Open Eye MSA Consortium targets 50/100/200/400G modules

The Open Eye Consortium has established a Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) aimed at standardizing advanced specifications for lower latency, more power efficient and lower cost 50 Gbps, 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps, and up to 400 Gbps optical modules for datacenter interconnects over single-mode and multimode fiber.

The MSA aims to accelerate the adoption of PAM-4 optical interconnects scaling to 50 Gbps, 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps, and 400 Gbps by expanding upon existing standards to enable optical module implementations using less complex, lower cost, lower power, and optimized clock and data recovery (CDR) based architectures in addition to existing digital signal processing (DSP) architectures. The idea is to minimize the use of digital signal processing in optical modules.

The Open Eye industry consortium said it is committed to developing an industry-standard optical interconnect that leverages seamless component interoperability among a broad group of industry-leading technology providers, including providers of electronics, lasers and optical components.

 The initial Open Eye MSA specification will focus on 53 Gbps per lane PAM-4 solutions for 50G SFP, 100G DSFP, 100G SFP-DD, 200G QSFP, and 400G QSFP-DD and OSFP single-mode modules. Subsequent specifications will aim to address multimode and 100Gbps per lane applications. The initial specification release is planned for Fall 2019, with product availability to follow later in the year.

MACOM and Semtech Corporation initiated the formation of the Open Eye MSA with 19 current members in Promoter and Contributing membership classes.

Promoters include Applied Optoelectronics Inc., Cambridge Industries (CIG), Color Chip, Juniper Networks, Luxshare-ICT, MACOM, Mellanox, Molex and Semtech Corporation.

Contributors include: Accelink, Cloud Light Technology, InnoLight, Keysight Technologies, Maxim Integrated, O-Net, Optomind, Source Photonics and Sumitomo Electric.

“Through its participation in the Open Eye MSA, AOI is leveraging our laser and optical module technology to deliver benefits of low cost, high-speed connectivity to next generation data centers.” David (Chan Chih) Chen, AVP, Strategic Marketing for Transceiver, AOI

“MACOM continues to drive the industry’s technical requirements towards meeting the demands of Cloud Service Providers. Leveraging our proven leadership in 25G, 50G and 100G analog chipsets and optical components, we co-founded the Open Eye MSA to accelerate the adoption of 200G and 400G PAM optical interconnects. At the same time we are working in parallel to advance the DSP technologies necessary for faster connectivity speeds for future applications.” Preet Virk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks, MACOM.

Companies interested in joining the Open Eye MSA can contact: admin@openeye-msa.org.

http://www.openeye-msa.org

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MACOM announces analog CDR-Based PAM-4 portfolio

MACOM announced an analog and silicon photonics portfolio for seamless integration in 50Gbps, 100Gbps, 200Gbps and 400Gbps optical modules targeted for compliance with the newly formed Open Eye Multi-Source Agreement (MSA).

MACOM’s end-to-end transmit and receive portfolio features low-cost, low-power extensions to its existing lineup of Clock and Data Recovery (CDRs), drivers and (Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIAs), adding a companion integrated 200G FR4 L-PIC optimized to reduce customers’ module costs through dramatically improved ease of assembly, calibration and test. These components are designed to eliminate the need for expensive, power-hungry signal processing and 53Gbps EMLs, enabling streamlined optical module architectures targeted for 200G and 400G connectivity.

MACOM’s full CDR-based and L-PIC-based portfolio comprises the MAOM-38053 four-channel transmit PAM-4 CDR with an integrated driver, and an L-PIC transmitter and on the receive side, features a MATA-03819 quad TIA, MACOM BSP56B photodetectors and the MASC-38040 four-channel receive PAM-4 CDR. This approach is anticipated to deliver over 25% reduction in power consumption while simultaneously driving the cost per gigabit down as compared to today’s CWDM4 and digital signal processing (DSP)-based PAM-4 solutions. Cloud customers can now double their link rate with only minor, incremental power and cost.

