Reporter Notes: Google I/O - 900 Million Androids, Richer Services

Google showed off dozens of innovations that advance its mission "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Key themes of this year's Google I/O event in San Francisco include the massive growth in Android and Chrome OS in raw numbers and adoption of APIs, a more unified experience between core Google services, further evolution of its core search, and rapid growth in its cloud resources.  On the communications front, Google is pushing to make its free Hangouts service into the unifying interface for real-time voice, video, texting and photo sharing communications.

Some reporter notes from Google I/O on Wednesday:

• Google has reached 900 million Android activations.
• New Google+ Hangouts will be the interface for realtime communications across the Google platform.  Google says its goal is to get technology out of the way so that people can "just hangout" and not think about the medium of communications, the devices, the platforms, or other factors that get in the way today.  Messaging, including voice and video to other Google users and groups of Google users, is a free service.  Google circles are used for setting up the call.
• Launched  Google Play Music All Access  -- a subscription service featuring extended recommendations, playlists and guidance based on Google analytics. The service is priced at $9.99 per month in the U.S.  Key differences with other subscription music services is that Google can leverage personal data from its other services to generate more accurate recommendations.
• There are now 750 million active users of Chrome and a lot of Chrome growth is coming from mobile devices.  Data compression on Chrome for Mobile can save users 50% on their monthly bandwidth usage. The WebP format is about 30% more efficient than JPEG. The VP9 codec offers about a 50% reduction in file size compared to H.264.
• YouTube will implement VP9 later this year.
• New Chrome APIs for the mobile web are being released enabling developers to leverage the same resources.
• Google Play has 48 billion app installs.
• Google Play Services includes new or enhanced APIs, such as Maps API,  Location API, Fused Location API, Geofencing, Google+ Sign-In, Google Cloud Messaging, etc.  The company's goal is to get its services widely embedded by third party developers across all device platforms.
• New Google Play Game Services APIs are being released for connecting multiple devices, playing with friends from Google+, storing scores and playing data, posting on public leaderboards, etc.
• The Google+ social media service adds 41  features including a new "stream" interface that is about better design and greater depth.  This leverages cloud-generated hashtags that Google will insert automatically into posts based on content analysis, location and image analysis.
• Google Photos is adding many new features that use cloud-analytics to sort photos and enhance images.
• Google Maps is introducing new discovery and rating capabilities aimed at mobile users.  There is a new interface for both mobiles, tablets and desktops that is personalized, offer media-rich experiences, is context-aware,  and offers comparative directions with public transport and real time traffic conditions.
• Google Maps APIs are used by more than one million active sites and apps, and are reaching one billion unique visitors every week.
• Google's Cloud service has generated tremendous interest, said Urs Hölzle, Google's senior vice president for technical infrastructure, for its VM and storage capabilities.
• Google Compute Engine (GCE) is now available for open signups in preview.  The company is introducing new flexible billing options, including per minute pricing.
• GCE has increased the maximum size of persistent disks from 1TB to 10 TB.
• Cloud Datastore has more than doubled in past 11 months and now handles 4.5 trillion requests per month.
• Google's App Engine now has 3 million active apps running.
• Google is now adding PHP to its App Engine. This provides the ability to run WordPress sites in the Google cloud. Google can scale to multiple instances in under a second.
• Google Compute Engine now supports software-defined routing capabilities.  This might be useful for configuring VM instances to function as gateways, configuring VPN servers and building applications that span a local network and Google’s cloud.  Google cited its pioneering SDN implementation on its own network.
• Google Compute Engine now has ISO 27001 Certification.  App Engine and Cloud Storage have also been certified.

https://developers.google.com/events/io/

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Cisco Delivers Solid Results, Sales Hit $12.2 Billion

Cisco reported third quarter net sales of $12.2 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.5 billion or $0.46 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.7 billion or $0.51 per share.

"Cisco is executing at a very high level in a slow, but steady economic environment. We are especially pleased with our ninth consecutive record revenue quarter. We are starting to see some good signs in the US and other parts of the world which are encouraging," stated Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers. "We have the right products, the right solutions and our customers are coming to us to solve their biggest business problems. The pace of change is increasing and Cisco is well positioned."


Some highlights for the quarter:

• Ninth consecutive quarter of record revenue and non-GAAP net income.
  
