Monday, May 6, 2019

Marvell to acquire Aquantia for multi-Gig Ethetnet

Marvell Technology Group agreed to Aquantia for $13.25 per share in cash, representing approximately $452 million in transaction value after adjusting for net cash on Aquantia's balance sheet.

Aquantia, which is based in San Jose, California, specializes in Multi-Gig 2.5G/5G/10G Ethernet over copper products. Its portfolio automotive PHYs for in-vehicle Ethernet networks supporting level 4 and 5 autonomous driving.

Marvell said the acquisition complements its portfolio of copper and optical physical layer product, including its gigabit PHY and secure switch products.

"Our acquisition of Aquantia will fuel Marvell's leadership in the transformation of the in-car network to high-speed Ethernet over the next decade," said Matt Murphy, president and CEO of Marvell.  "At the same time, Aquantia extends our reach in the rapidly emerging Multi-Gig segment of network infrastructure and creates a leading end-to-end Ethernet connectivity portfolio."

"Marvell and Aquantia share a vision where the network – whether in an autonomous vehicle, an enterprise application or in cloud infrastructure – can seamlessly power the data economy," said Faraj Aalaei, chairman and CEO of Aquantia. "This is a fantastic opportunity as our customers will benefit from Marvell's global scale and expanding footprint in Multi-Gig network applications."

The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Marvell's non-GAAP earnings per share and generate significant annual run-rate synergies of $40 million to be realized within 12 months after the transaction closes.

Aquantia expects weaker Q1

Separately, Aquantia reported revenue of $17.0 million for Q1 2019, a decrease of 42 percent sequentially and 40 percent year-over-year. First quarter 2019 net loss was $13.1 million, or a loss of $0.37 per diluted share, compared to fourth quarter 2018 net loss of $5.5 million, or a loss of $0.16 per diluted share, and first quarter 2018 net loss of $1.4 million, or $0.04 per diluted share.

“We experienced weaker demand in the first quarter than we had anticipated as we saw several customers push out purchase orders,” said Faraj Aalaei, Chairman and CEO. “Our technical leadership remains strong and we are encouraged by our customers’ forecast as we see the deployment of 802.11ax in the Enterprise and our 10G PON design wins with Asian service providers driving our revenue growth throughout the year.”

http://www.aquantia.com
https://investor.marvell.com

Aquantia intros automotive Ethernet portfolio- multi-gig over copper

Aquantia, which is known for its multi-gig Ethernet over copper PHY technologies, introduced an automotive networking portfolio and announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to provide Multi-Gig networking support for the NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier and DRIVE Pegasus platforms.

The market for automotive Ethernet could be many times larger than the data center, enterprise and access segments where multi-gig Ethernet-over-copper used today. Future vehicles, especially Level 4/5 autonomous vehicles, will require high-performance onboard networks to connect cameras, sensors, and displays with GPUs and CPUs.

Level 4/5 requirements include multiple high-resolution videos cameras, some of which are expected to be up to 4K60p at 20-bit resolution requiring full 10 Gbps connectivity. The network must be secure and redundant. It must also use reliable and low-cost cabling. For these reasons, Aquantia believes its multi-gig Ethernet over copper technologies are best suited for the task.

Aquantia's AQcelerate Automotive product line includes the following devices, which all support data rates up to 10GbE:
  • The AQV107 Multi-Gig PHY
  • The AQVC107 PCIe Multi-Gig MAC+PHY Ethernet controller
  • The AQVC100 PCIe Multi-Gig controller (MAC only)

Aquantia intros 10 Gigabit Ethernet MAC Controller

Aquantia introduced a 10G Ethernet Controller that enables SFP+ port or backplane connectivity.

Features of the AQtion AQC100 include:

  • PCI Express 3.0 modes with x4/x2/x1 lane operation
  • SFP+ for Direct Attach Copper (DAC) and optical SFP modules
  • Board-level or backplane connectivity between chips
  • Support for Windows, macOS, Linux, Data Plane Development Kit and other operating systems
  • Less than 1W power consumption

CenturyLink teams with Google Cloud Platform

CenturyLink is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud, enabling it to combine a leading public cloud, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with CenturyLink IT consulting services.

