Nokia and KDDI test 4G LTE connected vehicles in Japan

Nokia and KDDI have conducted a series of tests in Japan to assess the use of 4G LTE for low-latency connectivity for vehicles.

For the proof-of-concept trials in Japan, Nokia and KDDI focused on vehicle to network use case and used non-integrated systems in cars interacting with sensors via the Nokia Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) platform, which enables significantly reduced network latency.

The testing included LTE broadcast, implementing the evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service standard in two connected car applications, and demonstrating the potential of cellular technology to enable fully automated driving in the future.

Nokia said its evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast service (eMBMS) hotspot solution allowed real-time information to be shared with multiple vehicles to enable awareness and road safety. The companies compared the efficiency of using LTE broadcast to the one-to-one communication enabled by LTE unicast, in two connected car applications:

• Vehicle-to-network-to-vehicle (V2N2V) - in which cars maintained constant contact with the MEC system, sending real-time location, direction and speed data to roadside sensors. In an emergency situation, the driver can alert the application, with information distributed to other vehicles using eMBMS.
• Network Real-Time Kinematic (network RTK) -trial of LTE to enhance fully automated in-vehicle navigation. It showed how eMBMS could more cost-efficiently use existing geo-location systems to communicate to many vehicles in real-time and ensure accurate navigation.

The trials were conducted by Nokia and KDDI at a rural location on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

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A10 ratchets up DDoS protection

A10 Networks is planning machine learning based software enhancements to its high-performance appliances to enable stronger defense against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks for Service Providers.

A10 Networks' One-DDoS Protection aims to automate the challenges of protected service discovery, peacetime traffic learning, detection threshold setting and fast mitigation response. The enhancements provide a reactive DDoS defense topology with flow-based detection at the edge of the network and enable-high resolution packet-based detection closer to the targeted critical services and applications. The company says this proximity allows context to be applied to thwart sophisticated network or application assaults against their critical applications and services. This is because tactics for DDoS attacks are moving beyond just using request floods designed to bombard and overwhelm infrastructure to include low-bandwidth attacks that target the network or application layer of service provider services and their subscribers.

“The DDoS landscape has changed and continues to evolve in potency and sophistication,” said Raj Jalan, CTO, A10 Networks. “The A10 Networks One-DDoS Protection enables service providers to defend against a full range of attacks with an integrated fabric of protection to help deny attackers the ability to disrupt or penetrate networks.”

A10 One-DDoS Protection is available on A10 Thunder ADC (Application Delivery Controller), CGN (Carrier Grade Networking) and CFW (Converged Firewall) product lines with orchestrated attack scrubbing on Thunder TPS (Threat Protection System), providing a layered approach for full-spectrum volumetric, network and application DDoS protection.  A10 Networks One-DDoS Protection is available Q3, 2018.

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IBM posts flat Q1 revenues, annual cloud sales at $17.7 billion pace

IBM reported Q1 2018 revenue of $19.1 billion, up 5 percent (flat adjusting for currency). GAAP EPS from continuing operations was $1.81 and operating (non-GAAP) EPS was $2.45, up 4 percent.

"In the first quarter we maintained momentum in our business, with reported revenue growth in total and across our major segments," said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. "These results reinforce that our clients value our innovative technologies, our industry expertise and our commitment and actions for the responsible stewardship of their privacy and data. This is also reflected in our leadership positions in enterprise cloud, AI and security."

Some highlights:

• Strategic imperatives revenue over the last 12 months was $37.7 billion, up 12 percent (up 10 percent adjusting for currency). 
• Total cloud revenue over the last 12 months was $17.7 billion, up 22 percent (up 20 percent adjusting for currency). 
• The annual exit run rate for as-a-service revenue increased to $10.7 billion, up 25 percent (up 20 percent adjusting for currency). 
• In the first quarter of 2018, revenues from analytics increased 9 percent (up 4 percent adjusting for currency); revenues from mobile increased 19 percent (up 14 percent adjusting for currency); and revenues from security increased 65 percent (up 60 percent adjusting for currency).
  

