HPE to acquire Silver Peak for $925M and merge it with Aruba

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) agreed to acquire Silver Peak, an SD-WAN leader, for $925 million in cash. Silver Peak will be combined with HPE’s Aruba business unit and will extend Aruba’s technology leadership in the large and fast-growing SD-WAN space.

Silver Pek, which was founded in 2004 and is a privated company based in San Jose, California, has more than 1,500 production SD-WAN customers around the world. The company is headed by its founder, David Hughes.

HPE said Silver Peak’s advanced SD-WAN offerings are highly complementary and strengthen Aruba’s Edge Service Platform (ESP). By combining Silver Peak’s SD-WAN with Aruba’s SD-Branch solutions customers can simplify branch office and WAN deployments to empower remote workforces, enable cloud-connected distributed enterprises, and transform business operations without compromising quality or reliability.

“HPE was an early mover in identifying the opportunity at the edge and that trend is accelerating in a post-COVID world,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE. “With this acquisition we are accelerating our edge-to-cloud strategy to provide a true distributed cloud model and cloud experience for all apps and data wherever they live. Silver Peak’s innovative team and technology bring critical capabilities that will help our customers modernize and transform their networks to securely connect any edge to any cloud.”

“Today’s announcement comes at a unique moment for our customers, who are grappling with business recovery in the wake of the pandemic,” said Keerti Melkote, president of Intelligent Edge for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and founder of Aruba Networks. “The need for edge-to-cloud architectures has never been more relevant as enterprises look to extend connectivity to branch locations and enable secure work-from-home experiences. Silver Peak’s technology transforms legacy WAN architectures to self-driving WANs, which is a perfect fit with Aruba’s cloud-native, AI-driven Edge Services Platform. Together, we will be able to meet these needs with critical connectivity, security, and AI capabilities to drive the next generation of Edge-to-Cloud transformation.”

“Bringing together Silver Peak’s advanced SD-WAN solutions with Aruba’s industry leading networking portfolio provides an unprecedented opportunity to deliver a comprehensive business-driven solutions to our customers,” said David Hughes, founder and CEO of Silver Peak. “The Silver Peak and Aruba teams share a common vision and goal to provide simplicity, scalability, and application-awareness at the edge. With Aruba’s extensive go-to-market, we will further accelerate our ability to drive faster adoption of these transformational technologies. We are excited for the opportunities we will have as a combined team to accelerate innovation in this fast-growing segment of the networking market.”

• HP acquired Aruba in 2015 for $2.7 billion.

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LF Edge takes on Service Device Onboard project

 LF Edge, which is the  umbrella organization under The Linux Foundation that aims to establish an open, interoperable framework for edge computing independent of hardware, silicon, cloud, or operating system, has launched a new Secure Device Onboard (SDO) project that is based on open source software from Intel. The original Intel SDO launched in September 2017 as a stand-alone Intel product reflecting the original SDO protocol and architecture specifications.

Secure Device Onboard is an automated "Zero-Touch" onboarding service. A primary objective of Secure Device Onboard is to expand the addressable market for IOT devices.  LF Edge is looking for the collaboration of device manufacturers, distributors, systems integrators, cloud service providers, and device management software vendors.

SDO  joins LF Edge's other projects including: Akraino Edge Stack, Baetyl,  EdgeX Foundry, Fledge, Home Edge, Open Horizon, Project EVE and State of the Edge. These projects support emerging edge applications across areas such as non-traditional video and connected things that require lower latency and faster processing and mobility. By forming a software stack that brings together the best of cloud, enterprise and telecom, LF Edge helps to unify a fragmented edge market around a common, open vision for the future of the industry.

LF Edge also announced a new collaborative white paper, "Sharpening the Edge: Overview of the LF Edge Taxonomy and Framework." The paper highlights emerging use cases in telecom, industrial, enterprise and consumer markets.The paper also provides details of eight LF Edge open source edge projects.

