Monday, August 24, 2015

Intel Leads Another $100 Million Investment Round in Mirantis

Intel led a $100 million funding round and spending in Mirantis, which specializes in OpenStack solutions.  The funding round included new investor Goldman Sachs and existing investors August Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Ericsson, Sapphire Ventures (formerly SAP Ventures) and WestSummit Capital.

The funding round builds on the $100 million in Series B funding that Mirantis raised in 2014.  Last year, Mirantis also announced the largest public sale of OpenStack software ever ($30 million with Ericsson). The start-up says its top line revenue grew 150 percent year-over-year and the company added more than 70 new enterprise customers. Mirantis is based in Mountain View, California and has also opened new offices in Amsterdam, Austin, Grenoble, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Mirantis is undertaking technical collaboration with Intel as part of Intel’s recent announcement focused on creating tens of thousands of new clouds, the Cloud for All initiative. Specifically the two companies will address: performance at scale, storage, network integration and support for big data.  Addressing these technology challenges will expand the use of OpenStack and ease adoption for Mirantis and Intel customers.

“With Intel as our partner, we’ll show the world that open design, open development and open licensing is the future of cloud infrastructure software. Mirantis’ goal is to make OpenStack the best way to deliver cloud software, surpassing any proprietary solutions,” said Alex Freedland, co-founder and president of Mirantis. “Every industry is being disrupted by software. Smart enterprises are embracing the cloud to grow top line revenues and get new services to market faster. Mirantis is the only vendor 100 percent committed to only OpenStack.”

“Our investment in Mirantis is the next step in bringing open cloud infrastructure to the entire industry as part of Intel’s ‘Cloud for All’ initiative,” said Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager, Data Center Group, Intel. “As enterprises embrace public, private and hybrid cloud strategies, they need choices in their infrastructure software. OpenStack is an ideal open solution for cloud-native applications and services, and our collaboration with Mirantis is well placed to ensure the delivery of critical new enterprise features helping to create of tens of thousands of clouds.”

http://www.mirantis.com

Latest Windows Server Preview Adds Container Capabilities

Microsoft released  a new preview of Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 includes the first public preview of Windows Server Containers, new Nano Server functionality, and software-defined data center enhancements.

Microsoft says Windows Server Containers create a highly agile Windows Server environment, enabling developers to work with the languages of their choice – whether.NET, ASP.NET, and PowerShell or Python, Ruby on Rails, Java, etc..

The release builds on a partnership with Docker to offer container and DevOps benefits to Linux and Windows Server users alike. Windows Server Containers are now part of the Docker open source project. These containers can be deployed and managed either using PowerShell or the Docker client.

In addition to working with Docker to deliver Windows Server Containers, Microsoft plans to support choice and flexibility around containers through:

  • Ensuring a first-rate experience for containers on Azure. Microsoft recently released Docker VM Extensions for Linux on Azure, Docker CLI support on Windows, and Visual Studio Tools for Docker. Contributing to the open source development of the Docker Engine for Windows Server with a goal to enable the Docker client to manage multi-container applications using both Linux and Windows containers, regardless of the hosting environment or cloud provider.
  • Joining the Open Container Initiative to deliver an open, universal container image format and runtime under the Linux Foundation.
  • Expanding the ecosystem, through work with Canonical around the LXD REST API, a cross-platform container management layer that will bring new container innovation to Windows and Ubuntu developers.
  • Updates to Visual Studio and Visual Studio Online for Windows Server Container.
  • A future preview of Windows Server 2016, will include Hyper-V Containers, a second container deployment option that will provide higher isolation using an optimized virtualization and Windows Server operating system that separates containers from each other and from the host operating system. 

The latest preview of Windows Server 2016 also includes new Azure-inspired software-defined datacenter features, extending the functionality of our leading operating system and application platform:

  • Enhanced Nano Server functionality: adds a  new Emergency Management Console.
  • Simplified software-defined networking: we are delivering a scalable network controller, for centralized network configuration as well as a software load balancer for high availability and performance.
  • Extended security: Shielded VMs, which enable isolation between the underlying host and virtual machines, help protect resources in shared environments. 
  • Management: System Center feature enhancements make it easier to manage virtualized environments including support for rolling upgrades, shielded VM’s and guarded host support, and automated maintenance windows.


http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-technical-preview

Talari Expands SD-WAN Deployment Options

Talari introduced new Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) appliances -- including both physical and virtual models -- along with an update to its Adaptive Private Networking (APN) operating system.

