OPNFV Community Delivers Arno, its First Release

The OPNFV Project, which is the community based effort sponsored by the Linux Foundation to develop an open source platform to accelerate the introduction of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), announced the availability of OPNFV Arno, its first software release.

Arno provides an initial build of the NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) and Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) components of ETSI NFV architecture.

Key capabilities of OPNFV Arno:

Availability of baseline platform: Arno enables continuous integration, automated deployment and testing of components from upstream projects such as Ceph, KVM, OpenDaylight, OpenStack and Open vSwitch. It allows developers and users to automatically install and explore the platform.

Ability to deploy and test various VNFs: End users and developers can deploy their own or third party VNFs on Arno to test its functionality and performance in various traffic scenarios and use cases.

Availability of test infrastructure in community-hosted labs: Agile testing plays a crucial role in the OPNFV platform. With Arno, the project is unveiling a community test labs infrastructure where users can test the platform in different environments and on different hardware. This test labs infrastructure enables the platform to be exercised in different NFV scenarios to ensure that the various open source components come together to meet vendor and end user needs.

Allows automatic continuous integration of specific components: As upstream projects are developed independently they require testing of various OPNFV use cases to ensure seamless integration and interworking within the platform. OPNFV’s automated toolchain allows continuous automatic builds and verification.

“Only eight months after its formation, OPNFV has met one of its major goals by creating an integrated build, deployment and testing environment that accelerates NFV implementation and interoperability,” said Prodip Sen, chairman of the OPNFV board of directors. “With Arno, we now have a solid foundation for testing some of the key resource orchestration and network control components for NFV. This is great a testament to the power of an open source collaborative model and the strength of the NFV ecosystem.”

“NFV has gone from idea to reality so quickly. I am hearing from every major operator their plans to deploy SDN and NFV and see the OPNFV project as playing a critical role in this vision becoming a reality. It's great to see the OPNFV community has chosen OpenDaylight as a key component of their project and the Arno release,” said Neela Jacques, executive director, OpenDaylight.

“Delivering Arno in a short amount of time shows the potential of open source collaboration,” said Jonathan Bryce, executive director, OpenStack Foundation. “The OpenStack community looks forward to working closely with OPNFV and accelerating the evolution of NFV.”

“We are very happy to see the adoption of components of ETSI NFV architecture in Arno. This is a major milestone for OPNFV and the NFV ecosystem in building the integrated open source NFV platform. We congratulate the community and are looking forward to future releases,” said Dr. Steven Wright (AT&T), chairman of ETSI NFV ISG.

https://www.opnfv.org/arno

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Equinix to Provide Direct Connect to Aliyun Cloud Services

Equinix signed an agreement with Aliyun, Alibaba Group's cloud computing arm, to provide direct access to Aliyun's cloud platform via the Equinix Cloud Exchange in Hong Kong and Silicon Valley. Aliyun is the largest public cloud service provider in China and operates the country's largest content delivery network.

This will provide multinational, Chinese, and North American enterprises with dedicated and secure access to the full suite of Aliyun's cloud services. In addition to the Aliyun cloud platform, Equinix will also offer direct access to additional cloud-based services from Aliyun, including SaaS-based applications.  Expansion to other Equinix facilities in Asia and North America is anticipated.

"Our multi-national enterprise customers are increasingly asking for access to the Aliyun cloud platform, as they deploy cloud-based applications across Asia. By providing this access in two strategic markets, we're empowering businesses to build secure, private clouds, without compromising network and application performance," said Chris Sharp, vice president, cloud innovation, Equinix.

"Aliyun is very excited about our global partnership with Equinix, who not only has a global footprint of cutting-edge data centers, but has also brought together the most abundant cloud players and tenants in the cloud computing ecosystem on its Equinix Cloud Exchange platform.  Connecting the Equinix ecosystem with our Aliyun cloud services on Cloud Exchange will provide customers with the best-of-breed choices and flexibility," said Sicheng Yu, vice president, Aliyun.

http://www.equinix.com

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Avi Networks Integrates Cloud ADC with Cisco ACI

Avi Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, has integrated its Cloud Application Delivery Controller with Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).

Avi Networks, which was founded by key engineers behind Cisco's Nexus data center platforms, offers a software-only load balancer that adopts the same approach taken by large cloud service providers, such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, in that it runs entirely on x86.  The hyperscale ADC separates the control plane from the data plane.  Avi is also bringing traffic analytics into its Layer 7 switching, enabling application flows to dynamically adapt to traffic conditions..

