Kerlink and Tata Communications Transformation Services launch partnership to expand LoRaWAN(R) network deployments
RavenDB Adds Pull Replication and Distributed Online Counters to its Open Source NoSQL Document Database Offering
NetFoundry Brings Cloud-Native, Zero Trust Connectivity to IBM Cloud Apps
Technical Overview of the 2nd Gen Xeon Scalable Processors
QNAP Launches New TDS-16489U R2 NAS Featuring Dual Intel Xeon E5 CPU with Support for QES/QTS Operating System
Intel Announced New Portfolio for Data-Centric Era
Lux Research Evaluates Technologies to Valorize More Than 3.5 Billion Tons of Waste Annually
NetFoundry & Blazeclan Partner To Enable Businesses to Gain Competitive Advantages With Optimum AWS Deployments
Telco Systems Joins VMware SD-WAN Ecosystem to Ease VNF Service Deployments
QNAP to Leverage 2ND GEN INTEL XEON SCALABLE PROCESSORS for Data-centric Workflows with Software-defined Network and Storage Solutions
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QNAP Supports JumpCloud's Directory-as-a-Service for Simplified User Management and Authentication
QNAP® Systems, Inc. today announced support for JumpCloud® Directory-as-a-Service® (DaaS), a cloud-based identity and access management platform which enables secure single-sign-on to workstations and servers, on-premise and cloud-based applications, wifi and VPN networks, and file shares. JumpCloud also integrates with core business apps including G Suite™, Office 365™, Azure™, AWS®, Google Cloud™, SalesForce® and thousands of other applications and services due to native support of standard protocols such as LDAP, RADIUS, and SAML 2.0. Businesses can benefit from a cloud-based platform with greater flexibility and cost effectiveness, while IT teams and organization members can work productively for user management with access to various applications, devices, and networks. “JumpCloud's LDAP-as-a-Service provides QNAP NAS users with a hassle-free, centralized identity and access management solution while also allowing secure access to NAS-based file resources,” said YT Lee, vice president of QNAP, adding “the cloud-based attributes also help save time and money, making it ideal for multiple sub-organizations or workgroups with a small user base.” “The cloud is changing the game for IT, and JumpCloud provides a solution that completely re-imagines directory management – with reduced complexity, greater flexibility, and increased security, all delivered from the cloud,” said Greg Keller, chief strategy officer of JumpCloud. “We look forward to our continued cooperation with QNAP, and providing our common customers with a secure and simple to manage access control system for the critical data hosted and stored within QNAP NAS solutions.” For businesses of any size, setting up an LDAP server usually involves additional expenditure with greater hardware and management complexity, along with the requirement of staff who know how to configure and secure it. JumpCloud's cloud-based LDAP service provides an online directory that requires no server infrastructure and makes efficient identity and access management process better across the board and easier to scale. By integrating JumpCloud's LDAP-as-a-Service with a QNAP NAS, users can securely access shared folders on the NAS via JumpCloud's support for Samba/SMB using Windows® or macOS® clients. JumpCloud includes more useful features that not only enable IT teams to simplify and offload non-core work but also allow end users to self-serve, providing a next-level user management experience from the cloud.
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CellTrust and Smarsh Help North Thurston Public Schools Empower Staff, Save Money and Minimize Risk
CellTrust Corporation helping customers get ahead – and stay ahead – of the risk within their electronic communications, today announced the successful rollout of North Thurston Public Schools’ (Lacey, Wash.) mobile communication compliance program. The North Thurston Public School district is subject to Washington state’s Public Disclosure Act, which requires public sector agencies to retain public records (including electronic communications, such as text or chat messages) and produce them for public disclosure, investigations, e-discovery and more. Nearly all U.S. states have open records laws, similar to the Federal government’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The CellTrust SL2™ app enables district administrators to capture all school-related communications on their personal devices, regardless of mobile carrier or mobile operating system, and content is seamlessly ingested into the search-ready Connected Archive from Smarsh. Mobile content is available for search, review and production within the Connected Archive, alongside relevant email and social media in one consolidated, secure repository. With the integrated mobile compliance solution, North Thurston enables its admins to use their mobile devices for work, and strengthens its risk identification and mitigation efforts. “It was more convenient for our staff and made sense for us not to incur an additional capital outlay for mobile phones and plans,” explained Derek Stewart, Director of Technology at North Thurston Public Schools. “CellTrust and Smarsh teamed up to provide us with the SL2 app on our staff’s mobile devices, separating personal and school communication, while capturing and archiving all school-related activity to help us meet Washington state records laws.” “CellTrust is pleased North Thurston Public Schools chose SL2 for their new mobile communication compliance program,” said Sean Moshir, Chairman and CEO. “We’d also like to thank our partners at Smarsh for their expert implementation and rollout.” North Thurston Public Schools admins are already utilizing SL2’s built-in staff directory with availability status and confirmation when messages have been delivered, received and opened. They have been familiarized with the dispatch for Critical Communication feature should the need arise. “The North Thurston Public School district is leading the charge in public sector transparency,” said Brian Panicko, Smarsh Vice President, Channel Partner Sales. “Their employees can be more responsive in support of the student body and more productive with their mobile devices. At the same time, the district has taken the right steps to manage the subsequent risk.”
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II-VI Incorporated and Samtec Demonstrate 56 Gbps PAM4 per Channel FireFly On-Board Optical Engines at OFC 2019
II-VI Incorporated (Nasdaq:IIVI), a global leader in optical components for datacom transmission and Samtec, a privately held global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic interconnect solutions, today unveiled a new 56 Gbps PAM4 per channel demonstration of the next-generation Samtec FireFly™ on-board optical engine technology at OFC 2019. II-VI’s recently announced high speed VCSELs are embedded within the FireFly system architecture. The demonstration platform showcases low latency, high performance, on-board optical engines transmitting at 56 Gbps PAM4 per channel. The FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™ copper and optical options offer a direct connection into the ASIC/FPGA package bypassing the PCB for improved density and performance. The latest FireFly solutions are compatible with new generation FPGAs that support 56G PAM4 transceivers. “The high-performance and compact size of the protocol-agnostic FireFly redefines optical connectivity in a broad range of applications such as video, aerospace, embedded computing, instrumentation, HPC and Data Center,” said Arlon Martin, Sr. Director, Marketing, Samtec Optical Group. “This product demonstration leverages II-VI’s 56 Gbps PAM4 VCSELs, which are industry-leading in performance and reliability.” “We worked closely with Samtec to ensure that our VCSELs exceeded the requirements for their high-performance 200G FireFly mid-board optical engines,” said Karlheinz Gulden, General Manager, II-VI Laser Enterprise. “We successfully integrated our leading-edge 56 Gbps PAM4 VCSEL arrays into Samtec’s transceivers and we are excited about the demonstration at OFC.” Samtec boothSamtec’s FireFly mid-board optical engines offer system designers flexibility and performance advantages compared to pluggable optical transceivers. FireFly features multiple optical front panel interconnect options. FireFly’s compact footprint is 4x smaller than the standard quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) module size and uses the same micro connector for both optical and copper cable assemblies. FireFly has the industry’s best-in-class optics, enabling 56 Gbps PAM4 that consumes only a few pico-joules of energy per bit. II-VI’s 4-channel VCSEL arrays can be modulated at 56 Gbps PAM4 to achieve a combined 200 Gbps over short reach multimode links. AOCs and transceivers based on VCSELs offer the most cost-effective solution for datacenter links that span from 10 to 300 meters. OFC, Mar. 5-7, 2019, San Diego Convention Center II-VI will showcase at Booth #4312 new products that enable the 5G optical infrastructure, hyperscale datacenters, 3D sensing and LiDAR to name a few. The 56 Gbps PAM4 FireFly demonstration can be seen at Samtec’s Booth #2500.
