06/14/22 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Cisco envisions unified Catalyst + Meraki + Nexus cloud management

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Cisco

At its Cisco Live event in Las Vegas, Cisco outlined its vision for cloud-managed networking with a unified technology experience. The idea is to enable customers to securely, logically, and seamlessly transition toward more cloud-based operating models.

Specifically, Cisco unveiled new cloud management capabilities that provide a unified experience across the Cisco Meraki, Cisco Catalyst and Cisco Nexus portfolios and a new Cisco ThousandEyes product to proactively forecast and optimize WAN performance.

“Our customers choose to run their businesses on Cisco technology because we sit at the intersection of networking, security and cloud,” said Todd Nightingale, EVP and GM, Cisco Enterprise Networking & Cloud. “We believe the network is the foundation for the modern enterprise and must deliver agility through simplicity. Cisco is addressing our customers' most important concern, which is managing complexity through smart, data-driven platforms that power a digital business.”

Cloud Management for Cisco Catalyst will enable customers to now monitor select Catalyst Switches and manage new Catalyst Wireless devices through the Meraki dashboard, bringing increased visibility and flexibility to the customer experience.

Cisco Nexus Cloud is a cloud-managed platform delivered as-a-service. Powered by Cisco Intersight for switching and multicloud management, Cisco Nexus Cloud will extend customers’ ability to manage across public cloud, private cloud and edge computing environments of any size or scale. Cisco Nexus Cloud is targeted for availability in the Fall 2022.

Cisco ThousandEyes WAN Insights is the first step toward delivering on the Cisco Predictive Networks vision. It proactively alerts IT teams to issues before they happen and harm user experience, offering policy recommendations and path optimization guidance. Alongside ThousandEyes’s unmatched view of Internet health and behavior, the addition of ThousandEyes WAN Insights helps to empower customers to maximize their Internet and Cloud-centric environments and deliver flawless digital experiences.

Cisco also unveiled a unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) subscription service.

https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2022/m06/cisco-delivers-simpler-smarter-networks-with-a-more-unified-experience.html

Cisco Live reports an audience of 16,000. Chuck Robbins' keynote and select sessions are available on-demand. https://www.ciscolive.com

Google Cloud launches Private 5G for enterprises

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Google Cloud, private 5G

Google Cloud launched a private 5G solution for enterprises looking to expand wireless performance and security across their campuses.

The service leverages Google Distributed Cloud Edge and technology from a number of partners, including Betacom, Boingo, Celona, Crown Castle, and Kajeet.

Google Distributed Cloud Edge provides a centralized control and management plane for secure networks, scaling from one to thousands of locations. GDC Edge allows customers to run private networks including virtualized RAN for connectivity and edge applications in a single solution.

Google's partners include:

Betacom will deploy its fully managed private wireless service, 5G as a Service (5GaaS), on GDC Edge, giving enterprises access to cost-effective, high-performance 5G networks that are designed, deployed and managed to support new intelligent manufacturing applications.
Boingo Wireless will deploy its fully managed, end-to-end private cellular networks for enterprise customers using GDC Edge at major airports, stadiums, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and U.S. military bases.
Celona’s 5G LAN solution automates rollout of private cellular networks that are tightly integrated with existing security and app QoS policies. Celona’s 5G LAN network operating system can also be deployed as a resource within GDC Edge, further accelerating private cellular adoption.
Crown Castle owns and operates communications infrastructure, including wireless infrastructure and fiber networks, that serves the demands of telecommunications network operators, enterprises, and the public sector, and seeks to enable the next wave of deployments with partners leveraging GDC Edge for private network deployments.
Kajeet will deploy its 5G solution on GDC Edge with a mission to connect students and communities with safe, simple, and secure high-speed wireless Internet to eliminate the digital divide once and for all.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/announcing-private-network-solutions-on-google-distributed-cloud-edge

Cisco launches AppDynamics Cloud for cloud-native observability

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 #AIops, Cisco

Cisco launched AppDynamics Cloud, a cloud-native version of its network traffic observability platform which can remediate application performance issues with business context and insights-driven actions.

Cisco says its AppDynamics Cloud accelerates detection and resolution of performance issues, before they impact the business or the brand, with intelligent operations. Investment protection is derived from continuous data integrations with OpenTelemetry standards and technology partnerships with cloud solutions and providers.

