Intel Highlights Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge for 14nm

Intel highlighted two new advanced packaging and test technologies for its foundry customers.

Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), available to 14nm foundry customers, is a simpler 2.5D packaging approach for very high density interconnects between heterogeneous dies on a single package.

Intel said this technology embeds a small silicon bridge chip in the package, enabling very high density die-to-die connections only where needed. Standard flip-chip assembly is used for robust power delivery and to connect high-speed signals directly from chip to the package substrate.

Intel also announced the availability of its revolutionary High Density Modular Test (HDMT) platform for markets including server, client, system on chip, and Internet of Things. Until now, this capability was only available internally for Intel products.

http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2014/08/27/intel-announces-new-packaging-and-test-technologies-for-foundry-customers

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South Africa's MTN Tests 2.4 Tbps Wavelength with Huawei

South Africa-based MTN has conducted a live trial of Huawei's Transport Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and 2.4 Tbps wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) system.

The ultra-fast single-channel 2.4 Tbps field trial took place on MTN’s national fibre backbone network in South Africa. In the first scenario, 2.4 Tbps with 16QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) was achieved over a transmission distance exceeding 300 km. In the second scenario, 2 Tbps with QPSK was achieved over a transmission distance of 1031 km.

Huawei described the system as the biggest in terms of capacity tested to date. In addition to the large system capacity, the "world’s first" transport SDN new features were also tested. Huawei Transport SDN solutions, using physical network modeling and resource abstraction, have realized transmission pipe virtualization. These advances allow traditional communication technology networks to be "IT-like". This trial successfully demonstrated SDN features such as Bandwidth on Demand (BoD), Virtual Transport Service (VTS) and Automatic O&M functions.

Mr. Navi Naidoo, Group Technology Officer, MTN, said: "With this successful field trial, we have demonstrated our commitment to digital innovation. MTN continues to invest in future-proof transport networks to realize world class technologies, not only to our existing markets, but to extend our technology offerings globally. We believe that networks such as cloud computing, streaming media and mobile broadband must be scalable, intelligent and flexible. To this end, Huawei's next generation optical evolution concept 'SDN-based flex optical network' properly fits our requirements."

Mr. Zha Jun, President of Huawei's Fixed Network Business Unit, said: "Huawei will maintain cooperation and joint innovation with MTN, and continue to promote the commercialization process of SDN and ultra-high speed optical transmission technology, in order to jointly meet the challenges of a digital future. "

http://www.huawei.com

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Zayo Announces Connect to the Cloud Platform

Zayo introduced its Connect to the Cloud platform for helping enterprise customers adopt a hybrid cloud strategy.

Zayo's Connect to the Cloud platform will provide a direct connect options to multiple cloud providers and over 500 data centers worldwide. The expanded program offers a direct connect option to many leading cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Softlayer.

“More and more companies are relying on some form of cloud computing,” said John Real, vice president of strategic channels at Zayo Group. “It’s clear that the business landscape is changing, and with so much critical business intelligence now residing in the cloud, it is crucial to have reliable network connectivity. Zayo’s Connect to the Cloud platform provides that connectivity.”

http://www.zayo.com

• In 2011, Zayo became one of the first providers to offer direct bandwidth up to 10G through the AWS Direct Connect portal and in 2013, announced it had become an Amazon Partner Network (APN) Technology Partner. As an APN, Zayo provides private networks with circuits to enable connectivity to each AWS Direct Connect location.

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CenturyLink Opens 2nd Toronto Data Center

CenturyLink inaugurated a new data center in the greater Toronto area, offering 5 megawatts of IT load and 100,000 square feet of raised floor space.

The new Tier III data center, known as TR3, is located in Markham. CenturyLink now operates 57 data centers worldwide, including Canadian facilities in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

“Today’s dynamic business environments require businesses to partner with an agile data center provider that offers reliable, secure IT services and outstanding support,” said Ash Mathur, regional vice president and country manager for CenturyLink Technology Solutions’ Canadian operations. “Businesses that operate in Canada partner with CenturyLink because we help them succeed by understanding and addressing their specific technology needs, as well as ensuring the continuity of mission-critical business applications.”

http://www.centurylink.com

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BT Signs Ciena for Ethernet Service Delivery

Openreach, BT’s local access network business, has selected Ciena’s packet networking solutions to support the evolution of its Ethernet services.

Openreach provides CPs with equal access to the wires and fibres that deliver the data, broadband and voice services to tens of millions of homes and businesses in the UK. Openreach’s EAD+ services offer a wide choice of high-bandwidth, permanently connected, point-to-point Ethernet solutions that help CPs expand their own networks and deliver a range of high-quality services, such as cloud computing, storage area network connectivity and mobile backhaul.

Openreach’s EAD+ services will use Ciena’s E-suite family of packet switch modules, including the 3916 and 3930 Service Delivery Switches and 5142, 5150 and 5160 Service Aggregation Switches. Openreach will also leverage Ciena’s Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) software, including its Service-Aware Operating System (SAOS) and OneControl Unified Management System, to enable low-touch service provisioning. With Ciena’s automated reporting and service-level testing capabilities, Openreach will be able to proactively monitor and measure the network’s ongoing performance for greater efficiency.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We have been providing our Ethernet Access Direct products to the UK communications industry since 2009. During this time, market demand for secure, dedicated business connectivity has grown exponentially – literally underpinning the bread and butter of businesses right across the UK. Maintaining a robust supply chain against this backdrop is of paramount importance to us and our customers. Choosing Ciena as our new dual NTE vendor will provide assurance of continuous supply while also maximising opportunities to further develop the capabilities we offer," stated Jon Hurry, MD, Strategy, Commercial, Portfolio & Policy, Openreach.

http://www.ciena.com

http://www.openreach.co.uk/

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Norway's Broadnet Resigns Contract with Ericsson

Broadnet, the leading Norwegian provider of fiber-based data communication, has signed a five-year network transformation agreement with Ericsson, extending a partnership started in 2006. Ericsson will supply IP routing, optical and microwave solution. The current agreement extends a long-term partnership that started in 2006.

Ericsson said the first stage of the project will cover the upgrade of the 125 metro rings in Norway. Transforming the infrastructure will allow the operator to simplify network management, enjoy less opex and faster time to market for new services.

