Infinera Unveils Xceed Software for Multi-layer SDN Automation

Infinera unveiled a portfolio of integrated, open and modular software components for software defined networking (SDN) automation of Infinera programmable multi-layer transport networks.

The new Xceed Software Suite (Xceed), which includes the Xceed Multi-layer SDN Platform and Xceed Applications, allows service providers to extend SDN automation to Infinera’s end-to-end Intelligent Transport Network portfolio, spanning long-haul, metro and data center interconnect applications.

Highlights from the release

Purpose-built Platform: The Xceed Multi-layer SDN Platform is built on the OpenDaylight open source SDN controller, incorporates Infinera-developed advanced microservices, such as the Xceed Multi-layer Path Computation Element (PCE) and a rich network abstraction layer incorporating Infinera’s proven Open Transport Switch (OTS) software. With a diverse range of open application programming interfaces (APIs), standards-based information models and open source components, the Xceed Multi-layer SDN Platform sets a new benchmark of openness to enable rapid application development and deployment.

Revenue-ready Applications: Xceed Applications unleash the scalability, flexibility and programmability of Infinera packet-optical transport networks to improve service delivery and facilitate service providers’ goals of protecting and growing revenue while increasing network efficiency. Xceed Applications available in the initial release include:

• Xceed Dynamic Bandwidth provides on-demand provisioning of Optical Transport Network (OTN), including ODUFlex and Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) compliant Ethernet services. Xceed Dynamic Bandwidth enables programmable on-demand capacity activation creating an elastic environment that is designed to enable faster service provisioning, more efficient use of resources across packet, digital and optical layers, and improved network utilization.
• Xceed Instant Virtual Networks facilitates network virtualization to enable service providers to define virtual transport network topologies on a shared physical network infrastructure. With Layer 1 (OTN) Instant Virtual Network (IVN), multiple virtual transport networks can be established, each operating as a standalone transport network with integrated OTN switching, optical routing and protection capabilities tailored to the end-user’s applications.

“As a leading national provider of high-bandwidth wavelength services, Windstream recognizes that our enterprise and wholesale customers demand streamlined service provisioning and more flexible, on-demand connectivity,” said Art Nichols, Windstream’s Vice President of Network Architecture and Technology. “As a strategic vendor, Infinera partners with us to develop pragmatic solutions to meet our customers’ needs. We are actively testing and plan to deploy the Xceed Multi-layer SDN Platform with Dynamic Bandwidth to further our efforts in providing an exceptional customer experience.”

“GÉANT is working in close partnership with Infinera to deploy SDN, most recently validating Open Transport Switch and the Packet Switching Module to pilot multi-layer programmability between our optical and packet networks,” said Mark Johnston, Chief Operations Officer at GÉANT. “By closely collaborating with the SDN development team, led by Afrodite Sevasti, we plan to leverage the power of the Xceed Software Suite to implement multi-layer control and to facilitate multi-domain interoperation to increase network efficiency and deliver on-demand services. This will also ultimately increase the capability and value of the GÉANT network.”

“The introduction of the Xceed Software Suite marks an important milestone in Infinera’s ability to help our customers realize the promise of an infinite pool of intelligent bandwidth,” said David Welch, President and Co-Founder, Infinera. “Now with Xceed, our customers have the automation, multi-layer intelligence and programmability to rapidly deliver new, differentiated SDN applications with an open approach. Service providers can now activate and control pre-deployed terabit scale capacity quickly and easily with minimal operational expense.”

https://www.infinera.com/products/xceed-software-suite/

Read More

Ericsson Announces 5G New Radio for Massive MIMO

Ericsson announced shipment of the world's first 5G NR radio for massive MIMO (commercial deployment in not expected until next year).

Ericsson said it now has all the products its portfolio to deliver a 5G access network.  This includes the 5G Plug-Ins announced in June and Ericsson's already commercially available Radio System Baseband 5216, which currently powers Ericsson's Radio Test Bed.

Some highlights of the portfolio:

• Three new radios support Gigabit speeds for LTE and provide further flexibility in design: Radio 4407 and Radio 4412 enable 4x4 MIMO in one radio unit for FDD and TDD mode respectively, and Radio 8808 for advanced TDD beamforming applications
• Addressing both the need for unlicensed spectrum options and the growing emphasis on small cells is the Radio 2205, a micro solution on unlicensed spectrum that is fully integrated in Ericsson Radio System, using the same baseband and network management
• Two new baseband units support the growing need for densification: the outdoor micro Baseband 6502 and macro Baseband 6303 with Ericsson Rail System mounting for flexible site builds
• Addressing interference issues in dense builds, Baseband P614 enables new band activation on challenging sites by mitigating Passive Inter Modulation, referred to as PIM mitigation, from static and dynamic sources both inside and outside the antenna system
• Spectrum optimization is a growing need and Uplink Spectrum Analyzer is an Ericsson-unique software solution to remotely identify external interference without the need for costly measurement equipment and site visits
• Exclusive to Ericsson is instant power sharing, used in the wideband Radio 2242. This capability allows power to be instantly shared between carriers, standards and bands, optimizing the use of radio resources
• Cloud RAN will be an important 5G network architecture and Baseband C608 provides high-performance switching in Elastic RAN deployments

Arun Bansal, Head of Business Unit Network Products, Ericsson, says: "Ericsson has driven innovation in every generation of mobile technology and now we are set to over-deliver on an aggressive promise. We are introducing the new hardware that 5G Plug-Ins, announced in June, will run on, so that the first operators can start to deploy 5G infrastructure.  And, we are also launching innovations that improve both the performance and efficiency of today's networks using concepts that will evolve into 5G."

http://www.ericsson.com

Ericsson's 5G Software Plug-ins Extend LTE

Thursday, June 16, 2016  #5G, Ericsson, LTE  No Comments

Ericsson announced a number of 5G Plug-Ins, software-driven innovations that bring essential 5G technology concepts to existing LTE networks. Ericsson said LTE will continue to expand and evolve, addressing both an increased number of subscribers and their growing demands for extreme app coverage for data and video, as well as new low power wide area (LPWA) applications for the Internet of Things (IoT).  These include: Massive MIMO Plug-In:...

