Displaying items by tag: Enterprise

CommScope today introduced additions to its portfolio of access points supporting Wi-Fi 6 technology, bringing the benefits of higher data rates, increased capacity, improved power efficiency and better performance in environments with multiple connected devices.

In addition to the RUCKUS R750, introduced last year as the world’s first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 access point (AP), CommScope added the R850, R650 and R550 indoor APs and T750 and T750SE outdoor APs.

The APs will be Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 and are optimized for highly dense environments such as educational campuses, hotels and other venues such as airports and stadiums.

Wireless networks today have expanded beyond Wi-Fi to include different IoT wireless technologies for multiple use cases from asset tracking to connected door locks. This has led to unmanageable, expensive, siloed wireless networks.

These new APs spearhead an end-to-end converged architecture, eliminating overlay networks, and allowing cost savings and easy management using a variety of management options – SmartZone Network Controller, ZoneDirector, RUCKUS Cloud and RUCKUS Unleashed. These new APs also deliver comprehensive network intelligence powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence through RUCKUS Analytics.

“With the increase in video-centric learning, whether that be remote, onsite, in a classroom or dorm room, we are finding that our more than 11,000 students across our four campuses in Gyeongju, South Korea want better Wi-Fi connections,” said Eunhyun Kim, Manager of Information Planning Department at Dongguk Gyeongju University.

He continued, “The RUCKUS portfolio from CommScope enables us to stay current with the demands of an ever-changing student population and helps our university remain one of the most prestigious private universities in the nation.”

“Teachers, students and administrators expect us to be responsive, and we expect the same of our vendors,” says Jeff Baird, technical director for Huntington ISD.

“We’ve stayed away from online testing using Chromebooks because we knew the legacy network couldn’t support it. The administration wants everything fixed and working. They’re on the front lines, fielding complaints from teachers and parents. Once we made the change to RUCKUS, the complaints disappeared,” he added.

Technologies found in RUCKUS APs like BeamFlex and the Ultra-High-Density Technology Suite enable customers like Dongguk Gyeongju University and Huntington ISD to meet the needs of their users. BeamFlex is a patented technology that automatically adjusts antenna patterns in real-time to minimize interference obstacles while delivering the best performance to every device.

The RUCKUS Ultra-High-Density Technology Suite is a collection of features and technologies designed to improve network performance and end-user experience in ultra-high dense environments. These unique technologies, as well as our relationship with partners and vendors, set the RUCKUS portfolio apart from other solutions.

“Qualcomm Technologies launched our Wi-Fi 6 platforms to meet the demands of the most challenging and congested environments with an advanced Wi-Fi 6 technology approach,” said Nick Kucharewski, vice president and general manager, wireless infrastructure and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“We applaud CommScope’s right-minded embrace of essential Wi-Fi 6 features and its innovation pace in delivering high-performance experiences with Qualcomm Networking Pro Series Platforms across their RUCKUS Wi-Fi portfolio.”

The award-winning RUCKUS portfolio of access points now include:

• R850: a Wi-Fi 6 8x8:8 indoor access point with 5.9 Gbps speeds and embedded IoT. The R850 delivers the highest Wi-Fi performance of any AP on the market to ensure the best experiences in the harshest environments.
• R750: a Wi-Fi 6 4x4:4 indoor access point with 3.5 Gbps speeds and embedded IoT. The R750 is the industry’s first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 access point and a Wi-Fi Alliance testbed unit that validates other devices for Wi-Fi 6 interoperability.
• R650: a Wi-Fi 6 4x4:4 indoor access point with 3 Gbps speeds and embedded IoT. This addition upgrades the popular R600 series to include Wi-Fi 6.
• R550: a Wi-Fi 6 2x2:2 indoor access point with 1.8 Gbps speeds and embedded IoT. This AP brings superior Wi-Fi 6 performance to the mainstream at a great price, along with native IoT support as included in all RUCKUS Wi-Fi 6 APs.
• T750: a Wi-Fi 6 4x4:4 outdoor access point with 3.5 Gbps speeds and embedded IoT. The industry’s first outdoor Wi-Fi 6 Certified AP delivers outstanding Wi-Fi performance to outdoor environments.
• T750SE: a Wi-Fi 6 4x4:4 outdoor access point with 3.5 Gbps speeds, embedded IoT, and sectorized antennas. The T750SE surgically delivers bandwidth to seating in stadiums and other large venues.