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QNAP Officially Launches the TS-2888X AI-Ready NAS for Machine Learning
QNAP® Systems, Inc. today officially launched the TS-2888X, an AI-Ready NAS specifically optimized for AI model training. Built using powerful Intel® Xeon® W processors with up to 18 cores and employing a flash-optimized hybrid storage architecture for IOPS-intensive workloads, the TS-2888X also supports installing up to 4 high-end graphics cards and runs QNAP’s AI developer package “ QuAI”. The TS-2888X packs everything required for machine learning AI, greatly reducing latency, accelerating data transfer, and eliminating performance bottlenecks caused by network connectivity to expedite AI implementation. Conventional AI workstations usually have massive price tags, and the complexity of configuring hardware and software is an obstacle for most data scientists and developers. The use of public clouds for storage and training may also raise concerns when using sensitive data. QNAP’s TS-2888X introduces an all-in-one AI solution that integrates huge storage potential, powerful computing, a ready-to-use AI environment, and comprehensive data protection to supplement AI workflows. It not only serves as a Training Server for AI models, but can also serve as an Inference Server, thereby further lowering the R&D entry barrier, making AI development more feasible and easily accessible. “The age of AI is upon us, and we are witnessing its transformative effects throughout a wide range of industries, including healthcare, IT, retail, and surveillance,” said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP. “The TS-2888X AI-Ready NAS combines storage, computing, and a user-friendly AI software environment to reduce the time and complexity of implementing and managing AI tasks, while also providing cost-efficient and accessible AI development.” The AI-Ready TS-2888X features Intel® Xeon® W processors with up to 18 cores and 36 threads and up to 4.5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 to deliver uncompromising performance. Up to 512 GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM 2666 MHz RAM is supported, providing ample space for huge projects while protecting against potential memory errors. The TS-2888X supports mainstream NVIDIA®, AMD® and Intel® accelerator cards, providing eight PCIe slots and a 2,000 watt 80Plus Platinum PSU that accommodates up to 4 high-end graphics cards to unleash tremendous computing power. To meet the simultaneous needs for scale and performance, the TS-2888X employs a hybrid storage architecture with eight 3.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s drive bays for hard drives, sixteen 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s drive bays for SSDs, and four 2.5-inch drive bays that support U.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSDs. This hybrid storage architecture provides the ability to enable SSD caching or auto-tiering to boost performance-demanding applications. There are six smart fans that separately detect temperatures in different zones (CPU, PCIe slots, power supply unit, and storage) to provide smarter, quieter, and energy-efficient cooling. The TS-2888X introduces a comprehensive software environment for organizations to easily set up and maintain AI applications. The exclusive QuAI – an AI developer package to quickly build, train and optimize AI models running on the NAS – enables a range of open-source tools and frameworks (including Caffe, TensorFlow, AlexNet, FaceNet, and more) for the AI workflows readily available to users. The TS-2888X also features flexible backup tools and snapshot protection to assure data security while also allowing efficient disaster recovery. QNAP’s AI solution has been put into practice in cooperation with a renowned medical research institute in Taiwan, and successfully realized a healthcare AI diagnostic system for age-related macular degeneration. The AI result not only significantly improves diagnostic accuracy and efficiency, but also creates possibilities to aid organizations that lack medical resources. Key specifications of the TS-2888X Intel® Xeon® W processor, up to 18 cores/36 threads with Turbo Boost up to 4.5 GHz; up to 512 GB DDR4 ECC 2666 MHz quad-channel RAM (8x 64GB); 4x 2.5-inch U.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSD drive bays, 16x 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s SSD drive bays, 8x 3.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s drive bays; 8x PCIe Gen3 slots (including eight 6+2 pin power connectors); 2x 10 GBASE-T LAN ports, 4x Gigabit RJ45 LAN ports; 6x USB 3.1 Gen1 ports, 4x USB 2.0 ports; 2,000W power supply unit; 6x 12cm smart fans; LCM display; 4x rotating wheels with stoppers
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Bentley’s SYNCHRO XR brings the benefits of mixed reality to users in the AEC industry
Bentley Systems's SYNCHRO XR, its app for immersively visualizing 4D construction digital twins with the new Microsoft HoloLens 2, which Microsoft announced during a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Selected as a Microsoft mixed reality partner representing the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, Bentley demonstrated how with SYNCHRO XR for HoloLens 2, users can interact collaboratively with digital construction models using intuitive gestures to plan, visualize, and experience construction sequencing. Project digital twin data is visualized with the HoloLens 2 via Bentley’s connected data environment, powered by Microsoft Azure. With the mixed reality solution, construction managers, project schedulers, owner operators, and other project stakeholders can gain insights through immersive visualization into planned work, construction progress, potential site risks, and safety requirements. Additionally, users can interact with the model together and collaboratively experience 4D objects in space and time, as opposed to traditional interaction with a 2D screen depicting 3D objects. Noah Eckhouse, senior vice president, project delivery for Bentley Systems, said, “Our SYNCHRO XR app for HoloLens 2 provides a totally new way to interact with digital twins for infrastructure projects. Users benefit from a new perspective on the design and a deeper, more immediate understanding of the work and project schedule. Instead of using a 2D screen with a mouse and keyboard, the user can now walk around the model with their body and reach out and grab digital objects that appear to co-occupy physical reality. This is a powerful way to review work that is completed and to prepare for upcoming work at the jobsite.” Menno de Jonge, director of digital construction for the Royal BAM Group, said, “We are currently using SYNCHRO and HoloLens 2 mixed reality solution for the construction site for a large museum project in the city of Rotterdam. The real need for a digital transformation in our industry is about avoiding rework at our construction site. Using this technology, we can easily visualize the construction schedule. Then, we can see if we are behind in schedule, we can flag any potential problems or issues, look into the problems, and get back on track.” Alex Kipman, technical fellow, AI and mixed reality at Microsoft, said, “The newly announced Microsoft HoloLens 2 is a self-contained holographic computer that enables hands-free, heads-up interaction with digital models. It builds on the breakthrough innovation of HoloLens and is even more immersive, more comfortable and delivers industry-leading value right out of the box with partners like Bentley. We’re excited to work with Bentley, a mixed reality partner, to provide the opportunity for customers to take advantage of the HoloLens 2 and SYNCHRO XR technology to experience a new dimension of creativity and teamwork for their AEC projects.” Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Partner Program is focused on enabling and supporting solution providers who are committed to building mixed reality solutions. Upon acceptance to the program, Microsoft provides training, technical assistance, sales and marketing enablement, and business planning. In 2018, Microsoft awarded Bentley Systems as its CityNext Partner of the Year.
