Equinix Unveils Interconnection Oriented Architecture

Equinix unveiled its Interconnection Oriented Architecture (IOA) -- a blueprint for becoming an interconnected enterprise.

Equinix said goal with IOA is to help companies understand, deploy and benefit from interconnection.

Equinix said it developed IOA as a repeatable engagement model that both enterprises and solution providers can leverage to directly and securely connect people, locations, clouds and data.  The goal is to shift the fundamental IT delivery architecture from siloed and centralized to interconnected and distributed, and only the Equinix Interconnection Platform provides the critical building blocks to implement this architecture – a global footprint, dense cloud and service provider ecosystems, and the ability to integrate data and analytics at the edge.

Equinix has a global footprint of more than 100 data centers, combined with its Performance Hub solution, which combines data center elements, networking infrastructure, and cloud access via Equinix Cloud Exchange.

"Results of our recent Enterprise of the Future survey, together with the experience we've gained working with our top global enterprise and service provider customers, indicate that we are on the precipice of a massive interconnection-led reinvention of enterprise IT.  We believe an Interconnection Oriented Architecture is a valuable, repeatable strategy that will guide enterprises on their journey to becoming a truly interconnected enterprise, leveraging Equinix's distinct interconnection and colocation capabilities," Tony Bishop, vice president, vertical marketing, Equinix.

http://www.equinix.com/ioa/

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Cloud Native Computing Foundation Opens for Technical Contributions

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which was launched earlier this year to drive the alignment of container technologies, announced its formal open governance structure and new details about its technology stack.

Cloud native applications are container-packaged, dynamically scheduled and microservices-oriented. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation focuses on development of open source technologies, reference architectures and common format for Cloud native applications or services. This work provides the necessary infrastructure for Internet companies and enterprises to scale their businesses.

The foundation's open governance model includes a Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) that will direct technical decisions, oversee working group projects and manage contributions to the code base. The nominations are currently open for TOC members and we encourage everyone to get involved; see the c​ncf-toc mailing list f​or more information. There is also an End User Advisory Board and Board of Directors to guide business decisions and ensure alignment between the technical and end user communities.

The Foundation said is looking at open source at the orchestration level, followed by the integration of hosts and services by defining APIs and standards through a code first approach to advance the state-of-art of container-packaged application infrastructure. The organization is also working with other L​inux Foundation Collaborative Projects, such as the Open Container Initiative, which is establishing the industry standard for container image specification and runtime, and the Cloud Foundry Foundation.

“As cloud computing matures, we’re finding there are a variety of ways to approach application development in this environment. Among some of the world’s largest users, such as Google and Facebook, cloud native development allows unprecedented scale and efficiency,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “With the level of investment from across the industry and technical contributions from some of the developer community’s best talent, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation is poised to advance the state of the art of application development at Internet scale.”

h​ttps://cncf.io/

Cloud Native Computing Foundation Seeks Alignment Among Container Technologies

Tuesday, July 21, 2015  Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Containers, Linux, Open Source  1 comment

A new Cloud Native Computing Foundation is being launched to drive the alignment of container technologies.  Founding organizations include AT&T, Box, Cisco, Cloud Foundry Foundation, CoreOS, Cycle Computing, Docker, eBay, Goldman Sachs, Google, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Kismatic, Mesosphere, Red Hat, Switch SUPERNAP, Twitter, Univa, VMware and Weaveworks.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which is a project managed by The Linux Foundation, aims to advance the state-of-the-art for building cloud native applications and services, allowing developers to take full advantage of existing and to-be-developed open source technologies. Cloud native refers to applications or services that are container-packaged, dynamically scheduled and micro services-oriented.

Specifically, he Foundation will look at open source at the orchestration level, followed by the integration of hosts and services by defining API's and standards through a code first approach to advance the state-of-art of container-packaged application infrastructure. The organization will also work with the recently announced Open Container Initiative on its container image specification. Beyond orchestration and the image specification, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation aims to assemble components to address a comprehensive set of container application infrastructure needs.

“The Cloud Native Computing Foundation will help facilitate collaboration among developers and operators on common technologies for deploying cloud native applications and services,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “By bringing together the open source community’s very best talent and code in a neutral and collaborative forum, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation aims to advance the state of the art of application development at Internet scale.”

https://cncf.io

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New MulteFire Alliance Promotes LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum

A new MulteFire Alliance has been formed with the backing of Nokia, Qualcomm, Ericsson and Intel to promote MulteFire, an LTE-based technology for small cells operating solely in unlicensed spectrum, such as the global 5 GHz unlicensed band.

MulteFire will utilize the robust radio link, ease of management and self-organizing characteristics of LTE and its 3GPP standard evolution to deliver enhanced performance in local area network deployments.

“By bringing the benefits of LTE technologies to unlicensed spectrum, MulteFire helps provide enhanced coverage, capacity and mobility. It can also improve the Quality of Experience and security in private network deployments” said Stephan Litjens, Vice President, Portfolio Strategy & Analytics, Mobile  Broadband, Nokia, and MulteFire Alliance board chair.  “This technology is also aimed to deliver value to existing mobile networks and private customers such as building owners. MulteFire can act as a “neutral host” with the ability to serve users from multiple operators, especially in hard to reach places such as indoor locations, venues and enterprises.”