Per-Morten Torvildsen, CTO Broadnet: “Our network is constantly evolving and we are always seeking advanced tools for improving the efficiency and quality of our services. Our transformation endeavors were primarily focused on simplifying the network. To this end, we decided to reduce the number of vendors from 22 to three. Ericsson was chosen based on the solid mix of own and partner products and the ability to deliver a wide range of professional services. We expect that transformation will allow us to lower operational costs while meeting the growing demand for high-speed services.”
Aksel Aanensen, Head of Ericsson Norway: “We are happy to continue our long-term partnership with Broadnet and proud to be selected as one of very few vendors for the network transformation. We look forward to supporting Broadnet in meeting its goals to achieve a simple and robust network with advanced services now and in the years to come.”

http://www.ericsson.com

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Global Cloud Xchange Hires Mark Simpson

Global Cloud Xchange appointed Mark Simpson as President of North America.

Simpson most recently served as CEO of SEACOM Ltd. where he was instrumental in transitioning the company into a profitable organization serving many markets in Africa and international operators.  Prior to SEACOM, Mr. Simpson was President and CEO of Pacific Crossing where he completed the sale of the company to NTT Communications and remained in the role during a one-year transition to maintain the company's strong financial performance post-acquisition.

http://www.globalcloudxchange.com/

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Software Defined NFV in Google's Cloud Platform

by James E. Carroll

The really exciting phase of cloud computing is just beginning, said Google's Distinguished Engineer Amin Vahdat, speaking at the 22nd Annual Symposium on High Speed Interconnects at Google's HQ in Mountain View, California. It's not about delivering old capabilities cheaper but about new programming models unavailable elsewhere, leveraging low-latency and massive IOPS.

To get there, Vahdat said the old way of networking simply is insufficient to achieve the performance and flexibility needed by next-gen compute and storage systems. Google is leveraging SDN and NFV to run its cloud.

Some key points in his talk:

• Everything at Google runs on shared infrastructures.  The SDN creates the illusion that individual applications/services are running in their own networks with their own IP address space.
• Google private backbone, which connects its data centers, is larger and growing faster than its public-facing network. Bandwidth between Google data centers is comparable to what others see inside their data centers.
• Google has $2.9 billion of additional planned data center builds worldwide.
• Operating at Google scale reveals that the dominant costs of running a big data center is power and cooling, not the cost of the initial equipment.
• Google operates a global CDN of edge connectivity with express lanes back to its data centers.
• Google Andromeda software stack provides the logically centralized SDN control that orchestratew VM, vSwitch, NIC, fabric switch, packet processors and routers.
• A logically centralized/hierachical control plane with peer to peer data plane beats full decentralization.
• Baseline NFV is in the fabric. While Google's Andromeda contoller delivers NFV as a cloud service, new APIs will allow 3rd parties to offer additional network services over Google infrastructure.
• DDoS protection is an essential NFV service. Large companies are under constant attack. The only question is how big is the ongoing attack.
• Another NFV application is Google Cloud Load Balancing. This can be provisioned in 5 minutes and then takes 4 seconds to ramp. Steady state can be achieved in under 120 seconds. The total cost is $10.
• Looking at future needs, the challenge is how to spin up a 1,000 port virtual network in a matter of seconds while ensuring isolation, load balancing, external access, bandwidth provisioning and SAN resources. Using Amdahl's lesser known law (1 Mbps of IO for every 1 MHz of computation) and assuming 32-core CPUs supporting lots of VMs, we can see the virtual network will require 100s Tbps of switching capacity.
• Future NPU must be >2X better than switches and CPUs for the same functionality.
• Every piece of the system has to be in sync and to achieve this constant auditing is required. You are only as good as weakest link.

http://www.hoti.org

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Nutanix Raises $140 Million for Converged Data Center Solutions

Nutanix, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced a $140 million Series E funding round at over a $2 billion valuation.

Nutanix offers a Virtual Computing Platform, which integrates compute and storage into a single solution for the data center. Its web-scale software runs on all popular virtualization hypervisors, including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and open source KVM, and is uniquely able to span multiple hypervisors in the same environment.

The latest round brings Nutanix's total funding to $312 million.

Nutanix reports annualized bookings exceeding a run rate of $200 million.  The company has over 800 customers, including 29 customers who have purchased more than $1 million in aggregate products and services.  Nutanix's growing list of customers includes Airbus, China Merchant Bank, Honda, ConocoPhillips, Total SA, Toyota, US Navy and Yahoo! Japan.

"The convergence of servers, storage and networking in the datacenter has created one of the largest business opportunities in enterprise technology, and Nutanix is at the epicenter of this transformation," said Dheeraj Pandey, co-founder and CEO, Nutanix. "We are proud of the progress we have made, and are confident in capitalizing on the enormous opportunity that lies ahead of us. We recognize the importance of building relationships with leading public market investors, and are honored to welcome them as partners in driving the long-term success of our Company."

http://www.nutanix.com

• In June, Nutanix announced an OEM deal under which Dell will offer a new family of converged infrastructure appliances based on Nutanix web-scale technology under an OEM deal announced by the firms. The companies said the combination of Nutanix’s software running on Dell’s servers delivers a flexible, scale-out platform that brings IT simplicity to modern data centers.
  Specifically, the new Dell XC Series of Web-scale Converged Appliances will be built with Nutanix software running on Dell PowerEdge servers, and will be available in multiple variants to meet a wide range of price and performance options. The appliances will deliver high-performance converged infrastructure ideal for powering a broad spectrum of popular enterprise use cases, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), virtualized business applications, multi-hypervisor environments and more.

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VMware vCloud Links Up to AT&T's MPLS-based NetBond

VMWare's hybrid vCloud Air service will be available via AT&T's Netbond virtual private networking starting in the first half of 2015.

AT&T NetBond is a highly secure private path between a customer's AT&T VPN and a cloud service provider, like HP. The service is automated through APIs and rides over AT&T MPLS network.

"VMware vCloud Air is unique in allowing customers to extend their existing applications seamlessly into the public cloud, using the same management and security capabilities they use in their on premises environments," said Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware. "By working with AT&T, our customers will be able to connect their existing sites to VMware vCloud Air using AT&T worldwide network in hours or minutes rather than the weeks required for traditional network connections."

"Secure, private and reliable connectivity to cloud services has been a key concern for businesses," said Jon Summers, SVP Growth Platforms, AT&T Business Solutions. "VMware vCloud Air with AT&T NetBond provides a pre-integrated network-enabled cloud, enhancing performance and flexibility by extending an AT&T VPN into VMware's hybrid cloud platform."

http://www.vmware.com
http://www.att.com

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Riverbed Annouces SteelStore Back-up for Amazon Web Services

Riverbed Technology announced an enterprise-class, cloud data backup and recovery solution that protects workloads running in AWS by backing them up in secondary cloud locations.

