TECHNOVATORS

TECHNOVATORSConnect & Control the Gadgets with Aura Smart

The ‘smart home’ or ‘connected home’ has contributed to the growth of the Internet of Things. The numerous applications are coming and it can be operated by using IoT. Making your home “smart” transforms a bunch of wires and walls into a personal refuge. Until recently the prospect of a truly smart home was merely fiction, but in the last few years the number of “smart devices” has grown steadily and adoption is becoming widely accepted. It is now time for a truly smart home. Aura Smart is making this dream true, as it connect and control any “smart” gadget from any location to serve a variety of applications such as security, facility management, and entertainment. During an interaction with Nitisha from BISinfotech, Abrar Ahmed, Co-founder, Aura Smart elaborated the value of smart machines and its upcoming growth.

Abrar Ahmed

Co-founder, Aura Smart

QKindly explain Aura Smart and its special offerings.

Aura-Smart is an "AI-based central control system” for homes and other spaces. It was born with a vision to eliminate interoperability issues while allowing customers to leverage AI to build custom experiences. Aura is designed to connect and control any “smart” gadget from any location to serve a variety of applications such as security, facility management, and entertainment. The platform's goal is to make the consumer's life easier and more productive. Aura's key importance lies in its intelligence layer, which sits on top of a customer's existing investments. It does not compete with current market leaders, but rather complements them by adding a layer that allows users to do much more, such as build bespoke applications, perform space analytics, and so on.

Aura aspires to be the operating system that enables people to connect their gadgets with ease so that they are always prepared and informed. Aura is compatible with over 3500 devices, including many well-known brands, making it easier for users as Aura will communicate effectively with all of their devices, resulting in a seamless and pleasant automation experience. Customers have the option of using touch, speech, or a standard Android/ iOS application. Aura is compatible with a wide range of home systems and devices, including hardware from manufacturers like Panasonic, Philips, Bosch, Samsung, LG, and others.

QHow Aura Smart uses AI in its products and what makes it different from other companies?

For the longest time, smart homes have simply been about just control. It has always been up to the user to decide the action of a smart home. Aura is flipping this model by enabling the system to adapt to a user based on their moods and activities before deciding what needs to be done. This radical approach eliminates the need for a user to decide, and instead shifts the onus onto the system itself.

Aura's software design makes it simple to add and integrate multiple devices. Traditional vendors do not have an onboarding architecture, which necessitates multiple integrations for each project. This is where Aura is at the top of the game. Aura can

permanently onboard vendors and devices because of the platform's safe, cloud-native, modular, and scalable design. Aura Smart links to a variety of devices (of any sort, brand, or technology) and decides what needs to be done depending on a variety of inputs, such as the time of day, weather, location, content (music, movie), and the users themselves. The key point here is that the devices involved don’t have to necessarily work on just one technology (say wifi, bluetooth, and more), or belong to any one brand (say control4, fibaro, and more). The user has complete democracy and freedom with regards to his smart ecosystem.

Some key USPs of Aura Smart are –

● Intelligent real estate which caters to the needs (mental and physical) of users without the need for user intervention ● Easy-to-Use (Interact using Touch, Voice or Mobile Application) ● Vendor-agnostic (any vendor support) and does not lock in consumers ● Current solutions are wi-fi/internet-dependent and unreliable, while Aura utilizes a combination of alternate technologies ● Allows users to remotely monitor and control their real-estate ● Scalable platform allows users to start small and upgrade eventually

Aura Smart daily life use-cases –

● Curtains open up during the day to let in natural light, while staying closed at night for privacy ● Prayer room lights up at appropriate times during the day ● Trigger security alarms when unusual activity is detected during unusual hours (say between 1am and 6am)

QHow technology is revolutionising the modern home?

Technology and the Internet of Things are transforming the way we live. In terms of IoT adoption, India has experienced significant growth (42 percent YoY), particularly for home, workplace, as well as hybrid (work from home) use-cases. We're seeing an exponential increase in the number of gadgets having an interface (app, internet, and so on). Using digital and cloudbased solutions not only increases security and overall access, but it can also provide effective care for people who need it by providing real-time updates.

QKindly explain the growing need and demand for smart spaces.

What makes smart spaces unique? Because they improve efficiency, increase safety, and improve the user's over all experience. The use of integrated devices is not restricted to households; smart environments may also be used in work spaces, hospitals, schools, and for the care of the aged. Technology can help optimize schedules, organize staffing, and more based on new insights. IoT enables the combination of physical and digital world data to detect and address pain points in a timely manner. Smart spaces also aid in the effective management of energy, creating sustainable spaces for the future.

QHow Aura’s software architecture has made it easier to onboard and integrate different devices and vendors?

Aura’s integrations are not just API-based integrations, our architecture utilizes alternate technologies and open standards as well to onboard vendors. Though integrations have traditionally been associated with APIs, the depth of integration is usually limited. Our modular architecture also enables us to be very adaptable when it comes to developing use-cases for various target groups, decreasing our time-to-market. One of the reasons so few companies are able to create similar platforms is due to the sheer number of vendors and customizations required which makes it quite unrealistic and immense. What differentiates us and puts us ahead of them is our architecture that allows us to onboard and integrate them quite efficiently.

QWhat are future plans and how is your company going to attract more clients from all over the world?

