Wednesday, January 12, 2022
2022 Predictions from Thought Leaders
Ericsson Cloud RAN passes security audit
Ericsson’s Cloud RAN offering has passed the independent Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme (NESAS) audit, making it fully compliant with the security requirements defined by global standards organizations 3GPP and GSMA.
NESAS was introduced in recent years to provide a common security assurance framework for secure product development and product lifecycle processes across the mobile industry. Conformance with NESAS is an integral part of Ericsson’s Security Reliability Model, SRM.
Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, says: “With 5G rollouts accelerating across the world, 5G network security is rapidly becoming a key topic among regulators, authorities, service providers and their consumer and business customers. Security is a key cornerstone in the design of our products and with the software and hardware disaggregation, it is even more important that security is built in from the start. I am therefore pleased that Cloud RAN is now confirmed NESAS-compliant as it adds another layer of credibility and trustworthiness to our Ericsson radio access network (RAN) portfolio.”
https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2022/1/ericsson-cloud-ran-passes-gsmas-nesas-security-audit
Ericsson's Cloud RAN is coming in Q4 2021
Ericsson involved a cloud-native software solution for handling compute functionality in the RAN.
Cloud RAN by Ericsson, which will be released in stages, will complement high-performing purpose-built baseband offerings in the Ericsson Radio System portfolio. The first stage will be available in the fourth quarter of 2021 and will include Ericsson’s new Cloud RAN application software – Cloud RAN DU and Cloud RAN CU. It also includes new Radio Gateways, enabling a full utilization of the installed base of remote radios, making them fully compatible with Cloud RAN. These products set the foundation for future mid-band rollouts. Ericsson Cloud RAN is fully compatible with the Ericsson Radio System portfolio, and supports Ericsson Spectrum Sharing and 5G standalone and non-standalone.
Ericsson said its cloud-native software solution will deliver network capabilities for both large-scale and centralized 5G deployments, including for new 5G use cases for indoor, industry, enterprise, stadiums, etc.
Swisscom installs Ericsson NFVi in core network
Swisscom has installed Ericsson's Network Functions Virtualization infrastructure (NFVi) solution in its core network. The Swisscom cloud-based enterprise service, which went live in September, is based on Ericsson's full-stack telco cloud infrastructure. Ericsson’s NFVi offering comprises Ericsson Cloud Manager, Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment, Ericsson Cloud SDN, Ericsson Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000, and system integration and support...
Telstra implements cloud-native 5G core with Ericsson
Telstra has now upgraded its 5G radio access network (RAN) coverage footprint across Australia, connecting a Cloud Native 5G Core network to handle new 5G Standalone traffic. Ericsson is Telstra's lead vendor. 5G Standalone means that Telstra already has the capability to run 5G independent of existing 4G network technology. 5G SA devices are expected to be commercially available in Australia in late 2020. Nikos Katinakis, Telstra’s Group Executive...
Nokia targets 100% renewable electricity by 2025
Nokia has joined RE100, a global initiative led by the Climate Group in partnership with CDP, which brings together the world’s most influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.
Nokia also confirmed its target to reduce emissions from its own operations by moving to 100% renewable electricity by 2025. Nokia's usage across the business in 2020 was 39% and it is on track to reach the 45% target for 2021.
Additionally, in line with the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) temperature target of 1.5°C, Nokia will continue to focus on reducing its emissions by 50% across its value chain, including its own operations, products in use, logistics, and final assembly supplier factories by 2030.
Melissa Schoeb, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, said: "We are proud to be joining the RE100 initiative in recognition of our efforts to move to 100% renewable electricity by 2025. But this is just one part of our decarbonization strategy. We’re working with our suppliers and customers to reduce emissions across our value chain and continually innovating to improve the energy efficiency of our technologies so we can make our own and other industries more sustainable."
BT wins network transformation contract with ABB
BT has been awarded a network transformation contract by ABB
The new contract builds on an existing agreement, signed in 2014, under which BT consolidated and optimised the leading global technology company’s international communications infrastructure. Working with ABB’s Information Systems team, BT will now transform the network infrastructure to create a sustainable, resilient and secure core platform featuring a highly automated and data-driven managed service. The communications infrastructure will reliably and securely connect people, devices and machines at over 600 facilities in 60 countries. Using the latest software-defined networking technology, it will offer ABB a choice of connectivity options for each site, including 5G access.
