AT&T Offers Ethernet Prequalification Tool, Implements Cloud-based vProbe

AT&T has introduced new tool to qualify Ethernet-based services for its wholesale customers. The tool, which leverages two AT&T Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), allows wholesale customers to automatically check the availability and speed of select Ethernet-based services by address.

“We’re bringing much needed innovation and agility to wholesale customers,” said Brendan Floyd, vice president of Wholesale Solutions for AT&T. “We’re making it as easy as possible for service providers to help their customers move from legacy services to transformative technologies like 100-Gigabit Ethernet and AT&T Switched Ethernet Broadband Port.”

“We closely followed the MEF’s new framework to deliver an API flow – one that lets our wholesale customers validate AT&T Switched Ethernet services within our 21-state footprint,” said Mike Lesher, executive director, Product Marketing Management, AT&T. “The tool’s capabilities are leaps and bounds ahead of the manual process the industry is currently accustomed to.”

Separately, AT&T confirmed that it is migrating network probe functions to the cloud with new service assurance software from RADCOM Ltd.

Specifically, AT&T will integrate the virtual probe (vProbe) functions into the network through ECOMP, its infrastructure delivery platform. AT&T will use RADCOM's MaveriQ software to deploy vProbes as virtual network functions running on the AT&T Integrated Cloud (AIC). 

AT&T said that by virtualizing service assurance functions it can boost performance optimization and also help identify and isolate network issues to maximize customer experience.

 “Our shift to a software-based network began a few years ago when we saw the exponential growth in traffic on our wireless and broadband networks,” said Susan A. Johnson, senior vice president, AT&T Global Supply. “To keep up with that demand and scale our capacity, we needed to change our network to be more software-centric. Since we announced our 2020 virtualization goal, we surpassed our first major objective by virtualizing 5.7% in 2015. In 2016, we’re targeting 30%. Technologies like RADCOM’s MaveriQ software will help us accelerate to our goal." http://www.att.com

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Juniper to Acquires Aurrion for Silicon Photonics

Juniper Networks agreed to acquire Aurrion, a start-up developing silicon-photonics technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Aurrion, which is based in Santa Barbara, California and was founded in 2008, has been working on technology to change how photonic transceivers can be packaged and integrated into systems. Its new approach to optics manufacturing could be used for systems in hyperscale data centers.

In a blog post, Juniper's Pradeep Sindhu writes "Aurrion’s breakthrough technology will result in fundamental and permanent improvements in cost per bit-per-second, power per bit-per-second, bandwidth density, and flexibility of networking systems."

http://www.juniper.net

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IHS Scorecard Evaluates Top Seven Public Clouds

IHS Markit published excerpts from its new Cloud IT Infrastructure Service Provider Scorecard, which profiles and analyzes the top seven revenue producers for cloud IT infrastructure services: Amazon (AWS), CenturyLink, Equinix, Google, IBM, Microsoft (Azure) and Rackspace.

For 2016, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft received the leader designation for cloud IT infrastructure services, while CenturyLink, Equinix and Rackspace were identified as established players.

“Leadership in the cloud IT infrastructure services market requires very strong in-house software development skills, and all the leaders in our Scorecard have a long history of innovation. This is not expected to change moving forward,” said Cliff Grossner, senior research director, data center, cloud and SDN, at IHS Markit.

“Established players, meanwhile, are able to leverage an existing services client base to which they can offer operational efficiencies. Although they have lower market momentum than the leaders, their significant presence indicates strong adoption of their solutions,” Grossner said.
The off-premises cloud service market segments analyzed for this Scorecard include infrastructure as a service (IaaS), cloud as a service (CaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).

http://press.ihs.com/press-release/technology/ihs-markit-names-amazon-google-ibm-and-microsoft-leaders-cloud-services-sco

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Singtel and Ericsson Demo 5G Peak Rate of 27.5Gbps

Singtel and Ericsson conducted a live demonstration of Ericsson’s 5G Radio Prototypes.  The test achieved a peak throughput of 27.5Gbps and latency as low as 2ms.

Singtel noted that it progressing well on its 5G journey, deploying key pre-5G technologies such as LTE-Advanced (Carrier aggregation, 256QAM) on its live network and taking the next step to LTE Advanced Pro (LAA, NB-IoT).

Ericsson said some key capabilities of its 5G Radio Prototypes include multipoint connectivity with distributed multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) and 5G-LTE dual connectivity, to ensure a smooth evolution to 5G and rapid adoption of new 5G-based services.

