Tag Archive for IBM

| December 10, 2013
Comments Off on 6LoWPAN ?

6LoWPAN ?

6LoWPAN ?BYOD, BYON, IoT, IPv6, SaaS, SDN, MDM, M2M, TCP/IP, IEEE, EIEIO, IMHO, tech is drowning in drowning in acronyms. And now Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM explains 6LoWPAN.  6LoWPAN stands for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks. 6LoWPAN is the lightweight version of traditional internet protocol (IP) designed for the internet of things.

Misco reports that Internet-connected devices will number 9.6 billion by the end of 2013 and the figure will jump to 28 billion by 2020. Currently, the 9.6 billion Internet-connected devices connect to another device, a phone, or a corporate gateway. In order for a true internet of things to emerge, these devices should have the ability to connect directly to a web service.

Device to cloud

IPv6Instead of device-to-device, it’s device to cloud. The article surmises that since most of today’s devices use IP to connect to the web, engineers would like to use IP to connect devices to the web as well. The only problem is that IP is a heavy, energy-intensive beast. This is one that reason, the Internet’s standard’s setting organization, the IETF, proposed 6LoWPAN in 2004.

The numeral 6 in the standard, is short for IPv6. Ms.Higginbotham explains that if you’re envisioning tens of billions of connected sensors then IPv6 is the way to go. However, supporting the 128-bit numbering system required by IPv6 also takes computing and memory overhead that tiny sensors don’t have. It also requires longer packet headers and such that can clog low bit-rate networks. Since the 6 is IPv6 and the Lo references the low-power aspect of the protocol.

Internet of ThingaThe WPAN or Wireless Personal Area Network is a nod to the wireless mesh network that the protocol supports. Because this isn’t directly analogous to the traditional network stacks, it’s hard to limit the technology to a particular layer in the network.

Sensors in a connected network can run the gamut from a video camera that’s plugged into a wall to a battery-powered water sensor hiding under the washing machine. GigaOM says the standard is flexible enough that some nodes might be able to do more than just send information. Others can be designed to sleep until an event wakes them for a data transmission. In short, it’s complicated, which makes defining a network stack or standards for the internet of things tough.

6LoWPAN will use multiple radio protocols

WirelessThe WPAN in 6LoWPAN will use multiple radio protocols. It can work over several radio networks that use the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, the most popular being ZigBee. The IETF is also working with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group to build 6LoWPAN support for the Bluetooth protocol.

GigaOM notes that the Bluetooth SIG already has taken steps to cut power consumption to meet the demands of the internet of things, so it clearly is also aware of the need for the IPv6 addressing scheme if every bra, door lock, or porta-potty is going to hop on the InterTubes without a phone or computer.

ZigBeeCharles McLellan at ZDNet explains that IBM (IBM) has teamed up with wireless sensor network specialist Libelium to deliver a wireless sensor platform starter kit comprising IBM’s Mote Runner SDK and Libelium’s Waspmote sensor platform, Waspmote Mote Runner development platform allows researchers to explore the benefits of 6LoWPAN.

Tech titans betting on 6LoWPAN

Ms. Higginbotham says that IBM getting behind the standard with this announcement is just one more big-name betting on 6LoWPAN as the communications protocol for the internet of things. She says a few months ago ARM purchased Sensinode, a company that has literally written the book (MP4) about 6LoWPAN. Cisco (CSCO) has an investment in 6LoWPAN with its 2010 purchase of Arch Rock, for its smart grid initiative.

Platforms such as Electric Imp, Ayla Networks, and ThingSquare, all of which offer modules and services to connect devices directly to the internet, are also gaining ground with test programs and early adopters, helping make the case for 6LoWPAN. So as devices start going directly to the cloud and bypassing phones and computers, having a protocol that supports modern addressing at relatively low power and low overhead will become more important. And that’s what this terribly awkward acronym provides.

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6LoWPAN is what will drive the rapid growth of the IoT. The Business Insider says that IoT grows from 1.9 billion devices today, to 9 billion by 2018. To put that in perspective, BI claims that by 2018 IoT will be roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined.

You can insert your own joke about the feds collecting data from a porta-potty.

