Nokia sees 5G driving wider upgrade cycle

Nokia reported Q4 2018 sales of EUR 6.9bn, up 3% year over year compared to EUR 6.7bn in Q4 2017 on both a reported and constant currency basis.

Nokia said its top line performance reflects the strong competitiveness across its portfolio and that its strategy execution is tracking well.

Rajeev Suri, President and CEO of Nokia, stated: "Looking forward, I expect Nokia’s performance to strengthen for the full year 2019 versus 2018 and our view of a fast and meaningful shift to 5G remains unchanged. Given that 5G rollouts will be staggered over the course of the year, we expect 2019 to have a soft first half followed by a much more robust second half."

"Over the longer-term, we expect a virtuous cycle of investment, where operators update their networks across multiple domains – from optical to macro radio, fixed wireless access to cloud core, small cells to IP routing, network agnostic software and more. Following this, we expect a second wave where industrial customers will invest in private wireless technology including LTE and 5G-ready networks. With our end-to-end portfolio, Nokia is well-positioned to tap this extended cycle."

Some highlights from Nokia's Networks business

• Ultra Broadband Networks net sales increased 7% year-on-year, primarily due to Mobile Networks, which benefitted from growth in radio networks and small cells. On a constant currency basis, Ultra Broadband Networks net sales increased 6%.
• Global Services net sales increased 7% year-on-year, primarily due to network implementation and, to a lesser extent, systems integration and managed services. On a constant currency basis, Global Services net sales increased 8%.
• IP Networks and Applications net sales increased 5% year-on-year due to both Nokia Software and IP/Optical Networks, primarily driven by our technology leadership. On a constant currency basis, IP Networks and Applications net sales increased 4%.
• The increase in IP/Optical Networks net sales was due to IP routing, reflecting strong uptake of our market leading FP4 portfolio, partially offset by optical networks. Despite clear supply chain improvements in the fourth quarter 2018, on a sequential basis, IP routing net sales continued to be adversely affected by some remaining shortages of certain components. The net sales performance in optical networks was solid in the context of a tough year-on-year comparison to a particularly strong fourth quarter 2017, which benefitted from certain large projects in Europe and Middle East & Africa.
• Nokia Software net sales in the fourth quarter 2018 achieved a record level, resulting from investments to build a dedicated software sales force and increasingly strong demand for the company's software portfolio built on a 5Gready and cloud-native Common Software Foundation. The increase in Nokia Software net sales was supported by significant percentage growth in CloudBand NFV management and orchestration, NetGuard security and self-organizing
• network software solutions, as well as network management and digital networks. Boosted by 5G commercialization and strong demand for cloud-native solutions, growth was particularly strong in North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

https://www.nokia.com/sites/default/files/files/nokia_results_2018_q4.pdf

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AWS hits Q4 sales of $7.43 billion, up 45% yoy

In its quarterly financial report, Amazon disclosed that AWS generated sales of $7.43 billion, up 45% over the same period last year, and operating income of $2.177 billion, up 61% year over year. AWS now represents about 10% of Amazon's overall revenue and about 58% of its overall operating income.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced several enterprise customers during the quarter: Ellie Mae, Korean Air, Santander’s Openbank, and Pac-12 are going all-in on AWS; Mobileye and Guardian Life Insurance named AWS their preferred public cloud provider; Amgen will leverage AWS as its strategic infrastructure provider for the vast majority of its cloud infrastructure; and National Australia Bank announced they’ve chosen AWS as their long-term strategic cloud provider.

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Microsoft cites Azure sales growth of 76%

Microsoft posted quarterly revenue of $32.5 billion, up 12% yoy, and operating income of $10.3 billion, up 18% yoy. Net income was $8.4 billion GAAP and $8.6 billion non-GAAP.

“Our strong commercial cloud results reflect our deep and growing partnerships with leading companies in every industry including retail, financial services, and healthcare,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. "We are delivering differentiated value across the cloud and edge as we work to earn customer trust every day.”

Highlights

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $10.1 billion and increased 13% (up 13% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11% (up 11% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 34% (up 33% in constant currency)
• Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 1% (up 2% in constant currency) with growth in Office 365 Consumer subscribers to 33.3 million
• LinkedIn revenue increased 29% (up 30% in constant currency) with record levels of engagement highlighted by LinkedIn sessions growth of 30%
• Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 17% (up 17% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 51% (up 50% in constant currency)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $9.4 billion and increased 20% (up 21% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Server products and cloud services revenue increased 24% (up 24% in constant currency) driven by Azure revenue growth of 76% (up 76% in constant currency)
• Enterprise Services revenue increased 6% (up 7% in constant currency)

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $13.0 billion and increased 7% (up 7% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Windows OEM revenue declined 5% (down 5% in constant currency)
• Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 13% (up 14% in constant currency)
• Surface revenue increased 39% (up 41% in constant currency)
• Gaming revenue increased 8% (up 9% in constant currency) with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 31% (up 32% in constant currency)
• Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 14% (up 14% in constant currency)

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Intel appoints Bob Swan as CEO

Intel's board of directors named Robert (Bob) Swan as chief executive officer.

