AT&T Launches "Synaptic" Cloud Computing Service

AT&T announced the global launch of its "Synaptic Hosting" -- a utility computing service with managed networking, security and storage for businesses. AT&T Synaptic Hosting uses the power of the AT&T network to manage applications, compute resources on servers and store data. It also provides designated account support all backed by a single end-to-end, service-level agreement that is unique within the industry. The network infrastructure supports large-scale computing and applications on demand via virtualized servers.


The AT&T Synaptic Hosting service combines technology acquired from USinternetworking (USi) with five "super IDCs" (Internet data centers) in the United States, Europe and Asia. AT&T has a total of 38 IDCs in its global IP network. The super IDCs will be located in Piscataway, N.J.; San Diego; Annapolis, Md.; Singapore and Amsterdam and will act as regional gateways to the AT&T network "cloud."





Over time, AT&T plans to add IDCs to the regional network infrastructure to deliver "enterprise-class" cloud capabilities to companies in the U.S. and abroad.


AT&T said Synaptic Hosting will also be extended to deliver similar benefits to other services in its portfolio, including unified communication, content distribution, dynamic backup and restore, on-demand retrieval of high-resolution images such as X-rays and CT scans and many other subscription-based software services.


The service is especially aimed at companies whose business needs are seasonal or unpredictable, or where end-user traffic spikes are a given. For example, the service allows online retailers gearing up for holiday sales, employers with annual open enrollment for employee benefits and game publishers running online games to manage their own applications -- or let AT&T manage them -- while paying only for the information technology (IT) capacity needed on a day-to-day basis.


AT&T also noted that the official Web site of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is powered by AT&T Synaptic Hosting. Teamusa.org is the USOC's new feature-rich Web site that connects fans of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams with America's athletes on their journey to the Olympic Games. The site features stories on U.S. Olympians and Paralympians and Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, athlete blogs and social networking tools.http://www.att.com

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European Commission Reserves 5.9 GHz Spectrum for Road Safety

The European Commission will reserve a single radio spectrum band across Europe for use by smart vehicle communications systems.


The decision provides a single EU-wide frequency band that can be used for immediate and reliable communication between cars, and between cars and roadside infrastructure. A total of 30 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9 Gigahertz (GHz) band which will be allocated within the next six months by national authorities across Europe to road safety applications, without barring other services already in place (such as radio amateur services).



The EC estimates that smart vehicle communication systems have the potential to make roads significantly safer. In 2006, more than 42,000 people died in road accidents in the European Union and more than 1.6 million were injured while every day there are some 7,500 km of traffic jams on the EU's roads.


A typical example is the case of a vehicle detecting a slippery patch on a road: if it is equipped with a cooperative car-to-car communication device, it can deliver this information -- thanks to the 5.9 GHz band -- to all cars located nearby. If a traffic management center needs to inform drivers about a sudden road closure, the alternative route to take or speed limits, it will also be able to send this information to a transmitter detector along the respective road, which then passes it on to the vehicles driving by.http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/radio_spectrum/

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U.S. Department of Defense Certifies Alcatel-Lucent's OmniSwitch

The Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6850 and 9700 have been certified as interoperable with the Defense Switched Network (DSN) by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and the Defense Information System Network Security Accreditation Working Group (DSAWG). As a result, these products have been added to the DoD Unified Capabilities Approved Products List (UCAPL), which includes the Defense Switched Network (DSN) Approved Products List, as well as the IPv6 Approved Products List.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Sensory Hits 10Gbps HTTP and UDP Performance for IPS

Sensory Networks, which specializes in pattern matching and acceleration software, announced that their "HyperScan" and "FastChannel" software hit 10Gbps IPS throughput, for both UDP and HTTP traffic. The performance was achieved on a standard Intel Quad-core Xeon platform, without any specialized hardware, running Snort IPS with the SourceFire VRT rule set.


HyperScan is a pattern matching engine that, aside from full PCRE support, comprises several underlying content scanning engines that leverage cache memory to scan hundreds of thousands of patterns simultaneously at multi-gigabit speeds. Each engine is unique and tailored for a different task, and tuned to deliver optimal performance for certain parts of signatures, expressions and applications. Also, an intelligent compilation stage partitions, optimizes, and transforms the signature database for use in multiple engines simultaneously, delivering both the optimum performance and complete signature support.