Segment Results for First Quarter

• Cognitive Solutions (includes solutions software and transaction processing software) -- revenues of $4.3 billion, up 6 percent (up 2 percent adjusting for currency), driven by solutions software, including security, analytics, and industry platforms; and transaction processing software.
• Global Business Services (includes consulting, global process services and application management) -- revenues of $4.2 billion, up 4 percent (down 1 percent adjusting for currency). Strategic imperatives revenue grew 12 percent led by the cloud consulting practice, with double-digit growth in analytics and mobile.
• Technology Services & Cloud Platforms (includes infrastructure services, technical support services and integration software) -- revenues of $8.6 billion, up 5 percent (down 1 percent adjusting for currency). Strategic imperatives revenue grew 24 percent, driven by hybrid cloud services, security and mobile.
• Systems (includes systems hardware and operating systems software) -- revenues of $1.5 billion, up 8 percent (up 4 percent adjusting for currency) driven by growth in IBM Z and Power.
• Global Financing (includes financing and used equipment sales) -- revenues of $405 million, flat year to year (down 4 percent adjusting for currency).

Full-Year 2018 Expectatio

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ADTRAN posts Q1 sales of $121 million, net loss

ADTRAN reported Q1 2018 sales of $120.8 million compared to $170.3 million for the first quarter of 2017. Net loss was $9.1 million compared to net income of $6.7 million for the first quarter of 2017. Earnings per share, assuming dilution, were a loss of $0.19 compared to income of $0.14 for the first quarter of 2017. Non-GAAP earnings per share were a loss of $0.29 compared to income of $0.18 for the first quarter of 2017. GAAP earnings per share include the benefit of an acquisition-related bargain purchase gain, as well as the expense of a restructuring program. The reconciliation between GAAP earnings per share, diluted, and non-GAAP earnings per share, diluted, is in the table provided.

ADTRAN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton stated, “As we expected, our performance this quarter continued to be impacted by a merger-related review and slowdown in the spending at a domestic Tier 1 customer. While our international Tier 1 revenue exceeded expectations, lower overall product volumes resulting from the domestic slowdown, coupled with restructuring expenses and lower international gross margins, negatively affected our profit margins for the quarter and further hampered our results. Looking ahead, we expect continued strength in our European business in the second quarter and a rebound in our North American business in the second half. Our level of engagement with domestic and international Tier 1 customers remains at all-time highs, and our recent acquisition of the market leadership in EPON for the North American cable/MSO market positions us for further growth moving forward.”

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Scality raises $60 million for multicloud software-defined storage

Scality, a start-up based in San Francisco, raised an additional $60 million in venture funding for its multi-cloud Scality RING Software-Defined Storage platform.

The financing was arranged by Silverpeak, a leading Europe-based technology-focused independent investment bank. This round brings the company’s total funding to date to $152 million.

“Scality has a history of industry firsts: first to offer an S3 interface in 2010; first with native scale-out file system interfaces in 2013; first to adopt Docker in 2015; and first to introduce multi-cloud data control with Zenko in 2017,” said Jerome Lecat, CEO of Scality. “We are very proud that our customers are delighted by the reliability, performance and cost-effectiveness of our solutions, and at the same time, they praise us for our forward thinking. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a real force, challenging every company in its business model, and challenging every IT department. We help our customers be ready. Technology is not the goal; innovation is what allows us to deliver what seemed impossible: freedom and control at the same time. Thanks to Scality, enterprises and service providers can avoid hardware lock-in and cloud lock-in;  while accommodating massive amounts of data growth and extract value from data.”

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Stream Data Centers plans new Dallas campus

Stream Data Centers announced plans for new Dallas-area campus development in Garland, Texas on a 23 acre site.

The new facility will offer an expandable 140,000 square foot data center with redundant 40 MW utility feeds from an on-site substation provided by Oncor.

"Stream's DFW VII data center will follow a successful formula from our previous Dallas-area developments and benefit from the best practices and improvements we've made along the way," states Paul Moser, Co-Managing Partner of Stream Data Centers.

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