BT said it will also provide ABB with a new software-driven platform delivered over Wifi 6 to enable mobility and digital manufacturing concepts, such as robotics, Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data technologies at production sites. Both companies have committed to a co-innovation fund as part of the contract.
https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-engineers-new-digital-network-infrastructure-for-abb/
SHARE cable links Senegal and Cape Verde with 16 Tbps capacity
HMN Tech (formerly Huawei Marine Networks) completed the marine deployment of the Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) submarine cable system, with landfalls in both Snegal and Cape Verde.
“SHARE Cable, the first submarine optical cable totally owned by the Senegalese State, offers a great strategic opportunity to Senegal and the west African region to have more Internet capacities and better resilience. Directly connecting to Cape Verde, Senegal is anticipating to become one of the Internet hubs in West Africa. ADIE, by operating a low-latency, high-quality and large-capacity optical submarine cable, is ready to provide to network operators and ISP enough Internet bandwidth that can benefits to both local residents and businesses to boost the digital economy development,” said Mr. Cheikh BAKHOUM, CEO of Agence De l’Informatique de l’Etat.
Gulf Bridge upgrades subsea performance with Ciena’s GeoMesh
Gulf Bridge International (GBI), which operates subsea cable systems between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Europe and India, is deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme.
GBI’s upgrade with Ciena uses the latest technologies to increase design capacity by 10 Tbps, enhance its capabilities, and provide increased flexibility in delivery times.
“Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optical technology will allow us to maximize the use of our fiber assets, ensuring a great quality of service for our customers,” said Cengiz Oztelcan, Chief Executive Officer, GBI. “We are excited to continue to expand our relationship with Ciena. GBI can now add significant capacity and intelligence to the network to meet requirements from customers including Internet Content Providers (ICPs).”
“Ciena’s WaveLogic technology and software will help GBI create a network that can adapt, self-optimize, and scale to meet customer demands,” said Jamie Jefferies, Vice President and General Manager, International, Ciena. “We understand the importance for GBI to have a programmable and reliable submarine network – especially as the region will soon be hosting the world’s biggest football tournament, which is expected to drive a great deal of video traffic.”
Gulf Bridge signs on for ExpressRoute in Middle East
Gulf Bridge International (GBI), which is based in Qatar, and Microsoft have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will support regional cloud adoption in the Middle East.
GBI will serve as an ExpressRoute connectivity partner, enabling customers to benefit from low latency and private cloud connectivity.
“We are continually exploring new ways to optimise digital experiences for enterprises, and our partnership with Microsoft represents one of the many milestones taken on GBI’s transformation journey,” said Abdulla Al Rwaili, Executive Director and Managing Director at GBI. “The partnership will enable organisations of all kinds to make the move to the cloud with confidence and provide a foundation for digital transformation. We look forward to enabling more organisations to benefit from the flexibility and agility of the cloud.”
Zayo acquires QOS Networks for SD-WAN management
Zayo Group Holdings has acquired QOS Networks, a provider of SD-WAN and edge managed services, from majority owner M/C Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
QOS Networks offers an SD-WAN and global network management solution for large enterprises. QOS uses an AIops-driven network operations platform and proactive network management to deliver the full potential of SD-WAN. As a division of Zayo, the QOS brand will be retained and CEO Frank Cittadino will take on the role of SVP of Edge Services for Zayo.
“As we begin our next phase of growth with Zayo, QOS Networks will continue to focus on driving highly automated SD-WAN solutions for enterprise customers,” said Cittadino. “M/C Partners played a pivotal role in our growth and maturity in helping establish QOS Networks as a leading SDWAN service provider. Throughout our partnership with M/C Partners, Travis Keller and team stayed focused on enabling the management team while challenging us to drive the transformative solutions which was the support that drove QOS Networks to a great outcome.”
M/C Partners is also a founding investor in Zayo.
Ekinops posts full-year 2021 revenue of €103.6m, + 12% Y-o-Y
For 2021, Ekinops topped the €100m mark for the first time with annual consolidated revenue of €103.6m, an increase of 12% (Y-o-Y comparable basis). For Q4, Ekinops reported consolidated revenue of €28.7m in the fourth quarter, up 13% from fourth-quarter 2020.
