability.

According to a statement by the Whitehouse, the Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020, calls on the “President to develop a strategy to: (1) ensure the security of next generation mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure in the United States; and (2) assist allies and strategic partners in maximizing the security of next generation mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure.”

This has been an ongoing concern for U.S. officials, as Huawei is one of the top three network equipment providers and is widely believed to be the leader in scale and technology. The U.S. has banned the firm from participating in its own networks, and engaged in a campaign to pressures allies to do the same over concerns the company is a conduit for Beijing to spy on governments and countries throughout the world. Throughout the process, the U.S. has framed the debate about network security as a national security issue. As a result, it’s not surprising Trump signed the bill into law.

The second bill, the “Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act or the Broadband DATA Act” is aimed at improving the accuracy of information about availability of broadband services. To do that, it “requires the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules relating to the collection of data with respect to the availability of broadband services.”

The signing of the bills was met with bipartisan praise. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce issues the following statement:

“The bills signed into law today by the President are critical to ensuring that all Americans can access broadband and that our networks are secure and trusted.”

March 26, 2020
HPE Warns Firmware Bug Will Brick SSDs Without Update

For the second time in two years, HPE is warning of a firmware bug in its SSD drives that will brick them unless an update is applied.

In a support advisory, HPE details the issue involving HPE SAS SSDs running firmware older than HPD7. Those drives running the earlier firmware will completely fail once they reach 40,000 hours of operation.

“IMPORTANT: This HPD7 firmware is considered a critical fix and is required to address the issue detailed below,” reads the advisory. “HPE strongly recommends immediate application of this critical fix. Neglecting to update to SSD Firmware Version HPD7 will result in drive failure and data loss at 40,000 hours of operation and require restoration of data from backup if there is no fault tolerance, such as RAID 0 or even in a fault tolerance RAID mode if more SSDs fail than can be supported by the fault tolerance of the RAID mode on the logical drive. Example: RAID 5 logical drive with two failed SSDs.”

HPE says it was “notified by a Solid State Drive (SSD) manufacturer of a firmware defect affecting certain SAS SSD models” that were used in HPE server and Storage products. The company also makes it clear that, because the failure only occurs after “40,000 hours of operation and based on the dates these drives began shipping from HPE, these drives are NOT susceptible to failure until October 2020 at the earliest.”

Even so, IT professionals should begin upgrading the firmware on impacted drives as soon as possible to ensure no data loss when the 40,000 hour threshold is crossed.

March 25, 2020
Akamai Throttling Game Download Speeds to Ease Network Congestion

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Akamai has announced it’s going to start slowing down video game downloads during peak times.

As millions of people shelter in place and work from home, networks are being tested like never before. Internet providers, social media platforms and wireless companies alike are having to make adjustments to ensure their infrastructure can keep up with demand.

Akamai, as the world’s largest content delivery network, is working with major video game distributors, such as Microsoft and Sony. Since a single video game download can be the equivalent of 30,000 web pages worth of traffic, game downloads during peak times can have a crippling effect. As a result, Akamai will begin throttling game downloads during peak times, resuming normal speeds late at night when traffic is less.

“Playing video games enables people all over the world to connect with friends and family and enjoy much needed entertainment during these uncertain times. Our goal is to partner with other leaders in the industry to help ensure gamers are able to enjoy engaging experiences,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment.

“As people look to gaming for play and social connection, we’re seeing record engagement across Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, and Mixer. We’re actively monitoring usage and making temporary adjustments as needed to ensure the smoothest possible experience for our gamers. We appreciate the collaboration with partners like Akamai to deliver the joy of games in these unprecedented times,” said Dave McCarthy, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Product Services.

While gamers may not be happy with Akamai’s announcement, it’s understandable given the challenge the pandemic is posing for internet companies around the world. Akamai’s main goal is to make sure critical network infrastructure remains fully functional and performs at the necessary level.

“It’s important to note that Akamai fully expects to maintain the integrity and reliability of website and mobile application delivery, as well as security services, for all of our customers during this time,” writes CEO Tom Leighton. “In particular, Akamai customers across sectors such as government, healthcare, financial services, commerce, manufacturing, and business services should not experience any change in the performance of their services.”

March 25, 2020
Hackers Targeting Unpatched Windows Bug

Microsoft has issued an advisory warning that hackers are using a new, unpatched bug to target Windows users.

According to the advisory, “Microsoft is aware of limited targeted attacks that could leverage un-patched vulnerabilities in the Adobe Type Manager Library, and is providing the following guidance to help reduce customer risk until the security update is released.