“MACOM is proud to be part of an ecosystem that enables seamless component interoperability among a broad group of industry-leading technology providers, including providers of electronics, lasers and optical components,” said Preet Virk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Networks, MACOM. “MACOM is committed to enabling the Open Eye MSA’s charter, in part by leveraging our comprehensive portfolio of high-performance analog components and L-PICs to help customers achieve optimal performance, power efficiency and cost structures. We believe that our extensive application expertise and industry leadership in PAM-4 enabling technologies will help to ensure a seamless migration from 100G CWDM4 to industry-standard 200G and 400G PAM-4 module architectures.”

https://www.macom.com/data-center

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Orange to acquire SecureLink for EUR 515 million

Orange announced an agreement with Investcorp to acquire 100% of SecureLink on a €515m enterprise value basis.

SecureLink provides a full range of cybersecurity services including specialized security consulting, security maintenance and support with 24/7 service desks (SOCs) as well as advanced managed detection and response capabilities (MDR). The group is also a leading value-added reseller of security software and hardware solutions, holding more than 1,000 technical or sales accreditations with blue chip security vendors.

SecureLink was founded in 2003 and is based in the Netherlands with over 660 employees and 14 office. In 2018, SecureLink recorded IFRS revenues of €248m.

Orange said the acquisition makes it one of the European leaders of cybersecurity with c.1,800 employees, more than €600m PF revenues in 2018 and strong positions in major local markets through its unique European DNA and a comprehensive cybersecurity services offering.

Orange is already a leading player in the French market through Orange Cyberdefense (€303m revenues in 2018, up 12% vs. 2017).

“Cybersecurity is a growing priority for companies of all sizes, and we believe the two most important success factors are Scale and Proximity. Scale because today's threats are global, complex, and require matching protection capabilities. Proximity because in the global IT world, you want a trusted local partner to secure your most strategic assets. With the acquisition of SecureData and SecureLink, Orange has the highest scale to anticipate and fend off attacks, as well as local defense teams in all the main European markets, positioning the combined organisation as the go-to defense specialist.” said Hugues Foulon, Executive Director of Cybersecurity at Orange. “I am looking forward to building the integrated organisation with Michel [Van Den Berghe, CEO of Orange Cyberdefense], Thomas Fetten and all the teams”.

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Qualcomm and Google enable 5G app tuning on Android

Qualcomm is working with Google to optimize applications for 5G using developer APIs in Android Q.

Specifically, the next release of Android will allow applications to detect the performance of 5G connectivity on Android devices, allowing the application to optimize the experience for multi-gigabit speeds and ultra-low latency.

The companies said that the exposure of new network performance information such as 5G throughput estimation will enable applications to deliver superior quality video, audio and responsiveness, while opening doors to the next wave of breakthrough applications and 5G-enabled experiences.

“4G enabled a new wave of disruptive mobile applications and services, essentially serving as the foundation for the smartphone revolution, and we believe 5G will be even more transformative,” said Francesco Grilli, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Android is the platform for innovation, proven by the speed with which it is able to embrace technological advances like 5G,” said Bob Borchers, vice president of marketing, platforms and ecosystems, Google. “We’re excited to collaborate with Qualcomm Technologies at Google I/O to support developers and the larger ecosystem in unlocking 5G’s full potential.”

https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2019/05/07/qualcomm-enables-developers-power-5g-app-revolution-android

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Lumentum cites growth in ROADMs and lasers

Lumentum reported revenue of  $432.9 million for its fiscal third quarter ended March 30, 2019 compared to $373.7 million in the preceding quarter and $298.8 million for the same period last year. GAAP net loss for the quarter attributable to common stockholders of $(74.3) million, or $(0.98) per diluted share.

"The third quarter continued a theme that started more than a year ago for our ROADM and fiber laser product lines. For the fifth quarter in a row, we achieved double digit sequential, quarterly revenue growth and new record revenues for these product lines driven by strong customer demand for our new and differentiated products," said Alan Lowe, President and CEO.

