Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Prosimo adds Cloud-Native Networking Suite

Prosimo, which offers an Application eXperience Infrastructure (AXI) platform for secure application delivery in multi-cloud environments, introduced a Cloud-Native Networking Suite to help enterprises securely interconnect applications and services across regions and clouds.

Key capabilities:

  • Visual Transit Builder - provides a drag & drop approach that simplifies the process for cloud network architects to onboard networks, applications, and services across any cloud using the same visual builder, saving resources and shortening deployment times.
  • Cloud Tracer - a tool that helps enterprises track network topology and flow tracing across different regions and data centers.  It reduces MTTR by identifying and anticipating real-time issues across networking, security, and applications.
  • Adaptive Service Insertion - simplifies compliance in the cloud by allowing fine-grained policy definition and real-time visibility to insert stateful services such as firewalls in the path for networks and apps.  This reduces the risk of human error, simplifies ongoing maintenance, and helps right-size the services to save costs.

"The distributed and digital enterprise requires an app-centric multi-cloud network architecture.  This architecture must ensure cloud networking teams can build connectivity to any cloud region in minutes versus weeks or days, enabling the application teams to move fast and self-onboard their services while staying compliant with all the governance policies," said Head of Product Mani Ganesan, Prosimo. "The Prosimo Full Stack Cloud Transit was built for enterprises to connect networks, applications, PaaS, and users into a single unified fabric.  With the launch of the Cloud-Native Networking Suite, we're introducing a transformative set of tools for enterprises to rapidly adopt native services from cloud service providers and elevate them to meet the scale, operational flexibility and compliance needs."

https://prosimo.io/

Bosch to acquire US-based TSI Semiconductors

 Bosch announced plans to acquire TSI Semiconductor, which operates an ASIC foundry in Roseville, California. Financial terms were not disclosed.

TSI mainly develops and produces large volumes of chips on 200-millimeter silicon wafers for applications in the mobility, telecommunications, energy, and life sciences industries. 

Bosch said it intends to invest more than US$1.5 billion in the Roseville site and convert the TSI Semiconductors manufacturing facilities to state-of-the-art processes. Starting in 2026, the first chips will be produced on 200-millimeter wafers based on the innovative material silicon carbide (SiC). SiC chips are especially significant for electric cars.

“With the acquisition of TSI Semiconductors, we are establishing manufacturing capacity for SiC chips in an important sales market while also increasing our semiconductor manufacturing, globally. The existing clean-room facilities and expert personnel in Roseville will allow us to manufacture SiC chips for electromobility on an even larger scale,” says Dr. Stefan Hartung, the chairman of the Bosch board of management. “The location in Roseville has existed since 1984.

Edgecore debuts PoE switch with TIP OpenLAN support

Edgecore Networks introduced an enterprise PoE network switch that supports the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenLAN Switching (OLS). 

The ECS4125-10P switch can support all TIP OpenWiFi devices, providing an open network solution that spans both wired and wireless environments.

The OLS project, initiated by TIP’s Open Converged Wireless Project Group in 2022, seeks to address the next major network upgrade demands for high power, high throughput, and low latency. The project aims to provide diverse and competitive alternatives for PoE switches and accelerate innovation, enabling an ecosystem that provides end-to-end solutions. 

Edgecore said it plans to release further switch models that support TIP OLS in 2023. The Edgecore OLS series will include PoE switches ranging from 8 to 48 ports and from 1G to multi-G speed.

"We are excited to be participating in the OLS project and collaborating with TIP OpenWiFi and other partners to expand end-to-end solutions under the OpenWiFi architecture that addresses the next major network upgrade," said Tengtai Hsu, VP of Edgecore Networks. 

"This product launch demonstrates the strong momentum we have seen for OpenWiFi around the globe. With commercial deployments expanding and new Managed Service Providers launching OpenWiFi deployments, this is another example of how OpenWiFi accelerates innovation in the industry and provides customers with more choice and flexibility," said Jack Raynor, Co-Chair TIP OpenWiFi. 

https://www.edge-core.com/

NETGEAR Q1 revenue down 14.1%, cites inventory

 NETGEAR reported Q1 2023 net revenue of $180.9 million, a decrease of 14.1% from the comparable period a year ago. First quarter 2023 GAAP operating loss was $12.0 million, or (6.6)% of net revenue, as compared to operating loss of $58.5 million, or (27.8)% of net revenue, in the comparable prior-year quarter. First quarter 2023 non-GAAP operating loss was $7.1 million, or (3.9)% of net revenue, as compared to operating loss of $9.3 million, or (4.4)% of net revenue, in the comparable prior-year quarter.