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UK emergency services need to harness every technological tool available to ensure future success, says telent
The effective digital transformation of the UK’s emergency services is essential if it is to continue to provide the best possible Blue Light services, the General Manager of Public Safety & Defence at telent warned today. Barry Zielinski urged the sector to harness every technological tool available to them as a new white paper revealed that between 2015 and 2019, emergency fire and rescue services face – on average – a 22% reduction in their budgets[1] due to government funding cuts, while demand for their expertise continues to rise. * [1] http://www.cfoa.org.uk/20634 “Blue Light services in the UK are facing growing pressure to increase inter-service collaboration, share information and services with other emergency service providers and enable operational effectiveness – all while continuing to deal with increasing calls,” said Zielinski. “In order to meet this demand, Blue Light services need to harness every technological tool available to them and use them to deliver leaner, smarter and safer services to the community. The question then becomes one of whether these services have the capacity to undertake digital transformation, manage government-led technology reform and save lives.” According to Zielinski, there are a number of factors driving digital transformation in the emergency services sector, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal trends. The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP), for example, was initially announced by the Home Office in 2013, with early phases of testing and deployment beginning later this year. This will introduce a dedicated Emergency Services Network (ESN), migrating emergency communications services from TETRA two-way radio networks to a cellular 4G service – requiring alterations at a fundamental level within the network and control room infrastructure of each service. “To move from TETRA to ESN it is predicted that around 300,000 users will require new 4G devices, 45,000 vehicles and 115 aircraft will need to be fitted with new communications equipment, and some 230 control rooms will have to be upgraded,” continued Zielinski. “While support is readily available during implementation where third parties are involved, budgetary constraints, new equipment and infrastructure requires many emergency services’ support staff to undergo training, learn new systems and become involved with technology support at a detailed level. In addition, there is pressure to bring together data and knowledge across all three Blue Light services, adding to the pressure on ICT staff across each sector.” To lessen the burden and drive best value, Zielinski encouraged the sector to make greater use of Managed ICT Services, with benefits including reduced operational costs, increased expertise and flexibility, and the future-proofing of equipment and systems. But, he warned, organisations must consider this approach carefully and ensure future partners meet certain criteria. “Whether emergency services want to use an external provider for all their ICT needs or just a few key areas, it is important that they find a provider that has made the right investment in their own systems, expertise and resource levels so that these benefits are passed on,” said Zielinski. “Any partner should also understand the sectors’ business goals, challenges, current processes and culture and build stability and flexibility into their proposal so that the service offering can evolve as Blue Light services’ needs continue to progress. Demonstratable benefits and a thorough understanding of the sector are also essential.” To read the “Managed ICT in the Emergency Services” white paper in full, visit: https://telent.com/news-media/whitepaper/ict-managed-service-white-paper
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Percepio announces Device Firmware Monitor The Next Step in IoT Software Quality Assurance
Percepio, announces Percepio Device Firmware Monitor, a new cloud service for software quality assurance in IoT product organizations. “Let’s face it – we can never be certain that any software is free of bugs. On average, 5% of the original bugs in firmware remain in the production code, despite all verification efforts. This can mean hundreds of bugs in the shipped product. You can always spend more time and money on verification, but the effort needed to find the last remaining bugs increases exponentially. The IoT trend further increases testing challenges, but also provides a remedy. IoT allows for automatic feedback from the field, that immediately makes you aware of missed bugs. This way, you can fix remaining bugs quickly and deploy an Over-the-Air (OTA) update with corrected firmware, before most of your customers even have noticed any problem,” says Percepio CEO Johan Kraft. - Automatic feedback Percepio Device Firmware Monitor (DFM) is a new cloud service that provides IoT vendors with automatic feedback on runtime issues, both during testing and in deployed products. DFM makes it easy to report issues from the device software, resulting in alerts being sent to the developers with both an error message and a diagnostic software trace of the error. Developers can then access these traces directly from Percepio Tracealyzer, which provides market-leading visualization and analysis capabilities that helps developers understand the issue, come up with a solution and verify it. When motivated, the corrected firmware can then be pushed out as an OTA update to all affected devices. DFM relies on existing services for secure cloud connectivity, storage and OTA updates. Initially, it supports IoT devices connected to Amazon Web Services (AWS IoT Core) and running Amazon FreeRTOS, but support for additional platforms is planned and can be provided upon request. “Percepio’s Device Firmware Monitor is a game-changer in that it enables instant feedback from systems deployed in the field, to ensure your firmware quality is constantly improving,” says Jack Ganssle, Editor, The Embedded Muse. William E. Lamie, President, Express Logic, says, “Percepio's Device Firmware Monitor is early to the market and original. IoT developers need this sort of direct feedback from their deployed systems.” Percepio will show DFM live in our booth (Hall 4, booth #305) during the Embedded World Expo in Nuremberg, Germany, 26–28 February. After the expo, DFM will be made available to selected beta customers, with general availability planned for the fall of 2019.
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CONTACT Software launches own AI unit
With the new Data Science Group CONTACT Software underlines its commitment in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The team of experts guides companies from the evaluation of new application possibilities for AI in the PLM and IoT environment to the introduction of concrete solutions for new business opportunities and digital services. Artificial intelligence (AI) becomes the essential driver of digitization and industry 4.0. In this context, the European Commission has presented a series of investment measures worth €20 billion to better exploit the potential of AI and increase Europe's competitiveness. Companies are increasingly recognizing the potential behind state-of-the-art statistical methods, data mining and machine learning. However, they are hesitant about the concrete application. They often lack the necessary expertise and experience to integrate AI technology into their business in a targeted and practical way. CONTACT Software has founded its own Data Science Group to meet these needs. The team of mathematicians, computer scientists and data scientists supports companies in evaluating AI technologies, further developing their own competencies and successfully using them for their own business in line with their individual situation. From the development of valid application possibilities in the form of data-centered business models to the creation of digital infrastructures and the integration into ongoing operations, the Data Science Group supports companies on their way to raising new value-added potentials. In a video interview, Dr. Udo Göbel, head of the CONTACT Data Science Group, explains which steps companies can take under the guideline "AI needs strategy". "The expectations associated with AI are only fulfilled if the companies also formulate a vision: What is the business model and what should the analysis of one's own data do for it," says Göbel.
