SDxCentral Weekly Wrap: April 3, 2020

Plus, VMware pulls its 2021 guidance due to COVID-19 concerns, and Microsoft previews its Azure Edge Zones

CloudGenix had been targeting Cisco in the SD-WAN space; VMware pulled its 2021 guidance; and Microsoft drives its cloud to the edge.

Palo Alto Folds CloudGenix in $420M SASE Play

VMware Pulls 2021 Guidance Citing COVID-19 Risk

Microsoft Dives Into 5G With Azure Edge Zones

March 27, 2020

Plus, Microsoft nips Amazon in Forrester's cloud rankings, and white hats attack the COVID-19 virusThe surge in remote workers is teaching Cisco a lot; Microsoft, Amazon, and Google were designated market leaders; and white hats target COVID-19 research.

What Cisco Networking Learned During the Pandemic

Microsoft Skins AWS in Forrester Cloud Ranking

White Hat Hackers Fight COVID-19, Donate GPUs for a Cure

March 20, 2020

Plus, Microsoft Teams buckles under European pressure, and Verizon commits $500M more to bolster its network

Oracle posts strong results despite virus concerns; Microsoft Teams glitch highlights collaboration pressure; and Verizon boosts its capex plans.

Coronavirus No Match for Oracle’s Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison’s Oracle Customer-Win Claim ‘Inaccurate’

Remote Worker Influx Strains Collaboration Services

Verizon Boosts Capex $500M to Deal With Coronavirus Impact

Weekly Wrap for March 13, 2020

Plus, Juniper jumps on SONiC, and vendors scramble to virtualize their trade shows

The Sweden-based vendor cited Viptela's remote provisioning; Juniper throws support behind SONiC; and Microsoft, Dell, and Red Hat scramble to virtualize events.

Telia Taps Cisco Viptela SD-WAN

Juniper Jumps Aboard SONiC Train

COVID-19 Pushes Microsoft, Dell, Red Hat to Virtualize Events

Weekly Wrap for March 6, 2020

Plus, Palo Alto Networks updates its Demisto platform, and Nutanix is sunk by coronavirus fears

The telecom giant cited "headcount rationalization" as a cost-cutting option; Palo Alto adds more security automation; and coronavirus fears impact Nutanix's outlook.

AT&T Puts More Jobs on the Chopping Block

Palo Alto Networks Adds X Factor to $560M Demisto Buy

Nutanix Hammered by Coronavirus-Tainted Outlook

Weekly Wrap for Feb. 28, 2020

Plus, Cisco unifies its security, and DigitalOcean grabs a financial life preserver

The SAP re-org runs up to its board; Cisco SecureX combines a lot into a cloud-native package; and DigitalOcean grabs a $300M lifeline.

SAP Revamps Org Structure, Exits 2 Board Members

Cisco SecureX Unifies Network, Cloud, Endpoint Security

DigitalOcean Grabs $300M Life Preserver

Weekly Wrap for Feb. 21, 2020

Plus, Arista finally makes Big Switch deal official, and the U.S. intensifies its battle with Huawei

The RSA deal includes the upcoming RSA security conference; the Big Switch deal was an Arista bright spot; and Huawei is charged with theft and espionage.

Dell Sells RSA Security Biz for $2.075 Billion

Arista Finally Makes Big Switch Official, Disappoints in Q4

US Charges Huawei With Theft, Espionage

Huawei Fails to Reverse Federal Ban

Weekly Wrap for Feb. 14, 2020

Plus, Cisco CEO claims U.S. 5G supply chain is healthy, and T-Mobile scores a big court ruling

GSMA cancels this year's MWC Barcelona event; Cisco CEO tells U.S. government to butt out; and T-Mobile moves closer to closing its Sprint deal.

Coronavirus Kills MWC Barcelona

Cisco’s Robbins: US Should Not Invest in 5G Companies

T-Mobile Scores Court OK to Buy Sprint

Weekly Wrap for Feb. 7, 2020

Plus Cisco scores a 400GbE router deal with Telia Carrier and an SD-WAN deal with TPx Communications

Supply chain security flaws are expected to increase; Telia Carrier is the first with a Cisco 400GbE upgrade; and TPx adds Cisco Meraki's SD-WAN.