The R650 and T750 began shipping in Q1 2020 while the R550 and R850 will begin shipping in Q2 2020. The T750SE will begin shipping in Q3 2020.

“The new Wi-Fi 6 access points with patented and unique technologies offers the very best enterprise solutions to meet the growing demand for connectivity,” said Bart Giordano, senior vice president, Product Management for CommScope’s RUCKUS portfolio.

“We continue to invest in the enterprise Wi-Fi space and with the addition of the recently launched RUCKUS Analytics, we are already seeing a positive impact with our customers.”

NVIDIA today launched the NVIDIA® Mellanox ConnectX®-6 Lx SmartNIC — a highly secure and efficient 25/50 gigabit per second (Gb/s) Ethernet smart network interface controller (SmartNIC) — to meet surging growth in enterprise and cloud scale-out workloads.

ConnectX-6 Lx, the 11^th generation product in the ConnectX family, is designed to meet the needs of modern data centers, where 25Gb/s connections are becoming standard for handling demanding workflows, such as enterprise applications, AI and real-time analytics.

The new SmartNIC extends accelerated computing by leveraging software-defined, hardware-accelerated engines to offload more security and network processing from CPUs.

“Modern cloud and enterprise data centers rely on accelerated networking to address their scalability and compute challenges,” said Amit Krig, senior vice president of software and NIC products in NVIDIA’s Mellanox networking business. “ConnectX-6 Lx SmartNIC delivers cost-effective, accelerated and secure networking for the new era of disaggregated, composable data centers.”

Advanced Security

Accelerated security features such as IPsec in-line cryptography and Hardware Root of Trust, and a 10x performance improvement for Connection Tracking, enable Zero Trust security throughout the data center. Best-in-class RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE), advanced virtualization and containerization, and NVMe over Fabrics storage offloads provide highly scalable and performant networking.

“The server industry is rapidly transitioning from 10GbE to 25GbE network speeds with very fast growth expected. With increasing requirements being placed on the network, more offloads need to be performed on SmartNICs,” said Scott Raynovich, founder and chief technologist of Futuriom, a technology research firm. “NVIDIA’s Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx enables SmartNIC offloads, including advanced switching and security, in a cost-efficient 25/50GbE solution.”

Key Features

The Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx provides:

• Two ports of 25Gb/s, or a single port of 50Gb/s, Ethernet connectivity with PCIe Gen 3.0/4.0 x8 host connectivity
• Security features including Hardware Root of Trust, Connection Tracking for stateful L4 firewalls, and in-line IPSec cryptography acceleration
• GPUDirect® RDMA acceleration for NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) storage, scale-out accelerated computing and high-speed video transfer applications
• Zero Touch RoCE (ZTR) for scalable, easy-to-deploy, best-in-class RoCE without switch configuration
• Accelerated switching and packet processing (ASAP2), with built-in SR-IOV and VirtIO hardware offloads for virtualization and containerization, to accelerate software-defined networking and connection tracking for next-generation firewall services

ConnectX-6 Lx is sampling now, with general availability expected in Q3 2020. Like all products in the ConnectX family, it is compatible with the Mellanox SmartNIC software stack. Together with Mellanox Spectrum® switches and the LinkX® family of cables and transceivers, ConnectX SmartNICs enable the most comprehensive end-to-end solution for high-performance networks.

Broad Industry Support

Mellanox SmartNICs and software are used in cloud, hyperscale and enterprise data centers, high performance computing, cybersecurity and financial services systems around the world.