READ MORE

"5G for Switzerland" Backed by Swisscom and Ericsson

Thursday, June 16, 2016  #5G, Ericsson, Swisscom, Switzerland  No Comments

Swisscom, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and Ericsson are launching a "5G for Switzerland" program that aims to understand to how 5G can play a transformative role in areas such as smart transportation, autonomous driving, automated traffic control systems, smart grid, IoT, and virtual reality. Heinz Herren, CTO and CIO Swisscom said: “5G is still in the early stages of development. For Swisscom it is essential to be in on the...

READ MORE

Read More

Sprint Shows Three-Channel Carrier Aggregation LTE Plus in Kansas City

Sprint and Nokia kicked-off the launch of three-channel carrier aggregation in Kansas City’s LTE Plus Network with a live demonstration at Kauffman Stadium just prior to the Royals vs Yankees game.

Sprint is hitting peak speeds as high of 230 Mbps using its 2.5Ghz spectrum with three-channel carrier aggregation inside the stadium using the Samsung Note7, Galaxy S7, S7 edge, HTC 10 and LG G5. Nokia supplied its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for LTE TDD, including TD-LTE-Advanced 8-pipe radio (8T8R) that can deliver all three carriers from a single unit on 8T8R configuration for better performance and coverage.

“Kansas City is our hometown and it’s also one of the most tech savvy cities in the country, so it’s fitting that it would be one of our first markets to receive this advanced capability,” said Dr. John Saw, Sprint CTO. “4K streaming and powerful virtual reality systems are on the rise and we’re excited to take our LTE Plus network to the next level increasing our speed and capacity 50% more with three-channel carrier aggregation.”

http://www.sprint.com

Read More

Australia's nbn Satellite Readied for Launch

The second high performance satellite designed and built by SSL for Australia's national broadband network (nbn) has arrived at the European Spaceport in Kourou,French Guiana, where it will be launched aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle by Arianespace.

The Ka-band satellite, called Sky Muster II, will be used in conjunction with the first Sky Muster satellite, to provide high-speed broadband service to more than 200,000 Australians.

"It has been very gratifying to work together with our colleagues in Australia to help establish a satellite service that brings high speed internet to underserved users anywhere in Australia," said John Celli, president of SSL. "SSL is a leader in building broadband satellites that are used for services that improve people's lives and open new opportunities for education, healthcare and economic development, and we commend the government ofAustralia for assuring that all of its citizens have this type of access."

http://www.sslmda.com

Read More

Red Hat Revs OpenStack Platform 9

Red Hat announced its OpenStack Platform 9 release, its open Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform designed to deploy, scale and manage private cloud, public cloud, and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) environments.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9 is based on the OpenStack cCommunity "Mitaka" release. Key additions include:

• Automated updates and upgrades with Red Hat OpenStack Platform Director - Red Hat enables users to upgrade their OpenStack deployments through the automation and validation mechanisms of the Red Hat OpenStack Platform Director, based on the upstream community project TripleO (OpenStack on OpenStack). This in-place upgrade tool offers a simplified means to take advantage of the latest OpenStack advancements, while preventing downtime for production environments.

• Live migration improvements and selectable CPU pinning from OpenStack Compute (Nova) -- The Compute component now offers a faster and enhanced instance of the live migration process, helping system administrators to observe its progress and even pause and resume the migration task. A new CPU pinning feature can dynamically change the hypervisor behavior with latency-sensitive workloads such as NFV, enabling more fine-grained performance control.

• Tech Preview of Google Cloud Storage backup driver in OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) -- As part of Red Hat’s continued collaboration with Google, new disaster recovery policies in Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9 now extend to the public cloud using integrated drivers created for Google Cloud Storage. This new feature enables more secure backups of critical data across the hybrid cloud.
Management for OpenStack

“The adoption of OpenStack in production environments has grown and with that, comes increased requirements for enhanced management and seamlessly integrated enterprise capabilities. Dell and Red Hat’s continued close collaboration and joint engineering has both advanced and integrated these capabilities to automate OpenStack updates and upgrades with Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9 and Red Hat OpenStack Platform Director to help our customers achieve their business goals more quickly and easily on their OpenStack powered clouds,” stated Jonathan Donaldson, vice president, Software Defined Infrastructure, Intel.

https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-delivers-functionality-updates-across-multiple-openstack-services-general-availability-red-hat-openstack-platform-9

Read More

Box Posts Q2 Revenue of $95.7 Million, Up 30% Year-Over-Year

Box posted Q2 2017 revenue of $95.7 million, an increase of 30% from the second quarter of fiscal 2016. GAAP operating loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2017 was $37.9 million, or 40% of revenue. This compares to GAAP operating loss of $49.8 million, or 68% of revenue, in the second quarter of fiscal 2016.

"Our strong second quarter results, with revenue growth of 30 percent and billings growth of 34 percent year-over-year, reflect our clear differentiation as the leading enterprise content platform," said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. "Our excellent sales execution and traction with new products drove deals with 4,000 new customers and expanded deployments with leaders such as Pfizer, Electronic Arts and Uber.”