SteelStore for AWS, which is now available in the AWS Marketplace, allows organizations without a secondary disaster recovery location or organizations looking for extra protection to utilize the cloud for disaster recovery and business continuity. By using SteelStore physical or virtual appliances on-premises, data is seamlessly and securely protected in the cloud. If the primary site is unavailable, organizations can quickly spin up SteelStore and recover data to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

SteelStore for AWS deduplicates, encrypts, and rapidly migrates data to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) or Amazon Glacier, creating cloud-to-cloud resiliency. It accelerates data protection by reducing data volumes by up to 30x and speeding data transport times by 4x.

Riverbed said SteelStore supports 95% of all cloud providers and customers are already protecting up to 130PB of data in the cloud today.

“As the AWS Cloud continues to grow, offering backup and recovery strategies through partners like Riverbed creates a stronger ecosystem for customers looking to take advantage of the agility and cost-saving you find with the cloud,” said Terry Hanold, Vice President, Cloud Commerce, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Providing data backup and recovery solutions on AWS marketplace is essential and we are excited to have Riverbed offer SteelStore for AWS.”

“Cloud-to-cloud resiliency will transform backup and recovery so companies have a more reliable, cost-effective and seamless way to ensure their data is protected in the hybrid enterprise era,” said John Martin, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Storage Delivery at Riverbed. “SteelStore for AWS is helping to make next generation storage more secure for customers taking advantage of the AWS cloud.”

http://www.riverbed.com

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ESnet Establishes 100G Peering Point with Pacific Wave

The Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP), which is a nonprofit corporation serving research and education organizations throughout the Pacific Rim, has activated a 100G connection for the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) on its Pacific Wave service.  The connection, which occurs in Sunnyvale, California, enable ESnet to peer with research networks in 40 countries throughout the Pacific Rim.

“International exchange points such as Pacific Wave serve a critical role in the architecture of the Internet, and they are especially important in supporting large-scale scientific collaboration,” stated ESnet Division Director Greg Bell. “This new 100-Gigabit connection will improve data mobility for scientists at the cutting edge of discovery in high-energy physics, fusion energy research, climate science, and many other fields.”

ESnet provides the high-bandwidth, reliable connections that link scientists at national laboratories, universities and other research institutions, enabling them to collaborate on some of the world's most important scientific challenges including energy, climate science, and the origins of the universe. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and managed and operated by the ESnet team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ESnet provides scientists with access to unique DOE research facilities and computing resources.

http://www.es.net
http://www.pnwgp.net

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Dell'Oro: Packet Microwave Equipment Revenue Grows 50% in 2Q 2014

The Packet Microwave equipment market grew 50 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2014, according to a newly published report by Dell'Oro Group.  Ceragon Networks was found to be a beneficiary of the rising demand for packet microwave equipment, as its market share leapt to thirteen percent from just one percent a year ago.

Alcatel-Lucent continued to hold its market-leading position in the second quarter, recording almost half of the Packet Microwave market revenue worldwide.  Ceragon captured the second highest market share; followed by DragonWave.

“This was another fantastic quarter for the packet microwave market,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Microwave Transmission research at Dell’Oro Group. “Interest in packet microwave systems has been steadily rising as operators move towards installing LTE mobile radios.  It’s one of the reasons why the packet microwave market has had four consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth.  Another factor driving the high demand for packet microwave is the rising use of full outdoor units, which carries the advantage of a zero indoor footprint, saving operators both capital and operational expenses,” Yu added.

http://www.delloro.com

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Infonetics: Strong Sequential Growth for Carrier Routers and Switches

Worldwide service provider router and switch revenue, including IP edge and core routers and carrier Ethernet switches (CES), is up 20% in 2Q14 over 1Q14, to $3.9 billion, according to Infonetics Research. However, Infonetics said the long-term trend is reflected in the decline of 4% from the year-ago quarter (2Q13).

“As we’ve been cautioning, service providers of all sizes are being more guarded with their router spending habits as massive network transformation goals involving software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) translate into specific activities and milestones. But this does not mean router and switch spending will tank or even take a sizeable downturn,” notes Infonetics Research analyst and co-founder Michael Howard.

Continues Howard: “Core router upgrades and replacements prompted by the move to 100GE and paired with many aging core routers drove the core router segment to 11% sequential growth in the second quarter of 2014, and with a lot of capacity ‘in the ground,’ we believe core routers will stay positive for the full year.”

Some highlights:

• The IP edge router, IP core router, and CES segments all had double-digit revenue gains in 2Q14 from 1Q14
• On a year-over-year basis, EMEA is the only region to achieve positive revenue growth (+3%) in the carrier router and switch market in 2Q14, while all regions—North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and CALA—are up quarter-over-quarter
• The usual suspects continued to battle it out for the top 4 router and CES market share spots: Cisco stayed in the lead in 2Q14, with Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and Juniper (listed in alphabetical order) in a fight for the 2–4 positions
• Infonetics expects global service provider router and switch revenue to grow at a 2.8% CAGR from 2013 to 2018

http://www.infonetics.com/

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OIF and ONF to Test Transport SDN with Global Carriers

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) will begin testing Transport Software Defined Networking (SDN) in several global carrier lab environments, including China Mobile, China Telecom, TELUS and Verizon. Consulting carriers and research institutions participating in the demonstration include KDDI R&D Laboratories, Orange and China Academy of Telecommunications Research. Testing gets underway this month.

OpenFlow extensions for optical transport developed in the ONF Optical Transport Working Group are being prototyped in the demo along with Service Request and Topology APIs from application to controller. The framework of the demo is application-based bandwidth-on-demand between data center sites, also referred to as cloud-bursting. This real-world use case will illustrate prototype deployment of Transport SDN technology, common interfaces required, needs for interoperability and any operational challenges.

“Verizon has been involved with SDN from its genesis and, as this technology evolves, we look forward to a better understanding of its deployment and operation. As one of the carriers involved in the trial and a hosting lab, Verizon fully supports the OIF and ONF and their collaborative efforts to advance the industry development in this area to achieve the expected benefits of SDN, such as increased network programmability, application aware networking and simplified service development.” Chris Emmons, director, Network Systems, Implementation and Planning, Verizon.

http://www.oiforum.com/public/Global_Transport_SDN_Demo_2014.html

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IBM's Softlayer Offers Hourly Bare Metal Servers

IBM's SoftLayer unit introduced hourly pricing for new bare metal servers that can deployed in under 30 minutes at its data centers in Dallas, San Jose, Washington D.C., London, Toronto, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Bare metal servers provide the raw performance of physical servers. The new hourly bare metal servers are single tenant servers connecting directly to SoftLayer’s private global network.