Scott Tease, general manager of High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence at Lenovo Data Center Group, said, “Lenovo offers best-of-breed solutions that are engineered, tested and certified for cloud, HPC, artificial intelligence, and hyperscale computing workloads. Mellanox ConnectX SmartNICs enable secure, efficient, high-speed connectivity that accelerates networks and provides critical business advantages for our clients.”

Rashid Khan, director of networking at Red Hat, said, “Security is critically important for any enterprise data center or cloud deployment. We worked closely with Mellanox to develop Connection Tracking, which helps drive secure upstream and downstream networking capabilities. Connection Tracking enables software-defined networking and security to lock down critical resources and data; it offers stateful security at each server, and can be offloaded onto Mellanox ConnectX SmartNICs, reducing CPU cycles for optimal hardware utilization.”

Michael McNerney, vice president of Marketing and Network Security at Supermicro, stated, “As the leader in high-performance server and storage system technology, Supermicro strives to provide customers with superior performance, features and improved TCO to maximize the value from their data center. As more and more enterprises transition from 10GbE to 25GbE, ConnectX-6 Lx offers our customers a feature-packed 25GbE SmartNIC that can accelerate their network and applications at a competitive price point.”

CommScope has announced RUCKUS Analytics, a new cloud service that delivers network intelligence and simplifies service assurance, enabling organizations with complex networks to proactively improve their users’ experience.

AT&T and Nokia are teaming up to provide virtually seamless Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity around the world. The companies are using Nokia’s Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) to offer AT&T’s enterprise customers the benefits of Nokia’s global IoT ecosystem. These include core network, dedicated IoT operations, billing, security, data analytics, and more.

AT&T and Nokia will develop, test and launch the next generation of IoT services. They’ll cover a wide range of industries including transportation, health, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, utilities, consumer electronics and smart cities.

Commercial deployment starts later this year. WING’s core network assets are expected to be available in more than 20 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and the Middle East by the first quarter of 2020. The collaboration will help set the stage for the evolution to global 5G.

Together the companies can help enterprise customers:

• Bring more capabilities to more places with increased performance and flexibility, lower latency, and enhanced platform capabilities.
• Address specific business requirements through capabilities like 5G network slicing that allows a single network to be partitioned into multiple networks.
• Meet local regulatory requirements for IoT devices.

“Our work with Nokia WING will help clear away the complexity of large-scale IoT adoption so that our customers can unlock the potential of IoT worldwide,” said Chris Penrose, President, Internet of Things Solutions, AT&T. “Boosted by Nokia’s globally deployed ‘one-stop shop’ network technology, we can be more nimble and responsive to our customers’ needs.”

“This collaboration proves our commitment to the global IoT market, providing seamless connectivity across geographical borders and technologies,” said Sanjay Goel, President of Global Services at Nokia. “With AT&T’s leading position in IoT and proven experience meeting real customer needs, we have a winning combination to bolster our global IoT capabilities.”

AT&T offers global IoT solutions through a combination of owned and third party-provided capabilities that enable superior network performance in more than 200 countries and territories. Connected devices are deployed and controlled easily and quickly in multiple countries using a single, global SIM.

AT&T’s cloud-based Multi-Network Connect platform will simplify connectivity and platform capabilities for AT&T’s use of Nokia WING. Multi-Network Connect lets businesses manage IoT devices across multiple cellular and satellite networks, operators and regions through a single portal.

Nokia WING offers a fully integrated, global managed service for IoT connectivity enablement for mobile network operators, providing innovative features, optimizing investments and reducing time to market. Working with WING, AT&T will speed the delivery of IoT services on a global scale and drive emerging IoT applications.

Nuage Networks, the Nokia venture focused on software-defined networking (SDN) solutions, announced a significant addition to its roster of global financial customers with its first SDN-based, large enterprise project win in China with China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC), the country's second-largest property insurance company.

