Juniper's new 25.6 Tbps data center switch matched with Apstra automation

Juniper Networks unveiled its QFX5700 Series Switch, a midsize, 25.6 Tbps chassis-based system on Broadcom Trident 4 programmable merchant silicon.

The 5RU platform supports a mix of 10G/25G/40G/50G, 100G, 200G and 400G line cards supporting a variety of interfaces, all available with inline MACsec/IPsec. The QFX5700 is aimed at a variety of data center use cases, including those migrating to 100G/400G.

Michael Bushong, VP of Data Center Product Management at Juniper Networks, says the company is evolving its solution portfolio around the Apstra intelligence with the goal of connecting the elements of the data center into an intent-based, self-driving system. The idea is to leverage Apstra blueprints and telemetry to identify when a task needs to be invoked, how it should best be executed and whether it accomplished the desired intent. The company reports a strong uptake in Apstra deployments since acquiring the company earlier this year.

https://blogs.juniper.net/en-us/enterprise-cloud-and-transformation/juniper-networks-advances-data-center-operations-with-next-generation-modular-switch

Juniper completes Apstra acquisition

Wednesday, January 27, 2021  Juniper, Mergers And Acquisitions  

Juniper Networks completed its previously-announced acquisition of Apstra, a leader in intent-based networking and automated closed-loop assurance. 

The Apstra team is now part of Juniper’s Data Center business and Apstra CEO and co-founder, David Cheriton, joins Juniper as Chief Data Center Scientist.

Apstra offers an intent-based network operating system for simplifying the management of data center networks. Intent-Based Networking (IBN) is a closed-loop, continuous validation approach to designing, deploying and managing infrastructure. Apstra automatically generates and deploys full configuration of all devices based on a service description, and continuously provides assurance checks between the intended and operational state. Apstra’s multivendor integrations extend its closed loop automation and analytics to customers independently of their underlying infrastructure, including those running SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud). 

Juniper said the acquisition expands its commitment to open programmability, adding to its portfolio of solutions that includes powerful switching platforms with native SONiC integration and a deployment-hardened, cloud-native routing stack for the SONiC ecosystem.

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Fungible enhances its Storage Cluster for NVMe over TCP

Fungible, a start-up pursuing DPU accelerated data center computing, announced new capabilities enabling its Fungible Storage Initiator (SI) cards installed in standard servers to access NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP).

Fungible claims its accelerators deliver the world’s fastest and most efficient implementation of NVMe/TCP. The enhancements bring security and usability capabilities for the entire data platform.

The Fungible Storage Initiator solution is delivered on Fungible’s FC200, FC100 and FC50 cards. Each of these cards is powered by the S1 Fungible DPU, and a single FC200 card is capable of delivering a record breaking 2.5 million IOPS to its host. These cards, and the Fungible Storage Cluster, are managed by Fungible Composer, which orchestrates the composition of disaggregated data center resources on demand.  

“With our high-performance and low-latency implementation, Fungible’s disaggregated NVMe/TCP solution becomes a game changer. Over the last five years, we have designed our products to support NVMe/TCP natively to revolutionize the economics of deploying flash storage in scale-out implementations,” said Eric Hayes, CEO of Fungible. “In addition to industry leading performance, our solutions offer more value and the highest levels of security, compression, efficiency, durability and ease of use. At Fungible, we continue to disrupt the traditional rigid models by disaggregating compute and storage using available industry standards like NVMe/TCP.”

https://www.fungible.com/

Fungible ships its disaggregated NVMe storage platform powered by DPUs

Tuesday, October 27, 2020  DPU, Fungible  

Fungible, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, unveiled a disaggregated data storage platform powered by its own Fungible Data Processing Unit (DPU).

The new Fungible Storage Cluster delivers 15M IOPS in a 2RU form factor, scaling linearly to 300M IOPS in a single 40RU rack, and extending further to many racks. The company says its high-performance design improves $/IOPS by at least 3x compared to existing software-defined storage solutions by consolidating workloads and increasing utilization of storage media.

