FCC raises $4.5 billion in first 5G mid-band spectrum auction

The FCC completed its auction of Priority Access Licenses in the 3550-3650 MHz band. Gross proceeds reached $4,585,663,345, and bidders won 20,625 of 22,631, or more than 91.1%, of available licenses.

“This is a banner day for American leadership in 5G and for American consumers.  The 3.5 GHz auction has concluded, and I can say unequivocally:  It was a resounding success,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.  “The strong demand for licenses was the direct result of this Commission’s reforms to the rules for the 3.5 GHz band—reforms that would not have been possible without the leadership and hard work of my colleague, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.  This auction has been a key part of our 5G FAST Plan and our ongoing push to make more mid-band spectrum available for 5G.  I look forward to this important spectrum being put to use quickly to provide service to the American people.  And I look forward to the Commission making available 280 more megahertz of mid-band spectrum for 5G in the C-band auction beginning on December 8.”

The FCC will release a public notice in a few days providing detailed auction results, including the names of Auction 105 winning bidders, and announcing deadlines for payments and the filing of long-form applications, as well as other post-auction procedures needed for the prompt issuance of licenses. 

https://www.fcc.gov/auction/105

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Telia Carrier announces expansion and partnerships in Mexico

QuattroCom, a Mexican carrier-neutral service provider, has formed a partnership with Telia Carrier to provide dedicated Internet access to its enterprise businesses in the city of Querétaro, in central Mexico. The partnership gives QuattroCom access to Telia Carrier's AS1299 global network, supporting enterprise business demands for the increasing need for scalable, high-performance connectivity in the city's growing business market.

“Partnering with QuattroCom allows us to reach the burgeoning businesses in the city Querétaro,” said Luis Velasquez, Mexico business manager, Telia Carrier. “Aside from being recognized as being one of the best places to do business in the Americas, Querétaro is also considered to be Mexico's 'Silicon Valley.' This partnership allows us to strengthen our position to deliver connectivity and high-quality local access to these thriving businesses and enables the local infrastructure to grow.”

Telia Carrier also announced an expansion of its partnership with Neutral Networks in Mexico, adding a new point of presence (PoP) at the Pabellon M development in the city of Monterrey. The partnership will enhance Telia Carrier’s fiber backbone and connectivity in the city of Monterrey, with the possibility to connect with northern Mexico’s top markets and strategic business sectors including manufacturing, commerce and financial services.

“Our presence in Monterrey is part of Telia Carrier’s mission to extend our global network partnering with regional access providers to bring unique diversity and value to the market. Working with Neutral Networks, a division of Even Group which is one of the most active infrastructure builders in the Mexican telecoms landscape, we strengthen our position to deliver connectivity and high-quality local access for growing regional industries.” said Luis Velasquez, Mexico business manager, Telia Carrier.

http://www.Teliacarrier.com

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Edgecore builds a cloud controller for wired and wireless devices

Taiwan-based Edgecore Networks introduced ecCLOUD, a cloud controller for unified visibility and control over Edgecore wired and wireless devices. Cloud controllers are lower cost and simpler than on-site management system installations.

TT Hsu, Vice President of Edgecore Networks said, “Edgecore’s ecCLOUD is a feature-rich, reliable, and scalable network management solution suited for networks of any size. With ecCLOUD, deployment, management, and monitoring of single-site or multi-site networks can be greatly simplified. ecCLOUD also supports management of a comprehensive product portfolio for service providers and organizations to enjoy the benefit of being able to choose from a wide array of Edgecore products for their deployments.”

ecCLOUD features

• Multi-level Management: ecCLOUD is composed of three levels – Cloud, Site, and Device. This multi-level architecture facilitates tiered administrative privileges as well as bulk device management from the site level. With ecCLOUD, multi-site networks can be easily managed, and each site can have its own set of configuration settings that can be applied to devices registered under the site.
• Quick Device Onboarding: Placing a device online is easy – simply register the device on ecCLOUD and connect the registered device to the Internet for auto-provisioning.
• Auto-generated Network Topology Diagrams: Network topology diagrams are automatically generated at the site-level to help network administrators better assess and manage deployment architectures.
• Network Security & Access Control: ecCLOUD ensures overall network security through encryption of device-to-cloud communication. Enhanced switch port security and AAA services for wireless users are also available.
• Customizable Captive Portal: Network administrators can quickly create unique Wi-Fi login pages per SSID for brand promotion, marketing activities, or advertisements. The built-in captive portal editor provides drag-and-drop modules for adding text, links, and multimedia, allowing anyone to easily craft their own login pages even without extensive knowledge in web development.