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HUBER+SUHNER to present latest developments for next-generation data center connectivity at Cisco Live 2019
As connected devices are set to increase exponentially in the near future, operators must deploy future-proof fiber management systems and technologies to keep up with connectivity and bandwidth demands. Data centers need to deploy more fiber, manage fiber more efficiently and make more connections in limited spaces. - A modular approach to fiber management High packing density, modularity and a clear physical demarcation point are the outstanding features of the new cross-connect fiber management system LISA Double Access, which HUBER+SUHNER will be presenting for the first time at Cisco Live 2019. The system is efficient, reliable and easy to manage, minimising potential damage to delicate fiber cabling. By separating incoming and outgoing connectivity, the LISA Double Access manages and protects a maximum density of 3600 ports per rack. The system allows a universal patch cord length of 3.5 meters within a new 1500 mm rack, saving customers valuable floor space of up to 17 %. “Due to the nature of data centers, the moving, adding and changing of cables is constant,” said Eduardo Lopes, Head of Product Management Fiber Management Systems at HUBER+SUHNER. “We wanted to develop a tool to make our customers’ lives easier. The new LISA Double Access is a simple and easy-to-use fiber management solution, and we look forward to showcasing its benefits at Cisco Live.” For more information on LISA Double Access please visit: https://www.hubersuhner.com/en/lisadoubleaccess - Building blocks for the future-ready data center On display alongside the LISA Double Access will be the second-generation IANOS® system. Providing operators with the basic and essential building blocks for the future-ready data center, IANOS can be tailored to each user with a pay-as-you-grow approach. IANOS enables the use of flexible and future-proof pre-terminated cable systems with Base-2 up to Base-24 connectivity for best-in-class density and scalability as well as for easy and fast installation. Data rates from 1G to 400G can be achieved and seamlessly integrated to provide ultimate flexibility for the operator. “Data center operators are constantly forced to adapt to the demands of their environments, which is why it is so important for data center operators to invest in technology that will grow alongside them,” said Michal Pelikán, Product Manager Fiber Management Systems at HUBER+SUHNER. “The IANOS solution can accommodate all of these changes and more. IANOS is our most versatile fiber management platform, with a number of different interchangeable modules and accessories available to cover a broad scope of applications.”
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NetFoundry & myCloudDoor Partner to Implement Cloud Solutions
NetFoundry, announces its partnership with myCloudDoor, experts in enabling businesses to successfully adopt, migrate and implement Cloud Solutions – with a specialization in critical line of business applications, like SAP, with Hybrid Microsoft Azure Cloud Services – to reach the expected benefits of cloud to become cloud-native and ensure maximum business value from applications regardless of where they are in the world. As businesses evolve to the Microsoft Azure cloud, they have two challenges; first, moving applications and data into the cloud, particularly critical business apps such as SAP, and second maintaining hybrid application environments which need integration with resources across Azure Cloud and Azure Stack. While myCloudDoor provides effective strategies for solving these, they have found that many projects have developed challenges such as budget overruns, unnecessary complexity, and significant scope creep due to connectivity of traditional methods which are normally out of their scope – typically transient IPSec tunnels over Internet circuits, which have very limited throughput and performance assurances, or dedicated MPLS circuits, which can take months to establish, are expensive, and complex to provision. Their solution is to provide NetFoundry to their customers enabling private and direct overlay networks over the internet which are cloud-native, simple and quick to deploy, highly secure and performant as well as requiring no proprietory hardware. This has enabled myCloudDoor to reduce their customers’ time-to-deployment and project durations while streamlining and securing the application connectivity regardless of the underlay network. NetFoundry makes it easy to instantly spin up software-only, highly secure, performant, edge-to-cloud networks to any Azure workload or form-factor over the Internet using our web-based orchestration tools and APIs with micro-segmented networks called AppWANs – via myCloudMAS® Solution (Cloud Management and Automation Suite). In one instance, NetFoundry reduced data transit time from two days with a traditional VPN tunnel to less than eight hours with an AppWAN, using the same Internet connection. Finally, if any changes need to be made, such as connections to ancillary applications that may have been overlooked, this can be mitigated in minutes, rather than days or weeks with other connectivity options. NetFoundry AppWANs can greatly facilitate enterprise application deployment and operations, such as SAP on Azure. Backend services for an application will typically be spread across Microsoft Regions, Hybrid Azure (Azure Stack), private data centers, and multi-cloud environments. Enterprise critical applications on Azure, such as SAP, require both highly performant and secure connectivity, each of which can be easily implemented and operated using NetFoundry AppWANs without requiring dedicate and propreitory hardware. NetFoundry delivers a new level of network agility to businesses embracing cloud migration and modern application practices. Now, with myCloudDoor and NetFoundry, enterprises can experience the efficiency, security, speed, agility, reliability and profitability that is associated with digital technology and cloud migrations without the hassle and headache. “myCloudDoor as experts in Azure SAP migrations and hybrid applications with Azure Stack are faced daily with the issue of legacy connectivity and its incompatibility with the digital transformation to deliver security and agility businesses need. The NetFoundry platform allows them to enable their customers network to be abstracted from the underlay, in the same way Azure does for compute and storage, to deliver connectivity in minutes which is performant and secure for critical apps using APIs and DevOps tool and methodology. They are the ‘door’ for businesses to become cloud-native on Microsoft Azure” Michael Kochanik, Global Head of Revenue and Alliances at NetFoundry. “NetFoundry is the ultimate networking solution, it helps to break Cloud barriers and accelerate any Cloud project maintaining always the highest security standards. Working with myCloudDoor Cloud Methodology and Solutions in combination with NetFoundry assure any company a safe, fast, efficient, agile and successful Cloud Journey” Javier Aguado, Cloud Services Director at myCloudDoor.
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IBM Korea 2018 Top 5 News & 2019 Major Agenda Media Briefings
IBM Korea hosted ‘IBM Korea 2018 Top 5 News and 2019 Major Agenda Media Briefings’ at its office in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on the morning of January 3. The briefing session was organized by IBM Korea to announce the top five news in 2018 and the five major agendas in 2019, with the attendance of the President Hwa-jin Chang and CTO & Director Kyung-soon Um at IBM Korea. “After declaring to reborn as a cloud platform company in 2017, we have been focusing on that part in 2018. In 2019, IBM Korea will concentrate on the hybrid cloud business and focus on artificial intelligence and cloud platform after 2018. We ask for continuing the interest and support you gave also in 2019.” Mr. Hwa-jin Chang, president of IBM Korea, said. ▲ IBM Korea's New Year Media Briefing was held. ▲ "IBM plans to focus on the hybrid cloud business in 2019 and focus on artificial intelligence and cloud platforms after 2018," said Hwa-jin Chang, president of IBM Korea. IBM Korea's 2018 five major news were announced: 'AI', 'Cloud', 'Block Chain', 'System' and 'P-TECH'. First, it was mentioned that 2018 was a year of expansion through the ‘AI’ and IBM has made various active attempts to apply it to real business beyond proof-of-concept. For example, Korean-based artificial intelligence chatbot were created with HyundaiCard, and artificial shopping advisor was produced with Lotte Department Store, by adopting artificial intelligence inside the process to help tasks more efficiently. In addition to the chatbot, IBM also has expanded the use of enterprise artificial intelligence from a customer-facing chatbot to a variety of industrial artificial intelligence areas. In aspect of the ‘Cloud’, IBM has improved the security and stability of on-premises while simultaneously providing the