Netsocket Debuts SDN for for the Distributed Enterprise

Netsocket introduced its Virtual Network solution for enterprise campuses and distributed office LAN and edge networking environments. Most SDN solutions target data center or metro networks.

Netsocket's Enterprise Edition NVN vNetCommander orchestration application, which now commercially available, is comprised of a three-tier SDN architecture – providing end-to-end virtual networking, centralized orchestration and automation, and superior interoperability and integration with legacy routed networks as well as higher-level management systems such as Microsoft System Center. The Netsocket Virtual Network interconnects enterprise branches in just a few minutes, with no networking expertise required at the site. Its switching and routing components are automatically deployed and provisioned to each branch office using the centralized, intuitive network management application vNetCommander. The company said its web-based GUI, the vNetCommander, can handle automated deployment, installation, configuration and orchestration of virtualized networks all from a centralized console.

 “One of the advantages of NVN for distributed enterprises is that it facilitates an extremely low risk and low cost path to try SDN virtualized networking and to evaluate the benefits”, said Fletcher Hamilton, president and CEO of Netsocket.  “There is so much hype in the SDN world that it’s hard to know what solutions are really ready for prime time.   By implementing SDN first at a branch location, a solution like NVN can be seamlessly proven interoperable and operational within your existing network in just a few hours.  This allows an enterprise to easily separate the hype from the facts.”

http://www.netsocket.com.

http://www.virtualnetwork.com

In July, Netsocket, a start-up based in Plano, Texas, unveiled its flagship Netsocket Virtual Network (NVN) product suite for bringing SDN-based orchestration and automation capabilities to enterprise infrastructure based commodity x86 servers.

Netsocket has developed a three-tier SDN architecture for interoperability and integration with legacy routed networks as well as higher level management systems such as Microsoft System Center.  The NetSocketdesign uses a vFlow controller with routing, firewall, and VPN capabilities built-in.

Key goals include flexibility of configuration and management, seamless legacy network interoperability via the intrinsic routing capability in the controller,  and commoditization of switching functions by eliminating the need for any network hardware other than commodity layer 2 switches and off-the-shelf x86 servers.  The framework provides automated networking through NVN applications that are network configuration and operational state 'aware,' and capable of adaptively monitoring and controlling underlying network services. This would enable enterprises to cap their purchases of proprietary routers and layer 3 switches and begin to migrate towards an agile software-based network infrastructure that relies only on commodity servers and inexpensive layer 2 switches.

The Netsocket Virtual Network (NVN) product suite consists of software for x86 virtual server platforms.  Key components include:

• vFlowController -- an SDN controller with intrinsic vRouter, vTunnel and vFirewall components.
• vNetCommander -- a centralized management system for NVN that handles automated installation, provisioning and orchestration of the network.
• vNetOptimizer -- a next generation virtualized version of Netsocket’s Cloud Experience Manager service assurance product, and will provide for real-time network service analytics, automation and optimization of the network.

Netsocket is natively targeting all of the popular hypervisors, including Microsoft Hyper-V. It is working on interoperability with OpenStack & Microsoft System Center.

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Omnitron Integrates Power-over-Ethernet into Carrier Ethernet NID

Omnitron Systems introduced a Carrier Ethernet (CE) 2.0 Network Interface Device that integrates up to 60W Power over Ethernet (PoE) to directly power small cell equipment.

Omnitron said that by integrating CE 2.0 demarcation and PoE functions into a compact device, it can simplify small cell deployments by eliminating the need for power wiring to the cell or, alternatively, the usage of midspan power equipment.

“Complexity, power requirements and high backhaul equipment cost, have been critical factors slowing down small cell deployments,” said Rammy Bahalul, Omnitron Vice President of Marketing. “The compact yet highly-integrated GM4-PoE now enables Service Providers to reduce installation complexity, simplify power delivery to the small cell and achieve the target cost structure required to accelerate small cell deployments.”    

