Azure Service Fabric Powers Microsoft's Cloud

Microsoft's Azure Service Fabric is a microservice application platform that allows developers to decompose their work into logical subsystems that are loosely coupled and can be updated independently. In this video, Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Office for Microsoft Azure,  talks about how Azure Service Fabric is becoming a key differentiator for the company's cloud initiatives. Recorded at Open Networking Summit 2015 in Santa Clara,...

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Blueprint: Two-factor Authentication Signals the Death of the Password and Physical Token

by Andy Kemshall, Co-founder and CTO of SecurEnvoy Considering the frequency and severity of data breaches today, we have reached a point of Cybercrime 2.0.  This requires an approach of Security 2.0. The challenge of protecting company data and systems is a continually evolving IT infrastructure.   Companies need enhanced authentication solutions that allow them to protect access to the data and resources critical for operations remotely....

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Cisco to acquire OpenDNS for $635 Million

Cisco agreed to acquire OpenDNS, a privately held security company based in San Francisco, for approximately $635 million in cash and assumed equity awards. OpenDNS provides a secure DNS offering with advanced threat protection for "any device, across any port, protocol or app." Its predictive security model is designed to anticipate malicious activity, including botnets and phishing. Its DNSCrypt technology converts regular DNS traffic into encrypted...

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AWS Plans Data Center in India

Amazon Web Services announced plans to open an AWS infrastructure region in India for its cloud computing platform in 2016. AWS did not reveal the location of its new data center but cited a number of partners in India including Accenture, Blazeclan, Frontier, Intelligrape, Minjar, Progressive, PWC, SaaSforce, SD2labs, Team Computers, Wipro, and many others. "Tens of thousands of customers in India are using AWS from one of AWS's eleven global...

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Distil Raises $21M for Bot Detection and Mitigation

Distil Networks, a start-up with offices in Arlington, Virginia and San Francisco, raised $21 million in Series B funding for its bot detection and mitigation solution. Distil helps to defend websites against malicious bots used for web scraping, brute force attacks, competitive data mining, account hijacking, unauthorized vulnerability scans, spam, man-in-the-middle attacks and click fraud. Its unique approach monitors every single Web request...

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The OPNFV Project Expands its Member Roster

The OPNFV Project announced that Altera, Brain4Net and CertusNet have joined as Silver members. Launched in September 2014, the OPNFV project is supported by 60 member companies. “Collaboration is key to accelerating the open source software development of NFV, and with Arno now available, we’re seeing that vision materialize,” said Heather Kirksey, director, OPNFV. “We look forward to the contributions our newest members will bring to the community...

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Microsoft Contributes Device System Bridge to Alljoyn

The AllSeen Alliance has contributed the open source Device System Bridge (DSB) code to the AllSeen open source software project. DSB enables interoperability with legacy and purpose-built device networks under the AllJoyn open source software framework.  For example, using the AllJoyn DSB, developers can connect BACnet-based devices for building automation or Z-Wave smart home products to AllJoyn-enabled devices locally or remotely, depending...

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EU to End Roaming Charges in mid-2017

The European Union will adopt new rules to end mobile phone roaming fees by mid-2017. Under the agreement, roaming surcharges in the European Union will be abolished as of 15 June 2017. However, roaming providers will be able to apply a 'fair use policy' to prevent abusive use of roaming. This would include using roaming services for purposes other than periodic travel. Roaming fees will already go down on 30 April 2016, when the current retail...

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Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Picks Ericsson for LTE Expansion

Chunghwa Telecom, the largest telecom operator in Taiwan, awarded a contract to Ericsson to boost its LTE coverage and capacity on the island. Financial terms were not disclosed. Ericsson will continue to serve as sole supplier for the entire core network, including a multi-access Evolved Packet Core, and as a major supplier for RAN in Taiwan's most populated areas, including Taipei city. Jan Signell, Head of Region North East Asia at Ericsson,...

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Bharti Airtel Selects Nokia for 3G Expansion in 5 Circles

Bharti Airtel awarded a four-year contract to Nokia Networks to roll out its 3G network in 5 new telecom circles and network expansion in 3 existing telecom circles. Financial terms were not disclosed. Under the 4-year contract, the company will provide its radio elements and services expertise to power Bharti Airtel’s infrastructure.  The rollout includes Nokia's Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station, its all-IP multicontroller RNC (mcRNC) NetAct,...

