Microsoft Reveals its 2nd Gen Open CloudServer Spec

Microsoft announced its 2nd-generation Open CloudServer (OCS v2) specification featuring a number of improvements in performance and flexibility.  The first version of the spec was submitted to the Open Compute Project (OCP) in January, and the new version will be contributed to the community as well.

At this week's Open Compute Project (OCP) European Summit in Paris, Microsoft is showing OCS v2 designs with Quanta QCT, Wiwynn and ZT Systems.

Microsoft said development work on the OCS v2 spec centered around the diverse range of cloud services that it now supports.  The OCS v2 design has been thoroughly tested in the comopany's own data centers, from powering IaaS and PaaS services in Windows Azure, to hosting e-mail and collaboration services in Office 365, to hosting latency-sensitive gaming services in Xbox Live.

A unified, flexible server design helps Microsoft to optimize the economics of its supply chain, while delivering a diverse array of cloud services from one underlying server platform.  OCS v2 is also designed for deployment into any region or colocation facility around the world.

Highlights of OCSv2:

• A dual-processor design, built on Intel Xeon E5-2600v3 (‘Haswell’) CPUs, enabling 28 cores of compute power per blade, and reflecting Microsoft’s joint engineering collaboration with Intel to develop the next generation board.
• Advanced networking for low latency, high bandwidth, highly-virtualized environments, based on 40-gigabit Ethernet networking, with support for routable RDMA over Converged Ethernet (ROCEv2).
• Flexibility incorporated into the core design itself.  This allows the integration of a variety of components and add-on cards, including FPGA accelerators, which enables customers to tune their servers for their own unique workloads.
• Low-cost, high-bandwidth, Flash-based memory support, incorporating the latest form factor for m.2 Flash memory.  This allows OCS v2-based servers to incorporate higher-capacity SSDs, while ensuring TCO optimization by virtue of using cost-optimized NAND.
• A compact, high-capacity power supply, capable of delivering 1600 watts of power, with a high holdup time of 20 milliseconds.
• Support for high memory configurations, along with flexibility in the amount of memory deployed, by virtue of support for 128GB, 192GB, and 256GB memory capacity configurations.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2014/10/30/microsoft-contributes-next-generation-server-design-to-open-compute-project.aspx

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Microsoft Adds Anti-malware to Azure Cloud Services and VMs

Microsoft announced the availability of ant-malware for Azure Cloud Services and Virtual Machines, providing real time protection from the latest threats at no additional charge.

The Microsoft Antimalware Client and Service is installed by default in a disabled state in all Cloud Services. The Microsoft Antimalware Client and Service is not installed by default in the Virtual Machines platform; it is available as an optional security extension.

http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2014/10/30/microsoft-antimalware-for-azure-cloud-services-and-virtual-machines/

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Mellanox NICs Support Microsoft Open CloudServer and Open Compute

Mellanox Technologies announced its 10 and 40GbE NIC will support the new Microsoft Open CloudServer (OCS) specification “version 2”.  The ConnectX-3 Pro OCP-based 10/40GbE NICs with RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and overlay network offloads offer optimized application latency and performance while maintaining extremely low system power consumption.

The OCS specification version 2 includes significant new performance enhancements to foster more efficient data centers and the adoption of cloud computing.

Mellanox also announced its 40GbE NICs support the recently released Open Compute Project (OCP) 2.0 server and storage specification.

http://www.mellanox.com

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PLUMgrid Launches Open Networking Suite 2.0 for OpenStack

PLUMgrid released its Open Networking Suite (ONS) version 2.0 with expanded support for OpenStack distributions and network functions.

PLUMgrid features a highly distributed, software-based network virtualization platform designed for cloud operators and large-scale cloud environments.

Virtual network functions in ONS 2.0 include routing, switching with Private VLAN, security policies, NAT, and DHCP. In addition, ONS 2.0 is introducing tech previews for DNS as a service and end to end data encryption.

