Sunday, June 24, 2018

IDC: SaaS constitutes majority of public cloud revenue

IDC reports that Software as a Service (SaaS) is the largest category of public cloud by market value, although Platform-as-a-Service is growing faster, and that the United States still represents over half of all public cloud spending, although spending in other regions is catching up.

According to IDC Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker, the worldwide public cloud services market grew 29% in 2017, reaching a total of $117 billion. This is marginally lower than 2016.

The top 16 providers (by market share) are consolidating their lead and now account for just over half of all the worldwide public cloud services spending (50.7%).

"2017 was a pivotal year in the expansion of public cloud service adoption, as public cloud services continued to defy the usual laws of market gravity: for the fifth straight year, spending growth remained at a scorching 29%, even as the size of the market has tripled over that time," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC. "2017 also saw some intriguing market share shifts among the major players, as all of them have significantly increased their focus on the cloud, and competitive pressure has ratcheted way up. The next three years will determine IT industry leadership for the next two decades and beyond."

"The SaaS delivery model accounts for 68% of worldwide public cloud services revenue. SaaS applications continue to grow at a respectable 22%, reaching $75 billion in 2017 and forecast to reach $163 billion by 2022. In the System Infrastructure Software (SIS) category, security SaaS accounts for 42% of all revenue, with a five-year CAGR of 13% through 2022. While new SaaS companies launch regularly, technology mainstays like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Oracle remain atop the list of SaaS providers," said Frank Della Rosa research director, SaaS and Cloud for IDC.

"Demand for applications has continued to fuel the growth of PaaS services to improve developer productivity. Emerging technologies like containers and serverless computing are changing the delivery and consumption model of PaaS services. As more companies demonstrate value from platforms, adoption rates will remain high in the near future," said Larry Carvalho, research director, Platform as a Service at IDC.



Telekom densifies its mobile network -- 36K base stations in 2021

Deutsche Telekom announced the recent commissioning of nearly 300 new mobile base stations in Germany. Deutsche Telekom said an 163,000 additional customers can now access its LTE network. Population coverage increased by 0.2 percentage points to the current 94.4 percent.

Deutsche Telekom also announced plans to increase number of mobile base stations in Germany from 27,000 in 2017 to 36,000 in 2021.

“Focusing solely on fixed-network expansion when it comes to the gigabit society is a short-sighted approach,” says Walter Goldenits, Chief Technology Officer at Telekom Deutschland. “With respect to 5G we cannot afford to ease up with mobile communications expansion. We must continue to drive infrastructure expansion forward. Deutsche Telekom is the leader in Germany when it comes to expanding networks. We do not talk. We build.”

http://www.telekom.de/schneller

Telefónica: “Designing the future today”

“We want our customers to not only buy capacity or access speed from us; we want to offer our customers a network that they can manage and adapt to their needs, a network with which they can interact and that can learn from them and, therefore, serve them better”, stated José María Álvarez-Pallete, Chairman and CEO of Telefónica during an Analyst & Customer Day event in Madrid last week.

Telefónica also invited corporate customers, such as BBVA, Dufry, PepsiCo, or El Corte Inglés, to discuss network virtualization, Big Data and other topics or the application of Big Data, for example, are helping to transform and grow their businesses.

Telefónica and the mobile robotics engineering company ASTI Mobile Robotics also announced a collaboration agreement to drive the digitalization of the industrial environment processes through the Internet of Things (IoT).



https://www.telefonica.com/en/home


Sprint to connect autonomous charging robot vehicles on 5G

Sprint is providing connectivity for a new class of robot vehicles that serve as a remote charging station for electric vehicles.

The idea is for an autonomous power pack to go to wherever an electric vehicle needs to be charged.

The robot charging vehicles, which are developed by Adaptive Motion Group (AMG), are solar charged and capable of servicing electric buses, cars, and industrial vehicles.

Sprint will provide advanced Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Current testing uses the LTE network but will expand to include access to the Sprint 5G mobile network in New York City starting in the first half of 2019.

