Next Gen Central Office (NGCO) - Red Hat perspective on the Network Transformation Journey

The Next Gen Central Office (NGCO) is bringing a lot of change not just at the technical level but also at the cultural level, says Mark Wohlfarth, VP, Global CSP Sales, Network Ecosystem, Red Hat.

NGCO is really about Open Platforms,  Open Collaboration, and Open Innovation.

A "2019 Next-Generation Central Office Report" from AvidThink is available for download. It covers the evolution in NGCO, recent trends, and key projects like CORD and VCO, as well as the role of the NGCO in new applications in edge computing and SD-WAN/vCPE.

https://nginfrastructure.com/

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VMware to acquire Bitfusion for virtualized hard acceleration

VMware has agreed to acquire Bitfusion, a pioneer in virtualization of accelerated compute with a strong focus on GPU technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Bitfusion offers a software platform that decouples specific physical resources from the servers they are attached to in the environment. This enables better sharing of GPU resources among isolated GPU compute workloads, even allowing sharing to happen across the network.

For example, the platform can share GPUs in a virtualized infrastructure, as a pool of network-accessible resources, rather than isolated resources per server. Additionally, the platform can be extended to support other accelerators like FPGAs and ASICs. In many ways, Bitfusion offers for hardware acceleration what VMware offered to the compute landscape several years ago. Bitfusion also aligns well with VMware’s “Any Cloud, Any App, Any Device” vision with its ability to work across AI frameworks, clouds, networks, and formats such as virtual machines and containers.

VMware said the acquisition of Bitfusion will bolster its strategy of supporting AI- and ML-based workloads by virtualizing hardware accelerators. VMware plans to integrate Bitfusion into the vSphere platform.

Bitfusion is based in Sunnyvale, California and Austin, Texas.

https://bitfusion.io/

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Ixia intros Cloud Peak NFVi Benchmarking Solution

Ixia, which is a division of Keysight Technologies, introduced its "Cloud Peak" benchmarking solution for Network Functions Virtualization infrastructure (NFVi).

Cloud Peak offers service providers the following key benefits:

• Simplified NFVi benchmarking via a web-based, easy-to-use automation solution
• An Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) that integrates the powerful, but complex OPNFV Yardstick framework for infrastructure compliance
• Elastic workloads that scale from testing a single server to a datacenter
• Powerful analytics that provide extensive reporting and real-time dashboards
• Cloud Peak delivers a rigorous set of methodologies to understand the capabilities and performance of an infrastructure under varied conditions, to evaluate design tradeoffs, upgrades and component swaps, and to identify performance bottlenecks. 
• Cloud Peak’s first release focuses on VMware vCenter and OpenStack, the leading carrier platforms for NFV and VMWare NFV infrastructure.

“NFVi adds a new layer of complexity, yet it enables service providers to accelerate NFV deployment and realize its business benefits,” said Sunil Kalidindi, vice president of product management for Keysight’s Ixia Solutions Group. “With NFVi, the burden of system-level testing shifts from the network equipment provider to the service provider who needs to integrate the virtual network functions with their own customized server infrastructure. Cloud Peak enables the service provider to characterize the infrastructure to understand what it can handle, how to improve it, and if it is reaching its capacity.”

http://www.keysight.com

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AirBorn launches Space-rated Active Optical Cable

AirBorn launched its Space-rated Active Optical Cable (SAOC), its next-generation space interconnect and the first fully tested and qualified active optical cable available for this application today.

AirBorn said its SAOC takes a standard copper signal and translates it to a fiber optical signal within the connector body. The SAOC eliminates the need for a specialized transceiver and time spent polishing and terminating fiber. It installs like a traditional copper cable but yields the same benefits of speed, distance, and EMI protection engineers have come to expect from fiber optic cabling. A single-connection interface accommodates both traditional copper cabling and SAOC®, giving system designers flexibility.

“The SAOC technology further demonstrates AirBorn’s commitment to solving our customers’ challenges through continuous innovation,” AirBorn CEO Cindy Lewis said. “This technology places AirBorn at the forefront of innovation for the ever-expanding space exploration market.”