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Juniper and Netcracker team on enterprise service automation

Juniper Networks and Netcracker Technology announced a joint solution that facilitates the end-to-end management of LAN/WLAN/WAN networks with automated service provisioning and workflows, AI-driven insight and full lifecycle management from client to cloud.

The company said their joint Enterprise Service Automation solution will help service providers to unify LAN and WAN environments, providing additional value to their enterprise customers.

The solution combines Juniper's Mist AI with Netcracker's Service Orchestration and 2020 Digital BSS/OSS portfolio.

“For many enterprises, meeting the demands of an increasingly complex and dynamic network environment is an uphill battle. Through this expansion of our long-standing relationship with Netcracker, we can combine our industry-leading technology to offer a strategic value proposition to service providers and deliver end-to-end SLAs with fully managed enterprise networks. This approach can help increase revenues and profitability with existing customers as well as expand an SP’s managed services into new B2B vertical markets, leveraging new opportunities in the 5G era," states Raj Yavatkar, CTO, Juniper Networks.

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Keysight powers Jabil’s 5G test bed

Jabil, which provides design, manufacturing, supply chain and product management services, has selected Keysight’s 5G device test solutions to address the demand for 5G product validation in design and manufacturing.

Jabil serves a broad range of industries, many of which are taking full advantage of a digital transformation towards realizing the future of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Keysight’s software-centric test, measurement, security and optimization solutions support this transformation across multiple technology domains, including 5G new radio (NR), high-speed digital and virtualized radio access networks (vRAN).

“As a solution partner to top brands and leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), we’re pleased that Jabil selected Keysight’s UXM 5G wireless test platform to help advance research activities,” said Cao Peng, senior director of Keysight’s communications solutions group. “Keysight is pleased to contribute to the wireless standards development organizations (SDOs) and industry consortia, as it enables us to deliver a comprehensive suite of certified test cases for conformance validation of 5G new radio devices.”

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ONF launches 5G SD-RAN Project

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) has launched an SD-RAN project with the aim of building an open source Near Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (nRT-RIC) compatible with the O-RAN architecture as well ONF’s existing base cloud-native solutions leveraging disaggregation and whitebox hardware.

ONF said its goal is to foster open source software platforms and multi-vendor solutions for mobile 4G and 5G RAN deployments.

Central to the project is the development of an open source near-real time RIC called µONOS-RIC (pronounced “micro-ONOS-RIC”).

µONOS is a microservices-based SDN controller created by the refactoring and enhancement of ONOS, the leading SDN controller for operators in production tier-1 networks worldwide.  µONOS-RIC is built on µONOS, and hence features a cloud-native design supporting active-active clustering for scalability, performance and high availability along with the real-time capabilities needed for intelligent RAN control. The O-RAN ALLIANCE E2 interface is used to interface between µONOS-RIC and vendor supplied RAN RU/DU/CU RAN components.

Carriers would be able to run new "xApps" on top of the µONOS-RIC.  These open xApps could provide functionality that traditionally has been implemented in vendor-proprietary implementations, including providing visibility and control over the RAN.

Significantly, the ONF's SD-RAN project is backed by AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Intel, NTT, Radisys and Sercomm.

A working skeleton prototype of the µONOS-RIC controller is already running above a RAN emulation platform through the E2 interface.  ONF has demonstrated handover and load balancing at scale, supporting over 100 base stations and 100,000 user devices with less than 50ms handover latency (less than 10ms latency for 99% of all handovers). Field trials are expected by early 2021.

“AT&T strongly supports the development of specifications and components that can help drive openness and innovation in the RAN ecosystem. The O-RAN ALLIANCE’s specifications are enabling the ecosystem, with a range of companies and organizations creating both open source and proprietary implementations that are bringing the open specifications to life. The ONF SD-RAN project, along with the O-RAN OSC, will expand the ecosystem with an nRT-RIC that can support xApps and help demonstrate their interoperability. This project will help accelerate the transition to an open RAN future,” stated Andre Fuetsch, President and Chief Technology Officer, AT&T Labs.

