IBM’s Software Catalog Now Runs on Google Compute Engine

Google Cloud Platform is now officially an IBM Eligible Public Cloud, enabling users to run a wide range of IBM software SKUs on Google Compute Engine with existing licenses.

In a blog posting, Chuck Coulson, Global Technology Partnerships at Google, explains that the majority of IBM's vast catalog of software -- everything from middleware and DevOps products (Websphere, MQ Series, DataPower, Tivoli) to data and analytics offerings (DB2, Informix, Cloudant, Cognos, BigInsights), can run on Google Compute Engine.

https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/12/IBMs-software-catalog-now-eligible-to-run-on-Google-Cloud.html

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Emerson Network Power Becomes Vertriv

Emerson Network Power officially completed a spin-out from its parent firm and adopted the name Vertiv. The business was acquired from Emerson by Platinum Equity in a deal valued in excess of $4 billion. Emerson retained a minority interest in Vertiv.

Vertiv is a global provider of mission-critical infrastructure technologies for vital applications in data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments. The company, which is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio (USA), has more than 20,000 employees and more than 25 manufacturing and assembly facilities worldwide.

Vertiv also announced the appointment of Rob Johnson as its new CEO.  Johnson, most recently an operating partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, spent 10 years at American Power Conversion (APC), a leader in data center infrastructure.  He was President and CEO of APC when the company was sold to Schneider Electric for $6.1 billion in 2007.  While at APC he also served as General Manager of the company’s Availability Enhancement Group.

“It’s a fresh start for a business that already has so much going for it. I look forward to working with my new colleagues at Vertiv as we begin this transformational chapter in the company’s history,” said Mr. Johnson. “As an independent company, Vertiv will operate with great freedom to make business strategy and investment decisions, move more quickly like a startup, and focus on innovative solutions for our customers, including those in the growing cloud computing, mobile and IoT networks.”

http://www.VertivCo.com

• In November 2013, Platinum Equity acquired a controlling stake in Emerson’s embedded computing and power business, which was later rebranded Artesyn Embedded Technologies. 

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Global LTE Subscriptions Roar Ahead

Global LTE connections rose 81 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, according to figures from Ovum that were reported by the 5G Americas trade organization.

"LTE continues its tremendous uptake by customers in North America as subscribers reap the benefits of fast data speeds and 'everywhere connectivity' as wireless carriers deploy new LTE-Advanced features," stated Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas.

Some highlights:

• LTE's penetration rate as a percentage of connections to the population of 360 million in North America reached 79 percent. This penetration rate compares to Western Europe at 43 percent penetration and Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia with 41 percent penetration. In North America, LTE penetration is expected to pass 100 percent in 2019.
• Latin America and the Caribbean added 59.4 million new LTE connections year-over-year in the third quarter -- more than doubling the region's LTE connections with a 154 percent growth rate.
• 1 million 5G connections forecast in 2020 -- nearly 50 percent of global 5G connections followed by Oceania, Eastern and Southeastern Asia with 28 percent and Eastern Europe with nearly 19 percent.
• 1.7 billion LTE connections out of a total of 7.5 billion total cellular connections worldwide
• 752 million new LTE subscriptions year-over-year; 81 percent growth
• LTE connections forecast to reach 4.3 billion by year-end 2021 (forecast does not include M2M)
• LTE global market share forecast to reach 52 percent by 2021

http://www.5gamericas.org/en/

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IDC: Huawei Makes Big Gains in Ethernet Switching

The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) recorded $6.29 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2016 (3Q16), an increase of 2.0% year over year, and the worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market finished at $3.56 billion in revenue in 3Q16, increasing 2.6% on a year over year basis, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker.

"Recent macroeconomic developments and maturing IT architectures have led to a spectrum of reactions by IT decision-makers across the regions with regard to Ethernet switching investments in 3Q16," said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure, at IDC. "Strong growth in the 40GbE and 100GbE segments specific to datacenter deployments brought a degree of stabilization to a market in transition where the enterprise campus market for switching declined."

Some highlights:

• 10Gb Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) decreased 1.3% year over year in 3Q16, coming in at $2.22 billion, while 10Gb Ethernet switch port shipments grew 10.6% year over year with over 9.76 million ports shipped in 3Q16. 
• 40Gb Ethernet revenue came in at $756.4 million in 3Q16, growing 20.5% year over year, while port shipments reached nearly 1.9 million ports, representing an increase of 68.5% year over year. 10Gb and 40Gb Ethernet are now joined by emerging 100Gb Ethernet (revenue up 330.1% and shipments up 447.5% on annualized basis in 3Q16) to be the primary drivers of the overall Ethernet switch market in 2016. 
• 1Gb Ethernet switch revenue decreased 4.3% year over year, despite a 10.9% increase in port shipments in the same period, pointing to a maturing campus segment.
• The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market grew 2.6% on a year-over-year basis in 3Q16 based on a 0.8% increase in the larger service provider segment and a solid 8.2% increase in enterprise routing. T
• Cisco finished the quarter with a 5.4% year-over-year decline in the Ethernet switching market and market share of 57.0%, up from its 56.8% share in 2Q16 but down from 61.5% in 3Q15. 
• In the hotly contested 10GbE segment, Cisco held 53.5% of the market in 3Q16, up from 53.0% in the previous quarter. 
• Cisco saw its combined service provider and enterprise router revenue decrease 4.8% on an annualized basis, while its market share came in at 44.2% in 3Q16, down from 44.8% in 2Q16.
• Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue grew 91.6% year over year in 3Q16, for a market share of 7.2%. 
• Huawei's enterprise and service provider router revenue increased 23.8% over the same period, with 16.6% of the total router market in 3Q16.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) Ethernet switch revenue fell 4.3% quarter over quarter in 3Q16. HPE's market share stands at 5.5% in 3Q16, down from its 6.0% share in 2Q16. (Note: HPE and H3C are tracked separately as of 2Q16).
• Juniper Ethernet switching increased 7.1% quarter over quarter in 3Q16. Juniper also saw a 5.9% increase year over year in combined service provider and enterprise router revenues, with market share of 17.4%.
• Arista Networks' Ethernet switching revenue rose 31.5% year over year.

http://www.IDC.com

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Another Networking Idea from Stanford: HitchHike Ultra-Low-Energy Radios

A research team as Stanford University led by Sachin Katti, an associate professor of electrical engineering and of computer science, is developing a tiny, ultra-low-energy wireless radio.

The HitchHike radio promises to be able to transmit at 300kbps at a range of 50m.  The innovation is that it is able to transmit using just micro-watts of energy by hitch hiking on radio signals, including existing WiFi. The low-power could enable the devices to operate or a decade or longer using existing batteries, or devices might harvest power from existing wireless waves.

http://news.stanford.edu/2016/11/16/miniature-wifi-device-developed-supplies-missing-link-internet-things

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Nokia and HPE Form IoT Alliance

Nokia and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a strategic collaboration on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for enterprise customers.

The companies agreed to jointly market and sell solutions for two IoT vertical enterprise segments, including industrial/manufacturing and smart city applications. The joint offerings combine connectivity, core networking, data aggregation and compute technologies from Nokia and HPE. The companies are currently working on a proof-of-concept for smart cities, combining Nokia's routing capabilities with HPE's Hybrid IT capabilities for joint project delivery models.

The IoT partnership extends the existing collaboration between the two organizations, which to date includes end-to-end deals with 25 enterprise and service provider customers, and more than 30 proof-of-concepts.

http://www.nokia.com
http://www.hpe.com

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