FastChannel is a proprietary zero-copy, context-switch free packet processing software library that manages and dynamically distributes network traffic across CPU cores. FastChannel contains many innovations that allow user-space applications to handle network traffic at performance levels comparable with kernel-space implementations.


"We are particularly pleased with our HTTP, small packet and latency performance, as these are areas that present many technical challenges for designers," said Sab Gosal, VP of Marketing for Sensory Networks. "As we look to scale beyond 10Gbps, the real power of our software centers on the fact that the same suite of software libraries can also scale down to sub-200Mbps applications while supporting a common API, feature set and integration cycle."http://www.sensorynetworks.com

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China Telecom Selects Huawei for 40 Gbps Trunk

China Telecom has selected Huawei Technologies to build China's first 40G WDM transmission network between Shanghai and Wuxi. Under the terms of the contract, Huawei will provide China Telecom with an ultra-high-capacity 80 wavelengths x 40G transmission solution capable of 10G/40G hybrid transmission. The high-capacity trunk will to address China Telecom's ever-increasing Internet bandwidth requirements.


Huawei's 40G transmission solution employs is patented SuperDRZ technologies, which support transmission of up to 1,500 kilometers without the need for regeneration. The 40G transmission solution also adopts Huawei' s unique C-band extension technology, which increases the fiber transmission bandwidth by an extra 20%, and enables the DWDM system to boast a transmission capacity of 3.84 Tbps per fiber.http://www.huawei.com

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Teranetics Develops Dual-port 10 Gigabit Copper PHY

Teranetics, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California introduced the first dual-port 10GBASE-T PHY IC -- doubling the port density of switch and Network Interface Cards (NIC) compared to first generation 10GBASE-T PHYs.


Teranetics' new TN2022 enables switch manufacturers to design as many as 48 RJ-45 ports into a single rack unit. This second generation PHY consumes 6 watts per port and nearly halves the power consumption compared to first generation PHYs while operating at cable lengths exceeding 100 meters. In addition, the TN2022 features multi-rate capabilities, enabling use with ubiquitous RJ-45 Ethernet connectors and making it backward compatible with existing 1 Gigabit and 100 Mbps network gear.


The company's first generation 10GBASE-T PHY has been adopted by leading OEMs, including Extreme Networks and Intel.


Teranetics said that because its new TN2022 supports development of new 10 Gigabit products with the same port count as typical 48-port 1Gbps pizza-box switches, OEMs can now design systems that deliver 10 times more bandwidth at nearly one-third the cost per Gigabit of bandwidth. At this density and price level, 10 Gigabit Ethernet becomes an attractive choice for data center managers who require bandwidth upgrades in addition to a fabric for unifying multiple networks in the data center.http://www.teranetics.com

• In February 2008, Teranetics announced $25 million in a private equity financing. Participants in the financing included all of Teranetics existing investors as well as strategic partner LSI Corporation (LSI). The company specializes in 10GBASE-T Ethernet commercialization.



• Teranetics is headed by Matt Rhodes (CEO), who previously was the President of Conexant Systems, where he was responsible for the marketing, engineering and operations of a communication IC business of nearly $1 billion annually. The company was co-founded by Sanjay Kasturia (formerly co-founded Airgo Networks, now a part of Qualcomm), Rahul Chopra (formerly with Iospan Wireless, now a part of Intel), and Jose Tellado (formerly a founder of Iospan Wireless).

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Cisco Posts Quarterly Revenue of $10.4 billion, up 10% YoY

Cisco reported quarterly net sales of $10.4 billion, an increase of 10% year over year, and quarterly earnings per share of $0.33 GAAP, an increase of 6% year over year, or $0.40 non-GAAP, an increase of 11% year over year. For its full FY08, Cisco achieved record revenue of $39.5 billion, up 13% year over year.


"Cisco delivered solid quarterly and annual results as network-enabled business process changes and productivity increases gain traction on a global basis," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco. "Today's strong results demonstrate the company's ability to execute. The market is clearly in transition, and we will use this time as an opportunity to expand our share of customer spend and to aggressively move into market adjacencies."


Some highlights from the quarter:

• For its Q4 FY08, product order growth was approximately 10% y/y, while service order growth was approximately 20% y/y/.



