U.S. Senate's Defense Legislation hits ZTE

The U.S. Senate voted 85 to 10 to approve a $716 billion defense spending authorization bill that includes a provision extending the restriction on the export of U.S. technologies to ZTE. The provision is a rebuke to President Trump's decision to lift the ban against exports to ZTE.

The Senate version of the defense spending authorization bill must be reconciled with the House version, which prohibits the federal government from purchasing ZTE products, but not reimpose the export ban on the company.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is believed to be negotiating on Capitol Hill to ensure that the ban against ZTE does not become part of the final bill.

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AT&T intros DIRECTV for Business video headend

AT&T introduceed its COM3000, its third generation DIRECTV for Business video headend. With it, businesses will get more channels than ever.

The COM3000 can deliver up to 138 HD channels, including 4K HDR programming. Business owners can add channels one at a time, including their own in-house and over-the-top (OTT) channels.

AT&T said the COM3000 is especially suited for hotels and institutions.

“We’re constantly improving the in-room entertainment experience at hotels, including many of the top chains,” said Eichler. “We’re a leader in driving premium content in this space – and have been for over a decade. COM3000 illustrates our innovation and our place on the edge of delivering the best technology solutions in the market.”

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AWS DeepLens runs deep learning model on the device

Amazon Web Services announced commercial shipment of its DeepLens video camera.

AWS DeepLens runs deep learning models directly on the device, out in the field. It includes a 4 megapixel camera (1080P video), 2D microphone array, Intel Atom Processor, dual-band Wi-Fi, USB and micro HDMI ports, 8 GB of memory for models and code. The software stack includes Ubuntu 16.04, AWS Greengrass Core, device-optimized versions of MXNet and Intel clDNN library, support for other deep learning frameworks.

DeepLens now supports the TensorFlow and Caffe frameworks.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-deeplens-now-shipping-order-one-today/

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Ruckus updates its WLAN controllers

Ruckus Networks, which is now part of ARRIS, introduced newly enhanced versions of its SmartZone WLAN controllers featuring the ability to use a single network element to control and manage both Ruckus access points (APs) and switches. The new SmartZone network controller family includes physical and virtual appliances designed for managed service providers, operators and medium to large enterprises.

Ruckus SmartZoneOS-powered controllers combine scalability, tiered multi-tenancy, architectural flexibility and extensive APIs into a single centrally-managed element. These capabilities enable managed service providers to implement complex, multi-tier and as-a-service business models using their own management applications.

The SmartZone network controllers simplify network management by:

• Eliminating provisioning errors through use of an automated discovery process for access points (APs) and switches;
• Reducing configuration and deployment duration when compared to a multi-console approach;
• Reducing network software and hypervisor license fees, server expense, utility expense and training costs;
• Enabling a single network controller cluster to scale to 450,000 clients.
• Enabling networking-as-a-service  

"Whether you're an operator, managed service provider or sophisticated enterprise IT organization, you need the ability to customize your network to meet specific business and technical requirements," said Greg Beach, vice president of wireless products, Ruckus Networks. "Ruckus has embraced simplification through an 'open' approach to networking that acknowledges our customers' and partners' desire to build their own best-in-class architectures and gives them the tools to do so with relative ease."

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NTT and Tokyo Institute of Tech achieve 100 Gbps using terahertz band

NTT and Tokyo Institute of Technology have jointly developed an ultra high-speed IC for wireless front-end that operates on a terahertz frequency band, and in the 300 GHz band they have achieved a record 100 Gbps wireless transmission data rate.

The researchers implemented a mixer circuit that applied a unique proprietary high isolation design technology with an Indium phosphide high electron mobility transistor (InP-HEMT). NTT said this process enlarged the transmission bandwidth, which is a problem in the conventional 300 GHz band wireless front end. It also improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, using this we realized a 300 GHz band wireless front-end module, and we achieved wireless transmission of 100 Gbps (gigabits per second).

