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 »
Forget what comes after infinity, we at GigaOm were worried about a smaller problem, namely what comes after a yottabyte. Well now we know the answer to that problem — a 1 followed by 27 zeros (a yottabyte only has 24 zeros), otherwise known as a brontobyte. Read more »
The purpose of the on-screen guide has shifted. By connecting the guide to content-recommendation engines and advertising platforms, service providers and connected-TV device manufacturers are using the EPG as an access point for understanding consumers and reaching out to them to own the living room. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cisco and CA are working with Citrix to support its CloudPlatform implementation of CloudStack. The news, out of Citrix Synergy in Barcelona, comes as a raft of OpenStack news hits the wire. Read more »
The nation’s biggest broadband and cable provider is joining the OpenStack effort, just in time for it’s big coming out party in San Diego next week. Comcast is also working with Cisco on applications that can build on that open-source infrastructure. Read more »
IBM and Cisco have both launched specialized hardware designed to securely and efficiently handle big data, but is there a large market for specialized big data gear? If there is such a market, are these the boxes that will fill it? Read more »
The U.S. Congress is set to release a report that tells U.S. firms not to buy gear from Chinese telecoms vendors Huawei and ZTE. But is the report a real assessment of a threat or just economic protectionism? Here’s how we might be able to tell. Read more »
vCider’s virtual networking smarts will help Cisco build distributed cloud infrastructure that ties into its own Open Networking Environment. The move is seen as a counter to VMware’s acquisition of Nicira. Read more »
Arista Networks, one of the quiet success stories of Silicon Valley co-founded by legendary engineer Andy Bechtolsheim has hired Michael Lehman, formerly of Palo Alto Networks as its CFO. It has added Cisco’s SDN guru Tom Black to its team already chock-a-block with engineering heavyweights. Read more »
Broadband caps are spreading like Kudzu but the FCC has no oversight of how ISPs implement them or who they affect. While, the agency is showing signs of waking up to the problem, we’ve laid out three areas where it needs to take action. Read more »
Mobile data will grow 18 times over the next five years. To successfully address the shift from voice-to data-centric usage models, operators need to act on multiple fronts, because no single solution will be sufficient in isolation. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cisco Systems’ sixth acquisition of the year is of ThinkSmart Technologies, an Irish company that specializes in Wifi analytics. The company’s technology will be integrated into Cisco’s Wireless Networking group. The deal closed in Cisco’s first fiscal quarter. Read more »
Cisco’s CEO John Chambers is tossing around hints of his possible retirement in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg. The CEO, who has been in that role for 17 years, listed a few of his potential successors as well as gave a two-to-four-year time frame. Read more »
Welcome to the fast-growing world of work media, a class of social tools oriented toward the needs of enterprises. Their emergence is due to the shifting expectations of an increasingly social workforce and the sense that older approaches to work like email are arguably approaching obsolescence. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here are some noteworthy segments to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to apps to wireless networks. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As the volume of connected devices increases, so too will the probability of hackers targeting these systems to exploit networks, steal data, hijack systems, and compromise workflows. Security specialists recognize the potential risks and are already developing technologies and methodologies for hardening M2M systems from attack. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cisco wants to rethink the big data business model by putting infomediaries at the center of vast data-sharing networks. It’s a vision of easy access to data and resources, where analyses can be conducted and acted upon in real time, but it’s a long way off. Read more »
Intel warned that its sales and capital spending would be down for the coming quarter. It’s not alone and its worries aren’t just about the PC market. ARM, Cisco and others are signaling that another tech downturn may be in the cards. Read more »
SUSE’s Alan Clark and Cisco’s Lew Tucker are the chairman and vice chairman of the fledgling OpenStack Foundation. They’ve got a lot on their plate as the foundation has to wean itself from Rackspace and set its own course. Read more »
While cloud, mobility, social, and analytics have been driving demand for IT products and services in 2012, the worldwide IT spending picture has become dimmer as the year has progressed: We’re looking at 5.1 percent worldwide IT spending growth in 2012. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Why should mid-market companies deploy multiple data center appliances if one can do the job? That’s the rationale behind SimpliVity’s new OmniCube appliance that merges storage, server, deduplication, and other tasks into one 2U box and can be federated across sites. Read more »
As it preps its go-to-market plans, the semi-stealthy startup brings another former Cisco product whiz aboard to lead engineering. Lele Nardin spent 15 years at the networking leader and was most recently SVP of engineering at Ericsson Silicon Valley. Read more »
The software-defined networking (SDN) market is expected to soar in size to $2 billion by 2016, according to IDC. Growth this fast may very well signify that SDN is the third epoch of computer networking, creating vendor discontinuities and a new IT order. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The new deal between EMC and Lenovo to sell server-storage bundles could shake up hardware rivals including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and — perhaps most intriguingly — Cisco Systems. EMC, Cisco and VMware are partners on the VCE Vblock effort. Read more »
If there was any doubt that software-defined networking (SDN) expertise is a hot ticket, Oracle’s planned acquisition of Xsigo, coming on the heels of VMware’s blockbuster $1.26 billion buy of Nicira, should erase it once and for all. Read more »
Cloud computing is changing the world of microprocessor-chip design. Soon we will see a division between the traditional players (typified by Intel and AMD) and a group of new incumbents (Tilera and others) that offer fresh solutions to make the world’s microprocessor chips as efficient as possible. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
VMware’s planned acquisition of Nicra for $1.25 billion represents the evolution of networking beyond the hardware-dominated point of view that has sustained the industry for decades. Here’s what that means for startups in the networking realm as well as for the industry giants. Read more »
In cloud and big data, the second quarter of 2012 featured several high-profile deals and product launches that could reshape the marketplace for everyone. Google and Microsoft launched Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings, software-defined networking took off, and all eyes stayed fixed on the continuing promise of data analytics. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cisco Systems is buying Virtuata, a specialist in virtual machine security and will meld that company into its data center security group, led by David Yen. As virtualization of workloads proliferates across organizations and data centers, the need for VM security will only grow. Read more »
Vacation season is in full swing, but small business owners continue to be besieged, as ever, with a tidal wave of responsibilities. The collision of these two realities could equal frustration, but according to a new survey, there’s actually a happier result– more remote work. Read more »