"We are thrilled to demonstrate just how an intelligent robot like Mobi will dramatically reduce CO2 emissions across New York City by making electric vehicle use more practical," said Ivo Rook, senior vice president, IoT at Sprint. "AMG’s impressive self-driving and positioning will come alive through Sprint IoT technology and the next-generation Sprint 5G mobile network we are building – allowing it to travel to parked vehicles across the city. The current reality of vehicles taking turns at electric charging stations is just not efficient and slows the real-world adoption of EVs. We believe that this is the ultimate solution for a cleaner, healthier New York City."

"5G enabled micro-positioning will enable new applications from connected vehicles to augmented reality," said David Bruemmer, CEO of AMG. "We are starting with parking lots, but smart parking will become smart roads and, eventually, smart cities."

https://youtu.be/dsLM7myup_M

Sprint and NXM LABS develop 5G-ready connected car platform

Sprint and NXM Labs announced a a 5G-Ready Connected Car Platform that combines high-speed, on-demand passenger Wi-Fi with advanced vehicle health monitoring and safety.

The NXM platform includes an automotive router for in-vehicle Wi-Fi connected by the Sprint LTE network. It is ready for Sprint 5G when the carrier launches the service beginning in the first half of 2019. The system leverages a blockchain-powered Internet-of-Things (IoT) security system.

"Through the power of blockchain technology, NXM provides an advanced level of security and advanced capabilities to vehicles that might not otherwise have it, even extending Wi-Fi," said Ivo Rook, SVP of IoT for Sprint. "With the power of Sprint’s high-speed LTE and upcoming 5G network behind the technology, consumers will be able to experience the latest in automotive technology, even in early-model vehicles."

"We are extremely pleased to be collaborating with Sprint to bring to market the most advanced and secure connected car platform ever powered by the industry’s first Blockchain OS," said Scott Rankine, NXM Lab’s CEO and co-founder. "We’re making it easy for both preowned and new car buyers to experience the latest in smart connected vehicle technology features that not only help protect their investment but keeps them and their family members safe."

http://www.sprint.com
http://www.nxmlabs.com

T-Systems confirms restructuring - 10K jobs impacted

Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems division is undergoing a major restructuring with the aim of saving 600 million euros in three years through cost cuts and a reduction in its workforce.

Around 4,000 jobs are to be relocated and 6,000 cut worldwide. T-Systems currently employs around 37,000 people worldwide, 17,800 of them in Germany. There are four large-scale delivery centers worldwide (in Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and a newly formed center in India).

T-Systems will increase its investments in growth areas, including Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud, SAP, security, digital solutions, toll collection and services for the public sector.

T-Systems CEO Adel Al-Saleh states "Our strategy is in place: We are aligning ourselves to eleven portfolio units, we have initiated four change initiatives and are now implementing the plans," explains Al-Saleh. "This will turn T-Systems into a digital service provider for our customers."

U.S. DoD completes Verizon-Led Unified Communications integration

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has migrated one if its key agencies to a unified communications (UC) platform. In doing so, the DoD replaced two legacy systems with a single next generation solution. The agency can now seamlessly integrate voice, video, instant messaging, presence and conferencing. The agency can continue to use its more than 60,000 phones. The deployment uses Ribbon Communication’s JITC-certified Application Server.

“This significant transformation lets the user community operate using a communications system that addresses their IT needs now – and is scalable into the future,” said Sonya Cork, Vice President of Sales for Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “The integration and migration of the entire system was a huge task, and it speaks to the tightly coordinated efforts of Verizon and its partners Ribbon, Black Box, and Visioneering, working closely with the agency’s leadership.”

“We have been working closely with the Department of Defense and our solutions partners for several years to meet the demanding requirements of DoD deployments,” said Steven Bruny, Executive Vice President of Global Operations for Ribbon Communications. “It is very rewarding for our team and our partners to have successfully completed a migration of this magnitude. We believe it is a reflection of our commitment to standards and innovation and are pleased that we could provide DoD a path forward without having to start over.”

