LightCounting: Sales of optics to cloud companies on pace

Despite supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of optical components and modules to cloud companies seem to remain on track, according to LightCounting's new 2020 Mega Datacenter Optics Report.

The report provides sales projections of more than 50 product categories of Ethernet optical transceivers, DWDM optics, Active Optical Cables (AOCs) and Embedded Optical Modules (EOMs), segmented into three main applications: telecom, enterprise and cloud. The Cloud segment includes optics used inside the mega-datacenters of Cloud companies as well as in DCI routes.

"The COVID-19 pandemic brought in a new set of disruptions in early 2020. Many projects were delayed, including construction of new datacenters. Facebook postponed planned deployments of 200GbE until 2021, but ongoing deployments of 400GbE at Amazon and Google seem to remain on schedule and the market for Ethernet transceivers as a whole is expected to show modest growth in 2020. Demand for 100GbE optics from Chinese Cloud companies is likely to set a new record this year."

"With growing anti-globalization sentiment around the world, we expect that regional and national Cloud companies will take a lead in providing Cloud services. It will take many years for these companies to reach the scale of the leading American and Chinese Cloud giants, which translates to a bit slower growth for sales of optics to the Cloud segment. Emerging AI applications and growth in edge datacenters create additional demand for high speed optics, including AOCs and DWDM connections."


https://www.lightcounting.com/light-trends/sales-optics-cloud-companies-seem-be-largely-immune-covid-19/

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Microsoft expands Azure Virtual WAN capabilities

Microsoft Azure is adding the ability to deploy and run third-party Network Virtual Appliances such as SD-WAN natively within the Azure Virtual WAN hubs.

Azure Virtual WAN provides a service architecture to take full advantage of Microsoft's fast global network. Virtual WAN makes it easy to connect Virtual Networks (VNets), Azure ExpressRoute, VPN, and now SD-WAN in "virtual hubs."

Microsoft says its connectivity agnostic approach allows full transit between branches, sites, mobile users, and services using Azure's global infrastructure.

Barracuda is the first Virtual WAN partner to integrate its SD-WAN natively within the Azure Virtual WAN hubs.

Microsoft Azure is also announcing the general availability of hub-to-hub connectivity, custom routing, Firewall Manager, and several other connectivity capabilities in Azure Virtual WAN.

New Virtual WAN Partners Cisco SD-WAN powered by Meraki and VMware now supporting automation of IPsec connectivity between their branch VPN/SD-WAN devices and Azure Virtual WAN VPN service.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/running-sdwan-virtual-appliances-natively-in-azure-virtual-wan/

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Multi-access Edge Computing spec expected in Q3

The 5G Future Forum expects to release its first specification for Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) in the third quarter of 2020.

• The “MEC Experience Management” technical specification defines a set of intent-based APIs for functional exposure of edge and workload discovery with potential expansion to include future MEC functions and capabilities which are driven by network intelligence
• The “MEC Deployment” technical specification defines the set of specifications to enable hyperscalers and service providers to deploy and integrate global MEC physical frameworks, including facilities (e.g. power and cooling), monitoring, operational considerations, and security.

The 5G Future Forum was established in January 2020 by América Móvil, KT Corp., Rogers, Telstra, Verizon, and Vodafone to develop 5G interoperability specifications to accelerate the delivery of 5G and MEC solutions around the world. Over the past six months, the Forum’s founding members have been working to create the governance structure for the 5GFF, as well as develop both technical and commercial workstreams.

The specifications will be released in August 2020. Following release of the specifications, the Forum anticipates expanding its membership to qualified new entrants. Other topics are being planned among the existing members with publication timeframes to be communicated shortly.

“The 5G Future Forum was set up to unlock the full potential of 5G and MEC applications and solutions around the globe,” said Rima Qureshi, chief strategy officer, Verizon. “5G is a key enabler of the next industrial revolution, where technology should transform how we live and work through applications including machine learning, autonomous industrial equipment, smart cars and cities, Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented and virtual reality. The release of these first specifications marks a major step forward in helping companies around the world create a seamless global experience for their customers.”

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NTT Ltd. expands cloud exchange in U.S. with Packet Fabric

NTT Ltd.’s Global Data Centers division, one of the world’s largest data center providers, is now offering data center customers in the U.S. access to cloud exchange services from PacketFabric. NTT’s Cloud Connect portfolio enables customers to integrate public clouds with their enterprise applications running in NTT’s data centers.

