Cisco pays $2.3 billion for Duo Security and multi-factor authentification

Cisco agreed to acquire Duo Security, a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for $2.3 billion in cash and assumed equity awards.

Duo Security specializes in unified access security and multi-factor authentication delivered through the cloud. Duo Security's solution verifies the identity of users and the health of their devices before granting them access to applications.

Cisco said the acquisition enables it to extend intent-based networking into multicloud environments. Cisco currently provides on-premises network access control via its Identity Services Engine (ISE) product. Duo's software as a service-based (SaaS) model will be integrated with Cisco ISE to extend ISE to provide cloud-delivered application access control. Duo's technology will also add trusted identity awareness into Cisco's Secure Internet Gateway, Cloud Access Security Broker, Enterprise Mobility Management, and several other cloud-delivered products.

"In today's multicloud world, the modern workforce is connecting to critical business applications both on- and off-premise," said David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager of Cisco's networking and security business. "IT teams are responsible for protecting hundreds of different perimeters that span anywhere a user makes an access decision. Duo's zero-trust authentication and access products integrated with our network, device and cloud security platforms will enable our customers to address the complexity and challenges that stem from multi-and hybrid-cloud environments."

Duo was founded by Dug Song, Jon Oberheide.

Duo has raised $119 million in venture capital. Investors in Duo included Benchmark, Index Ventures, Geodesic Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Google Ventures, Redpoint, Lead Edge Capital, true ventures, and workday.

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Arista hits $2 billion annual revenue rate, acquires Mojo for WiFi

Arista Networks reported revenue of $519.8 million for its second quarter of 2018, an increase of 10.0% compared to its first quarter of 2018, and an increase of 28.3% from the second quarter of 2017. GAAP gross margin was 64.2%.

GAAP net income of $150.7 million, or $1.86 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $102.7 million, or $1.30 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2017. Non-GAAP net income of $155.7 million, or $1.93 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $105.5 million, or $1.34 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2017.

“Arista is one of the fastest networking companies to achieve a $2 billion annual revenue rate, driven by its industry leadership in software-defined networking,” stated Jayshree Ullal, Arista President and CEO. “In Q2 2018 we comfortably surpassed the $500 million revenue mark with record profitability.”

Arista agreed to acquire Mojo Networks for its Cognitive WiFi and cloud-managed wireless networking.

“We are excited about Arista's first acquisition transaction and its significance to Arista's cognitive campus vision. We welcome the Mojo Networks employees to the Arista family,” stated Ms. Ullal. Financial terms were not disclosed. Mojo is based in Mountain View, California.

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FCC targets faster access to utility poles for new uses

The FCC adopted new rules aimed at promoting broadband and fiber backhaul buildouts by speeding the process and reducing the costs of attaching new network facilities to utility poles.

The new “one-touch, make-ready” allows the party seeking to attach new equipment to a pole to prepare the pole quickly, rather than spreading the work across multiple parties. The FCC estimates that "one-touch, make-ready" could result in approximately 8.3 million incremental premises passed with fiber and about $12.6 billion in incremental fiber capital expenditures.  The process will not apply to more complicated attachments, or above the “communications space” of a pole, where safety and reliability risks are greater, but the Order improves current processes for attachments in these spaces.

The FCC also clarified that it will preempt, on a case-by-case basis, state and local laws that inhibit the rebuilding or restoration of broadband infrastructure after a disaster.  The FCC declaratory ruling further states that state and local moratoria on telecommunications services and facilities deployment are barred by the Communications Act because they “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity to provide any interstate or intrastate telecommunications service.”

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Nutanix to acquire Mainframe2 (Frame) for cloud-based Windows desktops

Nutanix agreed to acquire Mainframe2 (Frame), which specializes in cloud-based Windows desktop and application delivery. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Frame is a global, infrastructure-independent platform built to deliver Windows applications from the cloud. Frame supports multi-cloud delivery models, allowing IT teams to deliver virtual desktops from public clouds and their own enterprise datacenter – with common tooling and management constructs. The company is based in San Mateo, California.

Frame is a global, infrastructure-independent platform built to deliver Windows applications from the cloud.

