Tuesday, October 20, 2015

EMC and VMware to Combine Efforts on Virtustream, a Hybrid Cloud Services Provider

EMC and VMware unveiled plans to create a new, enterprise cloud services provider to be called Virtustream. The launch is supported by Michael S. Dell, MSD Partners & Silver Lake, who recently disclosed plans to acquire EMC and VMware.

EMC currently operates a division called Virtustream that provides cloud management software and IaaS. This announcement builds on this initiative by adding in resources from EMC and VMware.

The new Virtustream will offer a range of managed services for on-premises infrastructure and its enterprise-class Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform, enabling customers to move all their applications, including mission-critical applications, to cloud-based IT environments. Virtustream will incorporate the cloud capabilities of EMC Information Infrastructure, VCE, Virtustream and VMware to provide the complete spectrum of on- and off- premises offerings including: VMware vCloud Air, VCE Cloud Managed Services, Virtustream's Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and EMC’s Storage Managed Services and Object Storage Services offerings.

Virtustream’s financial results will be consolidated into VMware’s financial statements beginning in Q1 2016. It is expected to generate multiple hundreds of millions of dollars in recurring revenue in 2016, focused on enterprise-centric cloud services, with an outlook to grow to a multi-billion business over the next several years. The company will be led by Rodney Rogers.

VMware will establish a Cloud Provider Software business unit led by Ajay Patel, VMware senior vice president, focused on delivering cloud software and solutions to cloud providers including VMware’s vCloud Air Network, to help them rapidly harness the opportunity of the hybrid cloud. This new unit will incorporate assets and people from the VMware vCloud Air Application Services business, vCloud Director and vCloud Air Network teams, as well as Virtustream’s Software Business including Advisor Planning and Migration tool, xStream cloud management platform and Viewtrust governance, risk and compliance solution.

"Through Virtustream, we are addressing the changes in buying patterns and IT cloud operation models that we are seeing in the market. Our customers consistently tell us that they are focused on their IT transformations and journeys to the hybrid cloud. The EMC Federation is now positioned as a complete provider of hybrid cloud offerings," said Joe Tucci, EMC Corporation Chairman and CEO.

http://www.emc.com
http://www.vmware.com

EMC to Acquire Virtustream for $1.2 Billion - Hybrid Cloud Mgt.

EMC Corporation agreed to Virtustream, a start-up headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, London and Dubai, for approximately $1.2 billion in cash.

Virtustream offers a consumption-based hybrid cloud software and IaaS platform capable of providing commercial application latency performance guarantees for running mission-critical enterprise class applications on modern multi-tenant cloud architectures.Virtustream’s xStream software features consumption-based billing and embedded µVM (micro-VM) technology for assuring application-level SLAs. The company owns data centers in the U.S. and Europe with service provider partner data centers in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

EMC said the acquisition represents a transformational element of its strategy to help customers move all applications to cloud-based IT environments.  Virtustream will form EMC’s new managed cloud services business.

“This acquisition is great news for our customers, VMware and the EMC Federation of businesses.  With the addition of Virtustream, we will be able to offer customers a comprehensive set of hybrid cloud offerings, including private, managed and public cloud solutions. As we deliver VMware vCloud Air to our customer base to help them continue their journey to the cloud, Virtustream complements and expands our value proposition,” stated Pat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer, VMware.

SAP, which has a long-term partnership with Virtustream, stated that it looks forward to continuing the alliance with EMC.

Brocade Extends Open, Software-Defined Visibility for Mobile Operators

Brocade unveiled its new network visibility solution and partner ecosystem for mobile operators.

The new portfolio, which is based on technology from Brocade's acquisition of Vistapointe, is built on the principles of software-enabled, open, and disaggregated. The idea is to leverage visibility and analytics with an extensible platform with APIs for third party components. Brocade said its scale-out, dynamic architecture supports up to 100 million subscribers per packet core and enables real-time programmability of network packet brokers to optimize traffic sent to probes and analytics applications. Based on packet network visibility and traffic analytics, the platform's SDN programmability can shape network behavior. The use of virtual packet brokers and virtual packet probes delivers flexibility and capacity on demand. Single-pane-of-glass management extends across physical and virtual visibility infrastructures.