NTT said future work will extend to multiple carriers by making use of the wide frequency band of 300 GHz band, and using spatial multiplexing technology such as MIMO and OAM. The researchers hope to produce an ultra high-speed IC that enables wireless transmission of 400 Gbos.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2018/1806e/180611a.html

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Deutsche Telekom extends broadband rollout

Deutsche Telekom confirmed plans to lay 60,000 kilometers of optical fiber in 2018. This compares to 40,000 kilometers laid in 2017.

Telekom's full fiber-optic network now measures 455,000 kilometers -- the largest in Europe. It would wrap around the Earth ten times.

Telekom calculates that it costs between 50,000 and 150,000 euros to lay a kilometer of optical fiber cable.

Deutsche Telekom kicked off a fiber-optic build-out in the port area of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

The rollout will bring fiber connections to an estimated 1,000 businesses in the area. The effort will involve laying more than 80 kilometers of fiber-optical cabling and installing 28 distribution cabinets.

“Among the federal states, Hamburg is already taking on a leading role in the provision with digital infrastructure. Fiber-optic connectivity is no
longer just a vision for our city: it’s a reality. The on-going expansion needs to make quick progress. Business parks and the Port area are particularly important in this effort to ensure that Hamburg remains an ultra-modern, highly future-ready business and industrial location. We welcome the fact that Deutsche Telekom too is driving on with the fiber-optic build-out in Hamburg,” says Frank Horch, the Hanseatic City’s minister for economy, transport and innovation.

Deutsche Telekom also noted that more than 832,000 households across Germany are now eligible for 100 Mbps service thanks to its expanded use of vectoring technology over its copper network.

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AT&T expands purchases of wind energy

AT&T announced a new agreement to purchase 300 megawatts (MW) of wind energy from a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources. The contract covers renewable energy from two new wind farm projects in Wilbarger and Hardeman Counties, Texas. AT&T has previously announced investments backing two wind energy centers in Webb and Duval Counties in Texas and Caddo County, Oklahoma. Together, these agreements will deliver 820 MW of wind power.

AT&T said these agreement constitute one of the largest corporate renewable energy purchases in the U.S.2

"We're going big on renewable energy. It's a clean, abundant, renewable source of home-grown power," said Joe Taylor, vice president of global tech optimization and implementation, AT&T. "As one of the world's largest companies, our investments can help scale this critical energy source for America's transition to a low-carbon economy."

AT&T also announced a scholarship program for students interested in pursuing careers as wind turbine technicians, one of the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S.

http://att.com/csr

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Equinix to host Vocus Australia Singapore Cable POP in its data centers

The new subsea cable system offers additional points of presence to address rising interconnection demand between Australia and Southeast Asia

Equinix will host the Vocus-owned Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) in its International Business ExchangeTM (IBX) data centers in Singapore and across six metros in Australia, including the Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Perth and points of presence (PoP) in Sydney and Melbourne already announced.

The ASC is a 4,600-kilometer subsea cable that will connect Singapore and Australia and is expected to be completed and operational by Q1 FY19. The new pathway from Western Australia to Southeast Asia, and additional capacity, will also serve to boost the strength of Australia's internet landscape.
The Equinix points of presence will provide the ASC cable will onward connecting to more than 155 networks across the region.

Equinix noted that it is currently engaged with multiple submarine cable projects, including: SSCN (California - Sydney); AEConnect-1 (New York - London); Hibernia Express (New York - London); C-Lion1 (Germany - Finland); Trident (Australia - Indonesia - Singapore); Globenet (Florida - Brazil); Asia Pacific Gateway (China - Hong Kong - Japan - South Korea - Malaysia - Taiwan - Thailand - Vietnam - Singapore); Hawaiki Cable (U.S. – Australia – New Zealand); Gulf Bridge International Cable System (Middle East - Europe); FASTER (U.S. West Coast - Japan); Seabras-1 (New York - Sao Paulo); Monet (Florida - Brazil), Eastern Light (Nordic region), MAREA (U.S. East Coast – Spain), BRUSA (U.S. East Coast – Brazil) and ASC (Australia – Singapore).