"Companies desperately need a cloud-native desktop solution for their multi-cloud environments which combines the performance of on-prem offerings with the flexibility and cost optimization of the cloud. That’s why we built Frame,” said Nikola Bozinovic, Founder and CEO at Frame. “Nutanix shares our vision of simplifying critical IT functions so companies can save money, save time and still achieve exceptional performance no matter their underlying infrastructure, and we’re so proud to be joining the family."

“Frame’s cloud-native technology represents everything we believe to be true in the market - customers want easy-to-use, high performance and cost optimized solutions that just work across the entirety of their infrastructure,” said Sunil Potti, Chief Product and Development Officer at Nutanix. “We are committed to providing our customers with a robust multi-cloud DaaS offering through Frame while working with our partners to enable best-in-class enterprise VDI. We are delighted to add the Frame technology, and the innovative thinkers behind it, to our family.”

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FCC approves compensation for low-power entities regarding incentive spectrum auction

Responding to a recent Congressional directive, the FCC announced rules to reimburse certain Low Power TV (LPTV), TV translator, and FM stations for costs incurred as a result of the spectrum incentive auction. 

Full power, Class A, and MVPD already receive compensation for certain costs incurred by the incentive auction. The list of eligible entities is now being expanded.

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Open source Istio cloud service mesh reaches 1.0 release

The Google-inspired, Istio open-source project announced its 1.0 release.

Istio is intended to be a service mesh that collects logs, traces and telemetry, and adds security and policy without embedding client libraries. The software offers APIs for integrating with systems for logging, telemetry and policy.

Google describes Istio as a key step toward delivering its Cloud Services Platform. Istio could be used for measuring traffic between services: requests per second, error rates and latency.

Google notes that IBM is a key collaborator and co-founder of Istio, and Lyft’s Envoy proxy is a key component of the project. Datadog, SolarWinds, Sysdig, Google Stackdriver and Amazon CloudWatch offer plugins to integrate Istio with their products. Other companies supporing Istio include Cisco, Red Hat, and VMware.

https://cloud.google.com/istio/

https://istio.io/

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Sprint now has over 15,000 small cells up and running

Sprint's CTO, John Saw, published an update on the company's next-gen network buildout. Here are some highlights:

• Upgraded thousands of macro sites for all three of its spectrum bands (800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz).
• Expanded 2.5 GHz to nearly two-thirds of its macro sites, up from approximately half of sites covered just a few quarters ago.
• Current has more than 15,000 small cells on-air with its combination of strand mounts and mini macros to expand 2.5 GHz coverage.
• Deployed approximately 7,000 strand mount 2.5 GHz small cells on cable infrastructure in Q1. Since the quarter ended, efforts have continued to accelerate, and today Sprint has more than 10,000 strand mount small cells deployed. 
• Distributed more than 65,000 2.5 GHz Sprint Magic Boxes to improve indoor data speeds on average by 200%.  To date, Sprint has distributed more than 260,000 Sprint Magic Boxes to businesses and homes in more than 200 cities. Announced a new version of the Sprint Magic Box designed for the hospitality industry.
• Speedtest Intelligence data from Ookla shows Sprint's 4G LTE network is the most improved network in the U.S. with national average download speeds up 30.9 percent year-over-year, more than any other national carrier.
• In its first quarter of FY18, Sprint continued field testing and optimizing Massive MIMO radios in locations such as Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City. Some sites are now running commercial traffic and the initial performance results are very promising. Today we're seeing a more than 4X increase in speed on these sites, as well as increased coverage and cell edge performance.
• In the first half of 2019, Sprint plans to launch mobile 5G in nine markets initially – Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/sprints-next-gen-network-build-gains-momentum.htm

Sprint adds to its list of first 5G cities

Wednesday, May 16, 2018  5G, Sprint  

Sprint named three additional cities where it plans to deploy 5G in the first half of 2019. Sprint's full list of first 5G markets now includes Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix,and Washington, D.C.

"Today we have a great LTE network, and with Sprint 5G, we’ll deliver for our customers mobile data speeds that are up to 10 times faster, with significantly improved reliability and coverage," said Kevin Crull, Sprint’s chief strategy officer, who today is presenting his keynote address at 5G North America. "This next generation of wireless technology will create incredible new connections to people and things, and services and experiences that are so unique they will make an impact on the lives of our consumers."