“Two remote code execution vulnerabilities exist in Microsoft Windows when the Windows Adobe Type Manager Library improperly handles a specially-crafted multi-master font – Adobe Type 1 PostScript format.

“There are multiple ways an attacker could exploit the vulnerability, such as convincing a user to open a specially crafted document or viewing it in the Windows Preview pane.”

Microsoft is working on a fix and will likely include the fix on Update Tuesday, the second Tuesday of the month.

March 23, 2020
IBM Launches COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium to Aid Researchers

IBM has announced the launch of a consortium to provide coronavirus researchers with the super computing power they need.

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, researchers are desperately trying to develop vaccinations and medication to help slow the spread. A big part of that research involves using supercomputers to analyze the data and perform calculations and experiments that would take months with traditional computing resources.

“Now, in collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Energy and many others, IBM is helping launch the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, which will bring forth an unprecedented amount of computing power—16 systems with more than 330 petaflops, 775,000 CPU cores, 34,000 GPUs, and counting — to help researchers everywhere better understand COVID-19, its treatments and potential cures,” writes Dario Gil, Director of IBM Research.

“How can supercomputers help us fight this virus? These high-performance computing systems allow researchers to run very large numbers of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular modeling. These experiments would take years to complete if worked by hand, or months if handled on slower, traditional computing platforms.”

The consortium includes “IBM, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), Argonne National Lab (ANL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Sandia National Laboratory (SNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and multiple leading technology companies.”

According to Gil, IBM and the consortium will begin evaluating proposals from around the world to best allocate the computing resources to those researchers who can use it the most.

This is another example of tech companies using their vast resources to help researchers in the fight against the pandemic, and IBM is to be commended for its role.

March 22, 2020
Google Sued For Collecting Children’s Personal Data

Google is facing yet another privacy-related issue, with New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas suing the company for collecting children’s personal data.

The suit stems from Google’s sale of its Chromebook devices to schools for their students’ use, along with the company’s G Suite of office software and email. According to the lawsuit, the company collects vast amounts of personal information, via the services, from students under 13 years-old and without parental consent.

“Student safety should be the number one priority of any company providing services to our children, particularly in schools,” said Attorney General Balderas. “Tracking student data without parental consent is not only illegal, it is dangerous; and my office will hold any company accountable who compromises the safety of New Mexican children.”

In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Balderas expresses his concern about the dangers associated with the alleged data collection:

“Because the data Google has illegally collected can then be spread across the globe through both legitimate and illegitimate means, I am bringing a lawsuit to immediately stop this practice. Data brokers and marketing technology firms that do business with Google have been credibly accused of targeting children under the age of 13 with age-inappropriate advertising. Worse yet, some of these same firms have suffered significant data breaches, causing personal information to end up for sale on the dark web, hosted in countries well beyond the reach of law enforcement. As Attorney General, I must take swift legal action in order to protect our children.”

According to Reuters, Google has denied the allegations, calling them “factually wrong,” although they did not elaborate. We will continue to monitor the story and provide updates.

March 21, 2020
VMware COO: Companies ‘Relying on Us For That Future World of 5G’

VMware is synonymous with virtualization software. Everyone from data centers to end users rely on the company’s software to be able to run multiple operating systems on a single set of hardware.

In an interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, VMware COO Sanjay Poonen commented on the current state of telecommuting during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as VMware’s role in 5G.

On The Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic

“This is unprecedented times. We’ve always been a trusted advisor and, as you know, we know a thing or two about virtualization. Our customers run their critical apps on our infrastructure.”

On How Long-Lasting the Impacts Will Be

“I think there’s part of our life, Jim, that’s going to change forever. Behind me I have a saying from Winston Churchill that says, ‘when you’re going through hell, go through it.’ Another one I like from Winston Churchill is ‘never waste a crisis.’

And I think that’s part of our life that’s forever going to change. We will, perhaps, have a place where, for instance, less travel is good for the planet.”

On Collaboration

“We want to make sure that if you are at home, you are productive, you’re able to work continuous, just like it was at work…We were one of the early customers that used Zoom. We love it. We use Slack. We use Microsoft Teams. These are all ways in which you can collaborate.”

On VMware’s Role in 5G and the Network Strain the Pandemic Is Causing

“We have tremendous relationships with the telco players—they are some of our biggest customers—and the cloud infrastructure players. In many cases, we are between software, compute, storage and networking. Software defined architecture is really where the world of 5G is going.