“Google is an advocate for SDN, disaggregation and open source, and we are excited to see these principles now being applied to the RAN domain. ONF’s SD-RAN project’s ambition to create an open source RIC can help invigorate innovation across the mobile domain, said Ankur Jain, Distinguished Engineer, Google.

https://www.opennetworking.org/news-and-events/press-releases/onf-announces-new-5g-sd-ran-project/

https://youtu.be/1VbiRGBjqK8

ONF's Aether targets Enterprise 5G/LTE-Edge-Cloud-as-a-Service

Thursday, March 05, 2020  ONF  

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced Aether – the first open-source platform for delivering Enterprise 5G/LTE-Edge-Cloud-as-a-Service.

Aether (pronounced ‘ee-ther’) provides mobile connectivity and edge cloud services for distributed enterprise networks, all provisioned and managed from a centralized cloud.

Aether leverages existing work from ONF including the CORD and ONOS platforms. It can be run in a Kubernetes environment, and it simultaneously supports deployment on licensed (4G/5G) and unlicensed (CBRS) spectrum.

“Aether opens the door for enterprises to rapidly deploy 5G and edge cloud services to help power their digital transformations. This can be done with a variety of flexible business models including in collaboration with telco operators, cloud operators, and third party providers. It offers the flexibility to utilize a wide range of bands including 5G, licensed bands, and CBRS. This cloud-enabled platform turns mobile connectivity and enterprise mobile edge cloud capabilities into a cloud-managed service, simplifying deployment and operations while delivering scalable and cost-effective services,” states Guru Parulkar, Executive Director, ONF & Executive Director, Stanford Platform Lab.

ONF already has a modest Aether pilot production network supporting edge cloud services running at two ONF offices, Intel Labs, and at other sites. This pilot is centrally managed and controlled from public cloud, with Aether Edge installations at each site. The entire deployment is maintained by ONF and ONF members using a distributed CI/CD DevOps development pipeline.

As with all ONF projects, Aether is backed by ONF’s operator partners AT&T, China Unicom, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Google, NTT Group and Turk Telekom. Additionally, ONF, Intel, GSLab, Infosys, and Accelleran are actively collaborating as a distributed DevOps team enhancing and maintaining Aether.

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Verizon completes fully virtualized 5G data session

Verizon recently completed an end-to-end fully virtualized 5G data session in a live network.

Verizon's demonstration of virtualization in the Radio Access Network tested technology from several partners, including:

• Samsung provided its commercial 5G virtualized RAN solution, consisting of a virtualized Central Unit (vCU), a virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU), and radio units. The solution can provide mobile operators with improved efficiency, flexibility, and management benefits through the deployment of a software-based 5G radio infrastructure. Samsung announced commercial availability of its fully-virtualized 5G RAN solution last month.
• Intel provided its Intel Xeon Scalable processor, Intel FPGA Programmable Acceleration Card (Intel FPGA PAC) N3000, Intel Ethernet Network Adapter XXV710 to deliver the processing, acceleration and connectivity requirements, and its FlexRAN software reference architecture.
• Wind River is providing Verizon with a cloud-native, Kubernetes- and container-based software infrastructure, which delivers ultra-low latency and high availability for national deployment of virtualized 5G RAN. Wind River’s solution is integrated with best-in-class vRAN applications, providing single-pane-of-glass and zero-touch automated management, and network analytics.

Verizon said this technology milestone provides the foundation for wide-scale mobile edge computing and network slicing.  Earlier this month, Verizon launched 5G mobile edge compute live for developers with AWS Wavelength at Verizon’s 5G Edge locations in Boston and the Bay Area.  As Verizon extends its MEC leadership, virtualization in the Radio Access Network (RAN) becomes even more important.

Virtualizing the RAN decouples software and hardware functionality enabling the network to be built on general purpose hardware. Using Common Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware leads to greater flexibility and agility in the introduction of new products and services. Instead of adding or upgrading single-purpose hardware, the move to a cloud native, container-based virtualized architecture with standardized interfaces leads to greater flexibility, faster delivery of services, greater scalability, and improved cost efficiency in networks.

“Virtualizing the entire network from the core to the edge has been a massive, multi-year redesign effort of our network architecture that simplifies and modernizes our entire network,” said Adam Koeppe, Senior Vice President of Technology and Planning for Verizon. “Verizon has been on the leading edge of virtualizing the core over the past few years and has been bullish in the design and development of open RAN technology, as well as in the testing of that technology with great success.”

