Zoned Storage Initiative aims for Zettabyte Scale data centers

A new Zoned Storage Initiative backed by Western Digital is aiming to achieve greater economies of scale for data center storage as we approach the zettabyte-scale era.

The Zoned Storage architecture enables applications, host and storage to orchestrate data placement and take full advantage of the highest available storage capacities typically with shingled magnetic recording (SMR) HDDs and the emerging zoned namespaces (ZNS) standard for NVMe SSDs to deliver better endurance and predictable, low-latency QoS performance. A planned extension of the NVMe standard, ZNS complements SMR technology, enabling developers to take advantage of both SMR and ZNS under a single storage stack, regardless of media type. With 50 percent of Western Digital’s HDD exabyte shipments expected to be on SMR by 2023, customers will be able to leverage their SMR application development to encompass high-capacity ZNS SSDs. Delivering intelligence to application architectures, SMR and ZNS will be key foundational building blocks of the new zettabyte-scale era now and into the future.

Western Digital is also announcing its ZNS development SSD for early Zoned Storage efforts. ZNS NVMe SSDs offer several benefits over traditional NVMe SSDs. Conforming to the ZNS feature set, as defined and governed by NVM Express, Inc., these ZNS SSDs are designed to lower write amplification, increase capacity, and provide improved throughput and latency. ZNS SSDs achieve these improvements by aligning “zones” to the internal physical properties of the SSDs, eliminating inefficiencies in the placement of data.

“If you think about the digital universe and how much content will be generated – from healthcare to autonomous cars to digital marketplaces and smart cities – we’re just scratching the surface of zettabyte-scale,” said Martin Fink, CTO, Western Digital. “With this data deluge, data centers architects can’t simply solve problems in the same way using general-purpose IT. The Zoned Storage initiative, along with our innovations in Flash and SMR – including our 20TB on nine-disks – gives customers the tools and resources needed to architect and intelligently optimize workloads for generations to come. Through our understanding of software stacks, and proven contributions to initiatives and standards committees such as RISC-V and NVMe/NVMe-oF, we look forward to sharing that knowledge with the open-source community to help drive support and adoption of ZNS and SMR.”

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Nokia launches DFSEC 2.0 for 5G security

Nokia is launching an enhanced security program and establishing an advanced security testing and verification laboratory to address the security needs of 5G end-to-end (E2E) networks.

Nokia has a long-standing commitment to the Design For Security (DFSEC) process, which ensures that security is designed into every product from the start, undergoing rigorous security testing prior to commercial release.

DFSEC 2.0 will build on this leadership in security development by focusing on additional verification work in the areas of E2E identity management, network slicing and SDN security, virtualization, and OAM, including patch management.

To support collaborative research and development across the DFSEC 2.0 program, Nokia is opening the "Future X Security" (FXSec) Lab. Built as an extension of Nokia's Future X network lab in Nokia Bell Labs in Murray Hill, this lab will be open to communications service providers and industries to facilitate joint testing and verification of industrial automation solutions in private local area networks (LANs) and across public wide area networks (WANs).

Marcus Weldon, Corporate Chief Technology Officer and President of Nokia Bell Labs, says: "End-to-end 5G networks will fundamentally transform societies by providing ultra-high-speed wireless connectivity allowing massive, low latency ultra-reliable streaming data that will drive intelligent automation for a wide array of infrastructure, industries and enterprises. But with great opportunity comes significant security risk that must be addressed end-to-end, using an array of novel techniques and technologies. As the most trusted end-to-end solution provider in the 5G era, Nokia is taking a leadership position in defining and building advanced security solutions that will meet mission-critical needs, leveraging the deep and extensive security research and disruptive innovations from Nokia Bell Labs.

In building the new security approach for LAN and WAN, Nokia will be incorporating advanced research from Nokia Bell Labs to create Network Slicing Security Solutions that will ensure security and trustworthiness of the end-to-end network slices - the critical connectivity and service fabric for industrial applications in the 5G era. These security solutions are based on 7 key research areas:

• "Accountable Security" that provides failproof identification of industrial IoT devices in mobile and dynamic environments
• "Physical and Virtual Device Integrity Protection" that provides scalable device attestation (hardware, firmware and software) across the supply chain
• Artificial Intelligence enabled "Threat Detection and Mitigation for Network Slices"
• "Fine-grained Security Policy Management" which dynamically tailors network slice elements to meet specified security requirements
• "Dynamic data protection" which addresses the issue of data isolation across mobile devices, applications and slices
• "Microservice Behavioral Fingerprinting" that is a unique machine learning based anomalous behavior detection of third party and open-source 5G services
• Paradigm shift in design for security that provides run-time mitigation of potential security concerns with rapid feedback into development cycle using DevSecOps models

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Akamai introduces its Edge Cloud

Akamai introduced its Edge Cloud for the delivery of data to connected devices and in-application messaging at scale.

