Saturday, March 27, 2021

Friday, March 26, 2021

CCA to discuss buckets of money for broadband on the table

People have been talking about closing the digital divide for ages, but the pandemic in 2020 caused the U.S. Congress to start putting real money on the table for this. There are now so many initiatives to close the digital divide that it’s a bit hard to keep track of them all.
           

Thursday, March 25, 2021

HPC Storage Woes? Object Storage Can Help

High-performance computing (HPC) hinges on its ability to analyze and categorize large amounts of unstructured data. As the data explosion continues, enterprises are on the hunt for cost-effective storage that can scale with their HPC needs, and according to Cloudian CTO Gary Ogasawara, object storage is the golden goose.
           

Comcast Gets SASE With Palo Alto Networks

Comcast Business and Palo Alto Networks partnered to provide networking and cloud-delivered security services to midsize and enterprise customers. The move combines Comcast Business’ ActiveCore SDN platform and Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Access secure access service edge (SASE) for branch network and mobile user security.
           

Inmarsat nabs former Nokia CMO Barry French

Inmarsat’s new CEO is busy assembling his team, hiring Nokia’s former CMO Barry French as the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (CMCO) and appointing Jat Brainich as Chief Commercial and Product Officer (CCPO).  
           

Nokia adds integrated SAS to its CBRS offering

Just a few weeks after achieving certification as a SAS administrator, Key Bridge Wireless has announced a partnership with Nokia, which will integrate the company's Spectrum Access System with Nokia's private wireless network equipment. The solution consists of Key Bridge's SAS/ESC coupled with Nokia CBRS radios, user devices and new domain proxy.
           

Apcela adds Versa's SASE, Secure SD-WAN

Apcela and Versa Networks have expanded their ongoing partnership to enable Apcela to offer Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Secure SD-WAN capabilities as part of its portfolio of managed networking services.
           

IBM enhances hybrid cloud security offerings

IBM became the latest cloud technology company to outline a new set of capabilities for hybrid cloud management with news of new and enhanced security services aimed at helping customers manage security strategy, policies and controls across hybrid clouds.
           

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Wiz Scores $130M, Joins Cybersecurity Unicorn Club

Wiz, a cloud-security startup founded by the team that built Microsoft Azure’s cloud security stack, closed a $130 million funding round in what has been (another) very good week for cybersecurity unicorns. The Series B round, announced a little over a year since the company’s launch and its $100 million Series A, pushed Wiz’s valuation to $1.7 billion.
           

Apcela Pairs MPLS Backbone With Versa’s SASE

MPLS and other low-latency networks still have their place in a SASE world, according to Apcela CEO Mark Casey. The managed service provider expanded its relationship with Versa today with the launch of Arcus, a platform designed to improve application performance across the vendor’s secure access service edge (SASE) platform.
           

Intel, T-Mobile Offer Sober, Realistic 5G Enterprise Outcomes

Mobile 5G network connectivity is augmenting and intersecting with developments underway in many industries. Enterprises in these segments operate under decade-long innovation cycles, much like the telecom industry, but the convergence of these separate advancements is on the cusp of delivering significant outcomes, Intel VP Asha Keddy said. 
           

Samsung Mixes Marvell IP Into Massive MIMO 5G SoC

Samsung’s mid-band 5G radios that pack massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) beamforming capabilities feature a system-on-a-chip (SoC) jointly developed with Marvell. Samsung said its next generation mid-band 5G radios will begin shipping with this SoC before this summer.
           

WISPA wants 200 MHz allocated to close digital divide

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) is asking lawmakers and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to consider a three-part proposal it has developed to close the digital divide in America. WISPA’s “Path to Gigabit” plan includes policy related to spectrum, federal subsidies and infrastructure rules.
           

Jeffries analyst says rural broadband is ripe for investment

The Covid-19 pandemic combined with the trend of people leaving cities to live in rural areas is putting pressure on the U.S. government to fix the digital divide and that is resulting in lots of money being designated for rural broadband.  Not surprisingly, many broadband providers are now turning their attention to rural broadband, creating more competition among cable operators, telcos and wireless providers.
           