“Massive scale IOT solutions, more robust consumer devices and solutions, AR/VR, remote healthcare, autonomous robotics in manufacturing environments, and ubiquitous smart city solutions are only some of the ways we will be able to deliver the promise of the digital world.  Advancements in virtualization technology are critical steps towards that realization,” said Koeppe.

Verizon to offer 5G network edge computing with AWS Wavelength

Tuesday, December 03, 2019  5G, AWS, Edge, MEC, Verizon  

Verizon will be the first carrier to offer the new AWS Wavelength service to provide developers the ability to deploy applications that require ultra-low latency to mobile devices using 5G.  The service targets latency-sensitive use cases like machine learning inference at the edge, autonomous industrial equipment, smart cars and cities, Internet of Things (IoT), and augmented and virtual reality. The idea is to position AWS compute and storage services at the edge of Verizon’s 5G network.

The companies are currently piloting AWS Wavelength on Verizon’s edge compute platform, 5G Edge, in Chicago for a select group of customers, including video game publisher Bethesda Softworks and the National Football League (NFL). Additional deployments are planned in other locations across the U.S. in 2020.

Verizon 5G Edge provides mobile edge computing and an efficient high-volume connection between users, devices, and applications. AWS Wavelength lets customers deploy the parts of an application that require ultra-low latency to the edge of the network and then seamlessly connect back to the full range of cloud services running in AWS.

AWS also listed Vodafone Business, KDDI, and SK Telecom as partners.

Verizon tests Ericsson's cloud-native, containerized EPC

Tuesday, July 16, 2019    

Verizon and Ericsson introduced a cloud-native, container-based technology on the core of Verizon’s active network.

The proof-of-concept trial deployment is described as the first container- based wireless EPC (Evolved Packet Core) technology deployment in a live network in the world.

The trial, which was conducted on Verizon's commercial network in Hillsboro, Oregon, used Ericsson Packet Core Controller deployed as a cloud-native and microservice-based Mobility Management Entity (MME) in an existing pool. The software used leverages docker images and helm charts, with expected updates on the software from Ericsson every two weeks.

Nils Viklund, Head of Solution Area Packet Core at Ericsson says: "The industry’s evolution to cloud native means big changes ahead. Ericsson is leading the industry when it comes to driving cloud-native design in order to bring the agility needed to manage workloads dynamically at the edge required for many new 5G use cases. Now together with Verizon, we are demonstrating how cloud native EPC can be an important step in increasing efficiency and utilization of the cloud infrastructure."

“The pace of technological advancement is rapid and is exponentially increasing. By evolving our core network past simply using virtualized machines and instead changing our underlying software architecture to run on cloud- native technology, we are able to achieve new levels of operational automation, flexibility and adaptability,” said Bill Stone, Vice President of Technology Development and Planning for Verizon.

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Open Eye Consortium announces 53Gbps per lane Multi-Mode SR4

The Open Eye Consortium (Open Eye MSA) announced two new specifications targeted for 53Gbps per lane applications: SR4 for 100 meters reach over a multi-mode fiber and LR for 10 kilometers reach over a single-mode fiber. The new specs target 53Gbps SFP28 Long-Reach (LR) and 200Gbps QSFP Short-Reach (SR) optical module designs for next generation 5G wireless, enterprise and data center networking applications.

The Open Eye MSA said its new specifications will provide an alternative to higher power and higher cost DSP-based solutions.

The new specs complement the Open Eye MSA’s previously released 200Gbps FR4 specification.

In addition, the Open Eye MSA will be hosting two webinars aimed at introducing network planners and optical module developers to this new exciting technology:

Webinar 1

• Topic: Reduce Cost, Power and Latency with Open Eye MSA based Optical Connectivity
• Description: This webinar is targeted for Data Center, Enterprise and Telecom network architects. Presenters will overview the benefits of the Open Eye MSA approach enabling low cost, low power and low latency optical modules for 200Gbps and 400Gbps connectivity deployments.

Webinar 2

• Topic: Reducing the Cost of 200Gbps and 400Gbps Optics using Open Eye MSA compliant Chipset Solutions
• Description: This webinar is targeted for manufacturers of optical modules. The Open Eye MSA approach is a natural evolution relative to today’s high-volume optical nodes, enabling users to scale to next generation Baud rates. Presenters will overview chip-set and test solutions for implementation of modules based on Open Eye MSA specifications.