What do you think? Is 6LoWPAN the best way to connect IoT devices to the cloud?

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| August 13, 2013
Comments Off on Data Growth Tests Storage Capabilities

Data Growth Tests Storage Capabilities

 Data Growth Tests Storage CapabilitiesData Center Knowledge had an article by Steven Rodin, CEO of Storagepipe Solutions, that lays out the challenges that those of us charged with managing backups face every day. Storagepipe Solutions, which has been a provider of online backup services for business since 2001, has identified several emerging storage trends that organizations will need to overcome in the future.

Storagepipe Solutions logoIn the early days, the author says, organizations were primarily concerned with data protection, encryption and automation. The era of “Big Data” has changed those demands. The new demands are overwhelming most backup and storage systems. The article cites data from IBM (IBM), which claims that worldwide annual data production has actually exceeded worldwide storage capacity. Big Blue believes that demand for storage capacity is growing nearly 60 percent a year. The gap between the data that organizations produce and their ability to store it will continue to grow for years.

The Storagepipe Solutions CEO identified a number of important storage trends which are accelerating the growth rate of corporate data.  He provided a few of the most important factors.

Cheaper Storage Hardware

Cheaper HardwareHard drive capacity has fallen exponentially in price ever since Moore’s Law was introduced. This has changed attitudes to backups. The article says that today, hardware is so cheap and abundant that attitudes have shifted to a “Better keep this. We may need it someday” mentality.

New technologies, such as advancements in compression, deduplication and hardware virtualization, have improved overall storage utilization and further accelerated the rate at which the cost-per-gigabyte of storing data is falling.

Cheap and Abundant Bandwidth

Abundant BandwidthInternet bandwidth is no longer a bottleneck. Bandwidth availability has accelerated the growth of file sharing and online storage. Now large files are copied and distributed at an exponential rate which has caused duplicate data to become a major source of storage waste and data growth. The CEO of the firm based out of Toronto, calculates that if one person shares a 1GB file with 500 people, that’s half a terabyte of storage consumption.

Business is Going Paperless – Email has replaced letters, eBooks and tablets have nearly replaced paper books, and digital imaging has replaced photographs and x-rays. Not only are paperless offices better for the environment, but Mr. Rodin writes, they are also more productive, flexible and better able to extract value from their business data. Many industries are using more and more video (which is highly storage intensive) for marketing online, security and communication.

Enhanced Automated Data Collection Capabilities

Automated Data CollectionAutomated data collection is one of the fastest-growing areas in the “big data” space. With every move we make, the article says we’re generating GPS data, web traffic statistics, power usage data, surveillance video, and a broad range of data which companies and governments are collecting.

The author calls automated data collection the “Pandora’s Box” of the big data revolution. The information being collected about us through the electronic devices we use every day could present a threat to our privacy, but they also have the potential to offer tremendous value to society.

Advances in Data Analysis Technology

Data AnalysisThe blog says that until recently, data analysis was almost exclusively performed on structured relational databases, maintained and organized by humans. But now, a  new approach to data storage which focuses on rapid analysis and processing of vast data volumes. Technologies like Hadoop, Cassandra, MapReduce and NoSQL have given birth to a whole new class of services, and have revolutionized the way organizations think about the data they collect. Organizations can now get more insight into their internally generated business data by integrating external feeds and databases into their reporting and analysis.

The Growing Strategic Importance of Data

In the past, data was simply a tool which assisted in decision-making and helped companies execute on their strategic objectives. But recently Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes and other brands have built their entire corporate strategy around the data they own. The DCK article states, information is power, and it’s now more powerful than ever.

Regulatory ComplianceRegulatory Compliance

Even if companies wanted to cut the amount of data they store, they wouldn’t always be able to. Laws like PIPEDA, HIPAA, Sox404 and many others are forcing companies to keep historical archives of their exponentially growing business data going back several years.

As this data grows, storage increasingly becomes a major business problem. Also, companies must plan for cost-efficient search and retrieval of these large historical data volumes to stay ready for an unexpected electronic discovery request.

As the scale and complexity of big data storage grows, it’ll quickly reach a point where manual handling is no longer practical, desirable, economical, or even possible. Automation will become absolutely essential when it comes to backing up big data.