"The third quarter was the first full quarter since completion of the acquisition of Oclaro.  We made solid progress on integrating the companies and attaining synergies, including the divestiture and planned exit of certain datacom product lines.  This continued progress results in our fourth quarter projected operating margins being sequentially higher on lower revenues after the divestiture and positions us well for achieving our long-term strategic goals."

http://investor.lumentum.com/investors/default.aspx

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Fastweb tests 500G Single-wavelength Connectivity with Infinera

Fastweb, a major Italian telecommunications operator, has demonstrated 500G single-wavelength service connectivity in a production network using Infinera’s configurable technology on the Groove platform. The trial spanned over 180 km on Fastweb’s low-latency long-haul backbone network, between Milan and Turin.

Infinera said the 500G single-wavelength trial demonstrated Fastweb’s capability to easily and efficiently scale its infrastructure network to meet the increasing bandwidth demands of its end-user customers. The trial was implemented over Fastweb’s existing optical infrastructure without special amplifiers, tuning, or changes.

Infinera’s 7300 Multi-Haul Transport Platform, mTera Universal Switching Platform and Groove 600G technology are part of Fastweb’s backbone network spanning over 650 nodes and providing the flexibility and future development and delivery of a range of programmable high-speed end-user services at 400G, 500G, and up to 600G. Infinera’s solution enables Fastweb to scale internet exchange point capacity up to 24 terabits per second, while offering ease of deployment and network investment efficiency.

“Providing our customers with resilient, high-quality, and innovative solutions is in Fastweb’s DNA,” said Andrea Lasagna, Chief Technology Officer, Fastweb. “As the market for high-performance long-haul transport continues to grow at an accelerated pace, a scalable and simple network approach is required to satisfy the growing demand for bandwidth. This trial confirms the outstanding performance provided by Infinera’s innovative solution, which enables us to deliver a best-in-class customer experience at the highest transmission speeds.”

“We are pleased to extend our technology partnership with Fastweb to bring the benefits of cutting-edge coherent optical transmission to their customers,” said Glenn Laxdal, Senior Vice President, Product Line Management, Infinera. “Our ability to introduce higher-speed transmission over existing infrastructures is a key part of our mission to help our customers effectively meet their increasing bandwidth needs.”

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Sprint delivers 5G at Google I/O event

During Google’s annual developer festival at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, Sprint is using Ericsson 5G Massive MIMO radios to deliver over-the-air dual-connectivity with 60 MHz of 2.5 GHz on LTE and 40 MHz of 2.5 GHz on 5G NR. Demonstrations include YouTube 4K video streaming, gaming, and augmented reality using the LG V50 ThinQ 5G.

"5G will drive new levels of innovation and progress around the world, and it’s the developers that will make it happen," said Ryan Sullivan, Vice President of Product Engineering and Development at Sprint. "We’re excited to work with the Android community as it develops disruptive new 5G services across all industries from entertainment to healthcare, energy, public safety, transportation and more."

Sprint continues to advocate for a merger with T-Mobile to rapidly build a nationwide 5G network.

http://newsroom.sprint.com/network

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Sprint previews 5G launch, reports declining revenue

Sprint's 5G is currently on-air in a limited number of locations and the company plans to begin commercial service in parts of Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Kansas City by the end of June. 5G service in  Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C.  Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C. will also be introduced.


The announcement came as part of Sprint's 2018 financial report.

Sprint reported 2018 wireless service revenue of $22.5 billion, along with a net loss of $1.9 billion and operating income of $398 million, both of which included a preliminary non-cash charge of $2 billion. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to $12.8 billion in fiscal year 2018.

"Sprint delivered on its plan for fiscal 2018, as we met all of our financial guidance for the year," said Sprint CEO Michel Combes. "While we've made progress, there are certainly continued challenges to address, which will continue to put pressure on our service revenue and retail customer growth."

