Microsoft enters 10-year alliance with Reliance Jio

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio) and Microsoft announced a strategic alliance aimed at accelerating the digital transformation of the Indian economy and society.

The agreement calls for a 10-year that combines capabilities of both companies to offer a detailed set of solutions comprising connectivity, computing, storage solutions, and other technology services and applications.

Highlights of the agreement:

• Jio will provide its internal workforce with cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools available with Microsoft 365 and will migrate its non-network applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
• Jio’s connectivity infrastructure that aims to connect everyone, everything, everywhere will promote the adoption of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform within its growing ecosystem of startups, as part of Jio’s cloud-first strategy.
• Jio will set up data centers in locations across India, consisting of next-generation compute, storage and networking capabilities, and Microsoft will deploy its Azure platform in these data centers to support Jio’s offerings. The initial two data centers, which can house IT equipment consuming up to 7.5 MW of power, are being set up in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. These are targeted to be fully operational in calendar year 2020.
• Jio will leverage the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to develop innovative cloud solutions focused on the needs of Indian businesses. 

“Jio is delighted to partner with Microsoft in our efforts to further deepen the use of technology on scale to all Indians,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. “This is a unique and first-of-its-kind partnership that brings the capabilities of two large companies focused on creating significant value to Indian enterprises — small and large. By working together to develop innovative and affordable cloud-enabled digital solutions built around Jio’s world-class digital infrastructure and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, we will accelerate the digitization of the Indian economy and make Indian businesses globally competitive."

"We have an incredible opportunity to apply advances in technology to help organizations across India innovate and grow,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. “The combination of Jio’s leading connectivity and digital solutions with Azure, Azure AI and Office 365 will bring powerful tools and platforms for compute, storage, productivity and more to millions of businesses in the country.”

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CenturyLink targets Edge Compute Services

CenturyLink announced a several hundred-million-dollar investment to build out and support edge compute services.

The initiative calls for more than 100 initial edge compute locations across the U.S., and providing a range of hybrid cloud solutions and managed services. Edge locations are designed for high performance, low-latency networking with leading cloud service provider platforms in customized configurations. CenturyLink said its global fiber network with edge facilities will enable businesses and government agencies to serve their local locations within 5 milliseconds of latency.

"Customers are increasingly coming to us for help with applications where latency, bandwidth and geography are critical considerations," said Paul Savill, senior vice president, product management, CenturyLink. "This investment creates the platform for CenturyLink to enable enterprises, hyperscalers, wireless carriers, and system integrators with the technology elements to drive years of innovation where workloads get placed closer to customers' digital interactions."

Highlights from CenturyLink

• CenturyLink currently connects to over 2,200 public and private datacenters and over 150,000 on-net, fiber-fed enterprise buildings.
• CenturyLink's robust fiber network is one of the most deeply peered and well-connected in the world, with over 450,000 route-miles of coverage.
• CenturyLink is expanding access to its services by expanding network colocation services in many key markets to enable customers and partners to run distributed IT workloads close to the edge of the network.

CenturyLink, Corning  

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Tele2 deploys Russia’s first 5G zone in Moscow

Tele2 launched Russia's first commercial 5G zone in central Moscow using equipment from Ericsson.

The 5G coverage is live in Tverskaya Street in the heart of the Russian capital, stretching between Red Square to Sadovoe Ring.

The 5G pilot zone is deployed in the 28 GHz band in non-Standalone (NSA) mode, the frequency band for anchor LTE band is Band 7 (2600MHz), and the 5G pocket routers supporting 28 GHz are used as end-user devices for mobile broadband services with ultra-high speeds.

Sebastian Tolstoy, Head of Ericsson in Russia, says: “As a recognized leader in 5G, we are launching Russia’s first 5G zone in Moscow jointly with Tele2. We have a history of working in close partnership with Tele2 and now we’re pioneering 5G in Moscow. With many live commercial 5G networks with named service provider customers in four continents – more than any of our competitors – we are looking forward to continue leading and driving innovation to ensure the digitalization of Russia.”

Sergey Emdin, Tele2 Russia CEO, says: “Despite fierce competition in the development of new technology, jointly with Ericsson we are the first in the Russian market to launch a 5G zone on our infrastructure. From the very beginning of its work in Moscow, the Tele2 network has been technologically ready for the future implementation of the fifth-generation communication standard. Today’s event means that the 5G era in Russia has already come – from tests and laboratory trials, we are moving to operating the technology on a commercial network. In the near future, Muscovites will be able to see for themselves what 5G will bring to the daily life, entertainment and development of smart city.”

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Faraday develops 28G Programmable SerDes at 28nm

Taiwan-based Faraday Technology Corporation announced the availability of its 28Gbps programmable SerDes PHY IP on UMC 28HPC process technology. The device is targeted at 100G Ethernet and most xPON applications.

By adopting the programmable architecture that covers data transfer rates up to 28Gbps, this SerDes IP can readily support the optimization of SoC chip designs from 100Gbps of throughput. On top of that, the IP supports multiple interface standard protocols, such as OIF-CEI, JESD, PCIe Gen1-4, and Ethernet.

