Stanford develops device for fine tuning the frequencies of individual photons

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new photonic architecture capable of fine-tuning the frequencies of each individual photon in a stream of light. Potential applications could include optical neural networks.

"The structure consists of a low-loss wire for light (the black line below) carrying a stream of photons that pass by like so many cars on a busy throughway. The photons then enter a series of rings (orange), like the off-ramps in a highway cloverleaf. Each ring has a modulator (EOM in green) that transforms the frequency of the passing photons – frequencies which our eyes see as color. There can be as many rings as necessary, and engineers can finely control the modulators to dial in the desired frequency transformation."

The research, which is led by Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, is published this month in Nature Communications.

https://news.stanford.edu/2021/04/23/fine-tuning-color-light/

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Kaloom delivers UPF to Telenor’s multivendor 5G SA core

Telenor has assembled a multi-vendor, 5G core environment consisting of best of breed Network Functions from Oracle, Casa-Systems, Enea and Kaloom, all running on Red Hat's Openshift Kubernetes platform.

Kaloom, along with its partner MBUZZ Europe, confirmed that it has provided its 5G packet core User Plane Function (UPF) within Telenor’s larger ecosystem of integrated partner solutions in a unique cloud-native trial to gauge the readiness of cloud-native deployments.

Telenor recently demonstrated its Proof-of-Concept (PoC) trial with Kaloom’s UPF offering, as well as Telenor’s other partners’ web-scale, cloud-native technologies. With the eventual goal of commercializing a vendor neutral standalone 5G Core solution, the PoC demonstrated Telenor’s ability to on-board network functions provided by vendors such as Kaloom onto a microservices-based, containerized, vendor-neutral Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) architecture that features scalability, user-friendliness, resource efficiency and openness.

Kaloom’s 5G packet core User Plane Function (UPF) integrates with Red Hat OpenShift and provides a multi-tenant, high performance (multi-Tbps throughput capacity), low latency, cloud-native solution with embedded support for more secure 5G network slicing complemented by full automation capabilities to enable faster time to services and 10X TCO savings. 5G network slicing enables the creation of virtual data centers whereby an edge data center can be partitioned into multiple independent virtual data centers, where each virtual data center is provided its own virtual fabric. Each vFabric can be assigned to a different operator/customer, thus enabling multiple operators to share a common distributed cloud architecture. Tenant separation is flexible as separation is done at the hardware (port) level with full isolation offering better security and better quality of experience.

“This trial proves that a multi-vendor 5G Core is indeed possible on a vendor neutral platform. It is important to mention that we were positively surprised by the readiness of the involved partners for cloud native,” says Patrick Waldemar, Vice President, Telenor Research.

“As the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform, Red Hat OpenShift is an ideal platform to run multi-vendor, interoperable functions as a single cloud platform. Our collaboration with Kaloom enables networking, including 5G-UPF services as a first-class citizen in a containerized world, thus reducing operational challenges and accelerating time to productivity,” said Darrell Jordan-Smith, senior vice president, Industries and Global Accounts, Red Hat.

https://www.kaloom.com/

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Building a cloud-native, multivendor 5G SA mobile core

 Telenor is building a cloud-native, multivendor 5G Stand Alone (SA) core built on Red Hat OpenShift.

In this video, Hitendra Sonny Soni,  SVP Worldwide Sales & Marketing at Kaloom, talks about Telenor's proof-of-concept trial with Kaloom’s 5G packet core User Plane Function (UPF)  offering.

https://youtu.be/a9LMBDpewUU

Video: It takes a Village to Build the Edge

Sunday, October 25, 2020  Video  

The forces of cloud-native containerization are liberating today’s workloads, moving them closer to end-users. But delivering on the promise of the 5G edge will take a village, says Hitendra Sonny Soni, SVP Worldwide Sales, Kaloom. 

This 7-minute video shares key market drivers and requirements to build the edge. Kaloom, working in concert with Red Hat and Intel, offers a Unified Edge Solution.

https://youtu.be/kWMZFqlxwE4

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Thoma Bravo to acquire Proofpoint for $12.3 billion

Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sector, agreed to acquire ProofPoint for $12.3 billion in cash.

Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT), which is based in Sunnyvale, California, provides software as a service and products for inbound email security, outbound data loss prevention, social media, mobile devices, digital risk, email encryption, electronic discovery, and email archiving.

Under the deal, Proofpoint shareholders will receive $176.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 34 percent over Proofpoint’s closing share price on April 23, 2021, the last full trading day prior to the transaction announcement, and a premium of approximately 36 percent over Proofpoint’s three-month volume-weighted average closing share price through April 23, 2021. Upon completion of the transaction, Proofpoint will become a private company with the flexibility and resources to continue providing the most effective cybersecurity and compliance solutions to protect people and organizations around the world.

