Juniper integrates RAN Intelligent Controller with Intel FlexRAN

Juniper Networks is collaborating with Intel to accelerate advancement in the Open RAN (ORAN) ecosystem. The collaboration includes:

• Juniper RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and Intel FlexRAN platform are pre-integrated and pre-validated to enhance usability of a full ORAN-compliant Intelligent RAN system
• Collaborative R&D work with Intel Labs for RIC platform-specific apps to improve customer experience, maximize ROI and drive rapid ORAN ecosystem innovation
• Joint customer testbeds with Intel to validate performance-improving implementation and speed of time-to-market

Earlier this year, Juniper announced an exclusive global licensing agreement with Netsia, a subsidiary of Türk Telekom Group company Argela in the USA. Netsia transferred its Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC) technology to Juniper, including related source code and patents plus exclusive rights to develop and sell products and solutions that integrate with RIC.  The deal included the transfer of technical domain experts from Netsia to Juniper in support of RIC’s integration into Juniper’s product portfolio. 

Juniper is an active member of the O-RAN Alliance, contributing to six working groups and serving as chair and co-chair of the slicing and use-case task groups, respectively. Juniper is also an editor of RIC specifications within the alliance.

Juniper said the joint initiative represents another milestone in its continuing efforts to bring openness and innovation to a traditionally closed-off part of the network, providing a faster route-to-market for service providers and enterprises to deliver 5G, edge computing and AI.

“Juniper has always been committed to open infrastructures, which is why we are excited to support the work that Intel has undertaken with their FlexRAN ecosystem. By collaborating with Intel, we are able to deliver cloud-native routing, automation, intelligence and assurance solutions and services that are optimized for our customers’ needs, speeding time-to-market and enabling them to monetize faster," stated Constantine Polychronopoulos, VP of 5G and Telco Cloud at Juniper Networks.

“The virtualization of the RAN continues to gain momentum across the industry as operators take advantage of cloud economics and the delivery of new services. This collaboration with Juniper and the validation of FlexRAN and RIC solutions will assist service providers to overcome integration challenges and accelerate time-to-market for future deployments," stated Caroline Chan, VP Intel Corporation, GM of Network Business Incubator Division.

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NSA awards $2 billion contract to HPE for managed cloud

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) awarded a 10-year, $2 billion contract to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for high-performance computing (HPC) technology as a service through the HPE GreenLake platform.

The HPE GreenLake platform provides fully managed, secure cloud services on-premises.

HPE said its service includes a combination of HPE Apollo systems and HPE ProLiant servers, which ingest and process high volumes of data, and support deep learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. As part of the HPE GreenLake service, HPE will build and manage the complete solution that will be hosted at a QTS data center, a hosting facility that delivers secure, compliant data center infrastructure and robust connectivity to support scaling of operations.

The new service will go into use starting in 2022.

“Implementing artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics capabilities on massive sets of data increasingly requires High Performance Computing (HPC) systems” said Justin Hotard, senior vice president and general manager, HPC and Mission Critical Solutions (MCS) at HPE. “Customers are demanding HPC capabilities on their most data-intensive projects combined with easy, simple, and agile management. By using the HPE GreenLake platform, which delivers secure on-premises solutions as a service, the National Security Agency (NSA) is gaining industry-leading HPC solutions to tackle a range of complex data needs, but with a flexible, as a service experience.” 

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/greenlake.html 

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Sparkle opens green data center in Athens

Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top ten global operators, inaugurated its Metamorfosis II data center in Athens, Greece.

The new facility, which is located in the industrial area of Metamorfosis and just next to the other proprietary facility Metamorfosis I, encompasses an area of about 6,000 sq.m., with a maximum capacity of 700 racks and 7.7 MW of total power. The facility was built following the most stringent anti-seismic criteria and designed to guarantee the maximum levels of reliability and security. In addition, Metamorfosis II adopts the latest energy-efficient power and cooling systems available in the market resulting in a carbon footprint reduction of around 28,000 tons per year. The quality and energy excellence of the new data center is confirmed by the Uptime Institute Tier III, the LEED Gold and the ISO 14001 certifications.

Sparkle now operates four open data centers in Greece:  three in Athens - where the proprietary metropolitan fiber optic network is originated, running through the city business district and directly interconnecting corporate customers and institutional entities - and one in Chania, with a total area of 14,000 sq. m. and 13.7 MW of power. 

All data centers are fully integrated with Nibble, Sparkle’s pan-Mediterranean optical network, and with Sparkle's Tier-1 global backbone Seabone, to deliver high speed connectivity services as well as access to major cloud providers. Moreover, thanks to their open and resilient configuration, Sparkle data centers offer a rich ecosystem of interconnected players for domestic and international connectivity.

"We have created an exemplary open hub to offer an advanced experience to the most sophisticated customers, also guaranteeing a strong commitment on environmental sustainability," says Elisabetta Romano, CEO of Sparkle. “With this new opening, Sparkle enriches its infrastructural offer for national and international enterprises while confirming the attention for the Greek market in which we have been active for twenty years with an increasing presence.”