AppDynamics Cloud ingests the deluge of metrics, events, logs, and traces (MELT) generated in this environment—including network, databases, storage, containers, security, and cloud services—to make sense of the current state of the entire IT stack all the way to the end user. Actions can then be taken to optimize costs, maximize transaction revenue, and secure user and organizational data.

AppDynamics Cloud supports cloud-native, managed Kubernetes environments on Amazon Web Services (AWS), with future expansion to Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and other cloud providers.

"AppDynamics Cloud delivers power and usability in a single, intuitive interface. It puts the focus where it needs to be—on 360-degree visibility and insights, and the ability to take action that leads to extraordinary application experiences every time," said Liz Centoni, EVP, Chief Strategy Officer, GM of Applications.

The announcement was made at this week's Cisco Live event in Las Vegas.

https://www.appdynamics.com

Dell'Oro: Ramping demand for 400G by Service Providers

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Dell’Oro, Research

The worldwide Service Provider (SP) Router and Switch market trended flat in 1Q 2022, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. North America, followed by the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region, led the worldwide market with double-digit revenue growth.

“Strong demand for SP Routers in North America and the CALA region was driven by the ramping adoption of 400 Gbps technologies by Cloud SPs and capacity expansions by Telecom SPs,” said Ivaylo Peev, Senior Analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “As SPs continued increasing investments by working on a large number of use cases across a broad area of network segments.

“Following on the previous year’s developments, major projects in North America were concentrated in network expansions for Internet and cloud backbones, mobile transport, and broadband aggregation. We found that in the CALA region, the strong 1Q 2022 growth reflected investments by Telco SPs in Brazil and Mexico, where the expansion of mobile backhaul infrastructure is increasing,” added Peev.

Some highlights:

Strong growth in the North America and CALA regions offset a flat revenue trend in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and a market decline in the Asia Pacific regions. China’s SP Router market grew slightly.
Key US- and Europe-based vendors exited the Russia and Belarus markets, suspending all sales and services in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These measures caused a negative short-term impact on revenue and weakened vendor performance in the EMEA region.
Growth in the SP Core Router segment was offset by soft SP Edge Router segment performance and a decline in the SP Aggregation Switch segment.
Cisco remained the top-ranked vendor by market share, followed by Huawei, Nokia, and Juniper Networks.

https://www.delloro.com/news/400g-drove-service-provider-router-growth-in-the-americas-in-1q-2022/

Qualcomm acquires Cellwize for multi-vendor RAN automation

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Mergers and Acquisitions, O-RAN, Qualcomm

Qualcomm Technologies has acquired Cellwize Wireless Technologies Pte. Ltd. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cellwize, which is headquartered in Singapore with R&D in Israel, offers mobile network automation and orchestration solution. Cellwize offers a RAN automation and orchestration platform for 5G rollouts. Cellwize CHIME enables operators to accelerate their 5G deployment by automating key business processes in the RAN domain. The company leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning for zero-touch 5G deployments, for automating 2G/3G/4G/5G network optimization, and for delivering mobile network assurance. Cellwize supports multiple RAN architectures, including Open RAN, virtualized RAN, and traditional RAN.

Previous investors in the company have included Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Samsung Next, and others.

Qualcomm said Cellwize’s 5G network deployment, automation, and management software platform capabilities further strengthens Qualcomm;s 5G infrastructure solutions to fuel the digital transformation of industries, power the connected intelligent edge, and support the growth of the cloud economy.

“Global mobile operators and private enterprises are deploying 5G networks at an unprecedented pace across industries with the goal of connecting everyone and everything to the cloud,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, cellular modems and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The addition of Cellwize’s best-in-class RAN automation technologies strengthens Qualcomm Technologies’ ability to drive the development of the modern 5G network – accelerating Open RAN global adoption, cloud-based cellular infrastructure innovation and 5G private network deployments.”