• Hottest areas: cloud data center sales were up 77%, wireless up 27, Service Provider Wi-Fi- up >100%, SP video up 30%
  
• John Chambers said the company is planning for slow, steady recovery in the U.S. and elsewhere.
  
• Regionally: Americas grew 7%, EMEA was flat at 0%, APC was 1%
  
• By customer segment: Enterprise sales grew 3%, Public sector grew 1%, Commercial were up 3% and Service Provider sales grew 8%
  
• The book-to-bill ratio is approximately 1.

http://www.cisco.com

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EU Opens Anti-dumping, Anti-subsidy Investigation into Huawei, ZTE

The European Commission is considering an anti-dumping and an anti-subsidy investigation concerning imports of mobile telecommunications networks and their essential elements from China. Products that could be included consist of radio access network elements and mobile network core platforms.

The EC said its has not yet launched the investigation in order to allow time for negotiations towards an amicable solution with the Chinese authorities.

China exports telecommunication network equipment to the EU market with a value of approximately just over 1 billion euros per year.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-439_en.htm?locale=en

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Mellanox to Acquire Kotura for Silicon Photonic Interconnects

Mellanox Technologies agreed to acquire privately held Kotura, a developer of advanced silicon photonics optical interconnect technology, for a total cash purchase price of approximately $82 million. Both the Mellanox and Kotura boards of directors have approved the deal.

Kotura holds over 120 granted or pending patents in CMOS photonics and packaging design.  The company has made a number of ground breaking innovations in optical interconnects by integrating multiple high speed active and passive optical functions onto a silicon chip. The company is based in Monterey Park, California.

Mellanox said the acquisition enhances its ability to deliver cost-effective, high-speed networks with next generation optical connectivity for servers and storage systems.

Mellanox expects to establish its first R&D center in the United States at Kotura’s current location. Further, Mellanox intends to retain Kotura’s existing product lines to ensure continuity for customers and partners.

“Operating networks at 100 Gigabit per second rates and higher requires careful integration between all parts of the network. We believe that silicon photonics is an important component in the development of 100 Gigabit InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions, and that owning and controlling the technology will allow us to develop the best, most reliable solution for our customers,” said Eyal Waldman, president, CEO and chairman of Mellanox Technologies.

http://www.mellanox.com/page/press_release_item?id=1024

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VMware to Announced Cloud Infrastructure Service on May 21

On May 21, VMware executives Pat Gelsinger and Bill Fathers will unveil a new cloud service that will seamlessly extend your data center to the cloud.

http://www.vmware.com/now.html?scr=WWW_vCHS_US_HPHero_PatGelsinger

In March 2013, Mware outlined its top three growth priorities:

Redefining Infrastructure -- The Software-Defined Data Center 

VMware is aiming to extend virtualization to all areas of the data center – network, security, storage and management. Specifically, the company will merge its VMware vCloud Networking and Security product line with the Nicira Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) into a single product family based on a common technology foundation, to be named VMware NSX.

VMware NSX will extend network virtualization across VMware and non-VMware hypervisors and cloud management systems, as well as any underlying networking hardware.  Additionally, VMware NSX will provide an open framework for the integration of ecosystem services for networking and security.  VMware NSX is expected to launch in the second half of 2013.

Delivering the Hybrid Cloud 

VMware plans to extend the software-defined data center with a hybrid cloud service offering that will allow its customers to reap the benefits of the public cloud without changing their existing applications while using a common management, orchestration, networking and security model. 

A new VMware vCloud Hybrid Service is expected to launch later this year through the company's existing channels and partner ecosystem.  VMware has created a new Hybrid Cloud Services business unit, to be headed by Bill Fathers, who joins VMwarefrom Savvis, where he most recently served as President overseeing sales, marketing, product development, global operations and all corporate functions in North America, Europe and Asia.

Empowering the Multi-Device Era 

A newly released VMware Horizon Suite for workforce mobility uses virtualization to transform silos of data, applications and desktops into centralized IT services that can be provisioned, managed and delivered to end-users on the devices of their choice.  The product was introduced last month.

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Successful Launch for 4th Next Gen GPS Satellite

The fourth Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF-4 satellite for the U.S. Air Force was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket.