"We are delighted that Equinix is expanding the reach and availability of the ASC cable by connecting it directly into nine of their sites across Australia and Singapore.  The Vocus terrestrial network has vast reach throughout Australia, New Zealand and now into Asia.  Combining the extensive interconnection ecosystems in Equinix, with the far-reaching Vocus network, we will provide customers with easy and low-cost access to all of their partners from Singapore to major metropolitan cities in Australia," stated Michael Simmons, Interim CEO of Vocus.

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Windstream Wholesale boosts fiber presence at NJFX

Windstream Wholesale is fortifying its fiber transport network at NJFX’s Tier 3 carrier-neutral colocation campus, located at the cable landing station in Wall, NJ.

“What Windstream Wholesale offers at the NJFX colocation campus is a reliable, high-quality option for organizations coming in internationally, looking for connectivity options in the U.S,” commented Joe Scattareggia, president of Windstream Wholesale. “This newest project is an overbuild of a system with newer, updated technology. As a more cost-effective and efficient solution, our customers will now have even greater access to the cable landing station in Wall, NJ. We are building a diverse path—particularly the Ashburn route, which avoids the busy Philadelphia metro—along with an upgrade of existing services, with increased and accelerated installation time frames,” stated Scattareggia.

Windstream Wholesale offers protected backbone network services, along with a portfolio of data, cloud and managed services.

NJFX’s facility is strategically located where subsea cables from the U.S., Europe and South America meet at the United States’ easternmost edge.

Windstream Wholesale can further support their North American network with highly valuable services from NJFX’s Tier 3 facility while also offering a route that bypasses New York City traffic that more efficiently connects to in-demand locations, such as Miami, Atlanta, Denver, Ashburn, Chicago, Dallas, Columbus and Los Angeles.

NJFX said it also allows Windstream Wholesale to provide services to the federal, financial and the carrier community with direct access to subsea cables—typically restricted in a cable landing station—within a non-competitive, secure and closed environment.

“Carriers and service providers are now realizing that they need to position themselves to meet the challenge of increased capabilities and capacities for themselves, as well as their end users. NJFX is helping to make this possible,” confirmed Gil Santaliz, founder and CEO of NJFX.

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Tintri teeters at edge on insolvency, less than 1 year after IPO

Less than one year after completing its IPO, Tintri (NASDAQ: TNTR), which specializes in enterprise cloud platforms, reported that it is currently in breach of certain covenants under its credit facilities and likely does not have sufficient liquidity to continue its operations beyond June 30, 2018.

The company said it continues to evaluate its strategic options, including a sale of the company.

Q1 revenue is expected to be approximately $22 million and GAAP net loss per share is expected to be approximately ($1.14) for its fiscal quarter ended on April 30, 2018.

The closing bid price of the company’s common stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market has been less than $1.00 per share since May 22, 2018.

Tintri warned that even if it able to secure a strategic transaction before the end of the month, there is a significant possibility that the company may file for bankruptcy protection, which could result in a complete loss of shareholders’ investment.

Tintri offers Lego-like Enterprise Cloud Amidst Fierce Competition

Wednesday, July 19, 2017  IPO, Startup, Tintri  No Comments

Tintri, a networking start-up from Silicon Valley, made its initial public offering (IPO) on June 30,2017 and its shares are now trading on NASDAQ under the symbol 'TNTR'. The IPO raised approximately $60 million for the Mountain View, California-based company – a lukewarm Wall Street response considering earlier speculation that the shares might debut in the range of $10.50 to $12.50. Many expected the IPO to occur at the start of last week and at the higher price range. It was not clear why the IPO was delayed by a few days, but the lower price must have caused consternation for early investors and employees. Post IPO, Tintri, which means 'lightning' in the Irish language, currently has a market capitalisation value of about $225 million.

