Monday, April 25, 2016

Juniper Advances its Software-Defined Secure Networks Framework

Juniper Networks announced several cloud and virtualized service offerings as part of its Software-Defined Secure Networks (SDSN) framework, including a new compact and containerized virtual firewall called Juniper Networks cSRX. This  next-generation firewall is designed for advanced security services for Software Defined Networks. The cSRX, which Juniper describes as the industry's first virtual firewall in a containerized form factor, provides a way to wrap advanced security services around every workload and the ability to scale up to high multi-tenancy. Advanced security services in the cSRX include Content Security, AppSecure, and unified threat management (UTM).

The rollout also includes a multi-core version of the Juniper Networks vSRX virtual firewall that is expected to be capable of reaching 100 Gbps - 10 times greater than the nearest competitor and creates new possibilities for using agile and flexible virtual firewalls. The multi-core vSRX offers full routing, firewall and L4-L7 security features. The vSRX delivers high availability, granular security with segmentation capabilities between zones, organizations, lines of business and applications, as well as rich connectivity features like Network Address Translation (NAT), routing and VPN.
Working closely with Intel, vSRX leverages the Open Source Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) software architecture

Both products are anticipated to enable the network to better detect and combat threats through increased performance, intelligence, and a higher density of services on the Intel Xeon processor family (x86 platform).

"As the security landscape continues to evolve, it is more important than ever to work together to combat cyber threats. These key additions to our security portfolio will further our Software-Defined Secure Networks vision and greatly benefit our customers. Our products provide the best opportunity to create secure networks through policy, detection and enforcement. We are excited to be releasing the most flexible firewall solutions in the market and continue to showcase our commitment to bringing SDSN to organizations across the globe," Kevin Walker, security CTO, Juniper Networks

http://www.juniper.net

Netronome Brings Hardware-Acceleration to OpenStack Networking

Netronome has tuned its Agilio Server Networking Platform for delivering hardware-acceleration for OpenStack networking, allowing data centers to accelerate applications such as network virtualization, security, load balancing and telemetry using different data plane options suitable for use cases spanning traditional IT to IaaS and Telco NFV workloads. Netronome's own testing has found a 5X boost in VM performance when network functions are offloaded to its Agilio interface cards.

At this week's OpenStack Summit in Austin, Netronome, in collaboration with Ericsson and Mirantis, is showcasing acceleration of open source datapath implementations, specifically, Open vSwitch (OVS), Stateful Firewall (Connection Tracking) and OpenContrail vRouter using Agilio CX intelligent server adapters. The company said this approach will be incorporated as an enhanced OpenStack networking plug-in architecture specification. As a result, critical networking functions that would otherwise hamper performance of the OpenStack implementation are offloaded to the Agilio platform, accommodating significantly more virtual machines per server leading to up to 6X lower TCO and higher services revenue per server compared to traditional NICs.

“The OpenStack platform has become the de facto cloud and SDN orchestration tool and server-based networking has become the cornerstone of pervasive SDN and cloud-based networks,” said Sujal Das, senior vice president and general manager, strategy and marketing at Netronome. “Our flagship Agilio product-based demonstrations and proposed open specification bring much needed hardware-based efficiency to that mix.”

“Mirantis OpenStack delivers comprehensive cloud orchestration tools that are optimized for Enterprise IT and NFV deployments,” said Kamesh Pemmaraju, vice president of product marketing at Mirantis. “Utilizing Netronome’s expertise in server-based networking and its Agilio intelligent server adapters, our joint pioneering work promises to provide the industry with new OpenStack networking capabilities that will enable rapid SDN deployments, delivering significantly higher networking performance and increases in server efficiency.”

Netronome plans to release beta releases of products that integrate OpenStack with Agilio Software for OVS, Stateful Firewall and OpenContrail vRouter, and an open enhanced OpenStack networking plug-in architecture specification in Q3 2016.The specification enhancements will propose extension of the current SR-IOV OpenStack plug-in mechanism for efficient packet delivery to virtual machines and add the OVS, Stateful Firewall and vRouter data paths implemented in intelligent server adapters such as Netronome’s Agilio CX products. Through support of innovative VirtIO extensions, hardware-based performance and efficiency benefits are delivered without compromising operational agility, while virtual machine migration capabilities needed for efficient server resource utilization are preserved.

http://www.netronome.com


Netronome's Agilio Server Networking Accelerates Cloud Data Centers

Netronome introduced its Agilio Server Networking Platform for transparently offloading server-based networking data paths, such as open virtual switch (OVS), Juniper Networks Contrail vRouter, and Linux firewall.