speed and flexibility of a public cloud with the proliferation of ‘IBM Cloud Private Platforms’. The public cloud business of IBM Korea grew by 78 percent last year, and it was introduced that ‘private cloud’ will rise in this year. At the same time, IBM will provide the latest technologies, including Watson, blockchain, and Big Data Analysis, on all clouds, and will take leadership in several areas by acquiring Red Hat, a leader in open source technology portfolio. Next, in the 'Blockchain', the number of projects of blockchain increased 2.6 times compared to 2017, and various proof-of-concept projects were conducted in Korea. IBM launched a network that commercializes logistics and food distribution blockchain, such as TradeLens and IBM Food Trust, to demonstrate the benefits of cost savings and faster speed by making transactions transparently based on blockchain and sharing information in real time. The case of Wal – Mart adopting IBM Food Trust to reduce distribution time of fruits from 6.6 days to 2.2 seconds was introduced. In addition, Everest Group's PEAK Matrix survey of blockchain services has revealed that capability and influence of IBM's blockchain business are excellent. IBM Korea’s ‘System’, which was introduced to be used by 44 of the top 50 banks in the world, has been selected as an accounting system by KB Kookmin Bank based on security, performance, and stability. System Z of IBM Korea is programmable in Java and has been newly upgraded based on block chain technology, and its security is outstanding since all data is automatically encrypted when the application is running. Along with this, the entire lineup of Power 9 has been enhanced and completed, and the recently introduced Summit has become the fastest supercomputer in the world. ‘P-TECH’, a social contribution program, is a five-year public education system that fosters human resources related to advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, and blockchain. ‘P-TECH’, which started as a social contribution in the United States, was the sixth in Korea after Australia, Morocco, Singapore and Taiwan, and is scheduled to open in March 2019 with Semyeong Computer High School and Gyeonggi College of Science and Technology. IBM Korea will create the Department of Artificial Intelligence Software, and plan to have one-on-one mentoring and IBM-paid internship program. ▲ In the 'Blockchain', IBM launched a network that commercializes logistics and food distribution blockchain. ▲ IBM's ‘System’ was introduced to be in use by 44 out of 50 top banks worldwide. Next, IBM Korea announced that it will focus on five areas in 2019: ‘Hybrid Cloud’, ‘Security’, ‘AI’, ‘Blockchain’, and ‘Quantum Computing’. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, 85 percent of companies worldwide are using multi-cloud, and by 2021, 98 percent will adopt hybrid multi-cloud. In addition, various financial regulations are anticipated to be eased in 2019, including the revision of the Electronic Banking Supervision Regulation, so that many companies are expected to effectively use the private cloud and public cloud, both of which establish a cloud environment in their own data centers, together. IBM Korea is ready to offer services and solutions for multi-cloud management with its hybrid multi-cloud capability, cloud security and open source competitiveness, and will lead the market with private cloud leadership. At the same time, with the rise of AI and cloud, it was announced that ‘Security’ aspect is significant. In the situation in which personal information and data protection issues are strengthened and Europe GDPR much be complied, domestic security market size is 2.2 trillion won and security service market is 1.26 trillion won. Therefore, IBM Korea stated that it will provide security-related services through SOC in the field by a manpower that customer wants, or solve the shortage of specific security manpower by providing the security technology using artificial intelligent through SOC. Moreover, IBM Korea explained that the 'AI' is expected to grow at a CAGR of 69.8% in the Asia-Pacific region by 2021, spending $5 billion, and 70% of Asia-Pacific companies use AI. The firm asserted that it will make the process of how AI decides and studies with data transparent. Also, it will use ‘AI Open Scale’ technology to detect data bias and provide solutions to prevent misinformation during the process of training AI. In addition, IBM Korea will concentrate on 'Blockchain', expecting to reduce transaction costs by 35% by 2021 as implement industry-specific blockchain and the omni-ecosystem expands. At the government level, blockchain is expected to become more active as the government plans to encourage blockchain technology such as voting, shipping, logistics, and intergovernmental documents with the 25 billion won of budget this year. Therefore, IBM Korea has grown by 400% in the blockchain field last year and activated about 600 projects and 10 blockchain networks. In this year, IBM Korea expects the token economy to become more active this year, with the announcement and activation of various blockchain commercialization networks in each industry. Lastly, ‘Quantum Computing’ that IBM Korea saw potential and focused on was introduced. More than 100,000 people worldwide have experienced the ‘IBM Q’ through IBM Cloud, more than 5 million of experiments and more than 110 papers were published, and 1800 institutions and 300 private research institutes are using ‘IBM Q’. Currently, only Samsung Electronics is participating in the development of the quantum computer ‘IBM Q’. In the first half of this year, IBM will announce a quantum computing program in which major institutions and companies participated, and the first commercial version of the quantum computing system and quantum cryptography. ▲ IBM Korea tries to solve the shortage of specific security manpower through SOC or remote SOC. ▲ It was stated that IBM Korea will use ‘AI Open Scale’ technology to detect data bias and provide solutions. ▲ In the first half of this year, IBM Korea will announce a quantum computing program in which major organizations and companies participated.
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QNAP to Introduce Fibre Channel Connectivity Solution for QNAP NAS
QNAP® Systems, Inc. have been leading the Network-attached Storage (NAS) field for years, developing numerous cutting-edge technologies and innovations that take QNAP NAS beyond being simple storage devices. In response to market demands for reliability and low latency that is favorable with Fibre Channel (FC), QNAP will be incorporating FC SAN services into its application scope, making QNAP NAS a unified storage solution that provides SAN, NAS, and cloud storage features. FC is a set of advanced data transport standards that form Storage-area Networks (SANs). Providing high reliability and throughput over distance, FC is scalable and optimized for data-centric applications. As 32Gb FC is now mainstream, and higher speeds are being constantly innovated, FC has been widely adopted by financial services, data centers, and the film/television industry for media storage and advanced streaming applications including 8K editing. “QNAP always stay attuned to our users' requirements, and have re-examined the application potential of implementing SAN solutions using Fibre Channel,” said Y.T. Lee, Vice President of QNAP, adding “we believe that the integration of Fibre Channel SAN services with QNAP NAS can fulfill needs in a wider range of usage scenarios for tackling IOPS-demanding applications and workflows that require reliable, on-time data delivery, while also allowing organizations to easily deploy QNAP NAS in their existing Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure.” QNAP will collaborate with Fibre Channel vendors Marvell® and ATTO® to deliver economical 32Gb/16Gb/8Gb Fibre Channel SAN solutions. A brand-new iSCSI & FC Manager app will be introduced soon in future versions of QNAP's QTS NAS operating system to help with the management of Fibre Channel SAN. "Fibre Channel technology innovations continue to shape how cloud and enterprise data centers connect to shared storage,” said Anand Singh, Senior Director of Marketing, Server Connectivity Business Unit at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. “I am excited about our technology collaboration with QNAP to enable Fibre Channel connectivity for QNAP NAS systems. Marvell QLogic® 32Gb FC adapters are the industry’s preferred Fibre Channel adapter due to their compelling flexibility, scale and performance." "The technology based partnership between ATTO and QNAP is a key step as we ensure validated Fibre Channel storage solutions for today's data intensive application environments and give users the confidence that their storage infrastructure will have the highest performance and lowest latency," said Tom Kolniak, senior director of marketing at ATTO Technology, Inc. "ATTO Fibre Channel products are engineered to meet the most demanding workflows for work groups and data centers that require solid reliability, high performance and scalability.”
