New Pacific Cloud Xchange Cable to Bring 100 x 100Gbps on US-Japan Route

Global Cloud Xchange (formerly Reliance Globalcom) unveiled plans for a new trans-Pacific submarine cable linking California and Japan and designed for flexible access options.

The Pacific Cloud Xchange (PCX) cable will be a four fiber pair system with initial design capacity per fiber pair at 100 x 100 Gbps using next generation Coherent Submarine Fiber. The new system will be ready for service in 2015.

Global Cloud Xchange is currently finalizing its submarine cable vendors and additional partners.  Global Cloud Xchange will announce the awarding of the PCX supply contract in second quarter 2014 and expects to bring the system into commercial service in 2015.

"The cable with its open architecture and flexible landing station technology will allow companies to rent and own subsea capacity from speeds of 10 megabits to 1000 gig between Silicon Valley and key technology centers in Asia and India," said Bill Barney, CEO, Global Cloud Xchange. "With flexible access speeds and open co-location, the system will be designed to allow start-ups and smaller cloud operators to buy and rent fiber affordably in a scalable model."

"The new fiber system, which runs approximately 8,300 kilometers between Japan (Tokyo) and California (Silicon Valley), will create a next generation IP and Cloud environment held together with a single AS number and connecting into Tier III+ data center facilities on the ground," Barney added.

http://www.globalcloudxchange.com

• Global Cloud Xchange owns and operates the world's largest private undersea cable system spanning 67,000 route kms which. The company also has extensive global VPLS-enabled Ethernet

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FCC Opens 5GHz Spectrum for Outdoor Wi-Fi

The FCC adopted new rules making 100 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band more accessible for Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices.

U-NII devices play an important role in meeting public demand for wireless broadband service.

Currently U-NII devices operate in 555 megahertz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band, and are used for Wi-Fi and other high-speed wireless connections.

The new rules remove the current restriction on indoor-only use and increase the permissible power which will provide more robust access in the 5.150-5.250 GHz band.

The FCC said the new ruleswill allow U-NII devices to better integrate with other unlicensed portions of the 5 GHz band to offer faster speeds and reduce congestion at crowded Wi-Fi hot spots such as airports and convention centers.

The Commission also modified certain technical rules to improve protection for incumbent systems by requiring manufacturers to secure their devices against illegal modification which could cause
interference to incumbent users in the band.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote: "This is a big win for consumers who will be able to enjoy faster connections and less congestion, as more spectrum will be available to handle Wi-Fi traffic. It will make it easier to get online wirelessly in public places like airports and convention centers, as well as in your living room. This is also a big win for American innovators. The changes we are making will provide fertile ground for the growth of “Gigabit Wi-Fi” – the latest generation of ultra-high-speed, high-capacity Wi-Fi that can provide data speeds in excess of 1 Gigabit per second."

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-increases-5ghz-spectrum-wi-fi-other-unlicensed-uses

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FCC Sets Stage for Auction of 65 MHz of AWS Spectrum

The FCC adopted new rules that set flexible-use regulatory, licensing, and technical rules for 65 megahertz of spectrum in the AWS-3 band, which includes the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands.  The action establishes a band plan that makes spectrum available in a mix of spectrum block and geographic license area sizes to meet the needs of large and small wireless providers.

The FCC said its order also establishes construction deadlines and other service rules, including a requirement that AWS-3 devices be interoperable within AWS-3 and AWS-1 frequencies.

This spectrum will be available on a shared basis with federal incumbents in accordance with detailed plans for these agencies to relocate out of the frequencies or share within the frequencies.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote: "The new capacity will expand the workhorse AWS-1 commercial wireless band to enable faster wireless speeds and more capacity to help satisfy consumers’ voracious appetite for mobile data. This proceeding represents a step forward in spectrum policy. Some of the spectrum being auctioned is already available in the Commission’s inventory. But 40 megahertz of the spectrum to be  auctioned is used nearly exclusively by federal agencies today."

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-sets-stage-auction-65-mhz-spectrum-mobile-broadband

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Arista Networks' S-1 SEC Filing - Big Sales to Microsoft

Arista Networks filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of its shares.  The company intends to list under the symbol "ANET".

Earlier this month Arista Networks announced two new 100GbE modules for its 7500 Series switches:

• 7500E Series 6 port 100GbE card with support for CFP2 optics up to 40km over single mode fiber is orderable in Q2 2014 with pricing starting at $6600 per 100GbE port
• 7500E Series 12 port 100GbE card is planned for availability in 2H 2014 along with a full range of QSFP-100 optics and cables.

In November, Arista introduced its "Single Tier Spline" architecture for simplifying data centers by simplifying cabling, consolidating servers, migrating between virtual to physical networks and controling IP storage. The idea is to collapse the leaf and spine together into a single-tier network for performance and latency sensitive cloud applications. Arista said its design can bring true deterministic performance for up to 2000 hosts in one cluster while lowering operating and capital asset costs by 40%.

Arista Networks' S-1 statement can be found on the SEC website here:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1596532/000095012314000891/filename1.htm

A few items revealed in the S-1 filing:

Arista reported an 81% annual growth rate for the first nine months of 2013
2010 revenue was $71.7 million
2011 revenue was $139.8 million
2012 revenue was $193.4 million
2013 revenue (first 9 months) was $246.5 million

The annual growth rate from 2010 to 2012 was 64%.

2010 net income (first nine months) was $2.4 million
2011 net income (first nine months) was $34.0 million
2012 net income (first nine months) was $20.3 million
2013 net income (first nine months) was $27.5 million

During 2011 and 2012 and for the nine months ended September 30, 2013, sales to Arista's 10 largest end customers accounted for approximately 41%, 43% and 48% of our revenue, respectively.

Sales to Microsoft accounted for 10% of 2011 revenue, 15% of 2012 revenue, and 24% of revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2013.

Arista also disclosed an intellectual property dispute with a company (Optumsoft) controlled by an Arista co-founder, David Cheriton.

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Cloudera's Latest Funding Round Brings Up $900 Million

Cloudera confirmed that its latest funding round, which included a strategic investment from Intel, amounts to $900 million.  This financing round includes the previously-announced $160 million of funding from T. Rowe Price and three other top-tier public market investors, Google Ventures, and an affiliate of MSD Capital, L.P., the private investment arm of Michael Dell and his family, and a significant equity investment by Intel that gives them an 18% share of Cloudera.