Further network updates

• Sprint now has 2.5 GHz spectrum deployed on approximately 80 percent of its macro sites.
• Sprint currently has approximately 30,000 outdoor small cells deployed including both mini macros and strand mounts.
• Sprint has deployed approximately 1,500 Massive MIMO radios, which increase the speed and capacity of the LTE network and, with a software upgrade, will provide mobile 5G service in select cities in the coming weeks.

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MACOM sees drop data center business, predicts recovery in 2H19

MACOM reported revenue of $128.5 million for its fiscal second quarter ended March 29, 2019, a decrease of 14.6% compared to $150.4 million in the previous year fiscal second quarter and a decrease of 14.7% compared to $150.7 million in the prior fiscal quarter. Gross profit was $57.3 million, a decrease of 12.6% compared to $65.6 million in the previous year fiscal second quarter and a decrease of 25.2% compared to $76.6 million in the prior fiscal quarter.

“Fiscal Q2 was a challenging quarter as the magnitude of the Data Center inventory correction has been deeper and more disruptive than we originally anticipated. However, some customers are indicating they will be exiting the quarter at more normalized inventory levels, which is a leading indicator of a recovery in the second half of the year,” said John Croteau, President and CEO of MACOM.

“Despite this temporary, albeit precipitous market correction in Data Centers, the fundamental demand drivers for each of our growth opportunities remain intact with several potentially coming to fruition simultaneously."

https://ir.macom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/macom-reports-fiscal-second-quarter-2019-financial-results

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Kaloom and Linux Foundation open Virtual Central Office lab

Kaloom, in partnership with Linux Foundation, announced the availability of a Virtual Central Office (VCO) 3.0 lab in Montreal that is designed for multi-vendor Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) deployments at the distributed cloud edge.

The lab offers a unified Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform application infrastructure for Virtual Network Functions/Cloud Native Network Functions (VNF/CNF) vendors to test their applications.

Virtual Central Office (VCO) is a solution for multi-vendor NFV deployments in the traditional telco central office and at the distributed cloud edge. The solution is designed to be used for residential, enterprise and mobile VCO services by telcos and enterprises. The VCO 3.0 initiative, currently under development, defines a cloud native multi-vendor Central Office with an initial focus on mobile services with a lab setup designed for both virtual machine based VNFs and cloud native container-based CNFs in a full 5G architecture.

Kaloom provides a fully automated virtualized CO networking solution together with Red Hat’s NFV infrastructure.

Kaloom’s Software Defined Fabric™ and Cloud Edge Fabric solutions leverage a programmable multi-Tbps fabric to increase the performance and to lower the latency for NFV application servers and storage. It also provides customers a way to program their infrastructure using the open standards-based P4 programming language to add new services quickly. The solution enhances CPU utilization for VNF applications and embeds sophisticated service chaining offload to the data plane to accelerate the overall performance and lower latency even further. Sophisticated end-to-end network slicing is supported natively in the fabric with full tenant isolation down to the hardware level for better security. Network slicing is a key innovative aspect of 5G architectures that provides customers their own virtual network slice for a better quality of experience.

“Our Cloud Edge Fabric solution was designed to address the key requirements for the cloud edge market, such as lowering latency and improving performance at a lower price. We believe that automation, unified VNF/CNF, programmability and network slicing will disrupt the way service providers deploy and manage cloud edge data centers, and we are very excited to demonstrate these capabilities with the community in the VCO 3.0 lab in Montreal,” said Laurent Marchand, CEO at Kaloom.

“We are very pleased to help launch the VCO 3.0 lab in Montreal together with our members. This enables us to bring the open networking community closer together with multiple vendors to test VNFs and CNFs in containers for different 5G, cloud native and edge use cases, and demos” said Heather Kirksey, vice president, community and ecosystem development, the Linux Foundation.

https://www.kaloom.com/press-release-vco3-lab-availability?utm_content=91139926

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ADVA delivers NFV platform for Intel Select for uCPE

ADVA's Ensemble Connector, which is a carrier-class virtualization platform equipped for automated deployment at scale, has been verified as an Intel Select Solution for uCPE.

