IBM Offers Tools to Connect and Secure Public and Private Clouds

IBM introduced a hybrid cloud solution to help enterprise customers gain greater visibility, control and automation into their assets and computing environments, including public and private clouds. The new SmartCloud tools, which leverage technology from IBM's recent acquisition of Cast Iron, provide:


Control and Management Resources: The new capabilities will define policies, quotas, limits, monitoring and performance rules for the public cloud in the same way as on-premise resources. This allows users to access public cloud resources through a single-service catalog -- enabling IT staff to govern the access and the usage of this information in a simplified, efficient and secure way.


Security: IBM enables better control of users' access by synching the user directories of on-premise and cloud applications. The automated synchronization means users will be able to gain entry to the information they are authorized to access.


Application Integration: Using a simplified "configuration, not coding" approach to application integration, the software combines the power of native connectivity with industry leading applications to provide best-practices for rapid and repeatable project success.


Dynamic Provisioning: IBM's monitoring, provisioning and integration capabilities allow its hybrid cloud to support "cloud bursting," which is the dynamic relocation of workloads from private environments to public clouds during peak times. IBM's technical and business policies control this sophisticated data integration.
http://www.ibm.com

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WP: Virginia Sees Continued Growth in Data Centers

New data centers continue to pop up in Loudoun County, Virginia, which now has about 40 data centers comprising roughly 4 million square feet of space -- equivalent to 22 Wal-Mart Supercenters -- according to The Washington Post. Equinix plans to build its 10th data center in the area.
Other big data center projects include Raging Wire, Sabey Data Center Properties, and Carpathia.
http://www.washingtognpost.comhttp://wapo.st/pfG90j

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Huawei Promotes LTE TDD Router as Alternative to Fixed Broadband

Saudi Arabian operator Mobily will be the first carrier to offer Huawei's LTE TDD wireless broadband router beginning in October. The unit is designed to serve as a home media and information gateway offering bandwidth rates comparable to fixed broadband. The Huawei B593 supports LTE TDD and FDD, features a download speed of up to 100M and provides access to up to 32 WiFi devices as well as desktop computers through an Ethernet cable.


Hu Guangping, head of Mobile Broadband LTE division, Huawei Device, said, "The Huawei B593 provides bandwidth comparable with that of fixed broadband. In addition to the obvious benefits this brings consumers, operators now have the ability to provide superfast Internet access without the need for fixed network infrastructure. This enables operators to expand their subscriber base in a more flexible and cost-effective way.
http://www.huawei.com

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PCCW (Hong Kong) and FPT (Vietnam) Interconnect Ethernet Networks

PCCW Global and FPT Telecom, Vietnam's leading telecommunications services provider, have interconnected their Ethernet networks for improved international network coverage and service availability. The carriers established MPLS interconnectivity in 2008. Enterprise customers can now get MPLS VPN and Switched Ethernet with different classes of service (CoS).
http://www.pccw.com

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Pandora Delivers 1.8 Billion Hours of Streaming Music in Latest Quarter

In its newly released quarterly financial report, Pandora reported total listener hours of approximately 1.8 billion for the second quarter fiscal 2012, an increase of 125% compared to approximately 0.8 billion for the second quarter fiscal 2011. Estimated share of total U.S. radio listening at the end of the second fiscal quarter was 3.6%, up from 1.8% a year prior.
http://www.pandora.com

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Politico: FCC to Investigate Earthquake Impact on Cell Network Performance

The FCC is likely to investigate the performance of mobile networks following this week's 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Virginia, according to Politico.com. Cell phone networks remained congested in the minutes and hours following the quake, with many people unable to reach 9-1-1 emergency services.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62015.html

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Big Switch Advances its OpenFlow Platform

Big Switch Networks, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, reached a significant milestone in its bid to build an open, fully-programmable enterprise switching platform based on Open Flow. The Big Switch Controller has now moved into private beta testing.


