PacketFabric acquires RStor

PacketFabric has acquired privately-held RStor, a cloud-based provider of data mobility solutions based in Saratoga, California. Financial terms were not disclosed.

RSTOR offers a cloud-based object storage and data mobility system.

PacketFabric’s Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform orchestrates on-demand connectivity across colocation facilities, cloud providers, and private network interconnection across the globe. 

“Data is the currency of digital business success. The agility and velocity of data in motion is key to unlocking its value,” said PacketFabric CEO Dave Ward. “But optimal data mobility across a cloud-based architecture requires two key ingredients–an agile network and super-positioned data infrastructure. By integrating RSTOR’s storage infrastructure and data mobility technology at the edge of PacketFabric’s carrier-class Network as a Service platform, we can help enterprises build an agile and high-performance cloud data core.”

“RSTOR has built and grown its business around the idea of allowing customers to control their data as they transition from on-premises to hybrid and then multi-cloud architectures,” said RSTOR Founder and CEO Giovanni Coglitore. “PacketFabric’s on-demand, low-latency network has been a foundational element in our solution, allowing RSTOR the agility and cost-efficiency in moving data into, out of, and between clouds. The complete integration between our data mobility cloud and PacketFabric’s network platform is the logical step in our journey to maximize the value that our customers are already enjoying.”

PacketFabric appoints Dedicoat as chair, former Cisco EVP WW sales

Wednesday, July 29, 2020  PacketFabric, People, Start-Ups  

PacketFabric appointed Chris Dedicoat, the former executive vice president of worldwide sales for Cisco, as chairman of the PacketFabric board.

Dedicoat has more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience in the networking, hardware, software and technology industries. His innovative and effective sales strategies contributed to Cisco’s leadership position in the market. Dedicoat currently sits on the board of directors for RStor, a leading provider of cloud services across any multicloud environment.

"Chris has had an incredible track record over his career and with his vast experience and global business presence, we are beyond excited to have him join our team and chair our board,” said Dave Ward, CEO PacketFabric.

PacketFabric’s highly scalable SDN platform is a private Layer 2 NaaS that delivers instant and secure connectivity at speeds from 50Mbps to multi-100Gbps.

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Telstra tunes in Microsoft Azure Peering Service

Telstra will now serve as a selected carrier for Microsoft Azure Peering Service, a networking service that enhances customer connectivity, and Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams, a new approach to operator-provided calling in Teams.

Microsoft Azure Peering Service provides reliable and optimized internet connectivity to Microsoft cloud services such as Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Azure. This offering is integrated with Telstra Global Internet Direct (GID) to ensure robust connectivity service and secure access through a single network. Telstra is now offering Azure Peering Service to customers in Asia, with plans to expand availability to Europe and the United States next calendar year. 

Building on the momentum from the launch of Telstra Calling for Microsoft Teams in August last year, Telstra has streamlined calling for users by providing a simplified and unified collaboration experience for organizations through Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams.

“Microsoft Azure Peering Service provides direct access between Telstra and Microsoft’s networks – providing users with robust connectivity service at a location nearest to them, thereby reducing latency when accessing Microsoft’s workplace services. By leveraging Telstra’s connectivity and professional services capabilities and Microsoft’s focus on intelligent cloud services, we aim to help organizations across the region and globally enable a modern work experience,” said Sanjay Nayak, Telstra Executive of Fixed Connectivity Products.

 

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ETSI forms Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces group

ETSI  launched a new Industry Specification Group on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (ISG RIS). 

RIS is defined as a system node leveraging smart radio surfaces with thousands of small antennas or metamaterial elements to dynamically shape and control radio signals in a goal-oriented manner, either indoor or outdoor. RIS can be configured to operate at any part of the radio spectrum, including frequencies from sub-6 GHz to THz, and may use tools from Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to enable systems operation and optimization.