The Brocade Network Visibility product family includes:

  • Brocade MLXe Packet Brokers and Brocade ICX Packet Brokers: A family of packet brokers to address the wide range of density, performance, and programmability needs of Tier-1 mobile operators
  • Brocade Virtual Packet Broker: a full-featured, virtual TAP/packet broker for vEPC environments
  • Brocade Session Director: Software-based separation of mobile control flow processing in the visibility network to deliver maximum scalability, real-time programmability of packet brokers, and enhanced network intelligence
  • Brocade Packet Probes: Software-based, scalable, wire-speed packet processing engines that decode and reduce mobile bearer and control traffic to extract and deliver essential metadata required by network monitoring and analytics solutions
  • Brocade Visibility Manager: A single-pane-of-glass management application for the entire Brocade Network Visibility solution

Brocade is supporting Open APIs to enable third-party components at each layer of the visibility infrastructure.  The company's initial network visibility partners include Viavi, EMC, Guavus, and Avvassi.

“Through the Brocade Network Visibility product family, Brocade is now empowering mobile network operators to optimize their visibility and analytics environments in ways they were unable to before,” said Jason Nolet, senior vice president, Switching, Routing, and Analytics Products Group, Brocade. “The network visibility approach we deliver alleviates the challenges of operating a diverse visibility environment, and brings a software-enabled infrastructure and open architecture to the forefront of mobile operator visibility networks.”

http://www.brocade.com/en/products-services/network-visibility-analytics.html


Brocade Acquires Vistapointe for Mobile Traffic Visibility/Analytics

Brocade has acquired Vistapointe, a start-up based in San Ramon, California with operations in Ireland and Bangalore, India, for its cloud-based and real-time network intelligence solutions for mobile operators. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Vistapointe specializes in data extraction, analysis and insight generation technologies that enable mobile operators gain visibility into their mobile networks. Vistapointe’s product portfolio leverages Network Functions Virtualization (NFV architecture), enabling it to run in the cloud. The Vistapointe solution enables Mobile and Het-Net operators to monetize the explosion of data traffic, save and optimize their cost-structure through better visibility and reduce subscriber churn through better QoE. The solution passively taps into the data, session and signaling layers of 3G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi networks non-intrusively, while complying with 3GPP, IETF & IEEE standard protocols.

Brocade said the acquisition helps it to address the emerging opportunities and requirements of mobile network operators, providing them with enhanced network visibility and analytics of subscriber data traffic.   These capabilities will be essential for MNOs rolling out 4G/LTE technology across the billions of mobile devices deployed worldwide, led primarily by data networking requirements. This also establishes a firm technology foundation for MNOs as they begin the migration path to 5G technology in the coming years. The expected revenue for data traffic over mobile handsets will exceed $358 billion (USD) by 2018, representing the single largest source of revenue for MNOs over the next six years, according to industry research firm Analysys Mason.

In addition to enhancing the Brocade NFV technology portfolio, the Vistapointe acquisition directly complements the existing Brocade MLX-based IP telemetry solution to provide MNOs with an end-to-end network intelligence solution, from the network packet broker to analytics applications. With this transaction, the Vistapointe technologies are being incorporated into a new Network Visibility and Analytics group reporting into Jason Nolet, Vice President of the Switching, Routing, and Analytics products group, Brocade.

As part of the transaction, Vistapointe CEO, Ravi Medikonda, has joined Brocade as Vice President of the Network Visibility and Analytics product group. Furthermore, Brocade has hired the Vistapointe development team, and they will report into Medikonda as part of the new business unit.

http://newsroom.brocade.com

  • Vistapointe was headed by Ravi Medikonda (CEO), who previously held leadership roles at Juniper Networks in its Product Management & Marketing groups. Before Juniper, he was Director of Product Management at Tellabs/Vivace Business Unit with P&L responsibility for the IP/MPLS products and successfully led Tellabs into the 3G/Wireless RAN backhaul market.

Brocade Intros SDN Flow Optimizer App

Brocade introduced a new FLOW OPTIMIZER application and new SDN capabilities for its MLX SERIES routers.

The Brocade Flow Optimizer is designed to adapt the network based on anomalous traffic patterns and behaviors. The goal is to enable service providers and enterprises to gain proactive insight into their network traffic, mitigate network attacks, and eliminate network congestion, in order to improve the end user experience.

The SDN application supports an OpenDaylight-based controller that provides real-time policy-based management for network traffic flows through Brocade MLXe routers.  The Brocade Flow Optimizer allows network managers to mitigate network flood attacks, throttle bandwidth intensive workloads, reprioritize rogue traffic, and redirect suspicious activity for further analysis. The Brocade Flow Optimizer SDN application is generally available. Price is based on a perpetual software license, depending on the network capacity supported. Capacity for up to 20 GB of traffic management is priced at $4,995 and capacity for up to 200 GB of traffic management is priced at $12,995.

