With large amounts of data, endpoints and interactions taking place on a network, the focus on service assurance becomes even more important. In this video, Rupesh Chokshi, Vice President of AT&T Cybersecurity, discusses why service assurance and cybersecurity are critical in the ongoing management of the network.
The requirements around network quality are drastically increasing for both business and home use cases. SLAs are promising network quality with network KPIs, but how can we measure this? Meet active assurance. In this video, Stefan Vallin, Senior Product Manager at Juniper Networks, discusses how active assurance manages SLAs to ensure network quality.
The U.S. Department of Defense awarded an enterprise general-purpose cloud contract valued at up to $10 billion to Microsoft.
The DoD said the contract will address critical and urgent unmet warfighter requirements for modern cloud infrastructure at all three classification levels delivered out to the tactical edge. The contracting process began two years ago and considered four different offerors.The Pentagon said it is committed to a strategy of a multi-vendor, multi-cloud environment.
“The National Defense Strategy dictates that we must improve the speed and effectiveness with which we develop and deploy modernized technical capabilities to our women and men in uniform,” DOD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy said. “The DOD Digital Modernization Strategy was created to support this imperative. This award is an important step in execution of the Digital Modernization Strategy.”
AT&T and Google Cloud are announcing new integrated solutions including AT&T’s on-premises Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) solution, as well as AT&T Network Edge capabilities through LTE, 5G, and wireline.
The company say the AT&T Network Edge (ANE) with Google Cloud solution will enable enterprises to deploy applications at Google edge points of presence (POPs), which will be connected to AT&T’s 5G and fiber networks. In this low-latency compute and storage environment, businesses can deliver faster, more seamless enterprise and customer experiences. AT&T and Google Cloud are focusing on a multi-year strategy to bring the solution to 15+ zones across major cities, starting with Chicago this year. We expect to roll out the solution next in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, and San Francisco.
“By combining the power of AT&T 5G and Google Cloud technologies, we are helping enterprises create new customer experiences and business services that were previously impossible,” said George Nazi, Vice President, Global Telecom, Media and Entertainment Solutions, Google Cloud. “Together with AT&T, we are committed to enabling our customers to build and deliver next-generation applications, whether on-premise or on AT&T’s leading mobile network.”
“With premises-based 5G and network edge computing, we give our customers even greater control of where their data goes and how they use it – at higher speeds and with lower latency. These capabilities allow businesses to deliver unique experiences to their customers, today and into the future,” said Rasesh Patel, Chief Product and Platform Officer, AT&T Business. “We’re bringing forth a new era where the latest technological advancements, including 5G and edge computing, make it possible to transform, innovate and prepare for whatever the future holds.”
The companies are also working together to evaluate how network APIs could optimize applications, using near real-time network information at the Google Cloud edge.
https://cloud.google.com/press-releases/2021/0706/att-google-cloud-5g-edge
Seaborn Networks has selected Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent technology for its’s subsea network.
Seaborn operates two high-capacity open cable systems, Seabras-1 and AMX-1, with connections between Brazil and the U.S. offering a range of managed digital services and wavelength services. Infinera’s ICE6-powered solution will provide Seaborn with an architecture that can deliver 400 GbE services, including the option for direct PoP-to-PoP transport. The Smart Spectrum feature within Infinera’s Intelligent Power Management (IPM) solution allows Seaborn to offer multiple virtual fiber pairs to its customers so they can take advantage of open cable demarcation, while being protected from potential optical power instability caused by other tenants on the same fiber pair.
“Seaborn is delighted to be side by side with Infinera as our technology partner as we move the needle once again in service delivery capabilities for the Americas,” commented Paul Cannon, Vice President of Network Development at Seaborn. “With Infinera’s solutions, Seaborn can offer a fully integrated spectrum solution across our subsea networks, which is fundamental to delivering sustainable capacity solutions to our customers while also enabling our larger customers to benefit from end-to-end spectrum capabilities with the freedom to select hardware and platforms in their existing high-capacity PoP locations. Once Infinera’s ICE6 technology is deployed on our network this summer, Seaborn will be positioned to deliver industry-leading 400 GbE PoP-to-PoP services at distances over 10,000 km.”
