NTT partners with TEPCO Power Grid for Tokyo data centers

NTT Global Data Centers Japan (NTT GDCJ), a subsidiary of NTT DATA Group Corporation, and TEPCO Power Grid will establish a new company to jointly develop and operate data centers in the Inzai-Shiroi area, of Greater Tokyo, Japan. The forthcoming enterprise, set to be launched in the spring of 2024, anticipates making its initial capacity available in the latter half of the 2026 fiscal year.

The inaugural endeavor of this collaboration involves purchasing land in the Inzai-Shiroi zone, a key location for substantial data centers in the Asia-Pacific area. The initial objective is to construct data centers in Inzai-Shiroi, aiming for a total IT capacity of 50MW. 

NTT Global Data Centers is investing 1.5 trillion yen (approx. US$12 billion) over the next five years to expand and upgrade its data center business globally.

TEPCO Group said it is aiming to improve the efficiency and sustainability of power generation/transmission by fostering the development of data centers and other facilities with local communities, making the most of its expertise in construction and operation of power facilities and utilizing its existing assets including land, in accordance with its fourth comprehensive special business plan.

https://www.nttdata.com/global/en/news/press-release/2023/december/ntt-global-data-centers-japan-and-tepco-power-grid-to-establish-a-new-company

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AWS launches Canada West (Calgary) Region

Amazon Web Services (AWS) activated its second AWS infrastructure Region in Canada—the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region. 

With this launch, AWS has 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions, with announced plans to launch 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.

The AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region consists of three Availability Zones and joins the existing AWS Canada (Central) Region, which opened in December 2016. 

AWS also released a new economic impact study highlighting that the company is planning to invest an estimated $17.9 billion (approximately CA $24.8 billion) in Canada through 2037 via the new AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region and the existing AWS Canada (Central) Region in Quebec. 

The company also noted the following investments in Canada:

• AWS has launched eight total Amazon CloudFront (CDN) locations in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. 
• AWS has announced AWS Local Zones in Toronto and Vancouver. AWS Local Zones are a type of AWS infrastructure deployment that places compute, storage, database, and other select services closer to customers for applications that require single-digit millisecond latency to end users.

“With the launch of the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, customers and partners across Canada now have additional infrastructure to deploy applications with greater resilience, availability, and lower latency, while enabling more customers to innovate with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence to help fuel economic development across the country,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS. “AWS is committed to helping organizations of all sizes and across all industries increase agility and drive innovation. We are proud to deepen our investment by driving local job creation, building cloud skills, and creating opportunities for growth and collaboration with our local customers and AWS Partners.”

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure

• AWS Regions are composed of Availability Zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations. Availability Zones are located far enough from each other to support customers’ business continuity, but near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones. Each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security and is connected through redundant, ultra-low-latency networks. AWS customers focused on high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault tolerance.

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Dell'Oro: AI boosts the server semiconductor and component market

Accelerators, mainly used for AI applications, drove the server semiconductor and component market to 29 percent year-over-year in 3Q 2023, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. The report observes that the accelerator market is on track to surpass the CPU market in revenues by nearly two-fold in 2023.

"The server and storage system component market is poised for an 11 percent growth for full-year 2023, primarily propelled by accelerators. Excluding accelerators, a 27 percent decline in revenue is forecasted, attributed to reduced demand resulting from inventory adjustments by system vendors and hyperscale cloud service providers for general-purpose computing," stated Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. "Looking ahead to 2024, we anticipate strong double-digit growth in accelerator revenue. Moreover, our forecasts indicate a comprehensive recovery in the market across various categories, including CPU, memory, storage drives, and network interface cards (NICs), as vendors increase their inventories in anticipation of healthier server demand. Alongside the unit growth of these component categories, we expect pricing to improve in tandem with higher demand and the transition to the next-generation server platforms," explained Fung.