The Fungible Storage Cluster comprises a cluster of Fungible FS1600 storage target nodes connected over a standards-based IP network and the Fungible Composer software. The FS1600s implement the data path for storage while the Fungible Composer performs control and management functions. This clean separation of functions results in higher performance, better scalability and better reliability. Each FS1600 storage target node is powered by two Fungible F1 DPUs and packs 24 standard NVMe SSDs delivering an aggregate of 15M IOPS in a 2RU form factor.

Notably, the Fungible Storage Cluster has been validated with IBM Spectrum Scale, delivering more than 80M read IOPS/PB.

“Today, we demonstrate how the breakthrough value of the Fungible DPU is realized in a storage product,” said Pradeep Sindhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Fungible. “The Fungible Storage Cluster is not only the fastest storage platform in the market today, it is also the most cost-effective, reliable, secure and easy to use. This is truly a significant milestone on our journey to realize the vision of Fungible Data Centers — where compute and storage resources are hyperdisaggregated and then composed on-demand to dynamically serve application requirements.”

“Innovations in data center infrastructure have occurred largely within the silos of compute, storage and networking,” said Raj Yavatkar, CTO at Juniper Networks. “Fungible has broken down these silos delivering end-to-end value with Fungible DPU enabled servers interconnected by TrueFabric, a truly ground-breaking networking technology, and software composable for on-demand provisioning. This approach will serve as a blueprint for future data centers from core to edge.”

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Lightbits delivers software-defined NVMe/TCP storage for VMware

Lightbits Labs, a start-up that offers NVMe-based, scalable and software-defined elastic block storage, completed a rigorous certification of LightOS with VMware vSphere 7 Update 3 and will be listed on the VMware Compatibility Guide. 

Lightbits' LightOS is a scalable, efficient NVMe/TCP storage solution with intelligent flash management. The company claims its solution improves flash endurance by up to 20X and delivers performance that is equivalent to local flash. A single LightOS cluster can deliver over 40M IOPS (random Read) and 10PB user capacity, with less than 200μs latency. Organizations previously utilizing iSCSI can instead use NVMe/TCP on the same network infrastructure and realize much higher performance. 

“With the explosion of data underway, companies are committing to digital transformation on a massive scale. To extract the value of this data, applications need to rapidly store, access, and analyze data. Over the past few years private clouds and cloud service providers have been running cloud native applications on Lightbits, benefiting from our Kubernetes integration. Now we are super-excited to have a high performance, highly available storage solution also for VMware users, with in-box support for NVMe/TCP,” said Kam Eshghi, Chief Strategy Officer at Lightbits. “Organizations with private clouds and hybrid clouds, as well as cloud service providers and financial service providers can now realize the performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency benefits of a combined solution from VMware, Lightbits, and Intel.”

https://www.lightbitslabs.com/

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Akamai to acquire Guardicore to address ransomware

Akamai Technologies agreed to acquire Guardicore, a start-up that offers software-based network segmentation tools, for approximately $600 million. 

Guardicore’s micro-segmentation solution is designed to limit user access to only those applications that are authorized to communicate with each other. By denying communication as the default, the threat surface and risk exposure are drastically reduced, thereby limiting the spread of malware and protecting the flow of enterprise data across the network. This protection extends beyond the data center to the cloud, including bare metal, virtual machines and containers. Guardicore is based in Tel Aviv.

Akamai currently offers a broad suite of innovative and leading Zero Trust security solutions, including Web Application Firewall (WAF), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Domain Name System (DNS) Firewall, and Secure Web Gateway (SWG), that help prevent attackers and malware on employee devices from gaining access to enterprise infrastructure and applications. 

“Given the recent surge in ransomware attacks and increasingly stringent compliance regulations, investing in technologies to reduce the spread of malware has become mission critical,” said Tom Leighton, chief executive officer and co-founder, Akamai Technologies. “By adding Guardicore’s leading micro-segmentation products to Akamai’s comprehensive portfolio of Zero Trust solutions, we believe Akamai will be able to provide the most effective way to combat ransomware on the market today.”

“Guardicore’s mission is to protect enterprises from damage caused by breaches, like ransomware, while safeguarding the critical assets at the heart of the network,” said Pavel Gurvich, co-founder and chief executive officer, Guardicore. “The customer is able to reduce risk in a holistic way across all products, managing from a single console, versus many products and machines. My team and I greatly look forward to joining Akamai to protect the user and the enterprise -  no matter what the user is doing or where end users and workloads are located.”