Some highlights:

  • Talari Virtual Appliance VT500: The Talari Appliance VT500 is a virtual software-only appliance that runs on VMWare’s vSphere. It’s a lightweight edge appliance that enables Talari’s Software Defined THINKING WAN capabilities to be installed by end users on commoditized hardware or embedded in a service offering from another vendor or service provider, giving the enterprise the power of choice in network infrastructure.
  • Talari Appliance T5200: The Talari Appliance T5200 is a new appliance with support for 10G Fiber-Optic interfaces, expanding the deployment scale of data centers that can benefit from Talari’s solution. The Talari Appliance T5200 can serve the role of network controller for a Talari SD-WAN and has multiple high availability options including fail to glass ports, active/active high availability pairs and geographic redundancy.
  • Expanded cloud capabilities in Talari APN 4.4: Talari has also released a new version of its Adaptive Private Networking (APN) software, Talari APN 4.4, which includes several new capabilities to support the increasing adoption of cloud within the enterprise. Customers now have the option of moving the Talari SD-WAN controller to the cloud, simplifying the management of the virtual WAN. Talari APN 4.4 also includes features to expand the control of traffic in the cloud, allowing Talari’s solutions to exercise more granular control over where SaaS and Internet traffic enters and exits the WAN edge.
  • Expanded security options in Talari APN 4.4: With the growing concern around network security, Talari APN 4.4 strengthens the security profile of its SD-WAN deployments with the optional use of third-party certified FIPs compliant IPsec tunnels as the Talari virtual WAN connection. This enhancement is in addition to the 128-bit and 256-bit encryption that is already included in Talari’s SD-WAN solution, enabling Talari customers to choose the best security options for specific applications across a virtual connection overlaid on their existing infrastructure. 

“Rather than force our customers to fit within a proscribed network architecture or vendor-defined deployment model, Talari’s goal is to provide a comprehensive solution that allows companies with a range of network architectures and deployment models to take advantage of the benefits of SD-WAN. This release increases our target market opportunity and will help us maintain and extend our current lead in the SD-WAN market,”said Emerick Woods, president and CEO, Talari.

http://www.talari.com

Dell Launches Datacenter Scalable Solutions

Dell is launching a new line of business within its Enterprise Solutions organization targeting the fast growing data center market and designed to meet the specific needs of web tech, telecommunications service providers, hosting companies, oil and gas, and research organizations.

Dell Datacenter Scalable Solutions (DSS) leverages the company's enterprise portfolio as well as global support and supply chain capabilities to build new and unique solutions.

"Dell Datacenter Scalable Solutions is a prime example of how Dell, as a private company, is able to be more nimble, make faster decisions and – most importantly – drive innovation on behalf of its customers," said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, vice president and general manager, Server Solutions, Dell. "While others in the IT industry have been focused on marketing hype or reducing capex costs only, we’ve created a new operating model that is centered around flexibility. DSS is about understanding customers’ goals and enabling them to achieve those objectives by giving them purpose-built solutions that are designed when and how they want it."

Dell DSS has partnered closely with Dell Financial Services to further enable and enrich the customer experience. With more flexible warranty and financing options, Dell is helping customers acquire technologies that allow them to future-proof their business while driving business value.

http://www.dell.com

Australia Japan Cable Reroutes Around Subsea Cable Fault with Infinera

The Australia Japan Cable recently experienced a network path failure following a subsea cable fault in 7,000 meters to 8,000 meters water depth, but was able to quickly reroute 400 Gbps of traffic to alternate paths.  The fast reroute capability was enabled by capabilities of the Infinera DTN-X platform featuring Infinera’s new on-demand Time-based Instant Bandwidth technology. 

The rerouting of the lost traffic was able to commence within minutes after receipt by AJC of the Time-based Instant Bandwidth license. This avoided a route outage while the cable repair ship was mobilized, transited to the repair site, and implemented in the challenging deep water repair.

AJC is a private submarine cable network and operates a 12,700 km link from Sydney to Tokyo via Guam. AJC experienced a subsea fault affecting services operating on the optical fiber route between Maruyama, Japan and Tumon Bay, Guam, including services on the Infinera DTN-X and other vendor platforms. Using Infinera’s new Time-based Instant Bandwidth technology, AJC in collaboration with Infinera was able to quickly respond by activating network capacity over an alternate route consisting of one terrestrial and two subsea AJC segments to recover over 400 Gb/s of affected traffic.

“We are pleased to continue our successful partnership with AJC,” said Lonny Orona, executive vice president for customer support at Infinera. “Customer satisfaction is of utmost importance to us and we are committed to help in any way possible so they can, in turn, fully meet their customers’ needs. Both the AJC and Infinera teams worked jointly with urgency to recover network capacity, minimizing disruption to the AJC network and services.”