Docker 1.0 Positioned as Standardized Container for Movable Apps

Docker 1.0 was officially released, marking an important milestone for this 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.

Docker enables applications to be quickly assembled from components and eliminates the friction between environments.  It consists of the Docker Engine, the de facto container standard, and Docker Hub, a new cloud-based service from Docker Inc., the start-up company behind the open source Docker project and chief sponsor of the Docker ecosystem.

Docker Inc. is now providing Long Term Support assurances for commercial users of Docker 1.0.  The company is based in San Francisco.

“We would like to thank the over 460 contributors to the project – as well as the countless partners, promoters, application publishers and meetup organizers – for helping Docker reach this important milestone,” said Solomon Hykes, CTO and founder of Docker.  “We’d also like to salute the many enterprises that ignored our statements about ‘production readiness’ and deployed Docker in prior releases. Your bravery (and unvarnished feedback) has been critical as well.”

Features of Docker Engine 1.0 include:

●       Quality: Docker is hardened and tested for enterprise production deployments;
●       Compatibility: Docker Engine now runs on all major Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Suse and Arch;
●       Interfaces: Docker now comes with plug-in interfaces for execution and file system drivers;
●       Extensibility: With boot2docker, support for non-Linux operating systems Mac OS X and Windows;
●       Complete documentation: Quality documentation, updated to reflect the latest capabilities and interfaces;
●       Complete training materials (previewed today at DockerCon as the Docker University Track);
●       Availability of commercial support, including Long Term Support and Proof of Concept Support packages; and
●       Integration with Docker Hub, the other half of the Docker Platform.

Since its inception 15 months ago, the open source Docker project has seen unprecedented community growth and adoption:

●       2.75+ million downloads;
●       12,000+ stars on GitHub;
●       450+ contributors – 95 percent of whom do not work for Docker, Inc.;
●       8,500+ commits;
●       14,000+ “Dockerized” applications published on Docker Hub;
●       90+ community-established user groups in more than 30 countries;
●       6,500+ Docker related projects found on GitHub; and
●       Integration in a huge number of the key deployment, DevOps, and cloud platforms.

http://dockercon.com/
http://www.docker.com/

• Cloud services supporting Docker include Google Cloud Platform and AWS Elastic Beanstalk. 

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HP Unveils SDN App and New Data Center Switch

At its HP Discovery corporate conference this week in Las Vegas, HP is introducing its Virtual Cloud Networking SDN Application based on open-source standards, along with a new HP FlexFabric datacenter 7900 switch series.  The HP Virtual Cloud Networking SDN Application will be available in August as part of the HP Helion OpenStack. The SDN app aims to automate network service, allowing applications to be rapidly deployed to thousands of users or tenants. It support private and hybrid clouds.

HP said its new FlexFabric 7900 Modular Core Switch provides a high-performance SDN fabric that delivers a high-quality application user experience, simplified operations and lower total cost of ownership to virtualized data centers.  The HP FlexFabric data center switches integrate the virtual overlay with the physical underlay to create a unified resilient fabric that ensures network visibility, availability and rapid response time for end-users.

The new switch supports full Layer 2 and 3 features, including advanced features such as TRILL and HP Intelligent Resilient Fabric (IRF), which enable scale-out, two-tier leaf-spine architectures. It supports VXLAN, NVGRE and OpenFlow 1.3.  HP is offering a number of high-density 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE interfaces in a smaller footprint than a traditional modular chassis.

The company claims this implementation can accelerate workload mobility for VMware vSphere vMotion by up to 80 percent. HP FlexFabric 7900 switch series starts at $55,500 and is available now.

http://www.hp.com

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Optical Internetworking Forum Begins Work on Virtual Network Services

The Optical Internetworking Forum will begin work on a specification for Virtual Network Services (VNS) that could become a main driver for deployment of SDN in Transport Networks. The aim of VNS is to slice the network and present the underlying network to the customer or application as a Virtual Network (VN).

“This work on VNS is timely as the network struggles to define SDN services for Transport Networks,” said Vishnu Shukla, of Verizon and the OIF president.  “The OIF has a history of recognizing gaps in technology through its member interaction between carriers and vendors.”

The OIF also announced approval of two implementation agreements addressing OTNv3 and ENNI (External Network-Network Interface), and completed a 100G Carrier Requirements document.

The OIF OTNv3 Amendment adds support for the latest ITU-T G.709 recommendation. The amendment’s signaling extensions to the OIF UNI and E-NNI and routingextensions to the E-NNI interfaces add support for the OTU and ODU containers, including flexible and re-sizeable ODUflex containers, 2.5G and 1.25G tributary slot granularities, single-stage and multi-stage multiplexing and hitless ODUflex resizing. This enables support for dynamically adjustable client services, e.g. Ethernet, over OTN networks.

The OIF E-NNI Recovery amendments add support for signaling protection and restoration recovery mechanisms to the OIF E-NNI. The amendment’s signaling and routing extensions enable the establishment of multiple associated connections to provide a recovery mechanism to achieve a requested service level. Supported recovery mechanisms include 1+1 protection, soft and hard rerouting and shared-mesh restoration which may be combined to provide even higher service levels.