Ekinops said positive trend was fueled by growth in all the Group’s businesses (Transport, Access and Software), and notably by powerful sales momentum in Optical Transport solutions across all geographical regions. Bolstered by the success of the Software Defined Networks (SDN) and virtualization offering, and by the contribution of two months of business from SixSq, the share of software and services continued to grow, accounting for over 14% of Group revenue in 2021 (compared with 10% in 2020). Full-year revenue generated by software and services rose by over 60%, consistent with Ekinops’ targets.
Ekinops posted dynamic growth internationally in 2021, up 18% for the full year. Business was particularly strong in North America and the EMEA region (Europe (excluding France), Middle East and Africa). International business accounted for 67% of total business in 2021 (vs 63% for full-year 2020). Business activity was practically stable in France (-0.3%). Revenue came out at €33.8m relative to strong activity in 2020 (+9%). France accounted for 33% of Group business in 2021 (vs 37% in 2020).
Didier Brédy, Chairman and CEO of Ekinops, states “Ekinops once again set new records in 2021. Having achieved our strongest-ever fourth quarter, we topped the mark of €100m in annual revenue for the very first time by posting double-digit organic growth in four consecutive quarters. All our business lines reported growth in 2021, with a special mention going to the sharp increase in Optical Transport products in North America and EMEA alike. When buying OTN technology in 2019, our objective was to triple sales of Optical Transport products in five years. We have already doubled these sales in a little over two years and we are considerably ahead of our target. A further point of satisfaction in 2021 was the strong development in software and services activities. These now account for 14% of our activity, compared with 10% in 2020, and serve to improve our profitability. For all these reasons, I am particularly optimistic that we will continue to grow our business activity substantially in 2022.”
Telstra hires Vish Vishwanathan to head Wholesale Group in the Americas
Telstra has named Vish Vishwanathan as Vice President of its Wholesale group for the Americas. Vishwanathan previously led global IP network sales for NTT and has also held senior sales and market development roles at CenturyLink, MCI International and Motorola.
“Telstra’s leadership in trans-Pacific connectivity and reach across Asia provides a lot of opportunity in the market,” said Vishwanathan. “Operators are shoring up their networks to meet explosive customer demand and Telstra’s continued investment in its network, products and services means we are incredibly well-placed to support this growth.”
“Vish brings significant experience leading go-to-market strategies and customer-facing teams, along with a strong track record across international markets,” said Nicholas Collins, President, Telstra Americas. This combination makes him a formidable appointment to lead the next chapter of our ambitious wholesale growth in the Americas.”
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
2022 Predictions from Thought Leaders
AT&T Cybersecurity
Top 5 Cybersecurity Trends this Year
Bindu Sundaresan, Director at AT&T Cybersecurity
Microsoft Azure
Cloud-driven Economic Disruption for Services
Telia Carrier
Network Sophistication and More Bandwidth 
Mattias Fridström, Vice President & Chief Evangelist at Telia Carrier
Telstra
Next-gen Satellites, Hybrid Work, Emerging Markets Infrastructure
Noah Drake, Vice President of Customer Solutions, Americas at Telstra
Nokia expects to exceed 2021 financial guidance
Nokia updated its financial guidance for 2021, saying its underlying business performed largely as expected in Q4 2021. However, other operating income was higher than expected including further benefits from venture fund investments, leading to a stronger comparable operating margin exceeding the 2021 guidance.
Based on preliminary and unaudited financial results for 2021 Nokia now estimates net sales of approximately €22.2bn within its previous guidance of €21.7 to 22.7bn and a comparable operating margin of 12.4 to 12.6% above its previous guidance of 10 to 12%. The company estimates it has benefited from approximately 150bps of one-offs in financial year 2021 to its comparable operating margin (up from 100bps expected at our Q3 earnings) related to venture fund investments, a one-off software contract in Q2, bad debt provision reversals and some other one-time benefits.
https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2022/01/11/nokia-expects-to-exceed-2021-financial-guidance-and-provides-operating-margin-guidance-for-2022/
New PCIe 6.0 spec delivers 64 GT/s raw data rate
PCI-SIG, the organization responsible for the widely adopted PCI Express standard, officially released the PCIe 6.0 specification boasting a top raw data rate of 64 GT/s (gigatransfers per second) -- double the bandwidth and power efficiency of the PCIe 5.0 specification (32 GT/s).