Mr Tay Soo Meng, Group Chief Technology Officer, Singtel, says: "We strive to upgrade our networks with cutting-edge enhancements, constantly offering our customers all the possibilities that technology brings. Singapore is at the forefront of the most connected cities in the world and now we want to take it to the next level. 5G is very important to the Singtel Group as it will support advanced communication needs. To ensure the Singtel Group continues our technology leadership in the mobile communications domain, we are exploring, studying and trialling pre-5G technologies with Ericsson."

Mr Magnus Ewerbring, Head of Technology Development, Asia-Pacific, Ericsson says; “5G will enable the full potential of Ericsson’s vision of the Networked Society and 5G performance will benefit consumers, business users and entire industries in Singapore. Together with Singtel we have launched many world-first and nation-first achievements with the 4G network since 2011 and we will be together at the forefront of 5G as well.”

http://www.ericsson.com

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HPE Reshuffles its Cloud Team

HPE announced a reshuffling of its executive team and cloud organization.

The Helion OpenStack (HOS) and Helion CloudSystem teams will note be part of the company's Enterprise Group (EG) and will become part of the newly created Software-Defined & Cloud Group (SDCG), led by Ric Lewis.

HPE is aligning its sales team into a single organization, led by Peter Ryan.  Jim Merritt, who currently leads Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ), will lead the North America sales regions. HPE's current Managing Director of Americas Sales, Robert Vrij, will be leaving the company at the end of the year.  Phil Davis, currently head of Storage Sales in APJ, will now be responsible for sales in APJ.

In additio, Bill Philbin will be taking over as head of the Storage business; the role previously held by Manish Goel, who has decided to leave HPE to pursue other opportunities.

http://www.hpe.com

HPE's Services Business to Merge with CSC for Global IT Services

Tuesday, May 24, 2016  #Cloud, CSC, HPE, Managed Services, Mergers And Acquisitions  No Comments

Hewlett Packard Enterprise will spin-off its Enterprise Services business and merge the unit with CSC, creating a pure-play, global IT services company with annual revenues of approximately $26 billion, more than 5,000 customers in 70 countries and employees in every major global region. The companies said the combination will give them greater scale to service global clients migrating to the cloud. The deal is expected to produce first-year cost...

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Ixia Posts Q2 Sales of $120 Million

Ixia reported Q2 2016 second quarter revenue of $120.1 million, compared with $131.6 million reported for the 2015 second quarter and $112.7 million reported for the 2016 first quarter. On a GAAP basis, the company recorded net income for the 2016 second quarter of $1.5 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, compared with net income of $5.8 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the 2015 second quarter, and a net loss of $2.7 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, for the 2016 first quarter.

"In the second quarter we achieved revenue at the high-end of our guidance range and delivered solid earnings that were driven by our strong gross margin performance and continued focus on financial discipline. We also generated $25.5 million in cash flow from operations and repurchased $6.9 million of Ixia common stock," said Bethany Mayer, Ixia’s president and chief executive officer. "Leveraging technology unique to Ixia, we have continued to add new capabilities across our test, security, and visibility platforms and have brought new products to market that we believe further expand Ixia’s technology leadership over the competition.”

Ixia also announced the appointment of Patti Key as its senior vice president, global sales. Since August 2014, Key has served as the company’s vice president, sales, Americas. She joined Ixia in February 2008 as vice president, sales, East.  Prior to joining Ixia, Key held several sales and marketing roles with Agilent Technologies and Hewlett Packard.

https://www.ixiacom.com/

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Apptimize Secures $12.4M for Mobile Optimization Platform

Apptimize, a start-up based in San Francisco, announced $12.4 million in Series B financing for its optimization platform for A/B testing of mobile apps.

Investors include US Venture Partners,Glynn Capital Management, Goldcrest Investments, Western Technology Investments, Ken Ross, and Twin Gables.

“Mobile continues to be the dominant way consumers want to interact, so it’s important that businesses learn and adapt to customer preferences as quickly as possible,” said Nancy Hua, co-founder and CEO of Apptimize. “Our business customers are top performers in their industries, and have proven that fast iteration and intelligent A/B testing are key to staying competitive and relevant. Our simple and intuitive tools help mobile developers and business teams work together to optimize customer experiences, increase revenue and engagement, improve user ratings, and react quickly to changing trends."

http://www.apptimize.com

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