Practical Technology

for practical people.

December 19, 2018
by sjvn01
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IRS Linux move delayed by lingering Oracle Solaris systems

The enterprise server market belongs to Linux now. Clouds, web-servers, you name it, Linux runs it. One of the biggest reasons for this remains that Linux is cheaper than the alternatives. But that doesn’t mean Linux has all its way when fighting against legacy systems. Take, for example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Wanting to save money, the IRS set up a migration plan in 2014 to move 1,400 databases and 190 applications designed to operate on Oracle Sparc servers running Solaris Unix to IBM mainframes running zLinux. According to the Department of Treasury auditors, the “IRS made a decision to consolidate platforms and migrate applications to Linux-based operating systems.”

In theory, two-thirds of applications and databases were supposed to have been moved by December 2016… in theory.

IRS Linux move delayed by lingering Oracle Solaris systems More>

December 14, 2018
by sjvn01
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IBM protects your cloud container data running under Kubernetes with encryption

Protecting your stored data on the cloud is a concern, but it’s easy enough with encryption. Thanks to SSL, it’s simple to protect data in motion on the network. But protecting your data when it’s being used on the cloud is not so simple. Enter IBM, which, in partnership with Fortanix, is now providing data-in-use protection for your container workloads running on the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service with IBM Cloud Data Shield.

IBM protects your cloud container data running under Kubernetes with encryption More>

December 13, 2018
by sjvn01
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What is the Kubernetes hybrid cloud and why it matters

Over 8,000 people are at KubeCon in Seattle. Every major tech company and businesses I’ve never even heard of are here and trumpeting their Kubenetes distros — about 80 of them. IBM recently bought Red Hat for a cool $34-billion. I, and others, think they did it to get Red Hat’s Kubernetes expertise. Why? To answer this question we need to look into the hybrid-cloud model.

What is the Kubernetes hybrid cloud and why it matters. More>

December 13, 2018
by sjvn01
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Major China company, Alibaba, joins Open Invention Network patent protection group

The American and Chinese trade war is near to boiling. The American attempt to extradite Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has failed; China might be behind the Marriott data breach; and China might’ve caused a massive internet disruption. But one perpetual sore point between the US and China — intellectual property (IP) abuse — is taking a step for the better. Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial are joining the Open Invention Network (OIN), the pro-open source and Linux patent-protection group.

Major China company, Alibaba, joins Open Invention Network patent protection group. More>

December 12, 2018
by sjvn01
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​Dell XPS 13: The best Linux laptop of 2018

Usually, when I get review hardware in, it’s not a big deal. It’s like working in a candy shop. At first, it seems great (“All the candy I can eat!”). Then, you quickly get sick of dealing with the extra equipment.

But, every now and again, I get a really fine machine, like Dell’s latest XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop. And I get excited again.

​Dell XPS 13: The best Linux laptop of 2018