Monday, June 24, 2013

Cisco Boosts its Enterprise Networking Portfolio

Cisco announced a major revamp of its enterprise networking line,  including new and updated Cisco Catalyst switching and Integrated Services Router products.




Cisco, which this year has been updating its entire service provider and enterprise networking portfolio to become open and programmable, said a key objective is to enable applications to get the networking information they need to offer more innovative services to end users with less hands-on administration from IT professionals.

Cisco ONE is Cisco’s portfolio that addresses SDN and, more broadly, incorporates programmability across the network infrastructure to enable innovation, investment protection and lower operating expenses. Within the enterprise, the Cisco ONE Enterprise Network Architecture brings openness and programmability to the campus and branch, making them more agile, high-performance, and application-savvy, all while adding value to existing network resources.

Highlights of the rollout include:

Cisco Enterprise Networks campus and branch innovations include the following:
  • Cisco Catalyst 6807-XL modular switch for the next-generation campus backbone, optimized for 10/40/100 Gbps and based on the Catalyst 6500 for investment protection. The Catalyst 6807-XL is a 7-slot, 10-rack-unit modular chassis with up to 880 Gbps per slot capacity and 11.4TB per port switching capacity.
  • Cisco Catalyst 6880-X semi-fixed switch enhances Cisco’s midmarket portfolio with 10 Gbps advanced services for smaller and mid-size campus deployments. The Catalyst 6880-X is a 3-slot, 4RU switch with 16 fixed 10 Gbps port Supervisor engine and four half slots for optional 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps line cards, supporting up to eighty 10 Gbps ports or twenty 40 Gbps ports.
  • Cisco Catalyst 6800ia Instant Access switch provides programmable, one-touch deployments for simplified Catalyst 6000 campus operations. The Cisco Catalyst 6800ia virtually consolidates access switches across multiple locations into one extended switch, and includes all the feature richness of the Catalyst 6800 and 6500 switches for access networks.
  • Cisco 4500E Supervisor Engine 8E brings Cisco Unified Access to the most widely deployed modular access switch, allowing customers to preserve their wired infrastructure investments by extending common features, resiliency and granular QoS to wireless. The fully programmable Cisco UADP ASIC, introduced in January with theCisco Catalyst 3850 switch, will be featured in the new Cisco Catalyst 4500E Supervisor Engine 8E, extending wired and wireless convergence to chassis-based switches.
  • Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR) 4451-AX addresses the needs of the largest, most demanding branch offices, extending the branch router portfolio up to 2 gigabit forward performance with native services and pay-as-you-grow purchase model. ISR 4451-AX enables IT professionals to deploy application services in minutes and includes native WAN optimization with a services aware data plane for LAN-like experience at the branch.
  • Cisco Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 1000-AX provides application services for WAN aggregation by integrating Application Visibility and Control and AppNav with Virtual Wide Area Application Services (vWAAS) into the most popular customer configurations.
The product announcements coincide with this week's Cisco Live! event in Orlando, Florida.

Microsoft and Oracle Team on Enterprise Clouds

Microsoft and Oracle announced a partnership that will enable customers to run Oracle software on Windows Server Hyper-V and in Windows Azure.

Under the pact, customers will be able to deploy Oracle software — including Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server — on Windows Server Hyper-V or in Windows Azure and receive full support from Oracle. Microsoft will also offer Java, Oracle Database and Oracle WebLogic Server to Windows Azure customers, and Oracle will make Oracle Linux available to Windows Azure customers.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Microsoft is deeply committed to giving businesses what they need, and clearly that is the ability to run enterprise workloads in private clouds, public clouds and, increasingly, across both,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Now our customers will be able to take advantage of the flexibility our unique hybrid cloud solutions offer for their Oracle applications, middleware and databases, just like they have been able to do on Windows Server for years."