Many big data applications have serious privacy implications for the customers that benefit from their use. So security will become a top priority for backup administrators. Gone are the days of unencrypted backup tapes.

The big data applications has created a whole new class of applications built on real-time data. These applications require much more frequent  backups to optimize Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs). Strategic big data apps will need minimized downtime. This means smaller backup windows, built-in redundancy, and server fail-over to disaster recovery sites.

That’s why many organizations are opting to outsource their data backups by partnering with experts who run ahead of the trends and who can help with the complexity of some situations.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Data protection | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| May 9, 2013
Comments Off on Tech Disrupters

Tech Disrupters

Tech DisruptersThe BusinesInsider notes that analysts at investment bank Citi (C) have issued a new research report, that takes a look at 10 disrupting technologies, According to BusinessInsider, these technologies will change the way we do business. The firm which took $300 billion dollars taxpayer-funded bail-out looked into practically every sector you can think of: energy, entertainment, IT, manufacturing, and transportation among them to identify disrupters.

Software-Defined Networks

One of the information technologies that Citi called a disrupter is Software Defined Networks (SDN). SDN’s simplify IT networks by separating the Control Plane (the intelligence) from the Data Plane (the packet forwarding engine). “Instead of having intelligence distributed across the network in separate boxes, SDN centralizes the Control plane in an overriding software layer which disseminates instructions to each router or switch.”

Citi claims that SDN is too cheap to resist. They cite data from IDC that says Software Defined Networking is expected to grow from just under $360 million in 2013 to $3.7 billion in 2016. Revenues are likely to be split between startups, traditional network vendors like Cisco (CSCO), and big IT vendors like IBM (IBM), HP (HPQ), and Dell.

Software-as-a-Service

The prognosticators at Citi also identified SaaS as another disruptive opportunity. The article explains that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is Internet-based software delivery. Basically, customers can use software that they’d otherwise have to buy via downloads or at a store. Examples include Google (GOOG) Apps, Microsoft (MSFT) 365, and Amazon (AMZN) web services.

In 2012, the SaaS market grew 26% to become an $18 billion market according to market research firm IDC. According to Citi’s survey, SaaS has already captured 8% of their software wallets so far and firms expect to increase spending to 70% of their budget over time — a 9-fold increase.

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The Citi prognosticators are so smart, they are at least a year behind the Bach Seat. I have covered cloud since 2011. I think we all know that cloud computing and software-defined networking are information technology disrupters. Thanks, guys.

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 22, 2013
Comments Off on 5 Odd Tech Predictions

5 Odd Tech Predictions

5 Odd Tech PredictionsJulie Bort at the BusinessInsider found some really interesting ideas buried within this prediction season’s avalanche of humdrum thoughts. She shared them in the hope they will become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Software as a Service -SaaS1. Bad guys start offering “hacking as a service” – Security company McAfee says that criminal hackers have begun to create invitation-only forums requiring registration fees. The author speculates that these forums could become some sort of black-market software-as-a-service. Pay a monthly fee and your malware is automatically updated to the latest attack. Don’t pay, and it would be a shame if something happened to your beautiful website …

Mobile ransomware2. Bad guys try to kidnap your smartphone – Hackers have become fond of a form of malware called “ransomware.” It’s a popular way to harass people who view Internet porn. While visiting a porn site, bad guys plant malware on a computer that threatens to report the computer user to the police unless they pay up.

In 2013, the article says the trend will be to hold your smartphone hostage. Hackers will sneak malware onto smartphones and then make you pay if you don’t want all the data on your phone destroyed or leaked. So thinks Chiranjeev Bordoloi, the CEO of security vendor Top Patch.

Fake meat3. Fake meat becomes a real thing – Vegetarians have been manipulating vegetable protein to make it look a little like meat and taste nothing like it. But now BusinessInsider says the race is on to produce fake meat like bacon in much more technically advanced ways.

Dutch researchers have found a way to “grow hamburger” in the laboratory from just a few bovine stem cells. Tech investors have funded companies that will create food from plants. Stealthy startup Sand Hill Foods is one such company on investors’ watch list. Beyond Meat, a startup funded by Twitter cofounders Ev Williams and Biz Stone, makes realistic fake chicken and will ramp up availability in 2013.