Sprint's 5G approach leverages its 2.5 GHz spectrum and Massive MIMO cell sites, which are capable of delivering up to 10 times the capacity of current LTE systems. The radios support split-mode, enabling Sprint to deliver 4G LTE and 5G on the same radio simultaneously.

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Sprint's service revenue grows again after four years

Sprint's wireless service revenue grew sequentially for the first time in more than four years and postpaid ARPU grew sequentially for the first time in nearly five years.

For the quarter, Sprint reported net income of $176 million, operating income of $815 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $3.3 billion.

"Sprint continued to deliver solid results this quarter while embarking on our transformative merger with T-Mobile," said Sprint CEO Michel Combes, "By balancing growth and profitability, we were able to grow wireless service revenue sequentially, continue to add retail phone customers, generate net income for the third consecutive quarter, and improve the network."

Some highlights:

• Sprint ended the quarter with 54,567,000 connections, down slightly from the preceding quarter but up from 53,698,000 a year earlier. The company serves 32,187,000 post paid connections, 9,033,000 prepaid connections, and 13,347,000 wholesale connections.
• Prepaid service revenue grew both sequentially and year-over-year.
• CAPEX for the quarter was $1.1 billion, up from $800 million in the previous quarter

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Luna divests its Optoelectronics division to OSI

Luna Innovations has sold its Optoelectronic Solutions (OPTO) business to OSI Optoelectronics, a subsidiary of OSI Systems, for up to $18.5 million.

Luna’s OPTO division designs and manufactures fully integrated photonic solutions. Luna acquired the business in 2015 as part of its merger with Advanced Photonix. The division reported revenue of $13.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. As part of the transaction, employees associated with the OPTO division located in Camarillo, CA and Montreal, Quebec, are expected to transfer to OSI.

Luna said it plans to use transaction proceeds to invest in its core fiber optic based test and measurement platform.

OSI Systems is a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of specialized electronic systems and components for critical applications in the homeland security, healthcare, defense, and aerospace industries.

“The transaction demonstrates strong execution of our strategy to focus our business on our core, fiber optic based test and measurement technology platform,” said Scott Graeff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Luna.

“The addition of Luna’s Optoelectronic Solutions business is well aligned with our focus on expanding and enhancing our product portfolios,” said Manoocher Mansouri, OSI Optoelectronics’ President. “As a leader in this area, this acquisition is expected to be a complementary addition with its highly regarded, customized solutions.”

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T-Mobile US reveunues rise 4% to $10.6 billion

T-Mobile U.S. said its Q2 total revenues rose 4% to $10.6 billion -- service revenues were up 7% to $7.9 billion, leading the industry for growth the 17th consecutive quarter.  Net income was up 35% to $782 million and diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.92.

“T-Mobile just recorded its best Q2 in company history,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile. “That means 21 quarters with over one million net adds, record-high service revenues, industry-leading postpaid phone net additions, and record-low postpaid phone churn. Our business is strong, our strategy is working and we won’t stop!”

Some highlights:

• Total net customer additions were 1.6 million in Q2 2018, bringing the total customer count to 75.6 million. 
• Branded postpaid net customer additions were 1.0 million in Q2 2018, up 200,000 from Q2 2017. Strength in postpaid phone net additions and postpaid other net additions, driven by wearables, drove the year-over-year increase.
• Branded postpaid phone net customer additions were 686,000 in Q2 2018, up 153,000 from Q2 2017. This marks the 18th consecutive quarter in which T-Mobile has led the industry in this category. Sequentially and year-over-year, branded postpaid phone net customer additions increased due to continued growth in existing and Greenfield markets, the growing success of new customer segments such as T-Mobile for Business, T-Mobile ONE Unlimited 55+, and T-Mobile ONE Military, as well as record-low churn.
• Branded postpaid other net customer additions were 331,000 in Q2 2018, up 47,000 from Q2 2017. Year-over-year the increase was due to higher gross customer additions from connected devices, specifically the Apple watch, partially offset by lower DIGITS gross customer additions and higher deactivations from a growing customer base.
• Branded postpaid phone churn was a record-low of 0.95% in Q2 2018, down 15 basis points from Q2 2017, primarily due to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty from ongoing improvements to network quality, industry-leading customer service and the overall value of our offerings in the marketplace.
• Branded prepaid net customer additions were 91,000 in Q2 2018, down 3,000 from Q2 2017.
• Branded prepaid churn was 3.81% in Q2 2018, down 10 basis points compared to Q2 2017.