"We are thrilled to see such strong cross-community collaboration within LF Edge and beyond," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge & IoT, the Linux Foundation. "A diverse set of members from various companies came together to help define our unified approach to open edge computing, which is a key tenant of LF Edge. Concurrently, we welcome the Secure Device Onboard project and four new member organizations to the fold as we prepare for more edge computing milestones to come in H2."

https://www.lfedge.org/

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Sparkle powers Curie subsea cable with Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme

Sparkle is enhancing its fibers on the Curie submarine cable with Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) technology, enabling a total transmission capacity of up to 450Gbps per channel – which is two times faster than previously available technology - across the 10,476km cable. This will result in an ultimate capacity of up to 19Tbps and a 30 percent increase in the network’s ability, giving end-users the possibility to enjoy more HD video and cloud computing applications.

Sparkle will also have direct connectivity between data centers in the U.S. and Chile using Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme Submarine Network Solution powered by WL5e. In addition, through Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller, Sparkle will be provided with real-time intelligence and visibility to help its network proactively identify connectivity issues.

“Curie is a major addition for Sparkle, as it expands our American backbone with direct Chile to U.S. connectivity. WaveLogic 5 pushes the envelope and helps us execute on our network evolution plans to continue supporting next-generation applications that require endless bandwidth,” commented Enrico Bagnasco, Sparkle’s Chief Technology Officer.

“Ciena’s coherent optical innovations are the industry gold standard. With WaveLogic 5, Sparkle can boost network scalability and forge a path to support the digital economy,” added Fabio Medina, Ciena’s General Manager and Vice President of Sales in Latin America. “Sparkle’s upgraded network opens a new connectivity route to Chile and enables its customers to have faster, more reliable bandwidth as they stream content and use the cloud.”

Sparkle adds fiber pair on Google’s Curie US-Chile cable

Wednesday, May 06, 2020  Chile, Google, Subsea, TI Sparkle  

TI Sparkle will gain access to a fiber pair on Google's new Curie submarine cable system connecting Los Angeles to Valparaiso, Chile.

The new fiber pair on Curie will be fully integrated with Sparkle’s global backbone, increasing redundancy and offering a fourth diversified route to directly connect South and North America, complementing its 2017 addition of the Seabras-1 cable in the Atlantic.

Sparkle said its newest highways, Curie in the Pacific and Seabras-1 in the Atlantic, position it as the best-in-class choice for OTTs, ISPs, enterprises, Content/Application Providers and Asian players looking for global connectivity through its City2City transport service and its global Tier-1, Seabone IP transit service.

https://www.tisparkle.com/GoogleCurie

Google completes California-to-Chile subsea cable

Sunday, November 17, 2019  Chile, Google, Subsea  

Google's 10,500-km "Curie" subsea cable stretching from California to Chile is now ready for service. The new cable is equipped four 18 Tbps fiber optic pairs, a design capacity of 72 Tbps.

Google also announced the first Curie branch into Panama. Subcom has been selected for the project.

Curie represents Google's third wholly-owned subsea cable. The other projects are Dunant, which crosses the Atlantic from Virginia to France, and Equiano, which will link Portugal to South Africa.

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Norway picks Telia Carrier to build 3rd fiber route abroad

The Norwegian Communications Authority has chosen Telia Carrier to establish a new secure route extending out of the country.

Currently, most Internet traffic from Norway follows two paths through Sweden. A third route is needed in case all connections through Sweden are lost.

The new route will run from Oslo via Kristiansand to Esbjerg, Denmark where it will connect into the wider Telia Carrier pan-European network. The route will include two new PoP (Point of Presence) locations, independent of Telia Carrier’s existing PoPs, in the data center OS-IX (Oslo Internet Exchange) in Oslo and the hyperscale N01 Campus in Kristiansand, both owned by Bulk Infrastructure. Bulk is already well advanced in the planning of the new ‘Havsil’ subsea cable between Kristiansand and northern Denmark and aim to have the system ready for service end of 2021. 