During Q2, Box added over 4,000 paying new customers, and added or significantly expanded deployments with leading enterprises like Pfizer, Autodesk, Electronic Arts, the Federal Communications Commission, London Met University, Perkins+Will Global, Telegraaf Media Groep, Western Union, Uber, and more.  

Box grew its paying customer base to 66,000 businesses.

http://www.box.net

Read More

Equinix Completes London Data Center Expansion

Equinix completed the second phase expansion of its LD6 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Slough, London.

The $42M of capital investment adds 1,385 cabinets, bringing the total operational capacity of the data center to 2,770 cabinets. Following this latest investment, Equinix's LD6 London Slough campus will provide more than 408,000 square feet (38,000 square meters) of net premium colocation space interconnected by more than 1,000 diverse dark fiber links, increasing scale and resilience.

Equinix said LD6 is one of the busiest network nodes in the UK,

LD6 hosts more than 90 network service providers and provides access to a range of transatlantic sub-sea cables.

It offers latency in the region of 30 milliseconds to New York and 4 milliseconds to Frankfurt.

The facility also houses LINX, one of the world's largest Internet Exchanges, and serves as a virtual financial center for more than 170 financial services companies. A quarter of European equities trades flow through Equinix data centers.

http://www.equinix.com

Read More

Sequans Delivers LTE Cat 1 for IoT for T-Mobile

Sequans Communications will deliver LTE Cat 1 technology and products to T-Mobile’s (NASDAQ: TMUS) machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) customers.

Sequans’ Calliope LTE Cat 1 chipset platform, which uniquely supports VoLTE and enables a wide range of industrial and consumer IoT applications, including asset tracking, alarm systems, telematics devices, retail applications, smart utility meters and more, is now certified and available for use on T-Mobile’s network.

“We are very happy to support T-Mobile’s IoT network strategy as an LTE Cat 1 technology provider,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “LTE Cat 1 enables 4G solutions to rival 2G/3G in cost while providing much greater longevity. This means T-Mobile’s customers have access to a leading wireless network that is scalable and secure with broad coverage, along with affordable, long-lived connectivity solutions for successful IoT and M2M business models.”

http://www.sequans.com

Read More

Ericsson and Cisco Win IP/MPLS Project with Cable & Wireless

Ericsson and Cisco announced a joint service provider customer.  Cable & Wireless Communications has selected Ericsson to deliver an IP/MPLS network in three markets: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Barbados. The project includes an upgrade to the IP backbone network in the Bahamas to improve performance and support an increase of traffic, and a new business-to-business IP/MPLS network in Jamaica and Barbados. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal includes Cisco routers and switches (ASR9000, ASR900 and WR4500 families), supply and installation of NMS system (EPN-M), overall project management, and customer support.

"Our teams complemented each other with the right approach, from network analysis and planning to systems integration and customer support from Ericsson, to selecting the right routers and switches from Cisco, and finally ensuring the right flow along every step with Ericsson services," says Clayton Cruz, Vice President Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean. "The partnership has delivered real value to Cable & Wireless in terms of accelerating their IP transformation by combining end-to-end business transformation competence and experience with deep product and domain expertise."

"Cisco and Ericsson working together have the combined breadth, depth and lifecycle engagement required to help operators like Cable & Wireless succeed in their transformation to an IP-centric network," says Jordi Botifoll, Cisco President Latin America & Senior Vice President in the Americas. "Working together on this project will lead Cable & Wireless to a standardized approach across other markets, so that all their business-to-business and IP fixed networks will be supported by IP/MPLS, helping them do things better and faster."

The companies said that they currently have over 200 active customer engagement, some of which have now started to turn into won deals. Previously, the companies announced deals with 3 Italy, Vodafone Portugal and Aster Dominican Republic earlier this year.

In November 2015, Ericsson and Cisco formed a global business and technology partnership. The first product from the partnership, Ericsson Dynamic Service Manager, was announced in February 2016.

http://www.ericsson.com
http://www.cisco.com

Read More

OIF Launches 100G Serial Electrical Links

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has begun work on a 100G Serial Electrical Link project.

The very short reach (VSR) CEI-112G chip-to-module interface project will support a nominal lane rate of 112 Gb/s, enabling narrower interfaces to optical modules and is expected to be more energy efficient than previous interfaces. The CEI-112G-VSR specification doubles data rates over the current generation CEI-56G-VSR interfaces.

The OIF said this work will be followed by both shorter and longer reach projects.

“As bandwidth increases, electrical interfaces need to reflect that trend. Given the lead times, development of standards for the next generation of electrical links needs to start now,” said David Stauffer of Kandou Bus and the OIF’s Physical and Link Layer Working Group Chair and board member. “The OIF is continuing its roadmap for 100 Gb/s thru 400 Gb/s and beyond applications, addressing multiple reaches for chip-to-chip and chip-to module interfaces.”

http://www.oiforum.com

Read More

A10: Malware Hidden in SSL Traffic Poses Growing Threat

Nearly half of cyber attacks used malware hidden in encrypted traffic to evade detection, according to a new report from A10 Networks based on a survey conducted in partnership with Ponemon Institute of 1,023 IT and IT security practitioners in North America and Europe. A full 80% of organizations were victims of cyber attacks during the past year.

The problem of malware hidden in SSL traffic poses a serious threat to organization who are increasingly relying on encrypted traffic to protect their workflows. SSL hides data from both potential attackers and from common security tools.

A10 Networks said many network managers mistakenly believe that there will be a performance penalty for inspecting inbound and outbound SSL traffic.

“IT decision makers need to think more strategically,” said Dr. Chase Cunningham, director of cyber operations at A10 Networks. “The bad guys are looking for ROI just like the good guys, and they don’t want to work too hard to get it. Instead of focusing on doing everything right 100 percent of the time, IT leaders can be more effective by doing a few things very strategically with the best technology available. It’s the cyber security equivalent of the zombie marathon — as long as you can avoid being the slowest in outrunning the zombies, you minimize risk.”