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Apstra publishes Intent-Based Taxonomy model

Apstra published an Intent-Based Taxonomy model to help network operators cut through the marketing hype.

“We are introducing a model intended to help CTOs and network operators evaluate and differentiate the maturity of IBN solutions with an objective set of criteria, beginning with Level 0 (low maturity/incomplete) offerings going up to Level 3 (mature/complete) offerings which enable companies to leverage full benefits of IBN approach,” said Sasha Ratkovic, CTO and Founder of Apstra.

Level 0 IBN: Basic Automation

These offerings have the ability to:

• Generate device configurations from declarative specifications. For example: scripts running Ansible modules or other declarative libraries such as NAPALM.
• Support a heterogeneous infrastructure.
• Ingest real-time network status in a protocol- and transport-agnostic way.
• At this level there is no presence of a single source of truth, which is a fundamental aspect of a mature IBN implementation, as it enables reasoning whether or not the intent has been met.

Level 1 IBN: Single Source of Truth

An implementation classified as Level 1 implements a single source of truth containing the intent and the network operational state. It contains data and state artifacts related to all aspects of a network service lifecycle: design, build, deploy, and validate. Level 1 can give you answers to important questions about the state of your intent and your infrastructure.

Level 2 IBN: Real-Time Change Validation

Building on top of Level 1, Level 2 IBN solution enables you to ask the right questions, at the right time to help assess the impact of business rule or policy changes, as well as the operational status changes and failures in real time.

Level 3 IBN: Self Operation

Does the IBN solution validate and close the loop between the intent and operational state by providing observability, and deliver corrective actions on a path to self-operating networks? This step is impossible to tackle if one has not built solid foundations in Levels 2 and 3.

http://blog.apstra.com/intent-based-networking-taxonomy?hs_preview=QVPEvKsI-5993347491

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R&M intros a high-density fiber patch panel for data centers

R&M (Reichle & De-Massari AG) introduced its "Mercury" network patch panel for data centers in the American market.

The high-density fiber platform can house up to 288 LC terminations per 2RU. The company says its design allows data centers to implement the physical network infrastructure in a much more flexible manner. Mercury is stackable in either 2RU or 6RU steps, providing up to 6,912 LC fiber terminations per rack. If duct space is scarce, up to 30 percent of duct space can be saved with the 200μm fiber option.

Mercury is specifically designed for ribbon fiber, which saves up to 50 percent of installation time compared with single-fiber deployments, and which is gradually replacing traditional single-fiber cabling for increased bandwidth, efficiency, and space optimization. Mercury can be configured for 200µm or 250µm fiber given the available duct space. This enables a reliable and advanced cable infrastructure throughout the data center.

"R&M developed Mercury to address the need in the United States for ever increasing need for additional fiber connections, duct space optimization and flexibility," said Dieter Studer, marketing manager, R&M USA Inc. "Mercury allows R&M's U.S. customers to expedite their data center projects with minimized installation time in the secured zone, and to scale when needed with seamless installation of additional panels."

https://www.rdm.com/

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Linux Foundation Networking Fund continues to add members

The Linux Foundation Networking Fund (LFN) announced eight new Silver and Associate members: ARRIS, Affirmed Networks, CAICT, Equinox International, MYCOM OSI, OpenAirInterface Software Alliance, SDNLAB and SnapRoute.

They join 104 other technology leaders as members of LFN.

“Earlier this year we decided to unite many of our open source networking projects under the LFN umbrella in order to provide greater cohesion and streamline efforts across projects,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager of Networking and Orchestration, The Linux Foundation. “The continued, global growth of LFN membership shows that organizations see value in the rapid development of open source solutions and standards that will define tomorrow’s networks and support emerging communications technologies and services.”

