Juniper Appoints New CEO following Board Level Dispute

Juniper Networks appointed Rami Rahim as chief executive officer effective immediately following the sudden resignation of Shaygan Kheradpir as CEO and director of the company. Juniper said the followed a review by its board of directors regarding Kheradpir's conduct in connection with a particular negotiation with a customer.

 Rahim started at Juniper as employee #32 and worked as an engineer on Juniper's first product, the M40 core router. Rahim was also one of the original architects of the MX, Juniper's flagship routing platform. He most recently served as executive vice president and general manager, Juniper Development and Innovation.

 Rahim holds 17 US Patents in networking technologies, a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

http://www.juniper.net/

• Shaygan Kheradpir took over as CEO of Juniper Networks on January 1, 2014. Kheradpir replaced Kevin Johnson, who in July 2013 announced his plan to retire as CEO.  Kheradpir joined Juniper Networks from Barclays PLC, where he served as the chief operations and technology officer, and as a member of its executive committee. Prior to joining Barclays, he was executive vice president and chief information and technology officer at Verizon Communications. He holds a bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University.

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Pica8's CrossFlow Combines OpenFlow-based Policy with L2/L3

Pica8 introduced a new capability that lets its PicOS bare metal switch operating system integrate OpenFlow-based applications and business-logic policies into existing Layer-2 / Layer-3 networks.



The new CrossFlow Networking lets administrators run L2/L3 protocols and OpenFlow on the same switch at the same time. This lets users leverage OpenFlow for policy-driven applications to drive business logic into the network, while leveraging their network topology and protocols like OSPF and BGP for the most efficient packet transport and performance.

Pica8 said its CrossFlow Networking brings the potential to significantly accelerate SDN adoption because customers are able to run OpenFlow on the existing L2/L3 network.

“Some customers have made commitment to OpenFlow in green field deployments, but networking shops with existing infrastructure want to be able to use OpenFlow in use cases where it makes sense,” said Steve Garrison, vice president of marketing and Pica8. “For the first time, CrossFlow mode allows users to leverage both ways of thinking – Layer-2 / Layer-3 and OpenFlow – to deal with networking challenges appropriately on the same switch.”

Some sample use cases include:

• In a traditional data center that uses Layer-2 / Layer-3 switching and routing, monitoring and tapping can be done on the switches with rules triggered by the OpenFlow protocol.
• In an OpenFlow data center, the edge devices need to interact with traditional switching/routing devices (using spanning tree, OSPF, BGP, and other Layer-2 / Layer-3 

Available in PicOS 2.4, CrossFlow allows every port in the bare metal switch the ability to act as either a legacy or a CrossFlow port. A legacy port uses traditional Layer-2 / Layer- 3 switch (OVS) commands can be used, either locally via OVS commands or via an SDN controller using OpenFlow and OVSDB.

http://www.pica8.com/

• Pica8 currently claims over 320 customers.
• Pica8 is based in Palo Alto, California with development offices in Beijing.
• In October, Pica8 announced $12.5 million in Series B funding from a group of investors led by VantagePoint Capital Partners, Cross Head and Pacific Venture Partners (PVP), bringing its total funding to date to over $20 million.

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Chicago's StarWave Exchange Implements Ciena’s 8700 Packetwave

StarWave, a Chicago-based research and education (R&E) communication services exchange facility, is deploying Ciena’s 8700 Packetwave Platform for 100GbE bandwidth interconnection. This upgrade will facilitate transfers for multiple sciences, such as data flows used by high energy physicists investigating particle collisions, and medical researchers sharing massive genomic data files and high-resolution images of protein strands used for cancer research.

The StarWave multi-100 Gbps exchange, located at the StarLight International/National Communications Exchange Facility Consortium, supports large-capacity, long duration, and low latency individual data flow transfers.

Multiple national and international 100 Gbps demonstrations leveraging StarWave are expected at next week's Supercomputing (SC14) conference in New Orleans.

“Ciena’s technology plays a pivotal role in supporting big data, high-performance computing and R&E efforts, improving the way researchers interact and conduct complex, data-intensive scientific discovery. Our 8700 platform enables the needed collaboration in the R&E community by offering massive scalability to carry huge science data flows in a platform that is easy to set up, deploy, and manage,” stated Rod Wilson, Senior Director of External Research, Ciena.

http://www.ciena.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/

• In June 2014, Ciena introduced its programmable, 8700 Packetwave Platform, a multi-terabit Ethernet/DWDM switch designed to transform metro and inter-data center networks. The new 8700 Packetwave integrates Ethernet and MPLS-TP switching with Ciena’s WaveLogic Photonics into a single, scalable platform. It leverages Ciena’s Service-Aware Operating System, OneControl Unified Management System, and SLA portal.  It can also be deployed in conjunction with Ciena’s V-WAN software to give customers performance-on-demand cloud service connectivity.

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Facebook's Messenger Reaches 500 Million

Facebook's Messenger app has reached a big milestone: 500 million active users per month.  The app launched in 2011.

http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/11/messenger-reaches-500-million-2/

• In February, Facebook acquired WhatsApp.  At the time, What'sApp claimed 450 million using the service each month, of whom 70% were active on any given day.

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CyrusOne Picks BTI for Cloud + DC Connectivity

CyrusOne is now deploying BTI’s Cloud Networking and Data Center Interconnect Solutions in metro Chicago and metro Virginia.

Specifically, CyrusOne has deployed the BTI 7800 Series Intelligent Cloud Connect platform, the BTI 7000 Series Packet Optical platform with ROADM and the BTI proNX Service Manager to connect CyrusOne data centers in Lombard, IL to the main downtown Chicago telecommunications hub. Additionally, CyrusOne is capitalizing on BTI’s solutions to expand its market reach by connecting a new data center facility in the Northern Virginia metro market to the CyrusOne national network footprint.

