Author: Stanley

Data integration specialist Xplenty Ltd. today announced its new Analytics-as-a-Service (A3S) offering for analyzing and querying files on the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which provides highly scalable object storage.
“A3S gives Xplenty users the ability to use Amazon’s object based storage repository (Amazon S3) (on the cloud) to quickly access the data via SQL or any other Business Intelligence or reporting tool,” the company stated in a statement.
The A3S service is compatible with Xplenty’s extract transform and load (ETL). The data integration platform of the company helps enterprises prepare raw data to be used in cloud-based analytics. It is easy to use and has no need for hand-coding. It can work with both structured and unstructured data, such as Amazon Redshift, SQL, NoSQL databases, and cloud storage services. The integration with Amazon S3 has been improved.
Xplenty claims the new offering allows for quick and simple querying. The company stated that the new offering, which includes the ability to leverage SQL through Xplenty A3S data is cached locally and has columnar storage that can easily be used for quick queries.
The company also said A3S can scale as needed and features a simple pay-for-what-you-need pricing model.
Data professionals can prepare the data they need using the company’s ETL program. It is easy to use and doesn’t require any coding.
CEO Yaniv Mor stated that data preparation must be as simple and comprehensive as possible to allow businesses to get the insights they need quickly. A3S offers users the benefit of extremely cost-effective interactive querying capabilities over the Amazon S3 cloud data lake. Xplenty’s addition not only enhances users’ processing capabilities but also highlights our commitment to a hassle-free data prep environment that can handle a wide range of tasks for businesses of any size.

The shocking revelations about Cambridge Analytica (a data analytics company that worked with Donald Trump’s campaign team and won the Brexit campaign), obtaining Facebook data from 50 million users has prompted everyone to think about their social media accounts and possible misuse.
Centrify conducted a snapshot poll of 220 IT and cybersecurity professionals at Infosecurity Europe in London this Week. Two-thirds of respondents said they would delete their account if their personal data was misused by a social media provider. 59% of respondents said they have deleted a social network account, while another 7% stated that they plan to do so. However, 32% of respondents said they don’t plan to delete Facebook or any other social network account, which is, no doubt, a substantial number.
The poll revealed that 55% of respondents would not use a company after a data breach, while 45% say they would continue to use a company despite these risks.
Surprisingly, only 10% of respondents were able to name social media providers as their biggest concern about privacy. 34% worry about data breaches at companies that have access, while 25% are concerned about credit card fraud.
It is impossible to see how your personal data is being used. The internet is a global web of corporate surveillance. Although GDPR, a data protection regulation, is a significant step towards giving individuals control over their data. However it is not an all-encompassing solution. For those who have tried to disconnect from Facebook and other social networking sites for a while, data breach may be the final push to end all ties with the site.
Author – Jaya KalwaniIndependent Consultant

• Version: Usually, the date on which the policy was created or changed.
• ID: A policy name.
• Statement: Defines that a set of policy settings will be followed. These policy settings are enclosed within brackets.

{This portion of the policy looks something like this: This section of the policy looks like this: “Version” – “2016-09-21”, Id : “Posey Example Policy”, Statement : [ The policies settings go here ] ]As previously noted, the policy settings that are used can vary depending on what the policy is intended to do.|As mentioned, the policy settings used can vary depending upon the purpose of the policy.} In most cases, there are five strings. These five strings are:

• Sid: The SID is the basic determinant of what the policy does. It should not be confused or confused with a Windows Security Identifier. If the action required is to add a user to an Access Control List, then the SID would likely be AddCannedAcl. The SID could also be set to IPAllow if the policy is to evaluate IP addresses. You can use a variety SIDs as described in the Examples page.
• Effect: The Effect string controls what happens to the policy when it is applied. The effect can be either to allow or deny an action in most cases.
• Principal: The Principal string determines who the policy applies. The Principal string can be set to * to apply to all accounts, but it is possible for each account to be specified.
• Action: What happens if the policy has been applied. For example, “s3:GetObject”, allows the principal to access object data.
• Resource: The bucket to which the statement is applicable. However, you cannot simply enter a bucket’s name. You must use a specific format to enter the bucket name. If, for example, the statement were to apply to a bucket named poseydemo-test, then the resource would be expressed as “arn:aws:s3:::poseydemo-test/*”.