MEF offers SDN/NFV Professional Certification

MEF announced the production release of its MEF SDN/NFV professional certification, which validates professionals’ knowledge, skills, and abilities in the domains of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). The MEF-SDN/NFV certification exam is built around the key themes of “Design, Deploy, Manage", and details and references are contained in the newly released examination blueprint. Professionals seeking to validate their competencies must be able to demonstrate their abilities in various design, installation, and security scenarios involving SDN, NFV, and instances when virtualized objects such as VNFs (virtualized network functions) are deployed into SDN architectures.

“We are delighted that MEF has created yet another skills certification in software-centric networking technologies, adding to its world-renowned Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP) credential,” said Nan Chen, president of MEF. “Given the rising deployment of SDN and NFV solutions globally, and the tremendous potential for telecom and enterprise IT organizations to leverage SDN and NFV, we are confident that this certification will open new doors, new jobs, and new horizons for the networking workforce. Organizations that encourage their IT professionals to train for and earn this credential will signal their commitment to excellence in their workforce. Already we have received inquiries from companies wanting to get their engineers, operators and technical architects certified.”

“This is the first certification of its kind in the exploding field of virtualized networking,” said Rick Bauer, certification director at MEF. “We’re grateful to have so many companies and organizations collaborating and providing their expertise, and we look forward to broad industry acceptance of this credential.”


MEF also announced that five training companies are qualified to deliver approved training for this certification.  The five Accredited Training Providers (MEF-ATPs) are Carrier Ethernet Academy, Criterion Networks , Perpetual Solutions , SDN Essentials, and Tech2000.

Incentives for IT/telecom professionals to earn this credential were also announced today by MEF.

MEF now offers three certifications as part of its comprehensive Professional Certification Framework: MEF-SDN/NFV Certified Professional, MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP), and MEF Network Foundations (MEF-NF) certifications.

https://www.mef.net


Cloud Native Computing Foundation cites momentum

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which sustains and integrates open source technologies like Kubernetes and Prometheus, announced that 19 new members have joined the Foundation, including many from China, including the China Mobile Research Institute, Didi, Datica, Ping An Technology and other..


In a recent survey conducted by CNCF, adoption of CNCF projects is growing quickly in China. Kubernetes remains the first choice for managing containers with 35 percent of respondents using the platform, while other CNCF projects – including OpenTracing, Prometheus, and gRPC – are also regularly being used in production. As a response to this growing interest, CNCF will host its first KubeCon + CloudNativeCon China in Shanghai from November 13-15.

"CNCF is thrilled to welcome 19 new members and supporters, led by a particularly strong showing of new commitment from the Chinese market," said Dan Kohn, Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. "As our membership base continues to diversify, the cloud native ecosystem will benefit from resources and contributions from users across the globe."

h​ttps://cncf.io/

Sydney Morning Herald: Huawei shutters local R&D in Australia

Huawei is curtailing its R&D efforts in Australia as it faces a likely ban from the Turnbull government from participating in 5G projects from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Huawei is slashing its R&D spending in Australia to zero.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/huawei-slashes-local-research-as-5g-ban-looms-20180624-p4zndq.html


NTT DOCOMO announces leadership team

NTT DOCOMO confirmed it new leadership team, with Kazuhiro Yoshizawa continuing in his roles as president, CEO, and Member of the Board of Directors.

Hiroyasu Asami continues to lead the technical team in his roles as Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Privacy Officer, and Member of the Board of Directors.

Hiroshi Tsujigami serves as Executive General Manager of Sales and Marketing Division, responsible for global business.

Kouji Furukawa serves as Executive General Manager of Corporate Sales and Marketing Division.

Hiroshi Nakamura is Executive General Manager of the R&D Innovation Division.

Hozumi Tamura is Executive General Manager of Network Division and General Manager of the Network Department.