Monday, November 28, 2016

Riverbed Teams with Verizon on AWS Direct Connect Bundle

Riverbed Technology is joining forces with Verizon Enterprise Solutions to deliver an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect Bundle solution to support hybrid architecture deployments.

The AWS Direct Connect Bundle combines Riverbed’s SteelHead WAN optimization solution, Verizon’s Secure Cloud Interconnect and Virtual Network Services solutions, and AWS Direct Connect solution into a single offering.

Verizon’s Virtual Network Services (VNS) and Secure Cloud Interconnect solution enable enterprise customers to leverage universal customer premises equipment (uCPE) to provide managed connectivity to their employees over a secure, efficient and high performance network.

Riverbed’s SteelHead WAN optimization is implemented as a virtual network function (VNF) within Verizon’s VNS and Secure Cloud Interconnect environments.

“Riverbed has a long history of teaming with service providers such as Verizon to provide highly-scalable networking solutions for our joint enterprise customers,” said Phil Harris, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Segment Vertical and Strategy at Riverbed. “Working with cloud services providers like AWS is a natural extension of these solutions and meets the needs of today’s hybrid networking environments, allowing businesses to support their digital transformation initiatives.”

“With this offering, Verizon and Riverbed are furthering their collaboration to deliver joint solutions that businesses require to realize the full potential of digital transformation through better cost economics, agility and flexibility,” said Shawn Hakl, vice president of networking and innovation, Verizon. “With our new solution set, enterprises will be able to balance agility, performance, cost and security necessitated by the growth of mobile-to-cloud applications and the Internet of Things.”

https://aws.amazon.com/directconnect/directconnectbundles/
http://www.verizon.com

CoreSite Data Centers Achieve AWS Advanced Technology Partner Status

CoreSite Realty achieved Advanced Technology Partner status in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN).

CoreSite said it is one of the first data center providers to achieve this designation from AWS.

AWS Direct Connect is now directly available in four CoreSite markets with deployments in Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia. Additionally, access to AWS Direct Connect is available in five major markets through CoreSite's Open Cloud Exchange.

AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated network connection between an Enterprise's network and an AWS Direct Connect location.

http://www.CoreSite.com

Trend Micro to Offer Deep Security as a Service on AWS

Trend Micro Deep Security is now available as a Service on AWS Marketplace, enabling organizations to combine the benefits of security software-as-a-service (SaaS) with the convenience of consolidated payments through their Amazon Web Services (AWS) bill.

The PCI level 1 certified Deep Security service provides per-hour pricing for added protection of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances.

http://www.trendmicro.com/aws

Ericsson Releases Verified Network Functions Virtualization infrastructure (NFVi)

Ericsson released its verified Network Functions Virtualization infrastructure (NFVi) solution including transformation service offering and multivendor capabilities.

Ericsson's modular NFVi solution consists of pre-integrated hardware (Ericsson's Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000 (HDS 8000) and Blade Server Platform (BSP8000), Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment, Ericsson Cloud Manager, Ericsson Cloud SDN and consulting, system integration and support services.

"Ericsson's NFVi solution is an important step on our journey to building the infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things. By offering a flexible, pre-integrated and verified open system platform, we can provide our customers with several different deployment options ranging all the way from full decoupling of NFV components to full stack solution deployment. This provides a shorter time to market, with increased speed, agility and efficiency for our customers deploying new services," stated Susan James, Head of Product Line NFV Infrastructure.

Ericsson noted that it has already announced various NFV contracts with a host of tier 1 operators around the world, including Telstra, Swisscom, Telefonica, Digicel and SoftBank, and was the first vendor with live commercial deployments of NFV.

https://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/releases/2016/11/2058781
https://www.ericsson.com/networks/offerings/nfvi


Silexica Raises $8 Million for Multicore Software Automation

Silexica, a start-up based in Köln, Germany, announced $8 million in Series A funding for its multicore software design automation addressing complex, multicore platforms.

Silexica's SLX Mapper and SLX Generator tools deliver fully automated mapping of software tasks and processes onto multicore platforms, optimized for throughput, latency, or power. They leverage native programming toolchains via a source-to-source translation approach to automatically generate architecture aware and middleware-specific C codes. The company's SLX Explorer tool guides the selection of the best target hardware by providing insights into software performance/power prediction of the target application. Its SLX Parallelizer tool helps customers migrate legacy C, C++ applications into the multicore world giving deep insights into parallelization possibilities based on the target platform. The company said companies like Huawei and Fujitsu are already using the solution.

The funding was led by Merus Capital with participation from new investor Paua Ventures as well as current investors Seed Fonds Aachen and DSA Invest.