“So a lot of these big companies have started relying on us for that future world of 5G. And software is a lot easier to manage. It’s also just as reliable, more reliable, because you can fix things. And we’re working very closely with our customers. Bandwidth is going to be something we watch very carefully.”

https://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global?playertype=synd&byGuid=7000127560

March 20, 2020
Apple Upgrades MacBook Air, Lowers Price

Along with Apple’s announcement of a new iPad Pro, the company also announced a new MacBook Air with faster specs and a lower price.

Performance

The new MacBook Air offers quad-core processors for the first time ever. The processors are the “latest 10th-generation Intel Core processors up to 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.8GHz.” The new processors give the laptops “up to 80 percent faster graphics performance, letting customers breeze through daily activities and play more games.”

As an added benefit, by using Intel’s 10th-generation processors, the new MacBook Airs should be immune to the CPU flaw that plagues all previous generations of Intels chips.

Keyboard

The new models also include the Magic Keyboard, first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The “redesigned scissor mechanism delivers 1mm of key travel for a comfortable and stable key feel,” and should be a major improvement over the problem-plagued keyboard on previous models.

Storage

MacBook Air Performance – Image Credit: Apple

The new models also start with 256GB of storage. Just as important, the MacBook Air offers up to 2TB of SSD storage, double what was previously available.

“From students and consumers buying their first computer to customers looking to upgrade, everyone loves the Mac, and they especially love MacBook Air. Today we’re giving it a huge update, with two times faster performance, the new Magic Keyboard, double the storage, a new lower price of $999 and an even lower price of $899 for education,” said Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. “With its stunning, thin and light design, brilliant Retina display, all-day battery life and the power and ease-of-use of macOS, MacBook Air is the world’s best consumer notebook.”

Taken as a whole, this is a well-rounded upgrade that makes the MacBook Air a powerful computer that has the ability to punch well above its weight. It should appeal to a broad user base, far beyond the students and casual users it is aimed at.

March 20, 2020
Shadowserver, Protector of the Internet, Needs Help

Shadowserver is a non-profit many have never heard of, yet it plays a vital role in protecting the internet. Now it needs helps to survive.

The Shadowserver Foundation was started in 2004 and serves as one of the preeminent sources of information for internet security professionals. The foundation scans the entire internet multiple times a day; creates activity reports for vetted subscribers and law enforcement; and keeps a massive database of malware for researchers to study.

Despite the foundation’s important work, in an announcement on the website, Shadowserver says it “urgently needs your financial support, to help quickly move our data center to a new location and continue being able to operate our public benefit services.”

Shadowserver strikes an optimistic tone, confident it will receive the help it needs.

“We are confident that, with the help of our sponsors, constituents and the community, The Shadowserver Foundation can continue this important fight and serve you all even more effectively, for many years to come. We need to ensure that victims of cybercrime continue to be protected, and the cybercriminals do not win. We look forward to working together with you all to find the right solution for everyone.”

There are few companies that do more to protect the internet than Shadowserver, meaning saving it is a worthwhile goal. Individuals interested in becoming sponsors can do so here.

March 18, 2020
Coronavirus: Microsoft Throttling Non-Essential Office 365 Features to Cope With Demand

As more work-from-home users rely on Office 365 during the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft is scaling back and throttling some features in an effort to keep up.

Microsoft has already had issues keeping up with demand, as users in Europe experienced problems Monday with Teams being barely usable. According to OnMSFT.com, Microsoft is taking measures to avoid similar issues and informing users via email.

“In light of the situation, Microsoft recently sent out an email to Office 365 subscribers notifying that it will be making temporary adjustments to select ‘non-essential capabilities’ of the service,” writes OnMSFT.com, confirming they had seen copies of the emails.

As the pandemic continues to move users to cloud-based solutions, companies will likely have to take similar measures until their infrastructure can catch up with demand.

March 18, 2020
Coronavirus: Pandemic Boon to Cloud Providers, Doom For Legacy Companies

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, it’s proving to be a defining moment for cloud computing. At the same time, it could spell doom for legacy companies.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced countless companies across a wide range of industries to send their employees home to work. The unprecedented number of individuals telecommuting is already proving to be a boon to cloud-based businesses, as workers turn to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, Office 365 and other cloud services.

At the same time, however, the seismic shift in the U.S. workforce could spell doom for legacy companies. Companies like Oracle, Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise could be in particular danger, as these companies rely heavily on hardware and software sales to private data centers.

