Aviatrix Builds Cloud Native Networking for Scaling Virtual Private Clouds

Aviatrix, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, unveiled a "Cloud Native Networking" solution that combines a software-defined network controller and software gateways to enable businesses to scale out virtual private clouds (VPCs) with VLAN-like segmentation of cloud instances and policy-based security. The idea is to make it easier to provision and manage VPCs that span public, private and hybrid clouds. The Aviatrix software provisions, orchestrates and connects secure tunnels across regions, eliminating manual configuration and reducing administrative complexity of cloud-to-cloud, user-to-cloud and site-to-cloud connectivity.

The upcoming Aviatrix 2.0 software, which will be generally available in June, enables virtual cloud provisioning for AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.  Aviatrix could be used to link and manage resources in multiple clouds. The company said it has already established close partnerships with the big three cloud providers.

The solution consists of the Aviatrix web-portal-based controller, and one or more Aviatrix gateways deployed on the cloud or on-premises. The controller is the central point of configuration, orchestration, and monitoring for all functions and cloud services, while the gateway manages each VPC and performs encryption/decryption, packet forwarding, policy enforcements and logging capabilities. VLAN-like segmentation helps maximize application security by ensuring that each application is fully isolated and protected.

Aviatrix 2.0 key capabilities:

• Encrypted Peering – Inter-region and inter-cloud encrypted peering lets enterprises use AWS and other cloud vendors for data replication, disaster recovery and high-availability.
• Simplified hybrid deployments – Utilizing mixed layer 2 and layer 3 technology, enterprises can extend private LANs to public clouds within minutes, without additional hardware and any changes to existing network infrastructure.
• Enterprise-class OpenVPN for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud – OpenVPN is the open source industry standard for secure remote access with the broadest range of devices. Built on OpenVPN, Aviatrix 2.0 enables user profile-based access controls that dynamically enforce security policies at the network perimeter; Multi-factor authentication with Active Directory, Duo Security, Google or Okta. Geo-aware OpenVPN access connects users to the nearest cloud region.
• Cloud network visibility – Aviatrix 2.0 includes a centralized management console, user activity monitoring and routing diagnostics, as well as event logging to Elasticsearch, Sumo Logic and Splunk, and remote syslog server.
• Expanded cloud platform support – Aviatrix Cloud Native Networking Software is now expanded to include Google Cloud, AWS GovCloud (US), Azure Resource Manager, and Azure China. Aviatrix 2.0 provides additional security by adding encryption over private, dedicated physical links such as Azure ExpressRoute and AWS Direct Connect.
• Multi-account support – Aviatrix simplifies the connectivity between multiple user accounts to enable enterprises to have cost controls and accountability.

"Cloud native networking is designed to make networking as dynamic and disposable as compute and storage. Using virtualized versions from traditional network equipment vendors in the cloud is not the answer,” said Sherry Wei, Aviatrix co-founder and CTO. “We are focused on removing constraints and limitations on network design for cloud architecture in order to empower enterprises to realize the full potential of the cloud, whether public, private or hybrid and regardless of VPC numbers or locations.”

Aviatrix also announced the appointment of Steven Mih as chief executive officer. Mih most recently served as the SVP of worldwide field operations at Mesosphere, starting in early 2015. Prior to Mesosphere, Mih served as the SVP of worldwide sales at Couchbase, the fastest growing startup in the NoSQL database field.

http://www.aviatrix.com

Read More

IBM Boosts Support to OpenStack’s RefStack Project

IBM is confirming its lead role in the OpenStack RefStack Project, which was created last year as part of the OpenStack community’s effort to drive interoperability across clouds. The ability to move data and apps from one cloud to another is a major obstacle in the evolution of cloud and business.

IBM, which is the lead contributor to RefStack, said the project is a critical pillar of its commitment to ensuring an open cloud.

The specific upgrades to the upcoming RefStack release include:

• User functionality and usability enhancements to allow easier, more streamlined visibility into test data for OpenStack release compatibility.
• Tempest plug-in enablement to allow users to expand existing test suites to include external test cases.
• Stability enhancements to expand the availability of the RefStack service and support a growing number of RefStack users.
• Additionally, RefStack will soon enable vendor registration, allowing community members to easily correlate test results in RefStack’s central repository with specific OpenStack vendors – ensuring results are more transparent. 

“The OpenStack ecosystem is very rich and rapidly evolving, and provides an extremely strong foundation for real interoperability. However, achieving this will require deep, sustained collaboration across the open community,” said Angel Diaz, Vice President of Cloud Architecture and Technology at IBM. “We are ready and willing to work with every single OpenStack cloud provider on this, and are challenging the OpenStack community to collaborate with us. We are determined to provide customers with the flexibility they want – regardless of their provider – so that they have a global platform for business and innovation.”

http://www.ibm.com
https://refstack.openstack.org

Read More

Riverbed Launches its SteelConnect SD-WAN Solution

Riverbed Technology introduced its SteelConnect SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) solution for networking in a cloud-centric world.

