CloudSigma Joins Equinix Cloud Exchange

CloudSigma, a public cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider with advanced hybrid hosting solutions, has joined the Equinix Cloud Exchange. Equinix’s Silicon Valley SV5 data center is the initial Cloud Exchange connection point for CloudSigma.

CloudSigma, which operates both in Europe and the U.S., gains access to private networking services, and the ability to easily interconnect with service providers and enterprises stationed on the Cloud Exchange.

“By providing enterprises with direct, private access to our public cloud, we are able to significantly enhance performance and security, while capitalizing on Equinix’s global footprint. We are actively expanding our partnership with Equinix across new geographies and joining the Equinix Cloud Exchange will enable us to extend our reach even further. Now, more enterprises and network service providers will be able to use our services in an even easier and cost-effective way,” stated Robert Jenkins, CEO, CloudSigma.

The Equinix Cloud Exchange is currently available in 17 markets globally – Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., New York, Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt – with plans to expand to 19 markets by the end of 2014.

http://www.equinix.com
https://www.cloudsigma.com

Read More

CloudFX Readies a Cloud Services Brokerage

Singapore-based CloudFX Group announced plans to launch an open standards-based Cloud Services Brokerage platform.

At launch, CloudSelect promises over 200 world class, fully automated cloud services which will enables enterprises and service providers to offer "Anything as a Service" -- including underlying IT infrastructure, application development platforms and fully configured business software applications. The company said its CloudSelect platform is differentiated by providing value-added services based on compliance, configuration, performance monitoring, capacity management, security and availability, full stack provisioning and change management.

CloudSelect's advanced, managed cloud services will be offered directly through www.cloudselect.com, in dedicated on-premise Enterprise appliances where CloudFX guarantee full IT as a Service, and finally, white-label Service provider appliances to strategic partners looking to participate and compete in the public cloud service domain.

"We've built CloudSelect from the ground up to meet the needs of both enterprise cloud customers and cloud service providers (CSPs), enabling them to successfully accelerate cloud adoption and transformation, as well as to differentiate and deliver value added services. Featuring integrated services management, our cloud procurement and management solution is already helping many enterprises and Cloud Service Providers around the globe achieve success with their cloud offerings" said CloudFX Group Founder and CEO, Damian Crotty.

http://cloudfx.com/

Read More

Telstra Picks Ciena/Ericsson for Optical Backbone

Telstra has renewed a contract under which Ericsson will continue as its supplier for optical transport equipment and services. The agreement includes the supply of Ericsson optical transport equipment and services as well as Ciena packet-optical platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed.

David Robertson, Director Transport and Routing, Engineering, Telstra says: "We want to have one of the world's best optical networks and this agreement will provide us with the ability to dynamically move and shape transport capacity with the flexibility and scalability to streamline our network operations. This will help us ensure a consistent satisfactory customer experience, despite the demands for high traffic across different parts of the transport network.  The continued improvement of Telstra's optical technology will increase bandwidth capacity and also lower latency which is of growing importance as more and more operations move to the cloud."

http://www.ericsson.com

• Ericsson signed a strategic agreement with Ciena in February 2014 enabling Ericsson to sell and support Ciena's Converged Packet Optical portfolio, and collaborate on the joint development of the Multilayer WAN Controller.

Read More

Sprint's "New Day for Data" Campaign Offers Bigger Buckets

Sprint kicked off its "New Day for Data" campaign offering 20GB of shared Data and unlimited talk & text for $100 a month for up to 10 lines, plus access line charges.

During a limited promotion, Sprint is also offering up to $350 to new customers to buy out their existing contracts.  Sprint is also waiving the data access charge for handsets, tablets and mobile broadband devices on 20GB or higher data allowances for up to 10 lines.

“Sprint is offering the best value to data-hungry consumers. Period,” said Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO. “We are doubling the high-speed wireless data because today’s customers rely so much on their smartphones and tablets. We make it simple and easy for wireless consumers to get the data they need at affordable prices to make their lives easier, more productive and enjoyable. We are so certain that this is the best value on wireless today that for any customer who wants to switch to our new Sprint Family Share Pack, we will reimburse them for the cost to end their contract with another carrier.”

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/its-a-new-day-for-data-for-american-consumers-1.htm

Read More

Infonetics:Optical Spending Rises in Asia-Pac

Global optical spending is roughly flat year-over-year (2Q14 from 2Q13) as strength in Asia Pacific offset weakening spending trends in EMEA, according to Infonetic Research's new  2nd quarter 2014 (2Q14) Optical Network Hardware report.

