Mellanox, the networking chip company famous for its Infinband products has agreed to to buy photonics startup Kotura in an all-cash deal. The purchase comes after Kotura started making products for the data center. Read more »
Not content with open sourcing the server and storage hardware inside data centers, Facebook’s Open Compute Project has teamed up with others to build an open source top of rack switch. Here’s why it matters. Read more »
The internet of things is purportedly going to change our lives, boost our profits and create loads of economic opportunity. I don’t doubt this, but I do want to know how we’ll measure these gains. Read more »
Intel has big plans in the networking –plans that will upset the status quo from merchant silicon vendors like Broadcom to box makers like Cisco and Juniper who are dependent on custom ASICs. Read more »
The networking world is undergoing an epic disruption brought about by Open Flow and software defined networking. At the Open Networking Summit, we can see how the ecosystem has changed in a mere 18 months. Read more »
Cisco’s plans to fight back against commoditization of its business are now clear. And the strategy should work … for a while. Read more »
The newly formed OpenDaylight Project could spark wider adoption of software-defined networks with open-source code on the way. It could challenge existing SDN startups. Or the organization could fracture. Read more »
Amazon keeps cutting prices of its base level services, but software vendors still say when it comes to deployment in many cases, AWS is still not the most cost-efficient option. Read more »
Another month, another big acquisition to bolster Cisco’s portfolio for mobile carriers. This time it’s Ubiquisys, the highly-rated purveyor of small cells, SON technology and other operator-focused treats. Read more »
Set up by WebEx founder Subrah Iyar and launched in January, Moxtra offers an intriguing collaborative service for students and small businesses. Now it’s also available in 18 more languages. Read more »
Companies often need to decide between innovation and open standards when they put their data into the cloud. So how can we improve data portability? Read more »
As startups sign up more customers, legacy network vendors are talking about starting groups to form their own standards for software-defined networking. But there are already standards, and it could be too late. Read more »
Multiven, which has been embroiled in numerous legal clashes with Cisco in recent years, now claims the U.S. networking giant stole “thousands of its proprietary and copyrighted data files” from its systems. Read more »
As we process more information, we need faster networking gear at the edge and deep inside telecommunications hubs. CompassEOS is coming out of stealth with an optical router that’s faster and cheaper to operate. Read more »
Wi-Fi has moved from an at-home convenience to a public service as mobile devices continue to take over. Here’s a look at the new opportunities to connect with consumers, and how businesses can easily screw it all up. Read more »
Cisco may be facing an existential threat to its switching and router business, but a chart out from a research firm shows exactly how much the networking giant stands to lose. Read more »
Intel’s getting into the open source software business with it’s own version of Hadoop. It joins a host of startups as well as EMC Greenplum in building a distribution for big data. Read more »
Data portability — the ability to move your information between clouds (or in and out of clouds) with relative ease — is a key concern of companies considering a cloud move. Read more »
Software-defined networking vendors such as Embrane and Nicira have found customers in the managed-hosting realm, and with more startups bringing products to market, enterprises could follow suit later this year. Read more »
To hear Cisco tell it, the world is quickly running out of wireless spectrum. Tim Farrar, of TMF associates, says a look at the numbers shows that Cisco first overstated them, then revised them, and is now overstating them again. Read more »
Intel’s funding of Big Switch Networks indicates that the commoditization of networking hardware is a few steps closer. Read more »
Piston Cloud will use its dough — from new investors including Cisco, Data Collective and Swiscomm Ventures — to bolster its “differentiated” technology that will run on the OpenStack cloud. Read more »
With all the excitement around software-defined networking, most people forget that OpenFlow, which helped jump start that conversation, is more than just virtualization. It’s the creation of a common hardware platform that will commoditize the router. Read more »
Keeping the innovation ecosystem alive in the smart grid will depend on the big players like Silver Spring taking an active role working with startups. Read more »
Lots of personnel moves at and between VMware and parent company EMC (and spinoff Pivotal Initiative as it gets ready to launch.) Also: Cisco and NetApp launch more FlexPods. Read more »
The threat of software-defined networking has prompted Juniper to revamp its business model — switching from a hardware-based model to one more familiar in enterprise software. It has also unveiled an SDN strategy that preserves the importance of specialty hardware at the lowest level of the network. Read more »
Despite the idea that a server is a server, the needs of different computing customers differ widely. For those thinking about selling infrastructure, software or even services understanding the difference in computing and IT styles will help you hone your pitch and find your buyer. Read more »
This shift in WAN requirements is placing increased cost and performance pressure on traditional WAN solutions, which either pose the exorbitant costs of private WAN services or are burdened by the unreliability of the public internet. WAN optimization and virtualization can address and improve this in enterprises. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The efforts to sell Cisco’s Linksys business and Google’s attempts to sell Motorola’s set top business both indicate changes in the market for consumer boxes is changing. Soon we’ll see fewer of them. And maybe we’ll even lose the ISP-provided modems and routers. Read more »
Companies spent roughly $1.6 billion buying networking startups in 2012 with one deal being responsible for the lion’s share of that total. Yet, even if VMware hadn’t purchased Nicira for $1.26 billion, networking deals and software-defined networking deals in particular, were red hot in 2012. Read more »
Juniper will spend up to $176 million on stealthy software-defined networking startup Contrail. The move coming just weeks after Cisco’s own SDN buy and months after VMware’s $1.3 billion grab for Nicira show how aggressively the established vendors are about staking a claim. Read more »
Which OpenStack component is best for your needs? Mirantis says its Do-it-Yourself OpenStack service can sort this out for you and provide the best, most stable OpenStack infrastructure to meet given needs. Read more »
After raising $6.6 million in October, Pica8 is launching its combination of OpenFlow-based hardware and the software to control massively scaled-out data centers. The company is hoping that buyers will rip out old gear and replace it with its commodity switches and software. Read more »
Plexxi has made a new networking box that it calls a switch, but is radically different from the switches on the market today. The switch contains software plus an optical transceiver that link to other Plexxi boxes to form a fast connection between thousands of servers. Read more »
Many factors have driven the recent high demand for IT products and services. However, relentless global economic weakness and uncertainty have resulted in a deterioration of worldwide IT spending through the third quarter and will continue to be an anchor in the fourth quarter. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cisco will spend $141 million buying Cariden, a company that sells network planning and optimization software to ISPs. However, Cariden is also building out an SDN strategy and product portfolio that its service provider customers are already using today. Read more »
Hewlett-Packard’s Autonomy woes just keep on rolling; Cisco drops $1.2 billion on Meraki’s Wi-Fi smarts; and Amazon’s retail operations face sales tax bite on in more states — sparking questions on the impact on cloud services. Read more »
It’s a phone booth like you’ve never seen before. New York City is today launching hundreds of public smart screens to replace existing pay phones. The new platforms can do everything from provide directions to offer coupons to coordinate a disaster. Read more »
Big Switch Networks has come a long way since it launched in June of 2011, and two big announcements today showcasing its ecosystem and its newly launched products are signs that its going on the offensive in the software-defined networking space. Read more »
The growth of public and private cloud services places new demands on the IT organization, particularly when it comes to the scale, agility and management of the data center. SDNs are a response to those demands, providing opportunities for IT managers to improve their network operations. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