Some highlights of the survey:

• Almost half of respondents (47 percent) cited a lack of enabling security tools as the primary reason for not inspecting decrypted web traffic—closely followed by insufficient resources and degradation of network performance (both 45 percent). 
• 80 percent of survey respondents say their organizations have been victims of a cyber attack or malicious insider during the past year. And nearly half say that the attackers used encryption to evade detection.
• Although 75 percent of survey respondents say their networks are at risk from malware hidden inside encrypted traffic, roughly two-thirds admit that their company is unprepared to detect malicious SSL traffic.

“The Hidden Threats in Encrypted Traffic study sheds light on important facts about the malicious threats lurking in today’s corporate networks,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. “Our goal is to help organizations better understand the risks to help them better address vulnerabilities in their networks.”

https://www.a10networks.com/

Read More

VMware Builds its Container Capabilities

VMware unveiled two new capabilities of VMware vSphere Integrated Containers, which enables IT operations teams to provide a Docker compatible interface to their app teams, running on their existing vSphere infrastructure.

New container registry and management console features round out VMware vSphere Integrated Containers to further help IT teams operate containers in production with confidence.

It is now available as open source software and registration for a beta program is now open.

"A significant challenge for most enterprises is moving their containerized applications into production considering the variety of operational requirements," said Ray O'Farrell, executive vice president and chief technology officer, VMware.

"Relying on our enterprise know-how, we're delivering VMware vSphere Integrated Containers to dramatically simplify the delivery of containers and application services into production in virtual environments whether on-premises or in the public cloud. Application development teams can benefit from the flexibility, portability and speed of containers while IT benefits from the security, visibility and management capabilities

http://vmware.com/vicbeta

Read More

Cisco Acquires ContainerX for Management Console

Cisco has acquired ContainerX, a start-up offering a console for managing Docker containers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ContainerX, which is based in San Jose, California, promises "a single pane of glass for all your containers" where running on Bare Metal or VM, Linux or Windows, private or public cloud. The company describes its product as the world’s first multi-tenant container-as-a-service (CaaS) platform for both Linux and Windows. ContainerX also provides APIs for enterprises wanting to integrate the platform’s capabilities into their custom management portals.

The company was founded in 2015 by a seasoned team of entrepreneurs, PhDs and engineers from VMware, Microsoft and Citrix.

http://containerx.io/
http://www.cisco.com

Read More

VMware Revs its OpenStack 3 Release

VMware announced the latest release of its OpenStack distribution, which is now based on the OpenStack Mitaka release.

New capabilities allow customers to use existing VMware vSphere workloads in an API-driven OpenStack cloud.

"Leveraging our experience and history of contributions to OpenStack, we've focused on streamlining deployment, operations and upgrades to help IT deliver an OpenStack cloud in a predictable fashion and time frame. The faster IT deploys the cloud, the faster developers get access to OpenStack services and APIs to build new apps and services that differentiate the business," said Ajay Singh, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Management Business Unit, VMware.

http://www.vmware.com

Read More

Verizon Launches LTE Advanced - 50% Faster Peak Speeds

Verizon launched LTE Advanced service in 461 cities across the United States.

The network upgrade uses carrier aggregation to combine two or three bandwidth channels into one larger channel. Verizon is using a combination of 700 MHz, AWS, and PCS spectrum.

Verizon said users should expect 50 percent faster peak speeds when using one of the 39 LTE Advanced-capable phones and tablets already on Verizon’s network – including top-selling Samsung Galaxy S6 and S7 smartphones, Moto Droids and Apple iPhones. There is no additional cost to the user and no customer device update is required. Customers will continue to see typical download speeds of 5 – 12 Mbps, but two-channel carrier aggregation can deliver peak download speeds of up to 225 Mbps.

Verizon is also launching a national advertising and social media campaign to support its LTE Advanced rollout.

“Our customers just received a major network enhancement for no additional cost,” said Tami Erwin, head of operations for Verizon’s wireless unit. “Verizon LTE Advanced works like a turbocharger on an engine. Speed boosts kick in when you need it most, with big data use.  That’s when you get the big peak boost of Verizon LTE Advanced.”

http://www.verizon.com

• Verizon first launched commercial LTE service in 2010.

Read More

VMware Unveils Cross-Cloud Architecture, Partnership with IBM

VMware unveiled its Cross-Cloud Architecture, which aims to deliver cloud freedom and control to customers.

In a keynote at its VMworld event in Las Vegas, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said that 75% of corporate workloads currently reside in traditional IT infrastructure vs. only 15% in public #cloud, and that it is likely to be 2030 or beyond before the majority of workloads are fully in public cloud infrastructure. VMware believes much work remains to be done. Gelsinger cited an August 2016 Economist Intelligence Unit global survey, commissioned by VMware, which found that the majority of its 600 respondents noted IT complexity is harming the operations of the enterprise. It also found that 36 percent of senior IT executives said that IT could not move fast enough to support business users. Cloud is contributing to this complexity and if not done right, can contribute to the inefficiencies as well.

The VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture promises to give customers the ability to manage, govern and secure applications running across public clouds, including AWS, Azure and IBM Cloud.

In addition, VMware announced VMware Cloud Foundation which offers a new "as a service" option that delivers the full power of the SDDC in a hybrid cloud environment.

IBM is the first VMware vCloud Air Network partner to deliver the new offerings.

