Saturday, May 16, 2020

Friday, May 15, 2020

VMware SVP Patrick Morley Talks Top 3 Security Priorities

VMware Carbon Black kicked off its Connect 2020 virtual event with a bang as SVP and GM Patrick Morley announced a strategic security acquisition (Octarine) and a coalition that includes all of the leading security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) players. The vendor also detailed deeper integrations between its Carbon Black Cloud security platform, acquired when it bought that company for $2.1 billion last year, and its device management products. And it plans to add new integrations with other VMware products this year.

Report: Telecom services sector resilient in face of COVID-19

Due to its ability to provide critical services, COVID-19 is having a limited impact on the worldwide telecommunications sector, according to a report. International Data Corporation (IDC) said worldwide spending on telecommunications and pay TV services will reach almost $1.6 trillion this year, which would be down by 0.8% from last year.

Raynovich: The real story behind Microsoft's Metaswitch buy

Oh dear. The trade press is at it again. Microsoft jumps on Metaswitch, which it announced it's acquiring, and everybody takes things at face value rather than seeing the forest through the trees. The consensus story is that Microsoft is buying Metaswitch Networks —after it bought Affirmed Networks—because it wants to be a service provider supplier. Bwahahahahah!

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Daily Roundup: Oracle Challenges AWS

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

Rakuten Mobile Abruptly Delays 5G Timeline

Rakuten Mobile completely changed its 5G tune in the span of four weeks. The operator today said its 5G network will be delayed about three months due to some supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 crisis.

Oracle Challenges AWS to Cloud Calculator Duel

Oracle this week put its money – and yours – where its mouth is by launching the Oracle Cloud Workload Cost Estimator as a direct challenge to Amazon Web Service (AWS) to prove the claim that its own cloud is cheaper. 

Microsoft buys Metaswitch, advancing its telecom ambitions

Microsoft is buying Metaswitch Networks, a U.K. company that develops software for both fixed and wireless telecommunications networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition follows quickly on the heels of Microsoft’s recent purchase of Affirmed Networks, which closed on April 23, 2020.

Intelsat files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Satellite operator Intelsat filed for Chapter 11 restructuring, saying the move is intended in part to position the company to participate in clearing of C-band spectrum under an FCC order that will provide that spectrum for 5G.

VMware to buy Kubernetes security startup Octarine

VMware announced it was buying Kubernetes security vendor Octarine to simplify DevSecOps and enable cloud-native environments to be intrinsically secure from development through runtime. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Slow Drip to Service Mesh With HashiCorp Consul 1.8

Success doesn’t happen overnight, nor does migrating from a legacy environment to a service mesh platform, that’s why HashiCorp today announced the beta availability of its service networking platform. Consul 1.8 includes features that enable incremental migration towards a service mesh in heterogeneous environments.

Microsoft Munches Metaswitch to Satiate 5G Craving

Microsoft’s appetite for 5G remains robust as the computing giant has acquired virtualized network software provider Metaswitch Networks in a move to further bolster its 5G-based networking portfolio. The deal comes less than two months after Microsoft acquired virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) vendor Affirmed Networks.

Enterprise Job-Cut Plans Accelerating, Gartner Finds

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is quickly impacting enterprise workforce plans, according to a new finance executive survey conducted by Gartner. This despite the pledge by some in the software and cloud space to forgo such moves in light of the growing economic uncertainty.

Red Hat Extends OpenShift Control Into AWS

Red Hat expanded managed support of its bread-and-butter OpenShift platform to Amazon Web Services (AWS) allowing for an enterprise-focused Kubernetes service that is jointly managed by both vendors. The move follows up on a similar launch last year with Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

Daily Roundup: VMware, Google Deepen Ties

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

Colt drops latency on European routes with Arista's switches

Colt Technology Services has lowered the latency on its European PrizmNet routes that serve capital markets by deploying new switches from Arista Networks. Colt's PrizmNet was designed to meet the low latency, high-speed requirements of financial brokers, investment funds and foreign exchange-related applications.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Rakuten Mobile’s Ambitious 5G Plans Bleed Red

Rakuten Mobile’s entrance into the highly penetrated Japanese telecommunications market using a fully virtualized cloud-native network architecture to power its 4G LTE and 5G service is having a significant financial hit on its parent company’s overall operations, but that is not stopping the mobile unit from spending even more money to bolster its long-term telecom plans.

Daily Roundup: VMware Buys Security Startup

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

VMware Buys Kubernetes Security Startup Octarine

VMware Carbon Black kicked off its Connect 2020 virtual conference today announcing that it will acquire Kubernetes security startup Octarine. It also formed a coalition with leading security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) providers Splunk, IBM Security, Google Cloud’s Chronicle, Exabeam, and Sumo Logic.

Stored Data Doubling Every 4 Years, IDC Says

IDC is estimating that the worldwide installed base of data storage capacity will grow nearly 17% this year to 6.8 zettabytes (ZB), and grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 18% through 2024. The research firm noted that the rate of growth of what it terms the “Global StorageSphere” will be most visible in core and edge deployments.

ISPs ask Congress for a COVID-19 bailout

In what some analysts describe as a 'fatal flaw,' an FCC extension of a program designed to prevent network operators from canceling customers' service during the pandemic is driving certain ISPs to seek money from Congress.

Verizon’s Nationwide 5G Plan Remains Hazy

Verizon is on plan to deploy five times as many 5G radio base stations this year as it did last year, according to CEO Hans Vestberg. The operator is also, in some cases, ahead of plan but it is encountering permitting or other delays in some municipalities, he said at a digital investor conference.

Cogent hires Wallace as its new CFO and treasurer

Cogent Communications announced on Monday that it has hired Sean Wallace as its new vice president, CFO and treasurer. Also on Monday, Cogent said that Thaddeus G. Weed had stepped down from his role of chief financial officer, effective immediately, but will remain with Cogent as senior vice president for audit and operations.