PCIe 6.0 Specification Features
- 64 GT/s raw data rate and up to 256 GB/s via x16 configuration
- Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 4 levels (PAM4) signaling and leverages existing PAM4 already available in the industry
- Lightweight Forward Error Correct (FEC) and Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) mitigate the bit error rate increase associated with PAM4 signaling
- Flit (flow control unit) based encoding supports PAM4 modulation and enables more than double the bandwidth gain
- Updated Packet layout used in Flit Mode to provide additional functionality and simplify processing
- Maintains backwards compatibility with all previous generations of PCIe technology
“PCI-SIG is pleased to announce the release of the PCIe 6.0 specification less than three years after the PCIe 5.0 specification,” said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG Chairperson and President. “PCIe 6.0 technology is the cost-effective and scalable interconnect solution that will continue to impact data-intensive markets like data center, artificial intelligence/machine learning, HPC, automotive, IoT, and military/aerospace, while also protecting industry investments by maintaining backwards compatibility with all previous generations of PCIe technology.”
Aptiv to acquire Windriver for $4.3 billion
Aptiv, a leading supplier of automotive parts, agreed to acquire Wind River from TPG Capital, the private equity platform of global alternative asset management firm TPG, for $4.3 billion in cash.
Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge. Used on over two billion edge devices across more than 1,700 customers globally, Wind River’s software enables the secure development, deployment, operations and servicing of mission-critical intelligent systems. Wind River generated approximately $400 million in revenues in 2021.
Aptiv said it plans to combine the Wind River Studio offering with its complementary SVA platform and automotive expertise to extend its position in automotive software solutions, providing automotive customers with a faster and economical path to full vehicle software architecture. Led by Kevin Dallas, Wind River will continue to operate as a stand-alone business within Aptiv as part of the Advanced Safety & User Experience (AS&UX) segment.
“The automotive industry is undergoing its largest transformation in over a century, as connected, software-defined vehicles increasingly become critical elements of the broader intelligent ecosystem,” said Kevin Clark, president and chief executive officer of Aptiv. “Fully capitalizing on this opportunity requires comprehensive solutions that enable software to be developed faster, deployed seamlessly and optimized throughout the vehicle lifecycle by leveraging data-driven insights. These same needs are driving the growth of the intelligent edge across multiple end markets. With Aptiv and Wind River’s synergistic technologies and decades of experience delivering safety-critical systems, we will accelerate this journey to a software-defined future of the automotive industry. In addition, we are committed to further strengthening Wind River’s competitive position in the multiple industries it serves. We look forward to welcoming the world class Wind River team to the Aptiv family as we continue to develop a safer, greener and more connected world.”
“Wind River has established itself as a worldwide leader in cloud-native, intelligent edge software that delivers the highest levels of security, safety, reliability and performance,” said Kevin Dallas, president and chief executive officer of Wind River. “Combining Wind River’s industry-leading software, customer base and talent with Aptiv’s complementary technologies, global resources and scale will realize our vision of the new machine economy. Together we will accelerate the digital transformation of our customers across industries through best-in-class intelligent systems software. We look forward to working with the Aptiv team to reach even greater heights and provide further growth opportunities for our customers and partners.”
https://www.windriver.com/news/press/news-20220111
Intel spins out Wind River
Intel has agreed to sell its Wind River subsidiary to TPG, a global alternative asset firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Wind River noted that its software "runs the computing systems of the most important modern infrastructure, including manufacturing plants, medical devices, aircraft, railway, automobiles, and communications networks."
“This acquisition will establish Wind River as a leading independent software provider uniquely positioned to advance digital transformation within critical infrastructure segments with our comprehensive edge to cloud portfolio,” said Jim Douglas, Wind River President. “At the same time, TPG will provide Wind River with the flexibility and financial resources to fuel our many growth opportunities as a standalone software company that enables the deployment of safe, secure, and reliable intelligent systems.”