GM4-PoE NIDs are available in two PoE basic models; GM4-PoE+ and GM4-HPoE. Both models support the 802.3af PoE (15.4W) and 802.3at PoE+ (25.5W) standards per port, while the GM4-HPoE models also provide up to 60W of power per port.  The GM4-PoE NIDs are available with full PoE power on up to four RJ-45 ports, and feature up to two SFP fiber ports that support G.8032 Ethernet Ring Protection Switching to enable resilient ring configurations. 

htt://www.omnitron-systems.com

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Ciena Introduces New Switches for 10GbE Services

Ciena announced new packet networking solutions for supporting 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) services.

Ciena’s new 5160 and 5142 Service Aggregation Switches are small form-factor platforms that enable efficient delivery and aggregation of large quantities of data at speeds of 1GbE to 10GbE while meeting increasingly stringent SLAs.

Key capabilities include: 10GbE service activation testing, extended temperature range support, full synchronization support, and greatly reduced power and space footprint.

Ciena said its new E-Suite platforms are seamlessly integrated with the latest packet capabilities on the widely deployed 6500 Packet-Optical Platform and leverage the field-proven, full-featured Service-Aware Operating System (SAOS) provided by Ciena’s existing portfolio of packet networking and converged packet optical solutions.

http://www.ciena.com

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SAP Ventures Raises US$1 Billion in One Year

SAP Ventures, the independent venture capital firm affiliated with SAP AG, has raised more than US$650 million for a new direct investment fund, SAP Ventures Fund II.  The company has raised a further US$405 million for its SAP HANA Real Time Fund, which invests in early stage VC funds.  Inclusive of SAP Ventures Fund I, a US$353 million direct investment fund launched in 2011, the firm's total assets under management increased to more than US$1.4 billion.

SAP Ventures noted its record results this year: 12 initial public offering (IPO) and merger and acquisition (M&A) events to date in 2013. Five of its portfolio companies went public, including Control 4, Just Dial, Marin Software, Tremor Video and Violin Memory. Seven of its portfolio companies were acquired, including Aepona, Apriso, Datria, ExactTarget, Ignite, ScaleIO and Voxeo.

"SAP Ventures is an integral partner of the innovation drive and intellectual renewal happening at SAP. They are helping us build a broader ecosystem that includes some of the most innovative founders, developers and venture capitalists," said Dr. Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG. "I have been a big supporter of SAP Ventures over the years. We are proud of our commitment to their newest fund and I look forward to supporting them on their journey."

http://www.sapventures.com/

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WD's New My Cloud Delivers Terabits of Personal Storage

WD introduced a new family of "My Cloud" personal cloud drives that provide consumers with multiple terabytes of digital content storage that is accessible to friends and family over the web and can be integrated with major public cloud services, including Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google Drive.

WD is positioning its My Cloud as a solution for users to organize, centralize and secure the digital content from all of their computers and mobile devices.  The HDD, which is available in 2 TB, 3 TB, and 4 TB capacities, connects via USB 3.0 to serve as a digital hub for the home network.

"We believe that there's no place like home for the cloud," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. "Everyone is inundated with thousands of digital files scattered across multiple computers and mobile devices, and controlling that chaos is a challenge. WD's personal cloud is the easiest, most secure and most affordable way for customers to control that chaos, with access to all of their files anywhere, anytime."

The average household will own approximately 3.3 terabytes (TB) of digital content by 2016, according to research from Gartner.  WD believes that automated software will be key to connecting, sharing, syncing, and backing-up digital content from all the smartphones, tablets and computers in the home.

A two drive and four drive My Cloud configuration will be available in the future.
http://www.wd.com/en/

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Enabling Bluetooth for Smart Wireless Charging Stations

The Bluetooth SIG and Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) have set-up a formal liaison relationship to advance smart wireless charging station.

As a first step, the Bluetooth SIG has issued a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) to the A4WP for adoption in its baseline system specification (BSS).  The A4WP BSS utilizes the Bluetooth Smart radio standard to carry the session management and power control between an A4WP charging station and an A4WP-certified device, e.g., smartphone.