The Open Eye MSA is also excited to announce that its membership has grown to 37 members with the addition of Credo Semiconductor, Fuji Xerox and Lumentum to its list of members.

https://www.openeye-msa.org/

Open Eye Consortium specification defines 53Gbps per lane PAM-4

Tuesday, March 10, 2020  Open Eye, PAM-4, Standards  

The Open Eye Consortium (Open Eye MSA) published its 53 Gbps single-mode specification defining the requirements for analog PAM-4 solutions for 50G SFP, 100G DSFP, 200G QSFP, and 400G QSFP-DD and OSFP single-mode modules.

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

A whitepaper is available to view and download.

In addition, the Open Eye MSA announced the draft of its multi-mode specification available to its members for comments, with general availability targeted for release in Fall 2020.

http://www.openeye-msa.org

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Cisco to acquire BabbleLabs - AI-powered voice enhancement

Cisco agreed to acquire BabbleLabs, a start-up headquartered in Campbell, California that uses AI techniques to distinguish human speech from unwanted noise. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The BabbleLabs technology can be used to enhance the quality of communications and conferencing applications. BabbleLabs goes beyond existing noise suppression technology solutions by:

• Distinguishing speech from background noise;
• Removing background noise in real-time; and
• Enhancing the voice to elevate communication, regardless of language.

BabbleLabs team will join the Cisco Collaboration Group, led by Javed Khan, senior vice president and general manager, which is part of the Cisco Security and Applications Business, led by Jeetu Patel.

Initially, Cisco will focus on integrating BabbleLabs to deliver a best-in-class audio experience to Webex Meetings users.  - wherever they are and however they connect via the Webex application (whether via a conference room or mobile device).

“A great meeting experience starts with great audio,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Security and Applications Business Unit. “We’re thrilled to welcome BabbleLabs’ team of highly skilled engineers. Their technology is going to provide our customers with yet another important innovation – automatically removing unwanted noise - to continue enabling exceptional Webex meeting experiences.”

https://babblelabs.com/company/news-and-blog/

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Kymeta completes $85 milllion funding round led by Bill Gates

Kymeta, a developer of satellite antennas, completed an $85 million funding round led by Bill Gates with members of the leadership team personally investing approximately $1 million, including Kymeta Executive Chairman, Doug Hutcheson.

Kymeta offers an electronically steered flat panel antenna platform built specifically for mobility and designed for the needs of military, first responders and commercial customers. The advanced u8 antenna supports global land mobility, covering the full Ku-band with improved efficiency. The company also offers a hybrid satellite-cellular connectivity service.

“As a company, we’re just scratching the surface of how powerful hybrid satellite-cellular communications can be when combined with an affordable electronically steered flat panel antenna offered to the global land mobility ecosystem,” said Doug Hutcheson, Executive Chairman, Kymeta. “Having the continued support of Bill Gates will help us execute our vision even more rapidly and broadly – and with the benefit of experience, perspective and relationships of a leading and highly successful technology backer.”

http://www.kymetacorp.com



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HPE reports growing "as-a-service" revenue

Hewlett Packard Enterprise reported revenue of $6.8 billion for its fiscal 2020 third quarter, ended July 31, 2020, down 6% from the prior-year period or 4% when adjusted for currency. Revenue grew 13% sequentially or 14% when adjusted for currency driven by solid execution in clearing historic backlog by approximately $500 million during the quarter. Gross profit was $2.1 billion, up 8% sequentially, which the company credits to strong operation execution.

“Our Q3 results are marked by strong execution and sequential growth,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “We significantly improved operational and supply chain execution and advanced our innovation agenda with the introduction of HPE GreenLake cloud services solutions, our new HPE Ezmeral software portfolio, and our planned acquisition of SD-WAN leader Silver Peak.”

“We gained momentum in key areas of differentiation and accelerated our as-a-service pivot with strong ARR growth and a record number of HPE GreenLake services orders,” he continued. “Navigating through the pandemic and planning for a post-COVID world have increased customers’ needs for as-a-service offerings, secure connectivity, remote work capabilities and analytics to unlock insights from data that are aligned to our strategy. We see a tremendous opportunity to help our customers drive digital transformations as they continue to adapt to operate in a new world.”

