News in Networking: Apple’s New Data Center, Intel’s New Chip, and a Survey on Network Challenges

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

Out with the old, in with the new, or so it seems this week. Apple has a new data center, its first in China. Intel announced a new line of microprocessors. Cisco has a new acquisition. Ericsson has new network services for IoT. Also this week, Kentik’s survey from Cisco Live reveals network challenges affecting digital transformation.

Here are those headlines and more:

• Apple Announces Its First China Data Center (Reuters) Apple is building its first data center in China to comply with cybersecurity regulations. “The addition of this data center will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations,” Apples told Reuters.
• Intel Rolls Out New Chips in Battle for Data Center Business (Reuters) Intel announced a new line of microprocessors for data centers. Reuters reports this sets up “a battle with Advanced Micro Devices and others for the lucrative business of supplying the chips that power cloud computing,” designed for high-compute tech like AI and autonomous cars.
• Ericsson Introduces ‘Massive IoT’ Network Services Suite (ZDNet) Ericsson launched a suite of network services geared towards IoT. According to ZDNet, the company is also “enabling VoLTE across Cat-M1 networks and introducing automated machine learning to its Network Operations Centers.”
• Cisco Acquires Network Security Startup Observable Networks (TechCrunch) Cisco announced it has acquired St. Louis-based Observable Networks. According to TechCrunch, the startup “provides real-time network behavior monitoring to help IT teams detect anomalies that might be related to security breaches, focusing particularly on cloud deployments.”
• Study: Cloud Complicates Networks More than SDN, NFV (The Virtualization Review) Kentik this week announced findings from a survey we conducted at Cisco Live. The Virtualization Review reported on our news, noting “Cloud adoption — not disruptive trends such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) — is introducing the most complexity into enterprise networking.”
• IT Spending Growth Accelerates as IoT, Blockchain Create New Categories of Investment (Wall Street Journal) Global IT spending is up. It’s expected to reach $3.5 trillion this year, up 2.4% from 2016, according to WSJ’s article on a new Gartner report. The growth is “fueled in part by the rise of new cloud-enabled digital platforms such as IoT and smart machines.”
• DevOps Lessons Learned: Advice for IT Leaders (The Enterprisers Project) The Enterprisers Project asked seven IT professionals to share their DevOps lessons learned and Kentik’s Jim Frey weighed in. According to Frey, DevOps engineers should not ignore the network. “Recognize that you have to account for the network in your design, your planning and your testing,” he advised.

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