The organizations said benefits of their collaboration include:

• Consumers will benefit from devices initiating a charge more quickly when coming into contact with charging surfaces
  
• Consumers will also see improved power control features such as giving one device prioritized charging when multiple devices are charging at the same time
  
• OEMs and developers will be able to create a new class of applications  to leverage these smart wireless charging stations (e.g., mobile payments, location based services)

"Bluetooth Smart is a foundation technology for the Alliance for Wireless Power," said Dr. Kamil A. Grajski, president of the A4WP.  "By combining Bluetooth Smart with magnetic resonant wireless power transfer technology, the A4WP delivers a next-generation user experience that features one charging station to many simultaneous devices, freedom of placement on tabletops, desktops and automotive environments, and charging solutions that scale seamlessly from wireless headsets to smartphones, to tablets and laptops."

http://www.a4wp.org/

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Infonetics: 16G Fibre Channel Passing 8G This Year

The global SAN equipment market, including Fibre Channel switches and iSCSI and Fibre Channel host bus adapters, totaled $631 million in 2Q13, an increase of 4% from 1Q13, but a decline of 8% from the year-ago quarter (2Q12), according to a new report from Infonetics. One of the biggest trends is the ramp in 16 Fibre Channel.

"Cisco's 16G Fibre Channel ports are finally hitting the market, and we believe its customers' pent-up demand for Fibre Channel inter-switch connection will help push 16G revenue past 8G by the end of 2013," predicts Michael Howard, Infonetics Research's co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. "Meanwhile, Brocade, which enjoyed a similar jump start when it came to market with 16G Fibre Channel in 2011, is settling in for the longer-term 16G replacement of 8G as the speed of choice."

Cliff Grossner, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics, adds: "We're forecasting 16G Fibre Channel switch revenue to grow at a 46% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2017."

Additional highlights:

• In the adapter segment, combined Fibre Channel and iSCSI revenue fell 5% in 2Q13 from the previous quarter
• Thanks to its introduction of 16G Fibre Channel, Cisco was able to buck a down quarter that plagued many of the other leading vendors in the SAN space
  
• In 2Q13, the worldwide high-performance interconnect equipment (HPI) market, including converged FCoE/Ethernet switches and converged network adapters, grew 26% sequentially, and is up 43% year-over-year
  
• Growth in the HPI market continues to reflect operators' ongoing investments in data center infrastructure and interest in LAN/SAN convergence
  
• Sales of converged FCoE/Ethernet switches are up 26% in 2Q13 from 1Q13 

http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2013/2Q13-SAN-and-High-Performance-Interconnect-Equipment-Market-Highlights.asp

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RAD Joins Cyan Blue Orbit SDN Ecosystem

RAD is the latest company to join the Cyan Blue Orbit ecosystem of partners focused on multi-vendor SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV) applications.

RAD’s joining of Blue Orbit follows the recent completion by Cyan of end-to-end Ethernet services provisioning and "one-click OAM" as well as alarms and topology support for the RAD ETX-2. This integration enables network operators to have visibility and management of RAD platforms through Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN Platform.
 
“There is a lot of industry chatter around the promise of SDN/NFV, but when it comes down to it, carriers want proof beyond the hype to know our solutions can be successfully deployed,” said Yuri Gittik, Head of Strategic Marketing, RAD. “The Blue Orbit ecosystem allows us to test and demonstrate interoperability between our innovative solutions, including Distributed NFV, and other multi-vendor SDN solutions to ensure smooth infrastructure rollouts.”

http://www.cyaninc.com

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Samsung Intros SSDs for VMware Virtual SANs

Samsung Electronics introduced a high-performing solid state drive (SSD) for VMware Virtual SANs, which allows customers to pool server disks and flash resources to create a resilient, high-performance and dynamic shared storage solution for virtual machines.

The SM1625 SSD, Samsung’s first dual-ported SAS SSD with densities of up to 800 GBs, has been certified for VMware Virtual SAN for use in data centers and other enterprise applications. The newly certified SAS SM1625 enterprise storage, which is produced using 20 nanometer (nm) class technology, can read data sequentially at 950 MB/s (megabytes per second). In addition, the SM1625 has a random read speed of 120,000 IOPS (inputs/outputs per second). Further, it can handle up to 10 drive writes per day, an endurance rate that covers a typical warranty period for its full five years.