Softlayer said its new servers can stand alone or integrate with all other SoftLayer bare metal, virtual, storage, and networking services, all in one seamless global platform.

“We have always focused on providing customers the right balance of performance, commitment, and cost,” said Marc Jones, CTO for SoftLayer. “As businesses deploy more powerful workloads in the cloud, there is increased demand for performance with even shorter demand cycles. Our new hourly bare metal servers are designed to hit the sweet spot of how much power they need, how long they need it, at price points that make sense.”

http://www.softlayer.com/bare-metal-servers

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KDDI to Invest US$270M in New Data Centers in Tokyo, Osaka

KDDI will invest US$270 million (28 billion yen) in building two new TELEHOUSE data centers in Tokyo and Osaka. The company cites a growing demand for data center space in Japan.

TELEHOUSE OSAKA 2 and TELEHOUSE TOKYO Tama 3 are scheduled to open in August 2015 and February 2016 respectively. TELEHOUSE Osaka 2, in the center of Osaka city, will offer 700 racks of tenancy space with up to 30kVA (designed) per rack. Both facilities will offer high-density colocation services enabling the hosting of heavy load IT infrastructure. TELEHOUSE Tokyo Tama 3 will be located on the existing Tama data center campus, 30km from the Tokyo city center in a highly guarded surrounding. The five storey building will offer 1,300 racks of tenancy space with up to 42kVA (designed) power supply to racks, the highest in Japan and 5 times industry average, with a designed PUE 1.31 making it one of the most energy efficient data centers in Japan.

These additional facilities will take the total amount of global TELEHOUSE data center space to 371,000 sqm provided by 46 sites across 13 countries/territories and 24 major cities.

http://www.telehouse.jp/en/
http://www.kddi.com

• Telehouse is a subsidiary of KDDI Corporation.

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COSMOTE Romania Picks ZTE for LTE

COSMOTE Romania, the largest multinational mobile operator in the Balkans, picked ZTE to upgrade its existing 2G/3G network and build a new LTE network in southern Romania. The deal is expected to require construction of more than 3,000 base stations, reinforcing ZTE's leading place in the European LTE market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Based in Greece, COSMOTE Group has its major operations in South Eastern European countries, including Greece, Albania and Romania. Deutsche Telekom is the largest of its shareholders, holding 40 percent of shares in Greece’s OTE Group.

In 2012, COSMOTE Romania won the auction for the 25M 1800M and 10M 2600M LTE spectrums and planned to launch LTE services in the hope of better customer experience and competitiveness.

In 2010, ZTE successfully completed a UMTS project for COSMOTE Romania.

http://www.zte.com.cn

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VMware Jumps Aboard the Docker Container Paradigm

VMware is now supporting Docker, Google and Pivotal in the initiative to use a common container for moving workloads between public, private and hybrid clouds.

At the VMworld 2014 show in San Francisco, VMware announced joint initiatives with Docker, Google and Pivotal to help enterprises run and manage applications whether in a container or a virtual machine or a container within a virtual machine in a platform as a service.

The cooperation aims to enable enterprises to run and manage their containerized applications on their VMware infrastructure or on VMware vCloud Air hybrid service.

The common platform will help developers leverage compute, management, storage, networking and security capabilities in container environments.

Some specific points of the joint work:

• Docker and VMware will collaborate on enabling Docker Engine on VMware workflows from build to deploy for VMware vSphere® to VMware vCloud Air;
• Docker and VMware will collaborate on Docker-related open source projects libswarm, libcontainer and libchan;
• Docker and VMware will jointly work on furthering areas of interoperability between their products including Docker Hub with VMware vCloud Air, VMware vCenter Server and VMware vCloud Automation Center;
• VMware has joined the Kubernetes community and will make Kubernetes' patterns, APIs and tools available to enterprises;
• Google and VMware will work together to bring the pod based networking model of Open vSwitch to enable multi-cloud integration of Kubernetes;
• VMware has contributed code to bring Kubernetes to VMware vSphere to make it easy for enterprises get started with container management; and,
• VMware, Pivotal and Docker will collaborate on enhancing the Docker libcontainer project with capabilities from Warden, a Linux Container technology originally developed at VMware for Cloud Foundry. 

"With Docker, Google and Pivotal, we will simplify the way enterprises develop, run and manage all application types on a common platform at scale," said Ben Fathi, chief technology officer, VMware. "In this way, Docker containers and virtual machines will provide an IT environment without compromise. Together, we will optimize containers for the enterprise -- enabling that they run effectively in software-defined data center environments."

http://www.vmware.com

In July, Microsoft, which recently announced support for Docker containers on Azure Virtual Machines, announced plans to collaborate with Google and Docker to bring support for both Kubernetes and libswarm open source projects on the Microsoft Azure platform.

Docker is an open platform which can be used to build, ship, and run distributed applications on various clouds. The use of a container allows the same app to run unchanged on laptops, servers, data center VMs or the cloud -- similar to the concept of shipping container for the transportation industry.

Kubernetes is a container cluster management tool developed by Google. It builds on top of Docker to construct a clustered container scheduling service.

Microsoft is also supporting Docker’s libswarm project, which offers imperative management on Docker, so that libswarm will natively support Azure in enabling deployment of containers on Azure Virtual Machines.

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The VCE Alliance Adds vCloud Automation Capabilities

VCE, the formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, announced new development efforts at VMworld 2014 for delivering integrated management solutions for the hybrid cloud.

Specifically, VCE will integrate its converged infrastructure, Vblock Systems, with VMware vCloud Automation Center and VMware vCenter Operations Suite, and provide technology onramps to VMware vCloud Air, enabling customers with seamless management, workload migration and disaster recovery between their private and public cloud environments.

VMware's vCloud Air is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) public cloud offering that enables an organization to extend its private on-premises IT infrastructure to the public cloud.

Vblock Systems are pre-integrated, pre-tested and pre-validated converged infrastructures for cloud environments, enabling transformative data center agility, simplicity and economics to enterprises and service providers worldwide. As part of the VCE Experience, Vblock Systems are delivered and supported by VCE as a single product, with seamless component-level updates, lifecycle management and end-to-end vendor accountability.