Ensemble Connector provides NFV infrastructure and offers several key benefits for uCPE, including platform security, zero touch provisioning and access to the Ensemble Harmony Ecosystem of VNFs. Ensemble Connector built on Intel Xeon D processors is an optimized configuration that gives customers a hardware-software solution that is pre-integrated and ready to deploy.
“The age of service-specific hardware is gone. In order to take advantage of the latest innovation and rapidly respond to customer demands, communication service providers (CSPs) need the power of software-based service creation at the network edge. Our Ensemble Connector, integrated with the full range of performance-optimized Intel servers, creates the perfect solution for the delivery of demanding uCPE applications,” commented James Buchanan, GM, Edge Cloud, ADVA.

https://www.advaoptical.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20190507-adva-delivers-nfv-platform-for-intel-select-solution-for-ucpe

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Ingram Micro adds Xilinx accelerator cards to catalog

Ingram Micro has been named a primary distributor for Xilinx's new Alveo data center accelerator cards.

Ingram Micro will distribute the Xilinx cards to channel partners throughout the United States. Xilinx said channel partners will help speed the deployment of the cards in industry standard servers, ultimately optimizing the solutions for customers’ shifting data center workloads, new standards and evolving algorithms.

• In October, as part of its updated data center strategy, Xilinx announced its own portfolio of accelerator cards for industry-standard servers in cloud and on-premise data centers. The new Alveo PCIe cards are powered by the Xilinx UltraScale+ FPGA, are available now for production orders. Customers can reconfigure the hardware, enabling them to optimize for shifting workloads, new standards, and updated algorithms.

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Exabeam raises $75 Million for smarter SIEM

Exabeam, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, closed $75 million in Series E funding for its next-gen Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions.

Exabeam claims that over the past year 76 percent of its replacement deals eliminated legacy vendors, including IBM, McAfee, RSA, LogRhythm, Micro Focus and Splunk. In addition, Exabeam has a 72 percent win rate in replacement deals against these incumbents. Technology and services giant NTT DATA is just one example of a global deployment where Exabeam displaced multiple legacy SIEMs and the company standardized on Exabeam going forward.

“Over the last year, we’ve seen our strategic value increase, and our average deal size has grown by 100 percent from just two years ago. This is because we’re listening to our customers and delivering the innovative technologies they need, including, most recently, the ability to detect threats in the cloud. With the win rates we’re seeing and market opportunity in replacement business, we’re raising money to accelerate our go-to-market and enhance our products to bring additional innovation to modern SOC environments,” said Nir Polak, Exabeam CEO.

The latest round was jointly led by new investor Sapphire Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from other existing investors.

https://www.exabeam.com

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Marvell to acquire Aquantia for multi-Gig Ethetnet

Marvell Technology Group agreed to Aquantia for $13.25 per share in cash, representing approximately $452 million in transaction value after adjusting for net cash on Aquantia's balance sheet.

Aquantia, which is based in San Jose, California, specializes in Multi-Gig 2.5G/5G/10G Ethernet over copper products. Its portfolio automotive PHYs for in-vehicle Ethernet networks supporting level 4 and 5 autonomous driving.

Marvell said the acquisition complements its portfolio of copper and optical physical layer product, including its gigabit PHY and secure switch products.

"Our acquisition of Aquantia will fuel Marvell's leadership in the transformation of the in-car network to high-speed Ethernet over the next decade," said Matt Murphy, president and CEO of Marvell.  "At the same time, Aquantia extends our reach in the rapidly emerging Multi-Gig segment of network infrastructure and creates a leading end-to-end Ethernet connectivity portfolio."

