
Yes
They are both a bad joke.
Dell has created a new "Internet of Things" division, and launched its first product: a $500 gateway designed for industry. "The Internet of Things is like the Cloud was eight years ago," the division's executive director Andy Rhodes told El Reg. What, overhyped? Ambiguous? An obscene cash bandwagon? "There is a lot of buzz," …
"Very useful when you get back to the hotel late at night after a long day and can't get into your room because your phone died."
Didn't you get the memo? Smartphones are soon going to be a one stop shop for just about every service and activity you could possibly do! Banking, shopping, taxis, transport, doors, driving your car, feeding the cat, etc etc because smartphones are like so totally hip and kool. Or something.
Which I'm sure is all great for the kids - except as you say if your phone has died or been stolen or you've broken it or lost it or left it in your jacket in the office or you've forgotten the password or its been hacked and so on. Because unfortunately these hipster marketing types don't seem to understand the meaning of the phrases "backup plan" and "if it ain't broke...".
So, you now have all this local processing power, storage, and RAM. So, praytell, why for any of the states iOt uses, should I send ANY information to a 3rd party? Even the "useful" 5% of it? Tenancy-based temperature control, the thermostat alone should have enough processing power I think... but this multi-ghz "gateway" definitely has way more than needed. Ligthing control? 3rd parties don't need access, and this doesn't take processing power either. Remote camera viewing (which has been done for a decade or more with IP cameras and DVRs, btw...), "plug and play" port forwarding, NAT punching, and manual port forwarding will ALL allow this with no 3rd-party access.
Oh, you WANT all that juicy info? Well, too bad, I've got no candy for you 8-)
You're entirely right.
Unfortunately, fools make up 95% of the tech market.
This is one bandwagon that is NOT stopping anytime soon and, like blood in the water, the marketing sharks are already in a frenzy. The bonuses will be staggering.
And when the brown matter really starts hitting the revolving blades, they will safely retreat behind the old "but we didn't design the thing !" excuse, keeping their bonuses.
Doesn't matter. This is one game I'll be watching from the bleachers.
Or even not at all.
We know there's no real answer to "why IoT" except that it fills column inches.
But why try to repurpose a thin client box? Maybe Wyse and Dell have some kind of legacy agreement where Dell are contractually obliged to spend $Xmillion/year with Wyse, and they haven't found a way to spend it, and this is the latest and most visible candidate?
As others have noted, a half decent SoHo router would be more than capable of doing this job for a quarter of the cost (or less). It would have the usual SoHo-gear problem of instant obsolence, but does that matter much here?
So Dell decide to act all Novell and bring something totally out of proportion to the marketplace?
The insanity of companies not understanding IoT is mind blowing. You'd have thought we've seen this type of change happen so often, that it would be easier to work out what will happen?
For internet of things, think hardware equivalent of a class and an instance. Old school had a device which was a class. New school has IoT, which is your instance. It needs to be stupid cheap and does everything as virtually as it can. These will be like RFID's with enough processing power to do Docker.
The hardware will become so cheap it will be disposable. The clever money will be being able to take the data and do something new with it. Microsoft are already there with its various service bus options. IoT will be about messaging and big data processing. Who bought an R specialist recently?
Dell should focus on building nice looking ultra light laptops and damn good data centre servers because the rest of the market is going to disappear - in about 8 years!
Forescout researchers have demonstrated how ransomware could spread through an enterprise from vulnerable Internet-of-Things gear.
The security firm's Vedere Labs team said it developed a proof-of-concept strain of this type of next-generation malware, which they called R4IoT. After gaining initial access via IoT devices, the malware moves laterally through the IT network, deploying ransomware and cryptocurrency miners while also exfiltrating data, before taking advantage of operational technology (OT) systems to potentially physically disrupt critical business operations, such as pipelines or manufacturing equipment.
In other words: a complete albeit theoretical corporate nightmare.
Dell has pulled the lid off the latest pair of laptops in its XPS 13 line, in the hopes the new designs, refreshed internals, and an unmistakably Apple-like aesthetic of its 2-in-1 approach can give them a boost in a sputtering PC market.