"It's clear that as Dennard's Scaling Law breaks down, the computing industry must embrace heterogeneous and specialized multicore designs. To fully exploit this change requires a wholesale shift to concurrent software development and design automation. Silexica's unique technology enables software and hardware designers and developers to maximize utilization, optimize for various design goals and to deal with issues of 'dark silicon' and other upcoming challenges of the multicore era," said Salman Ullah, Managing Director of Merus Capital, a leading Silicon Valley venture fund focused on early stage enterprise companies. He added that, "Silexica is a perfect reflection of Merus Capital's strategy, investing in real software solving real problems."

http://www.silexica.com

Rackspace to Open Data Center in Frankfurt

Rackspace announced plans to open a new data center in Germany to provide customers with a new option for managed IT infrastructure in the face of strict personal data protection laws across Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) territory.

The facility will serve customers who seek managed private clouds and hosting environments, with a focus on fully managed VMware environments.

Rackspace said it will be working with one of its long-standing partners to build out the infrastructure of the new operation, which is expected to be fully operational in mid-2017.
With the addition of the data centre in Frankfurt, Rackspace will operate 12 data centres worldwide, including in London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Dallas, Chicago and Ashburn (near Washington, D.C.).

http://www.rackspace.com

Rackspace to go Private in $4.3 Billion Buyout

Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) announced plans to go private in a buyout led by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.

Under the deal, Rackspace will be acquired for $32.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of 38% compared to Rackspace's unaffected closing stock price on August 3, 2016, the last trading day prior to news reports speculating about a potential transaction. In connection with the transaction, funds managed by Searchlight Capital Partners will make a strategic equity investment in the acquired company. The transaction has a total value of $4.3 billion, which includes the assumption of $43 million of net cash.

Taylor Rhodes, president and CEO of Rackspace, said, "We are presented with a significant opportunity today as mainstream companies move their computing out of corporate data centers and into multi-cloud models. Apollo and its partners take a patient, value-oriented approach to their funds' investments, and value Rackspace's strategy and unique culture. This is an exciting transaction for Rackspace and we look forward to working closely together."

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is acting as financial advisor to Rackspace and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation is acting as its legal advisor.

http://www.rackspace.com

  • Rackspace, which was founded in 1998 in San Antonio, provides businesses with expertise and exceptional customer service for the world's leading cloud platforms, including AWS, Microsoft, and OpenStack (the open-source cloud platform that Rackspace co-founded in 2010, along with NASA). Rackspace has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2008. The company reported 2015 revenue of $2.0 billion.
  • Rackspace collaborated with NASA to develop OpenStack in 2010.

Wireless Broadband Alliance Looks at Connected Cities Initiatives

The Wireless Broadband Alliance has always been focused on the customer experience. In this 1-minute video, Chris Bruce, co-Chair of the WBA, talks about next-gen hotspots, a new Connected Cities Advisory Board to look at using WiFi, low-power radio and cellular to help collect data for public services and deliver low-cost access to citizens.

See video: https://youtu.be/YnmNG5rIBIk


CERN Picks T-Systems and Huawei for European Science Cloud

T-Systems has been awarded a €5.3 million contract for a joint Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), led by CERN, that covers the design, prototyping and pilot phase of the Helix Nebula Science Cloud. Huawei was named as technology partner. Three other consortia were also selected.

The contract covers the establishment of a European hybrid cloud platform that will support high-performance, data-intensive scientific use-cases sponsored by 10 of Europe’s leading public research organizations and co-funded by the European Commission.

CERN is operating one of the world's largest OpenStack private clouds with more than 7,000 servers and 190,000 cores.

T-Systems said that as more and more research organizations start to use cloud services, demand is growing for dynamic capacity that can be transparently activated in a hybrid cloud. Open Telecom Telekom Cloud, operated by T-Systems and supported by Huawei, is based on the OpenStack open source architecture and facilitates the management and migration of data and resources between private and public clouds.

As part of an earlier procurement in 2016, CERN and T-Systems evaluated the capabilities of the Open Telekom Cloud in a 3-months pilot. “Following the extensive tests, it has become apparent, that Open Telekom Cloud can support the high-performance and data-intensive workloads required”, summarizes Andreas Falkner, Vice President Open Telekom Cloud from T-Systems.

Next to CERN following research organizations plan to make use of the European Hybrid Cloud:

  • Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy
  • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Germany
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, (CNRS), France
  • Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Germany
  • SURFsara, Netherlands
  • Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), United Kingdom
  • European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany
  • Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), Spain
  • European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), France

https://www.telekom.com/en/media/media-information/enterprise-solutions/t-systems-select-to-establish-an-european-science-cloud-444488

http://www.hnscicloud.eu/