Fortinet to acquire Lacework for Cloud Native Application Protection Platform

Fortinet agreed to acquire Lacework, a start-up based in Mountain View, California specializing in security solutions that offer visibility, threat detection, and compliance across multi-cloud environments. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Lacework offers an AI-powered, Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP). It features an agent and agentless architecture for data collection, a homegrown data lake, and a code security offering. The company claims nearly 1,000 customers.

Lacework was founded in 2015 and has attracted over $1.9 billion over 6 rounds of funding from various venture capital firms and investors, including Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Google Ventures,Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management, and Dragoneer Investment Group.

Lacework was founded by Vikram Kapoor and Sanjay Kalra. Before co-founding Lacework,  Kapoor was the Chief Architect and Principal Engineer at Bromium, a company specializing in endpoint security solutions. Before Lacework, Kalra was the CEO and Co-founder of Vhayu Technologies, a company that provided financial market data analytics solutions. Vhayu Technologies was later acquired by Thomson Reuters.  T

he CEO of Lacework is Jay Parikh, who before joining Lacework in 2021, he was the Vice President of Engineering and Infrastructure at Facebook, where he oversaw the company’s global engineering and infrastructure teams.

Fortinet said it intends to integrate Lacework’s CNAPP solution into its existing portfolio, forming one of the most comprehensive, full stack AI-driven cloud security platforms available from a single vendor. 

https://www.lacework.com/

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Nokia debuts API Network Exposure Platform

Nokia introduced a new Network Exposure Platform designed to expand and simplify the number of APIs available to operators, their partners, and customer channels to enable the creation of network powered applications for consumer, enterprise, and industrial customers. It will support Linux Foundation CAMARA APIs, TM Forum Open APIs, edge-based APIs, and other APIs for connecting networks securely to a broader B2B digitalization ecosystem.

Nokia Network Exposure Platform (NEP) is the first implementation of the GSMA Operator Platform, a standard that operators look to for operational guidance and reflects the telco industry’s need for solutions that satisfy the requirements of an array of API models.

Nokia NEP complements and seamlessly integrates with Nokia's Network as Code platform with developer portal, which aligns to the GSMA Open Gateway aggregator concept and provides a cloud-based platform to connect and monetize service provider networks with application developers around the world.

Nokia said its NEP expands on and is designed to work closely with Nokia Network Exposure Function (NEF), another API-exposure related solution, which is based on 3GPP specifications. Nokia NEF provides a process for interfacing with well-defined functions in the core network. It also enables API mashups to combine multiple APIs from different core functions into new simplified APIs, which are easier to integrate with partner and customer channels.

For existing Nokia NEF customers, it is possible to upgrade to a combined NEF and NEP solution to simplify their API ecosystem.

Shkumbin Hamiti, Head of Network Monetization Platform, Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, said: “Exposing and simplifying access to 5G and 4G network capabilities for channels connecting developers requires a sustained and collaborative effort by all industry players on a variety of technical fronts. Nokia NEP is another meaningful part in that work of enabling operators to organize, control, and secure the way their networks integrate into developer ecosystems and platforms; and driving choice and flexibility for creating new use cases and value for the end customers.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2024/06/11/nokia-introduces-network-exposure-platform-to-expand-and-simplify-network-api-exposure-for-service-providers/

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Vonage and Telstra partner on advanced network APIs

Vonage, a division of Ericsson, and Telstra have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote the digitalization of network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) within Australia’s enterprise sector.

This non-exclusive agreement will integrate Telstra’s network APIs into the Vonage platform, enabling enterprises and developers to harness these network capabilities for creating innovative, advanced applications and improving the customer experience.

The partnership not only supports Telstra’s T25 API leadership goals but also paves the way for new opportunities for Vonage throughout the broader Asia Pacific region.

Vonage and Telstra will collaborate on, and continue investing in, enhancing existing APIs, such as Silent Authentication - a new verification method that provides secure authentication without requiring users to input passwords or verification information.

Telstra and Vonage will also work together to identify new open APIs to bring to market such as slicing, edge computing, fraud and spam protections, and network analytical insights, while exploring the integration of Telstra’s APIs with Vonage’s API platform.

Niklas Heuveldop, Vonage CEO and Head of Business Area Global Communications Platform, Ericsson, says: "By combining Vonage’s API platform, Ericsson’s 5G network capabilities and Telstra’s network APIs, we are providing developers and enterprises with the tools they need to create new, secure, reliable and engaging solutions,”

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Mavenir builds Generative AI Co-Pilot for CSPs

Mavenir introduced an Operations Co-Pilot that uses generative AI (GenAI) to improve service-level agreements (SLAs) and optimize operational efficiency for communications service providers (CSPs). 

Mavenir’s Operations Co-Pilot for RAN Service Assurance (RSA), which was developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and AWS, automates network troubleshooting, enabling mobile network operators to rapidly and accurately anticipate network issues and address detected network impairments before they become critical. The Operations Co-Pilot significantly reduces manual debugging effort, development and maintenance lead times to enhance IT operations, service availability and delivery for increasingly complex mobile networks.

