Symantec names AWS as strategic infrastructure provider

Symantec has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its strategic infrastructure provider for the vast majority of its cloud workloads.

Highlights of the announcement: (1) Symantec is undertaking a major operational move to AWS (2) Symantec will leverage the global footprint of the AWS Marketplace to deliver its security services (3) Symantec has already built a data lake on AWS that collects tens of terabytes of data every day from 175 million endpoints and more than 57 million attack sensors.

“Our cloud-first approach to engineering requires a highly scalable and reliable infrastructure that helps our team deliver faster time-to-market and ensure that security remains our top priority,” said Raj Patel, Vice President, Cloud Platform Engineering at Symantec.

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Amazon ML Solutions Lab Opens

Amazon Web Services is launching a program that connects machine learning experts from across Amazon with AWS customers "to help identify practical uses of machine learning inside customers’ businesses, and guide them in developing new machine learning-enabled features, products, and processes."

 The Amazon ML Solutions Lab combines hands-on educational workshops with brainstorming sessions. The idea is to help customers “work backwards from business challenges, and then go step-by-step through the process of developing machine learning-based solutions."

Machine learning workshops cover topics such as how to prepare data, build and train models, and put models into production.

https://aws.amazon.com/ml-solutions-lab

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GSMA proposes reforms to Chile’s Digital Ecosystem

The GSMA is proposing that Chile's next president implement a series of reforms to Chile's digital ecosystem.

In the first round of voting held on  19 November 2017, former president Sebastián Piñera and current senator Alejandro Guillier prevailed as the candidates with the two highest vote counts for president. A run-off election will be held on 17 December 2017.

In its newly published report, ‘Keys to the Modernisation of Digital Ecosystem Regulation in Chile’, the GSMA urges the following reforms:

• Improve coverage by removing barriers to infrastructure deployment;
• Level the playing field by reducing regulatory burdens on existing services;
• Enhance the user experience by encouraging competition in quality of service;
• Optimise the use of radio spectrum, a key input for the industry and in particular for the development of the Internet of Things; and
• Create an institutional framework that can act across the digital ecosystem.

Chile currently has 27.5 million mobile connections (153 percent penetration) and about 13.6 million unique mobile internet subscribers (76 percent penetration).

“The institutional framework that regulates ICT must be reviewed urgently if Chile intends to maintain its regional leadership indicators,” said Sebastian Cabello, Head of Latin America, GSMA. “For example, a body empowered to act across the digital ecosystem will need to be created to address the dynamism of the current market and find effective solutions for the cross-cutting nature of digital issues that are currently addressed piecemeal by various government agencies.”

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Edgecross Consortium gets underway in Japan

A new Edgecross Consortium has been established by NEC, Advantech, Omron Corporation, IBM Japan, Oracle Corporation Japan and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation with the goal of accelerating the market for edge computing.

The Consortium aims to contribute to the promotion of IoT in support of the "Society 5.0" vision proposed by the Japanese government. The mission is to enable data collection from all types of industrial equipment and devices regardless of vendor or network.

Initial activities of the Consortium will begin with the development of specifications for the Edgecross open software platform.

A meeting is scheduled for November 29, 2017 in Tokyo.

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SD-WAN is Integral to MEF 3.0 - Nav Chander at Silver Peak

MEF is embracing SD-WAN as an integral part of the MEF 3.0 framework, says Nav Chander, Senior Director, Service Provider Marketing, Silver Peak, paving the way for exciting times ahead.

See video: https://youtu.be/MKn9BfdHBtI

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MEF 3.0 - A Start for Carrier Interfaces

The MEF 3.0 is a great step in the right directions, says Mike Sapien, Chief Analyst, Ovum, but remember that it is just a first step for intercarrier interfaces.

See video:  https://youtu.be/Y10to_iC5JA

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Russia's Hermitage Museum to host 5G trial

Rostelecom and Ericsson will carry out a 5G trial at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The test, which is scheduled for the first half of 2018, will feature Ericsson's latest 5G technology and use a mix of virtual reality, haptic technology, and robotics.The solutions include Ericsson Radio System which is prepared for 5G implementation. The network will be operated in the 3.5GHz frequency band and support LTE/LTE-Advanced devices.

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Airtel Nigeria awards 3-year contract to Ericsson

Airtel Nigeria awarded a three-year contract to Ericsson to modernize and expand its packet core network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Evolved Packet Core solution includes the Ericsson Evolved Packet Gateway on the SSR 8000 platform which provides a split control and user plane operation, as well as the Ericsson SGSN-MME which supports multi-access, GSM, WCDMA, LTE and interworks with Wi-Fi and CDMA.

Awadhesh Kalia, CTO, Airtel Nigeria says: "As the Smartphone Network, we are constantly investing to ensure that we deliver on our promise of a seamless broadband experience for our customers. With the completion of the first phase of this project, we have already begun to see the transformation in our networks.”

Jonathan Adams, Head of Ericsson South and East Africa says: "As a longstanding partner, we are aware of Airtel’s unyielding commitment to delivering excellent services to their customers. Through this partnership, we will be deploying a comprehensive, reliable and future-proof suite of solutions that offers quicker time to market of new offerings and superior network performance.”

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NVIDIA extends AI healthcare partnership with GE

NVIDIA is working with GE to bring the most sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) to GE Healthcare’s 500,000 imaging devices globally.

The partnership, which was detailed at the 103rd annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), includes a new NVIDIA-powered Revolution Frontier CT, advancements to the Vivid E95 4D Ultrasound and development of GE Healthcare’s Applied Intelligence analytics platform.

NVIDIA said its AI computing platform accelerates image processing in the new CT system by 2X.

NVIDIA notes that hhe average hospital generates 50 petabytes of data annually, through medical images, clinical charts and sensors, as well as operational and financial sources, providing many opportunities to accelerate data processing flows.

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