“VMware Virtual SAN provides customers a simpler and more flexible tier of storage for their virtual machines,” said John Gilmartin, vice president, Cloud Infrastructure Products, VMware. “By clustering flash and direct-attached storage, VMware Virtual SAN provides a shared storage solution that is high-performing, cost-effective, and seamlessly integrated into VMware vCenter™ Server. We are pleased to have Samsung’s SM1625 SSD as a high-performance storage option for our joint customers.”

“We are very enthusiastic about this SM1625 certification as the basis for partnering with VMware to offer a SAS storage solution for the enterprise,” said JaeHyeong Lee, vice president of memory product planning & application engineering, Samsung Electronics. “We will work closely with not only our OEM customers but also global software companies such as VMware in looking to develop high performing and environmentally-friendly IT systems for data center applications and enterprise storage.”

http://www.samsung.com

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Aricent Partners with Broadcom on Mobile Backhaul Framework

Aricent announced a collaboration with Broadcom to develop  a carrier-grade mobile backhaul reference framework.

Aricent's Intelligent Switching Solution (ISS), which is a software framework that offers Layer 2 switching, IPv4/v6 routing, QoS, security, and management capabilities, has been tested and deployed in the field on Broadcom's StrataXGS BCM56440 Ethernet Switch leveraging Broadcom's latest Software Development Kit (SDK).

The joint solution can render  Layer 2 and VLAN switching, Layer 3 routing, MPLS, MPLS-TP, provider backbone bridging (PBB), operations, administration and management (OAM), protection, timing, and synchronization features to help equipment vendors build next generation carrier grade mobile backhaul solutions. ISS on Broadcom's StrataXGS BCM56450 platform will be available by the end of this year.

http://www.aricent.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Forms Open CloudBand Community

Alcatel-Lucent announced the formation of the CloudBand Ecosystem Program, an open community of service providers, developers and vendors adopting Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) technology.  

Alcatel-Lucent said NFV technology promises to bring the agility, efficiency and economics of the cloud to service provider networks and business operations, allowing operators to offer cloud services with the performance and reliability that consumers and enterprises expect.  Virtualizing network functions allows faster and more efficient deployment where they are needed. In addition, service life-cycles can be more easily managed to meet dynamic customer demands without the huge investments in time, costs and power that are currently required.

Following a limited rollout with a small group of vendors, Alcatel-Lucent has now opened up the CloudBand EcoSystem Program to a wider circle of businesses, with 15 companies – including Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Citrix, Intel, Vyatta, Radware, Red Hat, HP, Nuage Networks, Gigaspaces, StackIQ, Inktank and Nominum signed up.

Axel Clauberg, VP IP and Fixed Access Architecture, Group CTO team, Deutsche Telekom AG, said: "As an industry we need to accelerate the journey towards NFV. There are 2 main parts in making this happen that need to work well with each other through experimentation and iterations: 1. Wide array of best of breed 'virtual network functions' that currently run on purpose built HW and 2. An NFV cloud Platform that's optimized to run these functions at scale. We're happy to see Alcatel-Lucent CloudBand open up their NFV platform for any company developing virtual network functions to help accelerate this journey."

Roy Amir, Vice President, Strategy & Ecosystem, CloudBand, Alcatel-Lucent, said: "Alcatel-Lucent is dedicated to helping service providers advance quickly in the area of NFV. The CloudBand Ecosystem Program aims to do just that, providing a workspace where companies can access CloudBand and collaborate and learn from each other. This will help service providers adopt a completely new NFV operational model using services and solutions that have been developed with them and their customers' needs in mind."

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

http://ecosystem.cloud-band.com/

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Alcatel-Lucent Opens NFV/SDN R&D Center in Kfar Saba, Israel

Alcatel-Lucent inaugurated a cloud research and development center in Kfar Saba, Israel and outlined its plans to accelerate the rollout of Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking technologies.

“We believe new technologies like NFV and Software Defined Networking are going to massively change the networking landscape,” stated Michael Combes, Alcatel-Lucent's CEO. “They will lead the industry’s network transformation to a cloud-based approach.”