The newly announced integration with Cisco ACI establishes interoperability with the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) using RESTful APIs. Avi use a common architecture as Cisco, including unified management and control planes, as well as the ability to scale data plane resources elastically, on-demand as application requirements dictate. The company says this approach provides end-users with better application delivery, security and load balancing, in addition to real-time visibility, monitoring, and integrated (inline) analytics of their on-premise and cloud-based applications.

“We are excited to announce the availability of the integration with Cisco ACI, which is one of the most important data center and cloud networking solutions,” said Umesh Mahajan, CEO of Avi Networks. “The Cisco ACI is a true application driven environment and it requires a complementary approach to application delivery to guarantee the proper end-user experience and application performance, which are fundamental for success in today’s era of cloud, mobile and virtualization technologies.”

“Cisco ACI has been built with a broad and deep ecosystem of partners to give our customers freedom of choice among vendors,” said Ish Limkakeng, VP, Cisco. “We are pleased to have Avi Networks join our ecosystem and to have them share our vision for automation and agility in the data center.”

Avi also cites its Inline Analytics capability as a key differentiator.  An inline analytics module integrated within the company's ADC aligns with the centralized and deep network infrastructure visibility available through the Cisco APIC solution.

http://www.avinetworks.com

• Prior to co-founding Avi Networks in November 2012, Umesh Mahajan was VP/GM of Data Center Switching at Cisco, responsible for the Nexus 7000, MDS, NX-OS and DCNM families. Before that, he was Senior Director of Software Engineering at Andiamo, which was acquired by Cisco.  Avi's team also includes Murali Basavaiah (co-founder and Engineering Lead), who previously was VP Engineering at Cisco for NX-OS Software and Nexus 7000/MDS product; and Ranga Rajagopalan (Cheif Architect and CTO), who previously was Sr. Director of Engineering at Cisco and responsible for NX-OS systems/platform software for the Cisco Nexus 7000.

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NTT Com Develops Multi-homed anti-DDoS

NTT Communications is testing an enhanced DDoS orchestrator system to detect, analyze and defend against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. The pilot system was constructed by multiple security companies, including Arbor Networks, A10 Networks, and Radware Ltd. The user organizations include EHIME CATV Inc., INTERNET MULTIFEED Co., Interop Tokyo 2015 ShowNet, mixi Inc. and OKIT CORPORATION, among others.

NTT Com said its trial will test the operability of unique channel-control technology developed by NTT Com to minimize the negative effects, such as delays in normal communications, of implementing a DDoS defense. The testing environment incorporates NTT Com's unique channel-control technology (patent pending), which reports the Internet routes used by specific traffic and enabling traffic from a DDoS attack to be routed to optimized points in NTT Com's Global IP (GIP) and domestic OCN networks for Internet connection. The attacker's specific traffic is drawn to the system's DDoS defense devices, whereas normal communications experience only minimal delays.

NTT Com is Japan's first communications provider to conduct a multihomed anti-DDoS service that would be available to all companies using or providing Internet services.

http://www.ntt.com/aboutus_e/news/data/20150604.html

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HP and Arista Offer Data Center Reference Architectures

HP announced a new partnership with Arista Networks to provide verified reference architectures for data centers.

The HP Converged Architecture with Arista is designed to support private, public and hybrid cloud applications across compute and storage, including all-flash solutions with HP 3PAR StoreServ. The companies said their open and flexible solutions deliver simplified provisioning and ongoing maintenance, via the application of Arista Extensible Operating System (EOS) and network programmable platforms, with HP OneView integration at its core.

“The joint reference architectures from HP and Arista will deliver a dramatically simplified path to convergence and cloud-efficiency for our joint customers,” said Ed Chapman, vice president of business development and alliances, Arista Networks, Inc. “This will allow customers to rapidly realize the benefits of a converged infrastructure to accelerate their business and improve time to value while remaining flexible for future business needs.”

In addition, HP announced enhancements to its OneView 2.0 management platform, which unifies processes, user interfaces (UI’s) and the application programming interfaces (APIs) across HP server, storage, and Virtual Connect networking devices. The enhancements include new server automation tools for defining firmware and driver baselines as well as server, LAN and SAN settings in one place and consistently provision or update those settings multiple times. Additionally, new profile mobility makes it possible to migrate and recover of workloads across server platform types, configurations, and generations.

http://www.hp.com/go/convergedsystem

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NTT Com and Carrier Partners Aim for Improved Network Quality

NTT Communications and 22 of its global telecommunications-carrier partners agreed on a number of policies aimed at improving global network service quality.

