See 3-minute video: http://youtu.be/713IkuFdGWI
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Video: SDN and the Future of Service Provider Networks
See 3-minute video: http://youtu.be/713IkuFdGWI
Cisco Beats Estimates with Quarterly Revenue of $11.5 Billion
Cisco reported third quarter revenue of $11.5 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.2 billion or $0.42 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.6 billion or $0.51 per share. Revenue was down 5.5% compared with the same period last year, while net income declined 12% compared to last year.
"I'm pleased with our performance in Q3. Our financial results exceeded the guidance we provided last quarter as we demonstrated clear progress on returning to growth. The entire team is focused on moving Cisco forward aggressively and we remain confident in our long-term goal to be the #1 IT company," stated John Chambers, Cisco chairman and chief executive officer.
Some highlights:
http://investor.cisco.com/eventdetail.cfm?EventID=143119
"I'm pleased with our performance in Q3. Our financial results exceeded the guidance we provided last quarter as we demonstrated clear progress on returning to growth. The entire team is focused on moving Cisco forward aggressively and we remain confident in our long-term goal to be the #1 IT company," stated John Chambers, Cisco chairman and chief executive officer.
Some highlights:
- Total US orders grew 7% y/y, while U.S. commercial and US enterprise orders were both up 10% y/y. However, emerging markets continued to be challenged with orders declining (7%) y/y. BRIC+M orders were down (13%) y/y.
- Customer reception for the new Application Centric Infrastructure architecture is "very strong." It will take several quarters before high-end switching really begins growing. There were 175 customers for the Nexus 9000 and the pipeline is close to 1,000.
- Data center revenue overall grew 29% y/y. The UCS product line experienced its 17th consecutive quarter of market share gains
- Sourcefire fuels security revenue up 10% y/y; orders up 20% y/y.
- Service Provider orders declined (5%) y/y, which is up from a (12%) decline in Q2.
- ASR 9000 revenue grew 59% y/y.
- Switching revenue declined (6%) y/y; switching gross margins remain strong.
http://investor.cisco.com/eventdetail.cfm?EventID=143119
Riverbed Tunes its SteelHead WAN Optimization for Microsoft Azure
Riverbed's SteelHead already supported AWS and other public clouds.
What’s New in SteelHead 8.6
- Now available for Microsoft Azure: SteelHead CX cloud instances are now available as a subscription-based offering in Microsoft Azure, making SteelHead available for 90% of public cloud deployments. SteelHead enables enterprises to host their applications with the cloud vendor that best meets their business
- Enterprise-scale SteelHead for virtual environments and private/hybrid clouds: When virtualized infrastructure is required, IT can avoid multiple SteelHead virtual devices and simplify their network architecture with SteelHead CX 7055V, a new virtual appliance that can optimize up to 1Gbps of traffic. The SteelHead CX 7055v simplifies deployment in private cloud architectures and enterprise-scale virtualized datacenters with a single virtualized 1G appliance deployed on a standard server.
- App Engine upgrade for greater control over all network traffic: SteelHead users can now set policies and classes for over 1,100 applications. As a result, SteelHead now enables more granular control over all network traffic, automatically reserving bandwidth for business-critical apps and steering them on to low-latency, uncongested links. This allows IT to align application delivery more directly with business needs.
- A higher-performance mid-range application acceleration platform: For mid-range enterprise deployments, the new CX570 and CX770 deliver higher performance and better diagnostics and are simple to upgrade at the same price as their predecessors, CX555 and CX755.
Riverbed also introduced SteelHead CX 7055v, an enterprise-scale virtual solution delivering up to 1 Gbps of optimized traffic for private and hybrid clouds.
“SteelHead is the dominant platform for accelerating business applications across enterprise networks. Our customers are now deploying applications in multiple clouds and scaling their network infrastructure to 1Gbps to ensure the highest level of user experience at all locations. SteelHead 8.6 simplifies these deployment challenges by allowing our customers to deliver consistent application performance across an increasingly dynamic IT environment,” said Paul O’Farrell, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SteelHead Products Group at Riverbed. “With SteelHead 8.6, enterprises can enjoy an enhanced user experience for the full range of Microsoft business apps and Microsoft Azure-based cloud workloads.”