“The market opportunity for companies to gain insight and build transformative applications based on Hadoop is tremendous,” said Tom Reilly, CEO of Cloudera. “Clearly, demand is accelerating and the market is poised for growth – for all of the players in this space, and we believe Cloudera will be the company to lead this global shift in extracting value from data. This position of strength and leadership is evidenced by the strong support of public market investors, large institutional investors and now key strategic investors including Intel, who’ve made sizable and significant contributions to cement our platform offering.”

Cloudera offers enterprise analytic data management software powered by Apache Hadoop, which is the underlying technology behind a growing number of Big Data projects.

Why so hot?  Cloudera cited the following indicators on its target market:

• Gartner estimates the market for data management infrastructure (database management systems including data warehousing, storage management, BI, ECM and data integration, and related systems as $74 billion in 2014, growing to $94 billion by 2017.
• IDC predicted the big data technology and services market will grow at a CAGR of 27% from 2012 to 2017, growing to $32.4 billion, and that the Internet of Things will generate 30 billion autonomously connected endpoints.
• Gartner predicted that Big Data would drive $232 billion in IT spending through 2016.
• IDC estimates that the amount of data in the world will grow fifty-fold from 2010 to 2020.

http://www.cloudera.com/content/cloudera/en/about/press-center/press-releases/release.html/?ReleaseID=1913444

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HP Introduces Cloud Managed Wireless Access Points for SMBs

HP announced new cloud-managed and on-premise wired and wireless network solutions designed for branch offices or SMBs.

The HP Cloud Managed Network Solution, which takes the place of an on-premise WLAN controller, lowers upfront deployment costs and does not require on-site IT staff to manage the network.

For on-premise, HP is introducing two WLAN controller appliances that scale to support up to 30,000 devices.

The rollout also includes new HP 560 and 517 IEEE 802.11ac wireless access points, which offer speeds three times faster than 802.11n. The HP 560 access points will also be OpenFlow-enabled, empowering customers to leverage SDN applications without having to rip and replace existing infrastructure.

HP is also partnering with Citrix and MobileIron to offer mobile device management (MDM) integration with the HP Intelligent Management Center (IMC) platform.

In addition, HP is launching a Location Aware SDN application that locates any wireless-enabled device indoors with approximately two meter accuracy.  The solution could be use in context-aware retail, asset management and security applications. This application will be integrated with the HP Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN controller.

“Our customers are telling us that their networks are primarily cost centers that are too complex to manage, while they are at the same time facing increasing end-user demand for a better mobile experience,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager, Networking Business Unit and Network Functions Virtualization Business, HP. “With HP’s cloud-managed and SDN-enabled unified wired and wireless solutions, we are enabling IT organizations to provide an improved mobile user experience, as well as offering simplified management and investment protection.”

http://www.hp.com

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Numergy Selects Nuage's SDN for Cloud Infrastructure

Numergy, a French company that plans to open two data centers this to support cloud services, has selected Nuage Networks' SDN platform and Alcatel-Lucent’s 7750 service router. The deployment will include Nuage's Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) and 7850 Virtualized Services Gateway (VSG).

“We are pleased to implement the Nuage Networks product suite in our cloud infrastructure. The Nuage Networks SDN technology allows us to address key performance and compatibility requirements for an open environment. This will allow us to virtualize our infrastructure and to offer our customers cloud services in a more dynamic way,” said Erik Beauvalot, Chief Operating Officer of Numergy.

“We are excited to work with Numergy in support of their cloud initiative, that will allow them to deliver attractive and innovative cloud services to French and European companies, but also to make their infrastructure more agile, secure and responsive,” added Matthieu Bourgignon, head of Sales for Alcatel-Lucent France.

Nuage said key benefits of its solution include:

• Service provisioning speed and agility: Setting up networks in an SDN can be as easy and timely as creating virtual machine (VM). Unlike traditional networks that are highly configuration driven and manual, Nuage Networks allows network connectivity to follow seamlessly and instantaneously according to pre-defined policies.
• Control: The solution provides a common policy framework through which Numergy maintains full control and visibility of their infrastructure,  while ensuring that performance and access rules are met.
• Network flexibility and holistic management: SDNs enable “network experimentation without impact. “ Nuage Networks allows Numergy to bypass traditional datacenter network restrictions and experiment freely with new network configurations that better support customer scenarios.

http://www.nuagenetworks.net

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Cloud Innovation: Nuage Responds on Today's Frontiers

Where are the frontiers in Cloud Innovation today?
Houman Modarres, Senior Director, Marketing, at Nuage Networks, says the frontier lies in making cloud infrastructure every bit as flexible as virtualized compute has already become. The networks must become more closely aligned with applications.

 See 2 minute video: http://youtu.be/BMXNoPYtTn8

Filmed at: NetEvent's Cloud Innovation Summit, Saratoga, California.

 

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Microsoft's Nadella Appoints Scott Guthrie to Lead its Cloud Business

Microsoft's new CEO, Satya Nadella, announced the selection of Scott Guthrie to head the company's Cloud and Enterprise organization.  Guthrie joined Microsoft in 1997 and has made critical contributions to .NET and has been the driver behind Microsoft Azure.

In addition, Phil Spencer was selected to take on a new role leading Xbox, combining the Xbox and Xbox Live development teams with the Microsoft Studios team, and Stephen Elop was selected to lead the Microsoft Devices Group.

http://www.microsoft.com

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Cloud Innovation: Dell Responds on Today's Frontiers

Where are the frontiers in Cloud Innovation today? Arpit Joshipura, VP of Product Marketing at Dell, says innovation in cloud networking can be seen in two parts - the infrastructure and the software.  Dell is pursuing both. In infrastructure, the company has just announced its highest density data center switch.  In software, it following a disaggregated path to open system.  It has also just introduced an Active Fabric Controller for SDN.

Filmed at: NetEvent's Cloud Innovation Summit, Saratoga, California.

http://youtu.be/kOUoQfIOafs

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Telenor Picks Ericsson for Network Build in Myanmar

Telenor has awarded a 5-year contract to Ericsson to support its nationwide network rollout in Myanmar. Late last year, Telenor also awarded Ericsson with a frame agreement to supply radio-access network (RAN) and associated services for a significant portion of Telenor's network in the country.

Telenor's network in Myanmar is expected to cover 90 percent of the country's population of more than 60 million in five years.