Patrick Lo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NETGEAR, commented, “Due to unprecedented inventory reduction by our largest Service Provider partner, as well as a similar reduction in SMB inventory by our largest e-commerce partner, our first quarter revenue and operating margin came in below our expectations. As a result of the uncertain macroeconomic environment and concerns over their own operations, our channel partners continue to materially reduce their inventory to historically low levels, greatly impacting our top line and resulting in lost operating leverage. However, propelled by ProAV, SMB end user sales grew by double digits year over year, and our premium CHP products again vastly outperformed the broader market, growing sequentially despite normal seasonal patterns. Buoyed by the shift to our higher-margin, premium products, and improved transportation costs, NETGEAR delivered an impressive non-GAAP gross margin of 33.6% for an improvement of 540 basis points year over year.”

Bryan Murray, Chief Financial Officer of NETGEAR, added, “We expect to continue to experience strong underlying demand in the SMB business and the premium portion of our CHP product portfolio, even in the face of ongoing broad-based inflationary pressures and an uncertain macroeconomic environment. We will continue to work with our channel partners across both businesses to optimize their inventory carrying levels, and expect a revenue impact from these efforts to be at a similar level as experienced in the first quarter. Accordingly, we expect our second quarter net revenue to be in the range of $150 million to $165 million.”


MaxLinear posts Q1 revenue of $248M, down 15%

MaxLinear posted net revenue was $248.4 million, down 15% sequentially and down 6% year-over-year. GAAP gross margin was 56.5%, compared to 56.2% in the prior quarter, and 58.6% in the year-ago quarter.

In the first quarter, we delivered $248.4 million in revenues, improved our gross margins, and generated strong cash flow from operations of approximately $42 million. Our infrastructure category was strongly up 46% sequentially and 40% year over year, primarily driven by the expanding roll-out of multi-band millimeter wave and microwave 5G wireless backhaul platform solutions. We also continue to work towards the antitrust approval of our pending acquisition of Silicon Motion, and are excited by the future growth prospects of our comprehensive combined product portfolio.

“Even as we navigate a challenging demand environment with fiscal discipline and operational efficiency, our solid execution and innovative product offerings are enabling us to maximize strategic business opportunities across all our end markets. In 2023, we continue to lay important groundwork in Wi-Fi, fiber broadband access gateways, and wireless and optical datacenter network infrastructure, which will be the foundation for our growth later this year and throughout 2024,” commented Kishore Seendripu, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO.

Ribbon posts 7% rise in Q1 revenue citing strong IP/Optical sales

Ribbon Communications reported Q1 GAAP revenue of $186 million, up 7% compared to $173 million for the first quarter of 2022. There was a GAAP net loss of $38 million.

"I'm pleased to report that we generated 7% revenue growth year over year, with Cloud & Edge sales up 4% on the strength of 62% higher sales to Enterprises, coupled with IP Optical Networks sales up 13%. This is our third quarter in a row of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in our IP Optical Networks segment. Bookings in the quarter for this segment were 1.6x led by robust demand in India and EMEA," stated Bruce McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ribbon Communications. McClelland continued, "Based on the solid start to the year and bookings strength, and the implementation of previously announced spending reductions, we are maintaining our positive outlook and guidance for 2023."

"In the first quarter of 2023, we made progress on two of our key financial objectives. First, we enhanced our capital structure with an $80 million debt repayment funded by $25 million of cash on hand and the proceeds from a $55 million private placement of preferred stock and warrants. Second, we continued to execute on our plan to improve efficiency with operating expenses 4% lower year over year, and we believe we are on track to meet or exceed our targeted expense reductions for 2023," said Mick Lopez, Chief Financial Officer of Ribbon Communications.


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Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Alphawave Semi demos 112G SERDES on TSMC 3nm

Alphawave Semi demonstrated its first connectivity silicon platform on TSMC’s most advanced 3nm process with its ZeusCORE Extra-Long-Reach (XLR) 1-112Gbps NRZ/PAM4 serialiser-deserialiser (SerDes) IP.

Alphawave Semi’s silicon platform with 112G Ethernet and PCIe 6.0 IP on TSMC 3nm process will be unveiled at the TSMC North America Symposium in Santa Clara, CA on April 26, 2023.

