AvidThink

Research and Analysis

AvidThink 2023 June Newsletter

For our US readers, we hope you enjoyed a delightful extended 4th of July weekend! For the rest of our readers, we appreciate your understanding regarding the delay in this month’s newsletter.

Here at AvidThink, we’re finally taking a much-needed summer break from the bustling conference circuit.

June witnessed Roy engaging with clients at Cisco Live! in Las Vegas, then a pulse check on OpenStack (which is thriving!) at the OpenInfra Summit in Vancouver. These events were followed by the SmartNIC Summit in San Jose, the Silverlinings Cloud-Native 5G Summit, and the Carrier Community’s Enterprise Summit in Berlin (which we attended remotely). Roy wrapped up June by participating in Security Field Day #9 (also known as XFD#9) in San Francisco.

Tech Field Day

The XFDs form part of the Tech Field Day series managed by Stephen Foskett (Gestalt IT) that covers diverse topics like networking, cloud, AI, storage, mobility, and edge. We initially collaborated with Stephen over a decade ago and continue to recommend this series to our clients when they want to boost their presence and credibility among technology influencers. The Packet Pushers are another well-regarded recommendation from us.

In case you missed the live interaction with Roy and the other delegates at XFD9, be sure to check out the YouTube playlist. It features NoName (API Security), Commvault (data security/ransomware prevention), HashiCorp (zero-trust access with Boundary and Vault), NetAlly (WiFi security), Cisco (NGFW and multi-cloud security), and Cribl (security observability management).

ICYMI: Other Recent Events and NextGenInfra Reports

We are on the brink of releasing our latest report on enterprise edge and cloud networking. This will cover a host of topics including SD-WAN, SASE, SSE, MCN, ZTNA, NaaS, and we have a report on private 5G planned for after the summer. You can reach us at [email protected] if you’re interested.

On to the latest in news.

5G

Nokia Transfers Container and Cloud Infrastructure Operations to Red Hat

In a strategic partnership, Nokia will hand over its container and cloud infrastructure operations to Red Hat. This arrangement positions Red Hat as the primary cloud infrastructure platform for developing, testing, and delivering Nokia’s core network applications. The alliance aims to integrate Nokia’s applications with Red Hat’s OpenStack and OpenShift platforms. While supporting its applications on other platforms, Nokia plans to facilitate customers’ transition to Red Hat. The deal will also see 350 Nokia employees moving to Red Hat.

Verizon Leverages OpenStack for 5G Network

At the recent OpenInfra Summit in Vancouver, Verizon’s software-defined network and cloud strategist, Beth Cohen, shared details on the company’s continued use of OpenStack, an open-source cloud computing platform, for its 5G network. Choosing OpenStack offered Verizon an efficient and flexible cloud infrastructure that supported its 5G network and other initiatives, allowing the company to customize its workloads.

Nokia Extends 5G RAN Deal with Virgin Media O2

As part of a three-year agreement, Nokia will provide Virgin Media O2 with radio access network (RAN) equipment for its 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks in southern England, including London. The deal incorporates Nokia’s latest generation Habrok massive MIMO radios, AirScale Baseband, and Interleaved Passive Active Antennas. The equipment uses 30% less energy and provides a 40% reduction in weight and volume.

Verizon to Introduce Network Slicing

Verizon’s VP of technology planning, Bill Stone, disclosed the company’s progress in network slicing. By the second half of the year, the company plans to route a portion of its customer traffic on network slices. Verizon recently demonstrated this capability on a commercially available smartphone over its standalone 5G network. The company used both virtualized and non-virtualized RAN equipment alongside its multi-vendor 5G standalone core network for the demo.

Dish’s 5G Network Now Covers Over 70% of US Population

Dish Wireless achieved a significant milestone in its 5G standalone network development, now reaching over 70% of the U.S. population, equivalent to 240 million people. As of mid-June, the company has deployed more than 15,000 5G sites. Dish also takes the lead as the first U.S. operator to launch a 5G voice service, Voice over New Radio (VoNR), starting in Las Vegas and gradually expanding to other markets.