By joining the Google Cloud Partner Program, CenturyLink said it will be able to provide implementation, sales and technical support to enterprises as they accelerate innovation with cloud solutions. CenturyLink has established a Google Cloud center of excellence with certified Google Cloud Architects and Engineers who are highly skilled in cloud infrastructure, networking, migration and managed services.

In June 2018, CenturyLink announced it could connect customers to Google Cloud globally through Google Cloud Partner Interconnect. This provides enterprise-grade, dedicated connectivity from offices and data centers on enterprise wide-area networks (WAN) to Google Cloud Platform in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In addition, CenturyLink’s global broadcast fiber network, Vyvx Cloud Connect, provides access to GCP by offering multi-site, diverse connectivity paths into GCP for high-bandwidth, high-quality video feeds.

“Our work with CenturyLink is a prime example of our fast-growing cloud ecosystem and Google Cloud’s commitment to support the technology needs of enterprises today,” said Carolee Gearhart, vice president of Worldwide Channel Sales at Google Cloud. “We look forward to continuing to expand our partnership with CenturyLink, which brings a wealth of expertise in SAP consulting, big data analytics and secure private networking to public and hybrid cloud workloads.”

“This partnership enables global enterprises to leverage the power of CenturyLink’s diverse global network combined with our innovative thought leadership in optimizing application deployment and advanced IT services that help meet the full range of their hybrid cloud needs,” said Mahesh Dalvi, vice president, Global IT Solutions and Managed Services, CenturyLink. “Both Google Cloud and CenturyLink are highly focused on tackling complex enterprise needs, including the optimization of critical workloads such as SAP and Big Data.”

"AT&T provides organizations globally with secure, smart solutions, and our work to bring Google Cloud's portfolio of products, services and tools to every layer of its customers' business helps 

ServiceNow form strategic partnership with Google Cloud

ServiceNow and Google Cloud announced a strategic partnership for delivering native support for ServiceNow’s IT Operations Management (ITOM) in Google Cloud Platform. The partnership will also deliver real-time language translation in ServiceNow’s IT Service Management  (ITSM) solution leveraging Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities.

This partnership aims to make the Now Platform truly multi-cloud with the ability to support customers wherever their workloads reside - on-premises and across the major cloud vendors.

The companies said they are also working on additional AI and ML capabilities around document, speech and image understanding.

“This partnership is designed to accelerate our customers’ shift to the cloud and deliver digital workflows that unlock productivity and create great experiences for employees and the enterprise,” said Pablo Stern, senior vice president and general manager of IT Workflows at ServiceNow. “Joint customers will get the best of both worlds: a seamless experience that maximizes the value of cloud investments and the ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence for everyday work. I look forward to continuing the drumbeat of innovation as we work together to make the world of work, work better for people.”

“This partnership is natural; Google Cloud and ServiceNow will deeply integrate, enabling enterprises to optimize their cloud investments,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “Our customers will be able to seamlessly connect what’s happening across IT and take action across Google Cloud.”

Infinera supplies software automation capabilities to Verizon

Infinera will provide new automation technology to Verizon to facilitate the migration of its time-division multiplexing (TDM) network to a new Ethernet-based network. In addition, Infinera said it will integrate its open API- and YANG-driven data model software capabilities with the Verizon Base Network Controller (BNC), enabling full lifecycle automation including install, commission, service provisioning, and control. The overall solution is designed to enable a zero-touch, fully automated, extensible, and programmable infrastructure by leveraging open networking principles and capabilities, including software-defined networking control of multi-vendor elements via open programmable interfaces and model-driven management and operations. The solution supports rapid service activation at the optical layer while reducing parallel proprietary systems.

Infinera said its solution enables visualization of the complete network, the ability to run multiple migration scenarios, and the efficient management of existing customer traffic. The migration provides a scalable solution that can be applied to multiple systems and use cases, including TDM, Ethernet over Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), and ultra-long haul.