Tintri was founded in 2008 by Kieran Hearty, who had previously led engineering at VMware, and Mark Grittier, who had previously worked on software engineering at Sun Microsystems. The first products were introduced nearly 3 years later in March 2011. In August 2015, Tintri raised a $125 million Series F funding round led by Silver Lake Craftwork and included existing investors Insight Venture Partners, Light speed Ventures, Menlo Ventures and NEA. In December 2016, Charles Giancarlo, the former CTO of Cisco Systems, joined the Tintri board.

Tintri prides itself of having developed an enterprise cloud platform with a 'Lego-like' design that allows for every storage action at the individual virtual machine level. The value proposition is simple: scale the enterprise cloud from terabytes of storage to multiple petabytes as efficiently as possible. The Tintri CONNECT web services architecture use the 'Lego' building-block approach predicated on REST APIs and VM and container level abstraction. The frameworks runs applications on resource pools that span VMware, Citrix,Microsoft and OpenStack. This supports a DevOps model, where resource can be spun up or torn down on-demand, including via automated bots or modern interfaces such as Slack or Amazon's Alexa. To deliver this, Tintri's platform integrates cloud management software, web services and a range of all-flash storage systems.

A key ingredient is a virtualisation-aware file system that allows an organisation to view, manage and analyse application performance and quality of service. In a sense, it enables a private version of a public cloud. Use cases include server virtualisation, virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI, disaster recovery and data protection, and development operations, or DevOps. Tintri says it has an advantage because innovation in storage has lagged and lacked granular level operation at the VM and container level.

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Iridium's NEXT launch set for July 20

The seventh Iridium NEXT mission has been targeted by SpaceX for launch on July 20, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Falcon 9 rocket will launch 10 Iridium NEXT satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO).

This will be the second-to-last launch of the planned Iridium NEXT program, bringing the total number of Iridium NEXT satellites in space to 65.

All 10 satellites for this mission will be deployed to Iridium orbital plane number 5, where they will go into operation immediately following a thorough testing and validation process.  The Iridium network is comprised of six polar orbiting planes, each containing 11 operational crosslinked satellites, for a total of 66 satellites in the active constellation. Once all the satellites from the Iridium-7 mission are operational, plane 5 will be the fourth orbital plane to be comprised entirely of Iridium NEXT satellites.  In total, 81 Iridium NEXT satellites are being built, with 66 in the operational constellation, nine serving as on-orbit spares and six serving as ground spares.

Iridium NEXT is the company's $3 billion, next-generation, mobile, global satellite network scheduled for completion in 2018.  Iridium NEXT is replacing the company's first generation global constellation in one of the largest technology upgrades ever completed in space.  It represents the evolution of critical communications infrastructure that governments and organizations worldwide rely on to drive business, enable connectivity, empower disaster relief efforts and more.

http://www.IridiumNEXT.com

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Huawei announces 5G-oriented Discrete Spectrum Aggregation

Huawei released its 4.5G-based, 5G-oriented eLTE Discrete Spectrum Aggregation (eLTE-DSA) for energy utilities

Huawei said traditional narrowband solutions based on VHF (30 MHz to 300 MHz) and UHF (300 MHz to 3000 MHz) bands are flawed with low data rates, long latency, small capacity, which means they are unable to meet the demand for sustaining IoE growth.

Huawei has designed the eLTE-DSA solution to overcome the obstacles of traditional narrowband solutions and support IoE developments through leading advantages in Wireless Communications developed over the years.

By aggregating discrete narrowband resources, Huawei said its solution achieves access with an end-to-end delay as low as 20 ms and a huge capacity of up to 4,000 users in a single cell. The transmission rates reach kbpss to Mbps and the module power consumption is as low as 0.15W. This solution noticeably improves spectrum efficiency, capacity and performance of the networks, enabling the energy industry to move seamlessly towards 5G-oriented IoE. 