Akamai says its Edge Cloud solution line provides global scale that other data platforms for IoT and messaging lack. Most vendors designed their networks to serve the early adopters where scale, manageability and performance were not necessarily a concern. As more use cases emerge for IoT and in-application messaging, such as Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), the need to offer connectivity for billions of devices, real-time data delivery and capabilities that allow for easier data management are a requirement.

IoT Edge Connect, a new product within the Edge Cloud solution line, tackles these challenges head on by offering a secure framework. Both resource-constrained IoT devices and applications using MQTT for messaging can send or publish information about a given topic to a server that functions as an MQTT message broker.

IoT Edge Connect offers:

Scalability: IoT Edge Connect is architected to scale to support hundreds of millions of endpoints and 10-times more messages than other IoT or in-app messaging cloud solutions. The service reduces device battery drain and optimizes data delivery speed and volume.
Ease of use: Because the service is designed as one continuous global service (logical service) and is fully integrated with an all-in-one data stream, distributed database and a key value store, operations are simplified across the globe.
Security: End-to-end mutual authentication is designed to ensure secure communication between connected endpoints and the Akamai Edge Cloud, while the fully-managed solution also supports data isolation requirements.
Reliability: Businesses can easily and efficiently take advantage of MQTT. In fact, the service is the only International Standard Organization-compliant cloud broker of the major cloud providers with all three levels of Quality of Service (QoS).

With IoT Edge Connect, developers can enable low-latency interactions with millions of endpoints and process data in real-time. Customers using the service can reduce network, compute and database build out, reduce security breaches and improve manageability, avoiding the need to develop and maintain proprietary and costly IoT and in-app messaging networks.

“Akamai believes that we are offering the next generation of messaging with scalability, operational simplicity and security, providing a turn-key solution that allows customers to focus on their core business rather than integrating and managing discreet but necessary components for messaging,” said Lior Netzer, vice president and CTO, IoT, Akamai. “With the launch of IoT Edge Connect, we’re harnessing the power of the Edge and bringing it to the next frontier of connected devices and applications.”

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Crowdstrike zooms 70% in first day of trading

CrowdStrike, which offers cloud-delivered endpoint protection, completed its initial public offering of 18,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $34.00 per share.

On the opening day, trading of CRWD closed at $58.00, up 70%.

CrowdStrike, which is based in Sunnyvale, California, was founded in 2011 by co-founders George Kurtz and Dmitri Alperovitch and Gregg Marston to build smarter malware-based defenses.

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Riverbed to resell Versa Networks' SD-WAN

Riverbed signed a global original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement with Versa Networks that brings together Riverbed’s global support and services with Versa Networks' enterprise-class secure SD-WAN technology.

Riverbed said it will now offer an expanded portfolio of SD-WAN solutions alongside Riverbed SteelConnect, which will now include a new enterprise offering leveraging Versa Network’s Secure Cloud IP software platform. Since the initial 2016 launch of Riverbed’s SD-WAN solution SteelConnect, Riverbed has grown its SD-WAN customer base to 1,000+ organizations.

“The agreement with Versa Networks allows Riverbed to provide our customers with a broader set of choices and address the modern networking needs of organizations of all types and sizes – large, medium and small, cloud-first, hybrid and traditional – across the globe,” said Paul Mountford, CEO at Riverbed. “Versa’s enterprise-class technology complements Riverbed’s leading SD-WAN, application acceleration and digital experience management solutions nicely, and will be backed by Riverbed’s leading support and professional services that customers rely on. This expanded portfolio allows Riverbed to more fully go after our large enterprise installed base, which includes the vast majority of the Fortune 2000, and will empower our customers to choose the right SD-WAN solution to help them transform their networks, gain agility and remain competitive in their respective industries.”