Petter Furberg, CEO of Telenor Myanmar, says: "We are pleased to add Ericsson to the group of global partners we will be working with as we develop the Telenor Myanmar telecommunications network. This is a historic project for Myanmar and for Telenor, and strong partners like Ericsson will be critical to its success."

http://www.ericsson.com

In June 2013, Telenor and Qtel (Ooredoo) were each awarded licenses to build mobile networks in Myanmar.

Telenor said it plans to rapidly roll out a modern telecommunications network and services. Telenor plans to build a state-of-the-art mobile network using HSPA and LTE-ready technologies reaching nationwide coverage within five years. First services are expected to launch in 2014.

Ooredoo noted its significant experience of developing, delivering and investing in communication services in the ASEAN region.  Its assets include Indosat, the Indonesian fixed and mobile communications services provider.  Through its partnership with STT, Ooredoo is also an active investor in Starhub, Singapore’s leading integrated communications provider, which offers some of the region’s most advanced communications services for consumers and business. Also through the STT partnership, Ooredoo is invested in LTC, the incumbent fixed and mobile network provider in Laos. Underpinning the importance of broadband services, Ooredoo operates wi-tribe, a broadband network provider with operations in Pakistan and the Philippines.

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TELUS Appoints new CEO and Chairman

TELUS announced the appointment of Joe Natale as President and CEO of TELUS.   Natale joined TELUS in 2003 as an executive vice president and has progressed through increasingly expansive roles, including President of TELUS Business Solutions and President of TELUS Consumer Solutions. Since 2010, Mr. Natale has served as TELUS’ Chief Commercial Officer.

TELUS also announced that Brian Canfield will retire following 58 years of exemplary service with TELUS and BC TEL. Mr. Canfield has served as TELUS' non-executive Chair since 1999, upon completion of the merger of BC TEL and TELUS.

Darren Entwistle has been appointed Executive Chair of TELUS.

http://www.telus.com

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Huawei Posts 8.5% Year-on-Year Increase in Sales

Huawei reported 2013 sales revenues of CNY239 billion (US$38.45 billion), up 8.5% year-on-year (11.6% YOY growth in USD), and net profit of CNY21 billion (US$3.38 billion).  In its newly released annual report, the privately-held company said financial performance was strong across all business areas.

Some 2013 highlights:

• Huawei's carrier network business achieved CNY166.5 billion in sales revenue, up 4.0% year-on-year. 
• Enterprise and consumer businesses revenue increased by 32.4% and 17.8% to CNY15.2 billion and CNY57.0 billion, respectively. 
• Huawei earned 65% of its revenue from markets outside of China in 2013.
• In the Chinese market, Huawei achieved CNY84 billion in sales revenues, up 14.2% year-on-year.
• Huawei invested CNY30.7 billion (~5.06 USD billion) into R&D, which is about 12.8% of its sales revenue. 
• 150,000 employees

"Thanks to the favorable global macroeconomic and industry environment, as well as the effective execution of our company strategy, Huawei basically achieved our business targets for 2013," said Eric Xu, Huawei's Rotating and Acting CEO. "Huawei has never been more closely connected to the world than it is now. This level of connectivity has two implications. First, ICT technologies have been deployed in more than 170 countries and regions, helping more than 3 billion people connect to the world, communicate anytime, anywhere, and easily acquire and share information. Second, this connected world is reshaping politics, economics, business, and production at an incredible speed and with formidable force. "

The annual report is now posted online.

http://pr.huawei.com/en/news/hw-331129-annualreport.htm#.Uzjwi_ldVF4a

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IEEE P802.3bs Task Force Targets 400GbE

A new IEEE P802.3bs Task Force has been chartered to development 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE).  The project will define Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) parameters, physical layer specifications, and management parameters for the transfer of Ethernet format frames at 400 Gbps.

Physical Medium Dependent Sublayers (PMDs) will be standardized to cover at least 100m over multi-mode fiber, and 500m, 2km and 10km over single-mode fiber. Additionally, specifications for 400Gb/s electrical interfaces for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module applications will be standardized. Other features will include ensuring appropriate Optical Transport Network (OTN) and optional Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE).

“Since the ratification of the 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet standard, the Ethernet Alliance has heard from both its members and the industry at large that global network traffic and bandwidth demand continues to experience unrelenting growth. We must continue pursuing higher-speed standards to support emerging application areas. Vehicular Ethernet for example, will bring a multitude of new users, ports, and applications into the system, resulting in a corresponding increase in bandwidth demand,” said John D’Ambrosia, chairman, Ethernet Alliance; chair, IEEE 802.3 400Gb/s Ethernet Study Group, and chief Ethernet evangelist, Dell. “We applaud the launch of the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force, and are ready to support it in its mission of advancing the next speed of Ethernet. Through our own 400GbE Subcommittee, we will help enable industry consensus on proposals that will drive the 400GbE specification from concept to ratification.”

http://www.ethernetalliance.org/
http://www.ieee.org/

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NTT Innovation Cyber Security Study Finds Major Gaps

Network malware detection and purpose-built solutions are absolutely essential for enterprise cybersecurity as endpoint antivirus solutions are failing to catch a surprising amount of malware, according to a newly published Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) from NTT Innovation Institute (NTT I³).

Some key findings in the 2014 GTIR include:

• Cost for a “minor” SQL injection attack exceeds $196,000 – Organizations must realize the true cost of an incident and learn how a small investment could reduce losses by almost 95 percent. Case Study: “Massive Data Exfiltration via SQL Injection”
  
• Anti-virus fails to detect 54 percent of new malware collected by honeypots – Additionally, 71 percent of new malware collected from sandboxes was also undetected by 11 different anti-virus solutions. This supports the premise that simple endpoint solutions must be augmented with network malware detection and purpose-built solutions.
  
• 43 percent of incident response engagements were the result of malware – Missing anti-virus, anti-malware and effective lifecycle management of these basic controls were key factors in a significant portion of these engagements. Read the “Administrator Releases a Worm” case study to see how it cost one organization $109,000.
  
• Botnet activity takes an overwhelming lead at 34 percent of events observed – Almost 50 percent of botnet activity detected in 2013 originated from U.S. based addresses. The fact that healthcare, technology and finance account for 60 percent of observed botnet activity reflects the information worker burden that accompanies these industries.
  
• PCI assessed organizations are better at addressing perimeter vulnerabilities – Organizations performing quarterly external PCI Authorized Scanning Vendor (ASV) assessments have a more secure vulnerability profile, as well as a faster remediation time (27 percent), than organizations performing unregulated assessments
  
• Healthcare has observed a 13 percent increase in botnet activity – Due to increased reliance on interconnected systems for the exchange and monitoring of health related data, more systems are potentially affected by malware.