“Verizon has always been relentless when it comes to technology innovation,” said Stephen Owens, Director of Network Infrastructure Planning at Verizon. “We are able to simplify network operations and reduce costs through virtualization and automation. This is one example.”

“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with Verizon and help them advance their infrastructure network with a software-driven approach to network evolution and next-generation service enablement,” said Bob Jandro, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Infinera.

https://www.infinera.com/infinera-software-and-open-networking-solutions-being-used-by-verizon-as-tools-for-automation/

AT&T tops 600K FirstNet Connections

The FirstNet communications platform – built with AT&T and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) – is now supporting 600,000+ device connections from more than 7,250 public safety agencies.


A majority of agencies and nearly 50% of FirstNet’s total connections are new subscribers (not AT&T migrations).

Some additional milestones:

  • Band 14 spectrum has been deployed in more than 600 markets.
  • FirstNet subscribers have access to all AT&T LTE bands in addition to Band 14
  • According to the results of tests taken with Speedtest as analyzed by AT&T, FirstNet consistently performs over 25% faster than any commercial network.
  • 3 Flying Cells on Wings (COWs) were recently added to the FirstNet deployable program. Each Flying COW is comprised of 2 tethered drones and a trailer for transport that is equipped with a satellite dish and fiber connections. Flying COWs are capable of withstanding light rain and wind speeds up to 25 miles per hour, and are able to reach heights of up to 400 feet. The Flying COWs are set to be outfitted with Band 14 in the second half of 2019.

https://about.att.com/story/2019/fn_expands_coverage.html

EllaLink begins Marine Route Survey for Brazil-Portugal cable

Alcatel Submarine Networks has finalized the Cable Route Study and mobilized the marine survey vessel for the EllaLink submarine cable system. A marine route survey will be conducted over the coming months.

EllaLink will be a state-of-the-art 4 fiber pair submarine cable system linking Europe and Latin America with up to 72 Tbps of capacity. The low latency EllaLink route avoids the congestion of the North Atlantic.

EllaLink plans to be Ready for Service by the end of 2020.

“We are delighted to have appointed Alcatel Submarine Networks to undertake the marine survey and permitting work for the EllaLink cable system. The survey will collect vital data for the project, helping us determine the most effective route between Sines and Fortaleza, from a reliability, environmental and economic point of view. The launch of the permitting and survey work is also a significant step towards meeting our plans for lighting the system by close 2020,” commented Philippe Dumont, CEO of the EllaLink Group.

Following completion of the survey work, Alcatel Submarine Networks will commence manufacturing activities ahead of marine operations next year. The EllaLink system is designed to offer 72Tbps of capacity using leading edge coherent technology.

https://ella.link/2019/05/06/ellalink-announces-commencement-of-marine-route-survey-activities/


Telenor and Axiata consider merging Asian operations

Telenor Group and Axiata Group Berhad are discussing a potential non-cash merger of their telecom and infrastructure assets in Asia (MergeCo), in which Telenor would take a 56.5% stake and and Axiata a 43.5% stake. The parties described the talks as preliminary.

If completed, MergeCo would have close to 300 million customers and become one of Asia’s largest mobile infrastructure companies operating approximately 60,000 towers across Asia. It is anticipated that the operational headquarters would be in Kuala Lumpur with the majority of functions. The company is planned to be listed at an international stock exchange as well as on Bursa Malaysia. In Malaysia, the intention is to merge Celcom and Digi, with MergeCo as the majority owner in the combined business.