In addition, the Forum also announced that work on specifications for the CEI-56G project is proceeding rapidly with an interim meeting called to discuss details and advance the effort. CEI-56G will define the next generation of serial electrical interfaces that will enable 400 Gbps roadmaps.

Carrier Working Group members completed a requirements document for “Intermediate Reach 100G DWDM for Metro Type Applications”. The document was created to support ongoing work in the OIF’s Physical Link Layer Working Group to produce requirements and application scenarios related to low cost, reduced power and high-density approach for next-gen 100G transmission.

http://www.oiforum.com

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AT&T Adds HP Helion to Cloud Ecosystem

AT&T has added HP to its network-enabled cloud ecosystem. This enables AT&T customers to use their Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to connect to HP Helion.

AT&T NetBond is a highly secure private path between a customer's AT&T Virtual Private Network (VPN) and a cloud service provider, like HP. The service is automated through APIs. AT&T said key advantages of NetBond included network elasticity, savings of up to 60% compared to fixed connections, and 50 percent lower latency and 3x the availability when compared with the public Internet.

"Business customers want high-speed connectivity and rock-solid security protecting vital data and applications in the cloud," said Andy Geisse, CEO, AT&T Business Solutions. "With HP and other major cloud providers joining our growing NetBond ecosystem, we are leading the movement to make cloud computing more attractive for the many enterprise buyers who demand security, performance, flexibility and quality of service."

"To be successful in today's digital world, organizations must overcome the security challenges of increasingly complex IT environments," said Martin Fink, executive vice president and chief technology officer, HP. "By integrating HP Helion with AT&T NetBond, we're giving enterprises new choices to take advantage of our cloud with added confidence."

AT&T and HP expect these capabilities to be available to customers in the first quarter of 2015.

http://www.att.com/cloud
http://www.hp.com

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Brazilian Operators Turn to Aptilo for Wi-Fi Offload

Aptilo is working with three operators in Brazil to enable mobile data Wi-Fi offloading and carrier Wi-Fi throughout the country.

Specifically, TIM Brasil and Oi SA, two of the largest mobile operators in Brazil, are using the Aptilo Service Management Platform (SMP) to provide a carrier Wi-Fi service with mobile data offloading. Aptilo is also enabling carrier Wi-Fi services for Linktel, which operates the largest independent network of hotspots in Brazil.

“Large-scale sporting events represent a significant opportunity for carriers to generate revenue and increase branding with Wi-Fi offloading,” said Jonas Jacobsson, VP Sales Americas, Aptilo Networks. “Brazil will be host to some of the most exciting, highly anticipated sporting events, and Aptilo will be working with operators to leverage these opportunities, manage data traffic and ensure a great Wi-Fi user experience.”

http://www.aptilo.com/mobile-data-offloading

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ViaSat Acquires NetNearU for Wi-Fi Management

ViaSat has acquired NetNearU, a privately-held company that developed a technology-agnostic system for managing public Wi-Fi and other wireless Internet access networks including hotspots, enterprise, campus, and metro installations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

NetNearU TRACKOS software provides automated and real-time provisioning, authentication, billing, roaming, quality of service, advertising, network monitoring, and support. The cloud-based, white-labeled Wi-Fi software could be used by wireless carriers, cable operators, the U.S. military, and other customers.

ViaSat said this acquisition expands its ability to deliver high-speed satellite services and Internet access. The systems will be used to extend ViaSat Exede services to a growing base of subscribers for multiple markets, including commercial airlines, live events, hospitality, enterprise networking and government broadband projects.

Operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary, NetNearU will retain its Bryan/College Station, Texas location—also establishing a ViaSat presence in Texas. The transaction is expected to be accretive to ViaSat non-GAAP (pro forma) earnings for fiscal year 2015. However, ViaSat has not completed its valuation analysis and, accordingly, has not determined the impact to GAAP earnings.

"Wi-Fi is an increasingly important way to access broadband networks and cloud services," said Mark Dankberg, ViaSat chairman and CEO. "NetNearU's breadth and depth in Wi-Fi expertise gives us important new ways to deliver more value and convenience from our networks."

http://www.viasat.com

In July 2013, ViaSat was granted a Blanket License Radio Station Authorization by the FCC for Ka-band aeronautical earth stations, enabling it to deliver airborne Ka-band services over all 50 U.S. states.

The 15-year, renewable license permits operation of the ViaSat Mantarray, low-profile airborne antenna on the ViaSat Ka-band satellite fleet of ViaSat-1, WildBlue-1, and Anik-F2.

"This is the first license of its kind in the world," said Mark Dankberg, ViaSat chairman and CEO. "We're gratified to see the FCC recognizing that the advanced technical design of this equipment is compatible with the operating environment in which our other Exede services successfully operate. Now airlines, and their passengers, will have access to an unprecedented amount of bandwidth. We want to let everyone on board be connected at high speed."

ViaSat is preparing to launch its "Exede In The Air" in-flight broadband service this fall with initial availability on the U.S. fleets of JetBlue Airways and one other major airline. Approximately 400 aircraft are already under contract to receive the service.

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