Midokura partners with Fujitsu on OpenStack-based NFV #SDEnterprise

Network virtualisation vendor Midokura announced a partnership with Fujitsu that will see both companies integrate Midokura’s MidoNet network virtualization software with Fujitsu’s private cloud platform software, which is based on OpenStack.

The partnership will see Fujitsu work to integrate its private cloud orchestration platform with which Midokura’s MidoNet, a software-based, distributed network virtualization system that allows enterprises and service providers to build, run and manage virtual networks.

The companies said the jointly developed technology will allow enterprises to create multi-tenanted private cloud environments more quickly and deploy more scalable, flexible networks.

“We are pleased to partner with Fujitsu to provide the industry with an innovative enterprise- grade joint solution that will vastly simplify the building and management of private clouds,” said Dan Mihai Dumitriu, co-founder and CEO of Midokura.

“Backed by Fujitsu’s broad success and experience in cloud building services, coupled with our powerful network virtualization solution, MidoNet, customers will benefit immensely from our one stop service,” Dumitriu said.

Fujitsu said the partnership was natural given Midokura’s participation with helping to build NFV support into the OpenStack code.

“We are pleased to have partnered with Midokura to offer solutions to enhance OpenStack-based clouds with network virtualization,” said Takashi Fujiwara, head of platform software business unit, Fujitsu Limited.

“To meet the needs of our cloud customers, we have responded by adding OpenStack to our solution offerings, and we are continuing to invest in many areas — such as deployment and operational support services, additional hardware support, and of course, we are working to improve Fujitsu Software ServerView Resource Orchestrator, our private cloud platform software,” Fujiwara said.

NFV has become an increasingly important component of OpenStack as the platform continues to be embraced by enterprises and large scale service providers alike, and companies delivering network virtualisation capabilities are set to grow according to some analysts.

Last month Plumgrid, and OpenStack-based NFV solutions vendor scored $16.2m

Cloud World Forum Africa 2014 | Post Event Report Published #cloudafrica

Review of Cloud World Forum Africa 2014

The 3rd Annual Cloud World Forum Africa drew to a close after two days of stimulating discussion, interactive sessions and break-out workshops which drilled down in to how the migration to the Cloud has impacted businesses across the region, as well as the wider themes that are impacting the digital landscape in Africa for 2014 and beyond.

The 2014 edition saw an even wider variety of speakers and topics from the region with insightful sessions from

Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Folup, Vodacom, ODCA,  City of Cape Town, Ovum, DAV, Rand Water and more!

A huge two thirds of the audience were made up of enterprise and operator attendees, proving that the Cloud World Forum Africa is the meeting place for those responsible for ICT and Cloud across a wide variety of industries.

Don’t worry if you missed out, the Cloud World Forum Africa returns again in 2015 – a definite must-attend event for all of those involved with all things Cloud!

If you couldn’t make it this year, click here to download the 2014 post event report, and see why youcannot afford to miss the event next year!

Pre-register today and keep updated as the programme develops!

Highlights:

The speed networking sessions were as always one of the key highlights of the event and provided great opportunities for introductions with potential partners and business leads and lots of stimulating discussions!

The end of Day One saw attendees enjoy more networking as part of the hosted drinks reception and the Cloud World Series team were delighted to award Huawei with the awards for the Best Business Application Cloud Platform. During the event, Huawei showcased its FusionCube solution to demonstrate the evolution and reconstruction of the telecom industry in the cloud era, and to share insights on how cloud technology and network virtualisation will provide the biggest opportunities and challenges for operators going forward.

Industry Leaders |  70% Operator and Enterprise Attendees!

Speakers included;

Broadband Gurus * Carfordable and Brandcity.co.za * Chair, Manageability & Services Workgroup, Open Data Center Alliance * City of Cape Town * CXO Advisor *  DAV Professional Placement Group * Deutsche Telekom Group/T-Systems * Dimension Data * Facebook * Folup Inc * FTTH Council Africa * HP * Huawei *  ITNewsAfrica * ITWeb * Jenny Internet * Manager Applied Research Unit, Joburg Centre for Software Engineering @ Wits University * MEF * Nigerian Information Communication Technology Agency, Edo State Government *
Ovum * Rand Water * Standard Bank * Telstra

Testimonials:

“Informa brought all stakeholders (telco, enterprises, service providers) to this forum and lots of knowledge was shared among stakeholders.
Speakers and the content presented was excellent.  Event organisers have done a wonderful job. Well done Informa team!”
Paritosh Babla, Head of Division, Vodacom, Tanzania

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“Knowledge and experience shared at the conference will provide adequate guidance to make decisions about right cloud technology for both telco and its domain. Thank you Informa!”
Abiodun Aransi, MTN Nigeria

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“It is a very good platform to meet the right customers in telco and enterprises. Aleksandra and the team are very kind and helpful to arrange many meetings for us. Thank you all!”
Peter Cao, Board Director of ESA Region, Huawei

Interested in joining us in 2015?

To keep up to date as the 2015 programme develops, pre-register your interest on our website:

http://africa.cloudworldseries.com/pre-register-for-2015/

See you in 2015!

OpenStack network virtualisation player Plumgrid scores $16.2m #SDEnterprise

Plumgrid, a provider of network virtualisation solutions for OpenStack private and public clouds announced that it has secured $16.2m in its latest round of funding.

The company’s technology, which is aimed largely at telcos at this point, brings a range of virtualised network services and features to the OpenStack platform, as well as a range of monitoring and analytics tools that can be used for troubleshooting.

Its latest round of funding, led by Longworth Venture Partners with participation from US Venture Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Swisscom Ventures, bring the total amount the company has secured to $29m.

“The leadership team behind Plumgrid has a track record of developing innovative technologies in the network and virtualisation infrastructure space and backing it up with solid execution. USVP partners with entrepreneurs that have a strong vision and big ideas,” said Jacques Benkoski, Plumgrid board member and partner at US Venture Partners.

“An end-to-end solution in this space will go a long way in getting service providers and enterprises to adopt public and private cloud at large scales,” Benkoski said.

Companies delivering network virtualisation capabilities are set to grow according to some analysts.

Brad Casemore, director of research for datacenter networks at IDC said that many enterprises adopting private cloud, as well as service providers offering public cloud, have a need for network infrastructure that can securely perform at scale and automation requirements that cloud requires.

“These customers also have operational models that are different from those of traditional enterprises with more conventional client-server workloads,” he said. “Plumgrid is focused exclusively on this cloud opportunity, correctly perceiving that cloud implies a set of requirements that traditional approaches to networking, architectural and operational, were not designed to solve.”

Participating Association
Software Defined Enterprise World Forum 2014