GPS IIF-4 is the fourth in a series of next generation GPS satellites and will join a worldwide timing and navigation system utilizing 24 satellites in six different planes, with a minimum of four satellites per plane positioned in orbit approximately 11,000 miles above the Earth's surface. The GPS IIF series provides improved accuracy and enhanced performance for GPS users.

http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/default.shtml

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Orange Fab Backs its First Class of Start-ups

Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, welcomed the first six finalists selected by the new Orange Fab, a three-month accelerator program that supports U.S.-based start-ups.

The first class of Orange Fab's accelerator program includes: 

• AlephCloud (Content Control and Privacy for the Cloud),  http://www.alephcloud.com/
  
• Fenix international (Power for 600M off-grid mobile customers),  http://fenixintl.com/
  
• Phone Halo (cloud-based tracking for items), http://phonehalo.com/
  
• Re:Char (mobile data collection and cloud analytics for Kenyan farmers), http://www.re-char.com/
  
• Talkdesk (call center software for small businesses), http://www.talkdesk.com/
  
• Virtrue (online identity verification service),  http://www.virtrue.us/

"As a global provider of high quality connectivity, data, and content, Orange has maintained during the last 12 years a history of close engagement with Silicon Valley" noted Elie Girard, EVP - Group Strategy and Development. "Orange Fab is the logical next platform for that engagement, since accelerators have become a strategic component of technologies discovery and adoption. This experience will also inspire accelerators Orange could launch in France and in Europe."

Orange Fab will conduct mentoring sessions with notable Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, world-class engineers, and experienced designers.  Along with the possibility of receiving $20,000 in funding, the start-ups will have the option to work out of Orange Silicon Valley's offices in San Francisco.  The program will culminate with two demo days, one in Paris in June and one in Silicon Valley in August.

The recruitment of the next class of Orange Fab will start in the fall of 2013.

http://orangefab.com/

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Acacia Raises $20 million for 100G Modules

Acacia Communications raised $20 million in new venture funding for its coherent OIF-compliant AC100 modules.

Acacia designs, manufactures and sells leading-edge optical transponder modules for coherent 100G and above.  The company is headquartered in Maynard MA and has an office in Hazlet, New Jersey. It was founded by Mehrdad Givehchi, Benny Mikkelsen and Christian Rasmussen.

Summit Partners served as the lead investor, with existing investors Matrix Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures and Egan Managed Capital also participating in the round.

http://www.acacia-inc.com

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Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) Picks Ericsson for Evolved Packet Core

Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has selected Ericsson's SSR 8000 family of Smart Service Routers to upgrade its Evolved Packet Core (EPC) networks in western region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deployment will support LTE and prepare the network for Voice over LTE.

As part of the agreement, Ericsson will also provide systems integration, design and managed services, extending the scope of the existing managed services partnership with Mobily, which started in 2005.

Ericsson noted that it now has 51 contracts for the SSR 8000 family of Smart Service Routers.

http://www.ericsson.com

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Deutsche Telekom Picks NetCracker for Fixed Network Billing

Deutsche Telekom awarded a long-term contract to NetCracker for the ongoing support and maintenance of the billing solution for its fixed network in Germany.

In addition, DT is using NetCracker’s Telecom Operations and Management Solutions (TOMS) suite to provide an end-to-end, next-generation solution that encompasses Order Management and OSS. Leveraging these NetCracker solutions and services enables DT to support new business models and reduce costs. Financial terms were not disclosed.

DT first incorporated NetCracker’s TOMS solution as part of its OSS architecture transformation that emphasized simplification and automation of the operations and management of its next-generation network.

http://www.NetCracker.com

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IO Raises $260 Million for Software-Defined Modular Data Centers

IO, which specializes in software-defined, modular data centers, closed a new $260,000,000 multi-year credit facility led by Wells Fargo.

"IO.Anywhere" is a standardized, manufactured, factory-tested, UL-Listed data center in a shipping container, which managed, controlled, and optimized by the IO.OS data center operating system. It can be deployed incrementally at a company location, at an IO facility, or at an IO-partner data center. IO is based in Phoenix, Arizona.

IO’s existing bank group, consisting of Wells Fargo and Mutual Bank of Omaha, has been expanded to include Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, National Bank of Arizona, Goldman Sachs Lending Partners and Morgan Stanley Bank. Wells Fargo Securities, BMO Capital Markets, J.P. Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and RBC Capital Markets served as joint lead arrangers.