Brocade also announced the Brocade NetIron OS 5.9 software, building on the continued advancement of SDN capabilities in the Brocade MLXe routers. This latest OS release leverages the company's VersaScale programmable forwarding architecture.

http://www.brocade.com

Dell Debuts Edge Gateway for IoT

Dell launched a new Edge Gateway 5000 Series designed for IoT aggregation for the building and factory automation sectors.

The Dell Edge Gateway sits at the edge of the network (near the devices and sensors) with local analytics and other middleware to receive, aggregate, analyze and relay data, then minimizes expensive bandwidth by relaying only meaningful data to the cloud or datacenter.

The unit can be mounted on the wall and can operate in locations with extreme temperatures like boiler rooms and deserts. It can bridge both legacy serial connections (RS-422/485, CAN bus) and modern wireless networks (Wi-Fi, 802.15.4 mesh).  Operating system options include Ubuntu Snappy, Wind River Linux, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

http://www.dell.com

Dell Adds Big Data Analytics Capabilities

Dell announced a series of new big data and analytics solutions and services including solutions for industry verticals, such as banking, healthcare and insurance.

The rollout includes Statistica 13, the latest release of the company’s popular advanced analytics software platform, helps simplify and improve the process by which organizations deploy predictive models directly to data sources inside the firewall, in the cloud, and in partner ecosystems.

Enhancements and new capabilities in Statistica 13 include:

  • A revamped and modernized GUI for greater ease-of-use and visual appeal
  • Deeper integration with the recently added Statistica Interactive Visualization and Dashboard engine for more effective communication to data consumers
  • Tighter integration with open source R for easier sharing and control of R scripts
  • A new stepwise model tool that progressively recommends optimum models for users
  • New Native Distributed Analytics (NDA) capabilities that allow users to run analytics directly in the database where data lives and work more efficiently with large and growing data sets.


http://www.dell.com

SAP Sees Traction for S/4HANA, its Cloud Business Suite

SAP has exceeded 1,300 customers for its Business Suite 4 SAP HANA (SAP S/4HANA), which launched in February 2015.

SAP S/4HANA is the company's next-generation business suite for the digital economy.

"Exceeding 1,300 customers in only eight months validates that SAP S/4HANA is SAP's biggest innovation since SAP R/3. Customers and partners have clearly understood the benefit of our new suite to reimagine business in today's world," said Robert Enslin, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and president of Global Customer Operations, SAP. "The digital transformation is now a reality across all industries and requires organizations to rethink business models, processes and IT landscapes by putting simplicity at the heart of everything they do. This is the value SAP S/4HANA as our digital core brings to help customers disrupt their industry and win in the digital economy."

http://www.sap.com

Nokia Demos 5G with du

Nokia Networks and du, a leading mobile operator in the Middle East, are demonstrating 5G at this week's GITEX event in Dubai.

The 5G system being demonstrated by du and Nokia Networks uses very high bandwidth, smart antennas, and next generation multi-carrier modulation to achieve ultra low latency and impressive peak data rates of 10 Gbps. This 5G radio proof-of-concept was developed in cooperation with National Instruments (NI).

http://networks.nokia.com/

COMPTEL Changes Name to INCOMPAS

COMPTEL, the competitive networks association, is changing its name to INCOMPAS. The change, which was announced at this week's ComptelPlus conference in San Francisco, is meant to reflect the organization's growth and commitment to defending competition policy across a wide spectrum of evolving technology platforms.

“The name INCOMPAS illustrates our commitment to innovation, competition and the future. We have a rich history, successfully leading efforts to open markets to new networks, new technology and new ideas,” said INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering. “Moving forward, we wanted a name that reflected both our values and our growing membership. This change will create expansion opportunities for our membership, our trade shows and our advocacy efforts. We are INCOMPAS, we are the future of competition.”

In addition to competitive broadband providers, INCOMPAS now counts video providers, social media leaders, content providers, wireless companies, Internet companies, international leaders, start-ups and venture capitalists among its growing membership base. During the past 18 months, under Pickering’s leadership, INCOMPAS has added members including Google, Netflix Inc., Amazon, Twitter, AngelList, Level 3, XO Communications, Rocket Fiber and TMobile.

http://www.incompas.org/