ETSI forecasts technology will effectively turn the wireless environment into a service, inspiring a host of new use cases, including localization and sensing. As an example, an RIS can reconfigure the radio environment to sense human posture and detect someone falling, a very useful application for elderly care. RIS, thanks to its associated characteristics, is expected to serve as a key technology in future wireless systems, including for 6G.

"Transforming the wireless environment from a passive into an intelligent actor, RIS will create innovation opportunities and progressively impact the evolution of wireless system architecture, access technologies, and networking protocols. There are however many technical challenges that need to be adequately addressed before RIS can be adopted into future standards, towards commercialization of the technology, and the ETSI ISG RIS aims to identify and address some of these challenges”, says Arman Shojaeifard, Chair of ISG RIS.

https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/press-releases/1979-etsi-launches-a-new-group-on-reconfigurable-intelligent-surfaces

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Ericsson tests lasers to deliver electricity to base stations

Ericsson conducted a proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstration that used a laser to beam high-intensity light to a radio base station. The light beam was captured at the base station and transformed to electricity.

The base station site was completely ‘powerless’ until wirelessly powered over the air through a laser beam.

The demo was performed in Seattle using an Ericsson Streetmacro 6701 – a 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) radio base station. It was achieved using PowerLight’s laser technology to transmit hundreds of watts over hundreds of meters through the air.

Kevin Zvokel, Head of Networks for Ericsson North America, says: “Both PowerLight and Ericsson are focused on innovation. This opens new possibilities for Ericsson and our customers. The ability to safely transfer power across distances without having to be connected to the power grid eliminates one of the big obstacles we have when building new cell sites. The time savings and flexibility gains will make this an attractive solution for our customers.”

Claes Olsson, Executive Chairman, PowerLight Technologies, says: “Most people are aware that wireless charging technology is available today for small electronic devices, such as cell phones and watches. This breakthrough demonstration, which utilized the best innovative technology from PowerLight and Ericsson, underscores the major leaps we have made recently toward the commercialization of safe, wireless power transmission for larger-scale systems. PowerLight is developing systems today to transfer kilowatts of safe power over distances of kilometers that will be commercially available in the next few years.” 

https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2021/10/ericsson-and-powerlight-achieve-base-station-wireless-charging-breakthrough

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Denmark's TDC NET deploys XGS-PON with Nokia

TDC NET has selected Nokia as sole supplier of XGS-PON technology for connecting more than one million homes and businesses in Denmark.

The rollout, which features the Nokia ISAM FX series access node (OLT), will start in Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and Alborg \for selected existing customers as well as new fiber addresses.

TDC NET has built an open network used by service providers to package broadband services to their own customers. In addition to providing a platform for residential broadband, TDC NET is moving towards a converged network that will use both GPON and XGS-PON technology for consumers and to support enterprises with ultra-broadband services. 

Michael Fränkle, Executive Vice President, Head of Technology at TDC NET said: “The demand for higher speeds is exponentially increasing. With Nokia’s ISAM FX converged platform we will be able to serve residential customers and enterprises from the same platform and deliver the Gigabit experience they need in their daily life and to run their business. Fiber deployment is a key contribution to our strategy. Nokia’s superior technology will play a key role in realizing this for the benefit of our customers.”

Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks at Nokia said: “The Quillion chipset used in our access nodes enables high capacity, low latency and high precision synchronization which is especially crucial for 5G transport and which will be an important use-case for TDC NET’s deployment. We are incredibly proud to have been selected as the sole supplier for the GPON/XGS-PON network which has the potential to be upgraded for 25Gb/second systems.”

http://www.nokia.com

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Tarana supplies fixed wireless for Rural Telecommunications of America

Tarana Wireless, a start-up based in Milpitas, California, confirmed that it will supply its fixed wireless access solutions to Rural Telecommunications of America (RTA).

RTA successfully completed testing and will begin deploying Tarana equipment to its gigFAST NETWORK service areas across 21 states of operation in October 2021. RTA validated claims by Tarana’s engineering teams responsible for its G1 platform. RTA found that in many cases G1 delivers speeds to their residential and business subscribers that will rival fiber-to-the-home services.