"We believe that all businesses who want to thrive must embrace being a 'digital business,'" said Gelsinger. "Partners and customers want to engage with a mobile experience, and there is no longer a distinction between digital and traditional. The VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture is the strategy to run, manage, connect and secure apps in this all-digital world."

VMware is preparing to release Cross-Cloud Services, which are new SaaS offerings featuring discovery and analytics, compliance, security, etc.

http://www.vmware.com

Read More

Mellanox Tunes its Ethernet Offload Engines for VMware vSphere

Mellanox Technologies announced software driver support for ConnectX-4 Ethernet and RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) on the VMware vSphere virtualization platform.

The new vSphere software for ConnectX-4 delivers three critical new capabilities; increased Ethernet network speeds at 25/50 and 100 Gb/s, virtualized application communication over RoCE, and advanced network virtualization and SDN (Software Defined Networking) acceleration support.  The release delivers three critical new capabilities; increased Ethernet network speeds at 25/50 and 100 Gb/s, virtualized application communication over RoCE, and advanced network virtualization and SDN acceleration support.

“In the past, customers working in virtual environments in their data centers had to trade off performance for efficiency,” said Motti Beck, senior director, enterprise market development, Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox’s advanced networking technologies for VMware vSphere enable industry-leading performance and high efficiency.”

http://www.mellanox.com/

Read More

Samsung Commences Mass Production of 14-nm Mobile Processor

Samsung Electronics has begun mass production of Exynos 7 Quad 7570, the company’s newest mobile application processor (AP) built on 14-nanometer (nm) process technology for the budget smartphone market as well as other IoT devices.

The Exynos 7570 is also the first Exynos processor to fully integrate a Cat.4 LTE 2CA modem and connectivity solutions including WiFi, Bluetooth, frequency modulation (FM) and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in one chip. Exynos 7570, with four Cortex-A53 cores in 14nm, delivers 70 percent improvements in CPU performance and 30 percent improvement in power efficiency when compared to its predecessor built on 28nm.

“With Exynos 7570, more consumers will be able to experience the performance benefits of the advanced 14nm FinFET process in affordable devices,” said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of System LSI Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “By successfully integrating various connectivity solutions, Samsung is strengthening its competitiveness in the single chip market”

Last year, Samsung was the first in the industry to adopt advanced 14nm FinFET technology for its premium processors and has since expanded the adoption to other segments, bringing premium features to more affordable smart devices. As part of such efforts, Exynos 7570 is the first in its class with 14nm FinFET, making it highly power-efficient while enabling outstanding performance.

http://www.samsung.com/exynos

Read More

Nutanix Acquires PernixData and Calm.io

Nutanix announced the acquisition of two start-ups: PernixData and Calm.io.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

PernixData, which is based in San Jose, specializes in scale-out data acceleration and analytics. The company’s flagship product, PernixData FVP software, virtualizes server flash and RAM to enable scale-out storage performance that is independent of capacity. No changes are required to VMs, servers or primary storage, ensuring maximum performance of all virtualized applications in a seamless, scalable and cost-effective manner.

Nutanix said it shares PernixData's architectural design philosophy that next-generation datacenter fabrics must keep data and applications close in order to drive the fastest possible performance and to deliver flexible, cost-effective infrastructure scaling.

“PernixData software has helped hundreds of customers virtualize their applications without compromising performance and visibility,” said Poojan Kumar, CEO and co-founder, PernixData.

Calm.io is working to bring an application-first approach to choosing, managing and consuming IT infrastructure – enabling customers to pick the right cloud for each application. Nutanix said it plans to add cloud automation and management capabilities to its existing software stack to deliver application and service orchestration, runtime lifecycle management, policy-based governance, comprehensive reporting and auditing services to support all application environments, including virtual machines, containers and microservices.

http://www.pernixdata.com
http://www.calm.com
http://www.nutanix.com

Read More

IDC Predicts 3.3% Annual Growth in IT Spending Through 2020

International Data Corporation (IDC) is forecasting that worldwide revenues for information technology products and services will grow from nearly $2.4 trillion in 2016 to more than $2.7 trillion in 2020 -- a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3% for the 2015-2020 forecast period, according to the firm's newly updated Worldwide Semiannual IT Spending Guide..

IDC said its forecast sees positive momentum in big industries like financial services and manufacturing, where companies continue to invest in 3rd Platform solutions (e.g. cloud, mobility, and Big Data) as part of their digital transformation efforts.

The telecommunications industry is forecast to remain relatively sluggish, although spending levels are expected to gradually improve compared to the past several years. Combined, these four industries (banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and telecommunications, which are also the industries with the largest IT expenditures) will generate nearly a third of worldwide IT revenues throughout the forecast.

"While the consumer and public sectors have dragged on overall IT spending so far in 2016, we see stronger momentum in other key industries including financial services and manufacturing," said Stephen Minton, vice president, Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC. "Enterprise investment in new project-based initiatives, including data analytics and collaborative applications, remains strong and mid-sized companies have been especially nimble when it comes to rapidly adopting 3rd Platform technologies and solutions. Assuming the economy remains stable in 2017, smaller businesses will also begin to climb aboard the 3rd Platform in greater numbers."

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41699316

Read More

Facebook Advances its Robotron for Network Management at Scale

Facebook outlined its new state-of-the art system, named Robotron, for managing the tens of thousands of network devices connecting hundreds of thousands of servers globally at Facebook.

In a newly published whitepaper, the team behind Robotron describe key learnings in designing, implementing and operating the Robotron system on Facebook’s production network of data centers, global backbone, and edge point of presence (POPs) over the last eight years.