“Having world-class cloud facilities in Israel, as well as in Silicon Valley, gives Alcatel-Lucent two of the brightest centers in the world focused on excellence in cloud technologies,” Mr. Combes will comment. “Their location, in global innovation hubs, underscores our commitment to cloud’s evolution, which we see as one of the most integral and influential technologies shaping next generation networks, communications, business and the economy within the next five years.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s cloud facility in Israel operates in close collaboration with the company’s Bell Labs innovation arm and is an incubation center for NFV activities and customer projects. At the center of this work is Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand™ solution --  the industry’s first open, multivendor NFV management platform enabling service providers to bring the benefits of the cloud to their own networks and business operations while offering cloud services with the security, reliability and quality enterprises and consumers expect from telecommunications networks.

The facility at Kfar Saba also has a collaborative relationship with major Israeli universities, specifically Tel-Aviv University and Technion, to research distributed cloud optimization. 

Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand solution is an open NFV platform for the distribution, automation and life-cycle management of cloud services. The CloudBand Management System orchestrates and optimizes services between the communications network and the cloud, while the CloudBand Node provides the computing, storage and networking hardware and associated software to host a wide range of cloud services.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

 

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IBM to Acquire The Now Factory for Mobile Analytics

IBM agreed to acquire The Now Factory, a privately held provider of analytics software for communications service providers, for an undisclosed sum.

The Now Factory, which is based in Dublin, Ireland, provides real-time insights by analyzing massive quantities of network and business data. The analysis helps network operators understand how their customers are experiencing mobile services. In addition to its ability to detect and resolve issues, The Now Factory's software helps CSPs better understand how a subscriber interacts with cloud-based services, such as mobile applications. For example, a CSP can use The Now Factory's software to analyze customer usage of 3G and 4G LTE data services and identify high volume pre-paid subscribers.  This can result in a targeted campaign to convert high volume pre-paid subscribers into post-paid accounts.

IBM said the said the acquisition complements its MobileFirst Analytics portfolio, which is designed to enhance the way organizations analyze mobile device usage to provide exceptional customer experiences. For example, IBM InfoSphere Streams augments The Now Factory data mediation and analytics, and extends the range of use cases to include more real-time analytics on data in motion.  The Now Factory's clients can also now access IBM PureData System for Analytics and Hadoop-based IBM InfoSphere BigInsights for exploration and deep analysis of subscriber and network data.

"The Now Factory's innovative solutions are all about enabling quick insights for better business results in the highly competitive telecommunications landscape," said Tom Morrisroe, CEO, The Now Factory.  "As part of IBM, we can now extend our technologies to a broader range of clients to help them uncover new, untapped growth opportunities, and achieve tangible business value from big data and analytics."

"Today's announcement is part of IBM's strategy to continually establish leadership in the era of big data and capitalize on the opportunity to analyze data in real time," said Bob Picciano, General Manager, Information Management, IBM Software Group. "The Now Factory's software enhances IBM's Big Data and Analytics portfolio by improving the speed, development and implementation of big data solutions, and gives communications service providers the ability to better service their customers."

http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com
http://www.thenowfactory.com/

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Savvis Builds Minneapolis-St. Paul Data Center

Savvis announced plans to open a new data center in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in spring 2014.

MN2 will serve as the Minneapolis area's first multitenant Tier III data center to receive certification from both the Uptime Institute and the U.S. Green Building Institute's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design. It will be built to support 4.8 megawatts of IT load on 100,000 square feet of raised floor space.  Savvis plans to with an initial 1.2 megawatts and 13,000 square feet of raised floor space.

"We are investing in technology infrastructure that allows our diverse business community to continue to grow and innovate," said Duane Ring, CenturyLink Midwest region president. "We're pleased to announce the first phase of development for this new data center and look forward to the opportunities this creates for businesses in the Twin Cities and around the world."

