Orange Business forms strategic pact with Amazon Web Services

Orange Business Services  announced a global strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As part of this agreement, a dedicated Cloud Center of Excellence will be built on AWS, coordinating joint development of an extensive training and certification program for more than 3,000 Orange Business Services cloud, cybersecurity, digital and data experts.

“We are delighted with the business opportunities this partnership will bring to us and to our customers. This collaboration with AWS extends our relationship, leveling up our capabilities to simplify and accelerate customers’ cloud transformations. Customers appreciate having a combination of our cloud excellence to address their specific needs as well as our global vision with local care,” said Stefan Kanis, Senior Vice President Cloud Business Unit, Orange Business Services.

“We are excited to support Orange Business Services as they enable customers globally and across industries to migrate and modernize their applications to AWS,” said Doug Yeum, Head of Global Partner Organization, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Orange Business Services brings a unique set of capabilities across connectivity, design, migration, security and local delivery. Together, we offer a proven digital transformation roadmap to help customers leverage the breadth and depth of AWS services to quickly develop and deploy cloud native applications that are highly secure, resilient, and performant.

Orange has also become part of the AWS Channel Reseller Program, allowing it to resell AWS services to its customers as part of its value-added services and solutions.

https://www.orange-business.com/en

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Nutanix sees rising demand fornew products and new workloads

 Nutanix reported revenue of $312.8 million for the first quarter of its fiscal 2021, down 0.6% from the same period a year ago. Non-GAAP gross margin was 81.9%, up from 80% a year earlier. 

“We are pleased with our financial performance in the first quarter, which marked a strong start to fiscal 2021 including increased adoption of new products as well as continued growth in our core hyperconverged infrastructure software,” said Dheeraj Pandey, Chairman, Co-Founder and CEO of Nutanix. “After launching our solutions on AWS in August, we announced a major partnership with Microsoft to develop our portfolio on Azure, placing the Nutanix HCI (Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure) at a significant competitive advantage to help our customers build out their hybrid and multicloud environments.”

“Our ACV-first strategy and solid go-to-market execution drove outperformance across all key financial metrics including ACV billings growth of 10 percent year-over-year and run-rate ACV growth of 29 percent year-over-year,” said Duston Williams, CFO of Nutanix. “Looking ahead, we remain focused on thoughtfully managing operating expenses as we continue to execute on our business model transformation and are confident in Nutanix’s ability to drive long-term growth for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

https://ir.nutanix.com/company/investors/default.aspx

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Broadband Forum publishes 3 specs targeting 5G

Broadband Forum published three new standards including 5G Wireless Wireline Convergence Architecture (TR-470), Access Gateway Function (AGF) Functional Requirements (TR-456) and Device Data Model (TR-181). Together, these documents provide functions and interfaces for Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), the AGF, and customer premises equipment (CPE) such as 5G-enabled routers.

Highlights:

• TR-470 – produced in conjunction with 3GPP – describes the 5G FMC architecture, providing a high-level guide for network architects and planners and enabling fixed and mobile functions to coexist over a shared infrastructure. This will facilitate multi-access connectivity and give consumers a seamless, access-independent service experience.
• TR-456 describes the functional requirements of the access gateway function. The AGF resides between fixed access networks and the 5G core network to support 5G and wireline Residential Gateways, creating a truly converged deployment. Alongside this, Broadband Forum’s Device: 2 data model (TR-181 Issue 2 Amendment 14), which is used by User Services Platform (USP), has been extended to address 5G Residential Gateways. The Device: 2 data model applies to all types of TR-069 or USP-enabled devices, including end devices, Residential Gateways, and other network infrastructure devices.
• TR-124 - the Functional Requirements for Broadband Residential Gateway Devices specification is expected to be finalized in Q4 2020. Moving from the network into the home, TR-124 has been extended to add requirements related to the 5G Residential Gateway extending the 5G control plane to the premises to open up new service opportunities with real time fulfillment.

“Operators are keen to harness and deploy fifth generation technology to exploit new opportunities to enhance existing revenue streams and secure new ones by launching new services and applications,” said Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh. “Spanning the full scope of the network, including CPE, these specifications take a holistic approach to network management and operation and will greatly accelerate 5G deployments, ensuring operator confidence through an open ecosystem.”

https://www.broadband-forum.org/projects/5g

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Russia's MTS builds private net based on Ericsson for mining company

 Russian communications service provider Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is to deploy an Ericsson-powered 5G-ready dedicated network for gold and silver producer Polymetal at the Nezhdaninskoye gold deposit in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). This is expected to be the first commercial Private LTE network in Russia for remote monitoring and managing critical processes in difficult geographic and weather conditions.

The Ericsson Dedicated Networks solution includes a full-fledged carrier-grade network core, supports 4G and 5G Non-Standalone simultaneously and allows dual-mode core capability to support 5G New Radio Standalone. The mining site is known for its harsh climatic conditions and mountainous terrain.

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Etisalat leverages Ciena's Blue Planet for DWDM orchestration

Etisalat is using software from Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, for end-to-end multi-vendor DWDM Transport network orchestration in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

The Blue Planet software has been designed to support Etisalat’s specific intelligent automation requirements and has been implemented in close collaboration with Etisalat. The companies cite substantial efficiency gains achieved via the Blue Planet Multi Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) at the Transport DWDM Network level, which is integrated with Etisalat’s existing OSS inventory and automation systems to execute closed loop automation. Blue Planet also provides automated fiber diversity by integrating with a GIS system, while orchestrating service provisioning across the multi-vendor and multi-domain WDM network. Additionally, the Blue Planet software will support Etisalat to dynamically tune and adjust Bandwidth on Demand (BoD), enabling its customers to quickly self-provision network resources whenever needed.

Rick Hamilton, Senior Vice President, Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, said: “Across the globe, operators are using automation to create networks that can handle the ever-changing expectations of their users and Etisalat is at the forefront of that movement. Our Blue Planet software will support this network transformation to accelerate service delivery.”

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NTU Singapore develops transceiver test for V2X with Keysight

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) is working with Keysight Technologies to develop a transceiver test bench for a hybrid vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication system.

To fully realize smart mobility, there are several technology challenges including V2X, which is a rapidly emerging technology. V2X technologies include dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) and cellular-V2X (C-V2X). However, a single unified V2X test solution does not currently exist.

NTU Singapore is currently conducting research on a reconfigurable transceiver system specifically for hybrid (DSRC+C-V2X) communication at 5.9 GHz ISM band. This also includes possible extension to the millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency range using cost-effective complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

Keysight provided NTU with test solutions and capabilities for generating and analyzing both DSRC and C-V2X signals. This included testing and validation requirements for multi-components and system-level specifications in V2X communication standards, as well as 5G signal generation and analysis in the mmWave frequency range and multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) mode. As a result, NTU could generate accurate and full characterization of the newly developed transceiver.

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