A10 Networks Orion 5G security lineup delivers business transformation for service providers

A10 Networks announced its Orion 5G Security Suite that enables mobile carriers and service providers to be ready for the business transformation 5G and NFV brings. The suite allows customers to meet the requirements needed today and helps them future proof their networks for tomorrow by delivering security, scalability, agility and analytics, while integrating with a partner ecosystem. A10 brings unique expertise from working with many of the production 5G networks that are now operational around the world.

A10 Networks has been at the forefront of initial 5G rollouts with tier-one carriers worldwide and is working with many others to plan for their future 5G initiatives. 

With the announcement of the 5G Orion Security Suite, service providers have a proven comprehensive suite of secure applications services that have been engineered for cloud-native architecture to aid in making their 5G and NFV strategies successful. 

The Orion 5G Security Suite enables advanced security and reliability functions as individual services by modularizing and offering them as a service layer with a set of connected technologies that employ automated intelligence, machine learning and centralized visibility and control.

Partnering with tier-one operators, A10 has honed its solutions to meet the critical 5G requirements for improved security, reliability and performance learned from 5G network rollouts over the last year. A10 provides an interconnected suite – virtual or physical – resulting in lower latency, larger scale, higher reliability and lower TCO—all of which have been required for the emerging 5G use cases customers are enabling.

In the last year to 18 months, first movers have deployed the first wave of 5G networks and demonstrated improved customer satisfaction and increased average revenue per user (ARPU), despite an increase in network demands, including higher data usage and download rates.

The Orion 5G Security Suite addresses existing and emerging mobile network architecture requirements for agility, consolidated services, greater scale, and lower latency communications across the Gi-LAN, virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC), and multi-access edge computing (MEC) environments. 

The Orion 5G Security Suite’s disaggregated, cloud-native security services provide agility while maintaining scale and performance by leveraging cutting-edge technologies. It also goes beyond just protecting the data plane through a GiFW by adding protection for the control plane and signaling plane with full visibility.

The Orion 5G Security Suite represents a major evolution of the company’s 5G strategy outlined in late 2018 by providing a comprehensive solution for mobile operators and other service providers to successfully deploy 5G non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) solutions at hyperscale for 5G devices and new NFVi requirements.

A10 supports existing 4G and 3G network architectures and use cases for the Gi-LAN and EPC, while catering to demanding requirements for 5G architectures, including the cloud-native agility needed for MEC. These solutions can be deployed in infrastructure but are future proofed for 5G deployments. This includes functional consolidation for application visibility and control, subscriber-aware intelligent traffic steering, Gi/SGi firewall with carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT), GTP/SCTP firewall, integrated DDoS for frequently attacked services, intelligent traffic steering and more.

5G demands are inherently different than 4G, with smaller packet sizes, more throughput, and higher concurrent session counts. A10 solutions can scale concurrent sessions to multi-billion levels and throughput to multi-terabit levels in a scale-out cluster. 5G deployments can benefit from compact and efficient options, for example, 385 Gbps in compact physical network functions (PNFs), or high-performance 180 Gbps virtual network functions (VNFs) and cloud-native network functions (CNFs). 

Support for Kubernetes and Docker containers are available now. The compact PNF form factors and very high-performance software offerings (including containerized) are especially beneficial in emerging MEC use cases where space and power are at a premium.

With new user-plane and control-plane security requirements coupled with the increased attack surface and scale brought by 5G and IoT device proliferation, more advanced, scalable and automated approaches are needed. To guarantee uptime and ensure control- and user-plane security, components include edge firewall, GTP firewall, Gi/SGi firewall, control- and user-plane policy enforcement, DNS protection, RAN security gateways (SeGW), and more. 

Additionally, A10’s advanced DDoS protection solution includes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities with its Zero-day Attack Protection (ZAP), continuous base lining, and One-DDoS for distributed intelligence. This provides full visibility into all packets versus traditional sample-based-only solutions. Network-wide ML-powered DDoS detection and mitigation for in-house protection can also be offered as a customer scrubbing service.

A10’s solutions can be delivered in a variety of form factors to meet the demands of the emerging NFVi architecture including, VNFs, CNFs, bare metal and PNFs. These solutions are integrated with leading NFVi architectures and interoperate with multiple MANO environments for faster network roll-out and optimized performance and agility. A10 also provides flexible software licensing and consumption with FlexPool subscription-based capacity pooling licensing.

A10 Harmony Controller provides actionable intelligence to manage subscriber services, meet law enforcement agency mandates and compliance, and deliver per-subscriber analytics. Harmony Controller provides visibility, management, orchestration and automation. Coordination of distributed One-DDoS data from all the Orion 5G Security Suite solutions is seamlessly orchestrated from the integrated aGalaxy TPS system.

A10’s products integrate with multiple third-party solutions and vendors, ranging from DevOps tools, such as Ansible, to providers of 5G solutions such as Ericsson, Red Hat, NEC, Tech Mahindra and Lenovo.

Kaspersky research shockingly reveals that over half of companies share their IT budget

A Kaspersky report found that a vast majority, about 89 percent of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are regularly called upon by their board of directors to provide recommendations for the business. 

The study also revealed that despite regular communication with top decision makers to share important insights, it does not necessarily result in dedicated security investments. In fact, 54 percent of respondents admitted having to share their organization’s IT budget.

In the third quarter of this year, 451 Research conducted an independent study, commissioned by Kaspersky, to explore the various factors shaping information security from the perspectives of enterprise security leaders. The study surveyed 305 respondents that have senior or executive responsibility roles for cybersecurity in enterprises worldwide, with the findings revealing how the nature of cybersecurity and security leadership has evolved.

According to the study, top management seek advice from IT security leaders regardless of the organization’s reporting structure, with only 23 percent reporting to the board. 