Compass Datacenters will develop the data center on 10 acres of property it owns in Shakopee, Minn., a Minneapolis suburb, and lease the facility to Savvis.

http://www.savvis.com/
http://www.centurylink.com

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Transition Networks Accelerates Carrier Ethernet 2.0 Services with Converge EMS

Transition Networks launched its integrated Carrier Ethernet 2.0 + software defined services (SDS) orchestration solution designed to automate the entire service lifecycle, accelerate the rollout of MEF CE 2.0 services while supporting stringent performance SLAs.

The rollout includes CE 2.0 demarcation devices, access switches and a "Converge EMS" service and resource manager that automates the complete service lifecycle. The Converge EMS features a RESTful API that allows for integration with SDN and other 3rd party applications for truly programmable networks. It open architecture, based on the Amartus Chameleon SDS platform, supports next-generation service delivery workflows.

Transition Networks said its solution offers a unique template-based automated provisioning solution that enables rapid service activation with quicker time to revenue.

“Transition Networks’ integrated CE 2.0 platform delivers unmatched value for service providers, enabling simplified deployment and robust centralized management,” said Kevin Faulds, Director of Product Management at Transition Networks. “A single vendor solution from access to edge goes a long way toward making the management of the service provider network more simple and cost effective.”

Transistion's demarcation devices feature advanced Service OAM (IEEE 802.1ag and ITU Y.1731) Performance and Fault Management for strong performance assurance in business, mobile backhaul and cloud services while reducing operational expenses.

The S4140 demarcation device enables service providers to address growing bandwidth needs for next-generation services. The company’s two new Carrier Ethernet switches, S4212 and S4224, aggregate traffic from demarcation devices for efficient transport to the core network.

For mobile backhaul, Transition also features a unique capability to convert between Synchronous Ethernet and IEEE 1588v2 synchronization methods while maintaining clock accuracy. Additional features include service activation capabilities to assist with circuit turn-up and maintenance and linear and ring protection capabilities for sub-50 millisecond failover providing service redundancy.

http://www.transition.com/TransitionNetworks/About/NewsEvents/News/News_100113.aspx

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FCC Shuts Down Website, Suspends Filings

As part of the government shutdown, the FCC closed its offices and deactivated its website. During the shutdown, the FCC expects to have 38 essential employees on-duty and safeguarding operations -- about 2% of its staff.

The FCC said its main filing window, mail room, and all electronic filing systems, with the exception of the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), will remain closed until further notice. Private delivery mailings will be returned.

http://www.fcc.gov/shutdown-page.html

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Maxim Acquires Volterra for Power Management

Maxim Integrated Products completed its previously announced acquisition of Volterra Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ:VLTR) for $23 per share.

Volterra supplies high-current, high-performance, and high-density power management solutions. The company develops highly integrated solutions primarily for the enterprise, cloud computing, communications, and networking markets. Volterra's portfolio of highly integrated products enables better performance, smaller form factors, enhanced scalability, improved system management, and lower total cost of ownership.

http://www.maximintegrated.com/investor
http://www.volterra.com/

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Deutsche Telekom's TeraStream Shows Multivendor 100GbE / DWDM

Deutsche Telekom confirmed multi-vendor interoperability on a 100 Gigabit Ethernet long haul link on TeraStream pilot network in Croatia.

The tests, which were a joint effort between Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Hrvatski Telekom and Deutsche Telekom, represent an important milestone towards the future of generally available 100GbE networking.

The actual link, the industry’s first of its kind, consisted of 600 km of Standard Single Mode Fiber (SMF) between the cities of Split and Varazdin using leveraging the TeraStream colorless, open spectrum, passive network. The 100 Gbps signal, carrying live production traffic, used ITU standard 50GHz spacing via a high gain forward error correction algorithm capable of achieving 10Gbps comparable distances. The implementation in this test used pre-standards, aligned in ITU Study Group 15.  Multi-vendor interoperability on the 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) long-haul DWDM links was established between IP routers from Cisco Systems and Alcatel-Lucent. Cortina Systems also provided technology for the tests.