“We are excited to join Qualcomm Technologies as we are both committed to accelerate the mission to modernize Radio Access Networks and enable mobile network operators and enterprises to fully realize and monetize their digital transformation,” said Ofir Zemer, former chief executive officer, Cellwize, who now is vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2022/06/qualcomm-acquires-cellwize-to-accelerate-5g-adoption-and-spur

T-Mobile hits 3 Gbps over 5G SA with carrier aggregation

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 T-Mobile US

T-Mobile US reported speeds of over 3 Gbps on its standalone 5G network by aggregating three channels of mid-band 5G spectrum. The test ran over its live production network and used the Samsung Galaxy S22 powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform with Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF System.

Carrier aggregation combined three 5G channels – two channels of 2.5 GHz Ultra Capacity 5G and one channel of 1900 MHz spectrum – creating an effective 210 MHz 5G channel.

“This test demonstrates the incredible power of mid-band spectrum and represents another huge step forward for standalone 5G,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “Only T-Mobile is delivering a nationwide standalone 5G network to customers today, and we’re blazing a trail with new performance-boosting capabilities that generate incredible speeds and deliver on our vision to create the highest capacity network in the country.”

http://T-Mobile.com/coverage

NTT Ltd. plans massive data center in northern Virginia

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Data Centers, NTT

NTT Ltd., will build a new, large-scale data center campus with a planned 336MW capacity in Prince William County, Gainesville, Virginia (a.k.a. Data Center Alley).

The new campus will be a strategic addition to the company's rapidly expanding portfolio, which includes new data center campuses in Ashburn, VA; Hillsboro, OR; Santa Clara, CA; Chicago, IL; and Phoenix, AZ.

In addition to its U.S. campuses, NTT recently announced the opening of its first data center location in the Spanish market in Madrid, and its new hyperscale data center campus in Navi Mumbai. NTT Global Data Centers is also in the midst of new data center development projects in Germany, India, and Johannesburg later slated to open in late 2022.

https://services.global.ntt/en-us/newsroom/ntt-to-expand-north-american-data-center-portfolio

NTT Ltd. expands its global data center ambitions

Wednesday, August 19, 2020 Data Centers, NTT

NTT Ltd.’s Global Data Centers division is preparing to launch new data center capacity in India, the UK, Japan, USA, Germany, Malaysia and Indonesia. When fully complete, these data centers will provide over 400 megawatts (MW) of IT load across these markets. Plans include:a Mumbai, India – NTT Ltd. will go live with its new Mumbai 7 Data Center by Q3 2020 in its Chandivali campus. The Mumbai 7 Data Center will offer 25 MW of IT load....

NTT Ltd. launches a Global Data Center Interconnect service

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 Cloud Exchange, Data Centers, NTT

NTT Ltd. announced the launch of Global Data Center Interconnect (GDCI), an integrated global network fabric service that delivers private and secure connections between NTT’s global data centers and major cloud service providers with a single physical port supporting multiple virtual network services. The SDN-based service lets clients connect to an ecosystem of cloud service providers in different geographic regions, addressing hybrid and...

Verizon eyes CBRS spectrum to boost its 5G Ultra Wideband service

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 5G, CBRS, Verizon

Verizon plans to increase in capacity and speed on is 5G Ultra Wideband network with the addition of CBRS spectrum.

Working with Ericsson, Verizon has completed a 5G data session using CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum. The company said it is ready to support 5G on both shared and Priority Access License (PAL) CBRS spectrum. This will supplement Verizon’s current deployment of 5G service over C-band and mmWave spectrum. Historically, Verizon has used shared and licensed CBRS spectrum to supplement its low and mid band deployment of 4G LTE service and private network offerings. With this successful trial and CBRS licenses in markets across the nation, Verizon is positioned to expand its 5G network to this new spectrum in parallel with its ongoing 5G deployment on C-band.

The CBRS band is made up of 150 MHz of 3.5 GHz shared spectrum. CBRS uses multi-tiered sharing with existing incumbents. Tier 1 are incumbents with protected status, including: DoD Navy ship radars, registered fixed satellite stations (Receive-only earth stations). Tier 2 are Priority Access Licenses (PAL), while Tier 3 is for General Authorized (GAA) channels. The FCC has authorized shared use and priority access use of this band for commercial wireless data, and Verizon has been leading the way in creating an ecosystem around the use of CBRS spectrum.