“This new credit facility will help IO to continue to design, engineer and deliver the world’s leading software-defined data center technology,” said George D. Slessman, IO CEO and Product Architect.

http://www.io.com

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QTS Secures $135 million for Data Center Construction

QTS (Quality Technology Services), which operates 11 data centers across the U.S., announced a $135 million increase in its credit facility.  This brings the company's credit facility to $575 million.

QTS said the new credit enables it to continue expanding its data centers in Atlanta, Richmond, Santa Clara and Sacramento, as well as begin development of a recently acquired facility in Dallas.

QTS engaged KeyBank National Association to serve as administrative agent and KeyBanc Capital Markets to serve as sole lead arranger for the amendment and extension. Eight additional financial institutions have joined KeyBanc Capital Markets as credit facility participants, including Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, (NYSE: DB), JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley Bank (NYSE: MS), Regions Bank (NYSE: RF) and Stifel Bank & Trust (NYSE: SF).

QTS owns, operates and manages over 3.8 million square feet of secure, state-of-the-art data center infrastructure and supports more than 850 customers.

http://www.qualitytech.com

QTS Acquires Herakles Data Center in Sacramento

Thursday, January 03, 2013  Data Center, Mergers and Acquisitions  No comments

QTS (Quality Technology Services) has acquired the 92,000 square foot "Herakles" data center in Sacramento, California .  The Tier III facility  offers 52,600 square feet of raised floor space and 9.0 megawatts (MW) of power capacity,  Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal expands QTS' data center fotprint in California to three wholly owned and operated premium facilities. Herakles is a great company,...

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T5 Announces $113 Million for Data Center in Plano

T5 Data Centers has secured a $113 million loan to expand its T5@Dallas Data Center in Plano, Texas. The project ultimately will deliver 22.5 megawatts of IT load power and house 247,000 square feet under one roof.

The new funding round is being led by JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA, and includes investments from Wells Fargo Bank, RBS Citizens Financial Group, and Raymond James.  With this additional loan, T5 Data Centers has raised a combined $500 million over the past three years.

"There is unprecedented demand for new data center capacity as more companies invest in private cloud and expanded enterprise infrastructures," said Peter S. Marin, President and CEO of T5 Data Centers. "According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index, a zettabyte of data will cross the Internet in 2016 -- that's 1,024 exabytes or 1.1 trillion gigabytes of data. Companies are looking to capitalize on cloud computing resources to house their data, which is driving demand for high-capacity, custom-built data centers like T5@Dallas. This is the perfect time to invest in data center expansion."

http://www.t5datacenters.com

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Ciena Enhances its 6500 Packet-Optical Platform

Ciena has enhanced its 6500 Packet-Optical Platform with new E-Suite packet modules that integrate packet switching and traffic management alongside OTN transport.

The new E-Suite for 6500 includes both blade-based packet switching modules for small footprint applications and fabric-based packet switching modules for high-bandwidth mesh connectivity.  The modules support Ciena’s service aware packet operating system (SAOS), which is already available across the company’s packet networking portfolio and deployed on more than 300,000 platforms worldwide.

Ciena said its new purpose-built packet capabilities combine with the 6500’s coherent WaveLogic 3 optics for scale up to 400G.  Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System provides end-to-end point-and-click service provisioning.

"The industry has been talking about converged packet optical for years, but unfortunately for operators past attempts have been more like duct tape than true convergence. By tightly integrating our widely deployed SAOS packet operating system with our industry-leading 6500, we are equipping operators to quickly turn up and deliver customized Ethernet services without compromise. With a purpose-built network infrastructure that is based on a combination of our packet and optical transport capabilities, operators now have a simpler, more cost-effective and more flexible approach to packet service delivery than an all-IP solution," said Francois Locoh-Donou, senior vice president, global products group, Ciena.

http://www.ciena.com
http://www.ciena.com/products/6500/?src=PR

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SAP Unveils Mobile Secure with AWS, Capgemini, Mocana

SAP unveiled a cloud-based enterprise mobility management solution that enables IT organizations to manage and secure corporate and personally-owned devices.

The cloud edition of the SAP® Afaria mobile device management solution was introduced at the company's SAPPHIRE NOW event in Orlando, Florida, with partners including Amazon Web Services, Capgemini, and Mocana.

SAP Afaria, cloud edition, provides analytic dashboards from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio giving customers instant insight into device compliance and usage for Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8.