NSA Ranks Cloud Security Risks

Cisco Routers Power Telia Carrier 400GbE Network

Cisco Meraki SD-WAN Sashays Into TPx Communications

SDxCentral Weekly Wrap Full Transcript

Today is February 7, 2019, and this is the SDxCentral Weekly Wrap where we cover the week’s top stories on next-generation IT infrastructure.

This week’s episode of the Weekly Wrap is sponsored by Silver Peak. Learn more about the Silver Peak SD-WAN solution.

The National Security Agency released a report that found four specific cloud security risks account for a vast majority of known security flaws.

Those risks include misconfiguration, poor access control, shared tenancy vulnerabilities, and supply chain vulnerabilities.

The misconfiguration issue is the most common and is linked to cloud service policy mistakes or misunderstanding of shared responsibility.

This most often arises from the rapid pace of innovation from cloud service providers that can add complexity to securely configuring an organization’s cloud resources.

Poor access control happens when companies have weak authentication methods in place to allow access to cloud resources, or when these cloud resources have flaws that enable attackers to bypass these methods.

The NSA deems this vulnerability widespread and says it requires a moderate level of sophistication to pull off.

Shared tenancy vulnerabilities are admittedly rare and require a high level of sophistication.

But the NSA noted that these types of vulnerabilities in cloud hypervisors or container platforms can be especially severe.

Supply chain security flaws also remain rare and require highly sophisticated attackers.

However, the report states that they are becoming more common and they expect to see an increase in these types of attacks this year.

Cisco scored a significant win this week as Sweden-based Telia Carrier became its first customer to launch a 400-gigabit Ethernet-ready network based on Cisco’s cloud-scale routing platform.

The network uses Cisco’s NCS5500 series routers, which it first unveiled in mid-2015.

That platform was initially developed to support 100-gigabit speeds per port for wide area network aggregation, with Cisco last year adding 400-gigabit capabilities.

Telia Carrier last year installed more than 10,000 new 100-gigabit ports using the Cisco platfo...

Weekly Wrap for Jan. 31, 2020

Plus, VMware and AT&T are slashing jobs

The virtualization giant will fight the ruling, and is also set to cut some jobs; and AT&T plans $1.5 billion in labor-cost savings tied to its SDN work.

VMware Loses $237M Patent Infringement Lawsuit

VMware ‘Rebalances’ Jobs Following 12-Month Buying Spree

AT&T Employees Pay Price for SDN

SDxCentral Weekly Wrap Full Transcript

Today is January 31, 2019, and this is the SDxCentral Weekly Wrap where we cover the week’s top stories on next-generation IT infrastructure.

This week’s episode of the Weekly Wrap is sponsored by Silver Peak. Learn more about the Silver Peak SD-WAN solution.

VMware plans to fight a $237 million jury decision that found the company guilty of infringing on patents held by a Canadian startup.

A federal jury in Delaware awarded the damages after it agreed with Densify that VMware had infringed on patents tied to virtualization services.

Those patents cover technology that enables multiple computer systems to run on a single server.

Densify is a Toronto-based startup that makes cloud and container resource management software.

It was formerly known as Cibra before changing its name in 2017.

The lawsuit claimed that VMware was using that technology as part of its vRealize Operations software product that provides operations management across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

VMware said it would appeal the decision, noting that it does not think it infringed on the patents.

VMware this week also announced that it would be cutting a number of jobs tied to its recent buying spree.

The company did not specify the exact number of layoffs or where in the company they would come from.

Published reports indicated the cuts would impact several hundred jobs across its global organization.

VMware explained that the move was tied to a rebalancing of its job force following a number of acquisitions it closed over the past year.

Those deals have resulted in some redundancy and the company said it was looking to redistribute those impacted employees to other parts of its operations.

VMware also noted that it has more job openings than the number of planned cuts.

The company’s career page does currently list approximately 1,250 job openings.

AT&T plans to cut $1.5 billion in labor-related costs this year tied to its ongoing network virtualization efforts.

Those cuts are enabled by the carrier’s increased use of SDN technology that in turn supports a greater use of automation across its operations.