Riverbed said it is delivering an application-defined approach to networking with SteelConnect, which aims to unify network connectivity and orchestration of application delivery across hybrid WANs, remote LANs and cloud networks such as AWS (available today) and Microsoft Azure (later this year).

SteelConnect includes a fully integrated line of secure WAN gateways, remote LAN switches and Wi-Fi access points, all managed centrally through a cloud console with a graphical user interface.  The goal is to streamline and simplify the process of designing, deploying and managing distributed networks, enabling organizations to modernize their network architecture to realize the full potential of digital transformation.

“The market is going through one of the largest transformations ever, with organizations moving quickly to adopt more digital and cloud services and hybrid networks,” said Jerry M. Kennelly, Riverbed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Unfortunately, legacy approaches to managing distributed networks and routing – which are hardware-bound, hard-coded, inflexible and error-prone – haven’t changed much in 20 years. We believe SteelConnect has the potential to disrupt the multi-billion dollar branch office router market and re-define networking as we know it today. With SteelConnect, we’re delivering an application-defined networking solution that leverages Riverbed’s application DNA and integrates industry-leading visibility, to provide the agility, simplicity and speed enterprises need to manage today’s complex cloud and hybrid architectures.”

“SteelConnect represents a complete rethink of how networks should be built and managed in today’s cloud-centric world,” said Paul O’Farrell, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Riverbed’s SteelConnect, SteelHead and SteelFusion business units. “SteelConnect provides a new experience of networking for both IT and business, where deploying and managing network services is as intuitive as downloading apps onto your smart phone and as instant as spinning up compute and storage resources into a public cloud.”

Key attributes of the Riverbed SteelConnect system:

• Unified Connectivity & Management Across WAN, Remote LAN & Cloud Networks: SteelConnect provides a software-defined and application-defined connectivity fabric that spans WANs, remote office LANs and cloud infrastructure networks through a line of physical, virtual and cloud-based WAN gateways, as well as remote LAN switches and Wi-Fi access points.
• Business-aligned Orchestration: Instead of managing networks through configuration of individual appliances, SteelConnect provides policy-based orchestration that is naturally aligned to the language and priorities of business: Applications, Users, Locations, Performance SLAs and Security requirements. An IT network architect can now easily set up global or local policies such as: send all video application traffic over the highest-capacity circuits; send software updates over Internet broadband circuits; or send all business traffic over secure VPNs. Previously network operators needed to enter hundreds or thousands of lines of CLI (command line interface) code to make network and application changes, which is both inefficient and prone to human error.
• Cloud-based Management Experience: SteelConnect provides an intuitive graphical user interface that supports an agile and intent-based workflow for managing networks. With SteelConnect, operators can design every aspect of a distributed network before deploying any hardware. Zero-touch provisioning then provides instant deployment of physical devices into a network. Central management of global network policies enables agile and efficient updates to support business requirements.
• Ubiquitous Visibility: SteelConnect provides complete visibility of all users and devices connected to a distributed network, and supports industry-leading NPM and APM capabilities from Riverbed SteelCentralTM natively integrated into the SteelConnect central management console.

http://www.riverbed.com/SteelConnect

Read More

AT&T Posts Q1 Revenue of $40.5 Billion

AT&T posted Q1 revenues of $40.5 billion and diluted EPS of $0.61 as reported; $0.72 diluted adjusted EPS, a 10.8% increase. The results include AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV. Compared with results for the first quarter of 2015, operating expenses were $33.4 billion versus $27.0 billion; operating income was $7.1 billion versus $5.6 billion; and operating income margin was 17.6% versus 17.1%.

“It was a good start to the year. We had solid financial results and executed well on our strategy to be the premier integrated communications provider for businesses and consumers,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “We’re seeing good momentum with our initial integrated wireless, video and broadband offers. And we’ll expand the integrated choices for customers in the fourth quarter when we launch our new video streaming services." “Our consolidated revenues, adjusted earnings and free cash flow continue to grow as margins continue to expand. And we’re putting up these numbers even as we invest in building our Mexico wireless business. In addition, DIRECTV merger synergies are on track to reach $1.5 billion or better by the end of the year.”

Some highlights:

• 2.3 million North American wireless net adds driven by connected devices, Mexico and Cricket; 712,000 branded (postpaid and prepaid) phone net adds
• Total churn of 1.42% in U.S., stable year over year; postpaid churn of 1.10%
• At the end of the first quarter, AT&T had 54.7 million Consumer Mobility subscribers and added 92,000 total subscribers in the quarter with 500,000 prepaid subscribers and losses of 4,000 postpaid subscribers and 378,000 reseller subscribers.
• At the end of the first quarter, AT&T had 75.8 million business wireless subscribers. The company added 133,000 postpaid subscribers and 1.6 million connected devices in the first quarter. Postpaid business wireless subscriber churn was 1.02%, compared to 0.90% in the year-ago quarter. 
• Business Solutions revenues up 0.3% year over year; wireless revenues up 2.3%
• Strategic business services revenues of $2.8 billion, up nearly $250 million
• Total business broadband had a loss of 19,000 subscribers in the quarter
• 328,000 U.S. DIRECTV net adds; total video subscribers decline slightly
• Entertainment Group broadband grew with 186,000 IP broadband net adds

http://www.att.com

Read More

Radisys Brings Enhanced Voice Services Codec to Mobile Operators

Radisys has added Ultra HD Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) audio codec support to its MediaEngine Media Resource Function (MRF).