“Versa is teaming up with Riverbed to leverage the organization’s global reach into large enterprise, industry-leading support and services, and expertise and leadership in digital performance, which will drive greater opportunities for Versa and a strong offering for enterprise customers,” said  Kelly Ahuja, CEO at Versa Networks.

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Innovium silicon powers two Cisco Nexus data center switches

Innovium confirmed that its TERALYNX switch silicon is powering the Cisco Nexus 3408-S and 3432D-S data center switches. The switches deliver telemetry, low-latency and highest port radix with flexibility for 10G – 400G connectivity. The switches were demonstrated at this week's Cisco Live! event at the San Diego Convention Center.

“Private and public cloud datacenters continue to scale network capacity with focus on performance, power efficiency, telemetry and latency,” said Rajiv Khemani, Co-founder and CEO of Innovium. “We are excited to partner with Cisco to enable the trusted Nexus 3400-S series switches with TERALYNX™ switch silicon which meet key customer requirements.”

The Nexus 3408-S is a 4RU, 8-slot chassis with flexibility to use either 100G or 400G Line-Card Expansion Modules (LEMs) offering up to 128 ports of 100G or 32 ports of 400G in a pay-as-you-grow fashion. The 100G LEM supports 10/25/40/50/100G speeds while the 400G LEM supports 25/40/50/100/400G speeds. The Nexus 3432D-S is a 1RU, QSFP-DD switch that supports up to 32 ports of 400G, with each port able to operate in 25/40/50/100/400G speed. These switches have the industry’s highest port radix in a compact and highly energy efficient chassis.

Innovium raises $77M in Series D for its Switching Silicon

Wednesday, April 25, 2018  Funding, Innovium, San Jose, Start-Ups  

Innovium, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced $77 Million in Series D funding for its high-performance switching silicon for data centers.

The new funding round included investment from Greylock Partners, Walden Everbright, Walden Riverwood Ventures, Paxion Capital, Capricorn Investment Group, Redline Capital, S-Cubed Capital and Qualcomm Ventures. This brings total funding in the company to over $160 million.

“Data center networks are experiencing dramatic traffic growth and face new requirements, driven by public and hybrid cloud, machine learning, analytics, storage and video. Innovium’s grounds-up innovations have enabled a revolutionary platform for a family of products, delivering the industry’s next generation of performance, programmability, cost/bit and robust features. We are excited to significantly increase our investment in Innovium, to help the company accelerate its production, roadmap, and go-to-market efforts,” said Asheem Chandna, Partner at Greylock Partners.

Innovium Unveils 12.8Tbps Data Center Switching Silicon

Tuesday, March 14, 2017  Innovium, Silicon, Silicon Valley, Start-Ups, Switch  No Comments

Innovium, a start-up based in San Jose, California, introduced its TERALYNX scalable Ethernet silicon for data centers switches.

Innovium said its TERALYNX will be the first single switching chip to break the 10 Tbps performance barrier, along with telemetry, line-rate programmability, the largest on-chip buffers and best-in-class low-latency. The chip is expected to sample in Q3 2017.

TERALYNX includes broad support for 10/25/40/50/100/200/400GbE Ethernet standards. It will deliver 128 ports of 100GbE, 64 ports of 200GbE or 32 ports of 400GbE in a single device. The TERALYNX switch family includes software compatible options at 12.8Tbps, 9.6Tbps, 6.4Tbps and 3.2Tbps performance points, each delivering compelling benefits for switch system vendors and data center operators.

Some highlights:

• 12.8Tbps, 9.6Tbps, 6.4Tbps and 3.2Tbps single chip performance options at packet sizes of 300B or smaller 
• Single flow performance of 400Gbps at 64B minimum packet size, 4x vs alternatives
• 70MB of on-chip buffer for superior network quality, fewer packet drops and substantially lower latency compared to off-chip buffering options
• Up to 128 ports of 100GbE, 64 ports of 200GbE or 32 ports of 400GbE, which enable flatter networks for lower Capex and fewer hops
• Support for cut-through with best-in-class low latency of less than 350ns
• Programmable, feature-rich INNOFLEX forwarding pipeline
• Comprehensive layer 2/3 forwarding and flexible tunneling including MPLS
• Large table resources with flexible allocation across L2, IPv4 and IPv6
• Line-rate, standards-based programmability to add new/custom features and protocols
• FLASHLIGHT telemetry and analytics to enable autonomous data center networks
• Extensive visibility and telemetry capabilities such as sFlow, FlexMirroring along with highly customizable extra-wide counters
• P4-INT in-band telemetry and extensions to dramatically simplify end to end analysis
• Advanced analytics enable optimal resource monitoring, utilization and congestion control allowing predictive capabilities and network automation
• SERDES I/Os for existing and upcoming networks
• Industry-leading, proven SerDes supports 10G and 25G NRZ, as well as 50G PAM4, to provide customers a variety of connectivity choices, ranging from widely deployed 10/25/40/50/100G Ethernet to upcoming 200/400GbE
• Up to 258 lanes of long-reach SerDes, each of which can be configured dynamically
• Integrated GHz ARM CPU core along with PCIe Gen 3 host connectivity
• ARM core enables development of differentiated real-time automation features
• High speed host connectivity and DMA enhancements enable high performance packet, table and telemetry data transfers while minimizing CPU overhead