Robotron, which is an evolutionary leap beyond the automated scripts used to manage the Facebook infrastructure in the early days, now covers multiple stages of the network management life cycle: network design, config generation, deployment, and monitoring. At heart of Robotron is FBNet -- a central repository for information, implemented as an object store, where each network component is modeled as an object.

https://code.facebook.com/posts/529305410613534/robotron-top-down-network-management-at-scale/

Read More

IBM Cloud Data Center Inaugurated in Korea

IBM opened a new Cloud Data Center in Korea in collaboration with SK Holdings C&C.

The new facility, which is located outside of Seoul in Pangyo, is IBM’s ninth Cloud Data Center in the Asia-Pacific region, and part of the company’s growing global network of 47 Cloud Data Centers.

“A key part of our cloud strategy is to fuel new ecosystems to spur innovation and collaborate with companies who understand the local market.” said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud.  “That’s why we chose to partner with SK Holdings C&C in Korea. Together, we are able to bring the local expertise, platform and data services that gives Korean customers the ability to compete on a global scale.”

“Companies all over the world are seeking for new business and profit opportunity throughout digital transformation,” said Jung-ho Park, CEO of SK Holdings C&C. “The new Cloud Data Center provides one-stop cloud converting service of existing IT system and infrastructure, and become the base camp to support digital innovation for customers’ businesses by converging digital technologies such as IoT, Big data and AI.”
Growing the Cloud Ecosystem in Korea

The companies said the new data center will further accelerate their commitment to cognitive and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, as they plan to support local startups and IT developers to create cognitive apps and industry-specific services that leverage Watson. Developers in Korea will also have access to Bluemix, IBM’s Cloud platform, and more than 150 APIs and services spanning key areas such as cognitive, blockchain, Internet of Things and big data.

https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/50401.wss

Read More

Flexenclosure Delivers Tier IV Data Center in Myanmar

Burst Myanmar Co Ltd. and Flexenclosure, which specializes in pre-fabricated data centers, have achieved Uptime Institute Tier IV design certification for the Burst data centre project in Myanmar.

Burst Myanmar's new facility is a custom-designed, prefabricated modular data center building.  The 220 square meter, 68 rack data centre is in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the outskirts of Yangon and is the anchor of the planned Burst teleport, which will enjoy over 150 Gbps of international connectivity and support a domestic VSAT and Wi-Fi mesh network to be deployed nationwide.

Flexenclosure noted that this is the first Tier IV data center ever to be built in Myanmar and only the fifth such design certification in all of Southeast Asia.

http://www.flexenclosure.com/burst-myanmar-co-ltd-and-flexenclosure-achieve-uptime-institute-tier-iv-data-centre-design-certification-for-myanmar-project/

Read More

Rackspace to go Private in $4.3 Billion Buyout

Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) announced plans to go private in a buyout led by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.

Under the deal, Rackspace will be acquired for $32.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of 38% compared to Rackspace's unaffected closing stock price on August 3, 2016, the last trading day prior to news reports speculating about a potential transaction. In connection with the transaction, funds managed by Searchlight Capital Partners will make a strategic equity investment in the acquired company. The transaction has a total value of $4.3 billion, which includes the assumption of $43 million of net cash.

Taylor Rhodes, president and CEO of Rackspace, said, "We are presented with a significant opportunity today as mainstream companies move their computing out of corporate data centers and into multi-cloud models. Apollo and its partners take a patient, value-oriented approach to their funds' investments, and value Rackspace's strategy and unique culture. This is an exciting transaction for Rackspace and we look forward to working closely together."

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is acting as financial advisor to Rackspace and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation is acting as its legal advisor.

http://www.rackspace.com

• Rackspace, which was founded in 1998 in San Antonio, provides businesses with expertise and exceptional customer service for the world's leading cloud platforms, including AWS, Microsoft, and OpenStack (the open-source cloud platform that Rackspace co-founded in 2010, along with NASA). Rackspace has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2008. The company reported 2015 revenue of $2.0 billion.
  
• Rackspace collaborated with NASA to develop OpenStack in 2010.

Read More

NTT Invests in NYC Real Estate

NTT acquired a six-floor office building at 799 Broadway in New York City. The property is located Greenwich Village where New York University owns many properties and many tech companies have taken root.

Since establishing a U.S. branch in 2013, NTT Urban Development has acquired seven properties in Washington D.C., New York, and Boston as investments.

http://www.nttud.co.jp/english/news/detail/998.pdf

Read More

Sprint Hits 275 Mbps with LTE 3-Channel CA with LG5

Sprint reached peak speeds of 275 Mbps in three-channel carrier aggregation lab tests using the LG G5, one of the first devices on the market to support the functionality.

“Our holdings of more than 160 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 U.S. markets give us more capacity than any other carrier in the U.S. In combination with our Densification and Optimization strategy we futureproof our network for our customers,” said Günther Ottendorfer, Sprint COO, Technology. “This capacity enables us to reach very high speeds, as well as provide innovative unlimited data plans to our customers while keeping pace with the growing demand for data.”

Sprint currently offers 22 devices that actively support two-channel carrier aggregation on its LTE Plus network. Two-channel carrier aggregation delivers peak speeds of more than 100 Mbps in 237 LTE Plus markets across the country using 40 MHz of spectrum on the company’s 2.5GHz cell sites.

Six devices currently offered by Sprint are three-channel carrier aggregation capable: the HTC 9, HTC 10, LG G5, Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and Samsung Note 7. With three-channel carrier aggregation Sprint will utilize 60 MHz of spectrum to provide peak speeds of more than 200 Mbps on capable devices. Three-channel carrier aggregation is slated for enablement on capable devices via an automatic software update following network deployment.

http://www.sprint.com

• Earlier this month, Sprint reached peak lab speeds of 295 Mbps in three-channel carrier aggregation lab tests using the HTC 10.
• In March, Sprint demonstrated speeds of more than 300 Mbps using three-channel carrier aggregation on a Samsung Galaxy S7. 