“As Microsoft Azure works to erase the boundaries between cloud development and operational management, we look to partners like Riverbed to provide the application performance infrastructure that optimizes the end user’s experience when apps are delivered via the cloud,” said Garth Fort, General Manager of System Center and Virtualization, Microsoft Corporation. “In a cloud-first world, applications should be accessed and delivered quickly − without the challenges of application latency, competition among applications, and bandwidth restrictions. This is what’s required for the best user experience in today’s app-driven economy, and that’s what Riverbed is all about.”
http://www.riverbed.com/
Russia's MTS Tests VoLTE on Telco Cloud with NSN
MTS, the leading operator in Russia and CIS, completed the first Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call on a telco cloud infrastructure using Nokia’s technology and expertise. Nokia said the end-to-end testing, conducted in the operator’s live LTE network, was the first such trial to leverage the virtualization of service and control functions in the core network, including its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Telephony Application Server (TAS) and Home Subscriber Server (HSS). The company’s Cloud Application Manager provided automated deployment and management of all cloud applications. MTS used Nokia’s commercial portfolio and a cloud management system that controls the VoLTE applications in MTS’s private telco cloud.
“VoLTE and telco cloud are principal technologies that will help us address new business opportunities and deliver a superior voice experience to our customers,” said Andrey Ushatskiy, chief technical and IT officer at MTS Group. “This live implementation of virtualized VoLTE with our long-standing partner, Nokia, is an important proof-of-concept and shows our commitment to offering our customers the most advanced voice services possible. We expect that the compound annual growth of mobile data traffic will reach 79% by 2020 and have to prepare our networks to deliver a quality mobile broadband experience to our customers.”
“We are delighted to join forces in this pioneer project supporting MTS’s demonstration of voice services using LTE in a telco cloud,” said Kristina Tikhonova, Head of East region, Networks. “We have the most comprehensive VoLTE solution on the market and our goal is to support operators’ migrations of voice and messaging traffic to LTE. With this demonstration, we further underscore that we are commercially ready and able to do this.”
http://www.nokia.com
ADVA's 100G Metro Adds On-the-Fly Encryption
ADVA Optical Networking introduced a new 100G Metro solution with built-in on-the-fly encryption and fully integrated with its ADVA FSP 3000 platform. The card, which is based upon the 4x28G technology of the original ADVA 100G Metro, leverages Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a key size of 256 bits. It features a Diffie Hellmann dynamic key exchange with over 60 exchanges per hour.ADVA said its solution provides encryption at the lowest network layer and is completely agnostic to protocols such as Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and Ethernet. It also supports a wide variety of data rates from 5 Gbps, to 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps and onto 100 Gbps. To ensure compatibility in point-to-point and multi-hop infrastructures, the ADVA 100G Metro with built-in encryption uses optical transport network (OTN) framing. It also adds very little latency to the transmission link – less than 150 nanoseconds – compared to our non-encrypted version. This stands in stark contrast to higher layer encryption technologies that often add significant overhead and multiply the latency of the data stream.
The company also noted that its solution also encrypts the header and checksum of the signal, not just the payload or select bytes in the header, leaving no breadcrumbs that may be intercepted and analyzed.
“The security of data has never been so important; its integrity never so public. We're living in a new era of data awareness,” said Uli Schlegel, director, data center business development, ADVA Optical Networking. “In the wake of Heartbleed and other data security scares, businesses are only too aware of how vulnerable their mission-critical data is. How susceptible it is to theft and malicious use. Data security is now of paramount importance. At the same time, the volume of data has never been so immense. Transporting and protecting this data requires something purpose built, something special. That's what sets our 100G Metro with built-in encryption technology apart. It's the only product on the market capable of securely transporting big data.”
ADVA confirmed that its 100G Metro with built-in encryption has already been deployed by a number of enterprises and service providers.
http://adva.li/secure
http://www.advaoptical.com/
Mid-Atlantic Broadband Deploys Cyan's Blue Planet SDN
Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC), a wholesale fiber-optic open-access network transport provider, selected Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN software along with Cyan’s Z-Series Packet-Optical Platforms for its regional metro network in southern Virginia.