The new members will contribute to LFN’s seven networking projects: FD.io, ONAP, OpenDaylight, OPNFV, PNDA, SNAS.io, and Tungsten Fabric. LFN supports the momentum of the open source networking sector by integrating the governance of participating projects in order to enhance operational excellence, simplify member engagement, and increase collaboration. ARRIS International plc, Affirmed Networks, Equinox International, MYCOM OSI and SnapRoute have joined as Silver members while CAICT, OpenAirInterface Software Alliance, and SDNLAB have joined as Associate members.

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Aerohive says 28% of revenue now comes from subscriptions

Aerohive Networks reported total revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 of $40.5 million, compared with $42.2 million for the second quarter of 2017. Subscription and support revenue was $11.2 million, or 28% of total revenue, for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, compared with $10.1 million, or 24% of total revenue, for the second quarter of 2017. GAAP net loss was $2.8 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, compared with a net loss of $3.8 million for the second quarter of 2017. GAAP gross margin was 66.0% for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, compared with 67.7% for the second quarter of 2017. Non-GAAP net income was $0.9 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, compared with a net income of $0.7 million for the second quarter of 2017.

“We’re pleased with our performance in the second quarter, as we continue to improve our execution and strengthen our financial foundation. We grew our Enterprise business by double digits, which has further lowered our dependence on the U.S. K-12 market,” stated David Flynn, President and Chief Executive Officer.

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Nutanix's president steps down, joins new start-up

Sudheesh Nair has stepped down as President of Nutanix, where he has served since February 2011.

Nair has taken a new role as CEO of ThoughSpot, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California that is focusing on search and AI-driven analytics. Ajeet Singh, who is co-founder and executive chairman at ThoughtSpot, was also a co-founder of Nutanix.

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Huawei's first half sales were up 15%

Huawei reported revene of CNY 325.7 billion (US$47.80 billion), an increase of 15% over the same period last year. The company's operating margin in 2018 H1 was 14%.

In its carrier business, Huawei said it continues to focus on end-to-end 5G solutions, driving the continuous evolution of LTE – as well as Intent-Driven Networks, cloud data centers, etc.

In its enterprise business, Huawei remains committed to building integrated, innovative, and open digital platforms for its customers. The company said its focus is on cloud computing, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data.

In its consumer business, Huawei has maintained a tight focus on technological innovation, including its P20 series smartphones, its GPU Turbo graphics processing acceleration, and its MateBook X Pro notebooks.

In the cloud domain, Huawei has picked up the pace of its innovation in cloud infrastructure. Two major focuses include providing stable, reliable, secure, trusted, and sustainable cloud services for customers, and building an AI platform that is affordable, intuitive, and secure for all users.

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Telstra appoints new leadership team

Telstra announced the following new topline organisational structure and leadership team led by current CEO Andrew Penn:

• Michael Ebeid joins Telstra to run the Enterprise team servicing Australian and international business and government customers. 
• Vicki Brady will continue to lead Consumer & Small Business designing digitally-led propositions.
• Nikos Katinakis joins Telstra in mid-October to lead Networks & IT focused on extending the company’s network superiority and enabling digital experiences.
• Brendon Riley will become the CEO of Telstra InfraCo, which will leverage the InfraCo assets and drive growth in the wholesale market.
• David Burns, currently with the Enterprise team, will lead Global Business Services (GBS).
• Robyn Denholm will move to the role of Chief Financial Officer & Head of Strategy. 
• Alex Badenoch, Transformation & People will lead the T22 strategy transformation execution as well as drive the way the company works and operates, strengthening employee engagement. 
• Carmel Mulhern, Legal & Corporate Affairs will continue in her role engaging external stakeholders, including relationships with government and community.

“Last month I announced the T22 strategy to the market and today I am making furtherannouncements on Telstra’s structure and leadership to ensure we deliver rapidly and effectively on all of the commitments we made to our customers, the market and our team. At the heart of these changes is the simplification of our products and services built on newtechnology. By mid-next year we will have fully rolled out our market leading products and services. To help deliver these changes, we are announcing a new end-to-end products and technology division of Telstra. It means we will significantly increase our technical capabilities around product development and management," stated Andrew Penn.