"Marvell and Aquantia share a vision where the network – whether in an autonomous vehicle, an enterprise application or in cloud infrastructure – can seamlessly power the data economy," said Faraj Aalaei, chairman and CEO of Aquantia. "This is a fantastic opportunity as our customers will benefit from Marvell's global scale and expanding footprint in Multi-Gig network applications."

The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Marvell's non-GAAP earnings per share and generate significant annual run-rate synergies of $40 million to be realized within 12 months after the transaction closes.

Aquantia expects weaker Q1

Separately, Aquantia reported revenue of $17.0 million for Q1 2019, a decrease of 42 percent sequentially and 40 percent year-over-year. First quarter 2019 net loss was $13.1 million, or a loss of $0.37 per diluted share, compared to fourth quarter 2018 net loss of $5.5 million, or a loss of $0.16 per diluted share, and first quarter 2018 net loss of $1.4 million, or $0.04 per diluted share.

“We experienced weaker demand in the first quarter than we had anticipated as we saw several customers push out purchase orders,” said Faraj Aalaei, Chairman and CEO. “Our technical leadership remains strong and we are encouraged by our customers’ forecast as we see the deployment of 802.11ax in the Enterprise and our 10G PON design wins with Asian service providers driving our revenue growth throughout the year.”

http://www.aquantia.com
https://investor.marvell.com

Aquantia intros automotive Ethernet portfolio- multi-gig over copper

Monday, January 29, 2018  Aquantia  

Aquantia, which is known for its multi-gig Ethernet over copper PHY technologies, introduced an automotive networking portfolio and announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to provide Multi-Gig networking support for the NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier and DRIVE Pegasus platforms.

The market for automotive Ethernet could be many times larger than the data center, enterprise and access segments where multi-gig Ethernet-over-copper used today. Future vehicles, especially Level 4/5 autonomous vehicles, will require high-performance onboard networks to connect cameras, sensors, and displays with GPUs and CPUs.

Level 4/5 requirements include multiple high-resolution videos cameras, some of which are expected to be up to 4K60p at 20-bit resolution requiring full 10 Gbps connectivity. The network must be secure and redundant. It must also use reliable and low-cost cabling. For these reasons, Aquantia believes its multi-gig Ethernet over copper technologies are best suited for the task.

Aquantia's AQcelerate Automotive product line includes the following devices, which all support data rates up to 10GbE:

• The AQV107 Multi-Gig PHY
• The AQVC107 PCIe Multi-Gig MAC+PHY Ethernet controller
• The AQVC100 PCIe Multi-Gig controller (MAC only)

Aquantia intros 10 Gigabit Ethernet MAC Controller

Monday, March 11, 2019  Aquantia  

Aquantia introduced a 10G Ethernet Controller that enables SFP+ port or backplane connectivity.

Features of the AQtion AQC100 include:

• PCI Express 3.0 modes with x4/x2/x1 lane operation
• SFP+ for Direct Attach Copper (DAC) and optical SFP modules
• Board-level or backplane connectivity between chips
• Support for Windows, macOS, Linux, Data Plane Development Kit and other operating systems
• Less than 1W power consumption

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CenturyLink teams with Google Cloud Platform

CenturyLink is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud, enabling it to combine a leading public cloud, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with CenturyLink IT consulting services.

By joining the Google Cloud Partner Program, CenturyLink said it will be able to provide implementation, sales and technical support to enterprises as they accelerate innovation with cloud solutions. CenturyLink has established a Google Cloud center of excellence with certified Google Cloud Architects and Engineers who are highly skilled in cloud infrastructure, networking, migration and managed services.

In June 2018, CenturyLink announced it could connect customers to Google Cloud globally through Google Cloud Partner Interconnect. This provides enterprise-grade, dedicated connectivity from offices and data centers on enterprise wide-area networks (WAN) to Google Cloud Platform in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. In addition, CenturyLink’s global broadcast fiber network, Vyvx Cloud Connect, provides access to GCP by offering multi-site, diverse connectivity paths into GCP for high-bandwidth, high-quality video feeds.

