Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Facebook Offers its Load Balancer in Open Source

Facebook is putting its home-grown DHCP load balancer into the Github open source community.

The DHCP load balancer, which was developed over the summer and is now in production use in Facebook data centers, sits behind Facebook's anycast VIP and is used to source a list of DHCP servers from a file. The project is called dhcplb.

https://code.facebook.com/posts/1734309626831603/dhcplb-an-open-source-load-balancer/

Nutanix S1 Filing: Quarterly Revenue at $139.8 million

For its most recently fiscal quarter ended 31-July-2016, Nutanix recorded revenue of $139.8 million, according to a recently updated Form S-1 registration statement filed with the SEC ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO).

Nutanix provides a next-generation enterprise cloud platform that "converges traditional silos of server, virtualization and storage into one integrated solution and can also connect to public cloud services."

Some additional highlights from the S1 filing:

  • The company recorded a net loss of $126,127,000 for fiscal 2015, and a net loss of $84,003,000 for fiscal 2014.    
  • Average billings growth of 20% on a quarterly basis for the last eight fiscal quarters, which grew from $60.8 million in the three months ended October 31, 2014.
  • Average revenue growth of 17% on a quarterly basis for the last eight fiscal quarters, which grew from $46.1 million in the three months ended October 31, 2014 to $139.8 million in the three months ended July 31, 2016.
  • Average total end-customer growth of approximately 22% on a quarterly basis over the last eight fiscal quarters, which grew from 782 end-customers as of July 31, 2014 to 3,768 end-customers as of July 31, 2016. 
  • 657 new end-customers acquired during the three months ended July 31, 2016.
  • Adjusted gross margin percentage of 61% in the three months ended July 31, 2016.
  • Dell has accounted for "a meaningful portion" of Nutanix total billings over the past few fiscal quarters. This OEM relationship could be at risk given the recent Dell-EMC merger.
  • Super Micro Computer and Avnet provide contract assembly and testing for Nutanix.


The full filing is here:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1618732/000119312516707549/d937439ds1a.htm

Nutanix Files for IPO

Nutanix has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock.

Nutanix is seeking to list its Class A common stock on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "NTNX.”

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC will act as lead book-running managers, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC will act as book-running managers for the proposed offering. Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated; Needham & Company LLC; Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.; Pacific Crest Securities, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.; Piper Jaffray & Co.; Raymond James; Stifel; and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. will act as co-managers.

http://www.nutanix.com

Nutanix Raises $140 Million for Converged Data Center Solutions

Nutanix, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced a $140 million Series E funding round at over a $2 billion valuation.

Nutanix offers a Virtual Computing Platform, which integrates compute and storage into a single solution for the data center. Its web-scale software runs on all popular virtualization hypervisors, including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and open source KVM, and is uniquely able to span multiple hypervisors in the same environment.

The latest round brings Nutanix's total funding to $312 million.

http://www.nutanix.com


  • In June 2014, Nutanix announced an OEM deal under which Dell will offer a new family of converged infrastructure appliances based on Nutanix web-scale technology under an OEM deal announced by the firms. The companies said the combination of Nutanix’s software running on Dell’s servers delivers a flexible, scale-out platform that brings IT simplicity to modern data centers.
    Specifically, the new Dell XC Series of Web-scale Converged Appliances will be built with Nutanix software running on Dell PowerEdge servers.

Ixia and Viavi Debut 400GbE Test System with Forward Error Correction

Ixia is working with Viavi Solutions to showcase the world’s first public interoperability demonstration of a test system running bi-directional 400GbE line rate traffic with RS-544 Forward Error Correction (FEC), as currently defined in the IEEE 802.3bs draft standard.

The demo, which will be shown at next week's ECOC 2016 conference in Düsseldorf, Germany, will show full interoperability of independently developed MAC, PCS, and RS-544 FEC IP by each company, including the critical FEC element that enables 400GbE error-free data packets to be carried over fiber links, on readily available hardware components.

The companies said this demonstration is intended to show that it is now possible to successfully bring products to market that interoperate in accordance with emerging 400GbE standards and are ready for adoption by network equipment manufacturers as well as companies that need to move forward with their 400GbE implementation.