“The use of GAA and PAL licensed CBRS spectrum for 5G service further strengthens our already robust spectrum portfolio and will lead to an even better customer experience when using Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband,” said Kyle Malady, EVP and President, Global Networks and Technology. “Verizon leads the industry with the strongest spectrum portfolio across low, mid and high band spectrum. Our strong spectrum position is a result of multi-year strategic planning and investment.”

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-5g-ultra-wideband-availability-cbrs-spectrum

Equinix opens xScale data center in Sydney with PGIM

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Australia, Data Centers, Equinix

Equinix, in partnership with PGIM Real Estate, inaugurated its first xScale data center in Sydney, Australia. This milestone follows the closing of the US$575 million joint venture between the parties in March 2022.

As the first of the two data centers to be developed and operated under the joint venture with PGIM Real Estate, the new SY9x facility currently provides more than 14 MW of power capacity and will provide more than 28 MW when fully built out to meet the surging demand for cloud-based platforms and services among businesses in Australia. PGIM Real Estate owns 80% equity interest in the Australian joint venture, with Equinix owning the remaining 20%. Equinix will be responsible for the operation of the hyperscale data centers.

SY9x is located in Rosehill, adjacent to the Western Sydney CBD of Parramatta. The second xScale facility, to be named SY10x, will provide more than 28 MW of power capacity when built. At full build the two xScale facilities will offer a combined power capacity of more than 55 MW.

With the closing of the joint venture in Australia, Equinix's global xScale data center portfolio will be greater than US$8 billion of investment across 36 facilities, and expects to deliver more than 720 megawatts (MW) of power capacity when fully built out. Including SY9x in Sydney, Equinix currently operates nine xScale data centers across all three regions including FR9x in Frankfurt, LD11x and LD13x in London, OS2x in Osaka, PA8x and PA9x in Paris, SP5x in São Paulo, and TY12x in Tokyo. An additional eight xScale builds are under development for approximately 70 MW of incremental capacity.

In Asia-Pacific, Equinix has also established joint ventures to build xScale data centers in Seoul, Osaka and Tokyo. Including Sydney, Equinix plans to build ten xScale data centers in the region, delivering approximately 240 MW of power capacity when completed.

https://www.equinix.com/newsroom/press-releases/2022/06/equinix-and-pgim-real-estate-open-first-xscale-data-center-in-sydney-for-hyperscalers

Equinix and Singapore's GIC to build 2 data centers in Seoul

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 Data Centers, Equinix, Korea

Equinix and GIC, SINGAPORE'S sovereign wealth fund, agreed to form a US$525 million joint venture to develop and operate two xScale data centers in Seoul, Korea. GIC will own an 80% equity interest in the joint venture, and Equinix will own the remaining 20% equity interest. The two facilities under this joint venture, to be named SL2x and SL3x, are expected to provide more than 45 megawatts (MW) of power capacity to serve the unique core workload...

Equinix opens 4th data center in Melbourne

Monday, March 02, 2020 Australia, Data Centers, Equinix

Equinix has inaugurated its fourth International Business Exchange data center in Melbourne, Australia. The new ME2 facility is located in Melbourne's Fishermans Bend region, Australia's largest urban renewal project, which is forecast to be home to approximately 80,000 residents and provide employment for up to 80,000 people by 2050. ME2 includes more than 29,300 square feet (2,730 square meters) of colocation space. Once fully built out, the facility...

RTI to terminate transpacific cables at Equinix

Tuesday, January 21, 2020 Equinix, RTI, Subsea

RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. has selected Equinix IBX data centers to extend their connectivity solutions in Tokyo, Japan, and Sydney, Australia. RTI and its affiliates will soon be completing construction on several new high-fibre capacity cables that will land on Guam. Equinix termination points that are currently live include the following two cable routes: Japan-Guam-Australia South Cable System (JGA South) connecting Sydney and Guam with termination...

Equinix to host Vocus Australia Singapore Cable POP in its data centers

Sunday, June 17, 2018 Australia, Equinix, Submarine Cable, Subsea

The new subsea cable system offers additional points of presence to address rising interconnection demand between Australia and Southeast Asia Equinix will host the Vocus-owned Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) in its International Business ExchangeTM (IBX) data centers in Singapore and across six metros in Australia, including the Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Perth and points of presence (PoP) in Sydney and Melbourne already announced. The ASC...