News in Networking: New Data Centers, Same Old Internet Trolls

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

Apple announced two new data centers in Iowa this week. Cisco made plans to acquire hyperconvergence software company Springpath. VMware reported a strong quarter and new Vodafone deal. DDoS attacks spiked, targeting gaming companies. Google sped up TCP/IP. And Wired put together an interactive map to show where internet trolls live.

Here are those headlines and more:

• Apple Gets $208M in Tax Breaks to Build Iowa Data Center (Reuters)
  Apple is moving to Iowa! Not really, but they are building two data centers in Des Moines, which will create 50 jobs in the area and give the tech giant a $208 million tax break, according to Reuters.
• Cisco Buys Springpath for $320M (ZDNet)
  Cisco announced plans this week to acquire hyperconvergence software company Springpath for a cool $320 million. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2018.
• Verizon Considers Competing with Cisco, Juniper on Software (SDxCentral)
  Verizon is getting more involved in virtualization. Now SDxCentral reports the teleco could be planning to take on Cisco and Juniper with its Virtual Network Services software.
• VMware Scores ‘Huge Win’ with Vodafone for NFV (SDxCentral)
  VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said business is good. On the company’s earnings call this week, he noted a “huge win” with Vodafone as a new NFV customer.
• Ericsson CTO Prioritizes Non-Consumer 5G (Light Reading)
  Ericsson has a new CTO, Erik Ekudden, and he has “given a strong signal that his 5G focus will be on developing enterprise rather than consumer applications,” according to Light Reading.
• 10 Bad Habits Network Administrators Should Avoid At All Costs (TechRepublic)
  What shouldn’t network administrators do? The Kentik team weighed in on TechRepublic’s article to remind peers to use change control for logging changes, but don’t use command-line interface (CLI) to troubleshoot your networking.
• DDoS Attackers Taking Direct Aim at Gaming Companies, Akamai Reports (eWEEK)
  Akamai’s latest 2017 State of the Internet Report went live this week. The report notes a spike in DDoS attacks, 82 percent of which were targeted at gaming companies.
• How Google is Speeding Up the Internet (NetworkWorld)
  TCP/IP is the internet’s main protocol for data transmission. In attempt to make data move faster, Google engineers have developed an algorithm that speeds it up by about 14 percent.
• Where Do Internet Trolls Live? Here’s a Map (Wired)
  To find out just how bad internet trolling is, Wired put together a map. “The company analyzed 92 million comments over a 16-month period, written by almost 2 million authors on more than 7,000 forums that use the software,” according to the media channel’s new interactive story. “The numbers reveal everything from the trolliest time of day to the nastiest state in the union.”

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