Ixia’s full portfolio of network infrastructure test systems, including the 400GbE test system, offer the same send/receive capabilities on all speed ports, with packet lengths as small as 49B, which is smaller than the minimum Ethernet frame size. It is also capable of sending and receiving a single 400GbE line rate flow at any packet size.

Viavi’s Optical Network Tester (ONT) has been proven in lab testing of 100G components, and now has the industry’s first 400G support to include FEC and PAM4 modulation. Pioneers of the high-speed network ecosystem now have a comprehensive, integrated platform for design, development, and validation of 400G technologies including CFP8 pluggable 400G optics.

“It is a very exciting time in high speed networking technology, and we are delighted to work together with Ixia to demonstrate the first stages of a vibrant and healthy 400GbE ecosystem,” said Paul Brooks, 400G technology lead, Viavi Solutions. “We are all committed to helping our customers successfully bring 400GbE products to market with the confidence that they can interoperate and perform to expectations.”

http://www.ixiacom.com
http://www.viavisolutions.com/en-us

Radisys Intros MediaEngine Transcode Resource Function with Virtualized Option

Radisys introduced its MediaEngine Transcode Resource Function (TRF) for enabling service providers to to deploy transcoding as an adjunct function that scales independently from, and complements existing legacy network elements, such as session border controllers (SBCs) and media gateways. The key idea is to decouple transcoding from legacy network elements.

Radisys’ MediaEngine Transcode Resource Function (TRF) products is offered in both an optimized hardware platform and as a virtualized network function (VNF).

The hardware version is available as the MediaEngine TRF-12000, which offers advanced IP media transcoding and transrating capabilities with the scalability and proven reliability required to meet the needs of the world’s largest service providers to deliver HD voice and advanced video services.

The MediaEngine Virtualized TRF (vTRF) delivers carrier-class transcoding in a software-only offering with performance-tuned virtualization support, compatibility with NFV architectures, and cloud deployment capabilities. Radisys’ vTRF can be deployed on any Intel-based server and supports VMWare, KVM, Openstack and deployment in public clouds including Amazon EC2.

Key capabilities for both the MediaEngine TRF-12000 and vTRF:

  • Support for a broad range of audio codecs including EVS – the newest HD audio codec used in mobile networks, Opus for Over the Top and WebRTC applications, and video codecs such as VP8 and H.264
  • Flexible control interface integration options, including SIP (RFC 3261) B2BUA in-line call control, and SIP (RFC 4117) for transcoding under the control of third-party Telephony Application Servers (TAS) or Call Session Control Function (CSCF) control
  • Advanced voice quality enhancement (VQE) features, including acoustic echo cancelation, noise reduction and packet loss concealment

“Just as we did over 15 years ago when we pioneered the media server/MRF market, our new transcoding solutions help improve network architectures, allowing communications service providers to drive down their costs and increase their ability to adapt to ever-changing market and technical requirements,” said Grant Henderson, vice president, MediaEngine and Corporate Marketing, Radisys. “Our new TRF products offer communications service providers a new, more cost effective way to deploy transcoding, while accelerating their transition to software-centric networks.”

Radisys is now shipping TRF and the company said the solution has been deployed by leading communications service providers in North America and Asia.

http://www.radisys.com/mediaengine/solutions/transcoding

Extreme Networks Buys Zebra's WLAN Business

Extreme Networks will acquire Zebra Technologies' wireless LAN (WLAN) business for $55 million in cash.

Extreme said the acquisition will strengthen its end-to-end, wired and wireless software-driven networking solutions and complements its vertical market focus.

Zebra will continue to offer customers a complete end-to-end solution – from mobile computers and scanners to specialty printers, RFID, software and services – for identifying, tracking and managing critical assets, people and transactions.

"Combining Zebra's WLAN technologies and marquee retail, transportation and logistics, and hospitality customers with Extreme Networks' wired and wireless capabilities, recognized as visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, creates the industry's number three WLAN enterprise campus powerhouse," said Ed Meyercord, President and CEO of Extreme Networks. "WLAN is the fastest growing segment in the networking industry. Our heritage of delivering innovative and pioneering technology is reinforced with today's announcement, underscoring our commitment to providing customers worldwide with unified visibility and control across their wired and wireless networks."