Your smartphone will be your personal nurse4. Your smartphone will be like a personal nurse – Ms. Bort reports there is a healthcare revolution headed to your smartphone. IBM (IBM) has promised that one day soon doctors will use tech that will scan your body. They will send that data to the cloud for a diagnosis. Companies are developing smartphones with biosensors that do everything from check your blood sugar to detect the flu. Apple (AAPL) has promoted the iPhone as a platform for health technology since 2009, but some new devices are just coming to fruition.

tech you use for work will be fun5. The technology you use for work will be as much fun as the stuff you use at home – Most of us are so used to tech at work being a source of frustration that we can’t imagine a different world. But the author predicts that’s changing. In 2013, tablets will lead software to be redesigned for touch interfaces—which will make it fun and easy to use, more like a game than a spreadsheet. Best of all, more companies are adopting tech that lets you download a “virtual work desktop” on any device, simply by logging in on a Web browser or launching a mobile app.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| October 30, 2012
Comments Off on Mix Tape – The Future of Big Data Storage

Mix Tape – The Future of Big Data Storage

Mix Tapes - The Future of Big Data StorageThe mix tape is about to make a comeback, in a big way according to New Scientist. From the updates posted by Facebook’s (FB) 1 billion users to the medical images shared by healthcare organization worldwide and the rise of high-definition video streaming, the need to store massive amounts of data is greater than ever. Hard drives have been the workhorse of large storage operations for decades. However, a new wave of ultra-dense tape drives is set to the replace the HDD. The new tape drives pack in information at much higher densities, while using less energy in the size of a 1980’s mix tape, according to the article.

Researchers at Fuji Film (4901) and IBM (IBM) have already built prototypes that can store 35 terabytes of data. The cartridge which measures 10 centimeters by 10 cm by 2 cm, can store  about 35 million books’ worth of information. This is achieved using magnetic tape coated with nanoparticles of barium ferrite. The coating stabilizes magnetic storage media by keeping moisture and oxidation (rust) from damaging the surface of storage tape.

But the real début for this technology, the author speculates will be with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA will be the world’s largest radio telescope when it is completed in 2024. SKA will consist of thousands of antennas across the southern hemisphere. Once it’s up and running, the SKA is expected to pump out 1 petabyte (1 million gigabytes) of compressed data per day. If the SKA data archive was built using today’s 3-terabyte HDD’s, the telescope would fill an unmanageable 120,000 drives a year.

Data recovery100 terabytes on a cartridge

That annual archive growth would swamp an experiment that is expected to last decades, says IBM Fellow Evangelos Eleftheriou, who is part of a team working to build tapes for the SKA. The IBMer says that by the time the telescope comes online, they  expect to be able to store 100 terabytes. They plan to store that much data by shrinking the width of the recording tracks and using more accurate systems for positioning the read-write heads used to access them.

Using tapes should cut down drastically on energy use, too. A 2010 study by Clipper Group found that data centers with disc drive arrays use over 200 times more power than would a tape library of similar size. Disc drives in large arrays tend to stay powered-up, so their platters spin continuously, in case data is required, says Jon Hiles of Spectra Logic, a digital archiving firm in Boulder, CO. But tape drives only use power when they are being read or recorded on, he says.

The downside of tapes

The downside of tapes is that they are slower to access than hard discs. Tapes have to be fetched by a robotic mechanism, inserted in a reader and spooled to the right point. But the Linear Tape File System, expedites this process to make it comparable to disc drives, Eleftheriou told the blog. As storage needs skyrocket, hard drives won’t be able to keep up and keep power down, Eleftheriou says. Density improvements in hard drives are facing physical limits that mean they can only add more power-munching platters. “It’s time to take advantage of the low power and low-cost of tape,” he says.

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It is unlikely even the largest firm will need the kind of capacity SKA’s IT staff will have to deal with every day. But it is likely that every organization that stores big data on-site will be looking for low-cost, high-capacity alternatives to disk. However I would not want to trust 35 TB (or more) of data to a cassette which can be easily destroyed. Do you think the 80’s mix tape cassettes  are the future of big data storage?

Do you think cassette tapes are the future of big data storage?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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