"As more organizations capitalize on the advantages of the hybrid cloud, we are pleased that VCE intends to offer customers a solution to take advantage of vCloud Air's hybrid services portfolio that includes disaster recovery capabilities," said Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware.

http://www.vmware.com

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Dell, VMware and Cumulus Collaborate on Data Center Networking

Dell and VMware are extending thir relationship to deliver more integrated solutions for network virtualization and open networking in the software-defined data center.

The expanded relationship includes a range of new networking solutions for midmarket, large enterprise and service provider customers, backed by a joint go-to-market initiative, a validated reference architecture and a global reseller agreement.

Both Dell and VMware are working with Cumulus Networks to deliver the VMware NSX network virtualization platform with Cumulus Linux on Dell Networking switches. Additionally, Dell is delivering a fully-tested and validated converged infrastructure solution for midmarket customers that includes VMware NSX.

The solution features the VMware NSX network virtualization platform running on top of Dell servers, networking, and storage infrastructure. Dell’s converged infrastructure includes the Dell PowerEdge M1000e server blade chassis, the Dell Networking 10/40GbE MXL blade switch, S4810 Top of Rack switch and S6000 fabric switches, as well as Dell Storage iSCSI arrays.

“Dell is changing the game in networking with VMware and Cumulus Networks,” said Marius Haas, chief commercial officer and president, Enterprise Solutions. “This announcement extends our commitment to providing customers choice in how they move to a more software-defined data center. Additionally, when two of the largest enterprise IT leaders come together, such as VMware and Dell, to provide the most open, automated and comprehensive solutions - that have been fully-tested and validated - the customer wins. And that is what Dell is all about.”

http://www.dell.com
http://www.vmware.com

• Earlier this month, Cumulus Networks announced a big milestone for its Linux operating system for data center networking: well over 1 million switch ports worldwide. The company said its customers range in size from webscale to small business across many industries.  Cumulus Networks now supports 16 hardware platforms, two CPU architectures and five hardware vendors. 

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HP and VMware Collaborate on Software-Defined Data Centers

HP and VMware are extending their relationship to focus more on the software-defined data center and hybrid cloud.  The companies are releasing a standalone HP-VMware networking solution, as well as a solution delivered as part of HP Converged Systems.

The companies also announced HP Helion OpenStack will support enterprise-class VMware virtualization technologies.

Both HP and VMware are long-standing contributors to the OpenStack community.  With the upcoming HP Helion OpenStack commercial distribution, HP will provide an enterprise-grade OpenStack software solution for private, public and managed cloud environments. In order meet the commitment to offering an OpenStack distribution built to meet enterprise requirements, HP is working with VMware to support key VMware technologies with HP Helion OpenStack.

“Customers will be able to combine HP Helion OpenStack with VMware’s enterprise-class infrastructure including VMware vSphere and VMware NSX to achieve production-grade OpenStack deployments. Our integrated network virtualization and SDN solution will help customers achieve a completely new operational model for networking that enables data center operators to achieve orders of magnitude better agility and improved economics,” said Raghu Raghuram, executive vice president, SDDC Division, VMware.

http://www.vmware.com

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Moscow's Akado Telecom Deploys Infinera DTN-X

Akado Telecom (Akado), a major multi-service cable network operator in the Moscow region, has upgraded its backbone network with the Infinera DTN-X packet optical transport networking platform.

The upgrade supports 100G and boosts Akado's total fiber capacity by more than four times, enabling rapid delivery of high capacity services. Akado provides a full range of advanced communication services based on its own fiber-optic network, which extends more than 18,000 kilometers. Akado's multi-service network provides high-speed residential Internet access, voice services, and cable TV services, as well as a broad range of enterprise services for businesses and government entities.

Infinera said its DTN-X platform enables Akado to rapidly deliver reliable, high-speed networking services. The Infinera DTN-X features 500 Gbps super-channel capability.   When combined with Infinera's Instant Bandwidth, Akado can activate bandwidth on demand in 100 Gb/s increments to rapidly deliver services to its customers faster and with lower costs.

"Deploying the Infinera Intelligent Transport Network allows Akado to dramatically increase the capacity on our metro backbone to support the growing demand in Moscow and Moscow region," said Vitaly Klishin, Senior Vice President at Akado Group. "With this solution we can rapidly scale network capacity to deliver reliable 10G, 40G and 100G services to meet the needs of both B2B and B2G customers of Akado Telecom, including banks, service providers and government organizations."

http://www.infinera.com
http://www.akado-telecom.ru

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Nokia Completes SAC Wireless Acquisition

Nokia Networks completed its previously announced acquisition SAC Wireless, a provider of infrastructure and network deployment solutions based in Schaumburg, Illinois.

This acquisition builds upon Nokia Networks’ existing network implementation service capabilities and is expected to increase its market share in this space. SAC Wireless will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia.

“We’re seeing a trend in which operators are moving away from sub-contracting their network implementation services and opting instead for a direct service provider or ‘self-perform’ model,” said Ricky Corker, executive vice president of North America for Nokia Networks. “SAC Wireless does this very well. With a national footprint and a proven track record of working with major telecom operators, SAC Wireless’ capabilities complement our own in-house expertise. We believe this will enable us to build an even stronger foundation for our U.S. services business and address a market opportunity to bring increased end-to-end efficiency to our customers.”

http://www.nsn.com

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VMware's vCloud Air Network Validates Hybrid Services from Partners

VMware introduced its vCloud Air Network -- a collection of validated cloud services based on VMware technology and choice of cloud providers on a local basis.

The idea is to be able to provision workloads to the public cloud or move existing workloads between onsite data centers or internal private clouds to the public cloud, and back again as needed in a VMware environment.

VMware vCloud Air Network is comprised of VMware vCloud Air, a VMware owned and operated cloud service, and the company's ecosystem of over 3,800 VMware Service Provider partners around the world.

"We continue to see tremendous momentum for VMware vCloud Air as more and more businesses look to capitalize on the undeniable operational and economic benefits of hybrid cloud," said Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware. "The VMware vCloud Air Network represents another key element of our cloud strategy -- enabling customer choice and flexibility to find the ideal, local cloud service based on industry leading VMware technology. Our customers can focus their resources on growing their business, knowing that by using VMware vCloud Air or one of our vCloud Air Network partners, their IT team can seamlessly and securely extend their data centers and applications to the cloud."

http://www.vmware.com/

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China Telecom and IBM Sign 3-Year Deal to Build SAP Clouds

China Telecom and IBM announced a three-year agreement to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) implement secure, cost-effective and scalable SAP cloud-based applications.

