AFORE Debuts CloudLink Management Solution

AFORE Solutions, a start-up based in Ottawa, announced their "CloudLink" virtual appliance and
management solution for private, public and hybrid cloud computing environments.


The CloudLink software provides an integrated on-ramp to the cloud, combining AES-256 encryption, high performance network optimization, SLA assurance and monitoring and advanced traffic management capabilities. The solution enables the deployment of applications into a VMware vCloud based infrastructure.


"Many enterprises have been reluctant to migrate to a cloud model due to concerns regarding security, performance, availability and integration with their existing IT infrastructures," said Jonathan Reeves, AFORE's Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer. "CloudLink has been designed to address these concerns and deliver a practical solution to accelerate private, public and hybrid cloud deployments."http://www.aforesolutions.com

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Sonus to Close Facilities in Ottawa and Darmstadt

Sonus Networks will close its offices in Ottawa, Canada and in Darmstadt, Germany, and to relocate its Freehold, New Jersey facility to a smaller, more cost-effective space in the same area. These actions will result in the reduction of the company's workforce by 12 employees, or approximately 1% of employees worldwide, and the company estimates it will achieve annual cash savings of approximately $2.0 million to $2.3 million. http://www.sonusnet.com

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Aviat Reports Revenue of $116.3 million, to Close RTP Facility

Aviat Networks reported revenue of $116.3 million for its fourth fiscal ended July 2, 2010. This compares with $135.2 million in the year ago period. Net loss was $88.8 million, or $1.49 per share, compared with a net loss of $3.4 million, or $0.06 per share, in the year ago quarter. The results in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 include $71.1 million of impairment charges for intangible assets and property, plant and equipment.


Revenue in the North America segment was $38.1 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, compared with $59.4 million in the year ago period. International revenue was $78.2 million, compared with $75.8 million in the year ago period.


Aviat Networks also announced that it will close its Research Triangle Park (RTP), N.C. facility, affecting the majority employees at the location over the next six months. As part of the closure, several RTP business functions will be relocated: the Network Operations Center will be moving to Aviat Networks' San Antonio facility; IT/Network and Applications Support will be reassigned to Santa Clara, California; finance operations will be consolidated and moved to Santa Clara; and certain engineering functions will be moved to select facilities in Slovenia and New Zealand.
http://www.aviatnetworks.com

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California Works with Sprint on First Mobile Alert System

The California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) has selected Sprint to deploy the first Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) in the country. The FCC has established the CMAS to allow wireless service providers send emergency alerts as text messages to their subscribers.

The nation's first CMAS pilot program will be conducted in San Diego County beginning in fall 2010 in partnership with the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services. The technology will be tested across urban, suburban and rural areas, and includes the involvement of law enforcement agencies, local jurisdictions and other regional partners.

The CMAS network will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to accept and aggregate alerts from the President of the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS), and state and local emergency operations centers, and then send the alerts over a secure interface to participating wireless providers. Emergency alerts will be classified in one of three categories:

• Presidential Alerts -- Alerts for all Americans related to national emergencies, such as terrorist attacks, that will preempt any other pending alerts;



• Imminent Threat Alerts -- Alerts with information on emergencies, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, where life or property is at risk, the event is likely to occur, and some responsive action should be taken; and



• Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts -- Alerts related to missing or endangered children due to an abduction or runaway situation.

It will be possible for consumers to opt out of receiving Imminent Threat and Child Abduction/AMBER alerts, but not Presidential Alerts.


The CMAS technology in Sprint's network is enabled by Alcatel-Lucent's Broadcast Message Center (BMC), which serves as the secure interface between CMAS and Sprint's network to meet the mission critical needs of delivering emergency alert messages. BMC receives the CMAS alerts from state and federal agencies and broadcasts them to cell sites serving mobile customers within a targeted geographic area.
http://www.sprint.com
http://www.oes.ca.gov/

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Google Enables Phone Calling from Gmail

Google now supports the ability to make phone calls from Gmail. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at set rates. The service is being rolled out to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days.


As a marketing ploy, Google also plans to put its free phone service in traditional "red box" phone booths that will be deployed in airports and at universities. These will give people to try out the voice quality of its calls.
http://www.google.com/chat/voice/

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China Telecom to Accelerate FTTH and Mobile Rollouts

Citing continued mobile and landline broadband growth, China Telecom reported a 4.9% growth in revenues to RMB 107,552 million and a 4.7% growth in net profit for the first half of 2010 compared to a year earlier. Profit attributable to equity holders of the Company was RMB8,811 million, representing an increase of 4.7% from the same period of last year. Robust earnings trajectory marked a good start of the result improvement. Basic earnings per share was RMB0.109. Capital expenditure was RMB17,918 million, an increase of 5.2% over the same period of last year. Free cash flow reached RMB18,591 million.


Some highlights from the first half of 2010

• China Telecom added 18.43 million mobile subscribers in the first half of the year, giving it a total of 74.52 million, of which 7.18 million were 3G subscribers. This puts the company's share of the mobile
  market in China at close to 10%, which is double from 2008. Mobile ARPU declined slightly to RMB 58.1 for 1H2010 vs RMB 59.5 in FY2009. The company is currently supporting over 700 CDMA handset models, with over available for 3G.



• Revenue from non-voice services as a percentage of the operating revenues further increased to 56.3%, amongst which wireline broadband access revenue attributed to 24.5% of the operating revenues.



• In broadband, China Telecom continues to hold the leading market share. In the first half of 2010, there was a net addition of 4.87 million wireline broadband customers, giving the company a total of 58.33 million broadband lines. More than 60% of the company's CAPEX in 1H2010 was focused on broadband expansion.