Here is an example of a very simple bucket policy: { “Version”:”2016-09-22″, “Id”: “Posey Sample Policy”, “Statement”:

Nutanix shared some key additions to the Enterprise Cloud Platform last Wednesday, and shared plans to expand its hyperconverged infrastructure platform into all three major public clouds.
The company’s.NEXT conference was held in Washington, D.C. Nutanix Xi Cloud Services, which will allow Nutanix software as a service to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform(GCP), and Microsoft Azure, was announced. Nutanix Calm is another addition to the Nutanix Xi Cloud Services.
Dheeraj Pandey, Nutanix CEO, presided over Calm & Xi demos at the conference stage. However, neither product will be readily available for a while. Calm will be available in the fourth quarter this year. Xi will initially be available as a disaster recovery application. An “early access” technology release is planned for early 2018.
Pandey outlined the company’s path to hybrid computing as the melding Xi and Nutanix on-premises products. “That’s the big news of this conference, but it’s a multiyear journey for us,” Pandey said Wednesday night during a conference kickoff keynote.
All three major public clouds are part the Xi plan. However,.NEXT’s Wednesday focus was on GCP as Alphabet and Nutanix, Google’s parent company announced a strategic alliance. Diane Greene, senior vice-president of Google Cloud, spoke on the stage to discuss the three components, which include GCP integration with Calm and Xi, a joint solution (Kubernetes, Google Container Engine, and Nutanix’s Acropolis Container Services), and a joint solution for Kubernetes.
On Wednesday, shares of Nutanix rose more than 7 percent following news of the Alphabet partnership. Nutanix was founded in 2009 and went public in September 2018. The first quarter of 2018 is expected to bring the fruits of this alliance. However, the first deliverable will be the integration of NutanixCalm with GCP.
Calm and Xi will expand Nutanix’s current offering. This is operating system software for a software defined datacenter that brings together storage, virtualization, and networking resources on one integrated hardware. Nutanix currently offers its hyperconverged infrastructure offerings on-premises only in three ways. As its own, branded appliances such as the NX-1000, as partner appliances from Dell or Lenovo, or as software running on Cisco UCS or HPE ProLiant hardware. Nutanix and IBM announced Tuesday that Nutanix will be coming to IBM OpenPOWER LC Systems.
Xi would allow users to use existing Cloud OS constructs within the Nutanix environment, and then use them in AWS and GCP as well as Azure. According to the company, the approach will eventually allow users to quickly move traditional enterprise applications (e.g. SQL Server or Oracle database deployments) from Nutanix private cloud into the public cloud and back again as needed.
“What if enterprises could move to the public cloud, but keep the tooling, the economics, and the SLAs intact?” said Nutanix Chief Product Officer Sunil Potti in a Tuesday morning keynote.
Potti stated that disaster recovery was the most important use case for the approach. He also said that it will improve the process for testing disaster recovery for enterprises, and reduce the need to have secondary datacenters. “You shouldn’t have to worry anymore about your secondary datacenters.” He predicted that in the next few years, you should be out the secondary datacenter business.
During his keynote, Potti also spoke about Calm, calling it Nutanix’s “first strategic product after Acropolis or Prism.” These are the company’s operating systems and management technologies.
“Every part of our workflows is now coming”

Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is used for large memory-intensive workloads, now offers a new instance option: The 4TB x1e.32xlarge.
Wednesday’s announcement of the new Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) instance was made. It is now the third largest and most popular in AWS’ X1 collection of SAP HANA-certified instances. All three instances of X1 are capable of running large, enterprise-class, in memory database workloads including SAP HANA.
According to AWS, they also have the lowest price per GiB RAM among Amazon EC2 instances types.
The new x1e.32xlarge supports 128 virtual CPUs and has 3.9TB DDR4 memory. It is AWS’ largest cloud-native instance and is “supported” by SAP for production HANA deployments (SAP Business Suite on HANA, SAP Business Warehouse on HANA and the next-generation SAP BW/4HANA ERP and data warehouse solution,” said Jeff Barr, AWS evangelist.
Comparatively, the x1.32xlarge, the oldest and largest X1 instance, was launched last May with 2TB memory and support 128 virtual CPUs.
The smallest X1 instance, x1.16xlarge was released last October with 976GiB memory and support up to 64 virtual CPUs.
The x1e.32xlarge as well as the x1.32xlarge have two 1,920GB SSD volumes. They run on four Intel Xeon E7 8880 v3 Haswell CPUs. The x1.16xlarge has one 1,920GB SSD volume. It runs on two Intel processors.
According to AWS, the x1e.32xlarge can only be used by users of AWS virtual personal clouds (VPCs). It is supported out of the Northern Virginia and Oregon, Ireland, and Tokyo regions.

By Michael Aldridge People who are studying for Cisco CCNA certification often ask me what kind of questions they can expect. These are some of the types of questions that Cisco exams can ask:
Multiple-choice, single-answer
Multiple-choice, multiple-answer
Drag-and-drop
Fill-in-the-blank
Simulation
Testlet
Simlet
Multiple choice questions are a common topic. There are some questions that have only one correct answer and others that have multiple answers. Cisco will always inform you how many correct answers there are and the exam engine will usually warn if you have chosen too many or too few.