Wind River President, Jim Douglas, and his existing executive management team will lead the newly independent Wind River after the transaction closes.
Mangata Networks raises $33M for hybrid satellite/terrestrial platform
Mangata Networks, a start-up based in Phoenix, Arizona, announced a $33 million Series A round to support its next-gen connectivity architecture linking HEO (highly elliptical orbit) & MEO (medium earth orbit) satellite constellations, combined with the power of a terrestrial system of MangataEdge™ micro data centers, extending the cloud to the edge of the network close to users. This single core network will provide scalable B2G and B2B connectivity, that is both affordable and accessible to anyone, anywhere on the planet.
“We are out to change the world and that requires visionary investors and partners. We are really thrilled to announce this collaboration today. These investors, whose intercontinental representation reflects our own global mission, are championing a new evolution in human connectivity. We believe we have a unique combination of coverage, technology, performance, and cost that no one else can provide to their customers,” said Brian Holz, CEO – Mangata Networks.
Mangata said it is is developing a patented architecture to connect micro data centers over satellite, hosting cloud service platforms with the capability to extend connectivity directly into localized 5G, IoT and Wi-Fi networks on a global basis. Initial community networks to be deployed as early as 2023, prior to launch of its initial satellites. This will allow customers to evaluate use-cases and conduct commercial trials before the start of service. Early in 2023 the company will be implementing multiple trial networks around the world to begin product testing and evaluation in advance of its first launch, starting with South Korea in Asia, the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Seattle, and the Scotland 5G Centre in the UK.
Mangata Networks aims to initiate service for the entire Northern Hemisphere starting in 2024 with its initial launch of 8 HEO satellites. The company plans subsequent launches of 24 MEO satellites to provide complete global coverage and increased overall system capacity.
The new funding was led by US-based venture capital firm Playground Global. Other major investors including Temasek which is headquartered in Singapore, ktsat from South Korea, Scottish Enterprise in the UK, Promus Ventures from its Orbital Ventures Fund, and MetaVC Partners, also in the US.
"Mangata is founded by a dream team that substantially designed and implemented the O3b and OneWeb NGSO satellite constellations," said Jory Bell, general partner at Playground Global. "The Mangata system represents a 'goldilocks' architecture that provides the best of GEO and LEO offerings with a highly configurable modern HEO / MEO constellation that can be incrementally built out while generating real revenue from day one of first deployment. We are thrilled to be able to lead an international team of investors to partner with Brian and his team as they build the world’s best integrated space-based communications and data network."
https://www.mangatanetworks.com
Mangata Networks was founded in February of 2020 and initially financed by MetaVC Partners.
The companies headquartered out of Phoenix, AZ with operations in Denver, Prestwick (Scotland) , Singapore and Seoul, South Korea in East Asia.
The name ‘Mangata’ is a Swedish word, referring to the path of light that the moon draws on water.
TELUS looks to Automation Anywhere to accelerate migration to Google Cloud
TELUS International announced a collaboration with Automation Anywhere to simplify the delivery and migration of automation solutions on Google Cloud.
Automation Anywhere specializes in robotic process automation (RPA).
As part of this collaboration, TELUS International will provide on-demand RPA-as-a-Service solutions to customers around the world while delivering large-scale transformation projects across the automation life cycle.
“We are excited to extend our long-standing partnership with Google Cloud into our growing relationship with Automation Anywhere,” said Jim Radzicki, chief technology officer, TELUS International. “Automation and other digital transformation tools delivered via cloud technology are growing in prevalence as more organizations prioritize flexibility and agility within their workforce. As such, the future of work requires automation solutions that support humans, and it has been proven time and time again that providing services on cloud architecture is critical for providing strong and reliable performance.”
As a Platinum Preferred Partner and Managed Services Provider of Automation Anywhere, TELUS International is enabling the end-to-end development of RPA solutions on Google Cloud to improve business tasks with more speed, accuracy, and efficiency.