• For traditional land lines, China Telecom recorded a net loss of 7.61 million PAS subscribers, leaving it with 181 million access lines in service at the end of June this year.

Looking ahead, China Telecom said its strategy will focus on sustainable development of four pillars -- mobile, broadband, wireline voice, and valued-added and integrated information services.


China Telecom will accelerate it broadband network upgrades, especially FTTH. In city areas, its network currently is capable of 4 Mbps and above with 44% coverage at 20 Mbps or more. For its 2010 budget, CAPEX will be increased by RMB 5 billion over previous guidance to RMB 44 billion. For 2011, the CAPEX budget will be increased by a further RMB 10 billion, although final budget figures will be updated with regard to business activity.
http://www.chinatelecom-h.com/eng/global/home.htm

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IBM Warns that Security Vulnerabilities Reach Record Levels

A newly published study from IBM has found that vulnerability disclosures are increasing dramatically, having reached record levels for the first half of 2010.


IBM's X-Force 2010 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report found that Web application vulnerabilities continued to be the leading threat, accounting for more than half of all public disclosures. In addition, covert attacks increased in complexity hidden within JavaScript and Portable Document Formats (PDFs), while cloud computing and virtualization were noted as key future security topics for enterprise organizations.


IBM warns that the sophisticated attackers are employing covert means to break into networks without being detected by traditional security tools. IBM detected a 52 percent increase in obfuscated JavaScript attacks during the first half of 2010 versus the same period in 2009.


On the positive side, phishing activity declined by also 82% from its peak in 2009, but financial institutions remain the top target.


"Threat dynamics continue to multiply and evolve at a furious pace, making it more crucial than ever to look at unfolding trends so we can better prepare our clients for the future," said Steve Robinson, general manager, IBM Security Solutions. "This year's X-Force report reveals that although threats are on the rise, the industry as a whole is getting much more vigilant about reporting vulnerabilities. This underscores the increased focus among our clients to continue looking for security solutions that help them better manage risk and ensure their IT infrastructure is secure by design."http://www.ibm.com

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Kenya's Safaricom Deploys NSN's Subscriber Data Platform

Kenya's Safaricom is deploying Nokia Siemens Networks' Subscriber Data Management (SDM) platform to pull together subscriber data that currently resides on multiple databases. This is far more efficient than managing multiple databases for different applications, including Home Location Register (HLR), Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and converged Data Authentication. NSN said its platform will allow Safaricom to gain better insight into the needs and likes of its customers and offer targeted services. The deployment is part of Safaricom's transition to an all-IP network.
http://www.nsn.com
http://www.safaricom.co.ke/

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Telia Launches Commercial LTE in Gothenburg

TeliaSonera, which activated the first commercial LTE service in the world in December 2009, has now launched its service in Gothenburg, Sweden. Nokia Siemens Networks supplied its Flexi Multiradio Base Stations and its NetAct network management system to monitor, manage and optimize the operator's network in the city.


During the extensive pre-launch tests performed by TeliaSonera and Nokia Siemens Networks, average downlink rates of 85-90 Mbps were measured, peaking at 100Mbps - the maximum data rate supported by the current generation of LTE devices. In the uplink, 30 Mbps were measured, which is again in the top range of the expected uplink data rates.


"Our worldwide premiere of 4G services in Stockholm and Oslo last year and today in Gothenburg, is strong testimony to TeliaSonera's commitment to provide the fastest mobile Internet speeds to our subscribers," said Erik Hallberg, senior vice president and head of Mobility Services Sweden in TeliaSonera. "We enjoy the distinction of being the only operator worldwide to offer commercial 4G services. Going forward, we're continuing the 4G network roll out during 2010 in Sweden's 25 largest cities and vacation areas."http://www.nsn.com

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Occam Supplies Multiservice Access in Indiana

Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative, has deployed Occam Networks' BLC 6000 multiservice access platform (MSAP) in a FTTH project serving Christmas Lake Village in Santa Claus, Indiana. PSC selected Occam to provide equipment for an ILEC fiber overbuild as PSC looks to enhance its broadband service. This FTTH upgrade of PSC's network, which also provides broadband services throughout a three county region of southern Indiana, is further enhancing the voice, video and data needs of the community.


In addition to the new fiber deployment in Santa Claus, Indiana, earlier this year PSC added Active Ethernet to serve business customers from its existing 10Gigabit Ethernet ring. The network was initially deployed for fixed wireless backhaul and has facilitated the convergence of wireless and business Ethernet traffic. PSC is currently in the process of connecting hospitals and small to medium businesses (SMBs) with high-speed voice, video and data over copper, fiber and native Ethernet services. Occam currently supports over 2,000 total access lines throughout PSC's service network.
http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Two Minute Video: Carrier Ethernet Service Engineering

Presented by Mark Showalter, Extreme Networkshttp://www.extremenetworks.com

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Nimbula Raises $15 Million for Cloud OS

Nimbula, a start-up based in Menlo Park, California, raised $15 million in second round venture funding for its Cloud Operating System.


Nimbula, which emerged from stealth mode in June 2010, was founded by former Amazon executives Chris Pinkham and Willem van Biljon, who led the development of the Amazon EC2 public cloud service. The company is focused on blending EC2-like scale, agility and efficiency with private infrastructure customization and control.


The new funding was led by Accel Partners. Current investor Sequoia Capital, which led Nimbula's first round of venture financing, also participated in this round.
http://www.nimbula.com

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