O-RAN

Uncertain Economics of Open RAN

Despite industry enthusiasm for the innovation and potential cost advantages of open RAN, concerns about its economic viability persist. These concerns were highlighted in a poll conducted at the TelecomTV’s Open RAN Summit, where 62% of the 240 respondents identified total cost of ownership (TCO) models and analysis for commercial deployments as the most significant area requiring attention in the coming year.

SD-WAN

Cisco Buys Performance Monitoring Firms SamKnows and Accedian

Cisco announced intent to acquire two performance monitoring firms in June. UK-based SamKnows is an internet performance monitoring platform with telemetry agents are deployed by Telstra, Bell, British Telecom, Verizon, Virgin Media, Charter, Vodafone, and Rogers. Accedian’s service assurance suite is used by large ISPs and service providers including Telefonica, Colt, SK telecom, and T-Systems, to monitor and manage their networks. Both will likely be integrated with their ThousandEyes product line and applied across SD-WAN, WiFi, and routing products. Check out our recent webinar with both Cisco and Accedian before the acquisition announcement in our On-Demand Webinar section below.

AT&T Leads in Global SD-WAN

AT&T claimed the top spot on Vertical Systems Group’s 2022 Global Provider Carrier Managed SD-WAN Leaderboard, which includes service providers with 4% or more billable retail site share outside their home countries. The leaderboard positions AT&T first, followed by Orange Business, Verizon, BT Global Services, NTT, Telefonica Global Solutions, Hughes, and Vodafone. This ranking sees AT&T dethroning Orange from the first place it held in the previous leaderboard and BT surpassing NTT.

Network Complexity Fuels Demand for Managed SD-WAN and SASE

A new survey by fellow analysts, Futuriom, how’s network complexity is driving enterprise networking experts towards managed SD-WAN and SASE solutions. The survey, involving 196 enterprise networking and security users in the U.S., Germany, and India, found an increased reliance on SD-WAN and SASE technology to mitigate network and security challenges.

Cloud Updates

Oracle’s EU Sovereign Cloud Launch

Oracle has introduced the EU Sovereign Cloud to help businesses utilize cloud infrastructure while adhering to EU data localization regulations. Available in Frankfurt, Germany and Madrid, Spain, the EU Sovereign Cloud aims to give EU-based enterprises enhanced control over data privacy and fulfill EU sovereignty requirements, in response to escalating European data privacy regulations, starting with GDPR in 2018.

AWS’s $7.8B Investment in Ohio Data Centers

Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to invest $7.8 billion by 2030 to expand its data center operations in Ohio, marking the second-largest investment in Ohio’s history by a single private sector company, according to JobsOhio. AWS recently acquired approximately 400 acres of land near New Albany, Ohio, speculated to be used for a new data center. Since 2015, the company has invested $6.3 billion in Ohio on a data center and three availability zones.

Kubernetes: The Preferred Container Orchestration Layer for Cloud

As businesses shift workloads to the cloud, they predominantly containerize these applications using Kubernetes as the orchestration layer. Despite the need for significant investment, Kubernetes provides a beneficial developer abstraction layer for cloud-bound applications, making them more portable and flexible. Even as new deployment and packaging options like Web Assembly (WASM) appear, Kubernetes will continue to be key.

Prosimo Offers Free Multi-Cloud Networking Product

Prosimo is shaking up the cloud industry by providing its multi-cloud network product to enterprises for free. By doing so, Prosimo hopes to shift the focus from foundational connectivity to business outcome-driving apps and services. Prosimo will offer connectivity across three regions, regardless of the cloud provider, but will not cover the company’s cloud bill.