Donald Workman, RTA Co-Founder and COO, said: “This technology is a true game changer in the world of fixed wireless. The speeds were spot on with our test cases. More importantly our teams discovered the latency to remain consistently low in the most challenging environments such as non-line of sight and heavily wooded areas. This is a significant factor for our subscribers to have consistent quality video experiences. We are extremely excited to have Tarana as part of our arsenal and the ability to provide our most remote subscribers with gigFAST INTERNET.”

Tarana CEO Basil Alwan added, “Unlike traditional fixed wireless gear that’s just a stopgap on the road to fiber, G1 delivers high-performance ‘end-game’ broadband to residential and business subscribers alike. Selection by RTA is another strong indicator that G1 is indeed delivering on that promise. We are thrilled to help RTA expand with performance and reliability previously only attainable with expensive fiber.”

https://www.rtatel.com

https://www.taranawireless.com

.

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Orange backs Digicel’s Deep Blue One Caribbean cable

Orange announced a financial investment to extend Digicel’s forthcoming Deep Blue One submarine network from Trinidad to French Guiana. 

Deep Blue 1 cable commissioning is planned to begin mid-2023, and is expected to be completed in early 2024. 

The 2,000 km cable installation for Deep Blue One has five branching units, plus the capability to provide connectivity for offshore rigs, with anywhere from two to eight fibre pairs in each segment, offering a minimum of 12 Tbps capacity per fibre pair. The French Guiana leg to Trinidad is 1,600 km long. 

In addition, Orange will act as landing party in Cayenne for the French Guiana branch and will operate the Cable landing station on behalf of Digicel while its subsidiary Orange Marine, will be in charge of laying the cable. 

Orange notes that Deep Blue One will complement its existing, fully-owned 1746 km long “Kanawa” cable, which was commissioned early 2019 as well as Orange’s existing networks based on Americas-2, ECFS, CBUS. 

Digicel says this extension of Deep Blue One will complement its existing Southern Caribbean Fiber network, which has approximately 3,000 km of submarine cable connecting 20 islands in the Eastern Caribbean.

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FS teams with Source Photonics on 800G pluggable transceivers

FS.COM, a high-speed communication solution provider for data centers, enterprises, and telecom networks, has formed a strategic cooperation with Source Photonics for 800G pluggable transceivers — 2x400G-FR4 QSFP-DD, 2x400G-FR4 OSFP, 800G DR8 QSFP-DD and 800G DR8 OSFP — to serve hyperscale data centers. Volume shipment is expected to start in Q1'2022.

John Wang, President at Source Photonics said: "Partnering with FS represents a great opportunity for Source Photonics to further expand our presence to serve a broader range of customers. FS has already demonstrated its capability to apply its excellent expertise to various market segments."

800G DR8 OSFP

• Supports 500m, 2km and 10km
• Supports 8x100GbE and 2x400GbE breakout applications
• Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D2.2 and IEEE 802.3cu-2021 standards
• Compliant with OSFP MSA
• Supports MPO-16 & Dual MPO-12 for backward compatible to 2x400GbE DR4 breakout

800G DR8 QSFP-DD

• Supports 500m, 2km and 10km
• Supports 8x100GbE and 2x400GbE breakout applications
• Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D2.2 and IEEE 802.3cu-2021 standards
• Compliant with QSFP-DD800 MSA HW Rev 6.01 Type 2A with MPO-16 connector

2x400G-FR4 OSFP

• Supports 2km, 6km and 10km
• Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D2.2 and IEEE 802.3cu-2021 standards
• Compliant with OSFP MSA
• Supports Dual CS & Dual LC for legacy fiber plants