By leveraging the new EVS codec, mobile operators can use less spectrum to deliver HD Audio or can deliver Ultra HD Audio using the same spectrum required for HD Audio. In addition, advanced error resilience built into EVS makes it ideal for VoLTE, delivering the same voice quality as AMR wideband while using less bandwidth – even in the face of up to 3x more packet loss.

The company confirmed that it has been working with a leading mobile operator in the deployment of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) to roll out Ultra HD Audio to its subscriber base.

“At Radisys, we’re laser focused on helping mobile operators solve the tough challenges of next-gen networks, including how to solve the problem of scarce spectrum,” said Grant Henderson, vice president, MediaEngine and Corporate Marketing, Radisys. “By adding EVS codec support to our MediaEngine solution, we’ve provided mobile operators with an important tool to make their existing spectrum more efficient and to deliver an Ultra HD Audio experience.”

http://www.3gpp.org/news-events/3gpp-news/1639-evs_news
http://www.voiceage.com/EVS.html
http://www.radisys.com

Read More

Coho Data Adds OpenStack Support to its Cinder Storage

Coho Data, which specializes in scale-out flash storage for the enterprise, announced support for OpenStack on DataStream and that the Coho Cinder driver is part of the OpenStack Mitaka released earlier this month. The goal is OpenStack block storage infrastructure that dynamically scales both performance and capacity in response to application demands.

Coho said its unique per-virtual machine (VM) visibility feature for VMware vSphere environments also supports OpenStack environments. It provides OpenStack VM instance level real-time performance analytics through both Coho’s REST API and web-based Management UI to help organizations simplify performance troubleshooting.

“Most enterprise storage systems stand as a stark counterexample to the operational efficiency and elasticity of infrastructure OpenStack is designed to achieve,” said Andy Warfield, CTO, Coho Data. “Coho’s Cinder integration brings a block storage solution that effortlessly scales on demand and that integrates deeply with datacenter networking to continuously adapt performance in response to workload demands. I’ve been excited to see our system used to build successful enterprise private cloud environments for OpenStack customers and I look forward to continuing to broaden our support for other OpenStack APIs as we continue to work with this community.”

http://www.cohodata.com

Read More

Dell Pushes Ahead with its Open Networking Initiatives

Dell announced several steps in advancing its Open Networking initiatives:

• Newly released Operating System 10 (OS10) aligns with community building and integration projects including Open Compute Project’s (OCP) Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) and partners Ansible, F5 and Silverpeak. 
• Dell OS10 and OCP SONiC– Dell, in conjunction with Microsoft Azure and other industry leaders, made foundational contributions to the newly-announced SONiC effort. The goal is to open source all the components needed to build fully-functional networking software. SONiC is a collection of software packages/modules that can be installed on Linux on a network hardware switch which makes it a complete, functional router. Dell has successfully integrated its OS10 base software to serve as a foundational element for SONiC.
• Ansible – from app deployment to multi-tiered orchestration, Ansible Tower by Red Hat powers enterprise automation by adding control, security and delegation capabilities.
• F5 – F5 with OS10 delivers load balancing over active-active clusters across network services for scale out deployments.
• Silver Peak – Silver Peak provides optimized SD-WAN interconnects between the data center and branch offices across public and private clouds.
• Two new in-rack switches are optimized to accelerate 10G deployments and harness the latest silicon-based features. The S4048T-ON and S6010-ON are ONIE-compliant to provide cloud and Web 2.0 customers an Open Networking environment with fully-tested and validated third-party operating systems. They include advanced features for VXLAN, larger tables and expanded buffering compared to other Dell models.
• A new collaboration with  Aerohive will deliver cloud-managed solution that integrates and manages wired and wireless infrastructure. The co-branded solution incorporates Dell N-Series switches and Aerohive access points into Aerohive’s HiveManager NG – a next-generation cloud-based management solution. 

http://www.dell.com

Read More

Barracuda's Revenue Grows 16%

Barracuda Networks' revenue for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2016 increased 16% to $83.7 million, compared with $72.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015. Appliance revenue was $21.7 million, compared with $20.9 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015, and recurring subscription revenue grew to $62.1 million, up from $51.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015, representing 74% of total revenue. GAAP net income was $3.2 million, or $0.06 per share, based on a diluted share count of 53.1 million, compared to a GAAP net loss of $68.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.

https://investors.barracuda.com

Read More

MACOM Files Patent Suit Against Infineon over GaN

MACOM Technology Solutions filed a legal claim against Infineon Technologies and International Rectifier (acquired by Infineon in 2015) concerning its rights to use the pioneering and patented gallium nitride on silicon (GaN) technology developed by Nitronex (acquired by MACOM in 2014) in MACOM’s core markets. GaN has potential applications in 4G/LTE and 5G base stations.

http://www.macom.com

Read More