Many of these companies are moving to the cloud, but as Business Insider reports, analysts believe they’re still vulnerable. According to BI, Brad Gastwirth, chief technology analyst of Wedbush told clients: “We see significant risk for traditional providers of IT hardware,” before citing HPE, Dell and NetApp as examples.

“We see this trend as generally positive for cloud vendors and their supply chain,” Gastwirth continued. “We see legacy hardware vendors as particularly poorly positioned given limited to no cloud exposure.”

One thing is certain: The coronavirus pandemic is going to result in permanent and monumental changes to the U.S. IT industry, changes that will greatly benefit cloud-based businesses.

March 18, 2020
Coronavirus: Google Cloud Next ‘20: Digital Connect Postponed

Google Cloud has announced it is postponing its Google Cloud Next developer conference.

Google had already altered the format of Google Cloud Next to be presented digitally, rather than in-person. As the coronavirus pandemic has continued to spread and impact people around the globe, the company has now decided to postpone even the digital version until further notice.

“Google Cloud has decided to postpone Google Cloud Next ‘20: Digital Connect out of concern for the health and safety of our customers, partners, employees and local communities, and based on recent decisions made by the federal and local governments regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19),” writes Alison Wagonfeld Chief Marketing Officer, Google Cloud.

“Right now, the most important thing we can do is focus our attention on supporting our customers, partners, and each other.

“Please know that we are fully committed to bringing Google Cloud Next ‘20: Digital Connect to life, but will hold the event when the timing is right. We will share the new date when we have a better sense of the evolving situation.”

March 17, 2020
Coronavirus: Wireless and Internet Providers Join ‘Keep Americans Connected Pledge’

Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, multiple wireless and internet providers have joined the FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected Pledge.”

With an unprecedented number of individuals working from home or laid off, wireless and home internet options are the lifelines people and companies are relying on to maintain some semblance of normalcy. In view of that, according to a statement on the FCC’s website, “in multiple phone calls with broadband and telephone service providers and trade associations, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai emphasized the importance of keeping Americans connected as the country experiences serious disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. And in order to ensure that Americans do not lose their broadband or telephone connectivity as a result of these exceptional circumstances, he specifically asked them to take the Keep Americans Connected Pledge.”

The pledge calls on providers to “not terminate service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.” The pledge also says providers will “waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic.” Any company taking the pledge also agrees to “open its Wi-Fi hotspots to any American who needs them.”

Within 24 hours of Chairman Pai’s calls, dozens of companies have joined the pledge, including the four main wireless carriers, The Rural Broadband Association, Charter, Comcast, Windstream and a slew of regional companies.

March 16, 2020
Apple Fined Record Amount by France Over Price-Fixing

France’s competition authority, Autorité de la concurrence has fined Apple a record €1,1 billion ($1.23 billion) for price-fixing.

At the heart of the issue is Apple’s practice of requiring distributors to sell Apple’s products for the same price as Apple itself, giving little room for companies to offer promotions or specials. One of Apple’s premier French resellers, eBizcuss, eventually shut down its operations in France, citing unfair competition.

According to the Autorité de la concurrence report, “after receiving a complaint in 2012 from eBizcuss, a distributor of specialised high-end Apple products (Apple Premium Reseller, APR), the Autorité de la concurrence fined Apple €1,1 billion, as well as wholesalers Tech Data and Ingram Micro €76,1 million and €62,9 million respectively.”

Tech Data and Ingram Micro’s fines were a result of their participation in Apple’s price-fixing efforts.

The agency offered a detailed explanation for its actions: “First, Apple and its two wholesalers agreed not to compete and prevent distributors from competing with each other, thereby sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products. Secondly, so-called Premium distributors could not safely carry out promotions or lower prices, which led to an alignment of retail prices between Apple’s integrated distributors and independent Premium distributors. Finally, Apple has abused the economic dependence of these Premium distributors on it, by subjecting them to unfair and unfavorable commercial conditions compared to its network of integrated distributors. Given the strong impact of these practices on competition in the distribution of Apple products via Apple premium resellers, the Autorité has imposed the highest penalty ever pronounced in a case (€1.24 billion).”

France’s decision could ultimately have profound impacts on how Apple—as well as other companies—sells products, and crack open the door to more varied pricing.

March 16, 2020
Windows 10 Crosses 1 Billion Device Threshold

Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 is now installed on 1 billion monthly active devices.