Highlights

• Intelligent Edge revenue was $684 million, down 12% year over year or 11% when adjusted for currency, with 8.6% operating profit margin, compared to 6.8% from the prior-year period. Revenue grew 3% sequentially demonstrating continued momentum.
• Compute revenue was $3.4 billion, flat year over year or up 1% when adjusted for currency, with 8.5% operating profit margin, compared to 12.9% from the prior-year period. Revenue grew 28% sequentially or 29% when adjusted for currency as we executed against the backlog and improved supply chain execution.
• High Performance Compute & Mission Critical Systems (HPC & MCS) revenue was $649 million, up 3% year over year, with 5.5% operating profit margin, compared to 8.1% from the prior-year period. Revenue grew 10% sequentially as installations and customer acceptance of systems improved.
• Storage revenue was $1.1 billion, down 10% year over year or 9% when adjusted for currency, with 12.9% operating profit margin, compared to 16.5% from the prior-year period. Revenue grew 4% sequentially driven by improved operational execution and reduction of backlog.
• Advisory & Professional Services (A&PS) revenue was $226 million, down 7% year over year or 5% when adjusted for currency, with (1.8%) operating profit margin, compared to (3.7%) from the prior-year period. Revenue was down 5% sequentially.
• Financial Services revenue was $811 million, down 9% year over year or 6% when adjusted for currency and down 3% sequentially or 2% when adjusted for currency, with 8.0% operating profit margin, compared to 8.7% from the prior-year period. 

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GSMA advances its Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme

Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE, have successfully completed an assessment of their product development and lifecycle management processes using the GSMA’s Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme (NESAS), which provides a security assurance framework to improve security levels across the mobile industry.

The NESAS scheme is a collaboration and jointly led by 3GPP and the GSMA, and is open to all vendors of network equipment products that support 3GPP defined functions.

“The GSMA recognises the support and participation of Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE who have satisfied the scheme’s security requirements via an independent security audit and we congratulate them on achieving this important first step,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “By committing to NESAS, vendors are helping network operators, and other stakeholders make informed decisions about secure product development. We look forward to others participating in the scheme, evidencing their commitment to good security practice by promoting a security-by-design culture within the industry.”

During the second stage of NESAS, vendors will submit network equipment products to qualified test laboratories for evaluation. This stage involves laboratories running security tests, defined by 3GPP, and checking that the products undergoing evaluation have been developed under the assessed development and lifecycle management processes. The evaluation concludes with the production, by the test laboratory, of a valuation report that records the test results. The report is provided to the vendor who can make it available to its customers and other stakeholders at its discretion.

https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/gsma-announces-progress-on-network-equipment-security-assurance-scheme/

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AWS launches next-gen SSDs for its Elastic Block Store

Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of io2, the next generation Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes for Amazon Elastic Block Store.

The new io2 volume is designed for 100x higher volume durability (99.999%) when compared to the 99.9% durability offered by io1 Amazon EBS volumes. Higher volume durability reduces the likelihood of storage failures and makes the primary copy of customers’ data more resilient, resulting in better application availability.

AWS said its new SSD volumes will enable customers todrive 10x higher input/output operations per second (IOPS) from their provisioned storage at the same price as io, so performance improves significantly without increasing storage cost. io2 is ideal for performance-intensive, business critical applications that need higher availability like ERP, CRM, and online transaction systems and the databases like SAP HANA, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Apache Cassandra, MySQL, and PostreSQL that back them.

“Customers rely on highly durable AWS block storage to keep their business-critical applications running at any scale,” said Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, Vice President, Block and Object Storage, AWS. “Today, we are excited to announce new high durability io2 volumes, that provide existing customers 100x higher volume durability than io1 at no additional cost. For new customers where five nines of storage durability is critical to migrate on-premises business critical applications to AWS, io2 brings together performance, durability, and agility all in a single EBS volume.”

https://aws.amazon.com/ebs

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Palo Alto Networks to acquire The Crypsis Group

Palo Alto Networks agreed to acquire The Crypsis Group, a leading incident response, risk management and digital forensics consulting firm, for $265 million in cash.

The Crypsis Group's more than 150 security consultants have handled some of the most complex and significant cybersecurity incidents, responding to more than 1,300 security engagements per year. The company was named one of the Top 10 Digital Forensics Services Companies of 2019 and 2020 by Enterprise Security magazine.