During the Arcstar Carrier Forum 2015, which took place in Tokyo on June 2 and 3, the parties agreed to increase availability, decrease failure rates and strive for a number of other improvements measured by key performance indicators (KPI). These include:

• Increase availability
• Decrease failure rates
• Reduce instances of long-term failure
• Improve rate of determining reason for outage as failure occurs
• Improve rate of on-time delivery to customer
• Decrease lead time for line delivery

The Arcstar Carrier Forum is an international conference organized by NTT Com to consider strategies for strengthening Arcstar-branded managed network services for multinational corporations.

NTT Com Partner Carriers that Attended Arcstar Carrier Forum 2015

China: China Telecom Global Limited
Korea: KT Corporation
Hong Kong: Hutchison Global Communications Limited
Hong Kong: Wharf T&T Limited
Taiwan: Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.
Philippines: Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
Indonesia: PT Indosat tbk
Indonesia: PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia International
Vietnam: Vietnam Datacommunication
Malaysia: Telekom Malaysia Berhad
Thailand: CAT Telecom Public Company Limited
India: Tata Communications Ltd.
India: Bharti Airtel Limited
Australia: Telstra Japan K.K.
Australia: Singtel Optus Pty Limited
France: Orange Business Services
UK: Colt Technology Services
UK: Interoute Communications Limited
South Africa: Internet Solutions a division of Dimension Data
USA: Verizon Communications Inc.
USA: XO Communications
South America: Neutrona Networks

http://www.ntt.com/aboutus_e/news/data/20150603.html

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BroadSoft Acquires mPortal for Mobile UC Design

BroadSoft announced its acquisition of mPortal, a privately-held firm that offers mobile-centric design and development capabilities.  mPortal’s mobile-centric design and development capabilities will provide the foundation for BroadSoft Design – which allows service providers and enterprises to customize and differentiate UC solutions built around BroadSoft’s UC-One solution. mPortal is based in McLean, Virginia. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“It is increasingly clear that a ‘one size fits all’ strategy for delivering unified communications is insufficient for meeting the superior and differentiated end-user experiences that businesses demand,” said Scott Hoffpauir, chief technology officer, BroadSoft. “The mPortal acquisition and launch of BroadSoft Design reaffirms our commitment of simplifying how our customers sell, deliver and support UC services, innovating to give service providers a competitive market advantage and accelerating market adoption of unified communications through a superior end-user experience.”

http://www.broadsoft.com

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Cisco Names New Leadership Team

Cisco's incoming CEO Chuck Robbins announced his executive leadership team:

• Pankaj Patel, Executive Vice President, Chief Development Officer
• Kelly Kramer, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Rebecca Jacoby, Senior Vice President, Operations
• Guillermo Diaz has been promoted to CIO
• Francine Katsoudas, Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer
• Hilton Romanski, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer
• Karen Walker, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer
• Chris Dedicoat, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
• Joe Cozzolino, Senior Vice President, Services
• Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
• Dr. Ruba Borno, Vice President, Growth Initiatives and Chief of Staff

http://www.cisco.com

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Dell'Oro: Cisco Gains Share in L2-3 Ethernet Switch Market

The Layer 2-3 Ethernet Switch market declined nearly $1 billion in the first quarter 2015 to slightly more than $5.5 billion, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

"Seasonality, especially since China has become a larger part of the market caused Ethernet Switch revenues to be down significantly in 1Q15. Despite the strong sequential market decline, Cisco gained revenue share year-over-year," said Alan Weckel, Vice President of Ethernet Switch market research at Dell'Oro Group. "Campus switching has begun an upgrade cycle to support next generation wireless LAN access points using new Multi-Gigabit technology as a catalyst. Campus switching will also get a boost from E-Rate during the summer. As we transition to the end of 2015, the data center will begin an upgrade cycle to 25 GE for server access with 100 GE starting to ramp to significant volumes. The market will also be absorbing both HP's announcement to divest H3C and Avago's announcement to acquire Broadcom. It has been almost a decade since we have seen so much vendor repositioning in the market," stated Weckel.

The report also indicates that Cisco Systems, Huawei Technologies, and Hewlett-Packard (H3C) were the top three vendors in revenue rank in China during the first quarter 2015.

http://www.delloro.com

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