Data center provider Aligned secures $575M in credit

Data center and colocation provider Aligned announced on Tuesday that it has increased its secured credit facility to $575 million. Aligned said it has seen increased customer demand for its adaptive infrastructure solutions across its facilities in Ashburn, Virginia, Dallas, Texas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

To the Edge and Beyond

Just like Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series “Star Trek” where the cyborg race the “Borg” subsumed all other races with the tag line “resistance is futile”, programmable fabrics are fast becoming the way of the future and whether we consume them underneath a more traditional full stack router or more directly using modern day programmable fabric controllers they are set to become a part of the networking fabric.

ONF bows Continuous Certification Program, partners with OCP

Legacy certification in the era of open source is painfully slow, so the Open Networking Foundation is turbo-charging the process via a new program. The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) formally announced its Continuous Certification Program on Tuesday, but it's been in the works for a while, according to the ONF's Timon Sloane, vice president of market and ecosystem.

Monday, May 11, 2020

Rubrik Touts Data Leverage, Legacy Sucks

Multi-cloud data control company Rubrik this week announced expanded public cloud coverage to more workloads on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The announcement was part of its first ever Forward Digital Summit. 

OpenStack Ussuri Update Tackles Reliability, Security

The latest OpenStack Ussuri release drops May 13, bringing with it a focus on improving the reliability, security, and extending use case support for the software infrastructure platform. The update also highlights the ongoing activity behind the widely used software infrastructure layer that continues to trade on its robustness compared to newer options.

Zoom Telephonics CEO sets his exit

Joe Wytanis, an exec late of Cisco and Scientific-Atlanta, came on board in 2018 to help the cable modem vendor, which sells products under the Motorola brand, make some headway in the service provider market.

Altice USA CEO defends FTTP game plan

Cutting opex and goosing performance are driving forces for FTTP upgrades, but Altice USA believes the move will also enable it to lean more heavily on its HFC network to backhaul wireless traffic.

Trump Seeks to End US Reliance on Asian Chip Fabs

The Trump administration, seizing upon supply chain shortages resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has turned its sights to ending the United State’s reliance on Asia for the manufacture of semiconductor technologies, despite warnings that such action could damage U.S. leadership in the market.

ONF, OCP Join Forces, Add Certification to CI/CD

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), working with the Open Compute Project (OCP), today launched a program that will continually test and certify compliance with ONF open source software projects and OCP-recognized open hardware.

Charter talks with AT&T about wholesale MVNO agreement

Charter has a wholesale agreement for its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) traffic to ride on Verizon’s network. But speaking on a MoffettNathanson investor call today, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said, “We have a good relationship with AT&T. We have had discussions about the MVNO. They’re interested in having a relationship with us, and we’re interested in having a relationship with them.”

Verizon keeps close tabs on Dish promises to disrupt: CFO

On Verizon’s first-quarter earnings call, EVP and CFO Matt Ellis revealed that 800,000 customers had informed the company that they intended to avail themselves of the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected pledge, which, among other things, asks service providers to keep customers connected if they can’t pay their bills due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Windstream targets late August for end of bankruptcy

If all goes according to plan, Windstream Holdings will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, according to Tony Thomas, president and chief executive officer of Windstream. During Windstream's pre-recorded first quarter earnings call on Monday, Thomas said Windstream hoped to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late August subject to regulatory approvals.

Pivotal takes ‘lemons’ out of mmWave to improve coverage

Pivotal Commware, a Kirkland, Washington-based startup backed by Bill Gates, released a new white paper and video to demonstrate how a Tier 1 mobile operator can use its Echo 5G and Pivot 5G repeaters to increase indoor 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) coverage while reducing deployment costs.

Walker: Due to COVID-19, 2020 a crisis year for telco vendors

The spread of COVID-19 across the world has caused a standstill in many sectors of the economy, as hundreds of millions shelter in place. Parts of the telecom supply chain benefit from this shift, but the net effect on the sector is a negative. Preliminary results from vendors selling to the telco sector verify this: First quarter revenues dropped 6% year over year, and the worst is yet to come.

Mobile operators shouldn’t underestimate their cable competitors

Mobile operators are no longer just battling their wireless peers for customers. The two largest cable mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) — Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile and Charter’s Spectrum Mobile — reported postpaid wireless net adds in the first quarter that surpassed both AT&T and Verizon’s postpaid net adds.  

Industry Voices — Blaber: Separating vRAN fact from fiction

It’s hard to escape the hype around 5G but if there’s one area where industry attention is almost as palpable, it’s in the radio access network (RAN) itself. This is a considerable change given that the RAN has operated for years as a highly distributed and proprietary part of the network. However, the need for more flexibility, agility and lower costs is causing operators to think about new and different deployment options for the RAN.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Ericsson Pins 5G Gains on Pandemic

Ericsson today, buoyed by a surge in mobile network traffic, said it expects the global pandemic to accelerate the adoption of 5G services beyond previous forecasts. The Swedish vendor raised its prediction for 5G subscriptions from 2.6 billion to 2.8 billion by 2025, adding that some gains will also occur before the end of 2020.

McAfee, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks Track Evolving COVID-19 Cyberattacks

As cyberattacks and threats continue to grow and mutate along with the COVID-19 pandemic, three security reports from CrowdStrike, McAfee, and Palo Alto Networks shine a spotlight and how these attacks are evolving — and they indicate that businesses aren’t as prepared to secure their now-remote workforce as they think.

FirstNet, AT&T begin edging toward 5G

FirstNet, with partner AT&T, is looking at 5G technologies like Device to Device (D2D) and enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS). But it has no 5G launch date yet.

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