News in Networking: Intent-based Networking, a Huge S3 Data Leak, and BGP Route Leaks

This week’s top story picks from the Kentik team.

This week Cisco made a series of product announcements, including intent-based networking aimed at increasing automation in IT. NTT launched a Virtela-based SD-WAN platform. An open Amazon S3 server exposed the PII of millions of U.S. voters. And a network working group announced a draft of a proposal that aims to reduce BGP route leaks.

Here are those stories and more:

• Cisco Unveils Intent-based Networking (Network World) Ahead of Cisco Live U.S. next week, Cisco made a series of product announcements, including intent-based networking aimed at more IT automation. According to Network World, “Intent-based systems operate in a manner where the administrators tell the network what it wants done and the how is determined by the network and then the specific tasks are automated to make this happen.”
• NTT Launches SD-WAN Platform with Virtela’s SDN Expertise (SDxCentral) NTT Communications this week launched an SD-WAN platform based on capabilities from Virtela, the SDN company it acquired for $525 million back in 2014.
• 198 Million Americans Hit by “Largest Ever” Voter Records Leak (ZDNet) A huge database of voter information, owned by Republican data analytics firm Deep Root Analytics, was exposed this week. A security firm found the database was being kept in an open Amazon S3 storage server. According to ZDNet, “It’s believed to be the largest ever known exposure of voter information to date.”
• Oracle Claims Best Quarter Ever as Cloud Takes Off (Wall Street Journal) Oracle is trying to gain ground on Amazon, Google and Microsoft in the cloud wars. With its its earnings report out this week, we learned it had a 15 percent jump in its fiscal Q4. “It’s the best quarter we have ever had,” Oracle co-Chief Executive Mark Hurd said, reported WSJ. “We had a goal of $2 billion in ARR; we finished with nearly $2.1 billion. Next year, we will sell more.”
• Internet Boffins Take Aim at BGP Route Leaks (The Register) A network working group published an “Internet Draft” this week, aiming to reduce BGP route leaks. The Register notes the draft proposes that “neighboring BGP speakers announce not only their routes, but also their roles, so systems receiving those route announcements better understand the scope of the advertisement.”
• Optimizing the Business With Network Analytics (EMA Blog) In this blog post, EMA analyst Shamus McGillicuddy notes that network managers “need tools that help them present that insight to the business. Reports and dashboards that are designed for consumption by non-technical personnel will be critical for impactful network analytics. Some vendors might produced canned versions of these reports and dashboards, but customization will be essential, too. Furthermore, vendors may want to consider developing professional services organizations that help close the gap between network operations and the business.”

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