China Mobile looks to buy Oi Brasil

China Mobile is negotiating to acquire the mobile division of Oi, the largest telecommunications company in Brazil and South America, according to report in The China Daily.

The deal has not been finalized. China Mobile might have to pay US$3.5 billion in fines owed by Oi to the Brazilian telecoms authority, known as Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes, or Anatel.

If it goes through, the deal would be historic on several fronts. None of the Chinese telecommunications carriers have acquired other carriers in other countries. China Mobile, which is already the world's largest mobile operator, would add nearly 41 million mobile subscribers in Brazil.

Oi, which was once known as Telemar, was formed through the merger of 16 state-owned incumbent local exchange carriers. The company was re-branded as "Oi" in 2007. In June 2016, Oi filed for bankruptcy protection, citing US$19 billion (R$65 billion) in debt. The case is still pending in the Brazilian courts.

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Amazon Web Services plans data centre in Bahrain

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is planning to open an infrastructure region in Bahrain by early 2019. The new AWS Middle East Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch. AWS today also announced it will launch an AWS Edge Network Location in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the first quarter of 2018. This will bring Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Route 53, AWS Shield, and AWS WAF to the region and adds to the 78 points of presence AWS has around the world.

Currently, AWS provides 44 Availability Zones across 16 infrastructure regions worldwide, with another 14 Availability Zones, across five AWS Regions in China, France, Hong Kong, Sweden, and a second GovCloud Region in the U.S. expected to come online by the end of 2018.

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SAP to acquire Gigya for its consent-based identity data platform

SAP has agreed to acquire Gigya, a start-up offering a customer identity and access management platform. Financial terms were not disclosed, however, The Jerusalem Post valued the deal at US$350 million.

Gigya, which is based in Mountain View, California, with R&D in Israel, specializes in customer identity and access management (CIAM). Its platform enables businesses to (1) securely identify, register and engage with customers across channels and devices, (2) capture first-party data and build rich, actionable user profiles while respecting customer privacy, and (3) integrate customer data into marketing, sales and service applications.

Gigya, an SAP Hybris partner since 2013, has customers already using a solution extension from SAP Hybris and Gigya. Following the acquisition, Gigya will become part of the SAP Hybris business unit for customer engagement and commerce.

“Combining the data matching and enrichment capabilities of SAP Hybris Profile with Gigya’s consent-based identity data and access management platform will allow us to identify consumers across channels and offer a robust single consumer profile,” said Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya. “This is a vital step for digitalizing businesses because companies need to be able to draw accurate conclusions seamlessly across all channels, including web, mobile, in-store or connected devices, and the Internet of Things, as well as collect data about consumer preferences. Together, we are uniquely positioned to drive more effective marketing, sales and service through data, while the customer stays in control of how much data is shared.”

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Video: Open Radisys - Fast Forward to More Agile, Flexible and Profitable Networks

In the last 20 years, 52% of the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared. Disrupt or be Disrupted.

Listen and watch our President and CEO, Brian Bronson, discuss how Radisys is making this transition for service providers - seamlessly.

See video: https://youtu.be/VBsa_bwRp00

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ETSI and OpenFog Consortium collaborate on fog and edge

The OpenFog Consortium, which was formed by ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University in November 2015, is now collaborating with ETSI to develop fog-enabled mobile edge applications and technologies.

Specifically, OpenFog will work with the ETSI Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Industry Specification Group (ISG).  One of the first initiatives from the agreement will be focused on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which support edge computing interoperability within in the OpenFog reference architecture.

“This OpenFog-ETSI MOU is a significant step in our efforts to build interoperability for efficient and reliable networks and intelligent endpoints operating along the Cloud-to-Things continuum,” said Helder Antunes, chairman of the OpenFog Consortium and Senior Director, Cisco. “We’re now positioned to leverage our respective work to give the industry a cohesive set of standards around fog computing in mobile environments, while eliminating any redundancy in our respective efforts.”

OpenFog Consortium Releases its Reference Architecture

Wednesday, February 08, 2017  Fog  No Comments

The OpenFog Consortium, whose founding members include ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, published its OpenFog Reference Architecture, a universal technical framework designed to enable the data-intensive requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Fog computing is the system-level architecture that brings computing, storage, control, and networking functions closer...

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Video: Multi-Access CORD Demo

Prakash Siva introduces both demos at the ONF Partner Showcase by explaining how CORD brings together the best of SDN & NFV with cloud technology that transforms today's data centers. This particular demo highlights how CORD becomes a unifying platform, or hybrid CORD for both mobile residential and universal platforms.

See video: https://youtu.be/k5LwOgjas18

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Video: xRAN + M-CORD Integration Demo

This video presents a demonstration of xRAN + M-CORD integration. xRAN.org was founded to develop, standardize and promote a software-based, extensible Radio Access Network (xRAN). It decouples the control plane from the data plane. This M-CORD implementation enhances the ONOS controller to take care of the LTE user plane and the RAN portion.

This demonstration at MWC-Americas 2017 in San Francisco is hosted by Rishi Raj Maulick, Product Line Manager, Customer Development Service, Radisys.

See video: https://youtu.be/YOa8Xxr19hs

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Samsung builds Flash storage for next-gen automotive

Samsung Electronics introduced the first embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) designed specifically for next-generation automotive applications.

The new eUFS, which consists of 128-gigabyte (GB) and 64GB versions, is designed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), next-generation dashboards and infotainment systems that provide connected features for drivers and passengers worldwide.

Samsung cited read speeds as essential for these applications, especially upcoming automotive infotainment systems for better managing audio content, increasing navigation responsiveness, accessing Internet-enabled traffic and weather reports, improving handling of hands-free voice commands, and speeding up rear-seat social media interplay. The Samsung 128GB eUFS can read data at up to 850 megabytes per second (MB/s), which is approximately 3.4 times faster than the 250MB/s read speed of today’s eMMC 5.0 solutions.  It also offers about 6.4 times faster random reading than eMMC at 45,000 IOPS.

“We are taking a major step in accelerating the introduction of next-generation ADAS and automotive infotainment systems by offering the industry’s first eUFS solution for the market much earlier than expected,” said Jinman Han, senior vice president of Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung is taking the lead in the growth of the memory market for sophisticated automotive applications, while continuing to deliver leading-edge UFS solutions with higher performance, density and reliability.”

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Zayo to expand its data centre in Atlanta

Citing strong customer demand in Atlanta, including commitments from four large companies in diverse sectors, Zayo announced the expansion of its Atlanta data center presence with a new location.

The facility at 1150 White Street SW will add 72,100 total square feet and six megawatts (MW) of critical power, and is the company’s second data center in Atlanta. It is expected to be fully operational in early 2018, complementing Zayo’s facility located next door at 1100 White Street SW.

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Toshiba announces 10TB Enterprise Capacity HDDs

Toshiba America Electronic Components introduced its biggest spinning hard disks yet -- the 10 TB MG06 Series Enterprise Capacity HDD, boasting a 25 percent capacity increase compared to prior generations/

In addition to a heftier capacity, the 10TB MG06 Series features a greater maximum sustained transfer rate, 237 MiB/s2, than the earlier MG05 Series, as well as a 25 percent increase in MTTF3, with a rating of 2.5M hours.

“The volume and value of digital data across organizations of all sizes continue to create opportunities and challenges for CSPs, server and storage vendors, and IT professionals,” said Scott Wright, Director of HDD Product Marketing at Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. “Toshiba’s new MG06 Series advances performance and value across a range of Enterprise Capacity HDD models to better align with the diverse needs of systems and solutions for Cloud and Business Critical applications today.”

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