Fujitsu's Open Source SDN Controller Demos Dynamic, Multilayer Service Activation

Fujitsu Network Communications has successfully demonstrated interoperability between its Open Source SDN Controller and the ONOS controller developed by ON.Lab.

Fujitsu, a founding ONOS partner, developed TL1 southbound interfaces from the ONOS-based SDN controller to the FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet Optical Networking Platform (P-ONP) to provide Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) services: On-demand bandwidth, bandwidth calendaring and multi-layer optimization.

In this video, Anuj Dutia, Head of Market Development at FNC, presents an overview of the Fujitsu Open Source SDN controller, including a demonstration of dynamic service activation across multiple network layers.

See 5 Minute video:  https://youtu.be/CdSwe_Du1Co

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Viavi Solutions Lauches Following the Split up of JDSU

JDSU completed the spinoff of its Communications and Commercial Optical Product business segment as Lumentum, and launched its new identity as Viavi Solutions.

Viavi will commence “regular-way” trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market on August 4, 2015 under the ticker symbol VIAV. The JDSU ticker symbol has been retired.

Viavi includes JDSU’s Network Enablement (“NE”), Service Enablement (“SE”) and Optical Security and Performance Products (“OSP”) businesses.

“This is an important milestone as we mark the successful completion of the spinoff,” said Tom Waechter, Viavi’s president and chief executive officer. “Viavi is poised to capture the opportunities created by the industry’s transition to new network architectures and the need for increased network and application visibility. We believe that the spinoff will improve Viavi’s agility and increase focus, allowing us to accelerate our progress and deliver for our customers and shareholders.”

http://www.viavisolutions.com/

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Video: Tom Waechter on the Viavi Launch

In this 2-minute video, Tom Waechter introduces Viavi Solutions. the new company out of JDSU following the spin-off of the optical components division as Lumentum.

Viavi itself has two divisions: the optical security and performance business; and the network & service enablement business.

The name Viavi derives from "Via" (the Way) and Vi (visibility).

https://youtu.be/sWbk0HjS2Nk

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Lumentum Completes Spinoff from JDSU

Lumentum completed its spinoff from JDSU and will commence trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol LITE on August 4, 2015.

Lumentum, which is based in Milpitas, California, is a leading supplier of photonic components and subsystems used in telecom, enterprise, and data center networks. It commercial lasers enable advanced manufacturing techniques and diverse applications including next-generation 3D sensing capabilities.

http://www.lumentum.com

• Lumentum is headed by Alan Lowe (President and CEO), who has been was President of JDSU's CCOP since 2008. Lowe joined JDSU in September 2007 as Senior Vice President of JDSU’s Commercial Lasers group, which was ultimately integrated into CCOP.

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NSF Awards Research Network Grant to University of California

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $5 million, five-year award to UC San Diego and UC Berkeley to establish a Pacific Research Platform (PRP), a science-driven high-capacity data-centric “freeway system” on a large regional scale.

PRP links most of the research universities on the West Coast (the 10 University of California campuses, San Diego State University, Caltech, USC, Stanford, University of Washington) via the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC)/Pacific Wave’s 100G infrastructure.

The PRP will be rolled out in two phases. First, the PRPv1 platform will focus on deploying its data-sharing architecture to include all member campuses. Once all of the institutions are up and running, the consortium will develop and then offer PRPv2 as an advanced, IPv6-based version with robust security and software-defined networking (SDN) features.

“Research in data-intensive fields is increasingly multi-investigator and multi-institutional, depending on ever more rapid access to ultra-large heterogeneous and widely distributed datasets,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “The Pacific Research Platform will make it possible for PRP researchers to transfer large datasets to where they work from their collaborators’ labs or from remote data centers.”

http://cenic.org/news/item/nsf-gives-green-light-to-pacific-research-platform-uc-san-diego-uc-berkeley

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Zscaler Raises $100 Million for Security-as-a-Service

Zscaler, a start-up based in San Jose, California, raised $100 million in new venture funding for its Internet security-as-a-service offering.

Zscaler currently protects more than 5,000 enterprise and government organizations worldwide with a total of 13 million employees against cyber attacks and data breaches. The cloud-based Zscaler Security-as-a-Service platform is operating in more than 100 data centers around the world, delivering carrier-grade Internet security, advanced persistent threat (APT) protection, data loss prevention, SSL decryption, traffic shaping, policy management and threat intelligence without the need for on-premise hardware, appliances or software.

TPG invested in Zscaler, alongside existing investors EMC and Lightspeed Ventures, who also contributed to the round.