Drag-and-drop questions ask you to drag boxes to the screen. You will usually be asked to drag terms onto the appropriate definitions or categories. You might also be asked if you want to drag items onto a network diagram.

Fill-in-the blank questions require that you answer the question in one or more text boxes. Although I have not seen fill-in the blank questions from Cisco, it is possible that they could be introduced at any time.

Simulating questions requires you to configure one or several Cisco devices, including switches and routers. IOS-based as well as GUI-based simulations have been my experience. Although not all commands and features are available, they will still be available to you for the simulation. Simulator questions can cause fear in test takers. You can overcome your anxiety by practicing with Cisco routers live or using a robust network simulator product like Boson’s NetSim.

Testlet questions are usually presented in a group of three to six questions. These questions all revolve around a common scenario or network topology. The scenario text will provide any required command output. You can answer the questions in any order you like, but you cannot return to the testlet once you have finished.

Simlet questions are a combination of a simulator and a testlet. You will receive a set of three to six questions based on a network topology or common scenario. You will not be able to issue any commands. To answer the questions correctly, you will need to interact with the network devices and issue appropriate commands.

These item types might not be available on every Cisco certification exam. You can prepare for any of these items by reviewing the Cisco Certification Exam Tutorial (shown above). This tutorial is the same one you’ll see at the beginning each Cisco certification exam. Each type of question is included in the tutorial so you can practice. Boson’s ExSim-Max Cisco certification practice exam can be used to get more practice. It includes the item types that you will see on the actual certification exam.

Do not be concerned about the types questions that Cisco exams might ask you. You won’t need to know the details to be able to answer any question Cisco asks.

Michael Aldridge MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCSE: Messaging, MCDST, MCDBA, MCTS, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+

Employers consider critical thinking a key skill, especially when it comes to hiring. This ability is essential for problem solving and strategising. This improves productivity at work.
“Successful executives use their critical thinking skills every day to sort through complex and incomplete information, ask the right questions, recognize strong and weak arguments, and assimilate the information to make logical business decisions.”
What is critical thinking?
There are many definitions of critical thinking that can be found in different schools of thought. An excellent definition would be the ability to process and engage in new information analytically. This is achieved by observing and putting together information to create logical connections.
“Critical thinking goes beyond the accumulation of facts and knowledge. It’s a way to approach whatever is currently occupying your mind in order to reach the best conclusion.”
Critical thinkers build on knowledge constantly.
This blog post will share some of the extraordinary habits that Critical Thinkers have.
Habit 1: Learning to observe
Glenn and Gary: “Observation is one the earliest critical thinking skills that we learn as children – It’s our ability perceive and understand the world around us.”
We can improve our observation skills and eventually unpick our complex world. This has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the world around.
Habit 2: Put your ego aside and embrace humility
Inquisitive people are critical thinkers. They love to learn and are open to new information. To make this happen, it is important not to let your ego get in the way and to accept that you may not know all the answers. “They are open to admitting that they don’t know everything or have made mistakes.”
Habit Three: Identify your bias
“Critical thinkers are challenged to identify the evidence that supports their beliefs and evaluate whether or not these sources are credible.”
We are naturally biased towards our opinions and views based on preconceived notions.
Recognizing our biases helps us to understand how they can impact our decision-making. Ask yourself who benefits from the information when you look at it. Is there an agenda behind the information? Is the source omitting or ignoring information that doesn’t support their claims and beliefs?”
imglip Habit 4: Assumptions are incorrect
Critical thinkers are well aware of the dangers of assuming. To avoid confirmation bias (confirming what they already believe), we prefer to ask open-ended questions. “Don’t assume other people think the way you do. Ask them for their perspective. This will help you find a better solution.
Habit Five: Be honest with yourself and find balance
In the universe, there is a delicate balance between emotion and reason. A critical thinker, or someone who is training to be one, must learn how to balance emotion and reason. A rational mind can control both emotions and reason, so one cannot run on only one.
Habit Six of the memegenerator: Continuous Learning
It is essential for any critical thinker to keep abreast of the latest information and gain new knowledge. Critical thinkers will be able reorient their beliefs and ethical stances by consuming more information.
Read our last post: https://blog.trainocate.com/4-ways-to-navigate-crucial-conversations-well/

Are you new to NetSim Are you a veteran NetSim user? These 5 Network Designer Tips & Tricks are available in NetSim 12, which is the industry’s most powerful Network Simulator.

1.Find the most recent devices in the Recent Devices Pane. Drag and drop previously created devices directly to the topology, without needing to reconfigure.

2. Use Snap to Grid to align devices perfectly and create professional-looking topologies.

3.To quickly locate connections and devices, highlight them on your pane. A shadow will appear beneath the item on topology.