Both new machines are total redesigns, which is in line with Dell's plans to revamp its XPS series. Dell users considering an upgrade will want to take note, especially those interested in the XPS 13 2-in-1: There is quite a bit of difference, for both enterprise and consumer folks.
The XPS 13 maintains its form factor – for the most part – but gets a new smooth aluminum chassis that makes it look more like a MacBook Air than ever. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing: the new design is reportedly lighter and thinner, too.
The botnet malware EnemyBot has added exploits to its arsenal, allowing it to infect and spread from enterprise-grade gear.
What's worse, EnemyBot's core source code, minus its exploits, can be found on GitHub, so any miscreant can use the malware to start crafting their own outbreaks of this software nasty.
The group behind EnemyBot is Keksec, a collection of experienced developers, also known as Nero and Freakout, that have been around since 2016 and have launched a number of Linux- and Windows-based bots capable of launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and possibly mining cryptocurrency. Securonix first wrote about EnemyBot in March.
Comment Broadcom’s mooted acquisition of VMware looks odd at face value, but if considered as a means to make edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) more mature and manageable, and give organizations the tools to drive them, the deal makes rather more sense.
Edge and IoT are the two coming things in computing and will grow for years, meaning the proposed deal could be very good for VMware’s current customers.
An Ethernet switch that Broadcom launched this week shows why this is a plausible scenario.
IBM and Dell are the founding members of a new initiative to promote sustainable development in IT by providing a framework of responsible corporate policies for organizations to follow.
Responsible Computing is described as a membership consortium for technology organizations that aims to get members to sign up to responsible values in key areas relating to infrastructure, code development, and social impact. The program is also operating under the oversight of the Object Management Group.
According to Object Management Group CEO Bill Hoffman, also the CEO of Responsible Computing, the new initiative aims to "shift thinking and, ultimately behavior" within the IT industry and therefore "bring about real change", based around a manifesto that lays out six domains the program has identified for responsible computing.
Enterprises are still kitting out their workforce with the latest computers and refreshing their datacenter hardware despite a growing number of "uncertainties" in the world.
This is according to hardware tech bellwethers including Dell, which turned over $26.1 billion in sales for its Q1 of fiscal 2023 ended 29 April, a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.
"We are seeing a shift in spend from consumer and PCs to datacenter infrastructure," said Jeff Clarke, vice-chairman and co-chief operating officer. "IT demand is currently healthy," he added.
Smart homes are increasingly becoming hackable homes, according to consumer research.
The report by consumer rights organization Which? paints a grim picture for people who have equipped their residences with gadgets, many from trusted tech names.
As with pretty much everything in IT, if you connect a device to the internet, ensuring it's patched and has a decent password is the very least owners can do. Even then, there are no guarantees that this is secure.
Orders for PCs are forecast to shrink in 2022 as consumers confront rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and lockdowns in parts of the world critical to the supply chain, all of which continue.
So says IDC, which forecast shipments to decline 8.2 percent year-on-year to 321.2 million units during this calendar year. This follows three straight years of growth, the last of which saw units shipped rise to 348.8 million.
Things might be taking a turn for the worse but they are far from disastrous for an industry revived by the pandemic when PCs became the center of many people's universe. Shipments are still forecast to come in well above the pre-pandemic norms; 267 million units were shipped in 2019.
Desktop Tourism If you drop Dell's Latitude 5430 laptop from hip height onto vinyl flooring that covers a concrete slab, it lands with a sharp crack, bounces a little, then skitters to a halt. Drop it two meters onto sodden grass and it lands with a meaty squish on its long rear edge. The impact pushes a spray of water and flecks of mud through the crack between the screen and keyboard, with a spot or two of each making it onto the keyboard's ASDF row.
I know this, because I did it. And more.
If you put it in a domestic freezer after that drop onto wet grass, then pull it out after ten minutes, a couple of water and mud flecks freeze into little teardrops on the keyboard. The latch that holds the screen to the body of the laptop takes a little extra effort to open.
Broadcom is in early talks to buy VMware, according to The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters.
VMware is not commenting on the matter.
This one is interesting, because the three sources we've linked to above all say they've got the news from "a person familiar with the matter." All say the deal is nowhere near done, a price has not been discussed, and a transaction is far from certain to happen.
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