News in Networking: VMware for SD-WAN, Google’s SDN, and Chevron’s Cloud

This week’s top story picks from the Kentik team.

This week, VMware announced plans to acquire SD-WAN startup VeloCloud. Google released a new Andromeda SDN to reduce its cloud latency. SoftBank, Facebook, Amazon and others made plans to lay a 60-Tbps undersea cable from Juniper. And Energy giant Chevron selected Microsoft as its preferred cloud provider.

Here are those headlines and more:

• VMware acquires VeloCloud as it moves deeper into networking (TechCrunch)
  VMware announced Thursday that it is acquiring VeloCloud, a startup that provides cloud-based WAN. “The companies did not reveal the purchase price,” reports TechCrunch.
• Google releases new version of Andromeda SDN stack (eWEEK)
  “Google says the new version of Andromeda Software Defined Network substantially reduces latency on the company’s cloud platform,” according to eWEEK.
• CORD: The $300 billion opportunity at the network edge (SDxCentral)
  “CORD, the effort to transform sites at the network edge into modern data centers, represents a $300 billion opportunity for a range of vendors from software developers to white box and networking suppliers and system integrators,” reports SDxCentral.
• Automation’s ‘silent killer’ is poor quality data (Light Reading)
  Fahim Sabir, the director of architecture and development for UK service provider’s Colt, told Light Reading and conference attendees this week that “data quality has been a massive concern for Colt Technology Services Group as it has worked on automating parts of its business.”
• Cisco aims to simplify multi-cloud deployments (NetworkWorld)
  “Cisco’s new portfolio of solutions takes the complexity out of hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, reduces costs and speeds up time to market,” says analyst Zeus Kerravala in a post for NetworkWorld.
• SoftBank, Facebook, Amazon, others to lay 60Tbps undersea cable (VentureBeat)
  “Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank is joining forces with Facebook, Amazon, and a number of other technology companies to build a new 14,000 km (8,700 mile) transpacific subsea cable connecting Asia with North America. The Jupiter cable system will have two landing points in Japan… as well as one at Daet in the Philippines and one near Los Angeles,” reports VentureBeat.
• Microsoft reveals network simulator that keeps Azure alive (The Register)
  “Microsoft has let the world in on one of its key Azure management tools: a simulator designed to help prevent nearly 70 per cent of the bugs that cause network downtime. The simulator, called CrystalNet, is a design tool Microsoft Research created for its admins to help avoid downtime during routine maintenance and upgrades,” according to The Register.
• Chevron signs 7-year deal With Microsoft in one of cloud’s biggest wins yet (Forbes)
  “Energy giant Chevron has selected Microsoft as its preferred cloud provider in one of the biggest head-to-head wins yet in a developing race between tech leaders for cloud computing customers. Under the terms of the seven-year deal, Chevron will move its development of new applications to Microsoft’s cloud service Azure,” reports Forbes.
• IBM’s latest private cloud is built on Kubernetes, and is aimed at Microsoft (NetworkWorld)
  “IBM today announced a new version of its private cloud platform that supports the popular open source application container platform Kubernetes. IBM Cloud Private gives customers an option to deploy applications onto the private cloud software in three ways,” says NetworkWorld.
• Most loathed programming language? Here’s how developers cast their votes (ZDNet)
  “Developers on Stack Overflow really don’t want to work in Perl and don’t like Microsoft much either… Other intensely disliked languages include PHP, Object-C, Coffeescript, and Ruby,” according to ZDNet.

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