Additionally, 60 percent of respondents said business leaders need input from their CISO most often when an internal cybersecurity incident happens. However, it’s not all about breaches. Executives also seem to be proactive and mindful about how to protect the company now and in the future. 

More than half (57 percent) of the surveyed IT security chiefs schedule meetings with the board on a regular basis, and 56 percent are requested to provide their expert opinions on future IT projects.

Despite being visible and valuable to the board, CISOs still face difficulties when it comes to justifying necessary spending on IT security. Having to siphon their expenses from the broader IT budget, 43 percent of those surveyed feel that they are in direct competition with other business and IT initiatives, making it one of the top three challenges they face in order to make the case for essential information security investment.

“As the study shows, boards of directors now understand that cybersecurity is an important part of business success,” said Veniamin Levtsov, vice president of corporate business at Kaspersky. “Nevertheless, there’s still a challenge for CISOs to be able to convert this understanding into actual support. Speaking business language instead of using technical jargon, focusing on how to solve problems and bringing in third-party expertise to justify meaningful measures are all key components to win over directors.”

Supermicro aligns with Intel to offer large scale distributed training AI systems to meet needs of deep learning training models

Super Micro Computer is collaborating with Intel on AI solutions that are validated on the Intel Nervana Neural Network Processor for Training (NNP-T). Intel's NNP-T is a purpose-built AI training ASIC supporting the growing compute needs of deep learning training models.

The Intel Nervana NNP-T solves memory constraints and is designed to scale out through systems with racks easier than today's solutions. As part of the validation process, Supermicro integrated 8 NNP-T processors, dual 2nd Generation Intel Xeon scalable processors, up to 6TB DDR4 memory per node supporting both PCIe card and OAM form factors. Supermicro NNP-T systems are expected to be available mid-year 2020.

With high compute utilization and high-efficiency memory architecture for complex deep learning models, the Supermicro NNP-T AI System is built to validate two key real-world considerations: accelerating the time to train ever-complex AI models and doing it within a given power budget. The system enables faster AI model training with images and speech, more efficient gas & oil exploration, more accurate medical image analytics, and faster autonomous driving model generation.

"Supermicro is excited to cooperate with Intel for the Nervana NNP-T platform," said Charles Liang, president, and CEO of Supermicro. "Striking a balance among computing, communication, and memory, the validated NNP-T ASICs on Supermicro systems can train large AI models with near-linear scaling efficiency via intra- and inter-chassis links."

"Supermicro has validated our Deep Learning (DL) solution and is helping us prove the Nervana NNP-T system architecture, including card and server design, interconnect, and rack," said Naveen Rao, corporate vice president and general manager, Artificial Intelligence Products Group, Intel.

Trimble announces availability of XR10 with HoloLens 2, its mixed-reality offering for front-line workers in safety-controlled environments

Trimble announced that it is now taking orders for Trimble XR10 with HoloLens 2 system, a worksite-ready mixed-reality solution that enables workers to visualize 3D data on project sites for easier and more efficient planning, collaboration and reporting.

The new solution is enabled by two central components — Trimble XR10 with HoloLens 2, a mixed-reality device purpose-built for integration into an industry-standard hardhat for use in safety-controlled environments; and Trimble Connect for HoloLens, a cloud-based software that allows for open and collaborative communication across all stakeholder types, optimized to maximize the benefits of HoloLens 2.

Enabling front-line workers in the construction, oil and gas, manufacturing and mining industries, the Trimble XR10 meets international certification standards for impact and electrical protection in most major markets. The device includes new functionality of HoloLens 2, including a flip-up-visor, wider field-of-view and more instinctual interaction enabled by hand-tracking technology. 

Providing a true mixed-reality experience, the XR10 enables users to overlay Constructible Building Information Models (BIM) and other digital project data onto the physical context of the jobsite. 

Trimble has taken this approach one step further by incorporating Mobilus' mobiWAN bone conduction audio headset for a fully immersive experience in the field. The XR10's ear-free approach of the Mobilus device delivers a layer of digital audio content directly to the inner ear while leaving the ears free to receive audio from the physical world or to be protected by earplugs. 

With mobiWAN audio output and the HoloLens' advanced array of microphones, the system is capable of two-way communications and video remote assistance in high-ambient noise environments. The XR10 introduces all of these advanced features to front-line workers without compromising on safety or compatibility with standard safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, or other personal protective equipment (PPE).

Trimble Connect for HoloLens is an application-specific extension to Trimble Connect, a cloud-based collaboration platform designed to improve the coordination of constructible 3D models and their associated data. The HoloLens extension provides users of the Trimble XR10 with enhanced, actionable collaboration of this same data in the mixed-reality environment. New additions to Trimble Connect for HoloLens include step-by-step guidance for complex tasks and assigning to-do tasks and RFIs to other stakeholders.

"Mixed reality is playing a key role in the digital transformation process by improving the understanding and communication of complex spatial conditions through a truly immersive experience," said Martin Holmgren, general manager, Field Solutions, Trimble Buildings. "We are excited for this latest integration and expansion of our collaboration with Microsoft that provides field-oriented workflows leveraging constructible 3D models and mixed reality to facilitate daily work tasks."

Viewing and interacting with digital models in the active work environment assists onsite teams in visualizing the work to be performed and identifying potential issues before they happen. These new additions to the Trimble Buildings' Constructible portfolio further extend the broad set of solutions Trimble offers for improving quality, productivity and safety throughout the building construction and operations lifecycle.

Availability

The Trimble XR10 for HoloLens 2 will begin shipping in December 2019. Trimble Buildings is accepting orders online and through the Trimble Buildings reseller network. An updated version of Trimble Connect for HoloLens will be available in the Microsoft HoloLens app store on Dec. 2, 2019.