The GTIR was developed using threat intelligence and attack data from the NTT Group companies – Dimension Data, NTT Com Security, NTT Data, Solutionary and NTT R&D. The key findings in the GTIR are a result of the analysis of approximately three billion worldwide attacks over the course of 2013. The data analyzed for this report was collected from sixteen Security Operations Centers (SOC) and seven R&D centers with more than 1,300 NTT security experts and researchers from around the world.

“The report represents the culmination of months of research from our world-renowned experts and it strives to provide C-level executives and IT departments a platform to come together and discuss the foundation of their security programs in a way that benefits enterprises in today’s Digital Economy,” said NTT Innovation Institute, CEO Srini Koushik, “The 2014 NTT Group GTIR describes the evolving global threat landscape and underscores the importance of doing the basics right. It also backs it up with real-world case studies and actionable insights for the security practitioners and succinct enough for the Fortune 100 CEO.”

The full report is posted.

http://nttgroupsecurity.com

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IBM Commits $100 Million for Big Data Consulting Labs

IBM will more than $100 million to globally expand its consulting services focused on the integration of next-generation mobile, social, analytics and cloud technologies. Plans include opening 10 new IBM Interactive Experience labs around the world and adding 1,000 employees to create new, personalized models of engagement through data and design.

The new labs will be located in Bangalore, Beijing, Groningen, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Tokyo.

IBM said it believes that data is emerging as the world's newest resource for competitive advantage, and analytics is the key to make sense of it. Its goal is to help clients harness Big Data & Analytics to provide insights needed to make better decisions, create value, and deliver that value to customers and society.

“There’s no longer any real distinction between business strategy and the design of the user experience. The last best experience that anyone has anywhere, becomes the minimum expectation for the experience they want everywhere, and the quality of that experience is entirely dependent on the use of individualized information,” said Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President of IBM Global Business Services. “As our clients recalibrate what it means to engage with their customers or employees, we're bringing them the full spectrum of world-class design and IBM Research, book-ended by strategy consulting and our strength in Big Data."

http://www.ibm.com/gbs/interactive
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43523.wss

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ThreatMetrix Raises $20 Million for Fraud Prevention

ThreatMetrix, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced $20 million in Series E funding for its context-based security and advanced fraud prevention solutions.

Adams Street Partners led the investment round, with all existing ThreatMetrix institutional investors also participating in the investment.

“Adams Street Partners is an ideal fit to lead our latest round of financing, due to its expertise in the cybersecurity industry and familiarity with our existing investors,” said Reed Taussig, president and CEO, ThreatMetrix. “Today’s cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever before and include talented, well-funded, international crime rings and nation states. This financing will enable us to expand the depth and breadth of The Network, grow our customer base and continuously build new capabilities into the TrustDefender™ Cybercrime Protection Platform to protect against rapidly evolving cyber threats.”

ThreatMetrix secures enterprise applications against account takeover, payment fraud, fraudulent account registrations, malware, and data breaches.   ThreatMetrix currently analyzes more than 500 million transactions each month and protects over 160 million active user accounts across 2,500 customers and 10,000 websites.

http://www.threatmetrix.com

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Industrial Internet Consortium Sets Charter

A new Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has been established to support better access to big data in industrial settings by offering improved integration of the physical and digital elements.  The goal is to enable organizations to more easily connect and optimize assets, operations and data to drive agility and to unlock business value across all industrial sectors. Backers include AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel.

Specifically, the IIC’s charter will be to encourage innovation by:  

• Utilizing existing and creating new industry use cases and test beds for real-world applications;
• Delivering best practices, reference architectures, case studies, and standards requirements to ease deployment of connected technologies;
• Influencing the global standards development process for Internet and industrial systems;
• Facilitating open forums to share and exchange real-world ideas, practices, lessons, and insights;
• Building confidence around new and innovative approaches to security. 

“We are at the precipice of a major technological shift at the intersection of the cyber and physical worlds, one with broad implications that will lead to substantial benefits, not just for any one organization, but for humanity," said Janos Sztipanovits, E. Bronson Ingram Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Director of the Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS), Vanderbilt University. “Academia and industry understand the need to identify and establish new foundations, common frameworks and standards for the Industrial Internet, and are looking to the IIC to ensure that these efforts come together into a cohesive whole.”

“The Industrial Internet builds upon AT&T’s vision of enabling people to operate anything remotely, anytime and virtually anywhere,” said Mike Troiano, vice president, Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. “The IIC is an assembly of the world’s leading technology innovators working to mobilize devices and machines around the world, whether they’re in an office building or on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Together, we share a common goal of building a more connected world.”

“Ninety-nine percent of everything is still unconnected. As the world looks to connect more things over the Internet, it is creating the next industrial revolution. Cisco is collaborating with Industry leading companies to break through the barriers of connecting things in industrial environments safely and securely, and paving the way for the Internet of Things,” said Guido Jouret, vice president of Internet of Things Business Group for Cisco.

http://www.iiconsortium.org

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NTT Docomo Launches International LTE Roaming

NTT Docomo is launching an outbound LTE roaming service for its subscribers traveling in eight countries and regions, including the mainland USA and Hawaii, Hong Kong, France, Canada, Malaysia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Existing flat-rate data roaming plans will be applied to the service.

https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp

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China Mobile Awards EUR 750 Million Contract to ALU

China Mobile has awarded a one-year comprehensive frame agreement valued at up to Euro 750 million to Alcatel-Lucent to provide technology that will move the world’s largest mobile service provider to an all-IP ultra-broadband network paving the way for future network functions virtualization (NFV) and cloud-based services.

Alcatel-Lucent said the deal makes it a key provider of technology ranging from IP networking to ultra-broadband access , including, but not limited to:

• Wireless ultra-broadband access technology, such as lightRadio 4G TD-LTE overlay and upgrades to existing networks in preparation for 4G TD-LTE deployment as well as the lighRadio Metro Radio Outdoor (MRO) Small Cells co-created by China Mobile and Alcatel-Lucent.
• IP Networking, such as Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP routing technology and next generation optics transmission, such as OTN 100G technology.
• Fixed ultra-broadband access technology, such as GPON.
• Professional services.