Read More

ZTE Picks Sequans for LTE-Advanced CPE

ZTE has selected Sequans Communications' Cassiopeia LTE-Advanced chipset platform for a new line of high-performance CPE for LTE networks operating on LTE bands 42 and 43, primarily used in regions including southeast Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and Europe.

The ZTEWelink WF830 is an outdoor, fixed wireless router matched with an indoor multiservice gateway that supports advanced networking and WLAN AP functionalities.. It offer dual-carrier aggregation and category 6 throughput. The unit could be used for advanced residential or small business services delivered over the LTE network.

“We chose Sequans technology for the WF830 because of the robust LTE-Advanced capabilities of the Cassiopeia platform that has been well-proven in the marketplace,” said Sanqiang Liu, Product General Manager, ZTEWelink. “Cassiopeia’s carrier aggregation capability is flexible and robust, allowing for advanced MIMO operation and very high throughput. Sequans’ support was excellent throughout, especially during the operator certification process.”

“We are pleased to contribute our technology to the new LTE-Advanced ZTEWelink CPE,” said Craig Miller, Sequans VP of marketing. “It provides very high LTE performance enabling integrated access for data, voice, and Internet in one powerful unit.”

The LTE-Advanced chip inside the ZTEWelink WF830 is Sequans’ Cassiopeia LTE-Advanced platform, compliant with 3GPP Release 10 specifications. Cassiopeia supports highly flexible dual-carrier aggregation that allows the combination of any two carriers of any size up to 20 MHz each, contiguous or non-contiguous, inter-band or intra-band. Cassiopeia also supports other Release 10 enhancements such as new MIMO schemes, enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) schemes for heterogeneous networks (HetNets), and improvements to eMBMS (evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service) or LTE broadcast. Cassiopeia features Sequans’ advanced receiver technology for improved performance. Cassiopeia can support additional optional features, including envelope tracking and secure boot, at customer request.

http://www.ztewelink.com/en

Read More

ZTE Outlines Vision for Next 5 Years

ZTE outlined a vision of societal and technological change to guide the company for the next five years.

ZTE’s M-ICT 2.0 strategy is based on 5 key trends:

Virtuality — integration of the physical world and the virtual world with enhanced experience through Big Video, VR and AR
Openness — transition from the traditional competition-based business model to close collaboration on an open basis
Intelligence — intellectualization of all things, enhanced interaction and growing intelligence on multiple levels
Cloudification — cloud platforms to the basis for enabling the digital economy
Internet of Everything — including collaborative operations

In a whitepaper, ZTE says the future is to be built on an open and sharing digital economy, with service cloudification,  interconnection of everything, ubiquitous intelligence, and the integration of virtual and physical realities. The company expects openness and the sharing economy to reconstruct R&D models, industry chains, and the value network.

http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201608/201608241601

Read More

ZTE Posts 1H16 Revenue Rises 4% YoY

ZTE reported revenue of RMB47.76 billion (US$7.12 billion) for the first six months of 2016, up 4.05% compared to the first half of 2015.

Domestic operating revenue amounted to RMB27.8 billion, accounting for just over 58% of overall operating revenue. International operating revenue is RMB19.95 billion, accounting for almost 42% of the group’s overall operating revenue. Net profit attributable to holders of ordinary shares of the listed company rose to RMB1.77 billion for the six months ending 30 June 2016. Basic earnings per share amounted to RMB0.43.

Some highlights:

• The reported operating revenue for carriers’ networks business in H1 was RMB28.74 billion. 
• Operating revenue for government and enterprise business amounted to RMB4.61 billion. 
• Operating revenue for the consumer business amounted to RMB14.42 billion. 
• In H1 2016, ZTE invested close to 15%, or RMB7.06 billion, of their total revenue in R&D, the largest such investment the company has made to date. 
• ZTE said it now ranks 1st in 4G global shipments to mobile network operators (as it has for three consecutive years) and has successfully increased its market share in both wireless and wired markets. 
• In Q2 2016, ZTE rose to join the ranks of the Top 6 global smartphone manufacturers. ZTE Mobile Devices market share is ranked 2nd in Russia; 4th in North America, Sweden, Spain and South Africa; and 5th in Mexico and Australia.
• In the enterprise business, Smart City remains a key engine of ZTE’s growth. ZTE rapidly expanded this business in the first half of 2016 and new orders have increased 40% YoY. 

http://www.zte.com.cn/global/about/press-center/news/201608/201608251615

Huawei's First Half Sales Hit CNY245.5 billion, up 40% YoY

Monday, July 25, 2016  China, Financials, Huawei  No Comments

Huawei reported sales revenue for the first half of 2016 of CNY245.5 billion (US$36.75 billion), an increase of 40% comparing with the same period last year. The company's operating margin was 12%. "We achieved steady growth across all three of our business groups, thanks to a well-balanced global presence and an unwavering focus on our pipe strategy," said Sabrina Meng, Huawei's Chief Financial Officer. "We are confident that Huawei will maintain...

READ MORE

Read More

Dell'Oro: Optical Transport Market Almost Hits $4B in 2Q16

The optical transport equipment market almost hit $4 billion in 2Q16, growing six percent year-over year, according to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group.

Some highlights:

• Huawei, the market leader by revenue share, surpassed the $1 B quarterly revenue run rate for the first time. 
• Revenue from deployments in China grew 20 percent year-over-year.
• Shipments of 100/200 Gbps DWDM wavelengths doubled year-over-year.
• DWDM Long Haul revenue grew at 18 percent year-over-year, much higher than expected.
• Excluding sales to China, the Optical Transport market revenue stagnated with a zero percent year-over-year growth rate.
• Average market prices for 100/200 Gbps DWDM wavelengths declined at a higher than typical rate due to the rising sales in China and competition among equipment manufacturers.
• WDM Metro revenue grew at only three percent year-over-year, less than expected.