The company says its ZeusCORE XLR Multi-Standard-Serdes (MSS) IP on the 3nm process will pave the way for the development of future high performance AI systems. It is a highly configurable IP that supports all leading edge NRZ and PAM4 data center standards from 1112 Gbps, supporting diverse protocols such as PCIe Gen1 to Gen6 and 1G/10G/25G/50G/100 Gbps Ethernet.

This flexible and customizable connectivity IP solution together with Alphawave Semi's chiplet-enabled custom silicon platform which includes IO, memory and compute chiplets, allows end-users to produce high performance silicon specifically tailored to their applications. Customers can benefit from Alphawave Semi’s application optimized IP-subsystems and advanced 2.5D/3D packaging expertise to integrate advanced interfaces such Compute Express Link (CXL™), Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express™ (UCIe™), High Bandwidth Memory (HBMx), and Low-Power Double Data Rate DRAM (LP/DDRx/) onto custom chips and chiplets.

“We are thrilled to be one of the first companies to successfully demonstrate our highest performance silicon platform with our XLR 112G Ethernet and PCIE6.0 SerDes IP on TSMC’s most advanced 3nm technology,” said Tony Pialis, CEO and co-founder of Alphawave Semi. “This represents a significant step forward in our execution of Alphawave Semi’s strategy to be a vertically integrated semiconductor leader in high-speed connectivity. Thanks to our rapidly growing partnership with TSMC through the Open Innovation Platform® (OIP), we continue to deliver innovative, high-performance custom silicon and IP solutions to our customers in data center, compute, networking, AI, 5G, autonomous vehicles, and storage applications.”

“Alphawave Semi continues to see growing demand from our hyperscaler customers for purpose-built silicon with very high-speed connectivity interfaces, fueled by an exponential increase in processing of AI-generated data,” said Mohit Gupta, SVP and GM, Custom Silicon and IP, Alphawave Semi. “We're engaging our leading customers on chiplet-enabled 3nm custom silicon platforms which include IO, memory, and compute chiplets. Our Virtual Channel Aggregator (VCA) partnership with TSMC has provided invaluable support, and we look forward to accelerating our customers' high-performance designs on TSMC's 3nm process.”

Microsoft posts Cloud revenue of $28.5 billion, up 22%

Microsoft reported Q1 revenue of $52.9 billion, up 7% (up 10% in constant currency) and net income of $18.3 billion, up 9% (up 14% in constant currency).

“The world’s most advanced AI models are coming together with the world’s most universal user interface – natural language – to create a new era of computing,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. 

“Across the Microsoft Cloud, we are the platform of choice to help customers get the most value out of their digital spend and innovate for this next generation of AI.”


“Focused execution by our sales teams and partners in this dynamic environment resulted in Microsoft Cloud revenue of $28.5 billion, up 22% (up 25% in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $17.5 billion and increased 11% (up 15% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

  • Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 13% (up 17% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 14% (up 18% in constant currency)
  • Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 1% (up 4% in constant currency) and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew to 65.4 million
  • LinkedIn revenue increased 8% (up 10% in constant currency)
  • Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 17% (up 21% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 25% (up 29% in constant currency)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $22.1 billion and increased 16% (up 19% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

  • Server products and cloud services revenue increased 17% (up 21% in constant currency) driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 27% (up 31% in constant currency)

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $13.3 billion and decreased 9% (down 7% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

  • Windows OEM revenue decreased 28%
  • Devices revenue decreased 30% (down 26% in constant currency)
  • Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 14% (up 18% in constant currency)
  • Xbox content and services revenue increased 3% (up 5% in constant currency)

Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 10% (up 13% in constant currency)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/earnings/fy-2023-q3/press-release-webcast

Google extends estimated life of network equipment to 6 years

Alphabet reported Google Cloud revenue o $7.454 billion for Q1, up from $5.821 billion. Google Cloud delivered operating income of $191 million for Q1, up from a loss of $706 million for the same period a year earlier.

