Telefónica is working with Red Hat and Intel to create a virtual infrastructure management (VIM) platform based on open source software running on standard Intel-based servers.
Telefónica said this collaboration will become part of its recently created Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Reference Lab aimed at helping their ecosystem of partners and network equipment providers (NEPs) test and develop virtual network functions along with upper service orchestration layers.
Specifically, the NFV Reference Lab will be based on the following technologies:
- Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 V2
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor, well-regarded for industry-leading performance and configuration options;
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, providing the tools needed to manage a large, dispersed pool of hypervisors and virtual machines, with a focus on automation and integration options; and
- OpenFlow-enabled switching equipment.
”For NFV we need to avoid closed and non-interoperable environments, which would hamper its widespread adoption. For that purpose, we have launched the Network Functions Virtualisation Reference Lab, where Telefónica, along with key players from the industry, is working to enhance baseline virtualisation technologies from the open source community and contributing them back to the upstream community, to avoid technological fragmentation,” stated Enrique Algaba, Global CTO and Network Innovation and Virtualisation Director, Telefónica I+D.
“Red Hat is currently the leading contributor to the upstream Linux kernel, KVM, and OpenStack projects which create a foundation for NFV workloads. This deep experience in the open source community, along with Red Hat’s focus on performance, reliability and security, offers CSPs a unique value proposition. We’re thrilled to bring our technical expertise, community experience and product offerings including Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform to the collaboration with Telefónica and Intel to help CSPs reap the benefits of NFV first hand,” said Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager, Virtualization and OpenStack, Red Hat.
“By applying our experience of cloud technologies and business models along with our server and virtualization technology leadership to NFV applications, Intel aims to improve total cost of ownership and reduce time-to-market for applications for service providers, Through our work with Telefonica and Red Hat on this new lab, we will enable a broader ecosystem of developers that will accelerate the commercial availability of NFV solutions,” said Rose Schooler, vice president and general manager, Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group, Intel.
http://pressoffice.telefonica.com/
- At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, Telefónica unveiled UNICA -- it's end-to-end vision for virtualized network infrastructure for transforming the company into a "Digital Telco." Telefónica described UNICA as a paradigm shift in the way networks are designed, installed, provisioned and managed. Its first goal is to address the logical re-grouping of resources needed to deploy a new services via the new generation data centers it is building. The idea is to use extremely efficient data centers to deploy platforms and telecommunication services faster than ever before. Telefónica will pursue an "Open Telco" model with a global network infrastructure on which multi-vendor platforms, features and services can be developed in standardized form. Telefónica also said that it believes the redesign of its network should be gradual and seamless and foresees an implementation start date of sometime in June 2014. The company expects to have more than 30% of its new infrastructures managed in accordance with this model by 2016.
At #MWC14, Telefónica demonstrated a few UNICA use cases, including the idea of multi-tenancy (where the same basic solution works for multiple organisations) or NaaS (Network as a Service), using pre-installed templates to deploy virtualised equipment in real time and with integrated resource management.
In partnership with Huawei, Telefónica showed UNICA’s capabilities and performance requirements.
In addition, Ericsson and Telefonica launched a joint R&D program focused on NFV and service provider SDN. The companies will define a joint view on how the transformation of networks should take place, sharing a common outlook on the order in which network functions will be virtualized and which applications are likely to give the most benefit.
- In 2013, Telefónica inaugurated the first phase of its massive Alcalá Data Centre project outside of Madrid, which aims to be one of the largest Tier IV data centers in Europe and the world. The first phase, which is now operational, is a new building measuring 24,700 m2, with seven IT rooms covering an area of 682 m2 each. The complete project, which will progress gradually, will cover a total area of 65,700 m2 (over 700,000 square feet) and include a further 16 IT rooms, on a 78,400 m2 plot of land (the size of 8 football pitches). Telefónica said the new facility is key to transforming the company into one of the leading companies in the new digital world. The data center will be home for the whole range of ICT services, from housing, infrastructures and cloud computing to full outsourcing of customer applications. It will also operate as Telefónica’s cloud services base for Europe and will house platforms for customers in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Czech Republic.
An official IEEE P802.3bs Task Force has been formed to develop a 400 Gbp Ethernet standard for 100m over multimode fiber, as well as 500m, 2km, and 10km over singlemode fiber.
SingTel is launching a 4G mobile broadband service boasting data speeds of up to 300Mbps, double the speeds of currently available 4G services in Singapore.
"Several factors caused 1Q14 to deliver the second worst first quarter on record for the Ethernet Switch market," said Alan Weckel, Vice President of Ethernet Switch market research at Dell'Oro Group. "Campus switching continues to struggle as many customers look towards wireless connectivity; data center switching paused as Cisco's Nexus 9000 product transition continued; and stronger than usual seasonality all caused the market to weaken," Weckel explained. 
Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks are leading the foundation of a new cyber defense consortium whose mission is to drive a coordinated industry effort against cybercrime and cyber criminals through deep collaboration on threat intelligence and sharing of preventative measures.
“Revenue for the third quarter was $61 million, which was at the low-end of our guidance range of $61 million to $62 million,” said Robert Thomas, president and chief executive officer. “While we made progress in a few areas of the company, we again experienced challenges in closing seven-figure transactions. Clearly, our top priority is to reaccelerate top-line growth and we are taking actions to improve sales execution. Importantly, we believe our competitive position continues to be strong and our addressable market is growing, and we are optimistic about the opportunities before us.”
NTT Communications introduced a suite of NFV-enabled services that can be instantly activated online and are powered by Virtela's global SDN platform. Virtela Technology Services was acquired by NTT Com in January 2014.
In May, NTT, Alcatel-Lucent Japan Ltd. and Fujitsu demonstrated Virtual Network Platform as a Service (VNPaaS) to ETSI's NFV ISG. The Virtual Network Platform as a Service (VNPaaS) is one of the use cases defined by ETSI NFV ISG. The platform framework can be used for developing, deploying and administering applications on the virtualised network. Alcatel-Lucent supplied its CloudBand NFV solution for this project. Fujitsu is supplying middleware that is capable of offering stateful VNF.
Dimension Data's EMaaS offering will deliver comprehensive policy-based, device-independent, mobile device management, mobile expense management, and integration to the enterprise underpinned by true cloud principles of automation and consumption-based commercials. The service, which utilizes a cloud-based consumption model, enables organizations to rapidly scale deployments while easily managing the complex environment of mobile devices, data access and expense management. Due to the complex nature of mobility deployments, the EMaaS offering is complemented by Dimension Data's Systems Integration and Professional Services competencies and addresses the full spectrum of an organization's enterprise mobility needs.
Cisco recently named Dimension Data as one of its key partners to extend its vision of the Intercloud. The partners will align their public cloud infrastructure to the Cisco Cloud architecture and deliver Cisco Cloud services to customers and resellers.Cisco's open Intercloud allows local hosting and local provider options that enable data sovereignty. The hybrid cloud capabilities that differentiate the Cisco Cloud are built upon the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Cisco Intercloud Fabric technologies.
Microsoft and salesforce.com announced a strategic partnership to create new solutions that connect salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) apps and platform to Microsoft Office and Windows.
FairPoint Communications, which operates a fiber network spanning more than 16,000 route miles in northern New England, announced the availability of Ethernet-based bandwidth and transport capacity of up to 1 Gbps for its business, government and education customers. The symmetrical Ethernet service will reach more than 35,000 eligible customer locations in 32 markets across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Nimble Storage reported revenue of $46.5 million for its first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to $22.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, representing growth of 110% year-over-year. Non-GAAP Gross Margin of 66.2% for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to 61.8% in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. GAAP net loss for the fiscal first quarter was $19.6 million, or $0.28 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $9.4 million, or $0.47 per basic and diluted share in the fiscal first quarter of 2014.
The new addition to the StrataGX family, the BCM58300, incorporates the most advanced hardware security, a high performance ARM Cortex A9 processor running up to 1.25GHz and versatile communications and user interfaces. The ARM Cortex A9 processor also includes L1 and L2 caches, ARM NEON Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD) architecture extensions and floating-point unit to support enhanced graphics, audio, video, and other capabilities. In addition, the device is integrated with enhanced BroadSAFE Security, which provides strong hardware-based protection for critical user and payment data without impacting system performance. BroadSAFE capabilities include hardware cryptographic acceleration, Secure boot, Security Protection Logic such as Tampers, Monitors, Sensors, and battery-backed logic. In addition the BCM58300 family integrates ARM TrustZONE secure processing architecture.
Traffic growth and spectrum exhaustion will necessitate the further rollout of small cell networks. In this video, DragonWave discusses the key elements for successful small cell deployments, including:
Huawei introduced its Agile Data Center Cloud Connect Solution that ties together its CloudEngine series of data center switches, the Huawei Agile Controller and cloud applications.
Ericsson signed a long-term lease for a new campus in Santa Clara, California that will consolidate its operations in Silicon Valley. The new Santa Clara Square facility, which is currently under construction by the Irvine Company, will include over 400,000 square feet of workspace for Ericsson in two buildings, located along the Great America/Bowers corridor at Highway 101.
"We reported record revenue in our third quarter driven by strong customer demand for our next-generation enterprise security platform. We achieved the highest rate of new customer acquisition in our history and now serve more than 17,000 customers globally to address their security needs and prevent increasingly sophisticated and complex cyber attacks from compromising an organization's critical assets," said Mark McLaughlin, president and chief executive officer of Palo Alto Networks. "We also announced this afternoon that we have reached a settlement with Juniper Networks of all litigation matters between us; this allows us to further focus our resources and time on our customers and growing our business."
