CableLabs completes Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 spec

CableLabs has completed its Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 specification, significantly increasing upstream capacity and enabling symmetric multi-Gigabit services over existing hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) technology. Full Duplex DOCSIS 3.1 technology builds on the DOCSIS 3.1 specification, which made deployments of 10 Gbps downstream and 1 Gbps upstream broadband possible.

Full duplex communication enables upstream and downstream traffic to efficiently use the same spectrum simultaneously. In contrast, spectrum is typically split between the upstream and downstream in current DOCSIS implementations.

“In the United States, more than 90 percent of households are connected to an HFC network, and consumers typically have higher download speeds than upload speeds,” said Phil McKinney, president and chief executive officer of CableLabs. “By enabling Full Duplex DOCSIS, the upstream and downstream traffic can flow at up to 10 Gigabits concurrently, doubling the efficiency of spectrum use.”

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Alibaba to crank up its research activities

Alibaba expects to invest more than US$15 billion in research and development over the next three years. The expanded R&D efforts includes the launch of a new Alibaba Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook (DAMI) which will focus on cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, network security, visual computing, Natural Language Processing. The academy plans to open seven research labs in China (Beijing and Hangzhou), the United States (San Mateo and Bellevue), Russia (Moscow), Israel (Tel Aviv) and Singapore.

Alibaba Group’s Chief Technology Officer, Jeff ZHANG will be the head of the Academy.

“The Alibaba DAMO Academy will be at the forefront of developing next-generation technology that will spur the growth of Alibaba and our partners. We aim to discover breakthrough technologies that will enable greater efficiency, network security and ecosystem synergy for end-users and businesses everywhere,” said Jeff ZHANG.

The Academy will set up an advisory board of globally renowned educators and researchers, including:

• Avi Wigderson, Professor of Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
• George Church, Professor of Harvard University and Professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Henry M. Levy, Professor and Director of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
• Hong MEI, Professor and Vice President of Beijing Institute of Technology
• Jeannette Wing, Director of the Data Science Institute, Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University
• Kai LI, Professor of Princeton University
• Michael I. Jordan, Professor of University of California, Berkeley
• Ru HUANG, Professor and Dean of School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University
• Wen GAO, Professor and Dean of Faculty of Information and Engineering Sciences, Peking University
• Zhaohui WU, President, Zhejiang University

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Vantage plans $1 billion data centre in Ashburn

Vantage Data Centers announced plans to invest $1 billion to build a brand-new 108MW wholesale data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The company has already purchased a 42-acre property for the project.

The new facility will be larger than Vantage's campuses in Silicon Valley and Quincy, Washington. The new facility is less than two miles away from Mae East (Equinix). The company 8, with a five-building design. The first 24MW building  will be ready in early 2019.

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Tintri updates its automation toolset for all-flash

Tintri, which offers an enterprise cloud platform, announced the latest release of its Automation Toolkit featuringexpanded capabilities for automating all-flash storage operations.

The latest version of Tintri Automation Toolkit provides a set of APIs and SDKs to build automation workflows that are standardized, repeatable and abstracted at the same level – the virtualized application – as their other workflows for maximum efficiency. The 3.1 version supports Tintri synchronous replication and has the ability to initiate failovers. The Toolkit consists of the following features:

• Tintri REST API – the fully documented REST API provides customers a high degree of flexibility to extract any data and perform any action on any VM
• Tintri Python SDK – provides abstraction above the REST API for use in automating Tintri with open source, OpenStack and Linux environments
• Tintri PowerShell Toolkit – provides a full set of PowerShell cmdlets for use in Microsoft Windows environments. The Toolkit integrates with a heterogeneous ecosystem of PowerShell offerings from other companies, including integration with VMware vSphere PowerCLI cmdlets.

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Box brings machine learning to its cloud storage

Box introduced a framework for applying machine learning tools such as computer vision, video indexing, and sentiment analysis to content stored in its cloud service.