In addition, PLUMgrid is announcing support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5 (RHEL-OSP 5) with ONS 2.0.

http://www.plumgrid.com/press-releases/2014/10/plumgrid-launches-open-networking-suite-2-0-supporting-industrys-broadest-choice-of-openstack-distributions/

• Earlier this year, PLUMgrid announced that Swisscom had selected its OpenStack Networking Suite as a foundational element of its cloud-based IT infrastructure. The company said its technology enables Swisscom to leverage existing physical infrastructure to build a secure multi-tenant virtual network with PLUMgrid’s Virtual Domains and reduce the provisioning time from weeks to seconds. The carrier has decided to use OpenStack as its core component for cloud virtualization orchestration.
• PLUMgrid is aa start-up based in Sunnyvale, California. The PLUMgrid Platform integrates security, operations and maintenance tools, and network visibility and analytics.  It runs on existing standard-based x86 servers to deliver dynamic and scalable virtual data center networks. 

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NBASE-T Alliance Pitches 2.5 and 5 GigE over Existing Copper Cables

A new NBASE-T Alliance has been established to promote the development of 2.5 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet (2.5GE and 5GE) technology for enterprise network infrastructure. Founding members include Cisco, Aquantia, Freescale and Xilinx.

NBASE-T Alliance aims to advance multi-gigabit Ethernet technology that enables faster data rates on existing enterprise cabling originally designed for 1 Gigabit Ethernet (1GbE) technology.

Most enterprise campus networks use Category 5e (Cat5e) and Category 6 (Cat6) twisted-pair copper cables, which do not support 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) up to 100 meters.  This points to the need for for intermediate rates between 1 and 10 Gigabit over existing cables.

Chris Spain, vice president of product management, Cisco, said, “The NBASE-T alliance is addressing one of the top networking challenges of today – speed in the access layer. The industry is moving to the next generation of 802.11ac – Wave 2 with theoretical data rates of up to 6.9 Gbps and actual aggregated bandwidth of up to 5 Gbps; a 1 Gbps link between the access point and switch is not sufficient. Our mission in working with the Alliance members is to provide customers with innovative technology to increase network speed without the need to upgrade the cabling infrastructure.”

Kamal Dalmia, vice president sales and marketing, Aquantia, said, “The advent of 802.11ac wave 2 has created a unique opportunity for the formation of the NBASE-T Alliance, a strong and unique group of industry leaders gathered to bring multi-Gigabit rates solutions over legacy copper cables.” Dalmia added “We’re proud to be part of the NBASE-T Alliance and are looking forward to working closely with a growing base of supporters in the market.”

http://www.nbaset.org/

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Alcatel-Lucent's Margins Improve While Revenue Slides 3.8%

Alcatel-Lucent's group revenues, excluding Managed Services, were down 3.8% year-on-year to Euro 3.254 billion, and down 5.9% overall. Gross margin reached 34.0% of revenues in the quarter, progressing by 210 basis points year-on-year driven by better profitability in several business lines as well as favorable mix.  Fixed costs savings amounted to Euro 73 million in Q3 2014, bringing cumulative fixed cost savings to Euro 645 million under the Shift Plan. In particular, SG&A expenses decreased by 13.6% compared to Q3 2013.

“Since the launch of The Shift Plan, our primary objective is to enable the company to generate free cash flow on a sustainable, recurring basis, starting in 2015. Our third quarter results show that we are increasingly improving our underlying profitability, an important step towards this commitment. In parallel, we have opened the second chapter of The Shift Plan, sharpening our focus on applying innovation to unlock growth in order to address our strategic ambitions within and outside of the telecoms sector,” stated  Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent.

