We made it out to our first in-person Big 5G show in Denver in September and were glad to see quite a few familiar faces in the relatively thin crowds (probably because it was a hybrid event). In October, you can find us at KubeCon+CloudNativeCon and MWC LA in-person in Los Angeles.
AvidThink and Events
September was busy month for us: a webinar with Ekinops on uCPE and virtualization, opening for Upperside’s MPLS & SDN & AINet Event in virtual Paris, hosting a Layer 123 super-panel (2 hours of awesome content) on network slicing, chairing at ONF’s Private 5G event, sharing our thoughts on LFN ODIM project with HPE and Intel, and moderating a panel on 5G’s impact on business with AT&T and Cradlepoint.
If you missed any of those, the links should take you to registrations for the on-demand versions.
In October, we have an event with Enea coming right up on network detection and response, we’ll be participating in FutureNetWorld Asia on the opening CxO Keynote Panel, Application Management Summit at Edge Computing World, and we’ll be moderating at GSMA Edge Summit on the ground at MWC LA.
Beyond October, we’ll be attending and speaking at Layer 123 World Congress 2021 in November (now a virtual conference), and hopefully in person at Upperside’s SD-WAN and SASE 2021 conference in Paris in December.
Resource Sites
Current resource sites which you should visit if you haven’t. Our Private Mobile Networks was recently quoted by our friends at Credit Suisse in their note on “Who Earns the Future of 5G.”
- Private Mobile Networks — Featuring exclusive content from Boingo, Orange Business Services, Qualcomm, Linux Foundation, Accedian, Celona, Aarna Networks, Aruba/HPE, Fortinet, EdgeQ.
- Service Assurance — Featuring unique content from AT&T, Comcast Business, Ribbon, Emblasoft, Juniper Networks, Cisco/ThousandEyes, Amartus, and Prosimo.
- SD-WAN and SASE (Updated for 2021) — We recently refreshed our Resource Site and Report that provides an update on the market and features unique content from leading service providers and vendors.
Up next, Open RAN and Network Automation sites; please contact us at [email protected] if you are interested in participating or sponsoring those. On to our news summary for September!
5G News and Updates
T-Mobile expands its fixed home Internet service to four states
T-Mobile expanded the reach of its fixed home broadband service to 51 cities in four states, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Dish will use IBM’s network orchestration software
Dish will be using IBM’s AI-powered automation and network orchestration software in its cloud-native 5G network that it is building. The company said that this software platform will make it possible to do 5G network slicing.
Telefónica will use IBM for its cloud-native 5G core
Telefónica will use IBM’s Cloud Pak network automation software along with Red Hat’s Open Shift and Juniper Networks’ Apstra intent-based networking technology for the company’s cloud-native 5G core network.
5G and Open RAN
Nokia hits pause on O-RAN Alliance work
Nokia suspended its work with the O-RAN Alliance over concerns that some contributors in the group have ties to China and have landed on the U.S. entity list (but, see two stories down for the latest – reversal in the same month!).
Dell says it isn’t pulling back from its work with the O-RAN Alliance
Despite concerns from some companies that some O-RAN Alliance contributors have ties to China, Dell says it isn’t going to stop working with the O-RAN Alliance, nor will it back away from the half dozen to a dozen other groups that have formed around open RAN.
Nokia resumes work with O-RAN Alliance
Soon after Nokia’s earlier announcement that they would pause their work with the alliance, the O-RAN Alliance said that it will make future technical contributions non-confidential. This satisfied U.S. lawmakers and Nokia and now the Finnish company said it will continue its work with the Alliance.
KDDI will use Samsung’s vRAN
Korean operator KDDI is deploying Samsung’s virtual radio access network (vRAN) in its standalone 5G network that it is deploying in mid-band spectrum.
Private 5G/LTE
ONF’s new business unit, Ananki, will focus on private 5G
The Open Networking Foundation has created a new business unit, called Ananki, that will focus on commercializing the group’s Aether platform for private 5G. Ananki will be an independent venture-backed company.
