Sunday, February 9, 2020

NFV for Rapid Service Activation



State of NFV Resource Site and Report: https://ngi.how/nfv-20

Spectrum Enterprise sees a great role for NFV for rapid turnup of services for enterprise customers across all sizes. Satya Parimi, Group Vice President, Enterprise Data and Smart City at Spectrum Enterprise, discusses how NFV opens the door to deliver new and innovative services to enterprises.

https://youtu.be/WMZDy0oOmdk

Ericsson pulls out of Mobile World Congress 2020

Citing concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus, Ericsson has decided to pull out of MWC Barcelona 2020.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: “The health and safety of our employees, customers and other stakeholders are our highest priority. This is not a decision we have taken lightly. We were looking forward to showcasing our latest innovations at MWC in Barcelona. It is very unfortunate, but we strongly believe the most responsible business decision is to withdraw our participation from this year’s event.”

MWC19 Barcelona attendance hits record 109,000

Attendance at MWC19 Barcelona was 109,000, up slightly from recent years:

2019 - 109,000
2018 - 107,000
2017 - 108,000
2016 - 101,000

Visitors came from 198 countries and territories, and more than 55 percent of this year’s MWC attendees held senior-level positions, including 7,900 CEOs.

More than 2,400 companies participated at MWC19 across more than 120,000 net square meters of exhibition and hospitality space at Fira Gran Via.

Amazon, NVIDIA, Viavi also withdraw from MWC

Amazon.com statement: ""Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about the new coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020."

NVIDIA's statement: "Given public health risks around the coronavirus, ensuring the safety of our colleagues, partners and customers is our highest concern. MWC Barcelona is one of the world’s most important technology conferences. We’ve been looking forward to sharing our work in AI, 5G and vRAN with the industry. We regret not attending, but believe this is the right decision."

Viavi Solutions's statement: "After reviewing all available data, VIAVI has chosen to cancel participation in this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona out of an abundance of caution and concern for our employees, customers and partners. VIAVI remains excited about its powerful suite of 5G solutions."

GSMA offers more safety assurances

Following news of additional exhibitor withdrawals from Mobile World Congress, GSMA confirmed that the event will occur as scheduled 24-27 February 2020.

The GSMA is seeking to reassure attendees and exhibitors that their health and safety are our paramount concern, by the following additional measures being put in place:
  • All travellers from the Hubei province will not be permitted access to the event*
  • All travellers who have been in China will need to demonstrate proof they have been outside of China 14 days prior to the event (passport stamp, health certificate)
  • Temperature screening will be implemented
  • Attendees will need to self-certify they have not been in contact with anyone infected.
  • While further planning is underway, we will continue to monitor the situation and will adapt our plans according to developments and advice we receive. We are contending with a constantly evolving situation, that will require fast adaptability.
  • Increased cleaning and disinfection programme across all high-volume touchpoints, e.g. catering areas, surfaces, handrails, WCs, entrances/exits, public touch-screens, etc. along with the use of correct cleaning/sanitising materials and products
  • Increased onsite medical support – doubled over last year
  • Awareness campaign via online and onsite info-share and signage
  • Availability of sanitising and disinfection materials for public use
  • Awareness and training to all staff on standard personal preventative measures, e.g. personal hygiene, frequency of use of sanitising/disinfection products, etc.
  • Advice to exhibitors on implementing effective cleaning and disinfection of stands, offices along with guidance on personal hygiene measures and common preventive behaviour 
  • Public health guidelines and advice communication to Barcelona hotels, public and private transport, restaurants and catering outlets, retail, etc. 
  • Installing new signage onsite reminding attendees of hygiene recommendations Implementing a microphone disinfecting and change protocol for all speakers 
  • Communicating advice to all attendees to adopt a ‘no-handshake policy’ 
  • A 24-hour telephone Security and Medical service for all attendees, operational from 12th to 29th February 2020. This number appears on the back of badge holders, in the event App and on signage around the venue.

Netskope raises a whopping $340M for its Secure Access Server Edge

Netskope, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $340 million in a new funding for its secure access server edge (SASE) and cloud security solutions.

The funding round led by new investor Sequoia Capital Global Equities. New investors Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and PSP Investments participated, as well as all existing investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Base Partners, ICONIQ Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Geodesic Capital and Social Capital. Following this investment, the company has achieved a valuation of nearly $3 billion.

The Netskope Security Cloud Platform provides visibility and real-time data and threat protection when accessing cloud services, websites, and private apps from anywhere, on any device. The solution combines next-generation secure web gateway (SWG) capabilities, zero trust secure access, advanced machine learning to detect unauthorized data exfiltration, and advanced threat protection to prevent cloud-based attacks that often evade legacy defenses.