“Enterprises are using AWS for every imaginable use case, and it’s been exciting to see the acceleration of SAP applications being run on AWS,” said Andy Jassy, senior vice president, AWS. “Powering SAP Afaria, cloud edition, on AWS is a natural extension of the strong and expanding relationship we have with SAP, as we work together to help enterprises manage their mobile devices in a scalable, low-cost and robust fashion.”

“Cyber security is increasingly a board room priority, and as such, iron-clad mobile security is job one for all CIOs and CISOs to execute their mobile strategy,” said Sanjay Poonen, president of Technology Solutions and the Mobile Division, SAP.

http://www.sapmobilesecure.com

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Denmark's GlobalConnect Goes with Cyan for Regional Packet/Optical Upgrade

Cyan has landed another major customer in Europe.  GlobalConnect, a Danish alternative provider with a network spanning with 12,000 fiber route kilometers with extensions into northern Germany and southern Sweden, has completed the deployment of a 400G network employing the Cyan Blue Planet software-defined networking (SDN) system and Z-Series packet-optical platform throughout Denmark.

The network, which consists of some 40 wavelengths at 10 Gbps, allows GlobalConnect to deliver a wide variety of ultra-high-capacity wavelength and Ethernet services to enterprise customers and data center operators, as well as wholesale services to other carriers.


The rollout is anchored by Cyan Z-Series packet-optical transport platforms (P-OTPs). The Z-Series family, ranging from the compact, environmentally hardened 200Gbps Z22 to the high-capacity, 2.8Tbps Z77, provides a scalable, modular platform for delivering wavelength and Ethernet services at speeds up to 100Gbps. GlobalConnect employs Cyan Blue Planet, a complete SDN system, to more easily visualize, manage, and orchestrate services in complex multi-vendor environments.

Cyan said the automated packet/optical configuration capabilities and service flexibility of its platform were key to winning this project.  The company also noted that many of its deployments are now metro-regional in size.

“Many people think that the name of the game for service providers is simply adding more and more capacity. While capacity is certainly crucial, unless we can drive enhanced capabilities and features into our network we will suffer from bandwidth commoditization. Working with Cyan, we’ve been able to architect a next-generation network that is operationally more efficient, delivers the scalability we need, and provides a means to deliver enhanced services to our customers,” stated Peter Olsen, GlobalConnect chief technical officer.

http://eng.globalconnect.dk
http://www.cyaninc.com/en/

Cyan Completes its IPO

Thursday, May 09, 2013  Cyan, Financials, IPO, Optical, Packet/Optical  No comments

Cyan completed its initial public offering (IPO) and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "CYNI". Mark Floyd, Cyan's Chairman and CEO, joined by members of the company’s management team, rang The Opening Bell on the NYSE. "Listing on the NYSE marks a major milestone for the company and I want to thank the entire Cyan team, without whose tireless efforts this could never have happened," said Mark Floyd, chief...

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Video: Where is SDN today? (part 2)

Thursday, April 18, 2013  Base Stations, NFV, OpenFlow, SDN, Video  No comments

Where does SDN stand today in Service Provider networks? 00:10 - Verizon -- Prodip Sen, Director, Network Architecture 01:45 - NTT Communications, Nayan Naik, Director, Product Strategy, Data Center, Services 03:17 - Telstra, Frank Ruhl, CTO 03:45 - Ericsson, Jan Haglund, VP, Product Area IP & Broadband 04:30 - Cyan, Steve West, CTO 05:29 - Overture - Michael Aquino, President and CEO 06:17 - Metaswitch,...

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Overture Launches Gigabit Optical Ethernet Access Device

Overture introduced a gigabit optical Ethernet Access Device (EAD) designed to serve as Carrier Ethernet on-ramp for performance-assured mobile backhaul and enterprise cloud services.