2x400G-FR4 QSFP-DD

• Supports 2km, 6km and 10kmCompliant with IEEE 802.3cu-2021
• Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D2.2
• Compliant with QSFP-DD800 MSA HW Rev 6.01 Type 2A with Dual CS connector

http://www.sourcephotonics.com

http://www.fs.com

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Dell'Oro: Worldwide telecom capex on track for 5~10% rise

Preliminary readings suggest that worldwide telecom capex — the sum of wireless and wireline telecom investments — increased 3 percent year-over-year in nominal USD terms and remain on track to advance 5 percent to 10 percent in 2021, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

"Even with some decoupling taking place between capex and equipment revenue growth trends in the first half, we expect the relationship to remain significant going forward," said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President with the Dell'Oro Group. "More importantly, healthy end-user fundamental combined with the competitive dynamics and improving carrier revenue trends is spurring operators to ramp investments in multiple technologies and regions," continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the September 2021 3-year Telecom Capex Forecast:

• Total telecom capex projections have been revised upward—carrier capex is expected to advance at a 3 percent CAGR between 2020 and 2023, underpinned by strong growth in 2021.
• The upward capex revision is primarily driven by the improved investment outlook in the US wireless market.
• Even with the elevated 5G BTS baseline in China, total capex remains on track to advance at a double-digit rate in nominal USD terms in 2021, predicated on the assumption that the second half will account for 60 percent to 65 percent of the full-year capex in China.

https://www.delloro.com/news/telecom-capex-outlook-confirms-positive-equipment-momentum/

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Ericsson's $2 billion credit line tied to carbon neutrality

Ericsson signed a US$2 billion sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, renewing an undrawn US$2 billion credit facility signed in 2013. The interest margin will be linked to two of Ericsson’s sustainability KPIs. The first KPI is tied to carbon neutrality in Ericsson’s own operations by 2030 and the second connects with suppliers setting 1.5 C° aligned climate targets.

Ericsson said the successful transaction underlines the confidence in Ericsson’s financial and sustainable performance and the facility is backed by a group of leading global and regional banks.

Carl Mellander, CFO, says: “Sustainability is an integral part of Ericsson’s strategy and has been critical for our success in recent years, not least when it comes to work within energy consumption and the energy performance of our products. Incorporating sustainability KPIs into this new credit facility is an important step in our continuous work to integrate our sustainability ambitions throughout our operations”.

 

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Nokia enhances its Converged Charging (NCC) monetization

Nokia has enhanced its Converged Charging (NCC) monetization solution to help network operators monetize any service that can be measured, such as network slices and enterprise and consumer IoT offerings.

The new charging configurator microservice for Nokia's existing Converged Charging (NCC) monetization solution supports natural language statements to create new pricing and market offers, without the need for any coding. Leveraging cloud native containerized microservices, NCC supports ultra low-latency, high frequency charging. NCC fully supports 3GPP and leverages industry standards including TM Forum Open APIs to minimize the time required to on-board new customers.

Nokia’s charging solutions support CSPs serving over 1 billion subscribers across the globe. 

Hamdy Farid, SVP Business Applications, Cloud and Network Services, Nokia, said: “With this enhancement to our Converged Charging solution, we are putting the power in the hands of the business to create and monetize new innovative services rapidly. Without the need for coding, CSPs have the needed flexibility to evolve their network and meet the needs of subscribers.”

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NTT DOCOMO invests in TileDB for universal data mgt platform

NTT DOCOMO Ventures announced its investment in TileDB, a start-up based in Cambridge, MA, offering a universal database that models any data in a novel multi-dimensional array format, allowing organizations to easily store, access, share, analyze and visualize data with any computational tool at global scale. Financial terms are not disclosed.

TileDB offers TileDB Embedded, an open-source storage engine with numerous language APIs and data science integrations, and TileDB Cloud, a universal database that offers secure data governance and scalable compute.