Alphabet also noted that it has completed an assessment of the useful lives of its servers and network equipment. The estimated useful life of servers has been extended from four years to six years and the estimated useful life of certain network equipment from five years to six years. This change in accounting estimate was effective beginning in fiscal year 2023 and the effect for the three months ended March 31, 2023 was a reduction in depreciation expense of $988 million and an increase in net income of $770 million, or $0.06 per basic and $0.06 per diluted share.

https://abc.xyz/investor/

Juniper's Q1 revenue hits $1.372 billion, up 17% yoy, raises guidance

Juniper Networks reported quarterly net revenues og $1,371.8 million, an increase of 17% year-over-year and a decrease of 5% sequentially. Non-GAAP net income was $156.6 million, an increase of 54% year-over-year, and a decrease of 27% sequentially, resulting in non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.48.

GAAP operating margin was 8.4%, an increase from 5.0% in the first quarter of 2022, and a decrease from 14.0% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

“We experienced strong revenue results during the March quarter, delivering year-over-year growth across all customer solutions and all geographies,” said Juniper’s CEO, Rami Rahim. “Despite market uncertainties, I remain confident in our strategy and our ability to deliver another year of healthy revenue growth based on the momentum we are seeing with our customers, the continued strength of our backlog, and the improvements we are seeing with respect to supply.”

“We delivered better than expected profitability during the March quarter, as non-GAAP gross and operating margin both came in well above the mid-point of our guidance, which enabled us to exceed the high-end of our non-GAAP EPS outlook,” said Juniper’s CFO, Ken Miller. “We remain focused on delivering improved profitability and expect to expand operating margin by greater than 100 basis points in 2023.”

Some highlights:

* Enterprises business grew 30% year-over-year

* Enterprise accounted for more than 40% over revenue

* Revenue from the products driven by Mist AI grew by nearly 60% yoy 

* Total orders softened during the March quarter, declining more than 30% year-over-year

* Juniper is raising its full year revenue outlook and now expects to deliver 9% growth for the year

https://investor.juniper.net/investor-relations/financial-reports/default.aspx

Vantage Data Centers plans 2nd campus in London

Vantage Data Centers is building a second data center campus (LHR2) in London supported by an investment of £250 million. 

LHR2 will consist of a single data center that will deliver 20MW of IT capacity across 194,000 square feet (18,000 square meters). Located in Park Royal, London’s largest industrial area, the site is less than 30 minutes from the London Heathrow airport and nearby hotels in the city center, offering critical accessibility for customers. LHR2 will open its doors to customers in early 2025.

The news comes just three months after the company announced its initial entrance into the market with a £500 million 48MW campus (LHR1).

“Expanding our presence in London, the largest of the FLAP data center markets and one of the largest global markets, enables Vantage to meet unprecedented demand for critical IT capacity and helps strengthen the region’s digital infrastructure,” said Antoine Boniface, president, EMEA for Vantage Data Centers. “Vantage’s unique ability to rapidly scale to this magnitude continues to set the company apart from the rest of the industry.

“To support our ongoing developments, operations and business across EMEA, Vantage is also increasing our regional team by nearly 55% this year. Adding new team members positions us to best serve our current and future customers to enable their growth and ongoing success.”

http://www.vantage-dc.com

Video: Dust Photonics overview and demo


Dust Photonics is a silicon photonics company that has developed a product called Carmel. Carmel is a silicon photonics chip that is used for 400 gig and 800 gig applications.

It includes DustPhotonics’ special IP for attaching the laser onto a silicon photonics PIC which provides very low loss and very good performance. The Carmel chip is a cost-effective transmitter that converts electrical signals to optical signals using DustPhotonics’ Low Loss Laser Coupling (L3C technology).

DustPhotonics presented their evaluation board at ECOC 2022 in Switzerland. The system enables very good performance and also the lowest power that you can get in a transceiver. They demonstrated operation across different temperatures from room temperature to high temperature. 

DustPhotonics has made a shift last year from being a transceiver company to being a silicon photonics component company. They are selling their products to transceiver companies and have a roadmap for next generation applications as well.

https://www.dustphotonics.com/

AtlasEdge secures €725 million for European edge data centers

AtlasEdge secured a scalable €725 million facility for its European data center expansion plans.

The funding was underwritten by mandated lead arranger ING Bank, as well as ABN Amro, Crédit Agricole CIB, The Bank of Nova Scotia, National Westminster Bank Plc, Banco Santander and UniCredit Bank AG.

The financing also includes sustainability-linked targets focussed on efficiency and renewable energy usage. This aligns AtlasEdge’s mission to build a truly sustainable digital society with the shared importance of sustainable investment by the lending group.