Eric Sun, President of Huawei Enterprise Wireless Business, said: "Going wireless will provide the foundation for the Internet of Energy. 4.5G technology will enable the Internet of Things, and 5G will accelerate the connection of people and things. With leading technological advantages in 4.5G and 5G, Huawei has successfully developed the 4.5G-based, 5G-oriented eLTE-DSA solution."

http://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2018/6/5G-Oriented-eLTE-DSA-Solution

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Wave Computing acquires MIPS Technologies

Wave Computing, a start-up based in Campbell, California that is focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, has acquired MIPS Tech, Inc. (formerly MIPS Technologies). Financial terms were not disclosed.

MIPS, which was founded in 1984 by a group of researchers from Stanford University that included John L. Hennessy, in known as a pioneer RISC processor Intellectual Property (IP) and licensable CPU cores. MIPS holds over 350 worldwide patents and currently has over 200 licensees.

MIPS will operate as an IP business unit within Wave and will continue to license MIPS IP solutions that can now integrate Wave’s dataflow technology.

Wave said the acquisition expands its strategy of offering AI acceleration from the Datacenter to the Edge of Cloud by extending the company’s products beyond AI systems to now also include AI-enabled embedded solutions.

Dado Banatao, Chairman of Wave Computing and MIPS Technologies, said, “Now is the right time for Wave Computing to expand, and I am pleased to see the company further evolve and grow into an AI powerhouse. Wave’s integration of two industry-leading compute architectures in a single data plane/control plane solution – Dataflow and Von Neumann – will be truly unique and an industry-first. It will fuel new, ground-breaking innovations in AI and other fields.”

“This is a major milestone not only in the history of our two companies, but also for the AI compute industry,” said Derek Meyer, CEO of Wave Computing. “With working DPU commercial silicon and being in the final stages of bringing our first AI systems to market, now is the time for us to expand to the Edge of Cloud. The acquisition of MIPS allows us to combine technologies to create products that will deliver a single ‘Datacenter-to-Edge’ platform ideal for AI and deep learning. We’ve already received very strong and enthusiastic support from leading suppliers and strategic partners, as they affirm the value of data scientists being able to experiment, develop, test and deploy their neural networks on a common platform spanning to the Edge of Cloud.”

Alexander Stojanovic, Vice President of Machine Learning and Applied Research at eBay, said, “For AI-driven Datacenters, leveraging purpose-built platforms for high throughput and low latency workloads is a game changer. They offer the promise of faster time-to-revenue and greater competitive differentiation using some of the latest AI trends such as GAN and attention-based models for time series and natural language data. Combined with the ability to more quickly create deeper and more complex machine learning models, hyperscale- and enterprise-class companies will be able to better leverage AI as a fundamental part of their digital strategies.”

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3GPP's Release 15 5G specifications approved

Marking another essential step in standardization of 5G, the 3GPP officially approved the completion of the standalone (SA) Release 15 5G specifications.

The completion of 5G SA (standalone) follows the release of the 5G NR specifications for non-standalone (NSA) operation in December 2017. This not only gives 5G NR the ability of independent deployment, but also brings a brand new end-to-end network architecture.

Balázs Bertényi, Chairman of 3GPP TSG RAN, said: “The freeze of Standalone 5G NR radio specifications represents a major milestone in the quest of the wireless industry towards realizing the holistic 5G vision. 5G NR Standalone systems not only dramatically increase the mobile broadband speeds and capacity, but also open the door for new industries beyond telecommunications that are looking to revolutionize their ecosystem through 5G.”