PacketFabric’s Network-as-a-Service platform leverages an automated SDN-based network architecture and a private, secure network to enable dynamic, real-time connectivity services between colocation facilities at terabit-scale. PacketFabric facilitates private network connectivity between more than 170 colocation facilities across 24 global markets and enables cost-effective, scalable network deployment via its Application Program Interface (API) and web-based portal.

NTT’s Cloud Connect portfolio provides a range of connectivity options and solution partners, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud, as well as hundreds of other clouds and networks.

“We are truly a cloud exchange-neutral data center that offers our customers best-in-class cloud connectivity solutions,” said Doug Adams, President and CEO of NTT Ltd.’s Global Data Centers Americas division (formerly known as RagingWire Data Centers). “With options such as PacketFabric to choose from, hyperscale and enterprise companies will find a cloud exchange provider that provides the best experience for them.” 

“Our customers appreciate having broad points of presence, and connectivity speeds from 50 Mbps up to 100 Gbps,” said Shoieb Yunus, Director of Network Strategy at NTT Ltd.’s Global Data Centers Americas division. “They can enjoy those benefits by accessing PacketFabric through our Cloud Connect portfolio.”

“We’re excited to partner with NTT and provide PacketFabric’s Network-as-a-Service solution to its expanding customer base,” said Dave Ward, CEO at PacketFabric. “Our platform is built for today’s enterprise customers who want to get to market faster and our collaboration with NTT will greatly expand access to our network fabric.”

NTT operates the third-largest data center platform in the world, with over 160 data centers spanning more than 20 countries and regions. NTT Ltd.’s Global Data Centers Americas division operates data centers in Ashburn, Virginia; Dallas, Texas; and Sacramento, California, with new data center campuses under construction in Silicon Valley, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Hillsboro, Oregon.

PacketFabric appoints Dave Ward as CTO

Tuesday, April 21, 2020  People  

PacketFabric, which operates a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform for providing data center interconnects, named Dave Ward as its new CEO.

Ward joins PacketFabric from Cisco, where he was the company’s Chief Technology Officer of Engineering, Chief Architect and a Senior Vice President at Cisco’s Networking and Security Business.

While at Cisco, Ward and his engineering teams built numerous hardware and software products, including networking orchestration and automation, virtualized and cloud-native services, cloud networking and security products, 5G Networking and system architectures, and IoT-based solutions for smart cities, healthcare, conservation, media and entertainment.  He joined Cisco in 1999 when the company acquired the Internet Engineering Group.

Ward is also one of two individuals to be both Cisco and Juniper Fellows working on the operating system and next-generation routing systems, including ASICS, Optics, and network APIs and SDN.

“I could not be more excited to join PacketFabric at this critical juncture in the company’s trajectory. During a career spanning over two decades in the telecommunications and networking sectors, I’ve been privileged to drive innovation for Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. PacketFabric is fundamentally rethinking enterprise and service communications in a way that others have not. I’ve been very impressed with PacketFabric’s technology, go-to- market and business models, strong customer feedback and unique talent. I believe PacketFabric can lead and positively disrupt the next phase of transformation for the networking industry. I’m honored excited to lead the company at this critical time in Internet history,” stated Ward.

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Graphcore debuts 2nd gen AI processor, blade and data center fabric

Graphcore, a start-up based in the UK, introduced its second-generation Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU) platform with greater processing power, more memory and built-in scalability for handling extremely large Machine Intelligence workloads.

The IPU-Machine M2000 is a plug-and-play Machine Intelligence compute blade that delivers one PetaFlop of Machine Intelligence compute and includes integrated networking technology. Each blade is powered by four of Graphcore' new 7nm Colossus Mk2 GC200 IPU processors. Each chip contains more than 59.4 billion transistors on a single 823sqmm die. TSMC is Graphcore fab partner. Each IPU has 900MB of ultra-high-speed SRAM In-Processor Memory.

Multiple blades can work in unison in massive datacenter-scale systems of up to 64,000 IPUs - an "IPU-POD" that a maximum configuration would represent 16 ExaFlops of Machine Intelligence compute power.

Graphcore has developed its own low-latency IPU-Fabric technology to connects IPUs across the entire datacenter. A dedicated IPU-Gateway chip delivers 2.8 Tbps of bandwidth for each IPU-Machine M2000. The overall bandwidth grows to many Petabits/sec when multiple IPU-Machine M2000 systems are connected together.

https://www.graphcore.ai/posts/introducing-second-generation-ipu-systems-for-ai-at-scale

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Singapore's Transcelestial raises US$9.6M for free space optics

Transcelestial, a start-up based in Singapore, has raised US$9.6 million in Series A funding for its work in free space laser communications.