In a blog post, Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, Modern Life, Search & Devices, said: “Today we’re delighted to announce that over one billion people have chosen Windows 10 across 200 countries resulting in more than one billion active Windows 10 devices. We couldn’t be more grateful to our customers, partners and employees for helping us get here.”

The company had originally planned to hit this milestone in 2018, within three years of the Windows 10 release. Unfortunately, as a result of the death of Windows Phone, the goal had to be postponed. Now, five years after its release, Microsoft has crossed the threshold, with one in seven people around the world using the operating system. Mehdi makes it clear there is more yet to come.

“Reaching a billion people with Windows 10 is just the beginning. We will invest in Windows not only within Windows 10 for PCs but also across many other Windows editions, serving diverse customer needs including Windows IoT, Windows 10 Teams edition for Surface Hub, Windows Server, Windows Mixed Reality on HoloLens, Windows 10 in S mode, Windows 10X and more.

“We are inspired by the ways you use Windows 10, and we look forward to seeing how you continue to use these billion devices in new and exciting ways to power the world.”

March 16, 2020
Coronavirus: U.S. Internet Can Handle Increased Work-From-Home Load

Experts are saying the U.S. internet should be able to handle the increased stress of millions of Americans working from home as a result of the coronavirus.

Some have feared that the sudden increase of individuals staying at home, using the internet for telecommuting and videoconferencing, would overwhelm internet providers’ capacity. According to ABC News, however, experts believe there is no danger of overloading the core network.

“The core of the network is massively over-provisioned,” Paul Vixie, CEO of Farsight Security and an internet pioneer who helped design its domain naming system, told ABC News.

At the same time, they do warn that individuals may experience issues if too many people in a single household engage in network-intensive videoconferencing or similarly demanding activities. Even in those situations, however, the issue is not with the core network, but with the “last mile” of connectivity, the last bit of cable that connects a household to their internet provider.

As ABC points out, newer areas that have fiber are able to keep up with the demand, but older neighborhoods that have cable or DSL are likely to experience issues if several users are all trying to engage in intensive internet use. In such cases, if some users fall back to teleconferencing, rather than video, it should help alleviate the issues since audio takes far less bandwidth.

Either way, the reassurance that the core network can handle the increased load is good news for workers trying to stay safe and do their part to help slow the spread of the virus.

March 15, 2020
All Good Things…The End of Visual Basic Nears

One of the most widely used programming languages is nearing the end of its life, as Microsoft starts winding down Visual Basic.

In a developer blog, the .Net team says that Visual Basic support is planned for .Net 5.0. The group is working “to provide a good path forward for the existing VB customer who want to migrate their applications to .NET Core. This allows Visual Basic customers to take advantage of new platform features like side-by-side deployment, cross platform support, performance and new API improvements.”

In spite of that however, the post makes it clear that Visual Basic’s future does not include growing beyond its current abilities and status.

“Going forward, we do not plan to evolve Visual Basic as a language. This supports language stability and maintains compatibility between the .NET Core and .NET Framework versions of Visual Basic. Future features of .NET Core that require language changes may not be supported in Visual Basic. Due to differences in the platform, there will be some differences between Visual Basic on .NET Framework and .NET Core.”

While Visual Basic has been a pivotal part of Microsoft’s development history, the writing is on the wall: the language seems destined to fade into the background, replaced by newer, more robust options.

March 14, 2020
Cloud Business Powers Oracle’s Quarterly Results

Oracle announced its quarterly results and its cloud business was the star of the show.

The company reported total revenue of $9.8 billion for the 2020 Q3 results, up 2% year-over-year. Most notably, its Cloud Services and License Support revenue came in at $6.9 billion, a 4% increase year-over-year.

“We had an extremely strong quarter with Total Revenues growing 3% in constant currency,” said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. “Subscription revenues, made up of Cloud Services and License Support revenues, grew 5% in constant currency. These consistently growing and recurring subscription revenues now account for 71% of total company revenues, thus enabling a sequential increase in our operating margin, and double-digit non-GAAP Earnings Per Share growth in Q3.”

“The Oracle Autonomous Database, the world’s only fully autonomous data management system, can automatically patch security vulnerabilities while running; it keeps your data safe,” said Oracle Chairman and CTO, Larry Ellison. “Oracle Autonomous Database is also both serverless and elastic. It’s the only database that can instantaneously scale itself to an optimal level of CPU and IO resources. You only pay for what you use. Security and economy are two fundamental reasons why thousands of customers are now using the revolutionary new Oracle Autonomous Database in our Generation 2 Public Cloud.”