"This is a significant achievement of Alcatel-Lucent and essentially makes us a key technology provider in virtually every aspect of China Mobile’s growing mobile ultra-broadband network.  We have worked side-by-side with China Mobile throughout many developments in mobile technology, including the development of 4G TD-LTE.  We are continuing that close collaboration as China Mobile moves to the next level of ultra-broadband through NFV supporting future cloud applications and services," stated Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent.

The announcement coincides with a visit to France by Chinese president Xi Jinping to commemorate the 50th anniversary of French-Chinese diplomatic relations.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2014/china-mobile-selects-alcatel-lucent-strategic-transformation-all-ip-ultra-broadband-network

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Aerohive Completes IPO

Aerohive Networks completed an initial public offering  and its shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "HIVE".

Aerohive specializes in controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud-managed mobile networking for the enterprise market.  The company claims deployments in over 13,000 enterprises worldwide.

Aerohive was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

http://www.aerohive.com

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Microsoft's Satya Nadella: A Cloud for Everyone, on Every Device

Microsoft rolled out "Office for iPad" – specifically Word, PowerPoint and Excel - as part of its vision to move customers to subscription-based, cloud services.  To get the full editing and creation experience, mobile users will need an Office 365 subscription ($100/year for home users, $150/year for small businesses).

Microsoft also announced the Enterprise Mobility Suite, which is a set of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on laptops, tablets and smartphones.  The new Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) provides device, identity and access management with data protection from the cloud. EMS includes Windows Intune, Azure Active Directory Premium and Azure Rights Management Services,

In addition, the company announced the upcoming availability of Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium and enhancements to Windows Intune. Azure Active Directory Premium delivers cloud-based identity and access management with single sign-on to over 1,000 popular software as a service (SaaS) applications, self-service tools for users, and machine-learning-driven security reporting and anomaly detection. Effectively, AAD acts as the "identity hub" in the cloud for single-sign on to Office 365 and hundreds of other cloud services.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's newly appointed CEO, said the launch represents the new "mobile-first cloud-first" world. He sees "mobile" and "cloud" as two facets of the same trend in connectivity.

"Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It’s a unique approach that centers on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers,” said Nadella.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/mar14/03-27mobilecloudpr.aspx

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Microsoft Azure Launches in China

Microsoft Azure is now commercially available in China. The service is delivered by 21Vianet from multiple locations in China to enable critical disaster recovery scenarios.

21Vianet has already provides cloud services to more than 3,000 customers in China, including CNTV, LineKong, GMW.cn and Coca-Cola China.

Microsoft said this launch is significant because Microsoft has now become the first global company to make onshore public cloud services available to customers in China.

http://www.microsoft.com

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Tiscali Builds Social Network on Metaswitch’s Clearwater IMS Core

Metaswitch Networks confirmed Tiscali as the first customer for its Clearwater Core,  an implementation of IMS built for the cloud using Web development methods to provide voice, video and messaging services.  Tiscali has successfully built on Clearwater Core and Perimeta Session Border Controller (SBC) as part of its innovative Indoona over-the-top (OTT) application.

Tiscali’s Indoona application gives users access to a unique social network designed for smartphones. It allows users to publish posts up to 3,000 characters, share photos, audio or video files and much more. The application offers users 100 minutes per month of free calls to Western Europe, Canada, China and the U.S.

Metaswitch said the deployment of its Clearwater Core marks an important step toward network functions virtualization (NFV) for Tiscali, and also helps validate its own “software telco” strategy, which asserts that communications networks are transitioning to a cloud-based, software-centric, all-IP future.

Clearwater Core combines the economics of OTT-style service platforms with the standards  compliance and reliability expected of telco-grade communications network solutions. The Web-services-oriented design inherent to Clearwater Core makes it ideal for instantiation within NFV environments as a virtualized network function (VNF).

“A network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) is the perfect environment in which to construct, test, deploy and scale innovative network functions. We’re pleased that Tiscali chose Metaswitch’s NFV expertise to help it grow Indoona while providing telco-grade reliability,” says Dave Reekie, general manager of Metaswitch’s open source and security/interconnect business units. “We’re confident that as the Indoona service continues to scale and evolve and become more popular with consumers, Metaswitch will be right there helping Tiscali promote the rapid innovation of new services.”

“Our customer demand is growing rapidly and Metaswitch is helping us meet the needs of our customers quickly and easily,” says Tiscali CTO Andrea Podda. “Metaswitch’s Clearwater and Perimeta products are helping Tiscali achieve its goal of operating a modern, intelligent future-proof network in Italy, in turn delivering high-quality services to our customers.”

http://www.tiscali.it
http://www.indoona.com
http://www.metaswitch.com

• In February 2014, Metaswitch introduced Clearwater Core, a software subscription service capable of delivering voice, video and messaging services to millions of users.  The company said its Clearwater Core provides a foundation for complete wireline and wireless IP communications while effectively removing the typical cost barriers to deploying IMS-centric Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Rich Communications Services (RCS). This enables network operators to leverage their standard compute resources while incurring a minimal software subscription fee based on the number of virtual CPU cores utilized.  The IMS core implementation, which is fully supported by Metaswitch with custom engineering, bespoke professional services and consultancy, could be run within network functions virtualization (NFV) environments as a virtualized network function (VNF).
  
  “NFV has far-reaching effects in communications networks and this new approach to building networks will provide numerous benefits to network operators, including reductions in both capital and operating costs and the promotion of rapid innovation in the services space,” says Dave Reekie, general manager of Metaswitch’s open source business unit.

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Intel Backs Cloudera for Apache Hadoop Data Management

Intel announced a significant equity investment and broad strategic alliance with Cloudera, a start-up specializing in Apache Hadoop-based data management software and services for enterprises.

Intel's equity investment makes it the largest strategic shareholder in Cloudera.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the partnership, Cloudera's enterprise analytic data management software powered by Apache Hadoop will be optimized for data center architecture based on Intel Xeon technology. The goal is acceleration of customer adoption of big data solutions, making it easier for companies of all sizes to obtain increased business value from data by deploying open source Apache Hadoop solutions. Specifically, Cloudera will develop and optimize Cloudera's Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH) for Intel architecture as its preferred platform and support a range of next-generation technologies including Intel fabrics, flash memory and security. In turn, Intel will market and promote CDH and Cloudera Enterprise to its customers as its preferred Hadoop platform. Intel will focus its engineering and marketing resources on the joint roadmap.

Under the deal, Intel's Distribution for Apache Hadoop/Intel Data Platform (IDH/IDP) will be integrated into CDH and IDH/IDP and will be transitioned after v3.1 release at the end of March. To ensure a seamless customer transition to CDH, Intel and Cloudera will work together on a migration path from IDH/IDP. Cloudera will also ensure that all enhancements will be contributed to their respective open source projects and CDH.
 