Some highlights:

• In North America, internet content providers (ICPs) such as Google and others generated a wave of optical spending at a handful of vendors including Adva, BTI, and Infinera, altogether accounting for an estimated $40 million surge in 2Q14
• Worldwide optical network hardware revenue, including SONET/SDH and WDM, totaled $3.3 billion in 2Q14, a sequential gain of 27% aided by strong seasonal performances from Huawei and ZTE
• Worldwide WDM equipment revenue in 2Q14 is up 6% year-over-year
• The 1st half of 2014 brought another huge flood of 100G WDM shipments by Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Huawei, and Infinera
• Ciena’s and Infinera’s North American optical revenue grew rapidly on a year-over-year basis in 2Q14, while Fujitsu’s and Alcatel-Lucent’s decreased.

“While the term ‘tier-1’ is traditionally associated with the incumbent operators of Europe and RBOCs in North America, it is now qualitatively clear that tier-1 spending growth is coming from the competitive dark fiber and internet exchange carriers. These carriers, as well as vertically-integrated internet content providers (ICPs), provide a growing portion of core internet connectivity and intra-datacenter capacity,” notes Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for carrier transport networking at Infonetics Research.

http://www.infonetics.com

Read More

GuardiCore Raises $11 Million for Software-defined Data Center Defense

GuardiCore, a startup based in Tel Aviv, raised US$11 million in venture funding for its security solutions for software-defined data centers.

GuardiCore is pursuing a strategy that looks beyond traditional perimeter defenses to address intra data center traffic (east-west) that has come to dominate software-defined network architectures. The company's first product is an "Active Honeypot" that responds to attacks by dynamically re-routing traffic, without the attacker knowing, to a highly monitored stealth “ambush” server. This approach exposes the true intentions of an attacker, provides quick insights about the nature of the attack and eliminates it in real-time.

The round of funding was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from Greylock IL and undisclosed strategic investors.

“GuardiCore is developing a completely new breed of network security,” said Pavel Gurvich, the company’s chief executive. “Powered by software-defined networking (SDN) methodologies and recent advances in virtualization, our solution is scalable to multi-terabit traffic rates. GuardiCore’s mission is simple: to provide security and IT executives with advanced tools to win the war against cyber-attacks.”

http://www.guardicore.com

Read More

Telstra Launches a Global Cloud UC Collaboration Service

Telstra launched a cloud-based, unified communications service for global enterprises. The service is based on Cisco's unified communications platform. A version of the service has been available in Australia since last year.  Telstra is now taking it to 25 countries.

Telstra’s service will be available from the end of August to customers on a monthly, "per worker" basis. Telstra is defining several worker types (such as essential, office, information or mobile) to provide better support and scalability.

“Our new global service is a significant development in global collaboration capabilities and has been designed specifically for today’s dynamic workplace where employees use the web, video, voice to drive innovation and improve productivity. With Telstra Cloud Collaboration, businesses can roll-out extensive collaboration and communications tools to staff throughout the world, scale user profiles and functionality up and down depending on business requirements and ensure employees working remotely have identical resources to those working in the office – all while minimising traditionally significant upfront investment models,” said Nathan Bell, Telstra Global Enterprise and Services, Director of Marketing, Portfolio and Pricing.

http://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/media-library/telstra-unveils-next-gen-cloud-collaboration-service-for-global-businesses.xml

Read More

Fujitsu Expands North American Data Center Capabilities

Fujitsu announced the availability of new Tier III data center capabilities in New York and California, in addition to the planned opening of its new Tier III data center in Regina, Saskatchewan.  The facilities, which cater to Japan Originated Companies (JOC), offer state-of-the-art datacenter services, including big data analysis, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), deployment of cloud applications, as well as secure storage and disaster recovery.  Users connect through a dedicated network. Fujitsu also provides Japanese bilingual services.

"Companies across the world are demanding more enhanced services and solutions to help them realize their globalization ambitions," says Bob Pryor, head of Americas and corporate vice president, Fujitsu Ltd. "By delivering Japanese bi-lingual datacenter capabilities, Fujitsu further demonstrates its long-standing commitment to helping customers achieve their business objectives, in this case delivering unique capabilities to JOC customers well beyond the scope of its world-class datacenter offering."

Fujitsu noted it has more than two million square feet of data center capacity from more than 150 data centers spread across North America, Asia and Europe.

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/

Read More