OpenFlow, a new network protocol pioneered at Stanford University that enables the path of network packets through a series of switches to be determined by software running on a separate server. This network control plane would managed virtualized switching elements in the network. Virtualized programmable network could open the door to various high-performance applications in campus or enterprise networks. The goal of OpenFlow is to enable networks to evolve more rapidly by giving owners and operators better control over their networks and the ability to optimize network behavior.


Big Switch Networks' Controller is based on OpenFlow and virtualizes the network in the enterprise data center, making it possible for an enterprise to overlay virtual networks on top of their physical devices. The company said its three tier architecture comprises:


1. Big Switch Networks' Controller – a software platform that implements the server side of the OpenFlow protocol, virtualizes the physical resources in the network and provides common components used across OpenFlow Applications


2. OpenFlow Applications – network control applications built on an the Controller's open API that represent a tenant's software-defined devices and features, e.g. virtual switches, virtual firewalls or connectors to server virtualization software


3. Switch Vendors' OpenFlow-Enabled Switches – Ethernet switches, both physical and hypervisor-based, that represent the data plane of an OpenFlow architecture by implementing the client side of the OpenFlow protocol.
http://www.bigswitch.com

• Big Switch is headed by Guido Appenzeller (Co-Founder and CEO), who previously was a Consulting Professor at Stanford University and Head of the Clean Slate Lab where he managed the OpenFlow standards effort and led the team that developed the OpenFlow reference implementation.

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Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile Complete Mobile Video Call

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile completed the first mobile broadband video call over a next-generation 4G LTE mobile network, connecting a fixed location and a car in Shanghai with Alcatel-Lucent offices in New Jersey.


The three-way, trans-Pacific call, which ran over Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio equipment, linked Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell demonstration center in Shanghai, and the "LTE Connected Car" demonstrator roaming in Shanghai and utilizing China Mobile's fourth-generation TD-LTE trial network.


The companies said the demonstration highlights the advances Alcatel-Lucent is making with lightRadio as well as the progress being made by China Mobile with its TD-LTE trial network.


"This call brings the global commercial reality of lightRadio even closer – and the ability to provide the increased performance and savings that can be made by implementing the technology within an operators' network," stated Wim Sweldens, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Wireless Division. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/lightradio

• In June, Alcatel-Lucent completed the first long-distance, mobile video-call using its new lightRadio platform from the historic desk of Alexander Graham Bell. Chris Lewis, Group Vice President of industry analysts IDC, hosted the call from Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, connecting with Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive of Alcatel-Lucent in Paris, and delegates at a business conference in Miami.



• Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio represents a new architecture where the base station, typically located at the base of each cell site tower, is broken into its components elements and distributed through the antenna or the network for cloud-like processing. Additionally the various cell site tower antennas are combined and shrunk into a single small powerful, Bell Labs-pioneered multi frequency, multi standard (2G, 3G, LTE) device that can be mounted on poles, sides of buildings or anywhere else there is power and a broadband connection.

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EXFO Enhances 10G and 40G Transport Test Modules

EXFO enhanced its Power Blazer Next-Generation Multiservice Test Modules and Transport Blazer 40/43 Gigabit SONET/SDH/OTN Test Modules with new multichannel testing capabilities that enable 10G/40G labs and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) to speed up their verification processes. With these new test capabilities, it is now possible to simultaneously perform SDT measurements on multiple channels and to monitor in real time errors and alarms on all channels for SONET/SDH and OTN signals.

http://www.exfo.com

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Verizon Acquires CloudSwitch

Verizon Communications has acquired CloudSwitch, a privately-held developer of tools for extending applications in a corporate data center into the public cloud. Financial terms were not disclosed.


CloudSwitch's software enables data loads to move into the cloud without changing the application or the infrastructure layer – eliminating a key barrier to widespread cloud adoption. CloudSwitch claims its solution also enables enterprise applications to remain tightly integrated and managed as if they are running locally.