"By aligning the Cloudera and Intel roadmaps, we are creating the platform of choice for big data analytics," said Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group. "We expect to accelerate industry adoption of the Hadoop data platform and enable companies to mine their data for insights that inform the business. This collaboration spans our data center technology from compute to network, security and storage, and extends to our initiatives for the Internet of Things."

"Hadoop has changed the entire conversation around data," said Tom Reilly, chief executive officer, Cloudera. "Based on our ability to store, process and analyze all kinds of data, increasingly in new ways, the potential for advances in business, social and economic environments are vast. Teaming with Intel, the industry leader in data center technology innovation, presents an opportunity for us to layer Hadoop into a platform's core framework. The result is rapid performance improvements on workloads such as those extracting intelligent insight. Intel's vision for delivering open, performance optimized solutions for big data is synergistic to our vision to help companies accelerate time to achieving success."

http://www.intel.com
http://www.cloudera.com

Earlier this month, Cloudera, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, announced $160 million in new venture funding support its Apache Hadoop-based data management software and services. The new funding round was led by T. Rowe Price, along with three other top-tier public market investors, and included an investment by Google Ventures and an affiliate of MSD Capital, L.P., the private investment firm for Michael S. Dell and his family. To date, Cloudera has raised $300 million in venture funding.

Cloudera said it will use the funding to further drive the enterprise adoption of and innovation in Hadoop and promote the enterprise data hub (EDH) market; support geographic expansion into Europe and Asia; expand its services and support capabilities; and scale the field and engineering organizations.

"Cloudera is successfully helping enterprises exploit 'big data' and manage the transition to becoming more data centric," said Henry Ellenbogen, Portfolio Manager, T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund. "With strong leadership, an ability to innovate, a satisfied customer base, and a large partner community, we believe Cloudera is well positioned to build a durable and leading company in this space."

"We see broad demand from enterprises who want a flexible approach to handling large amounts of data, and we expect this market to continue to grow rapidly," said Google Ventures General Partner Karim Faris. "Cloudera is dramatically lowering the cost of reliable storage for the enterprise and is enabling the analysis and mining of large data sets in a way that wasn't possible before."

Recently, Cloudera brought to market the industry's first complete enterprise data hub.  The company said the key advantages for enterprise customers are:

• Frees them from being dependent on expensive, specialized data storage and compute systems, and instead take advantage of the power of industry-standard server hardware and scale-out architecture;
• Enables enterprises to store any amount of data, of any type, and keep it online as long as needed;
• Ensures that data is secure and governed to meet enterprise requirements;
• Makes it possible for customers to "bring compute to the data," to build a single unified data system rather than moving data around from one system to another;
• Lets customers offload selected data and workloads from expensive, specialized data warehouse infrastructure to alleviate the pain of missed SLAs and degraded query performance;
• Can accommodate huge and varied data sets for more meaningful and timely analytics and enable innovative security solutions, such as real-time anomaly detection without duplicating data or building custom, specialized solutions.

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Hortonworks Raises $100 Million for Enterprise Hadoop

Hortonworks, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, announced an oversubscribed $100 million funding round to support it enterprise Apache Hadoop solutions.

Hortonworks develops, distributes and supports a 100% open source Apache Hadoop data platform that deeply integrates with existing IT investments and upon which enterprises can build and deploy Hadoop-based applications. The company has deep relationships with the key strategic data center partners, including Microsoft, SAP, Teradata, HP and others.

The new funding round was led by funds managed by BlackRock and Passport Capital, joined by all existing investors.

http://www.hortonworks.com

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Amazon Web Services Wins DoD Provisional Authorization

All four of Amazon Web Services’ infrastructure Regions in the U.S., including AWS GovCloud (U.S.), have received Department of Defense (DoD) Provisional Authorization under the DoD Cloud Security Model (CSM) for Impact Levels 1-2.

This enables more DoD agencies to use AWS’s infrastructure.

“After receiving an overwhelming response from defense agencies interested in leveraging our FedRAMP Authority to Operate (ATO), we’re very excited to further extend our services to the government community by meeting the additional requirements of the DoD,” said Teresa Carlson, Vice President Worldwide Public Sector, AWS. “Today, more than 600 government agencies use AWS services, and we look forward to continuing to demonstrate the security and reliability of the AWS Cloud so that an even broader set of DoD customers can use our services to reduce costs and innovate for their missions.”

https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/dod-csm-faqs
http://aws.amazon.com/security
http://aws.amazon.com/compliance

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NSN: 87% jump in Indian Mobile Data Traffic in 2013

Mobile operators in India experienced an 87% rise in data traffic generated by 2G and 3G services during 2013, according to an annual study by NSN. 3G data traffic leapt by 146%, surpassing the world average that is roughly doubling every year. 2G data traffic continues to stabilize, growing by 59% over the same period.

“India is recording mobile broadband data growth figures higher than most other markets,” said Sandeep Girotra, head of India region at NSN. “With the recent spectrum auctions paving the way for acceleration of mobile broadband penetration in the country, there is a great  opportunity for India to create a world-class infrastructure and improve the lives of millions of Indians. This can be achieved through a wider 3G rollout as well as through selected introduction of LTE technologies and the modernization of existing GSM networks.”

The study is available online.

http://nsn.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nsn-study-shows-87-jump-in-indian-mobile-data-traffic-in-2013

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Amazon Web Services Cuts Prices Again

Amazon Web Services announced its 42nd price reduction since launching in 2008.

The lower prices, which go into effective on April 1, apply to Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, the Amazon Relational Database Service, and Elastic MapReduce.  For storage, AWS is reducing prices for Standard and Reduced Redundancy options by an average of 51%. Pricing for Amazon RDS DB Instances are being cut by an average of 28%, while pricing for Amazon ElasticCache cache nodes is being cut by an average of 34%.

http://aws.typepad.com/

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AWS Launches Virtual Private Cloud Peering

Amazon Web Services introduced a peering capability for its Virtual Provide Cloud (VPC) service, which lets users create a logically-isolated section of the AWS Cloud.

The enhancement provides the ability to create a VPC peering connection between VPCs in the same AWS Region. For instance, Amazon EC2 instances could already be connected to a Virtual Private Cloud.  Now, EC2 instances in the peered VPCs can communicate with each other across the peering connection using their private IP addresses, as if they were within the same network.  Up to 50 VPCs in the same region can be peered with each other, and they do not have to be registered to the same AWS account.