 

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GSMA: Mobile broadband gap for 43% of world's population

Mobile internet usage translates to just over 4 billion connected people,  225 million more compared to 2019, and up from a third of people globally just six years ago, according to GSMA's State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2021.

However, in 2020, 3.4 billion people (43% of the world’s population) lived within the footprint of a mobile broadband network but were not accessing mobile internet services. The GSMA report also notes that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) now account for almost 93% of the world’s unconnected population and more than 98% of the uncovered population.

“The COVID-19 pandemic made clear the importance of mobile internet access to people’s lives and livelihoods and has accelerated the digital transformation around the world. Mobile  is the primary and often the only way to access the internet in low- and middle-income countries. While more people than ever are now using the mobile internet, some fundamental barriers stop far too many people from using mobile internet. To close this usage gap, all of us – government and industry – need to do more,” says the GSMA’s Chief Regulatory Officer, John Giusti. “In particular, we must address the key barriers to usage of mobile internet services, most notably literacy and digital skills, as well as affordability. Only through targeted and collaborative action can we bridge the digital divide.”

https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/over-half-worlds-population-now-using-mobile-internet/

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NEC, Netcracker, ADVA, Juniper team on 5G xHaul transport

NEC and its subsidiary Netcracker announced an integrated multi-vendor solution that includes ADVA and Juniper Networks for packet optical automation for streamlined 5G transport. ADVA delivers secure optical connectivity and Juniper provides automated IP WAN transport solutions, while Netcracker brings unified end-to-end multi-domain service orchestration and automation expertise. 

NEC leads the integration and implementation of the solution with 5G xHaul Transformation Services for multi-vendor, multi-layer and multi-domain architectures backed by its abundant global experiences with both packet and optical networking. Netcracker's Network Domain Orchestration solution enables multi-domain service, network lifecycle management, assurance and closed loop operations automation across complex multi-layer transport networks with a single pane of glass. 

 

"In the 5G era, NEC believes co-creation is the key driver to generating and delivering new value to society. Working together with our strategic partners Juniper and ADVA in our 5G xHaul Ecosystem, NEC and Netcracker are keen to orchestrate best-in-class multi-vendor based solutions across multi-layers with automation that promises simplification of the end-to-end transport network and better TCO," states Mayuko Tatewaki, General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Division, NEC Corporation.

"Dynamic services enabled by 5G need a powerful transport network to optimize the user experience. Netcracker's Network Domain Orchestration brings agility and automation to multi-layer transport networks, and we are excited to announce our joint solution with NEC, Juniper and ADVA to revolutionize the transport network for 5G digital services,"said Bob Titus, Chief Technology Officer, Netcracker.

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Italy's TIM proposes National Strategic Hub for secure services

TIM, along with partners Leonardo and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, are proposing a National Strategic Hub (NSH) for Italy that would provide an infrastructure for cloud-based management of Public Administration (PA) data and applications.

The initiative would involve setting up a NewCo with a 20% stake to be held by CDP, 25% by Leonardo, 10% by Sogei and 45% by TIM. The aim is to provide innovative services to citizens and businesses, in line with the provisions of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan and recent regulatory interventions on digital infrastructure. 

TIM, the Italian leader of the ICT sector, will provide infrastructure services and cloud platforms; Leonardo, one of the world’s leading players in the AD&S sector and the only Italian company dedicated to monitoring strategic technologies for the country’s security, will provide security services; Sogei, a leader and partner in the public ICT sector, will provide business culture enablement and training services to boost the growth and expertise of the PA; CDP Equity will act as the financial partner and institutional investor supporting initiatives with significant development prospects in key sectors for the country.

Together, the industrial partners will provide end-to-end migration services and support PAs with professional evolution services to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness when operating in cloud environments (re-platform and re-architect).

Through the partners, the NSH will have new generation (Tier IV) data centres, with high levels of security and energy efficiency and in line with global best practices (four data centres in two regions), and will furthermore provide comprehensive and advanced services with a particular focus on cloud solutions. The PA will be supported throughout the pre- and post-contract phases, including in terms of staff training.

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