Swan, 58, who has been serving as Intel’s interim CEO for seven months and as chief financial officer since 2016, is the seventh CEO in Intel’s 50-year history. Swan has also been elected to Intel’s board of directors.  Prior to joining Intel, Swan served as an operating partner at General Atlantic LLC and served on Applied Materials’ board of directors. He previously spent nine years as CFO of eBay Inc., where he is currently a director. Earlier in his career, he was CFO of Electronic Data Systems Corp. and TRW Inc.

“As Intel continues to transform its business to capture more of a large and expanding opportunity that includes the data center, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, while continuing to get value from the PC business, the board concluded after a thorough search that Bob is the right leader to drive Intel into its next era of growth,” said Chairman Andy Bryant. “The search committee conducted a comprehensive evaluation of a wide range of internal and external candidates to identify the right leader at this critical juncture in Intel’s evolution. We considered many outstanding executives and we concluded the best choice is Bob. Important in the board’s decision was the outstanding job Bob did as interim CEO for the past seven months, as reflected in Intel’s outstanding results in 2018. ”

Krzanich resigns as Intel CEO due to inappropriate relationship

Thursday, June 21, 2018  Intel, People  

Brian Krzanich resigned as Intel's CEO and as a member of its board of directors because of a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee. Intel said it was recently informed of the relationship and that an investigation by internal and external counsel confirmed a violation of Intel’s non-fraternization policy.

Intel's board named Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan as interim CEO, effective immediately.

• Brian Krzanich was named CEO of Intel in May 2013. He served previously as Intel's chief operating officer. Krzanich joined Intel in 1982.

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TE Connectivity introduces SFP56 and QSFP 56 cable assemblies

TE Connectivity (TE) introduced a portfolio of 56 Gbps QSFP56 and SFP56 cable assemblies supporting aggregate data rates of 100 and 200 Gbps, making them suited for data center equipment, test and measurement equipment, and wireless infrastructure devices.

TE’s new QSFP56 and SFP56 high-speed cable assemblies comply with Ethernet 802.3cd and support 56G PAM-4 applications. The cable assemblies’ optimized construction minimizes insertion loss and cross talk, and the solutions are backward compatible with existing QSFP and SFP connectors and cages for easy upgrades. Paired with TE’s QSFP28 and SFP28 connectors and cages, the 56 Gbps QSFP56 and SFP56 cable assemblies offer a broad solution for connectivity between devices.

“Our new SFP56 and QSFP56 cable assembly portfolio draws upon TE’s vast expertise in high-performance connectivity solutions to enable 100 and 200 gigabit speeds for next-generation communications equipment. Our broad product line helps ensure that TE is a one-stop source for connectivity products” said Jacob Paul, product manager in TE Connectivity’s data and devices business unit.

https://www.te.com/usa-en/products/cable-assemblies/copper-cable-assemblies/pluggable-i-o-cable-assemblies.html

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Ekinops announces 600G FlexRate module

Ekinops introduced its new PM 400FRS04-SF flexible rate line module. This new module triples the capacity of the company's 200G FlexRate solutions.

The new module supports coherent line interfaces from 100 Gbps to 600 Gbps.

Ekinops said its new module provides six QSFP28 client ports aggregated to a software selectable line port that automatically configures the modulation format and baud rate to create the optimal transport link. By selecting the bit rate and distance, the PM 400FRS04-SF automatically tunes its performance based on the settings so it can support any application from very short reach, very high capacity data center interconnect to long haul and even submarine transport. It can be installed in any Ekinops 360 chassis allowing customers to upgrade their networks without having to replace their existing equipment. 

The PM 400FRS04-SF also offers support for single fiber transport. Bi-directional operation over a single fiber strand significantly reduces operational expense by allowing service providers to cut their fiber costs in half.

"The release of our PM 400FRS04-SF just fifteen months after we released our 200G FlexRate solutions is a proud moment for Ekinops," said François Xavier Ollivier, Chief Operating Officer at Ekinops. "Tripling the line rate and adding functionality to our FlexRate solutions while also eliminating operational complexity is quite an achievement in that kind of timeframe. The market is advancing faster than ever and it is important Ekinops continue to provide the solutions our customers demand."

The module will be commercially available in the first quarter of 2019.

https://www.ekinops.com/

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ColorChip tests 200G QSFP56 FR4 PAM4 at Ethernet Alliance Plugfest

ColorChip contributed it's 200G QSFP56 FR4 2km transceiver to the Ethernet Alliance sponsored Higher Speed Networking Interoperability Plugfest event, held in the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL) in Durham NH. 