The funding round was co-led by EDBI, a Singapore Government investment arm, and Wavemaker Partners. The round included participation by new investors Airbus Ventures, Cap Vista, the strategic investment arm of the Defence Science and Technology Agency of Singapore, Partech and Tekton Ventures, with participation from existing investors Entrepreneur First and SEEDS Capital, an investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, and 2 previous angels.

Transcelestial has built a proprietary Wireless Laser Communication (a.k.a Wireless Fibre Optics) technology which combines the speed of fibre optics with the flexibility of radio waves in order to overcome some of these bottlenecks.  The company's CENTAURI network device creates a wireless distribution network between buildings, traditional cell towers, street-level poles and other physical infrastructure. At launch, there are two versions of devices available - 1 Gbps Full Duplex (4G & Enterprise ready) and 10 Gbps Full Duplex (5G-ready). Higher bandwidth capabilities will be unlocked and available for order shortly.

“With the Series A capital raise, we are now working actively to get CENTAURI in the hands of customers globally within the next 12 months. In order to deliver on this global promise, we have set up a manufacturing capability which will scale into the world’s largest for production of CENTAURI class Wireless Fibre Optics devices. This will bring our groundbreaking proprietary technology of real time optical alignment and weather compensation to within a commercial price point,” said Dr. Mohammad Danesh, CTO and Co-Founder of Transcelestial.

Transcelestial is also developing a constellation of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit with the aim of delivering an ultra high speed backbone network connectivity.

“At Airbus Ventures we’ve been particularly impressed to see how Rohit, Danesh, and the Transcelestial team have built crucial connectivity elements that have immediate application in these challenging times, and now have a solid basis to develop these capabilities toward a game-changing leap in connectivity delivered from Low Earth Orbit,” comments Thomas d’Halluin, Airbus Ventures Managing Partner based in Menlo Park California.  Adds Dr. Lewis Pinault, Partner for Asia Pacific based in Tokyo, “as our first investment in Singapore we’re pleased to have such a marquee company as Transcelestial to help us widen our presence in the region, and we look forward to opening our new offices in Singapore in close partnership with the outstanding co-investors Transcelestial has attracted.

“Space-based laser communications is the future of Internet connectivity happening right at our doorstep. With the backdrop of burgeoning growth in Southeast Asia, we believe that Transcelestial’s Wireless Laser Communication Technology will disrupt and enable unprecedented connectivity within the region and beyond. More than that, we see Transcelestial playing a key role in putting Singapore Spacetech on the map, and seeding the growth of the regional Spacetech ecosystem as well,” said Chng Zhen Hao, CEO of Cap Vista.

http://www.transcelestial.com

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Cloudflare outage blamed on router config error

On Friday, 17-July-2020 Cloudflare suffered a major outage in several geographies, impacting websites across the world. The company provides DNS, DDoS mitigation, and content delivery network (CDN) services.

The outage last 27 minutes and Cloudflare saw a 50% drop in traffic across its network.

Cloudflare blamed the outage on a router configuration error by its network engineering team. The error caused all traffic across the Cloudflare backbone to be sent to Atlanta, quickly overwhelming the Atlanta router and causing Cloudflare network locations connected to the backbone to fail.

The affected locations were San Jose, Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, Richmond, Newark, Atlanta, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, Moscow, St. Petersburg, São Paulo, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre.

Details are posted here:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-outage-on-july-17-2020/

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Verizon and IBM work on 5G and edge computing

Verizon Business and IBM are collaborating on 5G and edge computing innovation to help enable the future of Industry 4.0. The companies plan to combine the high speed and low latency of Verizon’s 5G and Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) capabilities, IoT devices and sensors at the edge, and IBM’s expertise in AI, hybrid multicloud, edge computing, asset management and connected operations.

“The industrial sector is undergoing unprecedented transformation as companies begin to return to full-scale operations, aided by new technology to help reduce costs and increase productivity,” said Bob Lord, Senior Vice President, Cognitive Applications, Blockchain and Ecosystems, IBM. “Through this collaboration, we plan to build upon our longstanding relationship with Verizon to help industrial enterprises capitalize on joint solutions that are designed to be multicloud ready, secured and scalable, from the data center all the way out to the enterprise edge.”

“This collaboration is all about enabling the future of industry in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business. “Combining the high speed and low latency of Verizon’s 5G UWB Network and MEC capabilities with IBM’s expertise in enterprise-grade AI and production automation can provide industrial innovation on a massive scale and can help companies increase automation, minimize waste, lower costs, and offer their own clients a better response time and customer experience.”

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