Google Cloud releases Kubernetes Engine

The Google Kubernetes Engine 1.10 has now entered commercial release.

In parallel to the GA of Kubernetes Engine 1.10, Google Cloud is new features to support enterprise use cases:

• Shared Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for better control of network resources
• Regional Persistent Disks and Regional Clusters for higher-availability and stronger SLAs
• Node Auto-Repair GA, and Custom Horizontal Pod Autoscaler for greater automation

Google also outlined several upcoming features for its Kubernetes Engine, including the ability for

teams within large organizations to share physical resources while maintaining logical separation of resources between departments. Workloads can be deployed in Google’s global Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) in a Shared VPC model.

Google's Kubernetes Engine will also gain Regional Persistent Disk (Regional PD) support. This will ensure that network-attached block storage has synchronous replication of data between two zones in a region.

https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/

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Progress on OpenStack-Kubernetes integration efforts

OpenStack and Kubernetes are being used in tandem to develop a new generation of cloud-native platforms, according to SIG-Kubernetes, an OpenStack special interest group focused on cross-community efforts with Kubernetes.

Development efforts combining OpenStack and Kubernetes can be found at AT&T, CERN, SK Telecom, and Superfluidity, which is a European Research project (Horizon 2020) trying to build the basic infrastructure blocks for 5G networks by leveraging and extending well known open source projects.

In conjunction with OpenStack Summit in Vancouver, SIG-Kubernetes published a whitepaper highlighting progress on OpenStack-Kubernetes integration efforts, including:

• The OpenStack Cloud Provider, an external cloud controller manager for running Kubernetes in an OpenStack cluster, has a permanent new home. Cloud Provider OpenStack gives Kubernetes direct access to OpenStack resources such as Nova compute instance information, Cinder block storage, and Neutron and Octavia load balancing.
• The latest release of the CNCF dashboard features OpenStack as one of the target public clouds. This CI system runs nightly test jobs against CNCF projects. It uses a cross-cloud deployment tool to build a multi-node, highly available Kubernetes cluster. It runs Kubernetes end-to-end tests against the installation and also tests other cloud-native applications like Helm and Prometheus on the OpenStack-hosted Kubernetes test cluster.
• Cinder now offers one integration point for over 80 different storage options through a single Cinder API with a choice of Flex or Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers.
• The community has documented how to Integrate Keystone authentication and authorization with Kubernetes role-based access control (RBAC). This approach allows Kubernetes to use OpenStack Keystone as an identity server. 

The whitepaper is here: https://www.openstack.org/containers/whitepaper

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Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 containerizes all OpenStack services

Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13, the newest version of Red Hat’s cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution provides the capability to containerize all OpenStack services, including networking and storage, for the first time in a Red Hat OpenStack offering.

Some key features of Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13:

• Red Hat Ceph Storage for massively scalable, integrated storage, which enables organizations to more quickly provision hundreds of virtual machines from a single snapshot and build a fully-supported storage solution.
• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform helps Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 serve as an extensible platform for cloud-native workloads, providing a single architecture that brings the power of Linux containers on Kubernetes orchestration to scalable OpenStack infrastructure.
• Fast Forward upgrades -- gives customers the option to stay on a faster upgrade path and receive new features from the upstream community every six months, or remain on a supported release for a longer period of time. 
• Integration of security related projects such as OpenStack Barbican, providing tenant level lifecycle management of secrets, such as passwords, security certificates and keys. With the introduction of Barbican, encryption related use cases are now available, such as Cinder encrypted volume support, Glance image signing and Swift object encryption. 
• Increased TLS coverage for internal communication flows for services such as VNC, OpenDaylight and Redis. The introduction of these features can enable customers to better comply with security standards such as FedRAMP, SecNumCloud, and other industry specific risk management frameworks.

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Qualcomm intros 5G NR for Small Cells and Remote Radio Heads

Qualcomm introduced the first 5G NR solution for small cells and remote radio head deployments. The new device (FSM100xx), which builds on Qualcomm's FSM Platform for 3G and 4G small cells, support 5G NR in both mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum.

Qualcomm said its 5G NR solutions allows OEMs to reuse both software and hardware designs across sub-6 and mmWave products, supporting high-bandwidth and robust coverage for mobile subscribers around the globe. Given the propagation characteristics of 5G NR’s higher frequencies (especially mmWave), solutions are needed to support delivery of uniform 5G experiences, especially indoors where most data is consumed.

The FSM100xx solution scales to address outdoor small cell performance requirements such as support for MIMO implementation and multi-gigabit throughput, as well as support indoor requirements such as compact form factor and power over Ethernet (PoE) support. It also includes a software-defined modem, designed to facilitate OEMs to readily upgrade their devices to comply with future 3GPP releases. Additionally, this 5G NR solution supports various options for interface splits between central unit (CU) and remote radio head, providing OEMs and operators with the flexibility to use a 5G radio access network architecture that best fits their needs, such as a virtualized 5G architecture that is designed to deliver scalability through the cloud or a more distributed architecture to ease fronthaul requirements.

“Qualcomm Technologies is leading the world to 5G by providing this 5G NR small cell solution to support 5G NR in both sub-6Hz and mmWave spectrum,” said Irvind Ghai, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “With small cells expected to play a critical role in 5G networks, we are happy to announce our highly flexible FSM100xx solution capable of supporting a wide range of use case and deployment models, and to support our customers to deliver on the promise of 5G.”