The company said its hardware and software-based Agilio platform delivers up to 5X higher throughput while reducing CPU requirements by up to 80 percent compared to traditional NICs and server-based networking implemented in software.

Server-based networking is being widely deployed in cloud data centers to handle virtualization, firewalls, load balancing, telemetry, zero-trust security using micro-segmentation, virtual network functions (VNFs) and application-based analytics. The big cloud providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google) are using server-based networking in their mega data centers. Netronome's Agilio solution accelerates such server-based networking functions by offloading compute-intensive flow and tunnel processing from the CPUs.

The Agilio CX intelligent server adapters (ISAs) are based on Netronome's own flow processing silicon (NFP-4000) and software architecture (Agilio Software). The Agilio ISAs use onboard memory to support up to two million security policies, and deliver 28Mpps of throughput using hardware-based acceleration.

Nexenta Adds OpenStack & Docker Support for Scale-Out Storage

Nexenta announced significant updates to its block and object storage platform, including seamless integration with OpenStack and Docker environments.

The NexentaEdge is a software-only, scale-out, multi-service storage solution to deliver cluster-wide inline deduplication and compression, offering high-performance, simplified management of petabyte-scale repositories. With the latest updates, the block and object software-defined platform includes additional performance optimizations for all-flash and hybrid configurations, tightly integrates with the OpenStack ecosystem to simplify deployments in OpenStack clouds, and adds support for container-based deployments and Docker environments.

In addition to full iSCSI, NexentaEdge now supports native block device services, allowing hyperconverged OpenStack deployments to run Nova nodes directly on the NexentaEdge cluster. To fully automate deployment and configuration of NexentaEdge nodes in Canonical OpenStack environments, Juju Charms are available from the Canonical Juju Charms Store. All NexentaEdge Cinder drivers are also fully integrated in the OpenStack Mitaka release.

http://nexenta.com/NexentaEdge


QTS Signs Big Cloud Customer for DFW Mega Data Center

QTS Realty Trust confirmed that one of the world's largest cloud provider companies has doubled its custom data center agreement to support its rapid growth.

The hyperscale cloud provider selected QTS in early 2016 to provide more than 20,000 square feet and four megawatts of power. The new agreement dramatically increases the company's usage to a total of 40,000 square feet and eight megawatts of power at the LEED Gold certified QTS Dallas-Fort Worth mega data center.

The QTS Dallas-Fort Worth data center is 700,000 square feet with the capacity to increase by 600,000 square feet for a total of 1.3 million square feet. The purpose-built facility is structurally reinforced and built with 90' subterranean concrete piers that isolate the building from movement.

http://www.qtsdatacenters.com/


  • QTS will open its newest mega data center in downtown Chicago in the former Chicago Sun-Times printing plant later this summer.


Mirantis and QCT Partner on OpenStack Appliance

Mirantis and QCT (Quanta Cloud Technology) are partnering to offer Mirantis Unlocked Appliances, turnkey, rack-based appliances featuring Mirantis OpenStack. The appliance is targeted at Cloud Native Applications featuring hardware and software from QCT and Cumulus Networks.

“Mirantis Unlocked Appliances gives enterprises a fast, easy way to exploit the flexibility and cost-savings of OpenStack. They are off-the-shelf, optimized solutions that reduce time-to-value while also reducing risk in OpenStack deployments,” said Mirantis co-founder and CMO, Boris Renski. “The addition of the QCT Mirantis Unlocked Appliance brings hyperscale platforms as an alternative in Unlocked Appliances.”

https://www.mirantis.com/appliances

EBSCO Load Balances OpenStack Cloud with Avi Networks

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has deployed Avi Networks on OpenStack to create a highly-automated private cloud and cutting-edge software-defined data center.

Avi Networks delivers public-cloud-like agility for application services beyond load balancing including deep application analytics, predictive autoscaling, and security in the data center or public cloud.

http://www.avinetworks.com

Sequans LTE for IoT Module Certified by AT&T

Sequans Communications' newest EZLinkLTE module, the US60L, has been certified to operate on AT&T’s 4G LTE network.

At the heart of the module is Sequans’ IoT-optimized, LTE Cat 4-capable chipset, Colibri, along with memory, power management and a complete RF front-end.

http://www.sequans.com