The SDN-enabled BTI 7800 Series Intelligent Cloud Connect is purpose-built to integrate high-capacity optical switching and MPLS Label Switch Routing (LSR) with Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)-based applications.

The BTI 7000 Series is a modular system that unifies packet and optical service delivery into one platform for network-layer consolidation and improved efficiencies. It integrates Ethernet switching, 10G WDM optical layer and Dynamic Optical Layer ROADM-on-a-blade support to simplify network deployment and operations.

http://www.btisystems.com

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Obama Urges FCC to Move on Net Neutrality

President Obama is urging the FCC to act now to reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, setting a legal basis to create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality.  In a statement, Obama said he believes the bright-line rules should include:

• No blocking. If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business.
• No throttling. Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called “throttling” — based on the type of service or your ISP’s preferences.
• Increased transparency. The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called “last mile” — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet.
• No paid prioritization. Simply put: No service should be stuck in a “slow lane” because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/net-neutrality

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Rackspace Brings in $1,405 Per Server Per month

Rackspace reported net revenue for the third quarter of 2014 was $460 million, up 4.2 percent from the previous quarter and 18.3 percent from the third quarter of 2013. Net income was $26 million for the quarter, up 14.6 percent from the previous quarter.

"We are pleased with our operating performance this quarter and encouraged by the momentum we are seeing in the business,” said Taylor Rhodes, president and CEO of Rackspace. "We are poised to capitalize on the massive opportunity ahead in the managed cloud market, where we see increasing demand for our managed services and expertise. And while we made strong progress this year, we’re determined to continually improve our execution and seize our future.”

Some highlights:

• Total server count in the third quarter of 2014 increased to 110,453, up from 107,657 servers at the end of the previous quarter. 
• Revenue per server grew to $1,405 per month up from $1,375 in the previous quarter.
• Net income margin for the quarter was 5.6 percent compared to 5.1 percent for the previous quarter.
• On a worldwide basis, Rackspace employed 5,939 Rackers as of September 30, 2014, up from 5,798 in the previous quarter.

http://www.rackspace.com

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UK to Auction 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz Spectrum

Ofcom, the official regulator for the UK, plans to auction spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz bands in late 2015 or early 2016. The bands are expected to be of interest to the mobile industry. Ofcom intends to hold an auction for a total of 190 MHz of spectrum in the two bands - equivalent to around three-quarters of the airwaves released by Ofcom through the 4G auction in 2013. The spectrum is currently used by the Ministry of Defence.

Ofcom noted that many existing mobile handsets from major manufacturers, including the Apple iPhone 5 and 6, HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy, are already compatible with the 2.3 GHz spectrum in other markets. The band is so far being used for high-speed 4G mobile broadband networks in 10 countries outside Europe, including China, India and Australia.

The 3.4 GHz band is currently being used for 4G wireless broadband in six countries including the UK, Canada and Spain.

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2014/new-spectrum-auction/

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Plexxi Names Richard Napolitano as CEO

Plexxi, a start-up specializing in next-generation networking, named serial entrepreneur Richard Napolitano as CEO.

Napolitano has a long track record in the technology industry, including president of the Unified Storage Division at EMC Corporation and president and general manager of U.S. sales for Sun Microsystems, which was acquired by Oracle. He also served as chairman, CEO and president of Pirus Networks, which was acquired by Adaptec.

http://www.plexxi.com

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NeoPhotonics Sees 40/100G Revenue Growth of 22.9% Sequentially

NeoPhotonics announced Q3 2014 revenue of $81.6 million, an increase of $4.1 million, or 5.3%, from the second quarter of 2014 and up $4.8 million, or 6.2%, from the third quarter of 2013. Gross margin was 24.6%, up from 18.8% in the second quarter of 2014, and up from 23.7% in the third quarter of 2013.  Net loss was $1.9 million, a decrease from a net loss of $6.8 million in the second quarter of 2014 and from a net loss of $9.4 million in the third quarter of 2013.

The company noted sequential 40/100G revenue growth of 22.9%.

“We are pleased to announce that we again achieved record revenue this quarter. Our previously announced profit improvement actions are taking hold and moved us into non-GAAP profitability. We expect to operate in a manner focused on our path to profitability; managing expenses tightly, and continuing to operate so as to strengthen our balance sheet,” said Tim Jenks, NeoPhotonics Chairman and CEO. “Equally important, we believe our product focus on 100G, enhanced by our pending acquisition of EMCORE’s tunable laser product line, positions us to be a major contributor to this expanding market segment, and therefore benefit from the accelerating worldwide deployments of 100G systems,” continued Mr. Jenks.

http://www.neophotonics.com

• Last month, NeoPhotonics agreed to acquire EMCORE Corporation's tunable laser and transceiver product lines for approximately $17.5 million, which consists of $15.0 million and a working capital and inventory adjustment of approximately $2.5 million.  The deal includes production and development fixed assets, inventory and intellectual property for the ECL-based Integrable Tunable Laser Assembly (ITLA), micro-ITLA, Tunable XFP transceiver, tunable optical sub-assemblies and Integrated Coherent Transmitter (ICT) products for 10, 40, 100 and 400G telecommunications networks.

NeoPhotonics said it intends to add the EMCORE tunable lasers to its current product line and to continue to serve EMCORE’s current customers without interruption. EMCORE has supported these products from its facility in Newark, California and NeoPhotonics expects to integrate this business into in its existing Silicon Valley facilities. EMCORE’s revenue for this product line has been approximately $9 million per quarter. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to NeoPhotonics by the second quarter of 2015.

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