Comcast pledges $1B over 10 years to close digital divide

Comcast today said it would invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to help close the digital divide in the United States. Its commitment includes additional support for its ongoing Lift Zone initiative, which aims to establish Wi-Fi-connected spaces in 1,000+ community centers by the end of 2021.
           

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Analysts Applaud Intel's Strategy, Question Ability to Execute

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has, in the span of five weeks, already managed to make his mark on the chipmaker. During a press conference Tuesday, Gelsinger announced Intel would open its foundries to contract customers, invest $20 billion to construct new fabs in Arizona, and contract with outside foundries, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), for a growing number of products.
           

NetApp, Rubrik CEOs Tout Hybrid Cloud Building Block

When it comes to hybrid cloud, “your business goes only as fast as the data infrastructure that supports the business,” NetApp CEO George Kurian said during a fireside chat with Rubrik co-founder and CEO Bipul Sinha as part of the Rubrik & NetApp Data Protection Summit. 
           

Cisco Intersight Gains HashiCorp Terraform Integration

Cisco struck a multi-year deal to sell HashiCorp’s Terraform Cloud Business infrastructure-as-code (IaC) software product as a hosted platform alongside its own Intersight cloud-based infrastructure management tool. The platform adds another layer of management for enterprises needing to oversee their hybrid cloud deployments.
           

Dell (Still) Reigns Supreme Over HCI Market

Dell Technologies, per usual, won the No. 1 spot in IDC’s quarterly market tracker for branded hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) systems, followed by rising star Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE), which saw fourth-quarter HCI revenue growth swell 25.4% and cushion its lead over Nutanix, who, for the third consecutive quarter saw a double-digit revenue decline.    
           

Cisco and Google expand SD-WAN Cloud Hub partnership

Cisco and Google are deepening their partnership between Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Cisco SD-WAN. The two companies announced that they are now integrating vManage, which is Cisco’s SD-WAN management platform, with Google Cloud’s Connectivity Center, making it possible for enterprises to use GCP’s backbone network and have a unified user interface for workflow as well as automated backend processes.
           

Nokia says its automation tool can manage multiple clouds

Nokia has developed an automation tool that it says will help service providers manage multiple cloud-based data centers. As operators roll out 5G, the number of these cloud-based data centers are expected to proliferate because they are needed to support the high volumes of data that will run over the 5G network.  
           

Monday, March 22, 2021

AT&T lands $231M U.S. Treasury Department contract

AT&T scored a $231 million 12-year contract with the U.S. Treasury Department to modernize the agency’s voice and data networks and provide cybersecurity protections. The contract is part of the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) technology procurement program.
           

Intel Opens Foundries, Drops $20B on Arizona Fabs

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger shepherded in a new era for the chipmaker today, announcing the company would open its fabrication facilities to contract customers and invest $20 billion to construct two new chip fabs in Arizona this year.
           

Amazon Taps Former VP Selipsky to Helm AWS

Amazon today named the next leader of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest public cloud provider. Adam Selipsky will return to the company, following a nearly five-year break from Amazon as the CEO of Tableau, in a couple months, the tech giant announced today.
           

Did the NFL sack the pay-TV bundle?

In their latest reports, several Wall Street analysts argue that the NFL's new 11-year, $110 billion TV rights deals with a slew of networks issue a crushing blow to the future of sports on linear, multichannel TV.
           

ViacomCBS courts 5G industry

Following the recent debut of Paramount+, the media giant said it intends to connect with 5G vendors and network operators, hailing 5G as a platform that's poised to 'revolutionize the media and entertainment industry.'
           

Google Cloud Drives SD-Underlays Into Cisco SD-WAN

Enterprises can now use Google Cloud Platform’s (GCP) private backbone network as an on-demand underlay for stitching together private data center, public cloud, and branch connectivity over virtual private network (VPN) tunnels or via Cisco SD-WAN appliances.
           