The Overture 65 Next Generation Gigabit Ethernet Access Device (EAD) provides 1 GigE demarcation with Carrier Ethernet 2.0 compliance.  It supports both ring (G.8032) and point-to-point architectures, while offering IEEE 1588v2 boundary and slave functionality. Advanced features include:

• A full suite of CE2.0 demarcation tools, hierarchical QoS, and an sFlow monitoring agent
• Layer 3, including RIP, NAT, and multicast, eliminating the need for CPE router for many IP services
• Zero-touch commissioning, multi-operator OAM, integrated AC power, and Green Ethernet ultra-low power consumption
• Non-blocking 7Gb/s switching capacity, full line rate classification on all ports, support for up to 64 EVCs, and 1024 QoS classification rules
• Hardware-based OAM and exacting IEEE1588v2 implementation backed by nanosecond accuracy for mobile synchronization, precision one-way delay measurements, and less than three microseconds of latency
• Support for G.8031, G.8032v1 and G.8032v2 rings, as well as link aggregation create highly resilient network topologies
• Extremely low-power, fan-less design
• 99.999 percent or greater service availability
• Provider bridging (Q-in-Q) and MPLS-TP support offers a migration path to seamless MPLS networking
• Integration with Overture’s Ensemble OSA

“Overture’s service provider customers continue to look for innovative ways to accelerate and optimize service creation, activation, and assurance. They must differentiate their services by introducing new revenue-generating capabilities quickly and reliably,” said Vijay Raman, vice president of product management and marketing, Overture. “Carrier Ethernet 2.0 was an important advancement last year, but service providers and operators now need a clear path to software-defined and virtualized services. The Overture 65 offers that path. We are pleased to introduce this game-changing Ethernet Access Device as part of Overture’s complete metro edge solution.”

http://www.overturenetworks.com

In March, Overture introduced a new switching platform for Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE2.0) Ethernet aggregation over any access method, it includes support for fiber, E-Access, copper, SONET/SDH, and TDM.

The new Overture 6500, which will be offered in several slot configurations, is designed for the company's new Ensemble Open Service Architecture for transforming the metro edge with software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization technology. Key applications include Ethernet aggregation for business and cloud services, macro cell and small cell mobile backhaul, metro inter-office infrastructure, or wholesale E-Access service presentation and termination.

Highlights of the Overture 6500 include:

• CE2.0 Ethernet aggregation for any access method, including fiber, E-Access, copper, SONET/SDH, and TDM
• Scalability supporting more than 3,000 subscriber services, leveraging centralized and distributed switching, and available in multiple chassis options
• Multiple resiliency options that include card, power, device, network facility, and multi-site redundancy
• Ready for future software-defined services and integration Overture’s Ensemble Open Service Architecture.

Overture said its new platform represents an entry point to software-defined services at the metro edge. 

Overture has also outlined a  new Ensemble Open Service Architecture for automating essential tasks in service creation, activation, and assurance at the metro edge.

Overture's Ensemble OSA will leverage open API standards, including OpenFlow.  It is comprised of three layers, each of which may include Overture developed components and those developed by service providers or third party vendors:

• esources – Elements that provide connect, compute, and storage functionality. They may consist of physical devices such as switches, servers and storage arrays, and/or software functions running on virtual machines.
• Orchestration and Control – Software building block functions for data plane control, resource abstraction, and network management that provide the glue connecting the resources to the applications.
• Network Applications – Software packages that leverage one or more of the Orchestration and Control building blocks and tie into a service provider’s back office systems and that of their business partners to create a service or network function.

end

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NetCracker Selected for Sprint's Network Vision

Sprint has selected NetCracker as a supplier supporting the rollout of the carrier’s Network Vision Program.  NetCracker will operate provisioning systems and manage the processes to capture, quality assure, and record critical provisioning information as Sprint deploys and operationalizes their Network Vision Program nationwide. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sprint’s Network Vision Program is Sprint’s plan to consolidate multiple network technologies into one seamless network with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers across the United States.  NetCracker is a subsidiary of NEC.

"Sprint’s Network Vision Program continues to be a landmark for large-scale, innovative network and business transformations, said Frank DeTraglia, Vice President - Global Sales at NetCracker. "NetCracker is pleased to be a part of the solution set that will contribute to a successful program."

http://www.NetCracker.com

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Fujitsu to Resell Centina's NetOmnia to Offer Carrier Ethernet SLA Mgt

Fujitsu Network Communications will resell Centina Systems' NetOmnia Ethernet Service Assurance for end-to-end visualization and SLA management of Carrier Ethernet services and the NetOmnia SLA Manager.

Centina said its NetOmnia enables Fujitsu to deliver on the entire Ethernet Life Cycle from solution delivery to service quality management and SLA management, including support for ITU-T Y1731 and IEEE 802.1ag industry standards.  NetOmnia allows CSPs to define, track and report on contractual SLAs. This improves SLA conformance with proactive performance reporting for key Ethernet service quality metrics (SQMs), such as availability, delay, jitter, throughput and packet loss. NetOmnia also provides automatic discovery of end-to-end Ethernet services.