“Today’s announcement is a testament to the strength of Proofpoint’s people-centric approach to cybersecurity and compliance and underscores our important role preventing, defending and responding to today’s threats,” said Gary Steele, Chairman and CEO of Proofpoint. “We have made tremendous strides in expanding the sophistication and scale of our offerings, and in 2020 we generated more than $1 billion in annual revenue – making Proofpoint the first SaaS-based cybersecurity and compliance company to reach that milestone. We believe that as a private company, we can be even more agile with greater flexibility to continue investing in innovation, building on our leadership position and staying ahead of threat actors. Thoma Bravo is an experienced software investor, providing capital and strategic support to technology organizations, and our partnership will accelerate Proofpoint’s growth and scale at an even faster pace. ”

Thoma Bravo to privatize Barracuda Networks for $1.6B

Monday, November 27, 2017  Barracuda, Privatization, Security  

Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity firm, will acquire all shares of Barracuda Networks (NYSE: CUDA) in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.6 billion. Barracuda shareholders will receive $27.55 in cash for each share of Barracuda common stock they hold. The price represents a premium of 22.5 percent to the company's 10-day average stock price prior to Nov. 27, 2017, of $22.49. Barracuda supplies appliance and cloud-enabled solutions for data...

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Thoma Bravo to Acquire Majority Stake in DigiCert

Sunday, August 30, 2015  Mergers And Acquisitions, Security, SSL, Thoma Bravo  

Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm, agreed to acquire a majority interest in DigiCert from TA Associates, another private equity firm currently holding the majority share. Financial terms were not disclosed. DigiCert is a global SSL Certificate Authority (CA) and the leading provider of trusted certificate management solutions.  The company provides its digital certificates to over 115,000 customers in more than 180 countries,...

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Riverbed Enters $3.6 Billion Privatization Deal with Thoma Bravo

Monday, December 15, 2014  Privatization, Riverbed, Thoma Bravo  

Riverbed Technology (RVBD) announced a privatization deal with Thoma Bravo, LLC and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investor department of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Riverbed stockholders will receive $21.00 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $3.6 billion. Riverbed CEO Jerry Kennelly will remain with the company as CEO. “We are extremely pleased with this transaction, which we believe will be a winning proposition for all...

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Thoma Bravo buys Veracode from Broadcom for $950 million

Sunday, January 13, 2019  Broadcom  

Thoma Bravo, completed its previously announced acquisition of Veracode Software, a provider in next-generation application security testing (AST), from Broadcom in an all-cash transaction valued at $950 million. Veracode's SaaS platform and integrated solutions assist security teams and software developers with finding and fixing security-related defects throughout the software development lifecycle. Veracode's innovative approach allows it

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UK's WPD Telecoms deploys Infinera’s XTM metro optical

WPD Telecoms, Western Power Distribution’s telecoms division, selected Infinera’s XTM Series metro optical platform for its high-capacity network, enabling delivery of next-generation high-speed services to its customers across South West England.

WPD Telecoms is currently rolling out new optical infrastructure to build an advanced 100G/200G optical transport network, positioning the company for a smooth transition to the latest generation of 400G pluggable optical technology.

WPD Telecoms said its new network enables the company to meet the increasing demand for optical and packet-based high-speed services. 

“WPD Telecoms invests in the latest leading-edge technology. That is why we selected Infinera’s XTM Series for this major new network,” said Richard Slane, WPD Telecoms Commercial Manager. “We have always found that Infinera’s metro and regional solutions have provided the capacity and functionality we’ve needed, while also being easy to use and very power efficient. We are confident the XTM will provide our network with the capacity required now and will scale easily to 400G when we’re ready.”

“Enhancing WPD Telecoms’ network with Infinera’s latest XTM Series will enable the company to continue offering its customers reliable, high-capacity, low-latency bandwidth using the latest technology in the industry,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Sales at Infinera. “WPD Telecoms’ longstanding relationship with Infinera and its ongoing selection of Infinera’s metro and regional solutions underscore the value Infinera’s platforms deliver to network operators.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/wpd-telecoms-deploys-new-regional-network-with-infinera-xtm-series

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AT&T boosts its fiber broadband tiers

AT&T is increasing its minimum fiber broadband tier from 100 Mbps symmetric to 300 Mbps.  Pricing starts at $35 per month. AT&T also offers 500 Mbps and Gigabit speed plans.

https://about.att.com/story/2021/att_fiber_enhancements.html

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Ajit Pai joins Searchlight Capital Partners

Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has joined Searchlight Capital Partners, a leading global private investment firm, as a Partner.