“28G SerDes PHY technology has become a crucial building block in addressing a broad range of wired and wireless communication applications,” said Flash Lin, Chief Operating Officer of Faraday. “Faraday's latest 28nm SerDes solution can meet 25/28G SerDes requirements with lower NRE (non-recurring engineering) expense and lower cost compared with other FinFET-based 28G SerDes solutions. By leveraging this solution, we are ready to engage with ASIC customers to reach their potential needs in high-growth networking markets.”

Technical features:

• Supports OIF-CEI-28G VSR/SR and OIF-CEI-25G LR
• Supports PCIe G1 to G4 with PCS soft-macro supporting PIPE 4.4.1
• Supports 25Gb to 100Gb Ethernet: 25G/50G/100G-KR4&CR4
• Supports JESD204B/C for high-speed ADC/DAC and FPGA interface
• Supports xPON applications: Sym/Asym GPON, Sym/Asym 10GPON, Sym EPON, Sym 10GEPON

http://www.faraday-tech.com

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Cloudleaf raises $26 million for supply chain visibility

Cloudleaf, a start-up offering digital supply chain solutions, announced $26 million in Series B funding.

The round was led by Intel Capital and WRVI Capital. Also participating were existing and incoming investors BluePointe Ventures, Bold Capital Partners, Mahindra Partners and Tandem Capital. The financing brings Cloudleaf’s total institutional funding to $39 million.

Cloudleaf’s mission is to create significant value across the end-to-end supply chain network with its Supply Chain Digital Visibility Platform.

Cloudleaf creates a digital twin of the supply chain and processes billions of events per second to deliver diagnostic and predictive insights in real-time for location, condition, utilization and anomaly detection.

“We are extremely gratified that some of the industry’s most esteemed investors are helping Cloudleaf convert our technology leadership into market leadership,” said Cloudleaf Chief Executive Officer Mahesh Veerina. “Cloudleaf’s goal is to establish nothing less than a new industry standard for actionable visibility in a broad spectrum of enterprise supply chains.”

“Cloudleaf’s Digital Visibility Platform targets an extreme pain point for thousands of enterprises challenged by the need to manage significant asset and product flows. We are excited to partner with such a high-impact innovator of enterprise digitization,” said Sriram Viswanathan, Managing Partner of WRVI Capital. “Katerra, one of WRVI Capital’s portfolio investments and a highly disruptive technology company for the construction market segment, has selected Cloudleaf to provide end-to-end visibility across its supply chain.”

“Cloudleaf means actionable visibility,” said Dave Flanagan, vice president of Intel Corp. and senior managing director of Intel Capital. “The world’s supply chains are undergoing a multi-trillion-dollar shift to digital, and Cloudleaf is in the vanguard. We’re pleased to welcome them to Intel Capital’s portfolio of leaders in cloud, edge intelligence and vision technologies.”

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InfiniteIO partners with Cloudian to optimize private cloud storage

InfiniteIO, which specializes in hybrid cloud storage, and Cloudian, which offers enterprise object storage systems, introduced a joint solution that optimizes storage cost and performance with no changes to users, applications or systems.

The companies said their solution helps ensure data is properly placed across primary and secondary storage as well as public cloud, potentially saving millions of dollars in primary and backup storage costs. Organizations can install InfiniteIO like a network switch to offload file metadata operations and intelligently migrate hundreds of petabytes of inactive data from on-premises NAS systems to the exabyte scalable Cloudian object storage system, with no downtime or disruption to existing IT environments. The companies claim their solution can attain highly available enterprise-class storage with the performance of all-flash NAS in all storage tiers.

“Cloudian’s focus on delivering limitlessly scalable, highly cost-effective storage is the foundation enterprises need to manage and protect increasing data volumes across on-premises, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments,” said Liem Nguyen, vice president of marketing at InfiniteIO. “The simplicity, performance and scale that InfiniteIO and Cloudian are bringing together will help organizations extend their existing IT investments to save money yet uniquely avoid disruption to their business.”

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DataLocker updates SafeCrypt Encrypted Virtual Drive with AES 256-bit

DataLocker launched a new version of its encrypted storage solution that provides a layer of military grade, AES 256-bit encryption.

DataLocker's new SafeCrypt is a file encryption application that ensures data is secured and encrypted. By creating a virtual drive using SafeCrypt, files stored on the encrypted virtual drive are encrypted at the desktop level and stored on the user’s preferred storage location fully secured.

“SafeCrypt is an encrypted virtual drive where for the first time, users are in control of their own encryption. Encrypting your data is as easy as entering your password and reading and writing to the virtual drive letter,” said Jay Kim, CEO, DataLocker. “SafeCrypt is seamlessly integrated with DataLocker’s SafeConsole central management platform. SafeConsole allows administrators to inventory, audit, and control all SafeCrypt endpoints remotely.”

SafeCrypt Features:

• Utilizes AES 256-bit Encryption
• FIPS 140-2 Validated 
• Data is encrypted locally by the user and can be stored on a local drive, external drive, or in the cloud
• Encryption keys are kept by the user to limit unwarranted access

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