Telstra to spin-off fixed infrastructure, focus on 5G

Wednesday, June 20, 2018  Australia, Telstra  

Almost exactly 8 years after signing a historic agreement with nbn Co Limited (NBN Co), the consortium established to design, build and operate Australia's wholesale-only national broadband network (nbn), Telstra has just announced plans to spin-off its remaining fixed network infrastructure, including long-haul fibre, data centres, and subsea cables, into a separate company.

The nbn Co agreement reached in 2010 ensured that Telstra provides access to its facilities, which has remained a steady source of income over the years. Nevertheless, Telstra is embarking on a major reorganization and radical transformation of its customer plans and pricing. The company says it is looking ahead to a "post-nbn rollout" world in which very fast access speeds are ubiquitous across the country and multiple competitors run over the same fixed infrastructure.

The strategy, named Telstra2022, has four key pillars:

• Radically simplify product offerings, eliminate customer pain points and create all digital experiences
• Establish a standalone infrastructure business to drive performance and set up optionality post the nbn rollout
• Greatly simplify the corporate structure and ways of working to empower our people and serve our customers
• Cost reduction programme and portfolio management

Andrew Penn, who has now been CEO of Telstra for three years, says "The rate and pace of change in our industry is increasingly driven by technological innovation and competition. In this environment, traditional companies that do not respond are most at risk. We have worked hard preparing Telstra for this market dynamic while ensuring we did not act precipitously. However, we are now at a tipping point where we must act more boldly if we are to continue to be the nation’s leading telecommunications company.”

The corporate restructuring will result in a net reduction of 8,000 employees and contractors, and the elimination of 2-4 layers of management.

The infrastructure spin-off, tentatively called Telstra InfraCo, will begin as a wholly-owned subsidiary on 1 July, although over time, Telstra may seek a strategic investor or separate listing. Its assets will include Telstra’s fixed network infrastructure including data centres, non-mobiles related domestic fibre, copper, HFC, international subsea cables, exchanges, poles, ducts and pipes. Its services will be sold to Telstra, wholesale customers and nbn co.

Telstra InfraCo will also comprise Telstra’s nbn co commercial works activities and Telstra Wholesale, with a total workforce of approximately 3,000. It is expected this new Business Unit will control assets with a book value of about $11 billion and have annual revenues and EBITDA of about $5.5 billion and $3 billion respectively.

The new business unit will not include the mobile network assets including spectrum, radio access equipment, towers and some elements of backhaul fibre, which will remain integrated with Telstra’s core customer segment.  Telstra itself will seek to be a premium brand with its future tied to mobile connectivity and the upcoming 5G launch.

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Windstream Wholesale adds to its ultra long-haul net with PHX-LV route

Windstream Wholesale announced an ultra-long-haul network expansion between Phoenix and Las Vegas, adding approximately 300 miles to its existing coast-to-coast long-haul network and providing a new diverse route option for customers out of Phoenix, including unique low-latency routing to and from Reno, Salt Lake City and Silicon Valley. In addition, the extension offers Las Vegas and Reno customers direct low-latency connectivity to markets in the Southern U.S. including Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami.

In addition to Wavelengths, Ethernet Solutions and Dedicated Internet Access, Windstream Enterprise and Wholesale offers a range of complementary network and communications solutions to wholesale and resale customers including SD-WAN Wholesale, proprietary OfficeSuite White Label and Cloud SIP and PRI.

Windstream Wholesale boosts fiber presence at NJFX

Sunday, June 17, 2018  NJFX, Windstream  

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.

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NEC adds 5G Traffic Management

NEC launched an enhanced Traffic Management Solution (TMS) for 5G that improves the throughput of high-speed networks that support data transfer rates of more than 5 Gbps. 

NEC said 5G requires greater throughput from core networks through the wireless access networks. However, there will be a mixture of networks with different communication speeds, such as 4G and 5G, and, therefore, it is necessary to assure network stability at the time of a terminal's handover between different types of networks.

NEC's enhanced TMS features advanced component software that increases the performance and accuracy of analytics. Moreover, Dynamic TCP Optimization, a function that enables control in response to changing network conditions, has extended its scope to the ultrahigh-speed range of 5Gbps or more.