“We are delighted to have partnered with a group of top-tier financial institutions whose ambition matches our own and are willing to continue to support us in the future”, commented Ron Huisman, CFO, AtlasEdge. “This is a bespoke and highly sought-after facility with in-built flexibility that allows us to move rapidly to realise new growth opportunities."


https://atlasedge.com/


Monday, April 24, 2023

Cadence tapes out UCIe chaplet die-to-die on TSMC 3nm

Cadence Design Systems confirmed the tapeout of its 16G UCIe 2.5D advanced package IP on TSMC’s 3nm (N3E) process technology. 

Cadence UCIe IP provides an open standard for chiplet die-to-die communication, which is becoming more critical for artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), mobile, automotive, storage and networking applications.

Cadence said it is currently engaged with a pipeline of Tier 1 customers, and UCIe advanced package IP collateral from the N3E test chip tapeout is shipping and available. The pre-verified solution can save customers time and effort through rapid integration.

The heterogeneous integration of Cadence’s UCIe PHY and controller eases chiplet solutions with die reusability. The complete solution includes the following, which can be delivered with a complement of Cadence Verification IP (VIP) and TLM models:

  • UCIe Advanced Package PHY: Designed for a bump pitch that enables greater than 5Tbps/mm of die edge bandwidth density, the UCIe advanced package PHY offers options that allow greater throughput performance while significantly improving power efficiency. It is flexible for integration on multiple types of 2.5D advanced packages, such as silicon interposer, silicon bridge, RDL and fanout-based packaging.
  • UCIe Standard-Package PHY: Options allow customers to reduce costs while maintaining high bandwidth and power efficiency. Cadence’s circuit design allows customers to design down to the lower limits of the standard’s bump pitch range to allow maximum BW/mm while also enabling longer reach.
  • UCIe Controller: A soft IP that can be synthesized for multiple technology nodes, the UCIe controller is offered in a variety of options for different target applications and enables streaming, PCI Express® (PCIe), and CXL protocols.

“The UCIe Consortium supports companies designing chiplets for use in standard and advanced packaging. We are thrilled to extend our congratulations to Cadence on reaching the tape out milestone for the advanced package test chip which uses the die-to-die interconnect based on the UCIe 1.0 specification,” said Dr. Debendra Das Sharma, chairman at the UCIe Consortium. “Member company advancements in IP (scaling) and VIP (testing) are important components in the ecosystem. When paired with participation in UCIe work groups the industry will continue to see new chiplet based designs entering the market that are based on open industry standards that foster interoperability, compatibility, and innovation.”

www.cadence.com/go/ucie16g

Cadence speeds up SoC design with 112G SerDes IP on TSMC's N4P process

Cadence Design Systems introduced its 112G Extended Long-Reach (112G-ELR) SerDes IP on TSMC’s N4P process for hyperscale ASICs, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) accelerators, switch fabric system-on-chips (SoCs) and 5G wireless infrastructure. 

The extended long-reach SerDes PHY supports insertion loss (IL) of 43db with BER of 10e-7—thereby providing additional performance margin beyond the standard long-reach specifications—and enables exceptional system robustness for lossy and reflective channels observed in open box platforms as well as lengthy direct attach copper (DAC) cables.

The Cadence 112G-ELR SerDes PHY IP on TSMC’s N4P process, a performance-focused enhancement of the TSMC 5nm technology platform, incorporates DSP-based SerDes architecture with maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) and reflection cancellation technology. The SerDes PHY IP is compliant with IEEE and OIF Long-Reach (LR) standards while providing extra performance margin for ELR applications. The optimized power, performance and area are ideal for different user scenarios, including high port-density applications. In addition to ELR and LR channels, the IP also supports Medium Reach (MR) and Very Short Reach (VSR) applications with a flexible power-saving capability over different channels. The supported data rates range from 1G to 112G with NRZ and PAM4 signaling, enabling reliable high-speed data transfer over backplane, direct-attached cable (DAC), chip-to-chip and chip-to-module channels.

“Cadence’s latest 112G-ELR IP on TSMC’s N4P process will benefit our mutual customers with significant performance improvement in silicon, helping them address design challenges with the continuous technology advancement from Cadence’s leading IP solutions and TSMC’s advanced process technologies,” said Dan Kochpatcharin, head of the Design Infrastructure Management Division at TSMC. “Our latest collaboration with Cadence promotes the development of new technologies for hyperscale, AI/ML, 5G infrastructure and other applications.”

www.cadence.com/go/112gelr


A10 Networks adds next-gen Web Application Firewall powered by Fastly

A10 Networks introduced a combined solution of its Thunder Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and a new A10 Next-Generation Web Application Firewall (WAF), powered by Fastly, to enable automated, multi-layered security, and resilience.