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Microsoft Korea 'Digital Transformation Summit' Press Conference
Microsoft Korea held a press conference on 'Digital Transformation Summit' at Hotel Lotte World in Songpa-gu, Seoul on March 20, 2018. Before ‘Digital Transformation Summit’ that was to be held on the same day, the press conference was organized to announce the content of a report “Unlocking the Economic Impact of Digital Transformation in Asia Pacific” on digital transformation and introduce the current status of domestic data centers that started operations in February, 2017. At the conference, the officials including Soon-dong Koh, CEO for Microsoft Korea, Andrea Della Mattea, President for Microsoft Asia Pacific, Eun-seon Han, Director for IDC Korea, attended. “Digital Transformation has a positive and notable impact on the economy of the Asia-Pacific region, and many organizations in Asia-Pacific already feel the need to transform into a digital enterprise. Digital Transformation is now a reality, not a future, as it is believed that the actual benefits that companies enjoy with digital transformation now range from 15% to 18%.” – said Andrea Della Mattea, President for Microsoft Asia Pacific. ▲ Microsoft Korea’s 'Digital Transformation Summit' press conference was held. According to the report, published jointly by Microsoft and IDC, digital transformations will increase Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) of about $42 billion by 2021 and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.5% every year. Domestic business leaders surveyed in this survey, which included 100 respondents from Korea, predicted that by 2020, an average growth rate of each sector is over 50% by digital transformation, and among them, the customer support sector would be most affected. Moreover, 77% of Korean companies are in the process of digital transformation, but only 7% of them are classified as digital leaders. Organizations that are classified as digital leaders are building or preparing specific strategies for digital transformation, and digital products or services account for more than one third of total sales. In particular, it has been shown that digital leaders are benefiting from 20-30% profit improvement across various business areas. In addition, digital leaders are enjoying more than twice the benefits of digital transformations compared to followers, and this trend is expected to become more apparent by 2020. According to the report, 48% of digital leaders now have a complete digital transformation strategy. The positive effects of digital transformation on society are expected to be smart, safe and efficient urban development, improved quality of education using better textbooks, and greater opportunities for education and training. On the other hand, in order to enjoy the benefits of digital transformation, organizations must build a data-centered culture and a strong digital ecosystem that spans employees, customers, and partners. Therefore, Microsoft Korea suggested strategies to be reborn as a digital leader, including 'create a digital culture', 'build a digital ecosystem', 'embrace micro-revolutions', 'investment in AI', and 'cultivation of technology for the future'. ▲ The conditions required to become a digital transformation leader have been introduced. After the announcement of the report, the current status of Microsoft's data center in Korea was introduced. According to the current status, Microsoft is providing cloud services to more than 140 countries in 50 azure regions around the world. The domestic data center, which was launched in February 2017, is a cloud facility that has the highest level of reliability and performance, and it is playing a big role in strengthening business efficiency and continuity of domestic customers. In addition, over the past year, Microsoft has grown more than 300% in sales in the domestic azure sector. Also, the sales of PaaS-oriented azure data services, including machine learning, AI, big data and cognitive service, not just a storage-based IaaS-centric, have grown 277%. At the same time, as it is important to build a solid ecosystem of partners, Microsoft Korea introduced that it is closely working with partners in three ways – growing professional cloud solution partners (CSP), strategic partnership with major SI companies in Korea, and expanding open source support – so that the benefits of digital transformation would spread across the industry. Meanwhile, over the past year, open source-based apps, solutions and services running on Azure Cloud have grown by 700%. “Over the past year, many companies are realizing digital transformations with cloud services through Korean data centers. In the future, Microsoft Korea will continue to play a leading role in helping the digital transformation by supporting the latest IT technologies such as AI, block chains, and Mixed Reality (MR) more quickly and easily in Korea.” – said CEO Soon-dong Koh.
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QNAP Launches the Server-grade TS-x83XU NAS Series with Intel Xeon E Processors
QNAP® Systems, Inc. (QNAP), a leading storage, network and computing solution provider, today launched the Intel® Xeon® E based TS-x83XU enterprise NAS series with ECC DDR4 memory that delivers server-class performance and dependable reliability. All models in the series feature two 10GbE SFP+ ports using Mellanox® ConnectX®-4 Lx SmartNIC controllers and support installing a PCIe graphics card for empowering video surveillance, virtual machines and AI applications. Coupled with QNAP’s exclusive software-defined SSD extra over-provisioning and comprehensive virtualization capabilities, the TS-x83XU series provides a high-performance and dependable - yet cost-efficient - NAS solution for uncompromising enterprise IT requirements. “The TS-x83XU was specifically designed for enterprises that require server-class standards of performance and reliability for business-critical data and applications,” said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP, adding “businesses and organizations can unlock greater application potential and increase their everyday working efficiency by leveraging game-changing features such as PCIe expandability, SSD-optimization technologies, and tiered storage.” The TS-x83XU series includes models with 8, 12, 16, and 24 drive-bays - and also a 9-bay hybrid storage model that supports four 3.5-inch HDDs and five 2.5-inch SSDs. It features server-grade hardware with Intel® Xeon® E processors, up to 64 GB dual-channel ECC DDR4 memory that assists in maintaining data integrity. The PCIe slots introduce flexible I/O expansion by installing 10GbE/ 25GbE/ 40GbE network cards for bandwidth-demanding applications, QM2 cards for adding additional M.2 SSDs, graphics cards for empowering GPGPU tasks, and SAS expansion cards for JBOD expansion. The TS-x83XU series provides two 10GbE SFP+ ports and will support QNAP’s upcoming 25GbE NIC (QXG-25G2SF-CX4) to accelerate file sharing and intensive data transfer, realize high-speed remote backup via Hybrid Backup Sync, and support iSER (iSCSI Extension for RDMA) to improve VMware virtualization performance by using the Mellanox® ConnectX®-4 Lx SmartNIC controllers. Users can also enable SSD caching to tackle IOPS-demanding applications and allocate SSD extra over-provisioning (from 1% to 60%) to potentially attain higher SSD endurance levels and improved random write performance, ideal for enterprise applications, data centers, and storage virtualization. The TS-x83XU performs as a scalable, integrated storage solution. It supports VMware®, Citrix®, Microsoft® Hyper-V® and Windows Server® 2016. The ability to host multiple virtual machines and containers fulfills greater application potential. Block-based snapshots enable instant data backup and recovery with minimized RTO. The Network & Virtual Switch app features flexible manageability for reorganizing physical and virtual network connections with greater ease. QVR Pro can help create a professional-grade video surveillance system (includes 8 free IP camera channels, can be expanded to 128 channels by purchasing additional licenses). Key specifications TS-883XU-E2124-8G: 2U rackmount with 8 drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 8 GB ECC RAM (4 GB x2), 350W single PSU TS-883XU-RP-E2124-8G: 2U rackmount with 8 drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 8 GB ECC RAM (4 GB x2), 300W redundant PSU TS-1283XU-RP-E2124-8G: 2U rackmount with 12 drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 8 GB ECC RAM (4 GB x2), 300W redundant PSU TS-1683XU-RP-E2124-16G: 3U rackmount with 16 drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 16 GB ECC RAM (8 GB x2), 500W redundant PSU TS-2483XU-RP-E2136-16G: 4U rackmount with 24 drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2136 six-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.5 GHz), 16 GB ECC RAM (8 GB x2), 800W redundant PSU Up to 64 GB DDR4 ECC RAM (4 x 16 GB DDR4 Long-DIMM modules); hot-swappable 3.5-inch/2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps HDDs/SSDs; 2x 10GbE SFP+ SmartNIC ports, 4x Gigabit LAN ports; 4x PCle slots (One slot is pre-installed with a 10GbE NIC; TS-2483XU-RP provides 5x PCIe slots); 2x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps ports, 4x Type-A USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps ports TS-983XU-E2124-8G: 1U rackmount with four 3.5-inch HDD and five 2.5-inch SSD drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 8 GB DDR4 ECC RAM (4 GB x2), 250W single PSU TS-983XU-RP-E2124-8G: 1U rackmount with four 3.5-inch HDD and five 2.5-inch SSD drive bays, Intel® Xeon® E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 8 GB DDR4 ECC RAM (4 GB x2), 300W redundant PSU Up to 64 GB DDR4 ECC RAM (4 x 16 GB DDR4 Long-DIMM modules); hot-swappable 3.5-inch/2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps HDDs/SSDs; 2x 10GbE SFP+ SmartNIC ports, 2x Gigabit LAN ports; 1 x PCle Gen3 slot; 2x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps ports, 4x Type-A USB 3.1 Gen1 5Gbps ports Availability The TS-x83XU NAS series with 8, 12, 16, and 24 drive bay models are now available. The TS-983XU and TS-983XU-RP will be available soon.