“Our work with CenturyLink is a prime example of our fast-growing cloud ecosystem and Google Cloud’s commitment to support the technology needs of enterprises today,” said Carolee Gearhart, vice president of Worldwide Channel Sales at Google Cloud. “We look forward to continuing to expand our partnership with CenturyLink, which brings a wealth of expertise in SAP consulting, big data analytics and secure private networking to public and hybrid cloud workloads.”

“This partnership enables global enterprises to leverage the power of CenturyLink’s diverse global network combined with our innovative thought leadership in optimizing application deployment and advanced IT services that help meet the full range of their hybrid cloud needs,” said Mahesh Dalvi, vice president, Global IT Solutions and Managed Services, CenturyLink. “Both Google Cloud and CenturyLink are highly focused on tackling complex enterprise needs, including the optimization of critical workloads such as SAP and Big Data.”

"AT&T provides organizations globally with secure, smart solutions, and our work to bring Google Cloud's portfolio of products, services and tools to every layer of its customers' business helps 

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ServiceNow form strategic partnership with Google Cloud

ServiceNow and Google Cloud announced a strategic partnership for delivering native support for ServiceNow’s IT Operations Management (ITOM) in Google Cloud Platform. The partnership will also deliver real-time language translation in ServiceNow’s IT Service Management  (ITSM) solution leveraging Google Cloud’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities.

This partnership aims to make the Now Platform truly multi-cloud with the ability to support customers wherever their workloads reside - on-premises and across the major cloud vendors.

The companies said they are also working on additional AI and ML capabilities around document, speech and image understanding.

“This partnership is designed to accelerate our customers’ shift to the cloud and deliver digital workflows that unlock productivity and create great experiences for employees and the enterprise,” said Pablo Stern, senior vice president and general manager of IT Workflows at ServiceNow. “Joint customers will get the best of both worlds: a seamless experience that maximizes the value of cloud investments and the ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence for everyday work. I look forward to continuing the drumbeat of innovation as we work together to make the world of work, work better for people.”

“This partnership is natural; Google Cloud and ServiceNow will deeply integrate, enabling enterprises to optimize their cloud investments,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “Our customers will be able to seamlessly connect what’s happening across IT and take action across Google Cloud.”

https://blogs.servicenow.com/2019/servicenow-and-google-cloud-form-new-strategic-partnership.html

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Infinera supplies software automation capabilities to Verizon

Infinera will provide new automation technology to Verizon to facilitate the migration of its time-division multiplexing (TDM) network to a new Ethernet-based network. In addition, Infinera said it will integrate its open API- and YANG-driven data model software capabilities with the Verizon Base Network Controller (BNC), enabling full lifecycle automation including install, commission, service provisioning, and control. The overall solution is designed to enable a zero-touch, fully automated, extensible, and programmable infrastructure by leveraging open networking principles and capabilities, including software-defined networking control of multi-vendor elements via open programmable interfaces and model-driven management and operations. The solution supports rapid service activation at the optical layer while reducing parallel proprietary systems.

Infinera said its solution enables visualization of the complete network, the ability to run multiple migration scenarios, and the efficient management of existing customer traffic. The migration provides a scalable solution that can be applied to multiple systems and use cases, including TDM, Ethernet over Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), and ultra-long haul.

“Verizon has always been relentless when it comes to technology innovation,” said Stephen Owens, Director of Network Infrastructure Planning at Verizon. “We are able to simplify network operations and reduce costs through virtualization and automation. This is one example.”

“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with Verizon and help them advance their infrastructure network with a software-driven approach to network evolution and next-generation service enablement,” said Bob Jandro, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Infinera.

https://www.infinera.com/infinera-software-and-open-networking-solutions-being-used-by-verizon-as-tools-for-automation/

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AT&T tops 600K FirstNet Connections

The FirstNet communications platform – built with AT&T and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) – is now supporting 600,000+ device connections from more than 7,250 public safety agencies.