"Our customers’ IT environments are changing rapidly to meet the dynamic nature of the world today,” said Oracle President Mark Hurd. “At Oracle, we are committed to providing greater choice and flexibility to customers by providing multiple deployment options for our software, including on-premises, as well as public, private, and hybrid clouds. This collaboration with Microsoft extends our partnership and is important for the benefit of our customers."

http://www.microsoft.com
https://blogs.oracle.com/cloud/entry/oracle_and_microsoft_join_forces

Radisys Unveils MPX-OS for Media Processing and Software MRF

Radisys introduced its MPX Operating Software (MPX-OS) as the new foundation of its media processing portfolio, including the company’s purpose-built MPX-12000 MRF platform and Software MRF.

The MPX-OS brings new capabilities for interactive service architectures, including KVM virtualization for cloud deployments, VP8 video codec for WebRTC services, and Over The Top (OTT) HD video conferencing and transcoding requirements

Radisys said the new MPX-OS provides the common media processing software foundation for current and future Radisys products and a key enabler for VoLTE, RCS and OTT services.

Key features include:

  • KVM virtualization, enabling virtualized deployment on Intel multi-core services in the telecom cloud for both IMS and OTT services
  • HD 720p H.264 video codec, delivering support for HD video, including HD video recording, playback and conference mixing for OTT communications and IMS MRF deployments
  • Support for VP8 video codec, enabling termination of WebRTC endpoints for streaming, record and playback, or multimedia conferencing applications, or H.264 to VP8 media transcoding for WebRTC gateway applications
  • AMR-WB audio codec for VoLTE, including transcoding support for interoperability between LTE and 3G mobile endpoints using different codecs
  • Supports both SIP and H.248 interface on the same platform
  • Virtualized media processing applications, including MPaaS (Media Processing as a Service)

"MPX-OS is an exciting development from Radisys, providing the common media processing software foundation for current and future Radisys products,” said Manish Singh, CTO, Radisys. “MPX-OS also broadens our media processing expertise into new markets, offering our application partner and service provider customers improved economics, flexibility and interoperability as they roll-out interactive communication services. And by engineering MPX-OS for virtualized deployments in the cloud, operators can deploy these services with maximized OPEX and CAPEX savings."

“MPX-OS represents a unique foundation for our customers that are breaking down the barriers between telecom and web communications for seamless voice and video service delivery, regardless of the network or communications device,” said Amit Agarwal, vice president and general manager, Software and Solutions, Radisys. “MPX-OS based solutions are deployed today as the foundation for media processing in VoLTE, RCS and OTT services, including serving as a bridge across those network domains to enable much broader service reach and stickiness.”

http://www.radisys.com

Radisys' MPX-12000 Broadband Media Processing platform,  which is based on the company's 40G ATCA open platform technologies, is specifically designed to provide mobile and IMS network operators the capacities, capabilities and reliability essential for monetizing real-time wireless broadband communications, including mobile video and voice over LTE (VoLTE). Specifically, the platform offers huge scalability in performing the Multimedia Resource Function (MRF) in LTE IMS networks.

Vodafone Bids EUR 7.7 Billion to Acquire Kabel Deutschland

Vodafone launched a bid to acquire all shares in Kabel Deutschland Holding AG in a deal valued at EUR 7.7 billion.

The offer values Kabel Deutschland at EUR 87 per share, representing an increase of 37 percent on the last share price before takeover speculation emerged.

The companies said a merger would strengthen the market position of Kabel Deutschland and the range of services it offers. Within Vodafone Group, Kabel Deutschland would remain a separate legal entity with its headquarters in Unterfoehring (near Munich).

Kabel Deutschland (KD), Germany’s largest cable operator, offers its customers digital, high definition (HD) and analog TV, Pay TV and DVR offerings, Video on Demand, broadband Internet (up to 100 Mbit/s) and fixed-line Phone services via cable as well as mobile services in cooperation with an industry partner. The company operates cable networks in 13 German federal states and supplies its services to approximately 8.5 million connected households. As per end of fiscal year 2012/13, Kabel Deutschland had approximately 3,600 employees. In the fiscal year 2012/13 (12 months ended March 31, 2013), the Company reported revenues of EUR 1,830 million and an Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 862 million.

http://www.kabeldeutschland.com/
http://www.vodafone.com

Infinera Demos Transport SDN at Nissho Labs

Infinera has demonstrated its converged packet-optical technology and Transport Software Defined Network (SDN) on an Infinera DTN-X network at Nissho Labs NETFrontier Center in Tokyo.