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The OpenDaylight Project Announces Lithium Release

The OpenDaylight Project announced its third open SDN software release -- Lithium. OpenDaylight is a highly available, modular, extensible, scalable and multi-protocol controller infrastructure built for SDN deployments on modern heterogeneous multi-vendor networks. OpenDaylight provides a model-driven service abstraction platform that allows users to write apps that easily work across a wide variety of hardware and southbound protocols. New features...

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Pica8 Powers France’s TOUIX Internet Exchange with SDN

TOUIX, one of France’s leading Internet exchanges, is leveraging Pica8’s network operating system and white box switches to program and optimize its exchange fabric. TouIX is providing an interconnected network infrastructure in 4 PoPs around Toulouse city and is interconnected with the Paris FranceIX and LyonIX IXPs. Pica8 said its software enables TOUIX to avoid network outages and congestion caused by broadcast storms. The deployment is leveraging...

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TE Connectivity Intros Fiber-rich Distribution Hub for FTTH

TE Connectivity (TE) introduced a new line of fiber distribution hubs featuring higher fiber counts, smaller footprint and improved mounting options. The new sealed fiber distribution hub (FDH) 4000 brings high-density fiber connectivity to a compact, weatherproof enclosure. It serves to connect the feeder and distribution cables via optical splitters in the fiber to the home (FTTH) network. It features 144 distribution ports, 9 splitter ports and...

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Huawei and Alstom Test LTE for Railway Signalling

Huawei and Alstom completed a live pilot test of LTE multi-services based on Communications-based Train Control (CBTC), a railway signalling system based on wireless ground-to-train communication.  The testing covered the unified multi-service capabilities of several systems including CBTC, Passenger Information System (PIS), and closed-circuit television (CCTV). The pilot was carried out at metro lines near the Valenciennes commune area in...

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AT&T Confirms $3 Billion to Upgrade Networks in Mexico

AT&T last week confirmed plans to invest US$3 billion to extend its high-speed, mobile Internet service to Mexico, covering 100 million people in Mexico by year-end 2018. This is in addition to the US$4.4 billion AT&T invested earlier this year to acquire Iusacell and NEXTEL Mexico. Specifically, AT&T said the first phase of the mobile network will be complete in the next six months and cover 40 million Mexicans, about one-third of the...

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AOL and Microsoft Deal Covers Advertising and Search

Microsoft and AOL (now a division of Verizon) announced a major, 10-year deal under which AOL will assume management and sales responsibility for all of Microsoft’s display, mobile and video advertising inventory in nine key global markets -- the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan. AOL will represent inventory from across Microsoft’s suite of online brands, including MSN Homepage and verticals,...

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SK Telecom and Nokia Target 5G R&D

SK Telecom and Nokia Networks announced the opening of a 5G research and development center at Nokia Networks' Korean office. The center will serve as a venue where researchers from the two companies will study and develop core 5G technologies, including gigabit-level data transmission technology and cloud-based virtualized base stations. Moreover, SK Telecom and Nokia Networks will open a test bed within the end of 2015 to verify and demonstrate...

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Cloud Security Open API Working Group Gets Underway

CipherCloud and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) are forming a Cloud Security Open API Working Group to jointly define protocols and best practices for implementing cloud data security as a part of the cloud access security broker (CASB) framework. The Cloud Security Alliance is an industry coalition for promoting best practices for providing security assurance within cloud computing. CipherCloud offers an open platform for cloud application discovery...

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CoreSite Announces $500 Million Credit Facility

CoreSite Realty Corporation, which operates high-performance data centers across the US, announced an amended and expanded $500 million senior unsecured credit facility. The credit facility, consisting of a $350 million revolving credit facility and a $150 million term loan, extends CoreSite’s debt maturity profile and increases total debt capacity. The revolving credit facility has a four-year primary term, expiring in June 2019, with a one-year...

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Sophos Completes IPO

Sophos completed its IPO last week on the London Stock Exchange raising nearly £80 million. Sophos, which is headquartered in Oxford, UK, offers encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. The company has annual revenue of approximately US$447 million and about 200,000 customers. http://www.sophos....

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Open networking shifts the dynamics to SDN apps

The whole Open Networking revolution is really about transforming how infrastructure is built, and changing the dynamics from switches and protocols to the business applications, says Kumar Srikantan, President and CEO of Pluribus Networks. If you think about this, it's no different that what has happened in the world of mobile devices.  Android and iOS are not really about mobile telephony but rather a platform for other applications. Open...

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UCSD Cites Major Advancement in Optical Transmission

Researchers at the University of California - San Diego announced a breakthrough in photonic transmission with the potential to increase the efficiency of long haul fiber optic cables. Research published in the June 26 issue of the journal Science describes a solution to a long-standing roadblock to increasing data transmission rates in optical fiber: beyond a threshold power level, additional power increases irreparably distort the information...