The Box Skills framework includes functionality powered by IBM Watson, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as Box Skills Kit, a set of developer resources for building custom skills. These skills include:

• Audio Intelligence: Uses audio files to create and index a text transcript that can be easily searched and manipulated in a variety of use cases
• Video Intelligence: Provides transcription, topic detection and detects people to allow users to quickly find the information they need in a video
• Image Intelligence: Detects individual objects and concepts in image files, captures text through optical character recognition (OCR), and automatically adds keyword labels to images to easily build metadata on image catalogs.

Box will also add automatic workflow initiation, APIs, e-signatures, and workflow management tools to its workflow software.

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FirstNet and AT&T launch developer program for public safety

FirstNet and AT&T, which in April announced a partnership for the deployment of a national high-speed data and voice network for first responders, launched a developer program geared toward America’s first responders.

FirstNet is looking to independent software developers to spur innovation and create new apps for public safety. The developer program will feed the FirstNet app store, providing public safety with a one-stop shop for reliable, highly secure solutions optimized for the FirstNet network. Based on common and open standards, this ecosystem will be an engine for innovative, cost effective and interoperable public safety solutions.

“The FirstNet app ecosystem is an important building block as we work to modernize public safety’s communications tools and capabilities,” said Chris Sambar, senior vice president, AT&T – FirstNet. “The FirstNet network will bring public safety the connectivity they need to communicate and collaborate. But it’s really what we’re able to build on top of that connectivity that will make the biggest difference in these brave men and women’s day-to-day operations.”

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Equinix acquires 5 data centres in Spain and Portugal

Equinix has acquired five data centers in total in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Lisbon from Itconic, a leading data center, connectivity and cloud infrastructure solutions provider in Spain and Portugal.  The all-cash deal was valued at €215M (approximately US$259M).

The five data centres together add approximately 322,000 gross square feet to the Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) portfolio. Itconic generated approximately €55.5M or approximately US$66.8M of revenues for the period Q2 2017 annualized. Approximately 250 employees will transfer to the Equinix team.

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Equinix acquires data centre in Istanbul for $93 million

Equinix has acquired the Zenium data center business in Istanbul from its existing shareholders in an all-cash transaction for US$93 million.

The Zenium data center currently generates approximately US$2.5 million of annualized revenues. The facility, which will be renamed Equinix IS2, currently offers 1,500 square meters of colocation space today with the ability to increase this to 12,000 square meters and up to 22MW of critical customer load at full build.

According to the Global Interconnection Index, which measures and forecasts the growth of Interconnection Bandwidth, Europe is expected to grow 44% per annum to reach 1451 Tbps of installed capacity by 2020. Europe's growth will be driven by a number of factors, including data sovereignty and the need for European businesses to exchange information with other businesses in-region.

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5th Annual IEEE Women in Engineering conference set for 21-22 May 2018

The fifth annual IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (IEEE WIE ILC) has been scheduled for 21-22 May 2018 at the San Jose Convention Center.

The conference will welcome speakers from around the world to share their experience and skills to inspire women to Lead Beyond through tracks focused on skills necessary for advancement in Innovation, Inspiration and Executive Leadership. Designed to advance women working in STEM disciplines, WIE ILC brings together over 1,500 professional women for two full days of education, networking, innovation, knowledge sharing, interactive sessions, discussion and much more. In addition, WIE ILC will host the #WIEWednesday virtual track series consisting of online presentations focused on Innovation, Inspiration and Executive Leadership that will run from February through May 2018, leading up to the conference.

“The IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference has been enthusiastically embraced by the global women in STEM community. Now entering its fifth year, we’re excited to gather some of the world’s most powerful and inspiring thought leaders together once again to share new concepts for driving women’s advancement in business and technology,” said Nita Patel, chair, IEEE WIE ILC. “Over half of our attendees have ten or more years of experience and offer a wealth of knowledge in their respective fields. We invite you to join us at WIE ILC, to engage, exchange and network with fellow professionals. Registration will open in November.”

Individuals and groups interested in speaking at WIE ILC, whether in person or during the virtual track series, are invited to submit presentation proposals with a theme of Lead Beyond by 20 October 2017.

http://ieee-wie-ilc.org/

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