In addition to the 200G QSFP56 FR4 transceiver, scheduled to be commercially available by Q2 2019, ColorChip also contributed to the plugfest its full family of 100G optical transceivers including 100G CWDM4 Lite, CWDM4 and 4WDM-10 transceivers which have already supported hundreds of thousands of deployments in mega-datacenters, covering applications from 500m to 10km.

"The Higher Speed Networking plugfest aimed to improve the interoperability of the Ethernet ecosystem at port data rates from 25Gb/s through 400Gb/s," commented Dave Chalupsky, plugfest Chair and Board member, Ethernet Alliance, and network product architect, Intel Corporation. "The testing matrix included PHY's, NIC's, switches, test equipment, as well as optical and copper media types, provided by members of the Ethernet Alliance and 100G Lambda Multisource Agreement Group."

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Viavi enhances its Network Performance Management and Diagnostics

Viavi Solutions introduced a significant enhancement of Network Performance Management and Diagnostics platform. Viavi's Observer GigaFlow stitches together user, network, and infrastructure data into a single record. This delivers high-fidelity forensic visibility into network conversations over time, as well as service path visibility for problem domain isolation across a complex hybrid IT environment.

"IT network operations and security teams are struggling to manage a variety of critical issues with incomplete and siloed data; from investigating abnormal behavior on the network to troubleshooting remote user experience and applications," said Doug Roberts, Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise and Cloud, VIAVI. "Observer GigaFlow intelligently fuses rich data sets from all perspectives – user, traffic and infrastructure – delivering powerful insights for expertly mastering every performance and security challenge."

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MetroNet to acquire LightSpeed Fiber

MetroNet Fiber Inc., which provides fiber-based Internet, TV and phone service in more than 50 cities in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, agreed to acquire LightSpeed Fiber Communications, a Michigan-based fiber-optic Internet company serving Lansing, Grand Rapids, Southfield, Huntington Woods and Ypsilanti. LightSpeed also operates a 2,400-mile U.S. fiber optic backbone, spanning from Chicago to Atlanta to Washington DC. This acquisition will allow MetroNet to access LightSpeed’s already laid framework of fiber-optic cable in these areas and optimize these markets to receive MetroNet’s 1 Gigabit speed or higher. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“The vision and values of LightSpeed Fiber marry well with our goal of expanding our cutting-edge fiber-optic telecommunication services to more cities while remaining customer-focused,” stated MetroNet President John Cinelli. “Our plans for Michigan are sustainability and growth. This investment represents a strategic opportunity to offer gigabit-speed internet with no data caps, full-featured fiber phone service, and fiber IPTV to even more customers. We are thrilled to join forces with LightSpeed Fiber and welcome them to the MetroNet family.”

Jason Schreiber, current LightSpeed CEO, will continue leading the Michigan market while taking on the role of Chief Technology Officer for MetroNet as the partnership moves forward.

http://www.MetroNetinc.com

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Chile studies subsea cable to Asia

Chile's telecommunications regulator has launched a market consultation and study to assess the feasibility of direct subsea cable system from South America to Asia. Current connections are routed either via the United States or Europe. Chile's President, Sebastián Piñera, has expressed his support for the study.

https://www.subtel.gob.cl/subtel-realizara-consulta-al-mercado-para-el-desarrollo-del-proyecto-cable-submarino-puerta-digital-asia-sudamerica/

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Industrial Internet Consortium and OpenFog Consortium combine

The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the OpenFog Consortium (OpenFog) have been combined into one organization focused on Industrial IoT, fog and edge computing.

The IIC, now incorporating OpenFog, also announced that the IIC Steering Committee, which guides the strategic direction of the organization, has elected two OpenFog principals:

• Ron Zahavi, Chief Strategist for IoT Standards, Azure IoT, Microsoft. Mr. Zahavi is focused on IoT standards and consortia and also leads Microsoft’s Worldwide IoT Architecture Community. Mr. Zahavi has extensive experience in all aspects of technology management and solution delivery, 18 of those related to IoT solutions. Matt Vasey, Microsoft director, AI and IoT business development, will serve as the alternate to Mr. Zahavi.
• Mung Chiang, John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering, Purdue University. Dr. Chiang was previously the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor at Princeton University and founded the Princeton EDGE Lab in 2009. The Lab bridges the theory-practice gap in edge computing/networking research by spanning from proofs to prototypes. Dr. Chiang received the 2013 Alan T. Waterman Award for his contributions to networking R&D.

“This agreement brings together the two most important organizations shaping the Industrial Internet of Things. The combined organization offers greater influence to members, more clarity to the market, and a lower-risk path to the future for end users. We will be the center of gravity for the future of Industrial IoT systems across industry verticals,” said Stan Schneider, CEO of Real-Time Innovations (RTI) and Vice Chair of the IIC Steering Committee. “We welcome the experience and vision that Ron Zahavi and Mung Chiang bring to our Steering Committee.”


https://www.iiconsortium.org/

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