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QNAP Launches the TS-977XU - the First 1U Hybrid Structure NAS
QNAP® Systems, Inc. today launched the TS-977XU AMD Ryzen™ NAS series, QNAP’s first 1U hybrid-structure NAS. The series provides four 3.5-inch SATA drive bays for hard drives and five 2.5-inch SATA drive bays for SSDs, allowing users to enable caching and Qtier™ auto-tiering storage and to benefit from QNAP’s revolutionary software-defined SSD extra over-provisioning technology. The TS-977XU also provides well-rounded virtualization applications, providing businesses and organizations with a highly-efficient and cost-effective storage solution. "By combining AMD Ryzen processors with an advanced hybrid storage structure and 10GbE SFP+ connectivity, the TS-977XU packs tremendous performance into a compact 1U frame. The TS-977XU is further enhanced by PCIe expandability, allowing users to expand core NAS functionality as needed to accommodate changing requirements and business growth," said David Tsao, product manager of QNAP. The TS-977XU series is available with AMD Ryzen 3 1200 and Ryzen 5 2600 processors with up to 6 cores/12 threads. Its hybrid structure allows users to combine the benefits of high-capacity 3.5-inch hard drives and high-performance 2.5-inch SSDs to optimize storage and application performance. The TS-977XU also supports QNAP's new software-defined SSD extra over-provisioning (OP) that enables users to allocate additional OP space to SSDs - which provides the potential to attain enterprise-grade performance and lifespan from consumer-grade SSDs. The TS-977XU features dual Mellanox® ConnectX®-4 Lx 10GbE network ports, providing users with high-speed connectivity and greater network deployment flexibility. A PCIe slot is also available for users to install a QM2 expansion card, USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) card, wireless network card, or a low-profile entry-level graphics card. The TS-977XU series can host virtual machines and containers, providing users with greater application potential and for consolidating services into a single machine. Snapshots and virtual machine backups are supported for complete virtualization management. The TS-977XU-RP (powered by a Ryzen 5 2600 processor) provides a redundant power supply and also supports Virtual QTS, allowing users to run multiple virtual QTS operating systems on a single NAS, providing benefits of resource segregation (CPU, memory, networking), flexible application deployment, and providing energy, cost, and space savings. Key specifications Redundant power supply models TS-977XU-RP-1200-4G: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 (4-core/4-thread, 3.1 GHz, max. 3.4 GHz) processor, 4 GB RAM, 2 x 300 W redundant power supply TS-977XU-RP-2600-8G: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (6-core/12-thread, 3.4 GHz, max. 3.9 GHz) processor, 8 GB RAM, 2 x 300 W redundant power supply Single power supply model TS-977XU-1200-4G: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 (4-core/4-thread, 3.1 GHz, max. 3.4 GHz) processor, 4 GB RAM, 250 W power supply 1U Rackmount NAS; 4 x 3.5-inch drive bays and 5 x 2.5-inch SSD slots; up to 64 GB DDR4 RAM (4 x 16 GB DDR4 UDIMM RAM); 1 x PCle 3.0 slots; 2 x 10GbE SFP+ SmartNIC ports; 2 x Gigabit LAN ports; 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A port and 4 x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
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NetFoundry & Lemongrass Partner to Meet the Challenge of Cloud Migration
NetFoundry™, the leader of Application-Specific Networking, announces the expansion of its partnership with Lemongrass Consulting to deploy fully production-ready SAP S/4 environments, harnessing NetFoundry AppWANs for connectivity, with unmatched security and performance over the Internet in just a few hours. Lemongrass Consulting is an Advanced & MSP certified AWS global partner specializing on migrating, automating and running SAP-centric enterprises on Amazon Web Services. Lemongrass is working with NetFoundry in the development of a new SAP S/4 AWS Solution Space release to provide an agile, secure connectivity for their customers.’ Lemongrass plans to optimize their customers’ time-to-deployment timescales while streamlining their own processes by engaging with NetFoundry connection technology. Lemongrass automation can enable the rapid deployment of SAP landscapes, however establishing the customer to AWS connection can sometimes represent both a significant cost and time challenge. NetFoundry makes it easy to spin up highly secure, performant, edge-to-cloud networks to cloud providers such as AWS over the Internet using our web-based orchestration tools and APIs with micro-segmented networks called AppWANs. AppWANs can be deployed to connect anything (from users to ancillary applications) over the Internet, to cloud-migrated workloads with dynamically optimized performance and a robust, multi-dimensional security posture. NetFoundry brings agility, security, and speed that traditional connectivity solutions can’t match. Networks can be spun up instantly using virtual gateways that are pre-built for AWS. NetFoundry enables Zero Trust application-specific connectivity across the public Internet through sub-network isolation, identity-bound connections and enhanced data transport performance. Public cloud providers such as AWS typically offer advanced and interconnected global networks capable of linking regions and customers over a diverse range of connections types and sizes. While this provides a rich set of options to connect customers across the public cloud provider’s ecosystem, a local connection is still required to the nearest point of presence. These are typically either IPSec VPN tunnels over transient Internet connections with variable speed, or MPLS lines which are both highly expensive and time intensive to establish. NetFoundry eases cloud migration across three key areas: Workload migration - Spin up secure, software-only AppWANs directly to AWS VPCs over existing Internet connections without sacrificing security or speed. Since NetFoundry’s AppWANs encapsulate TCP in the more performant UDP protocol, while dynamically optimizing data flows to follow the best performing paths across our global network fabric, the time it takes to migrate data from on premises to public clouds such as AWS is drastically reduced as compared to traditional VPNs. Post-migration connectivity - Establish micro-segmented AppWANs between users, data centers, other cloud providers, and the cloud migrated application. Customers can rest assured that data-in-motion is protected, because each AppWAN built with the NetFoundry platform is fortified by a multi-dimensional security architecture which isolates, encrypts, and protects data flows, resulting in Zero Trust, private, dark networks over the Internet, micro-segmented by application. Post-migration change management - Inevitably, changes have to be made, such as connections to ancillary applications that may have been overlooked in the initial migration, or to accommodate growth. Since spinning up AppWANs is quick and easy, oversights and growing pains can be mitigated in a matter of minutes, rather than days or weeks with other connectivity options. NetFoundry AppWANs can greatly facilitate enterprise application deployment such as SAP on AWS. Backend services for an application will typically be spread across AWS Regions, private data centers, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments. Enterprise applications on AWS such as SAP may require three categories of compliant and performant access connectivity, each of which can be easily implemented and operated using NetFoundry AppWANs. NetFoundry delivers a new level of network agility to businesses embracing cloud migration and modern application practices. Now, with Lemongrass and NetFoundry, enterprises can experience the efficiency, security, speed, agility, reliability and profitability that is associated with digital technology and cloud migrations without the hassle and headache. “Lemongrass often find establishing customer connections can be a challenging area, MPLS lines are both expensive and slow to implement, and MPLS lines in some regions can be bandwidth constrained. Their customers can rest assured that data-in-motion is protected, because each AppWAN built with the NetFoundry platform is fortified by a multi-dimensional security architecture which isolates, encrypts, and protects data flows, resulting in zero trust, private, dark networks over the Internet, micro-segmented by application.” said Michael Kochanik, Global Head of Revenue and Alliances at NetFoundry.