“Our mission is to make the Internet safe for business by delivering an amazing security platform that protects our clients and enables the strategic adoption of cloud computing, mobile devices and the Internet of Things,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler. “The investment and partnership from TPG and the global relationships and experience they provide will enable us to accelerate investment in our technology, grow our customer base and aggressively scale our business to meet growing demand. We are excited to join an elite group of security companies valued in excess of $1 billion.”

http://www.zscalar.com

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ADVA Acquires Time4 Systems for Synchronization Technology

ADVA Optical Networking's Oscilloquartz division has acquiredTime4 Systems, which produces SFP-based pluggable clock devices that drive synchronization deeper into the access network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Time4 Systems is a start-up based in Finland with 6 people in total.  Its network synchronization technology consists of SFP-based, pluggable clock devices that leverage global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, telecom slave clocks (T-SCs), grandmasters (GMs) or boundary clocks (BCs). The SFP-based pluggable clock devices will become a part of the Oscilloquartz product portfolio and complement its existing synchronization offerings.

“Time4 Systems has a strategic understanding of the synchronization space. Their SFP-based pluggable sync devices are a clear example of this. They are a breakthrough technology for our industry,” said Brian Protiva, CEO, ADVA Optical Networking. “This technology enables Time4 Systems to address a number of key pain points for service providers that are seeking to deploy synchronization devices much deeper in the access network. This is why we acquired them. They are an ideal fit for our Oscilloquartz business and further strengthen a strong product portfolio. In fact, we already have a number of new business opportunities that we’re pursuing and we believe there’s a very clear market out there.”

http://www.advaoptical.com/

In 2014, ADVA Optical Networking SE acquired Oscilloquartz SA from Swatch Group. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Oscilloquartz specializes in network synchronization solutions, including high-quality quartz crystal oscillators.  The company, which was founded in 1949, offers technology for timing sources and timing distribution for legacy and next-generation packet networks. During its long history, Oscilloquartz has developed long-term relationships with hundreds of customers served by more than 80 distributors around the globe. The company is based in Neuchatel, Switzerland - the heart of Europe's traditional watchmaking region.

ADVA said the Oscilloquartz product portfolio complements its own Syncjack offering and enables the company to deliver a complete end-to-end solution and smooth migration for frequency and time synchronization to network operators, a large number of enterprise verticals and governmental institutions.

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Toshiba Samples 12Gbps Enterprise SSDs with 3.84 TB Capacity

Toshiba’s Semiconductor & Storage Products company announced its next generation of enterprise solid state drives (eSSDs).

The new PX04S line features four serial-attached small computer system interface (SCSI) SAS eSSD models well-suited for enterprise applications including: mail servers; database servers; virtualized enterprise file servers; and primary storage in read, write or mixed workload environments. Continuing Toshiba’s legacy of quality and reliability, the dual-ported 12Gbit/s SAS PX04S line offers random 4K performance with read IOPS up to 270K and write IOPS up to 145K. This is Toshiba’s first 12Gbit/s SAS SSD to deliver 3.84TB of operating capacity.

The product line up includes a high-endurance model targeted at applications requiring the highest levels of eSSD performance, reliability and endurance, the PX04SHB supports 25 complete drive writes per day with a one hundred percent random workload.

http://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/product/storage-products/enterprise-ssd.html

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Ciena Completes Acquisition of Cyan

Ciena completed its previously announced acquisition of Cyan, a supplier of next-generation software and platforms to enable open, agile and scalable software-defined networks, for approximately $488 million (or $415 million, net of estimated cash acquired) and inclusive of Cyan’s outstanding convertible notes on an as-converted basis, based on the closing price of Ciena’s common stock on July 31, 2015.

Ciena is unifying the software activities of both companies under a single brand and set of resources known as the Blue Planet division. The division, which includes Ciena’s former Agility business, will focus on helping customers automate services – from creation to orchestration to delivery – across both physical and virtual domains, in order to drive greater competitive advantage, create new revenue opportunities, and lower costs associated with hardware and operations. The Blue Planet portfolio offers a carrier-grade, multi-vendor SDN and NFV platform designed to automate, orchestrate, and manage the lifecycle of virtualized services across data centers and the WAN. It also includes a family of applications designed to control and manage both physical network elements and virtual SDN/NFV resources.

Mike Hatfield, formerly Cyan’s president, has been appointed to lead the Blue Planet division as a senior vice president of Ciena. The Blue Planet product portfolio includes Cyan's software applications, including Planet Orchestrate and Planet Operate, as well as Ciena's SDN Multilayer WAN Controller and its applications, V-WAN, Agility Matrix and network management solutions. The division is comprised of teams responsible for software development, product line management, product marketing, service and support, sales and business development.