The private cloud SDN project, won via Nokia Shanghai Bell, will use Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP) in two CPIC data centers: one to integrate the dispersed IT systems of 82 branch offices into one unified private cloud platform, and the second to assist in building and testing the company cloud for R&D. As a result, CPIC can achieve improved flexibility, agility and security, all while simplifying network operations and lowering IT costs.

“Nuage Networks VSP has a clear momentum in the telecoms industry, and we’re excited to bring that same technology to large enterprises here in China, in this case helping CPIC deliver a unified cloud experience,” said Jin Jian, head of the Enterprise & Public Sector unit at Nokia Shanghai Bell.

“Working with a top insurer like CPIC serves as an excellent reference for the broader industry, and we see this as an opportunity to win more large enterprise projects in China, continuing Nokia’s push into vertical markets beyond the telecoms space,” Jian added.

Nuage Networks VSP will enhance CPIC's efficiency by increasing scale and reducing errors with a centralized policy manager. The solution gives CPIC and other financial institutions greater agility to automate the configuration, management and optimization of virtual networks, including security services for individual applications and workloads.

The contract builds on Nokia's track-record of helping financial services companies to digitally transform, a key focus of the company as it expands its customer base beyond the traditional telecommunications sphere. Deployment started in August 2017.

Most large enterprises can save a minimum of 25 percent on their IT costs over five years by moving to a private cloud from a legacy IT environment, according to a financial analysis conducted by Nokia. The analysis, known as the 'Nokia Enterprise Private Cloud TCO Model' - the first of its kind in the industry - also demonstrates that enterprises can expect to break even on their private cloud investment in less than three years.

Advocates of enterprises moving to a private cloud have typically focused on the operational and business benefits that this approach can offer, in terms of flexibility, agility and the ability to scale quickly. The analysis underlying the Enterprise Private Cloud TCO Model is among the first available in the market that exclusively explores the question that is most critical to IT managers - what are the cost benefits of this move?

The model shows that the common assumption that private cloud is too difficult or costly to adopt is wrong, and that large enterprises should make the move directly to private or public-private hybrid cloud because it utilizes off-the-shelf components and is less expensive.

The analysis began with an existing budget for a representative legacy IT environment, and contrasted that with the requirements of a shift to a private cloud model and associated costs. More specifically, the analysis takes the overall operational budget of the enterprise data center (eliminating costs that will be largely the same in either scenario such as facilities costs - power, rent, air conditioning/heating), and then provides a high-level breakout by the software or operational tasks performed. The breakout was then used to calculate potential cost impacts - both increases and decreases - for a cloud environment.

Nokia's financial model is based on a private cloud, or private-public hybrid cloud architecture that can be built at any large enterprise today, incorporating commercial components from a variety of vendors as well as open source components including OpenStack cloud management software.

The model also assumes that the cloud architecture is one that does not require 'forklift' replacement of the IT environment, but instead sits on top of the existing IT infrastructure as an overlay. As a result, it also assumes a deployment strategy that would minimize changes to day-to-day IT operations.

Leading industry analyst firm IDC validated the model overall, including the ranges of potential increased and decreased costs by category.

The cost savings identified by the model were calculated using the most conservative assumptions available, based on the needs of highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.

Further, increased costs, such as the costs of migrating legacy applications to the cloud, were calculated at the upper end of a possible range of values. Therefore the overall 25 percent cost savings can be considered a minimum baseline - actual savings in practice would likely be considerably higher.

BlackBerry Limited introduced the new Good Secure EMM Suites by BlackBerry, a comprehensive set of mobile security, management, productivity and collaboration offerings including best-in-class app security and containerization, Identity and Access Management, Enterprise File Sync and Share with file level data protection. With the Good Secure EMM Suites users can immediately increase their productivity through a single integrated offering of BES12, Good Dynamics and WatchDox by BlackBerry that allows flexibility of deployment and security options for businesses as their mobile needs evolve.