TileDB and NTT DOCOMO group are working on the technical verification of a database for “Mobile Spatial Statistics,” population data generated from mobile network operation data. The population data used here includes data modeled as “sparse arrays,” and TileDB is expected to considerably improve the processing and management of data.

https://www.nttdocomo-v.com/en/release/ld4z0bt0uo/

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Zoom and Five9 cancel merger

Five9 and Zoom Video Communications mutually agreed to cancel their pending merger. 

The agreement did not receive the requisite number of votes from Five9 shareholders to approve the merger with Zoom. Five9 will continue to operate as a standalone publicly traded company.

Zoom and Five9 will continue the partnership that was in place prior to the announcement, which includes support for integrations between their respective Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions and joint go-to-market efforts.

http://investors.five9.com

Zoom to acquire Five9 for cloud contact center as a service

Monday, July 19, 2021  Cloud, Mergers And Acquisitions, Zoom  

 Zoom Video Communications agreed to acquire Five9, an intelligent cloud contact center provider, in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $14.7 billion based on the closing price of Zoom common stock on July 16, 2021. Five9 stockholders will receive 0.5533 shares of Class A common stock of Zoom Video Communications, Inc. for each share of Five9.

The deal combines Five9’s Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution with Zoom’s broad communications platform. Five9, which is based in San Ramon, California, reports $478 million in LTM revenue and 796 upmarket/enterprise customers.

Zooms says the acquisition will broaden its total addressable opportunities to include the $24 billion contact center market. Revenue for the first quarter of 2021 increased 45% to a record $137.9 million, compared to $95.1 million for the first quarter of 2020. GAAP gross margin was 56.6% for the first quarter of 2021, compared to 57.9% for the first quarter of 2020. 

Five9's cloud contact center offers a suite of applications that allows management and optimization of customer interactions across many different channels.

“We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more happiness and value to our customers,” said Eric S. Yuan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Zoom. “Zoom is built on a core belief that robust and reliable communications technology enables interactions that build greater empathy and trust, and we believe that holds particularly true for customer engagement. Enterprises communicate with their customers primarily through the contact center, and we believe this acquisition creates a leading customer engagement platform that will help redefine how companies of all sizes connect with their customers. We are thrilled to join forces with the Five9 team, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Zoom family.”

“Businesses spend significant resources annually on their contact centers, but still struggle to deliver a seamless experience for their customers,” said Rowan Trollope, Chief Executive Officer of Five9. “It has always been Five9’s mission to make it easy for businesses to fix that problem and engage with their customers in a more meaningful and efficient way. Joining forces with Zoom will provide Five9’s business customers access to best-of-breed solutions, particularly Zoom Phone, that will enable them to realize more value and deliver real results for their business. ”

Following the close of the transaction, Five9 will be an operating unit of Zoom and Rowan Trollope will become a President of Zoom and continue as CEO of Five9, reporting to Eric Yuan.

• Rowan Trollope joined Five9 as CEO in May 2018. Previously, he was SVP and General Manager of Cisco’s Applications Group and a member of the executive leadership team. Prior to Cisco, at Symantec Rowan was Group President Sales, Marketing, and Product Development, responsible for cloud security and the SMB market. 

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Juniper's new 25.6 Tbps data center switch matched with Apstra automation

Juniper Networks unveiled its QFX5700 Series Switch, a midsize, 25.6 Tbps chassis-based system on Broadcom Trident 4 programmable merchant silicon.

The 5RU platform supports a mix of 10G/25G/40G/50G, 100G, 200G and 400G line cards supporting a variety of interfaces, all available with inline MACsec/IPsec. The QFX5700 is aimed at a variety of data center use cases, including those migrating to 100G/400G.