Verizon plans to combine CloudSwitch with its Terremark IT services subsidiary, further accelerating the company's global cloud strategy by enhancing Verizon's hybrid-cloud and cloud-to-cloud capabilities.


"The cloud market is a rapidly growing opportunity, with very real benefits both for our business customers and the consumers they serve," said Bob Toohey, president of Verizon's global enterprise unit. "With the acquisition of CloudSwitch, Verizon has taken another step forward in defining the enterprise cloud."


John McEleney, CEO of CloudSwitch, said: "By joining Verizon, we will be able to deliver a solution that combines our software with the market-leading infrastructure cloud play. Our founding vision has always been to create a seamless and secure federation of cloud environments across enterprise data centers and global cloud services. Together, we will be able to provide enterprises with an unmatched level of flexibility, scalability and control in the cloud with point-and-click simplicity. This will go a long way in helping achieve widespread adoption of the cloud, especially when managing complex workloads."


CloudSwitch is based in Burlington, MA. http://www.verizon.com http://www.cloudswitch.com

• CloudSwitch was founded by Ellen Rubin and John Considine. Rubin previously was Vice President of Marketing at Netezza. Prior to Netezza, Ellen founded Manna, an Israeli and Boston-based developer of real-time personalization software. Considine previously was Director of the Platform Products Group at Sun Microsystems, where he was responsible for the 69xx virtualized block storage system, 53xx NAS products, the 5800 Object Archive system, as well as the next generation NAS portfolio.



• Investors in CloudSwitch include Matrix Partners, Atlas Ventures and Commonwealth Capital Ventures.



• Earlier this year, Verizon acquired Terremark, a global provider of managed IT infrastructure and cloud services, for $19.00 per share in cash, or a total equity value of $1.4 billion. At the time of the acquisition, Terremark, which is headquartered in Miami, operated 13 data centers in the U.S., Europe and Latin America (Miami, Dallas, Wash. D.C., Santa Clara, Bogota, Sao Paolo, Santo Domingo, Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid and Istambul. It provides secure cloud computing, colocation, and managed hosting services. For its most recent quarter, Terremark reported revenue of $84.9 million, a 22% increase over the previous year.
  
  
  Prior to the deal, Verizon operated more than 220 data centers across 23 countries, including 19 premium centers and five smart centers.

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Windstream Bumps SMB Access Service to 24 Mbps

Windstream has boosted Internet speeds for small and medium business customers. Customers can now get Internet speeds of 10 Mbps down/2 Mbps up, 24 Mbps down/2 Mbps up and 24 Mbps down/4 Mbps up. The carrier also provides a variety of voice, data and managed services, and offers broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps to enterprise customers. http://www.windstream.com

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Russia's VimpelCom Deploys Alcatel-Lucent's FemtoCells

OJSC VimpelCom is using Alcatel-Lucent's femtocell technology to extend 3G coverage in buildings in the North-Western region of Russia. Alcatel-Lucent has provided VimpelCom with its end-to-end Femto-technology based 9360 Small Cell solution, including the 9361 Home Cell, the 9362 Enterprise Cell, the 9364 Metro Cell for outdoor environments and the 9366 Small Cell Gateway. The solution includes a network management system which combines Alcatel-Lucent's Wireless Management System, Wireless Provisioning System and the Home Device Manager from its Motive Product Division. Alcatel-Lucent is providing full deployment and integration services along with design, installation and commissioning, software integration and project management. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Aruba Posts Sales of $113.8 Million, up 47% YoY

Aruba Networks reported quarter sales of $113.8 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, an increase of 47 percent from the $77.3 million reported in Q4'10. GAAP net income for Q4'11 was $68.2 million, or $0.57 per share, compared with net income of $0.4 million, or $0.00 per share, in Q4'10. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter included a one-time tax benefit of $72.8 million, equivalent to $0.61 per share, due to the release of the company's valuation allowances and the recording of the associated net deferred tax assets on its balance sheet. This one-time event is in conjunction with the establishment of Aruba's international operating entities to optimize Aruba's long term tax structure. Non-GAAP net income for Q4'11 was $20.2 million, or $0.17 per share. This compares with $11.1 million, or $0.10 per share, in Q4'10.