The company claims its enhanced TMS in a 5G test environment has improved 5G communications quality by increasing throughput by approximately 24% in the ultrahigh-speed range of 5Gbps or more; reducing download time during the handover from 4G to 5G by approximately 27%; and reducing the time to reach the maximum speed during the handover from 4G to 5G by approximately 64%.

"NEC contributes to a better experience for end users and more efficient network operations for CSPs by continuing to enhance TMS," said Kazuhiro Tagawa, General Manager, Network Solutions Division, NEC Corporation. "Our TMS has been adopted by over 20 CSPs worldwide and we look forward to seeing it drive the further advancement of 5G."

https://www.nec.com/en/press/201808/global_20180801_01.html

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Amdocs cites new wins with Comcast Business, Verizon and AWS

Amdocs announced new customer wins with Comcast Business, Verizon and Amazon Web Services (AWS).  Some highlights:

Amdocs now supports Comcast Business’ commercially available software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) service,  the first business product powered by the ActiveCore SDN Platform. Amdocs provides the integration, orchestration and automation and NFV use cases needed for Comcast to reinvent its enterprise customer digital experience and build its own cloud-based network with the ability to design the services their customers require
Vubiquity, an Amdocs company, has been selected by Verizon Managed Services to supplement its expansive collection of on-demand content across existing and future formats, including but not limited to 4K and HDR. Vubiquity will also make this media and entertainment available in a variety of business models, including TV on-demand, rental, PPV and EST.
Amdocs, together with Amazon Web Services (AWS), will enable large Philippines telco Globe Telecom, to deliver cloud-based intelligent omnichannel routing and interactions management to quickly adapt to fast-changing consumer demands and truly transform their customer engagements.

Separately, Amdocs reported revenue for the third fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2018 of $1.0 billion, up 1.0% or $9.9 million sequentially from the second fiscal quarter of 2018 and up 3.7% as compared to last year’s third fiscal quarter, including  a negative impact from foreign currency movements of approximately $9 million. The Company's GAAP net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 was $91.5 million, or $0.64 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $119.3 million, or $0.81 per diluted share, in the prior fiscal year’s third quarter. Net income on a non-GAAP basis was $147.5 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $150.4 million, or $1.02 per diluted share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2017.

"We are pleased to report a solid performance in our third fiscal quarter. Revenue exceeded $1 billion for the first time in our history and was in line with the midpoint of our guidance adjusting for currency. On a regional basis, North America showed some early signs of stabilization while Europe and Rest of World delivered solid year-over-year growth that reflected the benefit of recent customer awards and our continued focus on project delivery and execution,” said Eli Gelman, president and chief executive officer of Amdocs Management Limited.

Gelman continued, “Q3 included positive developments relating to Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). First, we are today excited to announce that Amdocs is supporting the commercial availability of Comcast’s software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) service for enterprise businesses which leverages Amdocs’ leading NFV portfolio of orchestration, fulfillment and automation capabilities. Second, Telstra has partnered with Amdocs to implement a next generation OSS platform for its B2B line of business that will enable Telstra’s network domains to evolve toward virtualization while minimizing the impact to its existing support systems.”

Amdocs to acquire Vubiquity for video content management

Wednesday, January 31, 2018  Amdocs  

Amdocs agreed to acquire Vubiquity, a Los Angeles-based company that provides professional video content management services, for approximately $224 million in cash.

Vubiquity works with over 600 leading film studios, television networks, and independent producers. It manages a 150,000+ asset library, providing superior quality distribution

Amdocs said Vubiquity's capabilities are of increasing importance to its 350+ communication and media service provider partners.

“This acquisition uniquely positions Amdocs at the center of increased convergence across the content community and video distributors including major OTT providers,” said Eli Gelman, Amdocs President and CEO. “Our joint offerings address the media and entertainment industry’s challenge in balancing the incredible growth of content and the many ways to consume content with making programming easier, faster to deliver and ultimately watch, while also delivering profits.”

“Vubiquity has successfully been connecting content owners and distributors across many diverse platforms and evolving business models at the core of its support to the media community,” said Vubiquity CEO Darcy Antonellis, who will, upon completion of the deal, be joining Amdocs as head of the Amdocs Media Division.

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