“As operators continue to turn to Fujitsu’s communications networking portfolio to support the high-quality, high-bandwidth Ethernet services, ensuring quality of service and customer experience is critical,” said Paul Havala, Vice President of Planning at Fujitsu Network Communications. “NetOmnia™ allows us to deliver a comprehensive Ethernet solution with the ability to assure the service performance across multi-vendor networks.”

http://www.centinasystems.com

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Fujitsu Launches Cloud Initiative in Japan

Fujitsu announced a full suite of private, public and hybrid cloud services at this week's Tokyo International Forum. 

The FUJITSU Cloud Initiative includes 10 new services (two IaaS, four PaaS, and four cloud-integration services) and two upgraded services (one PaaS and one security service). The company's cloud integration organization has also been expanded to 100 Cloud Specialists and 2,000 Cloud Integrators. 

Some highlights:

1. IaaS (two types)

1. FUJITSU Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5 Dedicated; dedicated public cloud (New)
   This is a public cloud service encompassing physical servers, storage, and network dedicated to an individual customer. 
2. FUJITSU Cloud IaaS Private Hosted; private cloud customized to corporate needs (New)
   This is a private cloud service, run out of Fujitsu's own datacenters, that is customized to each customer's requirements for operational standards, security policies, and service levels. 

2. PaaS (five types)

1. FUJITSU Cloud PaaS RunMyProcess
   This service provides functionality that lets customers freely mix-and-match services and data in the cloud and on their own premises, to create new types of business systems. This includes the creation of processes (workflows) and web interfaces, along with an extensive range of connectors (approx. 1,800 types) to integrate with the public cloud.
2. FUJITSU Cloud PaaS Cloud Service Enabler; standard platform for SaaS development (New; available from June 2013)
   This provides a platform with standard functions needed to build and operate a customer's SaaS, such as marketplace, ID management and authentication, and subscriptions and fees. This service lets companies focus on developing and operating the applications and packages that are at the core of their business, increasing their productivity and dramatically speeding up the process of launching a SaaS by as much as a factor of six (from approximately one year to approximately two months, according to Fujitsu research).
3. Platform Service for Social-Network Tie-Ins (New) (Available from Q3 2013)
   Solving social problems and creating innovative solutions requires a social cloud. This is a platform service for implementing data-sharing and alliances between multiple players and applications.
4. Mobile-Access Platform Service (New) (Available from Q3 2013)
   This service provides a complete suite of functions needed for offering cloud services on mobile devices (ID management and authentication, portals, secure app distribution and execution).
5. FUJITSU Cloud PaaS Data Utilization Platform Services; Big data platform (Upgraded)
   This is a cloud service for leveraging big data by accumulating and analyzing unstructured or large volumes of data. This can convert huge volumes of unstructured data to useful business intelligence in real time, so that companies can act on that data to create new value.

3. FUJITSU Cloud Integration Services (four types)

1. Cloud Deployment Assessment Service (New)
   With this service, Fujitsu takes into account the customer's cloud requirements, generates an optimized deployment plan, assists with pre-deployment testing, and performs Fit & Gap analysis to quote the best cloud service for the customer.
2. Cloud Deployment Service (New)
   Fujitsu designs and assembles infrastructure, installs middleware, and assists in running performance tests and security tests when deploying a cloud. A wide range of additional services are planned relating to ongoing cloud operations.
3. Cloud Operations Management Service (New)
   With this service, Fujitsu manages and monitors the state of operations in the customer's cloud environment, performs troubleshooting, and conducts periodic operational and security assessments.
4. Multi-cloud Environment Integrated Operations Service (New) (Available from Q2 2013)
   This service provides a broad range of ICT resource-monitoring and ITIL-compliant operational tools. It enables flexible multi-cloud operations management, with coverage for both public clouds and private clouds.

4. Security Service (one type)

1. FUJITSU Security Solution Cloud Security Consulting (Upgraded)
   This is a consulting service in which Fujitsu's ICT security experts offer assistance in meeting FISC security standards and PCIDSS compliance, and can suggest measures to counter cyber-attacks and other advanced threats.

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