IBM and Google collaborate on container security API

IBM is joining forces with Google to create and open source the Grafeas project, which is an open source initiative to define a uniform way for auditing and governing the modern software supply chain.

Grafeas (“scribe” in Greek) provides a central source of truth for tracking and enforcing policies across an ever growing set of software development teams and pipelines. The idea is to provide a central store that other applications and tools can query to retrieve metadata on software components of all kinds.

IBM is also working on Kritis, a component which allows organizations to set Kubernetes governance policies based on metadata stored in Grafeas.

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A10 scales up its DDoS protection

A10 Networks launched its most powerful DDoS protection to date with a solution that can manage 500,000 flows per second -- more than double the performance of the nearest competitive flow-based DDoS detection system, according to the company.

The A10 Thunder Threat Protection System (TPS) Detector is now available as a virtual machine on the A10 aGalaxy 5000 management appliance or on other TPS mitigation appliances. For the full solution, the Thunder TPS Detector can be integrated with A10’s TPS Mitigator and A10 aGalaxy TPS management.

A10 Thunder TPS solution leverages more than three dozen threat intelligence sources to block malicious traffic. It monitors performance and security baselines with 28 behavioral indicators.

According to a recent report commissioned by A10, large DDoS attacks greater than 50 Gbps have quadrupled the past two years. The number of companies experiencing between 6-25 attacks per year has increased more than four times in that same time span. However, with the complete Thunder TPS solution, A10 is improving protection for companies looking to augment mitigation capacity, SecOps-friendly automation, and reduction of false positives.

“With the new Thunder TPS options and flexibility, A10 is helping service providers, cloud providers, gaming companies and enterprises combat aggressive DDoS attacks with greater intelligence and agility,” said Raj Jalan, CTO of A10 Networks. “We believe the intelligent automation, combined with the industry’s highest-performing combination of powerful detection, mitigation, and management, will increase SecOps efficiency and drive more effective defense for businesses.”

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ADTRAN intros 10G-EPON virtual Remote-OLTs

ADTRAN introduced environmentally sealed, 10G-EPON virtual Remote-OLTs (virtual R-OLTs) that provide cable MSOs the ability to further execute on their 10Gbps FTTH and SD-Access strategies, while seamlessly integrating into existing DOCSIS back office provisioning and operational systems.

The new virtual R-OLTs support DOCSIS provisioning of EPON (DPoETM), native SDN integration and remote outside plant packaging, enabling MSOs to capitalize on evolving distributed access architecture (DAA) deployments as they leverage next-generation FTTH to enhance support for high-bandwidth services.

ADTRAN said its OLTs bridge the management horizon with support of both DPoE management and modern SDN control protocols allowing MSOs to effectively execute over time their transition to virtualized, managed and orchestrated SD-Access service architectures.

“ADTRAN’s market leadership in outside plant (OSP) product design has enabled us to successfully deploy hundreds of thousands of remote FTTx systems in many of the world’s harshest environments,” said Hossam Salib, vice president of cable and wireless strategy at ADTRAN. “Combining this unique OSP experience with our field-proven, fully standards-compliant DPoETM solution and our SD-Access leadership uniquely qualify ADTRAN to meet the requirements of a range of evolving DAA strategies.”

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INEX deploys Coriant Groove G30 in Irish Internet Exchange

INEX, the Internet exchange for the island of Ireland, has deployed the Coriant Groove G30 Network Disaggregation Platform in its backbone network.

INEX is located in six data centres in the Dublin region and opened its first regional Internet exchange in Cork in 2016. INEX currently has over 1 terabit of connected capacity with approximately 300 petabytes of traffic having flowed over the exchange in 2016.

Coriant's Groove G30 platform is being used for secure, resilient, and scalable high-speed services, including 100G interconnect services optimized for growth in Internet. The network is now live.

The Coriant Groove G30 delivers 3.2 Tbps of capacity throughput in a highly compact, power-efficient 1RU form factor. It features a plug-and-play modular architecture and can be equipped as a muxponder terminal solution and as an Open Line System (OLS) optical layer solution.

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AWS and Microsoft collaborate on deep learning library

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft announced a new deep learning library, called Gluon,for prototyping, building, training and deploying sophisticated machine learning models for the cloud, devices at the edge and mobile apps.

"The potential of machine learning can only be realized if it is accessible to all developers. Today’s reality is that building and training machine learning models requires a great deal of heavy lifting and specialized expertise,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Amazon AI. “We created the Gluon interface so building neural networks and training models can be as easy as building an app. We look forward to our collaboration with Microsoft on continuing to evolve the Gluon interface for developers interested in making machine learning easier to use.”

“We believe it is important for the industry to work together and pool resources to build technology that benefits the broader community,” said Eric Boyd, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft AI and Research. “This is why Microsoft has collaborated with AWS to create the Gluon interface and enable an open AI ecosystem where developers have freedom of choice. Machine learning has the ability to transform the way we work, interact and communicate. To make this happen we need to put the right tools in the right hands, and the Gluon interface is a step in this direction.”

Key facts on the Gluon interface:

• Provides an easy-to-understand programming interface that enables developers to quickly prototype and experiment with neural network models
• Can be used to create neural networks on the fly, and to change their size and shape dynamically. 
• Currently works with Apache MXNet and will support Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK) in an upcoming release
• Can be used to build machine learning models using a simple Python API and a range of pre-built, optimized neural network components. 

https://github.com/gluon-api/gluon-api/.

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EE flies a 4G mast in helium balloon

EE, which is now part of BT Group, deplyed a Helikite ‘air mast’ at a Red Bull Foxhunt downhill mountain biking event in Wales. Specifically, the EE air mast was flown 300 feet above Machynlleth, on the edge of Snowdonia National Park, to boost 4G coverage and capacity for the Red Bull mountain biking event.

EE claims this was the first time the balloon technology has been used to provide mobile connectivity to consumers.

EE also noted that it recently upgraded more than 900 sites across the UK to support the latest smartphones with Cat 12 and Cat 16 capabilities, increasing the maximum downlink rate from 50Mbps to up to 100Mbps.

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Juniper trims Q3 financial expectations

Citing weakness in cloud sales, Juniper Networks trimmed its financial outlook for Q3 2017, saying it now expects revenue to be in the range of $1,250 million to $1,260 million, below the company's previous guidance of $1,290 million to $1,350 million. Juniper now expects non-GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.54 to $0.56, compared to previous guidance of $0.55 to $0.61 per diluted share.

"We are confident in our company strategy, product roadmap and strong positioning with our cloud provider customers as we continue to navigate and disrupt a very dynamic industry. Although we are disappointed in our lower than anticipated revenue, we remain focused on operational excellence, cost efficiencies, and delivering long-term, sustainable growth," stated Rami Rahim, Chief Executive Officer of Juniper Networks.

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