“With MulteFire, consumers and network providers will enjoy the combination of 4G-LTE like performance with Wi-Fi-like deployment simplicity in local-area deployments,” said Ed Tiedemann, Senior Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and MulteFire Alliance board member.  “Users will benefit from an enhanced connectivity experience when moving across spaces such as shopping malls and corporate offices thanks to MulteFire’s mobility features and optional integration with wide-area networks.”

http://www.MulteFire.org

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3GPP Release 13 to Include Low Power Wide Area Specs

The GSMA hailed new 3GPP standards for the emerging Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) connections, a market forecast to grow to US$589 billion by 2020, or approximately 47 percent of the machine-to-machine (M2M) market, according to Machina Research.

The new standards, which will be part of 3GPP Release 13, include: Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT), Extended Coverage GPRS (EC-GPRS) and LTE Machine Type Communication (LTE-MTC).

“This is an important step in enabling operators to deliver industry standard solutions by extending their existing high-quality managed networks, service platforms and world-class customer management capabilities,” said Alex Sinclair, Acting Director General and Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “The Low Power Wide Area market is a high-growth area of the Internet of Things and represents a huge opportunity in its development. A common and global vision will remove fragmentation, accelerate the availability of industry standard solutions and help the market to fulfil its potential.”

In addition, the members of the recently announced NB-IoT Forum have agreed that this will now be part of the GSMA’s Mobile IoT Initiative and will focus on fostering a global ecosystem for NB-IoT technology. A key element of the forum will be the creation of ‘Open IoT Labs’ that will be available to any operator, module vendor or application provider and are designed to develop and accelerate the commercial availability of LPWA technology as well as encourage organisations to create NB-IoT enabled devices and applications for a variety of different verticals. They will also provide an opportunity for end-to-end and interoperability testing.

http://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/gsma-welcomes-mobile-industry-agreement-on-technology-standards/

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IDC Estimates 2 Billion Mobile Internet Users in 2016

International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that 3.2 billion people, or 44% of the world's population, will have access to the Internet in 2016. Of this number, more than 2 billion will be using mobile devices to do so.

"Over the next five years global growth in the number of people accessing the Internet exclusively through mobile devices will grow by more than 25% per year while the amount of time we spend on them continues to grow. This change in the way we access the Internet is fueling explosive growth in mobile commerce and mobile advertising," said Scott Strawn, Program Director, Strategic Advisory Service.

IDC said the big gains in new users are coming from China, India, and Indonesia, which together will account for almost half of the gains in access globally over the course of the next five years. The combination of lower-cost devices and inexpensive wireless networks are making accessibility easier in countries with populations that could not previously afford them.

The total number of mobile Internet users is forecast to rise at a pace of 2% annually through 2020 unless significant new methods of accessing the Internet are introduced. Efforts by Google, SpaceX, and Facebook among others to make the Internet available to the remaining 4 billion people via high altitude planes, balloons, and satellites are underway. However, it remains unclear how successful these endeavors will be and when they will be operational at scale.

http://www.idc.com

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Weave Enhances its Networking + Monitoring for Docker

Weaveworks, a start-up with offices in San Francisco and London, announced the 1.4 release of its networking and monitoring software for Docker deployments.

Weave Net 1.4 is a Docker networking plug-in that eliminates the requirement to run and manage an external cluster store (database). The plug-in simplifies and accelerates the deployment of Docker containers by removing the requirement to deploy, manage and maintain a centralized database in development and production. It builds on Docker’s core networking capabilities. It runs a “micro router” on each Docker host that works just like an Internet router, providing IP addresses to local containers and sharing peer-to-peer updates with other micro-routers, and learning from their updates. It also responds to DNS requests by containers looking to find other containers by name, also known as Service Discovery. Features include:

• A simple overlay networking approach for connecting containers across Docker hosts
• Fast, standards-based VXLAN encapsulation for the network traffic
• An application-centric micro-network
• Built-in service discovery

Weaveworks developed “micro router” technology to make Docker container networking fast, easy and “invisible”.

“Removing the dependency on a cluster store makes it faster, easier and simpler to build, ship and run Docker containers,” said Mathew Lodge, COO of Weaveworks. “Weave Net 1.4 embodies Weaveworks’ commitment to making simple, easy to use products that accelerate the deployment of microservices and cloud native applications on containerized infrastructure.”

http://weave.works/

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Canada's Shaw Communications Diversifies with Bid for WIND Mobile

Shaw Communications agreed to acquire WIND Mobile Corp. for approximately CAD$1.6 billion.

WIND is Canada's largest non-incumbent wireless services provider, serving approximately 940,000 subscribers across Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta with 50MHz of spectrum in each of these regions. The company reports a 47% increase in its subscriber base over the past two years which has translated into strong growth in revenue and EBITDA. In calendar year 2015, WIND is expected to generate $485 million in revenue and $65 million in EBITDA. A scheduled upgrade to 4G LTE services is planned by 2017.

Shaw Communications, which is headquartered in Calgary, is a diversified cable, communications and media company, serving 3.2 million customers mainly in  British Columbia and Alberta, with smaller systems in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northern Ontario.

“The global telecom landscape is quickly evolving towards 'mobile-first' product offerings as consumers demand ubiquitous connectivity from their service providers. The acquisition of WIND provides Shaw with a unique platform in the wireless sector which will allow us to offer a converged network solution to our customers that leverages our full portfolio of best-in-class telecom services, including fibre, cable, WiFi, and now wireless," said Chief Executive Officer, Brad Shaw.

http://newsroom.shaw.ca/

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