"Demand for our wireless LAN solutions continued to be strong throughout our fiscal fourth quarter, as revenue increased by 47 percent year-over-year and 8 percent sequentially," said Dominic Orr, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aruba. "Mobile device adoption continues to accelerate resulting in proliferating demand for Enterprise mobility solutions. Revenue from the existing customer base remains strong and we are especially encouraged by our rapid new customer acquisitions adding over 4,500 customers in the last twelve months. With robust Q4 bookings and a solid pipeline for our wireless LAN solutions, we enter our fiscal 2012 confident in our ability to grow faster than the market and increase our market share." http://www.arubanetworks.com

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IDT Samples Low-Jitter VCSO for 40/100G Boards

Integrated Device Technology introduced a low-jitter Voltage Controlled Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Oscillator (VCSO) for high-end optical networking and telecom applications. The device, which meets jitter requirements of 40G and 100G board designs, incorporates an analog frequency multiplier and single-ended RF output with jitter at less than 270 femtoseconds root mean square (rms) integrated across the 20kHz to 20MHz frequency band. It is available with an output frequency in the 1.5GHz to 2.1GHz range, providing customers a high frequency reference clock with low-jitter, low-noise performance.
http://www.idt.com

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AT&T's Green Fleet Deploys 4,000th Alternate Fuel Vehicle

AT&T has deployed the 4,000th alternative-fuel vehicle (AFV) in its corporate vehicle fleet – with more than 2,000 AFVs deployed in California alone. AT&T also announced that it has deployed its 3,000th compressed natural gas vehicle (CNG). All of the milestone vehicles are Ford E250 CNG vans. The deployments are the latest in AT&T's planned 10-year investment of up to $565 million to replace approximately 15,000 fleet vehicles with alternative-fuel models through 2018.


"As the economy rises and falls with fuel prices, we have a responsibility to look for smart ways to reduce our costs," said Jerome Webber, vice president, AT&T Global Fleet Operations. "Putting 4,000 alternative-fuel vehicles on the road – including 3,000 compressed natural gas vehicles – is a significant statement about the ability of fleet operators to not only reduce costs, but also to cut vehicle emissions. Every alternative fuel vehicle on the road brings us closer to energy independence, and that's good for our company and our country."


AT&T also noted that it has started deploying its first all-electric and extended range electric vehicles in its fleet. AT&T fleets in St. Louis, Dallas and Los Angeles received the first of these vehicles. AT&T expects to make additional deployments in 2011 and 2012.


Through 2013, AT&T anticipates it will have purchased approximately 8,000 CNG vehicles at an anticipated cost of $350 million. AT&T expects to invest an additional $215 million through 2018 to replace approximately 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative-fuel models. http://www.att.com

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Embrane Secures $18 Million for Virtual Network Services

Embrane, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $18 million in Series-B financing for its distributed software platform.


Embrane aims to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing and IT-as-a-service by delivering the most dynamic platform for virtual network services. The system is currently in beta testing.


The funding round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Lightspeed Venture Partners and North Bridge Ventures also participated in the round, following their initial lead investments in the company's $9 million Series-A funding.

http://www.embrane.com

• Embrane is headed by Dante Malagrinò, who most recently led the worldwide marketing campaign for Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 strategy.

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Dell'Oro: Wireless Packet Core Market Grew 33% in Q2

Wireless packet core (WPC) market revenues grew 33% over the last year during the second quarter of 2011, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Ericsson maintained its market share lead in revenues, followed by Huawei.


The report shows that 2Q11 revenues reached over $630 million. Equipment types that are included in the WPC market include Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) and Access Service Network (ASN) devices.