Telenor's Asian operations include:

  • dtac, Thailand, 21.202 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
  • DiGi, Malaysia, 11.660 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
  • Telenor Pakistan, 43.530 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
  • Telenor Myanmar, 17.232 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
  • Grameenphone, Bangladesh, 72.732 million mobile subscriptions (2018)


Axiata's operations include:

  • Malaysia brands are celcom, e.co (infrastructure), Boost (financial services), ada (digital advertising), and apigate (digital platform)
  • Singapore brand is ada
  • Indonesia brands are ada, Boost, XL Axiata
  • Cambodia brands are Smart, e.co
  • Thailand brand is ada
  • Myanmar brand is e.co
  • Bangladesh brand is robi, e.co, and ada
  • Nepal brand is Ncel
  • Pakistan brand is e.co
  • India brand is ada and apigate
  • Sri Lanka brand are Dialog and e.co

“By creating one of Asia’s leading telecom players; with strong regional operations in nine countries and close to 300 million customers, we will combine scale and competence, thereby unlocking considerable synergies. I am confident this will create significant value for shareholders and will be beneficial to our customers,” said Sigve Brekke, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telenor Group.

LeoSat announces $2 billion in commitments

LeoSat Enterprises, which is preparing to launch a new low-earth-orbit satellite constellation for delivering data services worldwide, signed more than US$2 billion in commercial agreements so far.

The company said these pre-launch agreements signal strong demand for LeoSat’s business backbone in space across a wide range of fast-growing data and mobility sectors including, Enterprise, Telecoms, Government, Maritime, Healthcare and Finance.

LeoSat has developed a unique system architecture – a space-based MPLS network - providing Gigabits of secure connectivity. The company said it can achieve lower latencies than fiber.

“Whilst the list of companies launching “build it and they will come” mega satellite constellations continues to grow, we believe that our commercial agreements valued at over US$2Billion clearly demonstrate LeoSat’s unique solution is more than a vision. LeoSat is solving an essential business need that not only resonates with our customers but has also attracted the firm backing of two leading satellite companies - SKY Perfect JSAT and Hispasat”, said Mark Rigolle, CEO of LeoSat Enterprises. Our most recent customer agreements include X2nSat, which has selected LeoSat’s laser-enabled data network to support the ever-expanding needs of the healthcare industry, and FMC GlobalSat, which provides seamless onshore and offshore network access that will enable enormous productivity and efficiency improvements over legacy satellite infrastructures.

LeoSat promises fast optical connections via low-earth-orbit

LeoSat Enterprises has been granted authority by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide NGSO (non-geostationary satellite orbit) services in the United States.

The start-up plans to deploy a unique new data network comprised of a constellation of up to 108 low-earth-orbit communications satellites to serve sectors such as enterprise-to-enterprise communications, telecommunications, oil & gas operations and maritime services with global premise-to-premise connectivity.

The LeoSat constellation will be distinguished by optical inter-satellite links, on-board processing, and polar orbits at an altitude five times closer to the Earth than medium earth orbit satellites and 25 times closer than geostationary orbit (“GSO”) satellites. LeoSat says its will be able to provide enterprise-grade, highly secure data transmissions with up to 1.2 Gbps of full-duplex connectivity per link (and 5.2 Gbps where needed), along with low latency of less than 20 ms. The high-throughput satellites will form a mesh network interconnected through inter-satellite laser links. The company projects that its optical backbone will be is approximately 1.5 times faster than terrestrial fiber networks.

LeoSat’s CEO, Mark Rigolle said, “Getting approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission – among the world’s most sophisticated radio frequency regulators – is an important milestone for LeoSat and recognizes that we have a unique solution for high-speed and ultra-secure enterprise connectivity. I am delighted by this significant step forward for LeoSat as we continue to make excellent progress on our journey to deliver the world’s first business backbone in space, opening-up new markets for data networking, telecoms, enterprise and government communications across the globe”.

Microsoft intros Kubernetes Event–driven Autoscaling with Red Hat

Microsoft introduced Kubernetes Event–driven Autoscaling (KEDA),  a new open source project aimed at providing an event-driven scale capability for any container workload.

KEDA, which is now in public preview, is an open source component that supports deployment of serverless event-driven containers on Kubernetes created in collaboration with Red Hat.

KEDA presents a new hosting option for Azure Functions that can be deployed as a container in Kubernetes clusters, bringing the Azure Functions programming model and scale controller to any Kubernetes implementation, both in the cloud or on-premises with OpenShift.