"Ciena and Cyan make a great combination for our customers as they transform their networks with web-scale technologies to go beyond delivering capacity to create capabilities on demand," said Gary Smith, president and CEO, Ciena. "We believe this acquisition advances our strategy to deliver a complete on-demand solution for virtualized networks and services, and greater control and choice for customers in an open ecosystem."

http://www.ciena.com

• Cyan was founded in 2006 and has approximately 260 employees worldwide. FY 2014 revenue amounted to $101 million. The company was based in Petaluma, California.

In March, Cyan confirmed that CenturyLink is preparing to launch NFV-enhanced services to enterprise and small and midsized business (SMB) customers based on Cyan’s Blue Planet NFV Orchestrator. Specifically, CenturyLink will use Cyan’s Blue Planet orchestration for their Programmable Services Backbone (PSB), its platform that for next-generation virtualized services to its customers.  Blue Planet NFV Orchestrator bridges multiple technologies to instantiate virtual network functions (VNF) from multiple vendors. Blue Planet will add these virtual network functions to CenturyLink’s network for quickly providing software-enabled services and ubiquitous service coverage to CenturyLink’s broad set of customers.

Cyan said its Blue Planet software can instantiate and control virtual functions, coordinate with physical and virtual network resources, and interconnect virtual functions (i.e., vFirewall, vDPI, vEncryption, vRouter, vDNS, etc.) to achieve service chaining. The programmability of the Blue Planet NFV Orchestrator allows carriers like CenturyLink to onboard and define new services through a flexible template-based architecture. The open architecture of Blue Planet’s NFV Orchestrator enables rich, multi-vendor environments within the NFV Infrastructure (NFVI), including support for different cloud management software and physical servers.

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Nokia to Sell HERE Mapping Business to Auto Companies for EUR 2.8 Billion

Nokia agreed to sell its HERE mapping and location services business to an automotive industry consortium at an enterprise value of EUR 2.8 billion.

The buying consortium includes AUDI AG, BMW Group and Daimler AG.  The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.

HERE is developing a location cloud that harnesses the power of data generated by vehicles, devices and infrastructure to deliver real-time, predictive and personalized location services.

Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia, said: "With this step we complete the latest stage of Nokia's transformation. We integrated the former Nokia Siemens Networks, divested our Devices & Services business, and have now reached agreement on a transaction for HERE that we believe is the best path forward for our shareholders, as well as the customers and employees of HERE. Going forward, we will focus on our planned combination with Alcatel-Lucent. Once that is complete, Nokia will be a renewed company, with a world-leading network technology and services business, as well as the licensing and innovation engine of Nokia Technologies."

http://www.nokia.com

• In April 2015, Nokia announced a review of strategic options for HERE in light of its proposed combination with Alcatel-Lucent. The announcement of this sale to the Consortium concludes that strategic review process.

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Microchip Completes Acquisition of Micrel

Microchip Technology, which supplies microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, completed its previously announced acquisition of Micrel.

Micrel, which is based in San Jose, California, is a leading manufacturer of IC solutions for the worldwide high-performance analog and high-speed mixed signal, LAN and timing and communications solutions markets. Its products include high performance analog, power, advanced mixed-signal and radio frequency semiconductors; high speed communication, clock management, and LAN solutions including Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver integrated circuits. These products address a wide range of rapidly growing end markets including cellular handsets, portable and enterprise computing, enterprise and home networking, wide area and metropolitan area networks and industrial equipment. Micrel was founded in 1978.

http://www.microchip.com/

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Sprint Appoints Networking Team

Sprint announced the following senior leadership changes to support the next phase of the company’s transformation:

• Tarek Robbiati, 50, is named Chief Financial Officer. Robbiati most recently was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at FlexiGroup Ltd., an Australian consumer finance company specializing in leasing. Previously he held senior executive positions, including group managing director and deputy chief financial officer of Telstra Corp., Australia’s leading telecommunications company, chief executive officer at CSL Limited, the number one mobile operator in Hong Kong and executive vice president and head of corporate finance for Orange Plc.
  
• Günther Ottendorfer, 46, is joining the company as chief operating officer, technology. Ottendorfer will arrive at Sprint with more than 25 years of experience leading global technology teams. He previously served as chief technology officer and a board member for Telekom Austria Group and managing director of Optus Singtel in Sydney Australia.
  
• John Saw, Chief Network Officer, is promoted to Chief Technology Officer, reporting to Ottendorfer. Sprint has made significant improvements to its network under Saw’s leadership as Chief Network Officer. Before Sprint acquired Clearwire, Saw was Clearwire’s chief technology officer. He helped build that company’s organization and led complex and vital projects including building the first 4G network in North America, covering more than 130 million people.
  
• Junichi Miyakawa, Technical Chief Operating Officer, has been instrumental in developing the company’s network plans and will become a senior technical adviser in the Office of the CEO and a liaison between Softbank and Sprint for network strategy.

http://www.sprint.com

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