Utilizing the power of GenAI with large language models (LLMs) trained on detailed key performance indicators (KPIs), counters, logs and traces from network infrastructure, Mavenir, together with NVIDIA and AWS, is creating a suite of Operations Co-Pilot solutions that will transform the operations management of telecom networks through intelligent automation. This new framework – built on NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform for generative AI running on AWS – leverages Mavenir’s Open RAN architecture to provide accessibility into multiple open interfaces that can deliver the data needed to train and optimize domain-specific telecom LLMs.

Mavenir’s Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Bejoy Pankajakshan commented: “Our new Operations Co-Pilot framework has the potential to be a game-changer for operators, delivering a wealth of fault prediction and root cause analysis capabilities with AI-powered accuracy and speed. This industry-first solution is built on the transformative foundation of NVIDIA GPUs operating on AWS and enabled by Mavenir data, which can be accessed via numerous interfaces in the Open RAN and in the Packet Core for complete end-to-end visibility.”

He added: “The three key use cases of Core Dump Analysis, Log Similarity Search feature and Log Anomaly Detection can be used together to maximize the automated efficiency gains. Combining information from these trained LLMs will provide broader and deeper coverage of all fault and anomaly scenarios, enabling very early prediction of potential problems in the network. Moreover, as these solutions evolve, the models have the ability to continuously learn and optimize based on user feedback and iterative training with further logs, KPIs and traces, promising even greater gains.”

https://www.mavenir.com/resources/mavenir-automated-ran-service-assurance-platform-enabled-by-generative-ai/

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JUNO cable linking Japan-US deploys Ciena’s WaveLogic 6

The NTT DATA-led JUNO submarine cable system, which will link Japan and the United States, will deploy Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, powered by WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e).

 The 10,000km JUNO cable, which is slated to launch at the end of 2024, will be the highest capacity trans-Pacific cable.

Ciena said the state-of-the-art cable will benefit from its performance-optimized WL6e, enabling 800Gb, 400Gb, and 100Gb services. JUNO will also benefit from Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite, which provides operational efficiencies for the cable, simplifying and accelerating planning, provisioning, and assurance workflows. Additionally, Ciena Services will provide submarine-specific automation for installation, spectrum activation, and testing for time savings and improved spectrum optimization. Submarine Line Terminal Equipment technical support will also be provided to maintain the highest network reliability.

“NTT DATA is dedicated to providing reliable global internet infrastructure and Ciena’s industry-leading WaveLogic 6 coherent optical technology will enable JUNO to start strong. We continue to see demands to build our global digital economy, and capacity and network performance are critical pillars to support this rapid growth,” said Yoshio Sato, CEO, Seren.

“Existing Japan-U.S. cables are nearing capacity limits and there is a need to meet the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications associated with AI, cloud-based services, and streaming videos. Powered by WL6e, the JUNO cable, which is the largest trans-Pacific submarine cable system, will be ready to hit new service delivery targets as soon as it launches,” said Thomas Soerenson, Vice President, Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena. 

•  In July 2022, NEC announced a contract to build the JUNO Cable System, which is slated to be the highest capacity transpacific cable when it comes online by the end of 2024. The project is led by Seren Juno Network Co., Ltd., a company established by NTT Ltd Japan Corporation, PC Landing Corp. Mitsui & Co. and JA Mitsui Leasing.
• The JUNO cable will span 10,000 km between Chiba prefecture and Mie prefecture in Japan to California.NEC plans to deploy its newly developed energy efficient repeaters and leading-edge SDM (Space Division Multiplexing) technology. This system will be able to adapt as many as 20 fiber pairs for the first time in a trans-Pacific subsea fiber-optic cable. The cable is expected to provide a maximum capacity of 350 Tbps.

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AWS to launch Taipei Infrastructure Region

Amazon will launch an AWS infrastructure Region in Taiwan by early 2025. 

The new Asia Pacific (Taipei) AWS Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch, adding to AWS’s existing 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions globally. With today’s announcement, AWS has plans to launch 21 more Availability Zones and seven more AWS Regions in Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. AWS Regions consist 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.

“AWS is committed to helping customers of all sizes and across all industries accelerate their digital transformation with the highest levels of security and resilience available,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS. “The new AWS Region in Taiwan will enable organizations to unlock the full potential of the cloud and build with AWS technologies like compute, storage, databases, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive innovation and transform the way businesses and institutions serve their customers. We look forward to helping customers and AWS Partners in Taiwan deliver cloud-enabled applications to accelerate growth, productivity, and innovation with lower latency from data centers located in Taiwan.”

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

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Ayar adds VP of Packaging and Test to its team

Ayar Labs appointed Pooya Tadayon as its Vice President of Packaging and Test. 

Tadayon was formerly a Fellow and Director of Assembly & Test Pathfinding within Intel’s Assembly and Test Technology Development (ATTD) group. He holds 47 patents and has over three dozen pending, in areas including test interconnect technology, thermal technology, and package/product architecture.

“The demand for photonics technology is rapidly increasing to meet the bandwidth and energy requirements of AI,” said Tadayon. “My goal at Ayar Labs is to accelerate assembly and test ecosystem maturation to support the volumes being projected for optical I/O in AI connectivity.”

Tadayon will lead the creation of an efficient OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) process that will enable the photonics ecosystem and accelerate the adoption of Ayar Labs’ solutions.

http://ayarlabs.com/

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