Michael Bushong, VP of Data Center Product Management at Juniper Networks, says the company is evolving its solution portfolio around the Apstra intelligence with the goal of connecting the elements of the data center into an intent-based, self-driving system. The idea is to leverage Apstra blueprints and telemetry to identify when a task needs to be invoked, how it should best be executed and whether it accomplished the desired intent. The company reports a strong uptake in Apstra deployments since acquiring the company earlier this year.

https://blogs.juniper.net/en-us/enterprise-cloud-and-transformation/juniper-networks-advances-data-center-operations-with-next-generation-modular-switch

Juniper completes Apstra acquisition

Wednesday, January 27, 2021  Juniper, Mergers And Acquisitions  

Juniper Networks completed its previously-announced acquisition of Apstra, a leader in intent-based networking and automated closed-loop assurance. 

The Apstra team is now part of Juniper’s Data Center business and Apstra CEO and co-founder, David Cheriton, joins Juniper as Chief Data Center Scientist.

Apstra offers an intent-based network operating system for simplifying the management of data center networks. Intent-Based Networking (IBN) is a closed-loop, continuous validation approach to designing, deploying and managing infrastructure. Apstra automatically generates and deploys full configuration of all devices based on a service description, and continuously provides assurance checks between the intended and operational state. Apstra’s multivendor integrations extend its closed loop automation and analytics to customers independently of their underlying infrastructure, including those running SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud). 

Juniper said the acquisition expands its commitment to open programmability, adding to its portfolio of solutions that includes powerful switching platforms with native SONiC integration and a deployment-hardened, cloud-native routing stack for the SONiC ecosystem.

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Fungible enhances its Storage Cluster for NVMe over TCP

Fungible, a start-up pursuing DPU accelerated data center computing, announced new capabilities enabling its Fungible Storage Initiator (SI) cards installed in standard servers to access NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP).

Fungible claims its accelerators deliver the world’s fastest and most efficient implementation of NVMe/TCP. The enhancements bring security and usability capabilities for the entire data platform.

The Fungible Storage Initiator solution is delivered on Fungible’s FC200, FC100 and FC50 cards. Each of these cards is powered by the S1 Fungible DPU, and a single FC200 card is capable of delivering a record breaking 2.5 million IOPS to its host. These cards, and the Fungible Storage Cluster, are managed by Fungible Composer, which orchestrates the composition of disaggregated data center resources on demand.  

“With our high-performance and low-latency implementation, Fungible’s disaggregated NVMe/TCP solution becomes a game changer. Over the last five years, we have designed our products to support NVMe/TCP natively to revolutionize the economics of deploying flash storage in scale-out implementations,” said Eric Hayes, CEO of Fungible. “In addition to industry leading performance, our solutions offer more value and the highest levels of security, compression, efficiency, durability and ease of use. At Fungible, we continue to disrupt the traditional rigid models by disaggregating compute and storage using available industry standards like NVMe/TCP.”

https://www.fungible.com/

Fungible ships its disaggregated NVMe storage platform powered by DPUs

Tuesday, October 27, 2020  DPU, Fungible  

Fungible, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, unveiled a disaggregated data storage platform powered by its own Fungible Data Processing Unit (DPU).

The new Fungible Storage Cluster delivers 15M IOPS in a 2RU form factor, scaling linearly to 300M IOPS in a single 40RU rack, and extending further to many racks. The company says its high-performance design improves $/IOPS by at least 3x compared to existing software-defined storage solutions by consolidating workloads and increasing utilization of storage media.

The Fungible Storage Cluster comprises a cluster of Fungible FS1600 storage target nodes connected over a standards-based IP network and the Fungible Composer software. The FS1600s implement the data path for storage while the Fungible Composer performs control and management functions. This clean separation of functions results in higher performance, better scalability and better reliability. Each FS1600 storage target node is powered by two Fungible F1 DPUs and packs 24 standard NVMe SSDs delivering an aggregate of 15M IOPS in a 2RU form factor.

Notably, the Fungible Storage Cluster has been validated with IBM Spectrum Scale, delivering more than 80M read IOPS/PB.