“With this agreement, we facilitate increased geographical distribution of traffic between Norway and abroad on a daily basis, and we also ensure that our national needs are taken care of should serious incidents occur that affect the existing international traffic to Sweden”, said Elise K. Lindeberg. Director, Security Department at Norwegian Communications Authority.

“The ‘Havsil’ cable will be the shortest route connecting Norway to continental Europe, and it improves diversity by avoiding the traditional fiber routes. I am very pleased to welcome a Tier one carrier like Telia Carrier to our sites where we jointly enable the Nordics with sustainable infrastructure” said Peder Nærbø, Founder and Chairman of Bulk Infrastructure.

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Analog Devices to buy Maxim Integrated Products

Analog Devices agreed to acquire Maxim Integrated Products in an all stock transaction that values the combined enterprise at over $68 billion.

Maxim stockholders will receive 0.630 of a share of ADI common stock for each share of Maxim common stock. Upon closing, current ADI stockholders will own approximately 69 percent of the combined company, while Maxim stockholders will own approximately 31 percent.

ADI said the combination strengthens its analog semiconductor leadership position with expected revenue of $8.2 billion and free cash flow of $2.7 billion1 on a pro forma basis. Maxim’s strength in the automotive and data center markets, combined with ADI’s strength across the broad industrial, communications and digital healthcare markets are highly complementary and aligned with key secular growth trends. With respect to power management, Maxim’s applications-focused product offerings complement ADI’s catalog of broad market products.

“Today’s exciting announcement with Maxim is the next step in ADI’s vision to bridge the physical and digital worlds. ADI and Maxim share a passion for solving our customers’ most complex problems, and with the increased breadth and depth of our combined technology and talent, we will be able to develop more complete, cutting-edge solutions,” said Vincent Roche, President and CEO of ADI. “Maxim is a respected signal processing and power management franchise with a proven technology portfolio and impressive history of empowering design innovation. Together, we are well-positioned to deliver the next wave of semiconductor growth, while engineering a healthier, safer and more sustainable future for all.”

“For over three decades, we have based Maxim on one simple premise – to continually innovate and develop high-performance semiconductor products that empower our customers to invent. I am excited for this next chapter as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, together with ADI. Both companies have strong engineering and technology know-how and innovative cultures. Working together, we will create a stronger leader, delivering outstanding benefits to our customers, employees and shareholders,” said Tunç Doluca, President and CEO of Maxim Integrated.

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Verizon pilots Google Cloud Contact Cente

Verizon is testing Google Cloud Contact Center Artificial Intelligence to deliver more intuitive customer support through natural-language recognition, faster processing, and real-time customer service agent assistance.

The Google Cloud Contact Center AI solution aims to deliver shorter call times, quicker resolutions, and improved outcomes for customer satisfaction.

“Verizon’s commitment to innovation extends to all aspects of the customer experience,” said Shankar Arumugavelu, global CIO & SVP, Verizon. “These customer service enhancements, powered by the Verizon collaboration with Google Cloud, offer a faster and more personalized digital experience for our customers while empowering our customer support agents to provide a higher level of service.”

“We’re proud to work with Verizon to help enable its digital transformation strategy,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “By helping Verizon reimagine the customer experience through our AI and ML expertise, we can create an experience that not only delights consumers, but also helps differentiate Verizon in the market.”

Verizon to deliver Google Stadia gaming

Wednesday, January 22, 2020  Google, Verizon  

Verizon will deliver Google Stadia gaming over its Fios network.

Starting January 29, new Fios Gigabit internet customers will get a Stadia Premiere Edition on us. Stadia Premiere Edition includes a controller, a free three-month Stadia Pro subscription for access to games in up to 4k/60fps, and a Google Chromecast Ultra for streaming on an existing TV.

“Fios has long been known as the leading Internet service for console gaming and streaming entertainment,” said Brian Higgins, vice president, consumer device marketing and products, Verizon. “With the recent surge in adoption of cloud gaming, led by Stadia, Fios will continue to serve as the backbone for the best cloud gaming services.”