Erik Guttman, Chairman of 3GPP TSG SA, stated: “The agreed completion of the stage 3 freeze milestone for the 5G standalone system has great significance. The 5G System specification has now reached its official stage of completion, thanks to the intense efforts of hundreds of engineers over the past three years. A special acknowledgment is due to those who led this remarkable effort in diverse committees. 5G promises a broad expansion of telecommunications, as an ever more central component of our economies, societies and individual activities. The 5G System opens the way for commercialization of services based on the New Radio and 5G Core Network and their advanced extensible capabilities. The new system provides the foundation for ongoing specialization for support of new business sectors, for unlike 4G and past generations, 5G supports the very specific requirements and individual service characteristics of diverse communications. Already, 3GPP activities have begun to leverage the 5G system to realize opportunities in areas such as industrial automation. This activity will intensify in the months and years to come, in increasingly many sectors, all on the foundation of the work that has been achieved on this occasion.”

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AT&T completes its historic merger with Time Warner

AT&T completed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc., bringing together global media and entertainment leaders Warner Bros., HBO and Turner with AT&T’s video, mobile and broadband networks.

“The content and creative talent at Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are first-rate. Combine all that with AT&T’s strengths in direct-to-consumer distribution, and we offer customers a differentiated, high-quality, mobile-first entertainment experience,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc. “We’re going to bring a fresh approach to how the media and entertainment industry works for consumers, content creators, distributors and advertisers.”

Under the terms of the merger, Time Warner Inc. shareholders received 1.4 shares of AT&T common stock, in addition to $53.75 in cash, per share of Time Warner Inc. As a result, AT&T issued 1,185M shares of common stock and paid $42.5B in cash.

Including net debt from Time Warner, AT&T now has $180.4B in net debt.

AT&T's new corporate structure is as follows:

AT&T Communications provides mobile, broadband, video and other communications services to U.S.-based consumers and nearly 3.5 million companies – from the smallest business to nearly all the Fortune 1000 – with highly secure, smart solutions. Revenues from these services totaled more than $150 billion in 2017. John Donovan serves as CEO of AT&T Communications.

AT&T’s media business consists of HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. Together, these businesses had revenues of more than $31 billion in 2017. A new name for this business will be announced later. John Stankey serves as CEO of AT&T’s media business.

AT&T International provides mobile services in Mexico to consumers and businesses, plus pay-TV service across 11 countries in South America and the Caribbean. It had revenues of more than $8 billion in 2017.  Lori Lee serves as CEO of AT&T International and Global Marketing Officer of AT&T Inc.

AT&T’s advertising and analytics business provides marketers with advanced advertising solutions using valuable customer insights from AT&T’s TV, mobile and broadband services, combined with extensive ad inventory from Turner and AT&T’s pay-TV services. A name for this company will be announced in the future. Brian Lesser is CEO of AT&T’s ad and analytics business.

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LINX adopts disaggregated network architecture using EVPN on open hardware

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) migrated its LON2 platform to a new disaggregated network model that uses EVPN technology. The new architecture became fully operational on 5th June following an extensive testing, proof of concept, and migration process lasting nearly two years.

LINX is believed to be the first IXP globally to implement EVPN in its production fabric.

LINX said its new LON2 architecture employs EVPN over VXLAN, leaf-spine topology, full automation and is 100G ready.

LON2 is using IP Infusion’s OcNOS network operating system in concert with switch hardware from Edgecore Networks.

LINX is one of the world’s largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP) operators connecting over 820 networks from over 75 countries. It operates a dual-LAN infrastructure in London with regional exchanges in Manchester, Cardiff and central Scotland. It also operates an exchange in Northern Virginia, USA.

“By introducing a disaggregated platform, LINX members will benefit from increased flexibility plus continued value from their investment,” said Richard Petrie, LINX CTO. “The EVPN technology allows LINX to deliver long-term innovative technology to our members, a commitment to ever-greater levels of service quality and to allow us to provide services at a greatly reduced cost base.”

LINX Lead Architect, Flemming Heino, added, “With EVPN everything is programmed. Switches talk to one another, they are synchronised and ultimately more predictable and stable. The system offers many benefits and the flexibility for more features to be added such as multi-homing.”