China Telecom will manage clients’ infrastructure that includes cloud platform resources, networking and mobile devices. IBM will integrate the software, hardware and end-to-end service capabilities to create a complete environment in that supports SAP applications on the cloud.

“Today’s announcement represents an important step in the Chinese cloud computing market that will provide one of the fastest growing segments within China greater access to cloud resources,” said D.C. Chien, general manage
r and chief executive officer, IBM Greater China Group. “Our work with China Telecom will provide small-to-medium sized businesses in China with the means to more quickly deploy enterprise-grade cloud capabilities and assist them in driving innovation via the cloud.”

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/44636.wss

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HP Signs Partner for Helion Cloud Services in China

HP signed an agreement with Beijing UnionRead Information Technology Ltd., a leading content distribution network service provider and hybrid cloud operator, to build and operate enterprise clouds in China using HP Helion solutions based on OpenStack technology.

The deal is a a significant step forward the HP Helion portfolio, especially in China.

Specifically, UnionRead will establish a dedicated team to build, operate and support community clouds. UnionRead also plans to deploy HP Helion as the technology foundation that extends across its data centers throughout China. UnionRead community clouds will offer the following technical capabilities:

• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — compute, storage and networking using HP Helion OpenStack commercial distribution.
• Platform as a service (PaaS) — the HP Helion Development Platform based on Cloud Foundry, a leading open-source development project, enabling developers and system integrators to build cloud-native applications using a flexible, open architecture.
• Software as a service (SaaS) — services from HP and HP partners spanning a wide range of business applications, such as big data analytics.

“Community clouds will become increasingly prevalent in China as communities of interest, such as an automotive supply chain or a city government, seek to gain efficiencies and speed by leveraging a common cloud infrastructure,” said Martin Fink, executive vice president and chief technology officer, HP. “Through our relationship with UnionRead, we will be able to offer customers a fully supported hybrid-cloud solution, leveraging OpenStack technology, to quickly and reliably build community clouds.”

http://hp.com/helion

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Bethany Mayer Joins Ixia as President and CEO

Ixia named Bethany Mayer as president and chief executive officer effective

Mayer brings over 25 years of technology experience to Ixia and joins the company from HP where she has held several key executive roles since 2010. Most recently, Mayer served as HP’s senior vice president and general manager of its Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) business and led the company’s NFV initiative. Previously, Mayer was senior vice president and general manager of the HP Networking Business unit, where under her leadership the business unit delivered 12 consecutive quarters of growth. Prior to that, Mayer was vice president, marketing and alliances for HP’s Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking Group. Prior to joining HP, Mayer served as senior vice president of worldwide marketing and corporate development at Blue Coat Systems, and held product marketing roles at Cisco Systems and Apple Computer.

The appointment becomes effective the day after Ixia becomes current in its periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Mayer will also join Ixia’s board of directors.

“We are delighted to appoint Bethany Mayer as Ixia’s president and chief executive officer,” commented Errol Ginsberg, Ixia's chairman and acting chief executive officer. “Today’s networking trends are revolutionary, not evolutionary, and virtualization is playing a key role in the transformation of service provider and enterprise networks around the world. Therefore, it was paramount for Ixia to find a candidate intimately involved with these new networking technologies, and we believe Bethany is the ideal executive to build upon Ixia’s industry leading foundation.”

http://www.ixiacom.com

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HP Intros Virtual Storage Appliances, OpenStack Cloud Integration

HP introduced new virtual storage appliances for the software-defined data center (SDDC), OpenStack cloud integration capabilities and a new entry-level all-flash array to enable affordable application performance acceleration.

The HP StoreVirtual Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA)is a fully integrated storage option for HP Helion OpenStack and HP Helion OpenStack Community Edition. HP has also enhanced HP StoreVirtual Storage hypervisor integration and released a new HP StoreOnce VSA license that cuts backup costs by 86 percent for small and remote sites.

Additionally, HP is enabling high service levels while removing cost barriers to flash storage adoption with the HP 3PAR StoreServ 7200 All-Flash Starter Kit (starting at $35,000)

“As customers move to the software-defined data center, they face gaps with legacy hardware-oriented storage,” said David Scott, senior vice president and general manager, HP Storage. “For increased agility, HP delivers software-defined storage via VSAs that optimize cost and all-flash, service-refined storage to optimize service levels—both orchestrated with common tools.”

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=1753931#.U_q5aPmwJnQ

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FCC Posts Rules for Medical Body Area Networks

The FCC finalized rules covering Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) used as a platform for wireless networking of multiple body sensors for performing diagnostic or therapeutic functions, primarily in health care facilities. MBAN devices promise to enhance patient safety, care and comfort by reducing the need to physically connect sensors to essential monitoring equipment by cables and wires.

An MBAN is a low power network of sensors worn on the body controlled by a hub device that is located either on the body or in close proximity to it. MBAN devices operate in the 2360-2400 MHz band on a secondary basis, that is, they mus not cause harmful interference to and must accept interference from Federal and non-Federal stations operating in the band in accordance with the Table of Frequency Allocations. The 2360-2390 MHz band is allocated for the Mobile Service on a primary basis and is used for aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT). The 2390-2400 MHz band is allocated for both the Amateur Service and the Mobile Service on a primary basis.

More online.

http://www.fcc.gov/document/commission-finalizes-rules-operation-medical-body-area-networks

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IBM Expands Linux on Power Systems

Following on last year's commitment of $1 billion in new Linux and open source technologies for its Power Systems servers, IBM announced plans to tap its global network of over 50 IBM Innovation Centers and IBM Client Centers to help push Big Data and cloud computing software applications for clients using Linux on IBM Power Systems servers.

Power Systems Linux Centers are already operational in Beijing, Tokyo, New York, Austin, and Montpelier, France.  Currently, over 1500 ISV applications are available for Linux on Power, fueled in part by work performed at these centers.

This expansion will bring Linux on Power Services to 54 locations worldwide.  Resources vary by location and can include:

• In-person and online Linux training workshops that show developers how to migrate and optimize their applications using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Canonical Ubuntu Server Linux technologies on Power Systems.
• Hands-on assistance from dedicated Linux and IBM systems specialists to show developers how to take advantage of IBM's unique POWER8 parallel processing and advanced virtualization capabilities.
• Access to IBM's business consulting specialists and Business Partner resources to develop joint go to market strategies for Power System and Linux based solutions. 

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/44634.wss

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Converged Memory Acceleration: Combining DRAM with Flash

In this 3-minute video, Riccardo Badalone, CEO of Diablo Technologies, discusses Converged Memory -- a powerful new concept that combines the best performance attributes of DRAM with the advantages of Flash, including persistence and low cost.