“Google working with Verizon to deliver incredible cloud gaming experiences is a great step forward for the industry,” said Brennan Mullin, vice president, Devices and Services Partnerships, Google. “Verizon’s commitment to delivering fast, reliable Fios internet matches perfectly with Stadia’s exciting new cloud gaming, delivering an unmatched gamer experience”

Google unveiled its Stadia platform in March 2019.

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Advantech Launches Edge Network Appliance

Advantech introduced a network edge appliance with dual 10GbE SFP+ and PoE+ support, in addition to a design ready to adopt coming 5G and Wi-Fi 6 technologies.

The new Advantech FWA-1112VC white-box appliance is based on Intel Atom® processor and has been cost optimized to run SD-WAN and network security workflows. It provides flexible WAN connectivity options including 5G, 4G/LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 and 10 GbE SFP+ configurations. Encryption and compression acceleration are supported using Intel QuickAssist with DPDK providing the technology needed to accelerate packet handling without consuming additional resources. Additional features include PoE+, eMMC and dual 4G/LTE support and improved surge protection. Its fanless design allows for wide operating temperature ranges from -20 ⁰C up to +70 ⁰C to meet harsh environments requirements at the edge.

The FWA-1112VC has been validated by leading partners including ADVA and Combridge. ADVA Ensemble Connector is a virtualization platform that enables agile, automated delivery of multi-vendor software services. Combined with the new FWA-1112VC hardened appliance, it provides an open edge platform that gives service providers access to a wide variety of uCPE use cases including recent ADVA-Advantech joint smart city blueprint. Combridge, member of the Deutsche Telekom Group, offers data and internet services to business partners. By integrating the new FWA-1112VC as part of their portfolio, they are able to target new application areas at the edge and be prepared to bring the benefits of 5G and Wi-Fi 6 technologies to their customer base.

“For over 20 years, Advantech has been providing innovative networking platforms trusted by top equipment manufacturers and service providers to transform global networks,” said Sandy Chen, Head of Network Appliances & Hyper Converged Network Servers, Cloud IoT Group, Advantech. “The FWA-1112VC is another step forward in our pioneering white-box uCPE offering that extends the cloud to the edge supporting fully disaggregated network models that allow service providers and enterprises to drive innovation in the 5G and IoT era.”

The FWA-1112VC is available for evaluation and will be available for customer shipping in September 2020.

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Africa Mobile Networks charts rapid growth

Africa Mobile Networks (AMN), which serves previously unconnected communities in 10 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, processed 91,623,222 voice calls in June 2020.  This represents a rate of 1.1 billion calls per annum.

AMN now owns and operates approximately 1,200 base stations serving a population of 4 million people in 8 countries: Nigeria, DRC, Cameroon, Guinea, Zambia, Bissau, Liberia and Congo. The 2G/3G/4G mobile network services are provided by AMN on behalf of tier-1 licensed mobile network operators in each country.

The company said it is installing new base stations at a rate of about 200 per month and by the end of 2020 will have nearly 2,000 base stations.

AMN is backed by Intelsat, operator of the world's largest integrated satellite and terrestrial network.

http://www.africamobilenetworks.com

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China Telecom launches 5G SA Massive MIMO 1+X SSB

The Hunan branch of China Telecom has launched China’s first commercial 5G SA Massive MIMO 1+X SSB (Synchronization Signal and PBCH block) site with three-dimensional coverage on 3.5 GHz using equipment from ZTE.

ZTE claims that the 5G 1+X SSB site offers a better coverage compared with the traditional seven-beam sites, and that its solution can increase the data rate in the weak coverage areas by 49.5%. On the 29th floor with very weak signal, the downlink rate has stably reached over 100Mbps after the new site has been set up. In addition, the power consumption has been reduced by 5% to 10% during the low traffic periods, hence a lower TCO.

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