A10 said its integrated A10 Next-Gen WAF provides deep web application security services. As the solution sits at the primary application ingress point, a single deployment can efficiently front-end one, hundreds, or thousands of applications without the need for individual server end-point deployments. 

"A10 Networks provides high-performance application delivery and security, and its solution is a natural fit for our next-gen WAF to help provide mutual customers with deep web application security for hybrid cloud environments. This is the first software and hardware application delivery controller implementation for Fastly, which expands our addressable market and provides A10 with the most advanced WAF technology for its customers,” said Emily Friedberg, group vice president, global partnerships at Fastly.

Key capabilities:

  • Layered Defense – Counters modern web threats, and includes OWASP Top 10 mitigation, DDoS protection, authentication, and TLS/SSL decryption.
  • Simplification via Consolidation – Converges under Thunder ADC as a fully integrated single appliance solution that is optimized with advanced load balancing, ADC caching, and the Fastly cloud service; customers have a single point of support with A10.
  • Ease of Use – No learning period for IT teams with near-zero false positives; almost 90 percent of Fastly users run in blocking mode, ensuring only bad traffic is stopped.
  • Lower Costs – Provides superior protection with little or no tuning; uses a combination of thresholding, along with Fastly’s proprietary Network Learning Exchange (NLX) and SmartParse technology, to reduce false positives, for highly effective automated detection and blocking.
  • Reduced Risk – Protects against modern attack vectors like account takeover (ATO), enumeration, and DDoS; integrates with popular DevOps and SIEM tools, making it a great fit for enterprise DevSecOps teams.

“When selecting a partner to deliver superior web application firewall security for our hybrid cloud solutions, Fastly was an obvious choice. It has been a Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Cloud Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) for the last five years. Our combined solution will help customers ensure security and resiliency while reducing the operational overhead for security teams,” said Mikko Disini, VP of product line management at A10 Networks.


www.a10networks.com

RSA 2023 Video: What's keeping CISOs up at night?

https://youtu.be/ACp4kaNEi8M

The worries include compliance, brand reputation, and liability. Depending on the industry, there are different concerns. In this video from the 2023 RSA Conference in San Francisco, A10 Networks discusses top concerns of Chief Information Security Officers.

For example, in the gaming industry, DDOS attacks are prevalent, and CISOs need to ensure that they have the latest DDOS technology to keep the game running and prevent the loss of users. In contrast, if a company deals with credit card data or personal identifiable information, they need to worry about web application attacks. The concerns of CISOs depend on the organization and business goals.


Accenture Security links with Google Cloud for AI-powered cyber response

Accenture Security will power its new Managed Extended Detection and Response (MxDR) service with security-specific generative artificial intelligence (AI) from Google Cloud.

Accenture's service provides enterprise customers with crisis management, incident response, and threat intelligence.

“Enterprises are rapidly transforming, and they need cyber resilience at the core of their digital journeys to protect their businesses and grow with trust and confidence,” said Paolo Dal Cin, who leads Accenture Security globally. “We’re bringing the best expertise and capabilities from Accenture Security, Google Cloud and Mandiant together to help our clients achieve the cyber resilience level their businesses need in today’s cyber threat landscape. When powered by generative AI, our integrated cybersecurity services should enable a new level of cyber resilience, with greater scale, speed and effectiveness.”

Sunil Potti, GM and VP of cloud security, Google Cloud, said, “Accenture and Google Cloud share a vision for helping enterprises modernize their security positions by combining the most advanced security technology with the world’s leading security experts. Accenture’s new MxDR service is now powered by Chronicle’s world-class security operations, Mandiant’s leading threat intelligence, and new security-specific generative AI capabilities, which will help businesses defend against the most sophisticated cyber threat actors.”