Additional highlights from the 3Q 2023 Data Center IT Semiconductors and Components Quarterly Report:

• NVIDIA led in server and storage system component revenues in 3Q 2023, driven by GPU accelerators, followed by Intel and Samsung. Accelerator revenues are on track to surpass CPU revenues for the first time in 2023, reflecting a shift towards accelerated computing.
• NIC shipments declined briefly in 1H 2023 but returned to growth in 3Q 2023, driven by increased adoption of higher-speed ports and Smart NICs, especially for accelerated computing.
• GPU revenue is forecasted to achieve a 70 percent growth in 2024. Although NVIDIA currently dominates this market, potential challenges arise from new competitive offerings by AMD and Intel, coupled with the emergence of custom accelerators by the hyperscale cloud service providers.

 https://www.delloro.com/news/ai-boosts-the-server-semiconductor-and-component-market-to-29-percent-growth-in-3q-2023/

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stc expands global ambitions with acquisition of CMC Networks

center3, a wholly owned subsidiary of the stc Group, agreed to acquire CMC Networks, a global service provider across Africa and the Middle East, from the Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund. Financial terms were not disclosed.

CMC Networks boasts a pan-African Layer 2/Layer 3 MPLS network, with significant presence across Africa and the Middle East. It operates more than 110 service locations, servicing 51 out of 54 countries in Africa and 12 countries in the Middle East. The company also has regional hubs in key interconnected locations across Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific, enhancing its global reach. 

Fahad AlHajeri, CEO at center3, said: "This acquisition is a landmark moment for center3. CMC's enviable global footprint, high value customer base and portfolio of capabilities is very complementary to center3's digital infrastructure and connectivity assets. This acquisition exemplifies our strategic commitment to enter key markets with significant growth potential. Our previous investment in 2Africa Cable, coupled with this acquisition, underscores our conviction in Africa's essential role in center3's future growth. We are excited about the possibilities that CMC Networks will bring including its wealth of knowledge, capability in the African region and promising growth in the Middle East."

https://center3.com

• In October 2022, Saudi Arabia’s stc Group launched Center3 Company, a new company that will be the owner of the digital infrastructure assets owned by stc Group, including data centers, submarine cables, international points of presence, and internet exchange points. Center3 Company aims to be the digital regional center for the Middle East and North Africa, operating a group of carrier-neutral data centers and a provider of international communication for the telecommunications sector through a submarine fiber-optic network. It aims to develop digital businesses and enhance investment opportunities in international communication services and data centers by providing the latest communication, hosting technologies and raising the capacity of data centers to meet the needs of the Asian, European, and African markets, and the rest of the world.
• Earlier this year, center3 completed a 9.6MW expansion of its hyperscaler-grade data center Khurais in Riyadh. The state-of-the-art facility is built to meet global hyperscalers requirements. This expansion follows center3’s plan to build new data centers across Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, and other strategic locations in the Kingdom to address its customers’ requirements for high availability, disaster recovery, and scalability. The new facilities will feature operational standards that support service-level agreements and key performance indicators aligned with best-in-class international standards.

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Nokia divests Device Management and Service Management unit

Lumine Group Inc. will buy Nokia’s Device Management (DM) and Service Management Platform (SMP) businesses FOR EUR 185 million, which includes a contingent consideration of up to EUR 35 million based on the performance of the business during the first year following close. 

Nokia Device Management software capabilities help communication service providers remotely manage home broadband access devices, as well as IoT sensors and devices from a variety of different vendors; while the company’s Service Management Platform improves customer care service, with coverage spanning more than 150 deployments worldwide and more than 1 billion devices under management.

Lumine Group acquires, manages, and builds industry-specific software, focused in the telecom and media space. The company intends to operate the acquired business as a standalone entity called "Motive". Approximately 500 Nokia Device Management and Service Management Platform employees are expected to transfer to Lumine Group as part of the deal.

Nokia says the divestiture reflects its strategy to focus resources on its core business. 

Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services, at Nokia said: “Nokia is pleased to enter this agreement with Lumine as another sign of progress in our strategy to focus investment in those areas most important to our business. Lumine Group has the telecom industry expertise as well as the strategic focus and resourcing to drive the Device Management and Service Management Platform businesses forward to a stronger future.”

David Sharpley, Group President at Lumine Group said: “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Device Management and Service Management Platform customers and employees to Lumine. Consistent with our autonomous operating model, we will be reviving the heritage Motive brand for this new stand-alone Lumine company and we look forward to partnering with Nokia to ensure operational continuity with all customers.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2023/12/20/nokia-announces-deal-to-sell-device-management-and-service-management-platform-businesses-to-lumine-group/

• Earlier this year, Nokia announced plans to sell its VitalQIP products to Cygna Labs Corp and to make Red Hat the primary infrastructure platform for Nokia Core Network applications.

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Arelion activates new PoP at LightEdge in San Diego

Arelion announced a new Point-of-Presence (PoP) in San Diego at the Lightwave Data Center (LWDC) operated by LightEdge Solutions, a provider of secure cloud and colocation services. LightEdge Solutions’ Lightave carrier-neutral data center site is strategically located in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego, offering colocation, cloud services and direct connectivity to AWS and Microsoft Azure. The PoP provides enhanced access to Arelion’s number one ranked Internet backbone, AS1299, as well as Arelion’s portfolio of connectivity services, including high-speed IP Transit, Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), Cloud Connect, Global 40G Ethernet Virtual Circuit (VC), IPX and DDoS Mitigation services for service providers, content providers and enterprises. 

This will be Arelion’s second fully diverse PoP in the emerging tech hub, providing wholesale and enterprise customers with high-speed connectivity to the carrier’s global IP backbone and access to its ecosystem of cloud and content services.

 

“Arelion’s new PoP at LightEdge’s Lightwave data center in San Diego extends our network to provide wholesale and enterprise customers with direct connectivity to our ecosystem of cloud and content services, allowing them to support end users in San Diego, Tijuana, Mexicali and surrounding regions,” said Art Kazmierczak, Arelion Director Strategic Sales & Network Development. “LightEdge’s facility provides the added power, security and scale our customers require, helping us deliver business-critical applications to meet the needs of these emerging technology markets.” 

 “We're thrilled about adding Arelion as a customer, a pivotal step in delivering advanced connectivity solutions. This strengthens our commitment to advanced, secure services, offering clients expanded connectivity options for improved user experiences. Together, Arelion and LightEdge are well-equipped to meet the evolving needs of our customers in emerging technology markets,” said Rob Carter, LightEdge Solutions Chief Growth Officer.

 

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Extreme Networks names Monica Kumar as CMO

Extreme Networks named Monica Kumar as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). 

Prior to Extreme, Kumar served as CMO at Hitachi Vantara, where she  drove a product simplification strategy that brought the company’s portfolio of data storage products together into one easy-to-consume, scalable, and resilient platform. Previously, she served as SVP of Marketing and Cloud go-to-market at Nutanix and spent more than 20 years at Oracle in a variety of marketing roles. 

At both Nutanix and Oracle, Kumar was instrumental in evolving both organizations from traditional hardware companies to thriving software subscription businesses. Kumar is an active board member for UPWARD Women and City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley, and a founding member of Neythri Futures Fund, a historic first fund with a mission to increase the diversity quotient in the venture capital ecosystem.

Monica Kumar, CMO at Extreme, said, “Extreme has made its mark in the industry by reducing complexity and creating an innovative, flexible, and simple approach for customers to deploy and manage their networks through the cloud. I’m thrilled to join at a time where we have a significant opportunity to further elevate our story, our brand and market leadership position – and it starts with customer-centricity and a vibrant partner ecosystem. I am looking forward to making an impact as part of Extreme’s incredible customer, partner, and people-centric leadership team.”

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