Microsoft said Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is one of the fastest-growing services in Azure.

Red Hat said it is contributing to KEDA (Kubernetes-based event-driven autoscaling), both via the upstream project and bringing its utility to customers using enterprise Kubernetes and containers with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

China tests 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) firewall with Ixia's CloudStorm

China Mobile completed the first 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) firewall test with the CloudStorm test solution from Ixia, a Keysight Business.

Ixia's CloudStorm enabled China Mobile to test the firewall at 800GE stateful traffic including bandwidth, connection per second and concurrent connections.

“Network equipment manufacturers are introducing hardware designed to support 5G environments and hyperscale data centers while network operators need to ensure that the new equipment scales to unprecedented speeds,” said Raymond Xiu, general manager for Greater China at Keysight’s Ixia Solutions Group. “One of the key steps in the move to these higher speeds is validating that the network equipment is capable of supporting complex traffic today and in the future. CloudStorm is the only solution that can supply the massive 800GE stateful traffic testbed necessary to support this type of testing.”

Ixia’s CloudStorm 100GE Application and Security Test Load Module highlights:

  • massive-scale testing, under realistic traffic conditions, of critical elements in complex data centers and network infrastructure, including server applications, storage workloads and network security devices
  • testing 200G bi-directional traffic leveraging a Layer 4-7 100GE full line-rate interface for security and performance in complex traffic models; simulating 2.4 Terabits mixed application traffic as well as malicious traffic in 11U space.
  • multi speed testing (100/50/40/25/10GE) on a single port to increase return on investment
  • hardware-based Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) acceleration delivering 4X encryption performance and emulation of multi-terabit DDoS and botnet attacks to future-proof security solutions


http://www.keysight.com

A10 Networks: 5G to bring increase in security/reliability concerns

A new survey fielded by the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network, in partnership with A10 networks, has found that mobile service providers anticipate significant new revenue opportunities from the coming deployment of high-speed 5G networks and a host of new IoT-driven use cases, but they also believe much-improved security will be essential to realizing that potential.

A key concern identified by A10 Networks is that mobile operators have a significant amount of work ahead to fortify their networks for the coming of 5G. For example, while more than 80 percent of mobile operator respondents say they will need to upgrade Gi firewalls at the core of their networks, only 11 percent have completed the implementation of new Gi firewalls.

“Mobile carriers anticipate significant revenue opportunities and exciting new use cases as they move forward with their 5G deployments. However, the industry also recognizes that 5G will dramatically raise the stakes for ensuring the security and reliability of these networks,” said Gunter Reiss, vice president of A10 Networks. “New mission-critical applications like autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and remote patient monitoring will make network reliability vital to the safety and security of people and businesses. Meanwhile, dramatic increases in traffic rates and connected devices will significantly expand the attack surface and scale for cybercriminals.”

Some highlights of the “Securing the Future of a Smart World” report:
  • 67% of operators will deploy their first commercial 5G networks within 18 months and another 20 percent within two years. 
  • 94% of operators expect growth in network traffic, connected devices and mission-critical IoT use cases to significantly increase security and reliability concerns for 5G networks.
  • 79% of operators say 5G is a consideration in current security investments
The top-three benefits derived from 5G:
  • 67% - Overall growth in the mobile market 
  • 59% - Better customer service and satisfaction
  • 43% - The creation of new 5G-enabled business models 
Assessing 5G Security Needs
  • 63% - Advanced DDoS protection the most important security capability needed for 5G networks. 
  • 98% of respondents said core network security was either very important (72%) or important (26%) in 5G build-outs. 
  • 79% have or will upgrade their Gi-firewalls
  • 73% have or will upgrade their GTP firewall
Survey Methodology
In partnership with A10 Networks, the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network conducted a global survey of communications service providers to understand industry intentions, priorities and concerns about 5G. The study includes a survey of 145 IT and business leaders at communications service providers globally.

http://www.a10networks.com
http://www.bpinetwork.org/thought-leadership/studies/72/download-report-securing-the-future-of-a-smart-world