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IDC forecasts semiconductor growth of 7.7%, reaching $450B in 2018

IDC is predicting that worldwide semiconductor revenue will grow for the third consecutive year in 2018 to $450 billion, up 7.7% over 2017, down from 24% in 2017.

IDC's new Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF) also forecasts that semiconductor revenues will log a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% from 2017-2022, reaching $482 billion in 2022.

"Market consolidation in the semiconductor industry over the past five years continues to shape the competitive landscape for semiconductor suppliers as each company continues to refine its core markets and make acquisitions to find new and emerging sectors for growth. The pace of change and technology is expected to accelerate as machine learning and autonomous systems enable a more diverse set of architectures to address the opportunity. This will fuel the engine of growth for semiconductor technology over the next decade," said Mario Morales, program vice president, Semiconductors at IDC.

Some key findings from IDC's Semiconductor Application Forecaster (excluding memory) include:

• Semiconductor revenue for the computing industry segment will decline 4.0% this year and will show a negative CAGR of -0.7% for the 2017-2022 forecast period. Two bright spots for the computing segment are computing and enterprise SSDs, growing in high double digits and 9.8% CAGR respectively for 2017-2022.
• Semiconductor revenue for the mobile wireless communications segment will grow 5.5% year over year this year with a CAGR of 5.8% for 2017-2022. Semiconductor revenue for 4G mobile phones will experience an annual growth rate of 10.9% in 2018 and a CAGR of 3.1% for 2017-2022. 5G will also drive growth in the later part of the forecast as the technology becomes mainstream by the middle of the next decade.
• Communications infrastructure semiconductors are forecast to grow at a 1.7% CAGR from 2017-2022 with the strongest growth coming from consumer networks.
• The automotive market and the industrial markets will continue to be the leading areas of growth for the semiconductor market throughout the forecast period, growing at a 9.6% and 6.8% CAGR from 2017-2022. 

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=IDC_P19632

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BT launches small business broadband gateway with LTE backup

BT introduced a business-grade broadband product which switches automatically to 4G if there is an interruption to their fixed broadband service.

BT said the new product– called 4G Assure – is the first example of a new portfolio of products for converged connectivity services to business customers. The launch is aligned with, and closely follows, the strategy updates provided by BT Group and its Consumer business, where convergence features prominently.

Mike Tomlinson, MD, SME for BT, said “We recognise that a reliable, always-on broadband connection is essential for businesses. So we’ve packed even more innovation into our award-winning Smart Hub to provide SMEs with a failsafe method to stay online.We are very excited about this new service because it combines the strengths of our fixed broadband network and the UK’s most powerful Wi-Fi signal with the most extensive 4G network in the country. This delivers a highly resilient broadband service which will keep SMEs – the backbone of the UK economy - up and running.”

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Comcast pursues a retail strategy with new store designs

Comcast opened four new retail stores featuring a refreshed design aimed at getting customers and potential customers to try its services.

The company says its new interactive Xfinity retail stores will provide customers with "an immersive destination to discover Xfinity products and services. Comcast has been on a journey to transform its customer experience and the stores are a place where customers can learn how to optimize their Xfinity services and can address any service needs."

Xfinity stores are arranged by product area —Xfinity Mobile, Xfinity X1, Xfinity Home and Xfinity Internet. The first locations of the new store format recently opened in Pueblo, Colorado; Aventura, Florida; Henrico, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Tucson, Arizona.

“We want to bring our customers an incredible shopping experience, which showcases the power and innovation of our Xfinity products and demonstrates how they work together,” said Tom DeVito, SVP, Retail Sales and Service, Comcast Cable. “We have heard from our customers that they want to touch and feel our Xfinity products and understand their capabilities as they make decisions for their own home. Our Xfinity stores are the place to do that.”

Comcast plans to open more than 50 of the new and enhanced Xfinity stores in high-traffic shopping centers across the service footprint in 2018.

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Pure Storage hits quarterly revenue of $255.9 million, up 40% yoy

Pure Storage posted revenue of $255.9 million for its quarter ended April 30, 2018., up 40% yoy, exceeding the high end of previously issued guidance. The was a GAAP operating loss of $61.9 million, compared to a loss of $58.2 million in the same period a year ago.

"Pure has delivered another strong quarter as we lead the industry in delivering new data-centric architectures that enable enterprises to succeed both today and tomorrow," said Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo. "The combination of our innovative business model, first-to-market technology innovations, and focus on customer success drove continued momentum in Q1."

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Dell'Oro: Microwave transmission market revenue grew 9% in Q1

The microwave transmission market grew 9% in 1Q 2018 compared to the previous year period, according to new research from Dell'Oro Group. NEC outperformed other manufacturers in the quarter and captured the highest shipment share.

Additional highlights from the 1Q 2018 Microwave Transmission Quarterly Report:

• Packet Microwave comprised nearly 45 percent of the total Microwave Transmission market revenue in the quarter.
• E/V Band system revenue grew year-over-year (Y/Y) for a 23rd consecutive quarter, and is projected to grow for at least another five years.
• The country with the largest demand for Microwave Transmission equipment is India; 17 percent of global shipments during the past twelve months ending March 2018 were for use in India.

"The Microwave Transmission market dramatically improved in 1Q 2018," stated Jimmy Yu, Vice President with Dell'Oro Group.  "Following two years of market contraction due to fewer LTE cell site deployments and upgrades, we had expected another year of decline until volume deployments of 5G NR occurred in late 2019.  Yet, the Microwave Transmission market posted a strong first quarter and is expected to turn a positive full year," continued Yu. 

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