Palo Alto Networks already provides prevention, detection and response capabilities through its Cortex XDR. The addition of The Crypsis Group's security consulting and forensics capabilities will strengthen Cortex XDR's ability to collect rich security telemetry, manage breaches and initiate rapid response actions. The Crypsis Group's experts and insights will also fuel the Cortex XDR platform with a continuous feedback loop between incident response engagements and product research teams to prevent future cyberattacks. The company expects to integrate The Crypsis Group's processes and technology into Cortex XDR to further enhance its ability to safeguard organizations at every stage of the security lifecycle.

"The proposed acquisition of The Crypsis Group will significantly enhance our position as the cybersecurity partner of choice, while expanding our capabilities and strengthening our Cortex strategy. By joining forces, we will be able to help customers not only predict and prevent cyberattacks but also mitigate the impact of any breach they may face," said Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

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Palo Alto Networks' revenue grows 18% yoy to $950M

Palo Alto Networks reported revenue of $950.4 million for its fiscal fourth quarter 2020, ended July 31, 2020, up 18% year over year, compared with total revenue of $805.8 million for the fiscal fourth quarter 2019. GAAP net loss for the fiscal fourth quarter 2020 was $58.9 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, compared with GAAP net loss of $20.8 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, for the fiscal fourth quarter 2019. Non-GAAP net income for the fiscal fourth quarter 2020 was $144.9 million, or $1.48 per diluted share, compared with non-GAAP net income of $146.9 million, or $1.47 per diluted share, for the fiscal fourth quarter 2019. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP information is contained in the tables below.

"We had a strong finish to our fiscal year, with fourth quarter billings accelerating to 32% year-over-year growth, driven by strong execution, work-from-home tailwinds, and continued success in next-gen security," said Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks. "Earlier today we announced the proposed acquisition of The Crypsis Group, a leading incident response firm. Once the transaction closes, The Crypsis Group will complement our Cortex XDR platform with best-in-class incident response, forensic, and consulting capabilities. In addition to being able to predict and prevent cyberattacks, Cortex will be able to mitigate the impact of any breach that our customers may face."

https://investors.paloaltonetworks.com/investor-relations/overview/default.aspx

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Zoom suffers widespread outage

Zoom experienced a widespread outage on Monday, the first day of online classes for many schools and universities across the United States. Users in the UK also reported disruptions to the Zoom conferencing service.

The company said it began posting a software fix as of 8am PT.

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Snowflake files for IPO - cloud data warehousing

Snowflake, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock.

Snowflake is known for its cloud data platform.

Snowflake intends to list its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SNOW”.

Snowflake lands $479M for its cloud data platform

Monday, February 10, 2020  Snowflake  

Snowflake, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, announced $479 million in new funding for its cloud data platform.

Snowflake’s cloud data platform supports a multi-cloud strategy, including availability on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Snowflake offers a common and interchangeable code base that delivers advantages such as global data replication, which means you can move your data to any cloud in any region, without having to re-code your applications.

Since its general release in mid-2015, Snowflake has gained 3,400 customers, including recent customers include Accor, Brex, CONA Services, ConAgra Foods, Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited, JetBlue, and Nationwide.

The new funding was co-led by new investors, Dragoneer Investment Group and Salesforce Ventures. Existing Snowflake investors, including Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia, and Sutter Hill Ventures, are also participating in the round. This funding round raises Snowflake's post-money valuation to over $12.4 billion. T

“We look forward to Dragoneer’s experience and insights as we continue to serve our customers and grow our business,” Snowflake CEO, Frank Slootman said. “We also welcome our partnership with Salesforce and look forward to the positive impact our technologies and services will deliver to our customers and the broader market.”

Snowflake adds $450 million in funding for data warehousing

Thursday, October 11, 2018  Data Warehousing, Snowflake  

Snowflake Computing, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, closed $450 million in additional growth funding led by Sequoia Capital and including existing investors: Altimeter Capital, Capital One Growth Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Wing Ventures. New investor Meritech Capital also joined this round, which raises Snowflake’s pre-money valuation to $3.5 billion.

Earlier this year, Snowflake announced $263 million new venture funding in a round led by ICONIQ Capital, Altimeter Capital and newcomer Sequoia Capital.