"The need for bandwidth is constantly growing. This milestone is another important step towards the future of generally available 100GbE networking. Leveraging the TeraStream passive network and the jointly developed standard, we can achieve drastic cost savings in the area of optical transport. We envision that this will also be the most cost efficient optical interconnect for datacenter applications. We are pleased with the latest advancements from the vendors," stated Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Group Chief Technology Officer, Deutsche Telekom AG.

"In order for us as a company to achieve success in the future, we need to have networks that can support the most advanced communications and services,” said Ivica Mudrinić, President of the Management Board of Hrvatski Telekom. “I am especially proud of two things: Firstly, that Croatia with Hrvatski Telekom is the first country in the world to install this innovative technology which will become key to our future success, to the development and competitiveness of the economy and will improve the lives of individuals. I am also proud of our Croatian experts who, together with colleagues from Deutsche Telekom, are implementing this highly demanding, innovative network concept."

http://www.telekom.com/innovation/201860

In December 2012, Deutsche Telekom AG together with Hrvatski Telekom (HT), Deutsche Telekom AG’s subsidiary in Croatia, launched its TeraStream pilot network in Croatia. TeraStream is an industry leading network concept, based on a cloud enabled IP architecture. The pilot features 100 Gbps links over a filter-less DWDM system.

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HP Builds an SDN Ecosystem

HP is building an enterprise-class SDN open ecosystem with the upcoming release of an HP SDN Developer Kit (coming November 2013) and followed by an HP SDN App Store (opening first half of 2014).  The company said it goal is to create new business opportunities for partners while providing a simple way for customers to purchase and deploy network services.

The HP SDN Developer Kit provides developers the essential tools to create, test and validate SDN applications, leveraging HP’s SDN infrastructure and full complement of support services. The SDK supports HP VAN SDN controller with API documentation, developer guide and sample code.

Current SDN ecosystem partners registered for the HP SDN Developer Kit include Aastra, Blue Coat Systems, BlueCat, Citrix Systems, Ecode Networks, F5, Infoblox, Infranics, Intel, KT Cloud, Microsoft, MIMOS, Mitel, NTT, PwC, Qosmos, Radware, Real Status, Riverbed, RMIT University, ShoreTel Inc., Samsung, SAP, Tech Mahindra, VMware, Versatile and Websense.

The planned HP SDN App Store will let customers browse, search, purchase and directly download SDN applications onto their Virtual Application Networks SDN controller, creating a new business model for how network services are purchased and implemented.  The SDN App Store will include applications developed by HP, applications jointly-developed with partners, and partner-certified and community-created applications.

“With SDN the networking industry has an opportunity to disruptively innovate and is now primed for a monumental leap forward,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager, Networking, HP. “HP has created the industry’s most comprehensive SDN product portfolio as well as an open SDN ecosystem, which offers an environment for enterprises and partners to rapidly tune the network to their business and application needs.”

To complement this open SDN ecosystem, HP has added OpenFlow support to 10 new routers in the HP FlexNetwork portfolio, including the HP MSR2000, 3000, 4000 and HP Virtual Services Router (VSR) Series routers. These additions build on the existing OpenFlow enabled portfolio of 50 switches, representing more than 25 million installed ports. View the full list of partners on the HP SDN Ecosystem Partners web page.

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=1495044#.UkpHL4blZ8H

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AT&T Rolls All Fiber 1 Gig Broadband Network to Austin

AT&T has begun deployment of a 100 percent fiber Internet broadband network in Austin, Texas, promising download speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second.

AT&T expects to being delivering its first "U-verse with GigaPower" in Austin in December. The company expects initially reach tens of thousands of customer locations throughout Austin and the surrounding areas this year, with additional local expansion planned in 2014

"Austin embodies innovation and social consciousness, and is the heart of a vibrant, ever-evolving tech culture and entrepreneurial spirit," said Dave Nichols, President – AT&T Texas.  "With our all-fiber U-verse services, we are building the foundation for a new wave of innovation for Austin's consumers, businesses, and civic and educational institutions.  It's about engaging the full community and empowering the city and its people with all that technology can offer us. This investment will help attract new business and new jobs to Austin."

http://www.att.com/austinfiber

• In April 2013, Google selected Austin as the second rollout city for its Google Fiber project.

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