Key aspects of the demonstration included Ethernet packet aggregation, VLAN switching, and transport of MPLS pseudo-wires with signaling over 500G super-channel based OTN ODUflex transport.

The demonstration of Transport SDN featured a prototype Open Transport Switch running on the Infinera DTN-X and working in conjunction with an external SDN controller and various network applications. The SDN controller provisioned bandwidth services on demand across a network comprised of DTN-X nodes using the OpenFlow protocol. The demonstration further leveraged service-ready super-channel capacity, flexible Bandwidth Virtualization, and a standards-based control plane to provide an optimal platform to deliver Transport SDN functionality with the DTN-X.

“Infinera’s goal is to converge Ethernet and MPLS technology into the transport layer on the DTN-X to increase the efficiency of core networks for our customers with an Intelligent Transport Network," said Dave Welch, Infinera Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and CTO. "This demonstration is an important step to prove that Ethernet, MPLS, Transport SDN and the Open Transport Switch technologies can be seamlessly integrated within this architecture.”

http://www.infinera.com



Alcatel-Lucent to Supply ConteXtream’s Session Control to Telenor

Telenor Group awarded a three-year global frame agreement to Alcatel-Lucent to supply mobile Internet optimization for Telenor’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks in Europe and Asia.

The deployment will use ConteXtream’s Session Control to manage end-to-end sessions across the network, automatically directing video traffic to Opera's Skyfire based on rules or policies decided on by the operator.  Opera’sSkyfireRocket Controller and Optimizer optimizes video streams and web in real-time on a per device, user and session basis, thereby improving quality of experience, reducing bandwidth and increasing mobile network capacity.

Alcatel-Lucent is also providing its Velocix 7810 Transparent Caching to temporarily store popular content closer to subscribers, as well as its 9900 Wireless Network Guardian to monitor service quality and provide network analytics.

Alcatel-Lucent said the solution will help Telenor address the challenges caused by mobile users accessing over the top (OTT) video from sites like YouTube or Netflix.

 http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.contextream.com


  • ConteXtream creates a virtualized service abstraction layer, enabling a wireless service provider to more quickly add new applications and network services. ConteXtream’s Service Provider-SDN solution identifies and steers traffic to the specific subset of network functions needed to support each subscriber flow, enabling greater network efficiency, and providing improved network management and subscriber visibility. Existing network functions, as well as the ones being newly introduced, benefit from this deployment. They include content filtering, spam filtering, customized billing, distributed caching, video optimization, TCP optimization, ad insertion, and network and subscriber analytics. 
    In May 2013, ConteXtream announced that a Tier 1 mobile operator in the U.S. had selected its solution. 
     The company is based in Mountain View, California with R&D in Israel.

Crehan: Data Center Switching Sales to Soar

The market for 40GbE and 100GbE data center switching equipment will grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 100% over the next five years, with these two technologies comprising the majority of data switching revenues by 2017, according to a new report from Crehan Research.

The report  predicts that 40GbE adoption will initially exceed that of 100GbE, due to factors such as more attractive pricing, broader product offerings, higher port densities and fewer
competing port-interface types. However, 100GbE will have a significant impact in the outer forecast years.

The report also forecasts strong growth for Fibre Channel-over-Ethernet (FCoE) switches as well, an area that has also seen a number of new product introductions and announcements recently, focused on a converged LAN and SAN data-center networking infrastructure.

“Recently-launched data center switches, such as Arista’s 7500E, Brocade’s VDX 8770, Cisco’s Nexus 6004, HP Networking’s FlexFabric 12900 and 11900, Huawei’s CloudEngine 12800, Juniper’s EX9200, and Mellanox’s Virtual Modular Switch, in conjunction with upcoming introductions from new and existing vendors, should drive strong 40GbE and 100GbE revenue growth,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research. “Many of these switches are not only 40GbE and 100GbE capable, but also incorporate features enabling more openness, programmability and automation to help customers build software defined data-center network fabrics,” Crehan added.

http://www.crehanresearch.com/

Gigamon Enhances Visibility Fabric for Cisco Cisco Nexus

Gigamon has enhanced its Visibility Fabric architecture by adding support for Cisco’s Nexus 1000V virtual switch and seamless visibility for vMotion events.

