Ericsson introduces Packet Core Firewall powered by A10

 Ericsson introduced a Packet Core Firewall to help advance 5G core network security for communications service providers (CSPs).

The Ericsson Packet Core Firewall is powered by A10 Networks’ technology and is seamlessly integrated with Ericsson Packet Core Gateway in  Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core offering. The solution also supports end-to-end network slicing and edge computing.

Ericsson said the new cloud native offering is optimized to scale with user plane to the edge of the network to cater for secure core network 5G use cases. The company also claims the solution delivers more than 50 percent total cost of ownership reduction over dedicated user plane security solutions, while maintaining 5G latency. This is enabled through a single CNF (Cloud Native Network Function) solution with simplified maintenance and orchestration.

Folke Anger, Head of Packet Core Solutions, Ericsson, says: “Securing service availability in 5G requires a holistic view beyond dedicated security solutions. We are now launching the Ericsson Packet Core Firewall seamlessly integrated into our Packet Core Gateway. This will provide our customers with substantial total cost of ownership improvements while ensuring their 5G services to the edge.”

Dhrupad Trivedi, CEO and Board Chair, A10 Networks, says: “Mobile operators are transitioning to more cloud native and distributed architectures to support 5G. This increases the critical need for security and network availability. A10 is excited to expand our partnership with Ericsson to enable current and emerging 5G use cases. The Ericsson Packet Core Firewall powered by A10 Networks is ready for cloud native deployments and addresses the evolving business needs for operators.”

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Xilinx samples its own telco accelerator card

Xilinx has begun sampling its own T1 Telco Accelerator Card for O-RAN distributed units (O-DUs) and virtual baseband units (vBBUs) in 5G networks. 

The card, which uses the same field-proven Xilinx silicon and IP already being deployed in 5G networks, comes in a multi-function PCIe form factor card which performs both O-RAN fronthaul protocols and layer 1 offload. The card provides advanced workload offload capabilities, enabling a dramatic reduction in the number of CPU cores required in a system. The T1 card also enables the O-DU to deliver greater 5G performance and services while reducing overall system power consumption and cost compared to competitive offerings.

The T1 card is a small form factor, single-slot card that can be plugged into standard x86 or non-x86 servers to achieve the real-time protocol processing performance required for 5G virtualized O-DU platforms. In addition, it offloads line-rate and compute-intensive functions including: channel encoding/decoding using hardened LDPC and Turbo codecs, rate matching/de-matching, HARQ buffer management, and more, freeing the processor cores for running other services - the true promise of virtualization. The T1 card simplifies 5G deployments by offering a turnkey solution through ecosystem partners that includes both O-RAN fronthaul and 5G NR layer 1 reference designs, as well as pre-validated software to enable operators, system integrators, and OEMs to get to market quickly.

Xilinx says the offloading of critical channel coding functions from the CPU to the T1 card delivers up to 45x encoding and 23x decoding throughput improvement relative to the same server without acceleration. The T1 card enables the use of fewer CPU cores, driving down system cost and overall power consumption. Additionally, for O-RAN fronthaul termination, it can process multiple sectors of 5G NR 4TRX at 100 MHz OBW with its 50 Gbps of optical ports. The Fronthaul and L1 bandwidths are matched for optimal scalability; the more towers you want, the more cards you add to the server.

“The trend toward network virtualization and O-RAN has given us an opportunity with the Xilinx T1 Telco Accelerator Card to drive the next steps of disaggregation of standard networks, enabling our expansion into every corner of the 5G market,” said Dan Mansur, vice president of marketing, Wired and Wireless Group, Xilinx. “Working closely with our ecosystem partners, Xilinx hardware, IP and software are leading the innovation and realization of 5G O-RAN networks.”

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Telefónica Deutschland deploys Ciena's Blue Planet SDN for automation

Telefónica Deutschland will deploy Ciena's Blue Planet SDN software from Blue Planet to prepare its transport network in Germany to adapt to escalating data traffic and bandwidth demands from users.

Blue Planet said its Multi-Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) software is an important first step for Telefónica Deutschland's iFusion program, which aims to rapidly create, deploy and automate end-to-end service delivery across its new multi-vendor transport network.

Open Rest Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from MDSO simplify integration with other components of Telefónica Deutschland’s Operations Support System (OSS) to align the network with needs of different applications. The upgraded network utilizes open standard models, including the transport application programming interface (T-API) and OpenConfig, with Blue Planet MDSO.