MBC deployed Cyan’s Z-Series Packet-Optical Platforms to provide optical scale and Ethernet services across their network. In addition, MBC deployed Blue Planet, an open SDN orchestration platform that enables network operators to simplify, manage and orchestrate multi-vendor networks to achieve end-to-end network control, service automation, and service agility. With Blue Planet, MBC can orchestrate multiple layers across the backhaul link to guarantee predictable packet services performance, high availability, and low latency. Among the first to fully comply with the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) initiative, Cyan also will help MBC execute on future-looking plans to deliver new metro Ethernet services to customers in the coming years.
MBC is a non-profit organization that operates an open-access wholesale transport network that enables businesses to work with the communication provider of their choice to secure diverse network access. By delivering reliable high-speed broadband access across underserved communities, MBC enables local businesses across Southern Virginia to increase revenue and grow jobs.
http://www.mbc-va.com.
http://www.cyaninc.com
MBC deployed Cyan’s Z-Series Packet-Optical Platforms to provide optical scale and Ethernet services across their network. In addition, MBC deployed Blue Planet, an open SDN orchestration platform that enables network operators to simplify, manage and orchestrate multi-vendor networks to achieve end-to-end network control, service automation, and service agility. With Blue Planet, MBC can orchestrate multiple layers across the backhaul link to guarantee predictable packet services performance, high availability, and low latency. Among the first to fully comply with the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) initiative, Cyan also will help MBC execute on future-looking plans to deliver new metro Ethernet services to customers in the coming years.
MBC is a non-profit organization that operates an open-access wholesale transport network that enables businesses to work with the communication provider of their choice to secure diverse network access. By delivering reliable high-speed broadband access across underserved communities, MBC enables local businesses across Southern Virginia to increase revenue and grow jobs.
http://www.mbc-va.com.
http://www.cyaninc.com
Hughes Signs Xplornet for Echostar XIX Broadband over Canada
Xplornet Communications, Canada's largest rural broadband provider, signed a lifetime lease for all of the Canadian satellite broadband capacity on Hughes' Echostar XIX, a next-generation high throughput satellite due for launch in mid-2016. In addition to satellite capacity, Xplornet will take delivery of satellite gateways, operational and support services and consumer user terminals in a program that is expected to be worth more than $200 million.
Built by Space Systems Loral, EchoStar XIX will have over 160 Gbps throughput, approximately 50 percent more capacity than EchoStar XVII which was launched in 2012, and is the primary platform supporting over 916,000 HughesNet users across the USA. The new satellite is being designed with next-generation architecture with more than 120 spot beams, facilitating the delivery of high-quality, high-speed services for at least 15 years."This agreement for all of the Canadian broadband capacity on the upcoming Echostar XIX satellite is another milestone in our long and successful relationship with Hughes," said Allison Lenehan, CEO of Xplornet. He added, "This capacity will enable us to continue to meet the growing demands of our rural customers. We are investing to deliver on the promise of making faster, more affordable high-speed Internet service available for every Canadian."
http://www.xplornet.com
AT&T Continues Roll-out of Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
AT&T recently deployed its 8,000th compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle, achieving a major milestone in the company's overall 10-year, $565 million commitment to add approximately 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) to its fleet by end of year 2018. The company also has hybrid electric, all electric and extended-range electric vehicles, achieving a total fleet of more than 10,000 alternative vehicles located in 43 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. AT&T's AFV fleet allowed the company to avoid the purchase of 12.4 million gallons of gasoline as of the end of 2013, over the 5-year period since the company's commitment to alternative fuels was first announced.http://www.att.com
Cisco Looks to Expand Customer Financing in Latin America
Cisco Capital has established operations in Mexico, expanding its financing capabilities in Latin America.Cisco plans to provide direct local financing to customers, beginning in Mexico, complementing its existing network of financing partners in the region.
“This represents a significant milestone for Cisco Capital and our customers in Latin America,” said Kristine A. Snow, president of Cisco Capital. “This is the first time we have had direct operations in this region, which will help Mexican businesses acquire new technologies with flexible and competitive direct financing options, including local currency offers.”
http://www.cisco.com
