Google Cloud adopts P4Runtime as foundational for network programming

Google Cloud will use P4Runtime as the foundation for its next generation of data centers and wide area network control-plane programming, according to a new blog posting from Jim Wanderer, Engineering Director at Google and Amin Vahdat, Google Fellow.

P4 is a programming language was designed to be target-independent (i.e. a program written in P4 could be compiled, without modification, to run on a variety of targets, such as ASICs, FPGAs, CPUs, NPUs, and GPUs), and protocol-independent (i.e. a P4 program can describe existing standard protocols, or be used to specify innovative, new, customized forwarding behaviors). P4 can be used for both programmable and fixed-function devices alike. For example, it is used to capture the switch pipeline behavior under the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) APIs. P4 is also used by the ONF Stratum project to describe forwarding behavior across a variety of fixed and programmable devices. The P4 Language Consortium (P4.org), creator of the P4 programming language, recently transitioned to become a project of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and part of the Linux Foundation portfolio.

Google, which designs and builds its own hardware switches and software, sees the P4Runtime as a new way for control plane software to program the forwarding path of a switch as it provides a well-defined API to specify the switch forwarding pipelines. The vision is that the P4Runtime will be used to control any forwarding plane, from a fixed-function ASIC to a fully programmable network switch.

Google is working with the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) on Stratum, an open source project to implement an open reference platform for a truly "software-defined" data plane, designed and built around the P4Runtime.


https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/

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Facebook: Likely that most user public profile data has been scraped

Most people on Facebook could have had their public profile scraped by malicious actors or bots, according to a new blog posting by Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's Chief Technology Officer.  Data scraping occurs when a bot submits a person's email or phone number to a Facebook API to gain access to other public data on their account.

Facebook also confirmed that it analyzes call and text history for people using Messenger or Facebook lite but that it does not collect the content of messages. The tracking is described as an opt-in capability to help users build more useful contact lists.

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/restricting-data-access/

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Broadcom is now officially a U.S. company

Broadcom officially completed the redomiciliation process to change from a Singapore company to a Delaware corporation. Broadcom is now officially headquartered in San Jose, California. It has over 8,500 employees in 35 states.

The change in residency is expected to lead to several hundred million dollars in additional U.S. taxes.

Effective as of the close of trading on April 4, 2018, all issued ordinary shares of Broadcom Limited have been exchanged on a one-for-one basis for newly issued shares of common stock of Broadcom Inc. Broadcom Inc. common stock will begin trading on April 5, 2018, and the company's trading symbol on NASDAQ will remain unchanged as "AVGO."

The completion of our redomiciliation to the United States marks an important milestone in our company's history as Broadcom has been an American company in every respect but our legal domicile. As I said when we announced our intention to redomicile from the Oval Office in November 2017, we believe that America is once again the best place for Broadcom to do business," Hock Tan, Broadcom's President and Chief Executive Officer.

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Juniper bolsters its unified cybersecurity platform

Juniper announced a series of enhancements to its unified cybersecurity platform, with a focus on simplifying security operations by accelerating time to detection and orchestrating mitigation, and helping customers improve their security posture across enterprise networks and cloud workloads whether in AWS, Azure, Google Cloud or private data centers.

Enhancements include:

• A consolidated timeline view of threat behavior with integrated inline blocking: Juniper SRX Series Next-Generation Firewalls now feed directly into the Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) Appliance, enabling the aggregation and correlation of security events from various Juniper and third-party sources into a consolidated timeline view of all threats in the network.
• Adaptive detection and automated enforcement against advanced threats: the Juniper ATP Appliance is bringing its built-in threat behavior analytics and one-touch mitigation to Junos Space Security Director Policy Enforcer, offering a unified view of threat behavior across the security fabric for extended remediation. This integration enables adaptive malware detection that triggers automated policy enforcement for a substantially hardened security posture across networks and cloud environments.
• Extending cloud workload protection: Security Director Policy Enforcer is now integrated with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Juniper extends multicloud workload protection and consistent security across multicloud environments, securing workloads in AWS Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs).
• Global data center expansion for Juniper Sky ATP: As part of its commitment to global cybersecurity, Juniper Networks now has data centers for Juniper Sky ATP in Asia Pacific and Canada, in addition to its existing data centers in the U.S. and Europe. Customers with offices in these regions can rely on lower latency and may be better able to comply with regional data regulations.
• Sharing expert knowledge of the threat landscape: Juniper is joining the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), an organization dedicated to improving the security of the global digital ecosystems through cyber threat information sharing. Be sure to visit us at RSA where we’ll be showcasing our refreshed threat research website featuring the latest threat research, information on in-the-wild cyber attacks and cyber operations from Juniper Threat Labs.
• Simplifying the buying process: Juniper now offers Enterprise Agreements (EAs) for its security portfolio.