4. Add notes and labels to your topology.

5. Avoid repetitive stress injuries by using the connection tool, which creates connections in as few clicks possible.

Did you learn anything new? Was this all new for you, Watson? Read more about everything new with NetSim 12 here:https://www.boson.com/Meet-NetSim-12

F5 BIG-IP Application Security Manager is a web app firewall that protects web applications and data from known and undiscovered security threats, vulnerabilities, and bots. BIG-IP ASM protects against complex threats and improves app performance by offloading SSL.
BIG-IP ASM Specialists can deploy, tune, or operate BIG-IP ASM to help protect their apps from HTTP-based attacks. It provides protection for applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft office sharepoint, Oracle ebusiness financials, and Microsoft outlook.

VMware NSX IT Professionals: Facts to Know

Certification:
BIG-IP ASM Specialist Exam (303): This exam is required in order to become a F5 certified technology specialist, ASM certification. This exam validates your abilities and knowledge to design and deploy BIG-IP ASM, including advanced features.
Prerequisite:
BIG-IP ASM certification does not require F5 certification. If students are not familiar with BIG-IP, they can attend the following course to learn more before obtaining F5 ASM certification.
BIG-IP administration (instructor-led course).
F5 BIG-IP administrator certification
Skills and knowledge you will acquire:
Candidate will be able describe and learn how BIG-IP ASM interacts with web applications
Candidates will be able design, implement, maintain and troubleshoot BIG IP ASM products. They will also be able ensure network security and the delivery of applications.
Learn about web application firewalls
Learn how ASM protects web applications by securing URLs and file types.
This article will explain what attack signatures are and why they are important.
How to deploy ASM with the automatic policy maker
Learn how to cost-effectively achieve compliance
You will discover how BIG-IP ASM protects web apps beyond the box
This course will teach you how to improve the performance of web applications.
You will learn how ASM can be deployed flexiblely

Cisco CCNA Certification Course Beneficial for Network Professionals

Career Profiles
After F5 ASM certification, you can pursue a variety of job opportunities. These are just a few of the many options available to you.
Network security engineer
Application security manager
F5 ASM engineer
Consultants – F5 Networks ASM
Administrator F5
F5 engineer
Administrators of F5 networks
F5 network engineer
F5 network security engineer
Network/F5 engineer
Salary:
The average salary for F5 ASM professionals freshers is between 1.5 lacs and 4 lacs per annum. These salary figures are not indicative of the salaries for F5 ASM professionals who have worked in India. The salary for F5 ASM specialists is very attractive and increases with experience.

How do you address the elephant in your room?
Jeff struggles to manage crucial conversations.
Jeff is subject to criticisms from his colleagues about the work environment. Top management decided to tighten the rules in the recovery phase of the pandemic, with their business just accelerating up.
It is exhausting to try and balance the demands of his top management with those of his colleagues. While the conflict may seem manageable for a while it will eventually become overwhelming. A trust deficit appears to be apparent. No matter how difficult the situation, the support of stakeholders is key to any leader’s success.
Leaders will be able to have critical conversations while being honest and open to community change.
What are the most important conversations?
Crucial conversations can be described as high stakes, emotional discourse that includes a plateau of opposing opinions from different people.
“These conversations are often avoided because the person does not have the skills necessary to deal with the difficulties they raise.” The results are not positive or changeable.
Here are some examples of situations that may require crucial conversations
Discuss performance with employees who are not performing well at work.

Talk to your managers about mistrust and reservations.

Talking to your family and friends about the upsetting behavior.

Asking for a raise in pay.

Here are four ways to navigate important conversations more efficiently
1) Create a safe environment
Freepik Stakes have reached their peak and emotions are high. All opinions must be heard equally. It is crucial to create a safe and healthy environment that allows everyone to speak their truth. Pay attention to both the verbal as well as physical cues. When you sense discomfort or volatility from either party, bring the conversation back to safety.
2) Be a leader with facts and the truth
Engage in important conversations using hard facts.
“Separate facts from stories. Although it sounds simple, it is important to record these facts. A fact cannot be interpreted. “A story can be debated.”
3) Identify the issue and state it
Avoid attempting to address multiple issues at once. Identify the issues, concerns, or problems. To have a constructive conversation, ensure that all parties are clear about the discussion’s direction and agenda.
4) Reaching a mutual understanding
All critical conversations should conclude with a summary of all points discussed and a mutual agreement towards finding a solution. Also, a token of appreciation for the willingness and ability to have a discussion to improve the current situation.
To read our previous article on “Life After MCO”: https://blog.trainocate.com/life-after-mco-3-steps-to-engage-virtual-teams-2/
Trainocate Malaysia has carefully selected 8 programs to support your organisation and your people under the Mind and the People program. This includes Mastering Critical Conversations.
To find out more: https://trainocate.com/my/highlights/softskills-the-mind-and-the-people-programs-