“Today, we demonstrate how the breakthrough value of the Fungible DPU is realized in a storage product,” said Pradeep Sindhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Fungible. “The Fungible Storage Cluster is not only the fastest storage platform in the market today, it is also the most cost-effective, reliable, secure and easy to use. This is truly a significant milestone on our journey to realize the vision of Fungible Data Centers — where compute and storage resources are hyperdisaggregated and then composed on-demand to dynamically serve application requirements.”

“Innovations in data center infrastructure have occurred largely within the silos of compute, storage and networking,” said Raj Yavatkar, CTO at Juniper Networks. “Fungible has broken down these silos delivering end-to-end value with Fungible DPU enabled servers interconnected by TrueFabric, a truly ground-breaking networking technology, and software composable for on-demand provisioning. This approach will serve as a blueprint for future data centers from core to edge.”

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Lightbits delivers software-defined NVMe/TCP storage for VMware

Lightbits Labs, a start-up that offers NVMe-based, scalable and software-defined elastic block storage, completed a rigorous certification of LightOS with VMware vSphere 7 Update 3 and will be listed on the VMware Compatibility Guide. 

Lightbits' LightOS is a scalable, efficient NVMe/TCP storage solution with intelligent flash management. The company claims its solution improves flash endurance by up to 20X and delivers performance that is equivalent to local flash. A single LightOS cluster can deliver over 40M IOPS (random Read) and 10PB user capacity, with less than 200μs latency. Organizations previously utilizing iSCSI can instead use NVMe/TCP on the same network infrastructure and realize much higher performance. 

“With the explosion of data underway, companies are committing to digital transformation on a massive scale. To extract the value of this data, applications need to rapidly store, access, and analyze data. Over the past few years private clouds and cloud service providers have been running cloud native applications on Lightbits, benefiting from our Kubernetes integration. Now we are super-excited to have a high performance, highly available storage solution also for VMware users, with in-box support for NVMe/TCP,” said Kam Eshghi, Chief Strategy Officer at Lightbits. “Organizations with private clouds and hybrid clouds, as well as cloud service providers and financial service providers can now realize the performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency benefits of a combined solution from VMware, Lightbits, and Intel.”

https://www.lightbitslabs.com/

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Akamai to acquire Guardicore to address ransomware

Akamai Technologies agreed to acquire Guardicore, a start-up that offers software-based network segmentation tools, for approximately $600 million. 

Guardicore’s micro-segmentation solution is designed to limit user access to only those applications that are authorized to communicate with each other. By denying communication as the default, the threat surface and risk exposure are drastically reduced, thereby limiting the spread of malware and protecting the flow of enterprise data across the network. This protection extends beyond the data center to the cloud, including bare metal, virtual machines and containers. Guardicore is based in Tel Aviv.

Akamai currently offers a broad suite of innovative and leading Zero Trust security solutions, including Web Application Firewall (WAF), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Domain Name System (DNS) Firewall, and Secure Web Gateway (SWG), that help prevent attackers and malware on employee devices from gaining access to enterprise infrastructure and applications. 

“Given the recent surge in ransomware attacks and increasingly stringent compliance regulations, investing in technologies to reduce the spread of malware has become mission critical,” said Tom Leighton, chief executive officer and co-founder, Akamai Technologies. “By adding Guardicore’s leading micro-segmentation products to Akamai’s comprehensive portfolio of Zero Trust solutions, we believe Akamai will be able to provide the most effective way to combat ransomware on the market today.”

“Guardicore’s mission is to protect enterprises from damage caused by breaches, like ransomware, while safeguarding the critical assets at the heart of the network,” said Pavel Gurvich, co-founder and chief executive officer, Guardicore. “The customer is able to reduce risk in a holistic way across all products, managing from a single console, versus many products and machines. My team and I greatly look forward to joining Akamai to protect the user and the enterprise -  no matter what the user is doing or where end users and workloads are located.”

 

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GSMA: Mobile broadband gap for 43% of world's population

Mobile internet usage translates to just over 4 billion connected people,  225 million more compared to 2019, and up from a third of people globally just six years ago, according to GSMA's State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2021.