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Equinix completes acquisition of two data centers in Mumbai

Equinix completed its acquisition of two data centers on a fiber-connected campus in Mumbai from GPX Global Systems for US$161 million in cash.

Equinix also announced the appointment of Manoh Paul as Managing Director of Equinix India. Prior to Equinix, he led the India operation of GPX India, helping it to emerge as India's most prominent carrier-neutral and cloud-dense data center. Before joining GPX India, Paul spent 11 years with Bharti Airtel Ltd, where his last role was Chief Operating Officer (Enterprises) for the Western region.

The two new data centers in Mumbai, dubbed Equinix MB1 and MB2, form a network-dense data center campus with more than 350 international brands and local companies, including the world's leading cloud service providers (CSPs), global networks, content delivery network (CDN) providers, all local carriers, 170 internet service providers (ISPs) and five internet exchanges. The two data centers in Mumbai provide an initial 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets to buildout. The facilities will add more than 90,000 square feet of colocation space to Platform Equinix when fully built.

Equinix's Mumbai campus offers a cloud-dense environment and direct access to major cloud services, including AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect. It also hosts key internet exchanges such as AMS-IX India, Extreme IX, Mumbai IX-DECIX, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Bharat IX, allowing ISPs, carriers, CDNs and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic.

Equinix plans to introduce a full range of interconnection and digital infrastructure services, including Equinix Connect, Equinix Internet Exchange, Metro Connect, Equinix Fabric and Network Edge, in the new data centers upon the completion of the business integration. 

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HPE completes acquisition of Zerto for cloud data management

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) completed its previously-announced acquisition of Zerto, an industry leader in cloud data management and protection, for $374 million. 

HPE said the acquisition immediately positions the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform in the high-growth data protection market with a proven solution and further propels HPE’s storage business into a cloud-native, software-defined data services business.

“Data is the most critical asset and is essential to operate in this new digital economy,” said Tom Black, Senior Vice President and General Manager of HPE Storage. “Our customers continue to face complexity in managing and protecting their data. Zerto’s best-in-class talent and technology expands HPE’s data management and disaster recovery capabilities, giving customers the ability to protect their data and recover in minutes from ransomware attacks. We are thrilled to welcome Zerto to the HPE family. Together, we will accelerate innovation and scale these offerings to help our customers manage and protect their data from edge to cloud.”

HPE also noted that Zerto’s cloud data management and protection software will remain available as a standalone service and will be available as a service through the HPE GreenLake platform and the Data Services Cloud Console. Its journal-based continuous data protection technology includes disaster recovery, backup, and data mobility in a single, simple cloud data management and protection software solution that spans on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

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Nutanix posts revenue of $390.7 million, up 19% yoy

Nutanix reported revenue of $390.7 million for its fourth quarter ended July 31, 2021, up 19% from the same period last year. GAAP gross margin was 79.9% compared to 79.6% a year earlier.

“Our fourth quarter was a strong end to an excellent fiscal year, which was marked by consistent execution and solid progress across both financial and strategic objectives,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, President and CEO of Nutanix. “We have entered our fiscal 2022 with good momentum and a solid plan for growth, executing on the model we laid out at Investor Day and delivering on our vision of making clouds invisible.”

“We achieved records across a number of key metrics in the fourth quarter, including ACV billings and revenue, which grew 26 and 19 percent year over year, respectively,” said Duston Williams, CFO of Nutanix. “In fiscal 2022, we expect our growing base of low-cost renewals will drive further improvements in top and bottom line performance.”

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China Mobile, Huawei, establish 5G VoNR+ working group

China Mobile, Huawei and over 10 other partners have established a 5G VoNR+ (New Calling) Working Group for the 5G Deterministic Networking Alliance (5GDNA). 

The Working Group aims to facilitate 5G new calling industry collaboration and aims to promote VoNR+ new calling standards and technologies, boost its industry, and build an industry ecosystem.

Huawei says that as 5G integrates with AR and VR technologies, new services such as visual menus, video RBT, and remote collaboration become available and give users more interactive experience. Not only this, these services unlock new opportunities for the emerging 5G market, and the 5G VoNR+ (New Calling) Working Group is anticipated to pilot the development of the 5G new calling market.

VoNR+ new calling will bring new communication experience to users and showcase the unique value of 5G. A typical application of VoNR+ new calling is remote collaboration. Remote collaboration allows guidance to be remotely provided through videos in real time. This valuable application is widely used in daily life, such as in elderly care, equipment repair, object searching, and child tutoring, and even may create a new industry. On top of this, users can use new calling services without needing to download any app.

The 5G VoNR+ (New Calling) Working Group will use 5GDNA to provide a global platform for industry collaboration, channeling more industry partners to drive the widespread use of 5G new calling and bring 5G to more people.

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2021/9/china-mobile-huawei-5g-vonr-new-calling

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