“The second quarter of 2016 was another great quarter for the Optical Transport market,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “However, it wasn’t an outstanding quarter. It was actually quite turbulent with a number of highs and lows,” added Yu.

http://www.delloro.com/news/optical-transport-market-almost-hits-4-b-2q16-according-delloro-group

Read More

Singtel's odd but patient long term strategy - Part 1

Preamble

SingTel is an odd organisation, halfway between a telecom assets holding company and a real operational hands-on telco. It fully controls only two telcos, namely Singtel Singapore and Optus of Australia, which are consolidated into its financial reports, but holds very substantial financially unconsolidated minority positions in key operators in several major Asian countries and through its share of Bharti Airtel affiliate relationships with operators in 16 African countries as well. Singtel claims the core company and its regional mobile associates, all 'leading players' in their respective markets,

reach over 600 million mobile subscribers across the region.

The company's long term strategy is not completely clear, but it is assumed, other things being equal, that in the longer term Singtel hopes to build up its holdings in some or all of the telcos in which it is invested. Singapore is an extremely rich, very technology-based society and telecommunications is a core platform for broad-based, knowledge-centred social innovations in such societies. Continued success in developing and implementing such innovations will probably be crucial to Singapore's future and ensuring it maintains its position as one of the world's leading economies. Ownership of a broad

range of quality Asia and Asia-Pacific telecommunication assets is not only a potentially good investment in its own right due to high economic growth rates, but also with time and increased investment offers a scale of operations commensurate with operators in countries like China and Japan, which can be used as a platform whereby those social and technical innovations can be fanned out economically worldwide and give Singapore a new source of quality exports.

The argument for already having full operational control of operations in Singapore and Australia is obviously because these are the most sophisticated countries in the Singtel portfolio, and markets in which those innovations are most likely to be generated or be piloted.

Singtel telecom assets portfolio

SingTel's holdings include the following:

Singapore: Singtel, the incumbent operator in the city state.

India: Singtel currently owns 32.9% of Bharti Telecom, the No. 1 Indian operator, and is in process of raising that to 36.2%.

Australia: Singtel owns 100% of Optus, the No. 2 operator in Australia.

Philippines: Singtel has an effective interest in Globe Telecom via a mix of directly held common shares and indirectly held preferred shares held by Asiacom, a 50/50 JV with Ayala Corporation.

Thailand : it holds a 23.3% direct stake and is in process of raising that to 31.8% through an additional indirect holding.

Indonesia: Singtel has a 35% stake in Telkomsel, the No. 1 mobile operator.

Bangladesh: it owns 45% of Citycell, a rapidly declining operator that looks likely to close.

Singtel relationship to Temasek Holdings

It is impossible to discuss Singtel without referring to the company's controlling shareholder Temasek Holdings (otherwise known as Singapore's Sovereign Wealth Fund), which is an investment company owned by the government of Singapore. Incorporated in 1974, Temasek owns and manages a net portfolio of S$242 billion ($180 billion), mainly in Singapore and Asia. It is an active shareholder and investor, and its portfolio covers a

broad spectrum of sectors including financial services, telecommunications, media and technology, transportation and industrial, life sciences, consumer, real estate, as well as energy and resources.

Temasek revenue for the financial year ended March 31, 2016 was S$101.5 billion, up from S$74,6 billion in 2007 with a CAGR of 3.5%. Temasek net profit in FY 2016 was S$15.6 billion and over the same nine-year period has been rather flat, averaging about S$14.6 billion within the range S$6.8 billion to $22.5 billion.

As of the end of the company's last financial 2015/16 year in March 2016, Temasek held a 51.0% stake in the company (and together with five other local investors owned over 90% of Singtel). Apart from holding a majority of Singtel's stock, Temasek Holdings also has a huge range of equity positions in a very wide range of other businesses in Singapore and elsewhere, some of which could be of immediate or longer term interest to Singtel as it leverages its telecommunications assets to encompass all other sectors of a fully smart society.

Singtel five year financial history

For years ending March 31st, in S$ billions, it reported:

                                     2016;        2015;           2014;           2013;          2012.

Group revenue:         16.961;        17.223;        16.848;        18.183;       18.825.

Singtel:                         7.663;         7.348;          6.912;          6.732;         6.551.

Optus:                           9.298;        9.875;           9.936;        11.451;       12.275.

EBITDA:                        5.013;        5.091;           5.155;          5.200;        5,219.

Share of associate PTP: 2.791;       2.579;               2.201;          2.106;        2.005.

Underlying net profit:     3.805;        3.779;               3.610;;         3.611;        3.676.

Group FCF:                      2.718;        3.549;               3.249;          3.759;       3,462.

Cash capex:                      1.930;       2.238;               2.102;          2.059;       2.249.

Comments by Group CEO Ms. Chua Sook Kong

Telkomsel was the standout performer, with pre-tax earnings for the year jumping 15% to S$1.1 billion on the back of increased voice and data usage. It also saw a significant increase in 3G and 4G subscribers, which now make up 42% of its total customer base.

In Thailand, AIS continued with its migration of 2G customers to 3G or 4G networks, against an accelerated network rollout with the 1800 MHz spectrum acquired last year. Airtel has secured pan-Indian spectrum for its 4G services, allowing it to provide seamless data services across the country. Globe in the Philippines continues to take share, thanks to increased network investment and innovative offerings.

Read More