Diablo's NanoCommit technology supports hundreds of millions of transactions per second, with nanosecond latency.

Click to view on YouTube - http://youtu.be/LV5BtBO11u0

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DOCOMO and Huawei Test LTE in 5 GHz Band

DOCOMO Beijing Communications Laboratories and Huawei have carried out a joint demonstration of LTE deployed over the 5GHz unlicensed spectrum band, which is widely used for wireless LAN networks in many countries today.  The companies have been conducting experiments of Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), a technology that expands LTE-compatible spectrum to unlicensed spectrum bands, thereby providing complementary access for the LTE operator network. Currently, LTE's compatible spectrum bands are licensed between the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands in Japan.

"We are very pleased to have confirmed that LAA is a viable technology for LTE and future LTE-Advanced," said Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at NTT DOCOMO. "We aim to contribute to the standardization of this technology, which inherits the highly advanced features of LTE, to further enhance the global user experience with wireless broadband."

Significantly, the indoor tests found that LAA in 5GHz bandwidth can achieve a cell capacity of approximately 1.6 times greater than that of IEEE 802.11n.

https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2014/0821_00.html

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VMware Acquires CloudVolumes for Real-Time Application Delivery

VMware has acquired CloudVolumes, a start-up developing real-time application delivery technology that enables enterprises to deliver native applications to virtualized environments on-demand. Financial terms were not disclosed.

CloudVolumes, which is based in Santa Clara, California, virtualizes everything above the OS.

"Customers are looking to modernize their existing Windows application delivery architecture to be more like mobile IT," said Sumit Dhawan, senior vice president and general manager, Desktop Products, End-User Computing, VMware. "The combination of CloudVolumes and VMware Horizon will allow customers to build a real-time application delivery system that enables all applications to be centrally managed, always available and up-to-date, and delivered to virtualized environments for desktop, server or cloud on-demand."

VMware said CloudVolumes will also help it to build real-time application delivery across all three of its technology focus areas that include end-user computing, software-defined data center and hybrid cloud services.

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-newsfeed/VMware-Acquires-CloudVolumes,-Pioneer-of-Real-Time-Application-Delivery-Technologies/1872050

http://cloudvolumes.com/

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Brocade Posts Quarterly Revenue of $545M, up 2% YoY

Brocade reported third quarter revenue of $545 million, up 2% year-over-year and up 2% quarter-over-quarter. The company reported GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.20, down from $0.26 in Q3 2013, and up from a loss per share of $(0.03) in Q2 2014. During Q3 2013, the Company recognized a gain of $77 million related to the litigation settlement with A10 Networks, which increased GAAP EPS by $0.13 in that quarter.

"With another solid quarter behind us, we are seeing the tangible benefits of our data center focused strategy," said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Brocade. "The resilience and durability of our SAN business, along with strong Brocade VDX sales, validate our strategic direction. We continue to leverage our core competencies in hardware and software networking to position the company for growth, and we remain focused on delivering a world-class customer experience, even in the most demanding environments."

Some highlights:

• SAN business revenue, including products and services, was $380 million, up 3% year-over-year and flat sequentially. The year-over-year improvement was the result of 4% growth in SAN product revenue due to higher switch and director sales, partially offset by lower embedded product sales and the revenue impact from the divestiture of the HBA business during Q1 2014. The revenue performance was better than expected in a typically soft demand quarter.
  
• IP Networking business revenue, including products and services, was $166 million, down 1% year-over-year and up 5% sequentially. The sequential increase was primarily due to higher sales of Ethernet switching products to the U.S. Federal government and strong Brocade VDX sales to data center customers, partially offset by lower routing sales to service provider customers and lower support revenue. Q3 2014 IP Networking product revenue was $133 million, down 1% year-over-year and up 9% sequentially. Ethernet switch revenue increased 17% year-over-year and 27% sequentially. Routing product revenue decreased 19% year-over-year and 20% sequentially, primarily due to a pause in some customer orders in anticipation of new products scheduled for release in fiscal Q4 2014.

http://newsroom.brocade.com/press-releases/brocade-reports-fiscal-q3-2014-results-nasdaq-brcd-1139567#.U_bUkvmWWSo

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Department of Defense Authorizes AWS

Amazon Web Services received the first Department of Defense Provisional Authorization under the DoD Cloud Security Model's at security impact levels 3-5.

This enables DoD customers to implement a wide range of DoD requirements necessary to protect their data at these levels, including AWS Direct Connect routing to the DoD's network, comprehensive computer network defense coverage, and Common Access Card (CAC) integration.

AWS previously received a DoD Provisional Authorization for security impact levels 1-2.

http://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/

• In March, AWS announced its compliance with security impact levels 1-2 for all AWS Regions in the US, demonstrating adherence to hundreds of controls.

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ZTE Sees Strong Profit Growth in 1H14 Led by 4G Rollouts in China

ZTE released financial guidance forecasting net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of be between RMB 1.7 billion and RMB 1.9 billion in the first nine months of 2014, an increase of between 208.2% to 244.5% from a year earlier. ZTE also reportedthat first-half net profit increased 263.9% to RMB 1.13 billion. Six-month basic earnings per share was RMB 0.33, while revenue increased to RMB 37.7 billion.

The company cited strength in revenue from network contracts and ongoing improvements to contract profitability in the first nine months, including 4G rollouts in China.

In the first six months, ZTE reported operating revenue of RMB 19.26 billion from the domestic market, accounting for 51.1% of the Group’s overall operating revenue. Leveraging opportunities presented by the large-scale deployment of 4G networks, the Group committed to efforts to develop business in emerging new sectors such as the Mobile Internet and Cloud Computing under its M-ICT Strategy. Innovative solutions were launched with enhanced in-house capabilities, while strategic cooperation with carriers was conducted in a practical manner to maintain the Group’s dominant position and increase its market shares, laying the foundations for sustainable long-term development.

ZTE reported operating revenue of RMB 18.44 billion from the international market, accounting for 48.9% of the Group’s overall operating revenue. In adherence to the strategy of focusing on major populous nations and mainstream global carriers, the Group further optimized its market profile to achieve stable operations and quality growth.

More details online.

http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/press_center/news/201408/t20140820_426589.html

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Huawei's European Operations Lands US$1.6 Billion Loan

Huawei Technologies' European subsidiary has been granted a US$1.6 billion 5+1+1-year revolving credit facility (loan) by leading European banks, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, DBS Bank Ltd., Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., HSBC Bank plc, ING Bank N.V., Standard Chartered Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Hong Kong Branch.