Highlights:

  • Chronicle Security Operations: Accenture’s new MxDR service utilizes the Chronicle platform to enable its security teams to better detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats. It does so by helping enterprises ingest and search the massive amounts of network and security telemetry they generate, with near real-time analysis and context on security risks and vulnerabilities.
  • Mandiant Threat Intelligence: Accenture’s new MxDR service, which includes its Cyber Threat Intelligence capability, will also embed the actionable, leading threat intelligence of Mandiant. Mandiant provides near real-time access to context and threat intelligence from the frontlines, with a global team of analysts who operate around-the-clock investigating and responding to the most sophisticated cyberattacks.
  • Security-specific generative AI from Google Cloud: Accenture will be the first company to utilize the Google Cloud Security AI Workbench, an industry-first extensible platform powered by a specialized, security large language model (LLM), Sec-PaLM, that leverages Google’s visibility into the threat landscape and Mandiant’s frontline intelligence on vulnerabilities, malware, threat indicators, and more. By integrating generative AI within the service Accenture aims to significantly accelerate incident detection, analysis, and response, mitigating the impact of security incidents.
  • Location- and industry-specific customization: Accenture and Google Cloud can build and manage customized security programs for organizations with complex environments that require more than turnkey solutions. This approach is well-suited for global organizations that need to protect large attack surface areas and high volumes of assets, or for companies needing to comply with local regulations related to data residency and sovereignty.
  • Managed crisis and incident response: Accenture’s security professionals will partner closely with Mandiant threat experts to help organizations embed resilient cybersecurity protections across their business assets and hybrid workforces.
  • Accenture-owned technology accelerators: Accenture security services include unique technology and an intuitive user experience, which increase threat detection and response capabilities and reduce the time and effort needed to contain vulnerabilities.


Arista brings AI/ML enterprise network identity management

Arista Networks introduced an enterprise network identity management capability that leverages AI/ML to  simplify the secure onboarding and troubleshooting for users and devices and the management of ever-expanding security policies.

Arista Guardian for Network Identity (CV AGNI) is based on Arista’s foundational NetDL architecture and leverages AVA (Autonomous Virtual Assist) for a conversational interface that removes the complexity inherent in managing network identity from a traditional legacy NAC solution. AVA codifies real-world network and security operations expertise and leverages supervised and unsupervised ML models into an ‘Ask AVA’ service, a chat-like interface for configuring, troubleshooting and analyzing enterprise security policies and device onboarding. CV AGNI also adds user context into Arista’s network data lake (NetDL), greatly simplifying the integration of device and user information across Arista’s products and third-party systems.

CloudVision AGNI’s key features include the following:

  • User self-service onboarding for wireless with per-user unique pre-shared keys (UPSK) and 802.1X digital certificates.
  • Certificate management with a cloud-native PKI infrastructure.
  • Enterprise-wide visibility of all connected devices. Devices are discovered, profiled and classified into groups for single-pane-of-glass control.
  • Security policy enforcement that goes beyond the traditional inter-group macro-segmentation and includes intra-group micro-segmentation capabilities when combined with Arista networking platforms through VLANs, ACLs, Unique-PSK and Arista MSS-Group techniques.
  • AI-driven network policy enforcement based on AVA for behavioral anomalies. When a threat is detected by Arista NDR, it will work with CV AGNI to quarantine the device or reduce its level of access.

Keysight makes UK’s First 100Gbps 6G Sub-THz connection

Keysight Technologies,  in collaboration with National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Surrey, has made the first 6G connection at speeds greater than 100 Gbps over sub-terahertz (THz) frequencies in the U.K.

Keysight, NPL, and the University of Surrey established the first sub-THz high throughput 6G testbed in the U.K. to address these challenges. 

Located at NPL, this new 6G testbed achieved the U.K.’s first high-speed sub-THz data link. The demonstration was made at a frequency of 300 GHz using both 32 and 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Built on Keysight’s 6G Sub-Terahertz R&D Testbed, the testbed uses the M8194A Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) combined with Virginia Diode Inc. (VDI) upconverters / downconverters to generate the signal and Keysight’s UXR0704A Infiniium multichannel high-performance 70 GHz oscilloscope to analyze the signal.

Irshaad Fatadin, Principal Scientist, National Physical Laboratory, said: “6G is a key focus for NPL and we are using our scientific and measurement capabilities to tackle the challenges of this new technology. Our partnership with Keysight will be a critical success factor in our 6G research work.”

Mosaab Abughalib, Senior Research Director and General Manager for Keysight’s Network Emulation Group, said: “Through this partnership we are bringing Keysight solutions and experts together with scientists from NPL and the University of Surrey to unlock the true potential of 6G.”

https://www.keysight.com/us/en/about/newsroom/news-releases/2023/0424-pr23-070-keysight-makes-uk-s-first-100gbps-6g-sub-thz-conne.html