George Tchaparian, CEO, Edgecore Networks, said, “There are many operational and cost benefits of the new architecture model and Edgecore are extremely proud to have worked with LINX on this ground-breaking project. We’ve clearly demonstrated that open network systems are ready outside of data centre applications and are viable solutions for mainstream telecom service providers."

https://www.linx.net/contact/linx-news/

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Facebook to build its next hyperscale data center in Alabama

Facebook has chosen Huntsville, Alabama for its next hyperscale data center location.

Facebook estimates it will invest $750 million in the 970,000 square foot facility.

As with its other data centers, Facebook committed to 100% renewable energy and is looking at new solar projects in the area. The company says it is working with the Tennessee Valley Authority to establish a renewable energy tariff that will let other qualifying customers buy new renewable resources as well.

The Huntsville Data Center could be operational in 2020.

Facebook plans next data center in Utah

Wednesday, May 30, 2018  Data Centers, Facebook  No Comments

Facebook will build one of its hyperscale data centers in Eagle Mountain, Utah.

The 970,000 square foot Eagle Mountain Data Center will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Facebook said the Eagle Moutain project represents an investment of more than $750 million.

The data center will use outside air to cool its servers.

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Azure Kubernetes Service enters general availability

Microsoft announced that its Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is now generally available in ten regions across three continents. Microsoft expects to add ten more regions in the coming months.

The new Kubernetes service features an Azure-hosted control plane, automated upgrades, self-healing, easy scaling, and a simple user experience for both developers and cluster operators. Users are able to control access to their Kubernetes cluster with Azure Active Directory accounts and user groups. A key attribute of AKS is operational visibility into the managed Kubernetes environment. Control plane telemetry, log aggregation, and container health are monitored via the Azure portal.

Microsoft also announced five new regions including Australia East, UK South, West US, West US 2, and North Europe.

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Digital Realty opens 46 Megawatt Data Center in Toronto

Digital Realty had opened its third data center in Toronto at the site of the former Toronto Star printing plant.

The facility will provide up to 46 megawatts of critical power capacity. It spans over 66,000 square meters (711,000 square feet).

Some highlights

• The new facility is engineered to deliver a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.25 annualized at full capacity and will be one of Canada's most efficient and reliable data centers.
• With 23 computer rooms ranging from 800 to 1,200 square meters (approximately 8,600 to 13,000 square feet), it can accommodate power capacities from one to three megawatts per room.
• Resiliencies range from n to 2n with a power density range of 1,000 to more than 4,000 watts per square meter (approximately 100 to 300 watts per square foot).
• The facility is adjacent to a utility sub-station, providing direct access to low-cost power.
• Proximity to downtown Toronto, major highways, and an international airport makes for easy accessibility.

"Toronto is home to a booming financial services industry and a burgeoning roster of large technology companies and emerging tech startups for whom digital transformation is driving enterprise initiatives," said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer A. William Stein. "We are very excited to be converting the iconic Toronto Star building into a revolutionary new data center, ideal for cloud providers, financial services companies and enterprises of all sizes. The grand opening is another important milestone in achieving our strategic goal of building an unparalleled global network of top-tier data centers in major cities and interconnection hubs around the world."

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MapR adds Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes

The MapR Data Platform now supports Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (Amazon EKS), making it easier organizations to adopt and manage their data seamlessly on-premises and on AWS.

MapR previously announced persistent storage for containers to enable the deployment of stateful containerized applications.

Amazon EKS automatically manages the availability, scalability, and scheduling of containers. With MapR, organizations can retain the disaggregation of scaling compute independent of their storage, without having to worry about over subscription. MapR also secures containers from data access vulnerabilities through wire-level encryption and a full end-to-end set of access, authorization, and authentication features.

"Data agility is essential for next-gen analytics and advanced applications,” said Jack Norris, senior vice president, data and applications at MapR. “The robustness of MapR combined with the agility of Amazon EKS enables enterprises to quickly build a flexible and secure production environment for large scale AI and machine learning."

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