More details are online.

http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2014/03/new-vpc-peering-for-the-amazon-virtual-private-cloud.html

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Arista Prices 100GbE CF2 Port (40km) at $6,600

Arista Networks announced two new 100GbE modules for its 7500 Series switches:

• 7500E Series 6 port 100GbE card with support for CFP2 optics up to 40km over single mode fiber is orderable in Q2 2014 with pricing starting at $6600 per 100GbE port. 
• 7500E Series 12 port 100GbE card is planned for availability in 2H 2014 along with a full range of QSFP-100 optics and cables.

Arista said that with 100GbE in the spine layer, customers can now achieve network virtualization using VXLAN support in the modular platforms to deploy their cloud multi-tenant networks at large scale with high bandwidth. Additionally, those deploying the Arista DANZ features within Arista EOS can now get intelligent traffic visibility on 100GbE networks by leveraging Tap Aggregation on Arista 7500E modular platforms. Arista’s Data Analysis DANZ solution is now expanded to modular chassis platforms and enables customers to connect to 100GbE spline or spine networks and to deliver tap aggregated 10GbE connections into a single 100GbE uplink to network monitoring, management and analytic tools.

“We selected the Arista 7500E platform for our data center to provide customers with true 100 Gigabit Ethernet services,” said Ihab Tarazi, Chief Technology Officer at Equinix. “Because of the open architecture and cloud interconnect protocols, including VXLAN, the programmability of Arista EOS and multi-speed mode, we are able to allocate data center resources at 10/40 or 100 gigabits in a reliable and cost-effective manner.”

Arista also noted that its 7300X Series with 10GBASE-T modules are gaining adoption among customers deploying cost-effective single tier and two tier networks.

http://www.aristanetworks.com

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Apache CloudStack 4.3 Adds Support for Microsoft Hyper-V & Juniper Contrail

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) released Apache CloudStack v4.3, its integrated Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) software platform for public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. CloudStack, which is a top-level project at the all-volunteer ASF, includes an intuitive user interface and rich APIs for managing the compute, networking, software, and storage infrastructure resources.

New features in CloudStack V4.3 include:

• Support for Microsoft Hyper-V - Apache CloudStack can now manage Hyper-V hypervisors in addition to KVM, XenServer, VMware, LXC, and Bare Metal
• Juniper OpenContrail integration - OpenContrail is a software defined networking controller from Juniper that CloudStack now integrates with to provide SDN services
• SSL Termination support for guest VMs - Apache CloudStack can configure and manage SSL termination in certain load balancer devices
• Palo Alto Firewall integration - Apache CloudStack can now manage and configure Palo Alto firewalls
• Remote access VPN for VPC networks - CloudStack's remote access VPN is now available for Virtual Private Cloud networks
• Site to Site VPN between VRs - CloudStack now allows site-to-site VPN connectivity to it's virtual routing devices. This permits your cloud computing environment to appear as a natural extension of your local network, or for you to easily interconnect multiple environments
• VXLAN support expansion to include KVM - CloudStack's support for integrating VXLAN, the network virtualization technology that attempts to ameliorate scalability problems with traditional networking
• SolidFire plugin extension to support KVM and hypervisor snapshots for XenServer and ESX - SolidFire provides guaranteed Storage Quality of Service at the Virtual Machine level
• Dynamic Compute offering - CloudStack now has the ability to dynamically scale the resources assigned to a running virtual machine instance for those hypervisors which support it.

Apache CloudStack V4.3 is now available for download.

http://cloudstack.apache.org/

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Secure Domain Foundation Tracks Registrants Security Reputation

A new Secure Domain Foundation (SDF) devoted to the identification and prevention of Internet cyber crime was launched at ICANN's 49th Public Meeting in Singapore this week.

The SDF plans to provide no-cost tools, technology, research, and security intelligence to an initial market segment of Internet domain name registrars, registries, ccTLD operators, and gTLD operators.  In the coming months, the SDF plans to expand services to hosting providers, DNS operators, CERTs, law enforcement and other Internet infrastructure operators.

The first step is a free API service that domain name registrars and registries can use to obtain an instant domain or registrant "credit score" based on security reputation and contact data validation. The API could be used during domain name transactions such as new account creation, domain registration, and record updates.

The SDF is backed by some of the industry's leading Internet and Domain Name infrastructure companies and organizations including: Facebook, Verizon, Verisign, Enom, Name.com, CIRA(.ca), CO Internet(.co), CrowdStrike, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), Emerging Threats, ESET Anti-Virus, DomainTools, Internet Identity, CoCCA, Mailshell, Blacknight Solutions, Foreground Security, and the SecDev Group.

"ICANN has recently mandated that domain registrars must validate postal addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses that are provided as contact information during the domain registration process," said Norm Ritchie, Chairman of the SDF. "And many new gTLD registries have already pledged to take a more proactive role in combating domain abuse within their TLDs. The SDF provides an entirely free service that not only validates the contact registration data provided but also lets the registrar and registry know if we have seen that data used previously in relation to cyber crime."

http://www.securedomain.org

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CenturyLink Provides EMP Shielded Fiber to USAF

CenturyLink will provide a fiber optic system to the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) that is buried in steel pipe encased in concrete conduit to protect it from the effects of high altitude electromagnetic pulses (HEMP).

The system operates continuously among Schriever Air Force Base, Peterson Air Force Base and Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, thus delivering uninterrupted fiber connectivity among the three air bases in the Colorado Springs, Colo., area.

This contract, which includes telecommunications services, network systems, equipment and maintenance, follows a previous procurement for these services that was also awarded to CenturyLink. It could be worth a total of $1.7 million over the next five years.

http://news.centurylink.com/news/centurylink-wins-defense-information-systems-agency-contract

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Verizon Selects Palo Alto for Data Analytics Lab

Verizon has selected Palo Alto, California as the primary site for a newly created data analytics team and lab that will provide strategic direction for data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine-learning activities.

"With the large base of big data and analytics talent in Silicon Valley, we are looking for the best and the brightest individuals who want the challenge of working on cutting-edge technologies," said Verizon Chief Data Scientist Ashok N. Srivastava. "We are working in a startup environment, but inside a large corporation, and there are very few such opportunities like this today. We have the opportunity to build intelligent systems based on recent advances in large-scale machine learning, analytics and the powerful computing technologies available today."

http://www.verizon.com

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BT Selects GENBAND's Diameter Signaling Controller for LTE Roaming

BT has selected GENBAND's QUANTiX Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) to expand its existing Global IP Exchange (GIPX), which serves as an LTE signaling and data roaming exchange for its mobile network operator (MNO) customers.