"Surging smartphone and tablet adoption is driving service providers to add wireless data subscriber management equipment," said Chris DePuy, Analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "While demand remains robust, we expect a handful of new vendors to challenge incumbent equipment providers as the market begins its transition to the next generation of equipment called Evolved Packet Core. At least four new packet core devices are in trials with service providers, with launch dates expected in the next several quarters. We expect to see some interesting shifts in the market's landscape when these new products ramp."


Equipment types that fall under the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) category include Mobility Management Entity (MME), Packet Data Node Gateway (PGW), Serving Gateway (SGW) and Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).
http://www.delloro.com

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Apple Wins EU Injunction Against Sales of Samsung Galaxy Smartphones

A court in the Netherlands issued a injunction prohibiting the sale of Samsung Galaxy Smartphones in the EU beginning October 3. The preliminary ruling concerns three patent infringement claims brought by Apple. The merits of the case have not yet been decided.
http://www.apple.com
http://www.samsung.com

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Ericsson Acquires Telenor Connexion's M2M Platform

Ericsson has acquired Telenor Connexion's M2M (machine-to-machine) technology platform. The deal includes the transfer of ten employees who will continue to work with development of the service offering provided on Ericsson's Device Connection Platform. Telenor Connexion also becomes the first customer to Ericsson on the platform. No financial details about acquiring the assets have been announced.



Ericsson's M2M service, the Device Connection Platform, a service launched during the Mobile World Congress in February, offers telecom operators a way to set up tailored M2M services for enterprise customers and is brought to market with a 'software as a service' business model, providing a low initial investment in technology and a fast time to market. http://www.ericsson.com

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China Unicom Sees Growth in 3G and Broadband Bundled Services

China Unicom experienced continued growth in 3G subscriptions and in fixed broadband access during the first half of 2011 as the number of fixed line and PHS customers continued to decline, leading the company to report revenue of RMB 101.385 b billion, up by 22% over the same period last year. Profits came in at RMB 2.637 billion, down by 5.5% compared with the same period last year.


In the first half of the year, operating cash flow was RMB 34.352 billion, an increase of 10.5% over last year, and capital expenditure (CAPEX) was RMB 25.968 billion, a decline of 22.1% compared to last year.


Some highlights from the company's financial report:

Mobile (as of 30-June-2011)


the total number of subscribers reached 181.61 million, up 15.7% over last year.


3G penetration was 13.2% of the customer base


Overall ARPU reached RMB 46.8, up 9.3% over last year.


3G ARPU was RMB 117.5, a decrease of 11.7% compared to last year.


3G service revenue now accounts for 26.9% of total mobile revenue.


The total number of 3G basestations was 203,000, up 32.8% over last year.


The HSPA+ network cover 56 cities. It has a top downlink rate of 21 Mbps.


The total number of GSM basestations is 348,000, up 13.7% over last year.


The total 3G voice usage for the first half of the year was 66.21 billion minutes.


The total GSM voice usage for the first half of the year was 242.48 billion, up 5.5% over last year.


The number of mobile TV subscribers, mobile reading subscribers and mobile mailbox subscribers was 8.511 million, 7.925 million and 17.528 million, respectively.


Fixed Line


Added 5.098 million broadband subscribers in the first half, yielding a total of 52.322 million current subscribers, up 19.6% compared to last year.


Subscribers with 4 Mbps and above accounted for 35% of all broadband subscribers.


The number of broadband content and application subscribers reached 19.396 million, accounting for 37% of all broadband subscribers.


Service revenue for fixed broadband was RMB 17.172 billion, up 18.7% compared to last year.


Monthly ARPU for broadband was RMB 57.6, down 1.5% from last year.


The number of "WO Family" subscribers increased by 3.309 million to 3.697 million.


The loss of traditional local telephone subscribers was 1.177 million, leaving the company with 95.458 million.


The local telephone business generated RMB 17.663 billion in revenue, down 15% compared to last year.
http://www.chinaunicom.com.hk

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