This second round brings Snowflake’s total amount raised to $923 million.

Snowflake is headed by Bob Muglia, who previously was president of Microsoft’s $16 billion Server and Tools Business, responsible for products such as Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center and Windows Azure. Snowflake recently announced its availability on Microsoft Azure and its continued support for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Snowflake has offered data warehousing services since 2015. It claims 1,000 active customers, including Netflix, Office Depot, DoorDash, Netgear, Ebates and Yamaha.

“Learning to be data-driven is an imperative for every organization today, and a data-driven organization must be in control of its data,” Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia said. “Snowflake is the most powerful data warehouse in the world for analytics solutions. That power delivers the security, control and business answers needed to enable data-driven organizations. This is driving spectacular growth for our company, and this latest funding round will provide Snowflake with the resources we need to serve our rapidly growing set of new and existing customers around the world.”

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IDC: Worldwide public cloud services market hit $233.4B in 2019

The worldwide public cloud services market, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), grew 26.0% year over year in 2019 with revenues totaling $233.4 billion, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker.

"Cloud is expanding far beyond niche e-commerce and online ad-sponsored searches. It underpins all the digital activities that individuals and enterprises depend upon as we navigate and move beyond the pandemic," said Rick Villars, group vice president, Worldwide Research at IDC. "Enterprises talked about cloud journeys of up to ten years. Now they are looking to complete the shift in less than half that time."

Some highlights from IDC:

• Spending continued to consolidate in 2019 with the combined revenue of the top 5 public cloud service providers (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Google, and Oracle) capturing more than one third of the worldwide total and growing 35% year over year.
• The public cloud services market has more than doubled since 2016. 
• Since 2016, the combined spending on IaaS and PaaS has nearly tripled. 
• Spending on IaaS and PaaS is expected to continue growing at a higher rate than the overall cloud market over the next several years.
• In the combined IaaS and PaaS market, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft captured more than half of global revenues.
• In the SaaS market, nearly three quarters of the spending is captured outside the top 5.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS46780320

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Tele2 deploys 25,000 5G-ready Ericsson base stations in Russia

Tele2 has now deployed 25,000 5G-ready base stations from Ericsson across Russia over the past 18 months. The update, which covers all 27 regions of Russia, has increased capacity and enhanced network performance by a factor of 1.7.

The deployment reflects about 50 percent of the five-year network modernization deal reached during MWC 2019 in Barcelona and follows the first 5G zone in the center of Moscow in August 2019.

Sebastian Tolstoy, Head of Ericsson in Russia, says: “Our development enables Tele2’s subscribers the opportunity to use mobile internet services in high quality. As all our network equipment in Russia supports an upgrade to 5G technologies through remote software installation, operators in Russia are able to launch new services as soon as they get the appropriate licenses. Ericsson’s 5G Innovation Hub in Moscow gives Russian service providers the opportunity to test innovations on live 5G and IoT networks. The Ericsson Academy, our training center co-located at the Innovation Hub, trains more than 1,000 specialists from Russian service providers and students each year”.

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China Telecom tests Huawei's 5G Super Uplink + Downlink CA

China Telecom Shenzhen is testing 5G Super Uplink and dual carrier aggregation (CA) downlink technology from Huawei.

The pilot site uses 200 MHz 3.5 GHz TDD spectrum and 20 MHz 2.1 GHz FDD spectrum in the uplink. Single-user concurrent tests were completed in standalone (SA) networking mode. The results of the test showed that the average uplink rate reached 470 Mbps and the average downlink rate 2.43 Gbps, which are approximately 1.3 times and double that with a single 100 MHz bandwidth, respectively.

Huawei claims 5G Super Uplink has notable advantages over uplink CA. Super Uplink enables integrated uplink scheduling between two uplink carriers in one cell. This scheduling mechanism is more efficient than uplink CA implemented between two cells. In addition, uplink and downlink bands are decoupled, enabling downlink carriers to be flexibly added to adapt to data traffic requirements. For example, CA can be disabled or implemented within one band or between two bands. As uplink CA depends on downlink CA and its bands must be a subset of downlink CA bands, uplink CA cannot be used in the cases of asymmetric uplink-only bands, further highlighting the greater flexibility of Super Uplink.

https://www.huawei.com/us/news/2020/8/shenzhen-telecom-5g-superuplink-dc

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