Top5 06/09/2014
This week’s edition of the Top5 is packed from stem to stern with geeky goodness. I suppose that’s not much of a surprise, given that it is the Top5 and all. That’s kind of our M.O. ‘round these parts, and most weeks are similarly packed. It is not every week, however, that we can boast an international array of characters creating content for your consumption. Whenever I go digging through recently posted content on DevCentral I find myself wishing I were posting the Top17, not the Top5, especially now that we have content pouring in from all over the world. That being the case, 5 is the format, so 5 will have to do. And here they are, this week’s outstanding offerings:
BER and DER: Why Encoding and Decoding Matter
Shameless self promotion though it may be, I feel strongly that some of the things we’re doing with our programmability offerings (iRules, iControl, tmsh, iCall, LineRate, etc.) are beyond cool. They are among the coolest, most interesting, most compellingly powerful gadgets and gizmos of their type, and if that’s not enough, they’re just plain fun to geek out with. We’re always adding to these features and lately there has been some serious momentum building in this arena, for which I’m both stoked and grateful. One such addition is the ability for iRules to natively encode and decode ASN1 formatted data. This makes some things that were just barely on the fringe of being possible (meaning they were technically feasible, but a giant pain…) suddenly a breeze. Check out this primer on why you might care, how this puts us one step closer to applications everywhere, and just why I’m so excited about this new tech.
The State of the APAC Cloud - part1
You’ve heard all about the cloud, of that I have no doubt. You’ve heard good, bad, indifferent and otherwise about what it means to different people, how we’re going to leverage it, the concerns, and more. If you’re like me you’re interested, but tired of hearing the same thing over and over, in many cases. That’s why I was excited to see one of F5’s own giving an insider’s take on a more specific and, for me at least, foreign piece of the cloud puzzle - the APAC cloud. Charles Chong digs into what the cloud situation looks like in his area, what the prevailing concerns in that geography are, and how they lend themselves to being addressed. Given that most major businesses are global, or headed that way, I found this to be a tasty tidbit of info, straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. If you’re curious what cloud issues might attempt to burst your bubble and what you can do about them in this regional hotbed of technological traction, take a look. I’m betting you won’t regret it.
The Internet of Things and mobility driving HTTP and cloud
“The Internet of Things” - Now there’s a name that bears explaining. The first time I heard that phrase I thought someone had mis-spoken. As it turns out it is far more straight-forward than expected. It is precisely what the name says - a way for things, and I do mean nearly everything, to get on the internet. From TVs to refrigerators to cars and more, more and more devices that are not purpose built computing resources are attaching themselves to the internet for a myriad of reasons. Call-home functionality, data and usage tracking, web enabled features (Who doesn’t want to tweet from their refrigerator while pouring the morning OJ?) - you name it, the “things” are offering capabilities that were, until somewhat recently, restricted to the computing realm. As this trend continues, and all signs point to the fact that it will not only continue but boom in a major way, it has definite implications for the web. Lori takes a look at just what this might mean for HTTP and the cloud world in a way that had me nodding along and curious to hear more, as is so often the case with her writing. This is a movement that is coming whether you’re ready or not, so I suggest penciling in the time to get up to speed. Lori’s post is a good way to get started. I’ll leave the digging up to you from there.
Make Your Cache Work For You
Dawn Parzych, our resident acceleration PM/Guru extraordinaire, takes some time out of her busy schedule to share with us some ins and outs of cache usage. This “best practices” (my words, not hers) guide gives you the scoop on the different cache settings and features available to AAM users. From what they do, to when to use them, she demystifies the world of object caching right before your eyes. Well, you know, in text. On her blog. On DevCentral. But still, it’s awesome! This stuff is Greek to a lot of people and Dawn’s easy to grok explanations are quite valuable to newbie and nerd core alike. She even struts her geek cred bolstering chops to show off some handy commands that might be of interest to those looking to track the cache stats on their device.
Security Sidebar: Plan For Your Data Breach
You’ve seen the announcements everywhere you look “Hackers attack”, “Breech suspected”, “Information compromised” and worse. In this day and age it seems to be far less about if sensitive data will get compromised and far more about when. Or, more specifically, what the heck are you going to do when it happens? This may sound a bit morose, but honestly it’s more pragmatic than pessimistic. Security is a tricky business and staying ahead of the legion of naughty internet denizens out there is an increasingly difficult task, even for the most seasoned security ninja. While beefing up protection and stopping the attacks is always the first order of business in the security world, it isn’t such a bad idea to have a plan in place in case of an actual leak. The only thing worse than being compromised is being unprepared to deal with it should it occur. DevCentral’s own John Wagnon has put together some thoughts and tips on just what constitutes planning for such an event. Check out his post about it here, and make sure you’re on track for handling this situation should sit arise, unfortunate thought it may be. While we all hope it never happens, trust me, you’ll be far happier if you’re prepared.
Published Jun 10, 2014
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