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Edgewise raises $11 million for microsegmentation

Edgewise Networks, a start-up based in Burlington, Mass, announced $11 million in funding for its microsegmentation platform based on software identity.

The funding round was led by existing investors .406 Ventures and Accomplice, with additional participation from Pillar.

Edgewise reduces the network attack surface in cloud and data center environments. Edgewise said it automatically protects application workloads in seconds, adding provable security to hybrid cloud environments. Machine learning and advanced analytics enable the rapid discovery of application communication topology and attack pathways. This real-time visibility allows security teams to microsegment environments with a single click. Policies are enforced no matter where the application resides — on premises, in the cloud, or in a container — and remain in effect even as the underlying network changes.

“Our innovative, patented approach makes microsegmentation — one of the hardest problems in cybersecurity — incredibly simple to implement,” said Peter Smith, co-founder and chief executive officer at Edgewise Networks. “With Edgewise, companies can operate their applications in hybrid cloud and container environments with peace of mind, knowing that they are protected. This strong support from our investors will enable us to expand to meet the demand for automated microsegmentation.”

https://www.edgewise.net

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Open Systems to deliver its SD-WAN via Equinix

Open Systems will deliver its secure SD-WAN service via Equinix global data centers.

Open Systems secure SD-WAN reduces network risks, simplifies compliance and eliminates the complexities of managing a global IT network. Integrated, multi-layered network security and protections are seamlessly built into every edge device. The global SD-WAN can be monitored from a single cloud-based interface and is backed 24/7/365 by Open Systems network and security operations and L3 DevOps engineers.

The Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric directly, securely and dynamically connects the Open Systems secure SD-WAN across Platform Equinix, the global platform for digital business that enables deployment of digital infrastructure anywhere it’s needed.

“Our customers are moving to the cloud at an unprecedented rate, and the combination of the Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric and the Open Systems secure SD-WAN makes it easier, faster and simpler to deliver applications in the cloud to users across multiple countries,” said Oren Yehudai, Senior Channel Sales Director, EMEA at Equinix. “We are very excited to be working with Open Systems to deliver this powerful solution on a global scale.”

“Open Systems has spent decades building the most robust, reliable and secure global network infrastructure, and the combination of Open Systems and Equinix provides a single worldwide solution that our customers can rely on to roll out applications powered by our leading secure SD-WAN solution,” said Matt Krieg, Chief Revenue Officer, Open Systems. “This new offering dramatically reduces complexity, increases cybersecurity, improves application performance and eliminates barriers to global expansion.”

http://www.open-systems.com

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Privitar raises $40 million for data privacy software

Privitar, a start-up based in London, closed a $40 million Series B funding round for its data privacy software company.

Privitar will use the investment to accelerate the development of its privacy engineering products, providing a comprehensive set of capabilities that will enable its customers to publish and share valuable data-driven insights in an efficient, trustworthy, and compliant way. Its customers include some of the world’s best-known brands, such as HSBC, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS Digital) and BT.

Jason du Preez, Privitar's CEO said: “The world is increasingly aware of the importance of protecting private information and privacy engineering is becoming intrinsic to the way organizations manage and share data. This investment will enable us to scale rapidly in response to global demand and help our customers realise the enormous benefits of data-driven decision making, much faster and with less risk.”

The funding round was led by global venture capital firm Accel, with participation from existing investors Partech, Salesforce Ventures, 24Haymarket and IQ Capital.

http://www.privitar.com

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