AT&T's Dan Blemings on Ethernet-based, On-Demand Services

It's a very busy time at AT&T with the recent expansions of Network On Demand services and its global Ethernet footprint.

Dan Blemings, Director of Ethernet Product Management, AT&T, discusses some of the transformative steps underway to help accelerate the business benefits of Ethernet-driven services and create an ecosystem of agile, on-demand capabilities.

Recorded at the MEF Annual Members Meeting in Boston.

See video: https://youtu.be/gTP2h2MWQpQ

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China Mobile Hits 51% 4G Adoption - Data Traffic Explodes

As of mid-year 2016, China Mobile was serving 837 million customers (up 2.4% YoY), of whom 51% were on 4G LTE. Total handset data traffic for the first half of the year reached 2,327.9 PB, up 134%.

In its mid-year financial report, China Mobile cited steady progress in the 4G, data traffic, wireline broadband and digital services business lines.  Some highlights:

• Operating revenue of RMB370.4 billion, up by 7.1%, of which revenue from telecommunications services was RMB325.4 billion, up by 6.9%
• EBITDA was RMB134.4 billion, up by 2.9%
• Profit attributable to equity shareholders was RMB60.6 billion, up by 5.6%
• 1.32 million 4G base stations online
• Nearly 430 million 4G customers
• Wireless data traffic revenue has for the first time exceeded traditional business and is now the biggest revenue source
• Wireline broadband customers increased by 10.81 million and the total number of customers reaching 65.84 million
• Handset data traffic increased by 133.9% year-on-year, while wireless data traffic revenue increased by 39.7%

Mr. Shang Bing, Chairman of China Mobile, stated: “Our current strategy has the dual aspects of consolidation and future growth. For consolidation, we will be further building on our 4G advantages and increasing our 4G customers proportion. Our high-end approach with regards to wireline broadband will be maintained. We will challenge ourselves to obtain a one-third market share in the ICT business through expansion of our corporate customer base. In terms of future growth, we will take a longer-term perspective, looking towards our digital services segment and increasing the revenue by understanding the important role that this business line will play for the Company in the future. As we have always done, we will take a level-headed approach to market competition. Our ultimate goal is to strike a balance between the interests of our customers, our shareholders and the public, as well as regulatory requirements when we are striving to meet our short-term goals and formulating long-term plans."

http://www.chinamobileltd.com/en/ir/webcasts/pre160811.pdf

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Alibaba Rack Up 156% Revenue Growth for AliCloud

Alibaba cited 156% YoY revenue for Aliyun, its cloud division, where the segment adjusted EBITA narrowed to $(24) million.  The figure puts Aliyun on a faster growth trajectory than AWS or Azure, which also reported strong growth numbers during the first half of 2016. However, Aliyun remains much smaller, with Q2 revenue of US$187 million.

Cloud computing paying customers increased 119% YoY to 577k.  Aliyun launched 319 new products and features during the quarter.

The company said Aliyun's adjusted EBITA margin significantly improved YoY due to robust revenue growth and economies of scale.

http://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/presentations/pre160811.pdf

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Acacia Posts Revenue of $116.2M, up 101% YoY

In its first financial report as a public company, Acacia Communications posted Q2 revenue of $116.2 million, up 101% year-over-year. GAAP gross margin came in at 46.4% of revenue and GAAP net income was $17.6 million.

“Our record second quarter results exceeded our expectations across the board and reflect the success of our disruptive technology in transforming cloud, content and communications networks.  These results are a testament to our strategy and demonstrate our leadership position in the high-growth 100G plus optical networking market,” said Raj Shanmugaraj, President and CEO of Acacia Communications, “We continue to see strong global demand for our products, driven by metro and inter-data center network infrastructure buildouts.”

Acacia, which was founded in 2009, develops  high-speed coherent optical interconnect products, including a series of low-power coherent DSP ASICs and silicon PICs.  The company has integrated into families of optical interconnect modules with transmission speeds ranging from 40 to 400 Gbps for use in long-haul, metro and inter-data center markets. Acacia’s coherent DSP ASICs and silicon PICs are manufactured using CMOS and CMOS-compatible processes. The company completed its IPO during Q2.

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Ixia Adds High-density, Inline Bypass Switch

Ixia introduced a modular, high-density, inline bypass switch designed to help ensure that security tools have continuous visibility into network traffic.

The new iBypass VHD switch joins the company’s expanding portfolio of bypass switches.

Ixia said its iBypass VHD is the first bypass switch to support both active-standby and active-active network/security architectures. Active-standby offers improved security resilience with a primary and secondary tool that helps ensure ongoing network monitoring. Active–active enables a diverse deployment of security tools to maximize existing and new IT investments.

It supports up to twelve 10G bypass switches in one unit, three times more than previous versions. iBypass VHD is currently available via authorized Ixia channel partners at a starting US List price of $21,000.

Ixia iBypass VHD offers centralized and simplified management, leveraging Indigo Pro -- a central management tool for bypass switches that simplifies and speeds configuration and management of tens to hundreds of devices.

http://www.ixiacom.com

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Rackspace's OpenStack Milestone: 6 Years, One Billion Server Hours

Rackspace announced a huge milestone: reaching one billion server hours operating production-ready OpenStack clouds for many of the world's largest and most recognized companies.

Rackspace collaborated with NASA to develop OpenStack in 2010.

"Over the past six years, Rackspace has gained more experience building, operating and improving OpenStack clouds than any other company," said Scott Crenshaw, senior vice president of strategy and product at Rackspace. "The one billion managed server hour milestone is an exciting accomplishment and further validates that we are ahead of competition in OpenStack leadership and expertise."

Rackspace also announced early access for a managed security service for Microsoft Azure. 

http://www.rackspace.com

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