“Telefónica is moving away from legacy single-vendor platforms to a model combining best-of-breed solutions from multiple vendors, enabling us to maintain diversity in our network and avoid depending on one vendor. In Germany, Blue Planet’s software executes our SDN program to enable not only multivendor transport but also automation of our network,” states Cayetano Carbajo Martín, Global Director of Technology, Telefónica GCTIO.

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Dell'Oro: Cloud data center capex rises 17% yoy in Q2

 Cloud data center capex is 17% higher year-over-year (Y/Y) in 2Q 2020 as the Cloud service providers expanded server capacity, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Meanwhile, Enterprise IT spending remains depressed.

“The major U.S. and China-based Cloud service providers have accelerated expansion of server capacity to meet the demands of remote work and learning,”said Baron Fung, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “However, signs of a digestion cycle of lower growth in the second half 2020 may be imminent as the recent build-up is potentially leading to Cloud capacity and component inventories in excess of demand,” explained Fung.

Additional highlights from the 2Q 2020 Data Center Capex Quarterly Report:

The Top 10 Cloud service providers projected to return to double-digit Y/Y growth in 1H 2021.

Worldwide Server revenue grew 10 percent Y/Y, driven by 1.3 million units of white box servers to the Cloud.

https://www.delloro.com/news/server-capacity-expansion-drove-cloud-capex-17-percent-higher-y-y-in-2q-2020/

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Dell'Oro: Network security market flat again in Q2

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to reverberate in the network security market in Q2, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. The pause in physical infrastructure projects persisted in 2Q20 as market revenue of $3.6 billion was flat year-on-year (Y/Y). The largest segment—firewalls—posted just a two percent Y/Y revenue increase. 

In contrast, the momentum to leverage cloud-based security to secure remote users and cloud applications continued in 2Q20 and drove Email Security to grow six percent Y/Y, and Secure Web Gateways to climb 14 percent Y/Y. 

“The network security market was still in the grips of the pandemic in 2Q20,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Research Director, Network Security and Data Center Appliances. “We foresee the current market dynamics to continue in 3Q20 and only begin shifting again late 2020 or early 2021, coinciding with effective therapies or vaccines for COVID-19. While we expect the overall market to shift back to stronger growth in 2021, we anticipate any recovery to be prolonged,” continued Sanchez.

Additional highlights from the 2Q20 Network Security & Data Center Appliance Quarterly Report:

• Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and Fortinet were the top three vendors in terms of revenue share, respectively.
• Zscaler, Proofpoint, and Huawei had the strongest Y/Y revenue growth, at 43 percent, 21 percent, and 13 percent respectively.

https://www.delloro.com/

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Snowflake soars in IPO -- cloud data warehousing

 Snowflake, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, completed an initial public offering (IPO) of 28,000,000 shares of Class A common stock at a price to the public of $120.00 per share. Trading (Nasdaq: SNOW) closed on Wednesday at $253.93 per share.

Snowflake is known for its cloud data platform. The company says its customers currently have more than 250PB of data managed by the Snowflake cloud data platform, with more than 515 million data workloads that run each day. The company has more than 2,000 employees in 19 countries.

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JFrog soars in IPO -- Database of DevOps

 JFrog, which describes itself as "the “Database of DevOps” and de-facto standard in release and update management", raised $509 million in an initial public offering (IPO) of 11,568,218 ordinary shares at a price to the public of $44.00 per share. 

The shares (Nasdaq: FROG) began trading on Wednesday and closed at $64.79, up 47%.

JFrog products are available as open-source, self-managed, and SaaS services on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. JFrog claims more than 5,800 customers.

JFrog has headquarters in both Netanya, Israel and Sunnyvale, California. 

https://jfrog.com/

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Champion ONE names Michael Rapp as its new CEO

 Champion ONE, a leading designer, marketer, and supplier of optical networking components worldwide, named Michael Rapp as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. As part of this transition, Pete Kirchof, C1's acting CEO, will return to his primary role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

 Rapp's extensive executive experience ranges from serving as Chief Revenue Officer at En Pointe IT Solutions to heading integration and growth strategy at Insight. He has also held key senior leadership positions at PCM, En Pointe Technologies, Software Spectrum, and Admor Memory.

"I am thrilled to be taking the helm of C1 at such an exciting time," said Mr. Rapp. "Over the last few years, the management team and employees have propelled C1 forward, achieving record-level performance and expanding C1's capabilities to serve its customers.  C1 is an industry leader with respected brands and exponential growth potential. I am humbled to be entrusted with leading this team and look forward to continuing C1's established history of recruiting top-tier talent and driving operational excellence while servicing customers at the highest levels.

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