Gigamon's architecture delivers visibility and simplified management and provisioning of monitoring policies across all network topologies including physical, virtual and software-defined networks (SDN). Specifically, the GigaVUE-VM exposes inter-VM traffic flowing in a physical host and across physical hosts with intelligent filtering and forwarding capabilities for monitoring and troubleshooting virtual environments.

Gigamon said its latest GigaVUE-VM 2.0 release now provides visibility into VMware virtual infrastructures that utilize the Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed virtual switch. The 2.0 update also provides automatic re-configuration of the Visibility Fabric architecture by migrating monitoring policies to maintain continuous visibility when a vMotion event occurs.

“GigaVUE-VM 2.0 automates the ‘tuning’ of monitoring policies in response to real-time network events such as the migration of a virtual machine from one host to another,” said Huy Nguyen, Sr. Director of Product Management at Gigamon. “In addition, traffic between virtual machines on the same host is switched locally without ever hitting the physical network, thus rendering the existing analysis tools blind to that virtual traffic.  Now, GigaVUE-VM bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds and allows complete visibility to monitoring and management tools.”

The GigaVUE-VM 2.0 upgrade is available immediately and pricing starts at $14,995 for 10 GigaVUE-VM Visibility Fabric nodes.

http://www.gigamon.com/traffic-visibility-fabric


AIMS Innovation Offers Monitoring for Microsoft BizTalk

AIMS Innovation, a start-up with offices in the United States and Oslo, Norway, introduced its intelligent monitoring solution for system integration projects based on Microsoft BizTalk.

AIMS, which is partnering with Microsoft, can dynamically determine monitoring thresholds and then, proactively send "early warnings" before problems arise that may lead to costly, disruptive downtime.  The software learns the enterprise systems’ normal behaviour and modifies alerts over time.  The company supports a multi-tenant capability for AIMS for BizTalk, giving partners the ability to monitor client BizTalk deployments through a web-based dashboard.

“Enterprises are failing to monitor the most critical component in the IT architecture - the integration platform,” said Ivar Sagemo, CEO of AIMS Innovation. “AIMS Innovations’ solution will completely change the way companies monitor this critical part of enterprise infrastructure and essentially eliminate all downtime related to the integration platform.  This keeps productivity high and saves companies substantial money.”

http://www.aimsinnovation.com/

DragonWave Joins Cisco's Small Cell Wireless Backhaul Ecosystem

DragonWave's Avenue product line and complementary e-band solutions have been added to the Cisco Small Cell Wireless Backhaul Ecosystem, which pairs the Cisco ASR 901 Series Aggregation Services Routers with wireless backhaul vendors.

DragonWave’s product line provides line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) solutions utilizing 2-80 GHz licensed and unlicensed backhaul spectrum.  DragonWave offers solutions targeted at all-outdoor small cell backhaul, with extremely compact, simple-to-deploy solutions.  With solutions covering sub-6 GHz, 24-60 GHz, and 70/80 GHz, and offering bandwidths from 100Mbps to >1 Gbps full duplex capacity, DragonWave’s products are optimized for 3G/LTE small cell deployments.

http://www.dragonwaveinc.com/

U.S. Cellular Appoints New CEO

U.S. Cellular named Kenneth R. Meyers as its new president and CEO, replacing Mary N. Dillon who resigned to take a position with ULTA Beauty.

Meyers joined U.S. Cellular in 1987 and held several senior management positions, including executive vice president and CFO. Meyers became executive vice president and CFO of TDS in 2007.

Dillon joined U.S. Cellular as president and CEO in June 2010, and was previously global chief marketing officer and executive vice president for McDonald's Corporation.

http://www.uscellular.com/about/press-room/2013/USCellular-and-TDS-announce-CEO-transition.html


  • U.S. Cellular currently serves about 5.1 million mobile customers.