“Automation is a key component to building a resilient workforce,” said Jim Lambe, managing director, Google Cloud Canada. “We’re proud to partner with TELUS International and Automation Anywhere to empower organizations to grow with easy-to-deploy, cost-effective and scalable cloud solutions that accelerate transformation.”
https://www.automationanywhere.com
Google Cloud builds its telco cloud base, signs 10-year deal with TELUS
Google Cloud and TELUS announced a 10-year collaboration and strategic alliance focused on new services and solutions that support digital transformation within key industries, including communications technology, healthcare, agriculture, security, and connected home. The partnership will accelerate TELUS’ digital transformation.
Key elements of the partnership:
- Reimagining the future through co-innovation: Google Cloud and TELUS will generate new industry solutions and go-to-market strategies that will drive growth in adjacent industries, commencing with communications technology, healthcare, agriculture, security and automation. One of the areas of focus will be on redefining the way healthcare and agriculture solutions are delivered, increasing collaboration and efficiency between healthcare providers, providing consumers with fresher and healthier food by improving traceability, and enabling business customers to streamline their IT and network operations.
- Accelerating TELUS’ digital transformation: TELUS will accelerate its public cloud adoption on Google Cloud’s enterprise platform to drive greater operational efficiency of its core IT and network infrastructure. Through this partnership, Google Cloud will also become one of TELUS' partners in the delivery of 5G services and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), which leverages Google Cloud’s managed application platform, Anthos. TELUS will utilize Google Cloud Contact Center AI to reinvent the customer experience, improving customer interactions and realizing significant savings. To increase growth opportunities, TELUS can expect enhanced agility, scalability, and reliability across its wireless and wireline services and numerous lines of business including security, agriculture and healthcare.
- Embracing sustainability and social responsibility: As recognized global leaders in corporate social responsibility, TELUS and Google Cloud will prioritize working together to improve the social, economic, environmental, and health outcomes for Canadians. TELUS and Google Cloud will strengthen their respective commitments to building a more sustainable world through technology by reducing TELUS’ carbon footprint, creating value along the entire supply chain for businesses significantly impacted by COVID-19, and optimizing industry solutions.
Ireland's eir names Oliver Loomes as next CEO
eir announced the appointment of Oliver Loomes as its Chief Executive Officer-designate, replacing Carolan Lennon, who has served as CEO since 2018.
Loomes, an experienced corporate leader, has spent 30 years working in consumer-focused industries, his most recent position was Chairman and Managing Director at Diageo Ireland.
Lennon departs eir having led four consecutive financial years of growth in profits, as well as the significant expansion of the company’s customer base, during her tenure. From 2018 to 2021, eir’s fibre broadband customer base grew by 30% to 823,000 customers, while the number of mobile bill pay customers grew by 60% to 869,000. Additionally, more than 500,000 premises have been added to eir’s fibre-to-the-home broadband network during her time overseeing an unprecedented investment of over €1bn by the company in its infrastructure.
David McRedmond, Chairman of eir, said: "Carolan has successfully steered eir through a momentous rebuilding phase that has seen significant expansion of both its customer base and network reach. She and her team have built the platform for future success. The large-scale investment that eir’s shareholders have made in the company positions it as, not only Ireland’s leading telecoms provider, but one that is future-proofed to navigate pace of technological change. This investment serves one clear purpose: to provide our customers with the world-class products and services they need.
Toshiba adds to its line-up of Ethernet Bridge ICs for automotive
Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation introduced a new device in its line-up of Ethernet bridge ICs to provide support for 10Gbps communications in automotive information communications systems and industrial equipment. Sample shipments have started and volume production will start in August 2022.
The new bridge IC has Toshiba’s first 2-port 10Gbps Ethernet, and the interface can be selected from USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, and RGMII. The two ports support Ethernet AVB and TSN, which facilitate real-time processing and synchronous processing, respectively. They also support “simplified” SR-IOV (virtual functions).
Toshiba said its new IC can be used not only for zone architecture but also for various automotive applications such as IVI and telematics, and also in industrial equipment. It is also postioned to be a successor to current TC9560 and TC9562 series products supporting 1Gbps Ethernet.
The new device offers three PCIe Gen 3 switch ports for communications with the host SoC and connection to devices equipped with PCIe interfaces. The PCIe switch part is configured with one 4-lane upstream port for connection with the host SoC and two 1-lane downstream ports for connection to devices with a PCIe interface. Using the 3-port PCIe switch function for connections to such devices can help mitigate PCIe interface shortages.