• Gross product margin (non-GAAP) was 65.2%



• Routing revenue was up 8% y/y while CRS-1 revenue was up 85% y/y



• Switching revenue was up 5% y/y



• Advanced Technologies revenue was up 15%, unified communications revenue was up 29% y/y, and application networking services grew approximately 30% y/y.



• Service Provider order growth was up approximately 5% y/y



• Cash flows from operations were $3.5 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, compared with $2.7 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, and compared with $3.0 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2008. Cash flows from operations were $12.1 billion for fiscal 2008, compared with $10.1 billion for fiscal 2007.



• Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $26.2 billion at the end of fiscal 2008, compared with $22.3 billion at the end of fiscal 2007, and compared with $24.4 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2008.

http://www.cisco.com

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US DOJ Announces Largest Network Hacking, War-Driving Case

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged eleven suspects in the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The suspects are charged with numerous crimes, including conspiracy, computer intrusion, fraud and identity theft.


Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens, one is from Estonia, three are from Ukraine, two are from the People's Republic of China and one is from Belarus. One individual is only known by an alias online, and his place of origin is unknown.


The indictment alleges that during the course of the sophisticated conspiracy, the suspects obtained the credit and debit card numbers by "wardriving" and hacking into the wireless computer networks of major retailers -- including TJX Companies, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSW. Once inside the networks, they installed "sniffer" programs that would capture card numbers, as well as password and account information, as they moved through the retailers' credit and debit processing networks.


The indictment alleges that after they collected the data, the conspirators concealed the data in encrypted computer servers that they controlled in Eastern Europe and the United States. They allegedly sold some of the credit and debit card numbers, via the Internet, to other criminals in the United States and Eastern Europe. The stolen numbers were "cashed out" by encoding card numbers on the magnetic strips of blank cards. The defendants then used these cards to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at a time from ATMs. Gonzalez and others were allegedly able to conceal and launder their fraud proceeds by using anonymous Internet-based currencies both within the United States and abroad, and by channeling funds through bank accounts in Eastern Europe.http://www.usdoj.gov

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Tango, AirWalk and Tatara Systems Partner on Enterprise FMC Femtocell

Solution Tango Networks, AirWalk Communications and Tatara Systems are partnering on an enterprise-focused fixed-mobile convergence solution employing femtocells. The Tango/AirWalk/Tatara enterprise femtocell FMC solution, which has been successfully demonstrated, utilizes any standard mobile device. The solution leverages the hybrid architecture of Tango Networks' Abrazo, which enables any mobile phone to become a true extension on the enterprise's existing voice communications network. Key components include:

• Tango Networks' Abrazo, which provides the enterprise communications services and intelligent routing capabilities.



• The AirWalk EdgePoint femtocell, which is an integrated Radio Access Network (RAN) that offers unrivaled soft handoff capabilities between femtocells.



• The Tatara Convergence Server, which enables the mobile carrier's service to be delivered over the Web to the femtocell, including calls and text messages to subscribers' mobile numbers and handovers to and from the macro-cellular network.

The companies said their solution expands the backhaul and control structure of femtocells to meet the more complex security and efficiency requirements of the enterprise. Mobile operators can also choose this solution to provide a converged managed services offering for enterprises that prefer a hosted/managed telecommunications model. The joint solution also makes it possible for the mobile operator to provide policy management services for all on-campus calling from mobile phones to be kept local to the enterprise network. Mobile operators are able to tailor in-building tariff policies for enterprise customers with no impact to their mobile networks.


Through the use of the solution's policy engine, mobile operators can enable enterprises to selectively decide which enterprise and public mobile users can utilize the enterprise corporate assets, including long-distance networks, conferencing, messaging, short-code dialing, and other features, while maintaining and enforcing corporate policy and management. This can apply to not only regular employees, but also for contractors and selective guests, while maintaining security of all systems.


"In-building coverage remains an important issue for many global enterprises," stated Andrew Silver, chief technology officer and co-founder of Tango Networks. "Mobile operators have begun addressing how femtocells can benefit their consumer customers. Our joint solution simplifies the more challenging enterprise landscape, proving the business value of femtocells as part of a complete enterprise FMC solution and helping mobile operators address this tremendous growth opportunity."http://www.tango-networks.comhttp://www.airwalkcom.com

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