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New Open Applications Advance Comprehensive Modeling Environment for Multidiscipline Collaboration
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading global provider of comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, today launched OpenSite Designer, a built-for-purpose application for the design and construction of civil site projects. It also launched OpenBuildings, bringing together its AECOsim building design and Speedikon factory and industrial design applications; and announced the availability of OpenBuildings Station Designer, a specialized application for designing rail and metro stations. At the same time, Bentley announced the availability of OpenBridge Designer, which combines Bentley’s bridge modeling, analysis and design capabilities into one comprehensive package, and OpenFlows FLOOD, a flood analysis and early warning system. In addition, in pursuit of its ‘industrialization’ strategy, Bentley announced it has rebranded under its Open portfolio several of its applications based on MicroStation technology which collectively accelerate the advancement of its comprehensive modeling environment by connecting digital workflows across disciplines and sharing digital components in its Connected Data Environment (CDE). Bhupinder Singh, chief product officer, Bentley Systems, said, “Open has three meanings. First, it signifies open to multiple disciplines. Second, it means open to analysis and simulation. Using different applications, two different disciplines, for example, a geotechnical engineer and a structural engineer, can iterate on the same dataset in our comprehensive modeling environment, providing a ‘digital feedback loop’ and enhancing their collaboration across BIM workflows. And third, because MicroStation technology underpins Open applications, users can produce multidiscipline deliverables and accomplish multidiscipline clash resolution from any Open application. Bentley’s comprehensive modeling environment is ‘Open’ for collaborative digital workflows.” Fully 49 of the 62 finalists and awardees of this year’s Year in Infrastructure Awards credited collaborative digital workflows in their successful outcomes. For example, OpenRoads, Bentley’s civil design applications for road networks, is credited by 22 awards finalists’ projects in 12 categories, and OpenPlant, Bentley’s plant design project management applications, is credited by 10 finalists’ projects in 9 different categories. ProjectWise and/or AssetWise were credited by finalists’ projects in 16 of 19 awards categories this year. OpenSite Designer The collaborative nature of digital workflows connecting analysis and simulation with design and modeling is exemplified in OpenSite, Bentley’s new solution for the design and construction of civil site projects. OpenSite provides rapid site modeling and analysis, earthwork optimization and quantification, drainage and underground utilities, and automated project deliverables. OpenSite Designer provides the most comprehensive site design workflow available including reality modeling, geotechnical, underground utilities, stormwater drainage, terrain modeling, detailed drawing production, and visualization. OpenSite Designer optimizes design outcomes with multidiscipline information modeling and analysis. Interoperating with PLAXIS, Bentley’s newly acquired geotechnical engineering solution, site plans can be enhanced with new information about the active properties of soil including bearing capacity, stresses, and displacement. OpenBuildings Designer The newly launched OpenBuildings Designer incorporates all of the capabilities of AECOsim Building Designer as well as Components Center and a range of new capabilities and standards including EnergyPlus, a building energy model to help users comply with ASHRAE standards in the US, and UK energy requirements; support of international standards including IFC 2x3, IFC4 Reference View, COBie, and Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority; new capabilities to design curtain wall systems; and OpenBuildings Speedikon, a leading application for industrialized design and construction. OpenBuildings Designer takes advantage of collaborative digital workflows with other applications in Bentley’s Open portfolio, for example templates in OpenBuildings Station Designer for tunnel segments created through GenerativeComponents based on linear alignment from OpenRail. Showcasing their robustness and versatility, OpenBuildings applications were credited by 32 of 62 of the Year in Infrastructure Awards finalists projects in 15 of 19 categories. OpenBridge Designer OpenBridge Designer is a new, all-encompassing application that integrates the modeling capabilities of OpenBridge Modeler and the analysis and design features of RM Bridge, LEAP Bridge Concrete, and LEAP Bridge Steel to meet the design and construction needs of both concrete and steel bridges. OpenBridge Designer enables bridge designers to rapidly create an intelligent, parametric bridge model, fully integrated with analysis and design, as well as drawings. It enables seamless synchronization of various disciplines for analysis, design, detailing, documentation, construction engineering and load-rating. OpenFlows FLOOD Bentley also announced the rebranding of its Haestad water modeling and ACTION Modulers flood analysis product lines to form OpenFlows for water districts, sewer utilities and flood plain managers. OpenFlows extends smart water networks capabilities with GIS-based asset-centric information for water loss reduction, water operations, flood prediction and prevention. OpenFlows FLOOD continuously monitors watersheds, integrating data from real-time monitoring stations and numerical models to calculate risk levels. OpenFlows FLOOD mitigates flood risk, improving understanding of the processes involved in flood generation, and transmitting early alerts to reduce the impact caused by floods. Connecting Digital Workflows Across Disciplines Applications for analysis and simulation, on the one hand, can collaboratively and iteratively work with applications for design and modeling, and on the other, connect operational workflows and converge the work of different disciplines. Collaborative digital workflows are characterized by data captured or created for one purpose being accessed and used by other applications for other purposes thereby saving time, minimizing rework, and improving data quality over the asset lifecycle. An example of multidiscipline collaboration with OpenFlows involves workflows that use ContextCapture to create a 3D reality mesh, feeding into OpenFlows FLOOD modeling and using the terrain as input to various analyses in a single review environment for visualization and presentation to stakeholders using LumenRT. Connecting analysis with modeling in another Open collaborative digital workflow involves the layout of road geometry, and hydraulic analysis and design using storm analysis tools including the determination of the size of storm inlets, pipes, depth of pipes, and manholes. The collaborative nature of the workflow enables clash detection in the subsurface environment, and iteration and adjustment as needed, to confirm functional and physical characteristics. Other instances of Open collaborative digital workflows connecting design and analysis include OpenUtilities with Siemens’ PSS©SINCAL, which helps utilities improve resilience and deal with weak spots in the grid; and OpenBuildings Station Designer with LEGION pedestrian simulation, to enable designers to design, test, and validate simulations of scenarios for pedestrian traffic. Rebranding Completing its announcement about Open applications, Bentley said that Bentley Map will be rebranded as OpenCities Map; and OpenComms, aimed primarily at multisystem operators, will incorporate Bentley Fiber and Bentley Coax.