Monday, January 10, 2022
AWS adds EC2 instances for HPC workloads powered by AMD
AWS introduced new Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Hpc6a instances, powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, for tightly coupled high performance computing (HPC) workloads.
Hpc6a instances promise up to 65% better price performance compared to similar compute-optimized Amazon EC2 instances for HPC workloads and can be scaled to carry out complex calculations across a range of cluster sizes—up to tens of thousands of cores.
Hpc6a instances are enabled with Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA)—a network interface for Amazon EC2 instances—by default. With EFA networking, customers benefit from low latency, low jitter, and up to 100 Gbps of EFA networking bandwidth to increase operational efficiency and drive faster time-to-results for workloads that rely on inter-instance communications. Hpc6a instances are powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors that run at frequencies up to 3.6 GHz and provide 384 GB of memory. Using Hpc6a instances, customers can more cost-effectively tackle their biggest and most difficult academic, scientific, and business problems with HPC, and realize the benefits of AWS with superior price performance.
“By consistently innovating and creating new purpose-built Amazon EC2 instances for virtually every type of workload, AWS customers have realized huge price performance benefits for some of today’s most business-critical applications. While high performance computing has helped solve some of the most difficult problems in science, engineering, and business, effectively running HPC workloads can be cost-prohibitive for many organizations,” said David Brown, Vice President of Amazon EC2 at AWS. “Purpose-built for HPC workloads, Hpc6a instances now help customers realize up to 65% better price performance for their HPC clusters at virtually any scale, so they can focus on solving the biggest problems that matter to them most without the cost barriers that exist today.”
“We are excited to continue our momentum with AWS and provide their customers with this new, powerful instance for high performance computing workloads,” said Dan McNamara, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Server Business at AMD. “AMD EPYC processors are helping customers of all sizes solve some of their biggest and most complex problems. From small universities to enterprises to large research facilities, Hpc6a instances powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors open up the world of powerful HPC performance with cloud scalability to more customers around the world.”
http://www.aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/hpc6
Windstream Wholesale lights 2 Tbps of LH capacity in under 5 days
Windstream Wholesale turned up approximately 2 Terabits of long-haul wave capacity in less than five business days for an unnamed communications provider.
Windstream Wholesale said its ICON network enabled the custom design to be provided within a day. The customer challenged the Windstream Wholesale team to deliver all the bandwidth within 14 days. As its continued success has demonstrated, the fast and flexible team was up for the challenge and exceeded the customer’s expectations — the bandwidth was delivered in less than five days.
“We believe in strong partnerships that step up for each other in times of need. We were delighted to do just that for a company that had a vital bandwidth need,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale. “Windstream Wholesale’s ‘fast and flexible’ culture to design, cost, quote, sell, and deliver 100 Gig Waves from Chicago to Seattle in a compressed timeframe is something none of our competitors could match. In fact, our services were delivered before the customer ever received a quote from some of their other providers. Windstream Wholesale continues to be a leader and a difference maker in the industry, another great example of why others are partnering with our award-winning team.”
https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wholesale/interactive-map
Beijing's Capital Online picks Nokia's 7750 Service Router
Capital Online, a cloud computing service provider headquartered in Beijing, will deploy the Nokia 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7250 IXR interconnect router platforms to upgrade its IP backbone network.
The network upgrade entails that the converged backbone provides performance certainty for all traffic flows under all network conditions, the versatility to converge edge and core routing functions onto a common platform, smart traffic engineering with segment routing-MPLS, and granular QoS to address different traffic demands for reliable service delivery.
Xu Xiaohu, Chief Architect of Capital Online, said: “As a trusted partner of critical networks, Nokia has abundant experiences helping its global customers build high capacity and quality IP networks. We’re looking forward to collaborating with Nokia to accelerate the transformation of our network to provide faster, more reliable network services for our global customers throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.”
Markus Borchert, CEO of Nokia Shanghai Bell, said: “Capital Online is known for being specialists in delivering exceptional online experiences for global business. We are pleased to help it create an industry leading IP network that will upgrade its existing backbone network to the Network 2.0 era, paving the way to increase its footprint in the global Cloud market in the future.”