"The WLAN business is an ideal fit with Extreme Networks as a pure play networking company, and we are proud of our WLAN employees for the contributions they have made to Zebra and will make in the future," said Anders Gustafsson, CEO of Zebra Technologies.

https://www.zebra.com
http://www.extremenetworks.com/

ADTRAN Acquires Commscope's Fiber Access Portfolio

ADTRAN has acquired CommScope's key fiber access products, technologies and service relationships. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The key components of the acquisition include:


  • Active EPON and 10G-EPON product platforms, which include infrastructure and customer premises equipment that deliver CableLabs DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON (DPoE) certification – ADTRAN will now sell, support, and develop these product lines for new and existing MSO customers; and
  • Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) product line, including patented optical beat interference (OBI) mitigated versions. ADTRAN said it plans to leverage this HFC and FTTP bridging technology to help customers deliver high-bandwidth services and applications in specific situations, including rural and low-density greenfield deployments.


“The transition of these active product lines to ADTRAN sharpens both companies’ focus to benefit our customers and the cable industry as a whole,” said Jim Hughes, CommScope’s vice president of North American MSO sales. “As a global leader in fiber optics for wired and wireless networks, CommScope will continue providing passive PON solutions to the MSO and service provider market, including its optical closures, optical terminals and drops, and other passive accessories, along with its robust portfolio of innovative fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) offerings.


http://www.adtran.com/index.php/adtran-acquires-commscope-s-mso-fiber-access-active-systems-portfolio

Amdocs Acquires Three Companies Focused on Customer Experience

Amdocs has acquired three three privately-owned companies that are focused on improving the customer experience for communications services:

Vindicia: offers software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription management and payment solutions. Vindicia helps digital enterprises to onboard customers and process payments for digital content, over-the-top (OTT) entertainment, online subscriptions and on-demand services.

Brite:Bill:  focused on transforming the customer bill into a unique, customer-centric engagement channel. Brite:Bill's technology and services transform invoices into a personalized, digital, interactive billing experience in the channel of the customer's choice. The invoice's customized and engaging design reduces customer confusion around the bill, thereby cutting service provider costs around inbound inquiries, and also provides an engagement opportunity for service providers to promote new services.

Pontis: provides contextual digital engagement solutions. Pontis's real-time decisioning and learning technology enables service providers to offer their customers personalized contextual interactions relevant to where that individual customer is in their journey with the service provider. Pontis helps service providers determine the next best action for customer engagement and then to offer the customer, across outbound and inbound channels, the most appropriate service at the right time and the right touch point.

"Communication and media service providers, including those with over-the-top offerings, are transforming to capture the world of on-demand services and digital immediacy. When combined with business-driven analytics behind the scenes, this ensures a simplified, intuitive and engaging customer experience," said Eli Gelman, Amdocs Management Limited president and CEO.

"These acquisitions, alongside Amdocs' existing platforms which include multi-channel, digital care and commerce, customer management and big data analytics solutions, position Amdocs as the market leader to help communication and media providers on their journey. I am excited by these companies joining Amdocs, as their cloud-based technologies will augment Amdocs' rich offering and shorten our time to market," Gelman continued.

The three similarly priced companies were acquired for a combined amount of approximately $260 million in cash, net, and may be subject to certain adjustments including small earnouts.

http://www.amdocs.com

Zayo Appoints Amanda Tierney as EVP of Network Connectivity

Zayo Group Holdings appointed Amanda Tierney as executive vice president of Network Connectivity, a role in which she will be responsible for the wavelengths, Ethernet, IP and SONET Strategic Business Units.

Tierney joins Zayo from Charter Communications where she served as vice president of Commercial Marketing. Prior to Charter, she held leadership positions during her nine-year tenure at Level 3 in customer care, market management, strategy, wholesale and large enterprise.

http://www.zayo.com

New Jersey Fiber Exchange Deploys Coriant Groove DCI

The New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX) is deploying the Coriant Groove G30 DCI Platform in its carrier-neutral colocation facility.

NJFX is a Tier 3, carrier neutral colocation campus that intersects where subsea cables from the United States, South America, Europe and the Caribbean meet. The 64,800-square-foot data center facility provides direct connectivity to international submarine cable systems via private backhaul solutions.

http://www.coriant.com
http://www.NJFX.net