AT&T Lands US Treasury Network Upgrade Contract

AT&T today landed a 12-year contract with the U.S. Treasury to upgrade its voice and data networks spanning mobile, fixed, and broadband. The $231 million contract also calls for AT&T to strengthen the cybersecurity stature of the Treasury Department’s telecom networks.
           

Orca Security Banks $210M to Battle Palo Alto Networks

Orca Security today said it closed a $210 million Series C funding on a $1.2 billion valuation that pushed the cloud security startup from seed to cybersecurity unicorn in two years. The company has spent the last two years building and selling a comprehensive cloud security platform “that actually works,” and it plans to use the new investment to scale the company and win customers from Palo Alto Networks.
           

Benu Networks brings cloud-native to its virtual BNG

Benu Networks is bringing together the benefits of a cloud-native architecture with the company’s broadband network gateway (BNG). The company released a cloud-native virtual BNG (vBNG) that is targeted at telcos and is based on Benu’s software-defined edge (SD-Edge) platform. Because the vBNG is based upon disaggregated network functions, Benu said that service providers can scale their broadband service securely and use the gateway in both wired and wireless networks, or in a converged network.
           

Verizon may densify its network for C-band in the mid-term

Verizon’s EVP and CEO of its consumer group Ronan Dunne is stoked about the company’s new C-band spectrum. Speaking at a FierceWireless virtual event today, Dunne talked about Verizon’s roadmap for deploying C-band, and he answered a question about the need to deploy more macro towers for the mid-band spectrum.
           

European telcos, vendors form green digital coalition

Twenty-six companies, including many telecom service providers and vendors, have formed the European Green Digital Coalition, declaring their intent to invest in green digital technologies and create guidelines for green digital transformations, among other initiatives.
           

Broadband growth will slow after strong 2020: Wells Fargo

Broadband subscribers numbers in the U.S. are likely to grow at a slower rate in the coming years as increasing market penetration confronts the limits of the number of households that can afford broadband service, according to new research from Wells Fargo Securities LLC.
           

Virginia grants $20.1M to fund 11 broadband projects

Virginia’s state government last week awarded a combined $20.1 million to 11 communities and their broadband network operator partners for projects expected to improve broadband access  to more than 13,400 homes, businesses and other institutions across the state.
           

Intelligent Network Delivery Based on Big Data Platform

In the evolution to 5G, with the enrichment of data services, popularity of intelligent terminals, and gradual implementation of the internet of everything (IoT), the volume of data traffic in communication networks is becoming larger and larger. The huge amount of data cannot be captured or processed by conventional software tools, which brings great challenges to network delivery and operations. A new network management mode that can collect, store, analyze and apply massive communication data becomes an urgent requirement for efficient network delivery. As a result, many big data tools and systems based on the big data platform play a vital role in network delivery, making network delivery more efficient and intelligent.
           

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Samsung Collaborates With NTT DOCOMO on 5G

Samsung Electronics today announced the company has been selected as a 5G network solution provider for NTT DOCOMO, INC., a leading mobile operator in Japan. Samsung will support DOCOMO with its innovative 5G technology, including O-RAN-compliant solutions, to bring enriched 5G services to users, advance digital transformation for businesses, and improve society at large.
           

Cox SVP on making the move beyond middle management

In part two of this Mentor Spotlight series, Cox's Patricia Martin shares how organizations can better provide flexible working environments to support the remote workforce, and how women can tap mentors to accelerate their career trajectory.
           

Altice settles NY storm damage case

Big US cable operator agrees to spend nearly $72 million to upgrade its network and operations and issue customer credits because of damage caused by Tropical Storm Isaias last year.
           

Fortinet Buys Multi-Cloud Security Vendor ShieldX Networks

Fortinet snapped up multi-cloud security vendor ShieldX Networks late last week. Founded in 2015, ShieldX offers a software-defined network security platform designed to protect infrastructure services that span multiple physical, virtual, and cloud-based environments.
           

Archive