“A prime contractor in the space industry knew we had active optical cable technology in house and asked if we could design and qualify a ruggedized version for spaceflight,” explained David Koenig, Vice President for AirBorn’s Space Business Unit. “Our team accepted the challenge and through continuous collaboration, developed a technology that exceeded our customer’s needs as we worked through to a flight-ready design. Now, SAOC® is launched into the market and stands ready to be specified into equipment destined for space.”

https://www.airborn.com/

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Running SAP HANA with Intel Optane DC persistent memory delivers boost

Intel and SAP announced a multiyear technology partnership focused on optimizing Intel’s Xeon Scalable processors and Optane DC persistent memory for SAP’s end-to-end enterprise software applications, including SAP S/4HANA.

The companies claim that running SAP HANA–based applications within Intel Optane DC persistent memory may significantly reduce the complexity and risk of running real-time in-memory applications by providing persistent data that is more resilient to computer outages, without compromising security. SAP HANA customers deploying Intel Optane DC persistent memory are capable of reducing data recovery times from 50 minutes to 4 minutes on a 6TB SAP HANA instance1. Intel Optane DC persistent memory delivers significantly denser memory, which enables customers to do more data processing within the same server – intended for cost savings and enabling new capabilities for customers converting to SAP S/4HANA.

“For more than a decade, Intel and SAP have engaged closely on developing differentiated breakthrough technologies that make organizations run more efficiently, and with today’s news we will further accelerate our technology collaboration and grow the value that we deliver to our customers. Broadening our technology collaboration with SAP means our mutual customers will be able to achieve faster insights from the largest data challenges, delivering a competitive edge,” stated Navin Shenoy, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group.

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-sap-broaden-technology-partnership-power-enterprises-digital-transformation/#gs.qpsd6m

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Qualcomm to appeal EC ruling

Qualcomm will appeal the recent ruling from the  European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition that Qualcomm engaged in predatory pricing practices for some sales of three cellular baseband chipsets to two customers.  The violations were found to have occurred during a few calendar quarters between 2009 and 2011. The EC subsequently has fined Qualcomm 242 million euros. 

Qualcomm said its will appeal the finding to the General Court of the European Union. Qualcomm intends to provide a financial guarantee in lieu of paying the fine while the appeal is pending.

“The Commission spent years investigating sales to two customers, each of whom said that they favored Qualcomm chips not because of price but because rival chipsets were technologically inferior.  This decision is unsupported by the law, economic principles or market facts, and we look forward to a reversal on appeal,” said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm.

 “The Commission’s decision is based on a novel theory of alleged below-cost pricing over a very short time period and for a very small volume of chips. There is no precedent for this theory, which is inconsistent with well-developed economic analysis of cost recovery, as well as Commission practice. Contrary to the Commission’s findings, Qualcomm's alleged conduct did not cause anticompetitive harm to Icera, the company that filed the complaint. Icera was later acquired by Nvidia for hundreds of millions of dollars and continued to compete in the relevant market for several years after the end of the alleged conduct. We cooperated with Commission officials every step of the way throughout the protracted investigation, confident that the Commission would recognize that there were no facts supporting a finding of anti-competitive conduct.  On appeal we will expose the meritless nature of this decision.”         

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Hurricane Electric adds POP in Scotland

Hurricane Electric has added a new point of presence (PoP) at the Pulsant data center, near Edinburgh, Scotland.

This PoP is Hurricane Electric’s first in Scotland, 11th in the UK, and 68th serving the European market. This PoP will provide enterprises in and around Edinburgh with improved fault tolerance, load balancing and congestion management in the delivery of next generation IP connectivity services.

“Edinburgh is the second largest financial services center in the UK and fourth in Europe, as well as a significant educational and technology hub and we’re thrilled to provide Pulsant’s customers cost-effective, high-speed connectivity,” said Mike Leber, President of Hurricane Electric. “We’re committed to providing connectivity to users on six continents and this new PoP is Hurricane Electric’s 201st around the world.”

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AT&T reminisces about Nixon's call to the moon

In light of this week's 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, AT&T looked back on its role in the U.S. space program.

Shortly after President John F. Kennedy kicked off the Apollo program, AT&T established an independent company called BELCOMM, whose mission was to support NASA. AT&T also provided the critical communications platform for NASA and the astronauts throughout the mission, including the historic phone call between President Richard Nixon and the Apollo 11 astronauts on the lunar surface.

https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2019/07/nasa_apollo_50th.html

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