However, in 2020, 3.4 billion people (43% of the world’s population) lived within the footprint of a mobile broadband network but were not accessing mobile internet services. The GSMA report also notes that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) now account for almost 93% of the world’s unconnected population and more than 98% of the uncovered population.

“The COVID-19 pandemic made clear the importance of mobile internet access to people’s lives and livelihoods and has accelerated the digital transformation around the world. Mobile  is the primary and often the only way to access the internet in low- and middle-income countries. While more people than ever are now using the mobile internet, some fundamental barriers stop far too many people from using mobile internet. To close this usage gap, all of us – government and industry – need to do more,” says the GSMA’s Chief Regulatory Officer, John Giusti. “In particular, we must address the key barriers to usage of mobile internet services, most notably literacy and digital skills, as well as affordability. Only through targeted and collaborative action can we bridge the digital divide.”

https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/over-half-worlds-population-now-using-mobile-internet/

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NEC, Netcracker, ADVA, Juniper team on 5G xHaul transport

NEC and its subsidiary Netcracker announced an integrated multi-vendor solution that includes ADVA and Juniper Networks for packet optical automation for streamlined 5G transport. ADVA delivers secure optical connectivity and Juniper provides automated IP WAN transport solutions, while Netcracker brings unified end-to-end multi-domain service orchestration and automation expertise. 

NEC leads the integration and implementation of the solution with 5G xHaul Transformation Services for multi-vendor, multi-layer and multi-domain architectures backed by its abundant global experiences with both packet and optical networking. Netcracker's Network Domain Orchestration solution enables multi-domain service, network lifecycle management, assurance and closed loop operations automation across complex multi-layer transport networks with a single pane of glass. 

 

"In the 5G era, NEC believes co-creation is the key driver to generating and delivering new value to society. Working together with our strategic partners Juniper and ADVA in our 5G xHaul Ecosystem, NEC and Netcracker are keen to orchestrate best-in-class multi-vendor based solutions across multi-layers with automation that promises simplification of the end-to-end transport network and better TCO," states Mayuko Tatewaki, General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Division, NEC Corporation.

"Dynamic services enabled by 5G need a powerful transport network to optimize the user experience. Netcracker's Network Domain Orchestration brings agility and automation to multi-layer transport networks, and we are excited to announce our joint solution with NEC, Juniper and ADVA to revolutionize the transport network for 5G digital services,"said Bob Titus, Chief Technology Officer, Netcracker.

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Italy's TIM proposes National Strategic Hub for secure services

TIM, along with partners Leonardo and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, are proposing a National Strategic Hub (NSH) for Italy that would provide an infrastructure for cloud-based management of Public Administration (PA) data and applications.

The initiative would involve setting up a NewCo with a 20% stake to be held by CDP, 25% by Leonardo, 10% by Sogei and 45% by TIM. The aim is to provide innovative services to citizens and businesses, in line with the provisions of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan and recent regulatory interventions on digital infrastructure. 

TIM, the Italian leader of the ICT sector, will provide infrastructure services and cloud platforms; Leonardo, one of the world’s leading players in the AD&S sector and the only Italian company dedicated to monitoring strategic technologies for the country’s security, will provide security services; Sogei, a leader and partner in the public ICT sector, will provide business culture enablement and training services to boost the growth and expertise of the PA; CDP Equity will act as the financial partner and institutional investor supporting initiatives with significant development prospects in key sectors for the country.

Together, the industrial partners will provide end-to-end migration services and support PAs with professional evolution services to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness when operating in cloud environments (re-platform and re-architect).

Through the partners, the NSH will have new generation (Tier IV) data centres, with high levels of security and energy efficiency and in line with global best practices (four data centres in two regions), and will furthermore provide comprehensive and advanced services with a particular focus on cloud solutions. The PA will be supported throughout the pre- and post-contract phases, including in terms of staff training.

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