Cloud Versus Dedicated Data Centers: Rumble in the Virtual Jungle

Cloud or dedicated? That's the question companies face each time they need new storage space or resources -- is it better to build local or host off site? Both tech segments are performing strongly, with the global data center blade server market to reach more than $15 billion by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of 10.25 percent and cloud computing sitting on a $16 billion market that's only trending up thanks to increased public and hybrid adoption. In other words, it's virtual war: Who wins the battle? more

Record Number of Malware Variants Detected in Q4 of 2014, Retail/Service Most Targeted

During the 4th quarter of 2014, a record number of malware variants were detected -- an average of 255,000 new threats each day, according a recent report by Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). The group further reports that the number of unique phishing reports submitted to APWG during Q4 was 197,252 -- an increase of 18 percent from the 163,333 received in Q3 of 2014. more

A Look at the Current State of ccTLDs, Particularly in Europe

European ccTLDs have passed 67 million registrations in total at a net growth of 0.7% over the past quarter, according to the new DomainWire report by Council of European National Top level Domain Registries (CENTR). more

A Perfect Storm: Net Neutrality Debate Poised to Spread Its Wings Down Under

To date, proponents of a neutral internet have had relatively scant reason to raise their voices beyond anything more than a murmur in Australia. While the FCC's Open Internet Order of 2015 has been hailed as a significant win for consumers in the US, and the wording of proposed legislation to institute ex-ante regulation of service providers is soon to be considered in the EU, Aussies have been quarantined from anything other than the fringes of the Net Neutrality debate. more

Happy Birthday, Backbone

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the decommissioning of the NSFNET backbone on April 30 1995, an important milestone in the development of the commercial Internet. The NSFNET was set up by the US National Science Foundation in 1985 to enable university researchers access to five supercomputer sites across the United States, using Internet Protocol technology. In stepping back, the NSF supported a transition to an Internet shaped by market forces, and the explosion of commercial use soon followed. more

Senate Judiciary Leaders Ask New IP Czar to Facilitate ICANN-Focused Conversations

Daniel Marti was nominated to become the new White House "IP Czar" in August 2014 to replace Victoria Espinel. His predecessor, in yet another illustration of Washington's "revolving door" shuffling key individuals between the government and private sector, departed the post a year earlier to become head of BSA/The Software Alliance, the leading trade group for the software industry. more

Nepal Internet Connectivity Crucial for Coordination of Relief Efforts

Doug Madory writes to report: "Saturday's earthquake in Nepal, which claimed the lives of at least 4,000 victims and injured many more, took a toll on the country's Internet connectivity, which was already one of the least developed in the region. A recent evaluation of Internet infrastructure in South Asia commissioned by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) classified Nepal's international connectivity as 'weak' and its fixed and mobile infrastructure as 'limited'." more

New Report on Performance Measurements of the DNS Root Service in China

Zhiwei Yan writes to report: "CNNIC recently lunched a monitoring to measure the performance of the DNS root service in China (mainland). The results reflect that the service diversity from different ISPs and different geographical locations is obvious for different root servers. Besides, the stability of the DNS root service is directly affected by the BGP routing system. CNNIC will continue this work and anticipate the wide participation from the community." more

Internet.nl - A New Site to Easily Test Your Use of IPv6, DNSSEC, TLS and DKIM

"Is Your Internet Up-To-Date?" Does your existing Internet connection work with IPv6 and DNSSEC? Do your web sites support IPv6, DNSSEC and TLS? Is there a quick way to find out? Earlier this month a new site, Internet.nl, was launched to make this all easy for anyone to test. All you do is visit the site at en.internet.nl (also available in Dutch) and just follow the very easy links. more

IRAN Nuclear Deal; the Flag of Changes? the End of Civil Society Isolation? or What?

The crucial importance of Iran Nuclear Deal and, hopefully, the imminent expectation, for reaching to an indisputable solution and agreement among 5+1+ Iran (as well as the other parties who claim to have interest in this matter) all have created a special climate and proper ground for all the activists and the observers in order to seriously sit and make a review of the actual situation and the potentials of the main player of the field, say Iran, or Civil Society of Iran... more

Largest IXP Files Complaint Against Snooping

Decix, the largest internet traffic exchange point (IXP) worldwide, has had it with the snoops. The Frankfurt company on Thursday confirmed a report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that it will file a complaint at the German Federal Administrative Court against the obligation to grant broad access to the German Intelligence Service (BND) to the traffic transiting its large switches. more

Research Finds Mobile Malware Infections Overblown

Advanced threat detection company, Damballa has released findings of a new research on Wednesday, detailing the overblown nature of the mobile malware problem. According to the company, the research, based on Big Data (50% of US mobile traffic), was used to determine actual malware infection rates -- not just samples found, or vulnerabilities/theoretical attacks. more

Will the Fast-Approaching Deadline for .brands Catch Many by Surprise?

29 July 2015 is a big day for .brands. It's the date when all ICANN Registry Agreements (RA) must be signed. Once the RA is signed, the fees to ICANN and your Registry Services Provider kick in. As certain as you can be that ICANN will begin sending invoices, you can also expect to receive increased scrutiny internally. Questions are inevitable. People will want answers; what is the plan for this thing? How does it fit into our long term corporate goals? Do marketing have a plan to use the TLD in the upcoming launch of our new product? more

Deadline of April 21 To Make Your Website “Mobile-Friendly” Or Drop In Google Search Results

Is your website "mobile-friendly"? If your site is NOT and you care about how your site ranks in Google search results (and let's face it, we pretty much all do!)... well... you need to get busy! As Google very clearly indicated: "Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results." more

New “.trademark” gTLD is Here

Few Brands have noticed it yet but a company has applied for a domain name extension which literally means ".trademark". The company is based in Hong-Kong and its name is "Huyi Global .?? Domain Registry". The ".??" is what we call an International Domain Name extension (IDN) and it means ".trademark" in Simplified Chinese. It is pronounced: "Shang Biao". more