“Juniper has a longstanding commitment to an open, unified approach to cybersecurity that helps customers automate, adapt and simplify their network security. This approach is further bolstered by our recent admission to the Cyber Threat Alliance, as we continue to make strides toward truly open threat sharing and collaboration to keep our customers’ networks safe," stated Bikash Koley, Chief Technology Officer, Juniper Networks.

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Shutterfly Goes All-In on AWS

Amazon Web Services announced Shutterfly as another business that will go "all in" on its cloud infrastructure.

Specifically,  Shutterfly is migrating all of its core production applications and its more than 75-petabyte image library to AWS. The company's next gen image sharing platform is also being developed on AWS, where it can leverage a wide range of AWS services, including machine learning and analytics, to deliver a more streamlined customer experience.

“Millions of customers turn to Shutterfly’s lifestyle brands to help them make memorable moments last a lifetime,” said Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS. “We are excited to deepen our relationship with Shutterfly, enabling them to allocate more of their valuable resources towards the development of new, cloud-based applications that deliver even more value to their customers."

AWS also announced that Cox Automotive is going all in. The already running several business-critical applications on AWS, and will migrate the majority of its more than 20 brands—including Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, vAuto, and Xtime—to AWS.

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ECI intros packet transport edge device for utilities

ECI introduced a compact, managed, packet transport edge device designed for cloud-based distributed energy resources (DER) network environments of power utility companies.

The NPT-1010D serves as an MPLS/Ethernet switch and is hardened to handle extreme conditions in locations without continual monitoring and maintenance and can be installed in compact or non-assisted cabinets.

“Revolutionary market shifts are looming, presenting a new host of challenges. The NPT-1010D is the most compact device available, about the length of a ballpoint pen. Moreover the appliance is fully hardened, meaning utilities can place it anywhere, even in non-assisted cabinets. It is one of the few solutions on the market with full management and monitoring capabilities due to Ethernet/MPLS support, which makes it a perfect DER gateway,” said Moshe Shimon, VP product management at ECI Telecom.

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AT&T's new ad campaign focuses on Edge-to-Edge Intelligence

AT&T kicked off a new advertising campaign with TV commercials that focus on "Edge-to-Edge Intelligence" -- covering a range of services to business customers and actionable intelligence. The ads debuted during the 2018 Masters Tournament broadcast.

“AT&T Business offers end-to-end solutions wrapped in security so that you can flexibly respond to business needs quickly, helping you increase revenue and decrease cost,” said Sandra Howard, vice president-Corporate Brand Marketing. “While other companies might be able to compete with us on specific products, our breadth of services sets us apart.”

There are also 2 new “It Can Wait” ads on distracted driving. They both feature professional golfer and AT&T athlete Jordan Spieth.

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Satellite TV from SES now reaches 1 billion viewers worldwide

SES now reaches 351 million TV homes, according to the company's research. This means that SES is now delivering video content to more than 1 billion global viewers.

This compares with 325 million households at the end of 2016.

SES attributes its increased reach to the addition of new countries (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Turkey) and the wider reach of Yahlive, namely in the Maghreb countries, together accounting for 17 million more SES TV homes. On a like-for-like basis, the technical reach grew by 9 million SES TV homes, mainly in Nigeria, Ghana and the Middle East.

Out of its 351 million TV homes, SES directly reaches 145 million, and indirectly serves another 147 million cable homes, 40 million IPTV homes, and 18 million terrestrial homes.

“The Satellite Monitor shows that our strategy to invest in growth markets is successful and results in a significantly larger geographical reach,” said Ferdinand Kayser, CEO of SES Video. “We continue to leverage our growing, unique technical reach worldwide to help our customers build their businesses and expand their audiences. In Africa, our infrastructure will continue to play a key role in the digital switch-over, while in developed countries, namely Europe, our satellites remain the leading platform to deliver HD and drive Ultra HD to millions of households. We are also strongly supporting the development and roll-out of HD and Ultra HD in the Americas and Asia Pacific.”

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