“When we started Netskope in 2012, it was clear that the cloud was changing everything, but few saw how it would disrupt security,” said Sanjay Beri, CEO of Netskope. “Since inception, we have always focused on architecting a true cloud platform that, over time, will secure and govern all of an enterprise’s traffic as the perimeter evolves into a new high-performance worldwide cloud edge. This latest investment from the top enterprise and security investors in the world is proof of not only our enormous success in establishing Netskope as the new gold standard for cloud-delivered security, but also that the astounding level of global demand we’re seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Netskope has become the unrivaled leader driving innovation across cloud, data and network security, which makes up the largest part of today's security market,” said Patrick Fu, managing partner at Sequoia Capital Global Equities. “Netskope is raising the bar for game changers who are successfully pushing beyond the limitations of existing technology to reshape a market. Sanjay and the entire Netskope team are on an incredible trajectory, and we are thrilled to partner with this talented team for the long term.”

Netskope 2019 Momentum Highlights

  • 80 percent year-over-year growth in number of customers, which includes 25 percent of the Fortune 100
  • Nearly 50 percent growth in employee headcount, with significant investments in engineering and sales
  • Expanded executive bench to include CFO Drew Del Matto, Chief Development Officer David Wu, and SVP Platform Engineering Joe DePalo
  • Opened new worldwide offices in Paris, São Paulo, Seattle, New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, Tokyo and a new headquarters in Santa Clara
  • Expanded internationally in Australia, Singapore, Chile, Columbia, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Spain, and Germany
  • Named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) for the third year in a row
  • Ranked among the Forbes Cloud 100 for the third year in a row, rising 25 spots from last year’s placement to #64
  • Launched NewEdge, the globally distributed network that enables the Netskope cloud-native security platform to deliver real-time security without compromising performance
  • Released the industry’s only next-generation SWG solution that seamlessly consolidates inline cloud-native SWG, inline cloud-native CASB and Cloud DLP capabilities
  • Unveiled Netskope Private Access, a cloud-based service for secure access to private enterprise applications in both the public cloud and the data center
  • Opened 26 new data centers to allow Netskope to run on one of the world’s largest and fastest security networks NewEdge, enabling the Netskope cloud-native security platform to deliver real-time security without compromising performance


U.S. Cellular launches LTE-M

U.S. Cellular launched its LTE-M network on more than 90% of its cell sites nationwide. The carrier aims to have LTE-M running on 100% of its cell sites in the second quarter of 2020.

U.S. Cellular’s said its LTE-M network is ideal for IoT solutions such as fleet and asset management, tank monitoring, smart meters and other applications because of its low power wide area technology (LPWAN) that provides extended coverage at a lower cost. Low power or battery-limited LTE-M devices can be less complex, lower cost and built for mass adoption of IoT applications and deployment.

“Our LTE-M network brings our business and government customers capabilities and features that will enable an entirely new set of use cases to help them improve their operations and grow their business,” said Jim Anetsberger, vice president of business sales at U.S. Cellular. “We want to set our IoT customers up for future success with solutions that are designed to meet their specific needs. Working together with our vendors and customers, we can unleash the potential of our LTE-M network.”

U.S. Cellular currently supports several LTE-M modules, including the Telit ME910C1-WW and ME910C1-NA, Quectel BG96 and u-blox SARA-R410M, with additional vendors coming soon. As the company continues to build out and evolve its LTE-M network, new features and capabilities will be added.

https://business.uscellular.com

DOCOMO invests in Wiliot for Bluetooth sensors

NTT DOCOMO Ventures made an equity investment in Wiliot Ltd., a start-up based in Caesarea, Israel, that has developed sticker-sized, always-on Bluetooth sensor tags that can operate without battery and can be used for object tracking solutions.

Wiliot's cloud-connected sensor, which is the size of a postage stamp, offers Bluetooth and RFID. It can operate battery-free by capturing the electric power of radio waves from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. In addition to transmitting encrypted ID information, the product is able to detect temperature levels and product pickup movements without special sensor devices. Any Bluetooth Low Energy communication device such as a phone, smart speaker and many Wi-Fi access points can receive information from the product. Later this year Wiliot expects to announce mass production of its product.

Facebook activates data center in New Albany, Ohio

Facebook activated a new hyperscale data center in New Albany, Ohio. Facebook broke ground on this data center in August 2017.


Facebook also announced plans to expand the New Albany Data Center facility by adding two more buildings, makig this a nearly 2.5 million square foot campus. Once completed, this facility will represent an investment of more than $1 billion and support over 150 jobs.

https://www.facebook.com/NewAlbanyDataCenter/


New Albany is a town of about 8,500 people located in the geographic center of Ohio, about 20 miles to the northeast of Columbus, and at an elevation of 1,000 feet.

Like Facebook's other recent data center projects, this new facility will be powered 100% by renewable energy and it will used Open Compute Project architecture and principles, including direct evaporative cooling by outdoor air.

The New Albany data center will be 900,000 square feet in size and located on a 22 acre parcel.