“Seaborn’s ongoing commitment to Infinera’s solutions underscores the value our technology delivers to network operators globally,” said Nick Walden, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Infinera. “With Infinera’s ICE6 800G solution, Seaborn will continue to capitalize on the benefits of Infinera’s technology, providing its customers with access to cost-effective, high-performance, and high-capacity services.”
Colt Technology Services is collaborating with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to help customers adopt an edge computing strategy designed to enable them to move data and applications seamlessly across hybrid cloud environments, from private data centres to the edge.
The companies have agreed to jointly explore use cases using IBM Cloud Satellite and Edge Application Manager, designed to benefit enterprise customers globally across 29,000 enterprise buildings.
IBM Cloud Satellite is IBM’s hybrid cloud offering, built on Red Hat OpenShift, that allows customers to deploy secure and open IBM Cloud services anywhere they choose –on-premises, on any public cloud, or at the edge. Virtual machines for IBM Cloud Satellite can be instantiated and configured using a management and orchestration tool with zero-touch provisioning. Furthermore, Colt’s on-demand networking capabilities are designed to help critical connectivity be provisioned in near real- time to help enable distributed cloud deployments with IBM Edge Application Manager for its customers (in industries such as retail and healthcare) across 29,000 enterprise buildings.
“We look forward to collaborating with Colt to help customers deploy, operate and manage thousands of endpoints throughout their operations with IBM Cloud Satellite and IBM Edge Application Manager,” said Evaristus Mainsah, GM, IBM Hybrid Cloud and Edge Ecosystem. “Together, we can help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation by acting on insights closer to where their data is being created, at the edge.”
“Colt and IBM have been working together for many years across multiple markets and verticals with a focus on accelerating digital transformation. As we see an increasing demand for multi and distributed cloud environments, we will collaborate on how we can serve our joint customers,” said Mark Hollman, Colt’s VP Partner Development and Success. “We’re exploring now how to combine our Colt IQ Network with IBM’s hybrid cloud platform, to help deliver innovative solutions designed to help accelerate digital transformation for our enterprise customers.’’
IBM announced the general availability of its hybrid cloud services - IBM Cloud Satellite.
IBM Cloud Satellite promises a secured, unifying layer of cloud services for clients across environments, whether on-premise or in the public cloud. IBM said its architecture addresses critical data privacy and data sovereignty requirements for industries including telecommunications, financial services, healthcare and government.
In addition, Lumen Technologies and IBM have integrated IBM Cloud Satellite with the Lumen edge platform to enable clients to harness hybrid cloud services in near real-time and build innovative solutions at the edge. Applications can be hosted on Red Hat OpenShift via IBM Cloud Satellite from the close proximity of a Lumen edge location.
Customers using the Lumen platform and IBM Cloud Satellite can deploy data-intensive applications like video analytics across highly distributed environments such as offices and retail spaces, and take advantage of infrastructure designed for single digit millisecond latency.
"With the Lumen platform's broad reach, we are giving our enterprise customers access to IBM Cloud Satellite to help them drive innovation more rapidly at the edge," said Paul Savill, SVP Enterprise Product Management and Services at Lumen. "Our enterprise customers can now extend IBM Cloud services across Lumen's robust global network, enabling them to deploy data-heavy edge applications that demand high security and ultra-low latency. By bringing secure and open hybrid cloud capabilities to the edge, our customers can propel their businesses forward and take advantage of the emerging applications of the 4th Industrial Revolution."
IBM also noted that it is collaborating with more than 65 ecosystem partners, including Cisco, Dell Technologies and Intel to build secure cloud services helping clients run workloads in any environment via IBM Cloud Satellite.
Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the Spanish transmission system operator (TSO) responsible for the transmission of electricity nationwide, selected Nokia to upgrade its existing network with an IP/MPLS and DWDM optical transport. Its 800-site network is used to control and manage a nationwide transmission grid.
The new IP/MPLS and optical transport networks from Nokia will provide significantly more bandwidth to the utility sector and its subscribers and improve efficiencies. It will support a new generation of IP-based applications that will play a key role in everything from IoT-based asset management to managing distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar and residential power storage.
Services supported by the Nokia network include sub-station communications, low-latency communication of IoT sensor data for measurement, protection and control, and time synchronization of devices. The network will also support operational control systems such as SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and line protection, as well as synchrophasors (PMUs - phasor measurement units), which are one of the key applications for enabling highly accurate and dynamic analysis of the state of an electrical system. This is an important capability in smart, distributed energy grids, especially with intermittent power sources such as renewables.
The core and aggregation networks will be based on Nokia’s IP/MPLS portfolio. The optical transport network, which replaces a legacy SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) system, will use Nokia’s DWDM portfolio.
Patrick Langelaan, Head of Enterprise in Southern Europe at Nokia, said: “We have worked closely with REE for several years to prepare for this migration, culminating in a successful proof of concept in 2019. Our work with European transmission system operators enables us to ensure that REE’s network will interwork seamlessly with continental systems – a key capability in the shift to renewables and our ability to manage intermittency across the region. This win reflects Nokia’s ongoing commitment to the energy sector and our collective journey to a de-carbonized, electrified future.”
Keysight Technologies and Qualcomm demonstrated a 10 Gbps data connection using 5G new radio dual connectivity (NR-DC), an industry-first.
NR-DC allows 5G NR devices to concurrently connect and aggregate multiple NR cells, leading to significantly increased data transfer speeds.
The demonstration included Keysight’s network emulation platform and Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System with Qualcomm QTM545 mmWave Antenna Module to aggregate 5G mmWave and sub-6GHz spectrum. The demonstration used spectrum in both frequency range 1 (FR1) and FR2 (mmWave), which enables 5G user equipment (UE) to leverage wide bandwidths and high order modulation, leading to data transfer speeds of more than 10 Gbps. Flexible spectrum utilization combined with higher data speed connections allows mobile operators to dynamically deploy 5G services in wireless congested areas where bandwidth resources need to be managed efficiently to support advanced applications.
“We’re pleased to collaborate with Qualcomm Technologies to reach another industry-first milestone that lays the foundation for consumers and enterprises to achieve wired-broadband grade speeds in this next phase of 5G,” said Cao Peng, vice president and general manager for Keysight’s wireless test group. “This accomplishment clearly reflects that the industry has entered the second phase of 5G NR deployment, which will enable advanced wireless communications built on the latest 3GPP Release 16 specification.”
“Qualcomm Technologies is pleased to work with Keysight to develop pioneering solutions that allow device makers to accelerate innovations that support considerable performance improvements,” said Francesco Grilli, vice president, Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “This achievement builds on the recent milestone Qualcomm Technologies and Keysight realized in March 2021, showcasing 5G low/mid and high band aggregation across key global combinations on a smartphone form-factor device equipped with the Snapdragon X65 using Keysight’s 5G network emulation solutions. Together, we move significantly closer to providing users access to seamless, rapid connections on 5G devices in traditionally congested areas worldwide.”
NeoPhotonics announced the appointment of Sheri L. Savage to its Board of Directors.
Ms. Savage has served as Chief Financial Officer of Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (UCT), a supplier for critical subsystems for semiconductor capital equipment, since July 2016. Ms. Savage previously served as Senior Vice President of Finance, Chief Accounting Officer and other senior finance roles at UCT since 2009.
Prior to joining UCT, Ms. Savage served at Credence Systems Corporation, a manufacturer of test equipment for the global semiconductor industry, as its Corporate Controller and Vice President of Finance and as Director of Internal Audit.