Cleveland non-profit builds a private LTE network
DigitalC, a Cleveland-based nonprofit, is working with Nokia to build a private LTE network to deliver high-speed connectivity to underserved homes in the city. The organization hopes to have all 34 neighborhoods in Cleveland covered with its network by the end of 2022.
SD-WAN and SASE
Windstream CMO says that SD-WAN was stalled during the pandemic
Windstream CMO Mike Flannery talks to Light Reading about why enterprises didn’t deploy SD-WAN as widely as the industry anticipated during the beginning of the pandemic. But he adds that this is changing as remote access tools improve and enterprises budget for a long-term distributed workforce.
Cisco and Equinix partner on SD-WAN, global connectivity
Cisco and Equinix are collaborating on a product called Cisco’s SD-WAN Cloud Interconnect with Equinix that will provide automated connectivity to the big public clouds as well as enterprise-to-enterprise connectivity using Equinix’s points of presence around the world.
Extreme Networks enters SD-WAN market through acquisition
Extreme Networks CTO and Chief Product Officer Nabil Bukhari discusses how the company plans to incorporate Infovista’s Ipanema SD-WAN service into its business and deliver SD-WAN as a service to customers.
Cloud Computing
Windstream and Comcast unveil their internal cloud strategies
Executives from Windstream and Comcast discussed how their companies are using a mix of private and public clouds for their internal operations. Windstream, for example, has workloads served by a wide range of vendors, including AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Salesforce.
Microsoft hires former AWS executive Charlie Bell
Microsoft has hired Charlie Bell, formerly from Amazon Web Services software business, to run its cybersecurity operations. Bell will report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Wells Fargo picks Microsoft and Google to be its public cloud providers
Wells Fargo & Co. is embracing a multi-cloud approach and selected Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud as its public cloud providers. The company also said it will move toward third party data centers as it relies on public cloud in the longer term.
U.S. cloud providers are benefiting from European cloud boom
The cloud services market has ballooned in Europe and the big American public cloud companies are benefiting from it. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud now account for 69% of the European market.
Telefónica Spain will use Oracle to speed its cloud transition
Telefónica Spain signed a multi-year deal with Oracle to speed the migration of its business operations to the cloud. As part of the deal, Oracle will deploy and manage an on-premises version of its Exadata Cloud Service in Telefónica’s data centers.
Edge and Edge Cloud
Arrcus hires a new CEO from VMware
Networking startup Arrcus has hired former VMware executive Shekar Ayyar as its new CEO and board chairman. In addition, the company raised another $28 million in backing from high-profile investors including SoftBank and Liberty Global.
HPE hires former VMware executive as its new CTO
Hewlett Packard Enterprise hired Fedelma Russo to be its new CTO. Russo, formerly was the SVP and GM of VMware’s cloud services business. HPE CEO Antonio Neri said that Russo’s expertise will help VMware transform itself into a cloud services company.
HPE hires former BT executive to head the company’s telco group
Hewlett Packard Enterprise hired former BT and Vodafone executive Tom Craig as the head of its telco-focused Communications Technology Group. The unit is a combination of HPE’s telco infrastructure, software and services businesses.
Open Networking
Vodafone says it has built a disaggregated BNG
Vodafone claims it has built a disaggregated Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) from hardware and software culled together by different vendors and using a standard, called TR-459, that was created by the Broadband Forum.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Adtran buys ADVA for $931M
Adtran purchased Germany-based ADVA Optical Networking for $931 million. The deal is intended to strengthen Adtran’s product line and give it a stronger presence in Europe.
AT&T agreed to sell its Vyatta unit to Ciena
AT&T decided to sell the Vyatta routing and switching business unit to Ciena for an undisclosed sum. The company is selling this business less than four years after it acquired it from Brocade.
And that’s it for now. Check out our Private Mobile Networks, Service Assurance, and SD-WAN and SASE Refresh sites and watch out for our Open RAN and Network Automation sites coming soon!