Some operational highlights:

Core Networking

• Core Networking segment revenues were Euro 1,443 million in Q3 2014, down 3.9% compared to Q3 2013. 
• IP Routing revenues were Euro 594 million in Q3 2014, increasing 2.2%, with notable growth in Europe, APAC (outside of China) and CALA. 
• The 7950 XRS IP Core router registered 4 new wins in Q3 for a total of 32 wins to date.
• Nuage Networks added 4 new wins in the quarter, totaling 12 customers with traction across extra-large enterprises, cloud service providers and service providers. 
• IP Transport revenues reached Euro 527 million in Q3 2014, a decline of 3.3% year-on-year. Terrestrial optics increased at a high single-digit rate as the WDM portfolio continued to drive growth in EMEA and APAC. 
• The 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) represented 50% of terrestrial optical product revenues in the quarter, up 12 percentage points year-on-year, and now has over 500 customers. 
• Year-to-date, 100G shipments represented 34% of total WDM line cards shipments compared to 26% in the same period of 2013. The 100G platform was recently selected by Telefonica Spain, MTN Nigeria and Ucom in Armenia. 

Access

• Access segment revenues were Euro 1,807 million in Q3 2014, a 7.5% decrease compared to Q3 2013. 
• Wireless Access revenues were Euro 1,176 million, a decrease of 1.5% year-on-year, as LTE rollouts continued at a more moderate pace in the third quarter, after accelerated investments in the first half of 2014, notably in China and North America. 
• Fixed Access revenues were Euro 518 million in Q3 2014, a decrease of 4.6% from Q3 2013 as continuing demand for vectoring and fiber around the world was not enough to offset the pause in specific customer rollouts in the quarter. 
• 5 new VDSL2 vectoring customers were announced during the quarter, bringing our total to 27. 

Managed Services

• Managed Services revenues were Euro 97 million, decreasing by close to 50%, reflecting a strategy to terminate or restructure loss-making contracts. 

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2014/alcatel-lucent-reports-q3-2014-results

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CoreSite Reports Strength in Data Center Leasing

CoreSite Realty Corporation, which operates major data centers in 8 North American markets, reported Q3 perating revenues of $70.5 million, representing a 16.3% increase year over year. Reported third-quarter funds from operations (“FFO”) of $0.55 per diluted share and unit, representing 17.0% growth year over year.

During the quarter, CoreSite commenced 45,014 net rentable square feet of new and signed expansion leases with GAAP annualized rent of $135 per square foot, increasing stabilized data center occupancy to 86.4%.

Tom Ray, CoreSite’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The third quarter reflected continued execution and ongoing momentum throughout the organization.” Mr. Ray continued, “We are pleased with the execution of our sales and marketing teams thus far this year as evidenced by our quarterly results. Leasing activity was healthy across the portfolio, led by the Silicon Valley, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles markets. We believe our activities closing out 2014 point toward another year of solid growth in 2015, as we set the stage for anticipated new developments within existing facilities across multiple markets in our portfolio, including at BO1, CH1, DE1, NY2, and VA2, and we continue to evaluate developing additional capacity at LA2 and on our Coronado Campus in Santa Clara.”

http://www.coresite.com

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A10 Network Misses on Q3 Results

A10 Networks reported Q3 revenue of $43.4 million, compared with $39.8 million in the third quarter of 2013. GAAP net loss was $12.3 million compared with a net loss of $2.7 million in the third quarter of 2013.

“We are very disappointed with our third quarter financial results and we are committed to improving our execution,” said Lee Chen, president and chief executive officer of A10 Networks. “Third quarter revenue was negatively impacted by lower revenue from North America service provider customers, longer than expected close cycles for deals awarded to A10 and a lengthening sales cycle for some select large enterprise deals. Outside of North America most of our regions delivered revenue consistent with or above our expectations. Beyond revenue, higher inventory reserves and write-offs, currency exchange rates and geographic mix caused our gross margin to be below our historical range. On the positive side, we added a record number of new customers in the quarter, including four new customers for our recently launched Thunder TPS solution.”

http://investors.a10networks.com/CorporateProfile.aspx?iid=4433033

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