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OneWeb Advances its Vision for Ku-band LEO Constellation

OneWeb, the venture planning to build, deploy and operate a low earth orbit (“LEO”) Ku-band satellite constellation, announced $500 million in funding from  Airbus, Bharti Enterprises, Hughes Network Systems, (Hughes), a subsidiary of EchoStar Corp., Intelsat, Qualcomm, The Coca-Cola Company, Totalplay, a Grupo Salinas Company, owned by Ricardo B. Salinas, and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. "The dream of fully bridging the digital divide is...

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Telstra Launches Nationwide Wi-Fi Service in Partnership with Fon

Telstra is launching a nationwide Wi-Fi service that provides its customers with access to hotspots across Australia and overseas. Telstra Air includes access to thousands of newly deployed Wi-Fi hotspots in payphone sites and retail outlets in popular locations across Australia. Telstra has joined exclusively with Fon to allow Telstra Air members to access their home broadband allowance at 15 million hotspots overseas in 18 countries including...

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San Francisco Public Library Gets 10G Internet Connection

San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), and the City and County of San Francisco announced today that they have collaborated to provide unprecedented direct connection at 10 Gbps access speed to CENIC’s California Research and Education Network (CalREN) and from there to the world. SFPL accesses city-owned fiber that is used to connect them to CalREN. SFPL has a direct 10 Gigabit...

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Brocade Signs OEM Deal with China's Sugon

Brocade announced an OEM partnership with with Dawning Information Industry Co Ltd (“Sugon”), one of the leading high-performance computing vendors formed under the purview of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Specifically, Sugon will integrate Brocade VDX 6740 Switches, featuring VCS Fabric technology, with its flagship blade server product line – TC6600, as a 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)/16 Gbps Fibre Channel converged network switch module. The...

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Pluribus Partners with Super Micro Computer and Red Hat

Pluribus Networks has partnered with Red Hat and Super Micro Computer to demonstrate an open and scalable converged infrastructure.  The solution combines Pluribus Open Netvisor Linux (ONVL), Micro-Blade servers from Supermicro and Red Hat OpenStack. “With the Pluribus Open Netvisor Linux operating system, the entire network underlay can be exported as one logical fabric via Neutron plugin and RESTful APIs. Netvisor’s VNET-based segmentation...

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Automating Visibility inside the Cisco Live Network with Gigamon and JDSU

The Cisco Live Network and its state-of-the-art network operations center serve all of the attendees of Cisco's big annual event. Equipment must be deployed rapidly. As soon as the show begins, the network supports tens of thousands of clients and pushes terabytes of data to the Internet. This video takes a look at the Cisco Live Network and the use of Gigamon's new software-defined visibility,  which leverages APIs to make real-times changes...

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Masergy Deploys Commercial NFV at the Network Edge

Masergy, which owns and operates an independent global cloud networking platform for enterprises, has commercially deployed pure-play network functions virtualization (NFV) at the edge of its network using technology from Overture, Brocade, Fortinet  and Intel. The deployment provides Masergy with greater agility, enabling it to deliver new and advanced premium services quickly and easily. “Our primary focus is on service agility and our pure-play...

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New RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) Initiative Gets Underway

A new RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) Initiative has been launched by the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) to raise awareness about the benefits that RoCE delivers for cloud, storage, virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructures. Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) enables faster movement of data between servers and between servers and storage with much less work being done by the CPU. RoCE utilizes RDMA to enhance infrastructure solutions...

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Juniper Debuts 3 Tbps PTX1000 Supercore Router

Juniper Networks introduced its compact, 3 Tbps, PTX1000 supercore router. Like the larger PTX3000 and PTX5000 core routers, the new two-rack unit (RU) router uses Juniper's 28nm ExpressPlus chipset for IP/MPLS performance applications. The 28-nanometer chip can drive 5x100G interfaces and leverages 3D memory architecture, which reduces power consumption and space requirements. In addition, the PTX1000 features flexible port interface options to...

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Qwilt Raises $25 Million for its NFV-based Open Video Caching Delivery

Qwilt announced $25 million in Series D funding for its open caching and online video delivery solution. Qwilt’s solution is 100 percent software-based, running on commodity, off-the-shelf hardware. Its open cache software architecture leverages the NFV/SDN environments being implemented by network operators worldwide. The company said its sales grew 400 percent year-over-year in 2014 with more than 80 deployments of its Qwilt Video Fabric solution...

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