The integrated QUANTiX DSC delivers a Diameter Routing Agent (DRA), a Diameter Edge Agent (DEA), a Diameter gateway interworking function (IWF), and a Diameter load balancer – all on a common platform with centralized management. The Diameter Edge Agent (DEA) function supports interworking between the wide variety of vendor equipment that is being deployed across its customers’ LTE networks. The software provides context-aware intelligent routing, scalable handling of SIP and Diameter traffic, and secure, seamless connectivity to any IMS/LTE network resulting in a simple, cost-effective deployment of rich LTE voice and data services.

“Our strong relationship with GENBAND has helped to accelerate the growth of our wholesale network, supporting rapid expansion of our global footprint and enhancements to our GIPX services that meet customer demand for international roaming and increasingly data hungry applications,” said Steve Sherry, Head of (G)IPX Signalling, Messaging and Numbering for BT Wholesale. “The DSC solves complex Diameter signaling interworking, enabling network roaming across otherwise incompatible mobile networks. It also provides the security and routing scalability required to handle the explosion of mobile data traffic exchange for enhanced services, such as RCS, photo sharing, video and Over-the-Top (OTT) applications. GENBAND’s professional services organization has supported our ambitious plans in the marketplace – building and operating these critical solutions that drive revenue generation and customer satisfaction.”

“Although there are over 260 LTE networks in service worldwide, there are few interconnect roaming agreements in place between different mobile networks and this deployment marks a significant milestone for international mobile network operators,” said David Hiscock, Senior Vice President of Sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for GENBAND. “In the past, mobile service providers had to negotiate bi-lateral roaming agreements with network operators, implement point-to-point Diameter interconnects, and handle interoperability challenges between LTE and legacy 2.5G/3G networks. The enhanced BT GIPX solution addresses these challenges for BT’s international wholesale network, providing a seamless experience for roaming subscribers across 170-plus countries and varying vender equipment and host network scenarios.”

http://www.genband.com

• In 2012, BT deployed GENBAND’s enhanced Global IP Interconnect solution to deliver SIP-based interconnect capabilities to its UK and global wholesale customers. Last year, BT leveraged the GENBAND solution to expand its GIPX services to wholesale customers across Asia and the Americas.

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Cumulus Linux Selected by IXLeeds Internet Exchange Point

IXLeeds, a not-for-profit Internet Exchange Point (IXP) based in Leeds, UK, has selected the Cumulus Linux operating system.  The company said its selection followed a three-way bid over Extreme Networks and Juniper Networks. Cumulus Networks’ solution includes 1G Quanta and 10G Edge-Core Ethernet switches both of which are provided by R-Com and Hammer plc.

IXLeeds was launched in September 2010 in order to allow public peering in the north of the United Kingdom. The Cumulus upgrade replaces an existing Brocade BigIron RX-8 system, which was first installed when the project began and could no longer meet their requirements.

http://ixleeds.net/
http://cumulusnetworks.com/

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ZTE's Profits Recovered in 2013 on Declining Revenue (-10.6%)

ZTE reported a net profit of RMB 1.36 billion in 2013, or RMB 0.39 per share, compared with a loss a year earlier. The company declared a cash dividend of RMB 0.3 (including taxation) for every 10 shares held, representing 75.8% of total net profit of the year available for distribution. Revenue fell 10.6% to RMB75.2 billion (US$12.1 billion).

Some highlights:

• Operating revenue from the mainland China market reached RMB35.63 billion, accounting for 47.4% of the company’s overall operating revenue. 
• Operating revenue from international operations reached RMB39.60 billion, accounting for 52.6% of overall operating revenue.
• The company reported relatively fast growth in operating revenue from wireline switch and access products.
• Operating revenue from terminal products decreased as a result of lower demand for feature phones and data cards. 
• Smartphones and other smart terminal products now contribute a bigger percentage of total revenue, driven by the rapid development of the Mobile Internet. 

http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/press_center/news/201403/t20140326_421907.html

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Cyan Replaces CFO

Cyan announced the appointment of Jeff Ross as its new chief financial officer (CFO), effective immediately, following the resignation of Mike Zellner for personal reasons.

Ross most recently served as chief financial officer of Velti, a provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology and solutions. Previously Ross served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Sybase from 2007 to 2012, which was acquired by SAP in July 2010 when global revenue was above $1.1 billion. Prior to this, he was the chief accounting officer and corporate controller at Sybase.

Cyan also announced that it currently expects its first quarter 2014 revenue to be at or above the high end of its previously stated guidance. First quarter 2014 revenue guidance was provided on February 11, 2014, and included expectations that revenue would be between the range of $16 million and $18 million.

http://www.cyaninc.com

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Ericsson Cites LTE Momentum with Regional Operators

Ericsson named a list of regional mobile operators that have recently selected its solutions:

Cellcom (Wisconsin) - LTE Enhanced Packet Core and RAN network covering central and northern Wisconsin

Chariton Valley (Missouri) - LTE network covering northeast Missouri

Dickey Rural Networks (North Dakota) - LTE network providing wireless broadband services to south central North Dakota

Flat Wireless, LLC. d/b/a ClearTalk (Texas) - LTE network for mobile wireless broadband covering west Texas,Yuma, AZ, and El Centro, CA as a member of the NetAmerica Alliance

Glenwood Telecommunications Inc. (Nebraska) - LTE network providing wireless broadband services to south central Nebraska

GTA Teleguam (Guam) - Packet Core upgrade and LTE network overlay on the island of Guam

Infrastructure Networks, Inc. – (North Dakota) - LTE network designed to meet the needs of the Energy Industry in the Bakken Oil Formation for its M2M requirements

Ketchikan Public Utilities (Alaska) - LTE network covering southwest Alaska

Panhandle Telecommunication Systems, Inc., dba PTCI (Oklahoma) - UMTS and LTE network for mobility to cover the Oklahoma panhandle

Rainbow Communications (Kansas) - LTE network connected to NewCore Wireless serving northeast Kansas

Sully Telephone (Iowa) - LTE network providing wireless broadband services to south central Iowa

Ericsson also noted that 50% of the LTE connections currently in operation are in North America.

http://www.ericsson.com

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