"This symbolizes that the level of trust and cooperation between Huawei and our partners has been raised to new heights. We would like to thank all of you for your trust and support, which has helped us walk steadily forward on the road to globalization." said Mr. Evan Bai, the president of Treasury of Huawei Group, "We firmly believe that Huawei will maintain its unceasing efforts, make continuous improvements, achieve stable and favorable performance, and repay all of you for your trust and support."

http://www.huawei.com

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Vertical Systems' Mid-2014 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD

Vertical Systems Group released its Mid-2014 Leaderboard for U.S. Carrier Ethernet service: (in rank order based on retail ports): AT&T, Verizon, tw telecom, CenturyLink, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox, Level 3 and XO. Port shares were calculated using the base of enterprise installations of Ethernet services, plus input from Vertical Systems Group's independent surveys of Ethernet service providers. The LEADERBOARD threshold is four percent (4%) or more of billable port installations.

The next, or Challenge Tier, includes all providers with between 1% and 4% share of the U.S. retail Ethernet market. The following seven companies attained a position in the mid-2014 Challenge Tier (in alphabetical order): Charter, Cogent, Integra, Lightpath, MegaPath, Windstream and Zayo.

"Now beyond the hockey stick ramp stage, the U.S. Ethernet services market has entered a very healthy growth period. During the first half of 2014, more new Ethernet customer ports were installed than during any previous corresponding period," said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. "Customers shopping for Ethernet services have a broader choice of companies with substantial Ethernet assets, including the sixteen providers on the mid-2014 LEADERBOARD and Challenge Tier rosters."

A shakeup of the U.S. LEADERBOARD may be ahead, pending the outcome of merger activity for four of the top nine providers. In February, Comcast announced its intent to acquire Time Warner Cable. In June, Level 3 announced an agreement to acquire tw telecom.

Companies with Ethernet port share below 1% are in the Market Player tier. The Market Player tier includes the following providers selling retail Ethernet services in the U.S. market (in alphabetical order): Alpheus Communications, American Telesis, Bright House Networks, BT Global Services, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, Earthlink Business, Expedient, FairPoint Communications, FiberLight, Fibertech, Frontier, Hawaiian Telecom, Lightower, LS Networks, Lumos Networks, Masergy, NTT America, Orange Business, RCN Business, Reliance Globalcom, Sprint, SuddenLink, Tata, TDS Telecom, TelePacific, US Signal, WOW!Business and other companies.

http://www.verticalsystems.com

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China Telecom Tests Huawei's LTE eMBMS Broadcasts

China Telecom deployed pre-commercial, LTE-based evolved multimedia broadcast/multicast service (eMBMS) for the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG), which are underway and run from August 16-28 in Beijing. eMBMS enable a high-quality video broadcasts for mobile LTE users during the games.

During the YOG, Huawei and China Telecom will demonstrate the eMBMS service live at the YOG Control Center and the temporary business hall in the Youth Olympic Village (YOG), as well as tertiary educational institutions, such as Hohai University campus and Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications campus, in Nanjing. In addition, China Telecom has made 18,000 Huawei C8817 eMBMS-enabled device units available to YOG service volunteers so that they can enjoy watching HD YOG games on their mobile terminals anytime, anywhere, and free of charge.

http://pr.huawei.com/en/news/hw-362438-lte.htm#.U_WATPmWWSo

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CenturyLink Launches Private Cloud Service in 57 Data Centers

CenturyLink officially launched a new Private Cloud service feauturing the physical isolation, dedicated hardware and security standards that many large enterprises require.

CenturyLink Private Cloud is now available from the company's 57 data centers located in 34 cities around the world. Each private cloud instance is federated into the CenturyLink Cloud network of public cloud nodes, giving users a single interface for creating and maintaining a hybrid environment that spans both public and private clouds. The end result is greater agility for businesses across a broader range of workloads – even those that require additional security and compliance.

“CenturyLink continues to realize our vision for business-friendly hybrid IT solutions, with public cloud, private cloud and network connectivity all available from one provider,” said Andrew Higginbotham, senior vice president, cloud and technology, at CenturyLink. “CenturyLink Private Cloud delivers the best of private cloud – from dedicated hardware and physical isolation to enterprise-level security and service-level agreements – along with our truly innovative public cloud experience, featuring advanced self-service automation and a fast pace of feature innovation.”

http://www.centurylink.com/technology

• In January, Savvis adopted the CenturyLink Technology Solutions brand. CenturyLink acquired Savvis in 2011.

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PernixData Raises $35M for Storage Software

PernixData, a start-up based in San Jose, California, raised $35 million in Series C funding for its server-side storage intelligence solution.

PernixData said its mission is to fundamentally changing how storage is designed and operated in virtual data centers. The company’s flagship product, PernixData FVP software, virtualizes server flash and RAM to enable scale-out storage performance that is independent of capacity. No changes are required to VMs, servers or primary storage, ensuring maximum performance of all virtualized applications in a seamless, scalable and cost-effective manner.

The company reports 42 percent quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. PernixData has sold its FVP software to approximately 200 companies in over 20 countries, ranging from two to 300+ node deployments.

The new funding round was led Menlo Ventures and included new individual investments from Marc Benioff (chairman and CEO of salesforce.com), Jim Davidson (Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Managing Director at Silver Lake), and Steve Luczo (chairman and CEO of Seagate Technology).  Previous investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Lightspeed Ventures, Lane Bess, Mark Leslie and John Thompson also contributed to the Series C round, which now brings the total investment in the company to $62 million.

“PernixData has experienced an absolutely amazing year with groundbreaking product features, 160 percent growth in world-wide headcount, extensive industry accolades, top tier funding, and revenues that were 50 percent higher than any other enterprise software company during its first year of sales, handily beating the previous record in this space,” said Poojan Kumar, CEO and co-founder of PernixData.  “This underscores the enormous demand for our unique decoupled storage architecture. We will use this revenue momentum and the new round of funding to execute on our next phase of product vision and deliver FVP globally to all virtualized data centers.”

“We are witnessing a fundamental shift in storage design where performance is decoupled from capacity using PernixData FVP software and server side flash,” said Steve Luczo, chairman of the board and CEO of Seagate Technology. “This brings unparalleled performance and scalability to virtualized applications, and makes flash technology a strategic component of tomorrow’s software defined data center.”

http://www.pernixdata.com

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