Pai first joined the FCC as a Commissioner in 2012, after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. In 2017, he was designated Chairman by President Donald Trump and was again confirmed by the Senate.

Commenting on his new role, Mr. Pai states: “I am excited to join the Searchlight team and help build on the firm’s demonstrated success in the technology media, and telecommunications sectors, especially with respect to digital infrastructure—an area that is essential to consumers and businesses in the United States and around the world. Searchlight’s flexible investment strategy and partnership-driven approach have distinguished it from its peers, allowing the firm to capitalize on opportunities that provide value for its clients and the companies it invests in. I look forward to joining Eric, Erol, and Oliver, and contributing to the firm’s continued investment efforts.”

Searchlight's current portfolio includes: Bezeq (Israel), Consolidated Communications, EOLO (Italy), Liberty Latin America, Mitel, Rackspace, Unity, Univision, and Ziply Fiber, amongst others.

https://www.searchlightcap.com/

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Red Hat cites hybrid cloud wins with communications service providers

 Red Hat announced that several communications service providers (CSPs) have chosen its open hybrid cloud technologies to virtualize and containerize their networks, enabling the faster delivery of new and innovative applications and services. These implementations include:

• HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider and a leading innovator, has worked with Red Hat to diversify and expand the services on its unified online shopping platform, Club Shopping, built on Red Hat OpenShift. Another example is the launch of DrGo, an end-to-end app-based platform, which provides telemedicine services by connecting users with Hong Kong registered doctors and other healthcare professionals through the app. Through the enhanced reliability and flexibility of OpenShift, HKT is now able to react more quickly to market shifts, improving its nimbleness while still delivering innovative new services to its customers.
• Proximus, Belgium’s largest telecommunications provider, is standardizing its NFV strategy on Red Hat OpenStack Platform supported by Red Hat Ceph Storage, Proximus can now run critical service functions in a cost-effective, scalable way, lowering associated costs by 20%. Additionally, by using Red Hat OpenShift for its web properties and cloud-native development environment, Proximus is able to deploy and run container-based microservices at scale, saving approximately $35,000 in monthly infrastructure setup and maintenance costs.
• Samsung, a leader in innovative mobile communications, engaged with Red Hat to expand deployment options of its 5G solutions, including 5G Core and Radio Access Network (RAN), by applying them to Red Hat OpenShift. Samsung completed the testing and validation of its 5G core CNF on Red Hat OpenShift for a joint customer deployment. Samsung is also planning to test and validate its 5G vRAN on Red Hat OpenShift.
• Telecom Argentina is using Red Hat OpenShift to modernize Flow, its digital-based entertainment platform, that offers live content and on demand TV series and shows, movies, games and music. Through this cloud-native platform adoption, Telecom Argentina has advanced the evolution of Flow for future challenges, with new models and new technologies also fostering a strong open source culture and DevOps mindset within the digital and cultural transformation the company is undergoing.

Honoré LaBourdette, global vice president of telco, media and entertainment, Red Hat

“Communication service providers are helping organizations at every enterprise provide groundbreaking innovation while working to modernize their networks in an incredibly competitive market. With Red Hat OpenShift, CSPs can focus on tackling the industries most exciting use cases like edge computing, standalone 5G core and more.”

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Samsung intros SSD based on 100+ layer vertical NAND

Samsung Electronics Co. introduced the industry's highest-performing 24G SAS (SAS-4) SSD, boasting twice the speed of the previous 12G SAS-3 generation. 

The new drive is the industry’s first 24G SAS SSD made with sixth-generation (1xx-layer) V-NAND chips, enabling storage capacities from 800GB to 30.72TB for advanced enterprise server systems. The PM1653 has been optimized for high-performance enterprise servers, offering the industry’s highest random read speed – a key metric for server storage performance – of up to 800K IOPS. Its sequential read speed can reach 4,300MB/s, which is the maximum available speed for the 24G SAS interface and twice the speed of the previous-generation PM1643a drive.

“As the leading provider of SAS storage for a decade, Samsung has been offering the most advanced and reliable enterprise solutions in full support of the critical workloads of global server OEMs, governments and financial institutions. Samsung enterprise solutions are also accredited by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology for the most powerful data security,” said Kwangil Park, senior vice president of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “Like we have done with the PM1653, Samsung will continue to collaborate with our customers to accommodate the ever-growing demand of the enterprise server market for the most uncompromising offerings available.”

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