Oracle has been trying to gain ground against Amazon, Microsoft and Google, with mixed results. Recently, the company has faced an investor lawsuit claiming it bullied customers into accepting cloud contracts and has been inflating its cloud business. Documents were even unveiled wherein Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who previously served as head of product development at Oracle, called Oracle Cloud “a disgrace” when he was with the company.

Oracle’s quarterly results should go a long way toward helping the company answer critics.

March 14, 2020
Bill Gates Leaves Microsoft Board

Microsoft has announced that co-founder Bill Gates has stepped down from the company’s Board of Directors.

Gates has not had a day-to-day role in the company since 2008, when he transitioned away to spend more time with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Even following today’s announcement, he will continue on as Technology Advisor to CEO Satya Nadella.

“It’s been a tremendous honor and privilege to have worked with and learned from Bill over the years. Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratizing force of software and a passion to solve society’s most pressing challenges. And Microsoft and the world are better for it. The board has benefited from Bill’s leadership and vision. And Microsoft will continue to benefit from Bill’s ongoing technical passion and advice to drive our products and services forward. I am grateful for Bill’s friendship and look forward to continuing to work alongside him to realize our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

“On behalf of our shareholders and the Board, I want to express my deep appreciation to Bill for all his contributions to Microsoft. As a member of the Board, he challenged us to think big and then think even bigger. He leaves an enduring legacy of curiosity and insight that serves as an inspiration for us all,” said John W. Thompson, Microsoft independent board chair.

Even though Gates will continue to have input in his role as Technology Advisor, there’s no denying this is the end of an era for Microsoft.

March 14, 2020
Bad News For Microsoft: Pentagon Wants a Mulligan On JEDI Contract (Updated)

The Department of Defense is reconsidering its decision to award Microsoft the JEDI contract, following legal challenges by Amazon.

Microsoft stunned Amazon and industry insiders when it won the Pentagon’s coveted JEDI contract, worth some $10 billion. The win lent a tremendous amount of credibility to Microsoft’s cloud business, proving it could compete with the biggest, for the best contracts. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted the contract could lead to a “halo effect” for the company, bringing in even more business.

Amazon, however, has not taken the loss lying down. The company almost immediately mounted a legal challenge and succeeded in getting a temporary injunction, preventing Microsoft from beginning on the contract. A judge agreed that Amazon stood a good chance of winning its case.

Now, according to Business Insider, “the Department of Defense on Thursday in a court filing said it ‘wishes to reconsider’ its decision to award the $US10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract to Microsoft.” The Department of Defense said its decision was “in response to the other technical challenges presented by AWS.”

An Amazon spokesperson told WebProNews: “We are pleased that the DoD has acknowledged ‘substantial and legitimate’ issues that affected the JEDI award decision, and that corrective action is necessary. We look forward to complete, fair, and effective corrective action that fully insulates the re-evaluation from political influence and corrects the many issues affecting the initial flawed award.”

A reversal by the Pentagon would be a big loss for Microsoft, and likely have a major impact on how the Pentagon awards contracts going forward.

*Updated with comment from Amazon*

March 13, 2020
AWS Using Bottlerocket Linux For Container Hosting

AWS has revealed that Bottlerocket Linux is the operating system (OS) it is using for container hosting.

Containers are packages containing all the apps, code, libraries and dependencies necessary to run. Containers can be easily moved from one host to another, without worrying about the underlying OS and environment. Containers can also be managed to prevent any one app or process from hogging a system’s resources, making them the ideal way to scale cloud, hosting and IT systems.

Bottlerocket is a new Linux distribution that AWS designed and optimized specifically to work with containers.

“Bottlerocket reflects much of what we have learned over the years,” writes Jeff Barr, Chief Evangelist for AWS. “It includes only the packages that are needed to make it a great container host, and integrates with existing container orchestrators. It supports Docker image and images that conform to the Open Container Initiative (OCI) image format.

“Instead of a package update system, Bottlerocket uses a simple, image-based model that allows for a rapid & complete rollback if necessary. This removes opportunities for conflicts and breakage, and makes it easier for you to apply fleet-wide updates with confidence using orchestrators such as EKS.

“In addition to the minimal package set, Bottlerocket uses a file system that is primarily read-only, and that is integrity-checked at boot time via dm-verity. SSH access is discouraged, and is available only as part of a separate admin container that you can enable on an as-needed basis and then use for troubleshooting purposes.”

AWS is launching a public preview of the OS and inviting others to try it.

March 12, 2020