IBM Acquires Software Firm Apptio for $4.6B

IBM has announced the acquisition of software firm Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for $4.6 billion to enhance its automation capabilities. IBM plans to integrate Apptio into its existing IT automation software and AI platform to provide solutions for optimizing IT services.

T-Mobile Partners with Google’s Distributed Cloud Edge

T-Mobile is partnering with Google Cloud to fuse its 5G network with Google’s Distributed Cloud Edge, delivering edge compute solutions for retail, manufacturing, logistics, and smart city applications. A proof-of-concept edge compute demonstration, the “magic mirror,” was created at T-Mobile’s Tech Experience 5G Hub.

Private Equity wants a Piece of the Cloud

Private equity firms believe that the surge in artificial intelligence is going to result in a need for a lot more compute power, which in turn will require large data center platforms to be built. Stonepeak invested $3 billion in 2022 to acquire a 36% stake in American Tower’s data center subsidiary CoreSite. I Squared Capital’s portfolio company BDx has acquired 12 data center across four countries in the Asia Pacific and EQT Infrastructure in 2020 acquired EdgeConneX, which has 45 facilities around the world.

Multi-Cloud Promises Flexibility but Delivers Complexity

Shifting to a multi-cloud environment promises companies will have more flexibility because they can put certain workloads in specific clouds when needed. But that flexibility comes with some drawbacks. According to Deloitte, nearly 85% of businesses are using two or more clouds and nearly one-fourth are using five or more clouds. While more clouds equals more processing power, more redundancy and better pricing, it is also difficult for companies to manage. In addition, skills in one cloud don’t necessarily translate to other cloud platforms.

Private Networks

Federated Wireless Reduces Staff

Federated Wireless has cut its workforce from roughly 130 to under 100 as it refocuses on growth opportunities in private wireless networking, according to CEO Iyad Tarazi. Despite the layoffs, Tarazi maintains a bullish stance on the sector.

Celona Expands in Europe

Strengthening its European private wireless business, Celona has appointed several executives including Sanjeet Pandit, ex-Qualcomm and Ericsson executive, as VP of global relations. IDC forecasts the EMEA private wireless market to reach $1.9 billion by 2026, a promising indication for Celona’s expansion.

AWS 5G Powers Bakersfield Music Festival

AWS Private 5G provided a wireless network for the Lightning in a Bottle music festival, serving various connections, notably the point-of-sale systems. This year’s CRBS network used five radios (with a spare), and outperformed previous years’ deployments with local wireless Internet service providers (WISPs).

Open Source

Next-gen OpenWiFi by CableLabs and TIP

CableLabs and the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) have validated open-source OpenWiFi version 2.9. It leverages the uCentral communication layer, supports MAC-based device login, and features a captive portal for user authentication. This version also integrates OpenRoaming, promoting secure, automatic Wi-Fi access.

AI

Oracle Steps Up in AI

Oracle has been developing an AI infrastructure platform, catching the attention of high-profile AI startups. Boasting its ‘Superclusters’, the platform includes everything from cloud infrastructure to applications.

HPE Joins AI Race with New LLMs

HPE is now offering large language models (LLMs) for training and deploying AI via its supercomputing cloud service. Despite competition from tech giants, HPE’s modular system and commitment to renewable energy make it an appealing choice for enterprises and startups.

KT’s $5.4 Billion AI Investment by 2027

South Korea’s KT Corp. plans to invest $5.4 billion in its AI business by 2027, expecting to generate $773.1 million from AI-based services within two years. This ambition seems realistic given its current success in AI-customer care services and a newly launched AI-powered logistics service in Singapore.

Nokia Enhances SaaS Business with Automation

Nokia plans to incorporate automation into its cloud-native telco SaaS business. According to Mark Bunn, Nokia’s SVP of SaaS business operations, automation streamlines network operations and simplifies service customization for customers.

Wrapping Up

And…it’s a wrap! See you back here in early August for our round-up of July news (likely a slow news month, but you never know).

The AvidThink team