A majority of agencies and nearly 50% of FirstNet’s total connections are new subscribers (not AT&T migrations).

Some additional milestones:

• Band 14 spectrum has been deployed in more than 600 markets.
• FirstNet subscribers have access to all AT&T LTE bands in addition to Band 14
• According to the results of tests taken with Speedtest as analyzed by AT&T, FirstNet consistently performs over 25% faster than any commercial network.
• 3 Flying Cells on Wings (COWs) were recently added to the FirstNet deployable program. Each Flying COW is comprised of 2 tethered drones and a trailer for transport that is equipped with a satellite dish and fiber connections. Flying COWs are capable of withstanding light rain and wind speeds up to 25 miles per hour, and are able to reach heights of up to 400 feet. The Flying COWs are set to be outfitted with Band 14 in the second half of 2019.

https://about.att.com/story/2019/fn_expands_coverage.html

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EllaLink begins Marine Route Survey for Brazil-Portugal cable

Alcatel Submarine Networks has finalized the Cable Route Study and mobilized the marine survey vessel for the EllaLink submarine cable system. A marine route survey will be conducted over the coming months.

EllaLink will be a state-of-the-art 4 fiber pair submarine cable system linking Europe and Latin America with up to 72 Tbps of capacity. The low latency EllaLink route avoids the congestion of the North Atlantic.

EllaLink plans to be Ready for Service by the end of 2020.

“We are delighted to have appointed Alcatel Submarine Networks to undertake the marine survey and permitting work for the EllaLink cable system. The survey will collect vital data for the project, helping us determine the most effective route between Sines and Fortaleza, from a reliability, environmental and economic point of view. The launch of the permitting and survey work is also a significant step towards meeting our plans for lighting the system by close 2020,” commented Philippe Dumont, CEO of the EllaLink Group.

Following completion of the survey work, Alcatel Submarine Networks will commence manufacturing activities ahead of marine operations next year. The EllaLink system is designed to offer 72Tbps of capacity using leading edge coherent technology.

https://ella.link/2019/05/06/ellalink-announces-commencement-of-marine-route-survey-activities/

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Telenor and Axiata consider merging Asian operations

Telenor Group and Axiata Group Berhad are discussing a potential non-cash merger of their telecom and infrastructure assets in Asia (MergeCo), in which Telenor would take a 56.5% stake and and Axiata a 43.5% stake. The parties described the talks as preliminary.

If completed, MergeCo would have close to 300 million customers and become one of Asia’s largest mobile infrastructure companies operating approximately 60,000 towers across Asia. It is anticipated that the operational headquarters would be in Kuala Lumpur with the majority of functions. The company is planned to be listed at an international stock exchange as well as on Bursa Malaysia. In Malaysia, the intention is to merge Celcom and Digi, with MergeCo as the majority owner in the combined business.

Telenor's Asian operations include:

• dtac, Thailand, 21.202 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
• DiGi, Malaysia, 11.660 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
• Telenor Pakistan, 43.530 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
• Telenor Myanmar, 17.232 million mobile subscriptions (2018)
• Grameenphone, Bangladesh, 72.732 million mobile subscriptions (2018)

Axiata's operations include:

• Malaysia brands are celcom, e.co (infrastructure), Boost (financial services), ada (digital advertising), and apigate (digital platform)
• Singapore brand is ada
• Indonesia brands are ada, Boost, XL Axiata
• Cambodia brands are Smart, e.co
• Thailand brand is ada
• Myanmar brand is e.co
• Bangladesh brand is robi, e.co, and ada
• Nepal brand is Ncel
• Pakistan brand is e.co
• India brand is ada and apigate
• Sri Lanka brand are Dialog and e.co

“By creating one of Asia’s leading telecom players; with strong regional operations in nine countries and close to 300 million customers, we will combine scale and competence, thereby unlocking considerable synergies. I am confident this will create significant value for shareholders and will be beneficial to our customers,” said Sigve Brekke, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telenor Group.

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