Our objective is for intelligent and proactive spaces that respond to the requirements of customers rather than relying on them to make every decision. Aura envisions a future in which environments adapt and react to the requirements of the user, rather than the way people now begin activities. We are currently focusing on the GCC and India. In addition, there are plans in place to make initial inroads in SEA. Aura plans on expanding to SEA and Europe next year after having established a foothold in regions with existing footprint. Our product is currently available through our extensive partner and distributor network we’ve built across our active territories.

QChallenges and scopes in the industry and India as a market?

Through the years, the IoT and smart home industry especially has grown by leaps and bounds. However, the market (especially India) still lacks maturity due to the lack of consumer understanding of the possibilities and potential value they stand to gain. Given that consumer experiences are at the heart of product success, success largely depends on after-sales service. This has led to the demise of products that portrayed themselves as DIY. Solutions in the industry have certainly become more economical, but products which deliver on desired experiences are still largely out of reach for most customers in the smart home space. There’s a clear discrepancy and lack of awareness within the market when it comes to the products being offered, with several vendors entering the market via the white-labeling route without really innovating. Though this does create choice for consumers, this does create a lot of confusion too. The industry will certainly continue to mature, but an added focus on consumer experiences rather than just control, is necessary.

QAny expectations from the government? Explain.

The government needs to increase support for hardware and electronics based startups by creating a conducive environment starting with the establishment of a semiconductor fabrication facility. The government needs to encourage the growth of proptech by allowing aligned industries such as real estate to flourish. The government has certainly done its part by extending end-to-end support for startups from various angles including opportunities and mentorship and should continue doing so. The electronics industry is largely dependent on manufacturers from abroad such as China and Vietnam. This is mainly due to the all round ecosystem available in those countries. Hence, local access to such an ecosystem would certainly drive up innovation, subsequent adoption, and exponential growth of the industry.

Accelerating

Telco Cloud

Telco cloud is gaining traction, as telcos invest in cloud-native networks in order to bring down the cost of running networks and services and avoid vendor lock-in. To gain consistency between their data centers and the edge in their private clouds, network providers are evolving from virtual network functions (VNFs) on virtual machines (VMs) to Containerized Network Functions (CNFs). Cloud-native networks offer greater agility, faster release time, shorter time-to-market and lower costs. However, this transformation highlights unknown challenges; such as moving network operators’ infrastructure towards multi-site cloud-based data centers, future-proofed to handle microservices architectures, cloud-native applications – all on top of commodity hardware.

Building Telco Clouds

The Industry Specification Group (ISG) within ETSI organization has defined architecture for developing virtualized network infrastructure and adapting network functions to the specific cloud environment. This will help traditional network operators move from monolithic hardware appliances towards cloudbased distributed infrastructures, whether it be NFV or 5G rollouts. To help accelerate this process, there are solutions designed to benchmark and validate performance, allowing service providers to confidently rollout NFV deployments and reap the benefits of service flexibility and agility, without sacrificing performance. All it takes is to validate C P Manoharan the system for a few use Director of Business Development, cases like; evaluate cloud APAC SOUTH, infrastructure performance Spirent Communications as per ETSI TST-001 standard using methodologies measuring performance in terms of networking, compute storage and validate MANO-readiness. Customized test scenarios further addresses key cloud performance use cases, such as comparing cloud performance, cloud workload migration, and infrastructure capacity planning.

Accelerating Cloud Migration

NFV is a complex and difficult set of technologies to navigate, with deployment of network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVi) and the functionality of virtual network functions (VNFs) presenting many challenges.

5G is incorporating virtualization concepts and virtualization deployments are being accelerated by 5G’s outsized market opportunity. While NFV has threatened to break through for years, the emerging 5G network architecture has finally set the stage for broad deployment. Evolving cloud strategies are also driving uptake.

Traditional reactive and predominantly manual service assurance and passive test methods that worked well for static networks may not be practical or cost-effective in a rapidly changing virtualized environment. Especially one, where the focus has shifted from assurance of equipment to assurance of service performance and quality in a distributed network.

The 5G Telco Cloud

The success of 5G’s business case is contingent on the efficiencies enabled by the 5G Telco cloud. Compared to public cloud, the Telco cloud has stringent, carrier-grade requirements like; high availability, scalability and performance: • Moving radio baseband processing to the cloud presents challenges to time-sensitive networking and availability. Proactive RAN service assurance and continuous test will be critical to meeting network performance expectations.

• Separation of the control and user planes supports virtualization and network slicing, but since each slice will have its own performance requirements, end-to-end testing of slices will require automation.

• Cloud-native virtual network functions comprise reusable microservices that are optimized for a cloud environment. Thorough testing of these new microservices and their bundles will be required.

Cloud complexity has grown by leaps and bounds and the performance requirements have become more stringent. Put simply, traditional passive test and assurance do not offer the response time necessary to ensure the performance needed.

Automation Key to Assure Quality

In this cloud-based, virtualized 5G world of dynamic services, network changes happen faster than humans can process. This means automation will be essential to service orchestration and service assurance. It must be intelligent, actionable, real-time, and driven by analytics and machine learning. Continuous integration, continuous testing, and continuous delivery (CI/CT/CD) methods enable the agility that is a key ingredient for success. Active test and automated service assurance simplify the testing, verification and delivery of 5G, they can power: • Rapid turn up of new services using automated workflows that seamlessly integrate back office systems and test functions and network elements;

• Proactive monitoring of the health and performance of the network, functions and services and verify SLA compliance; • Intelligent, end-to-end automation of continuous processes across development and operational domains, such as testing and validation, lab management, and launching and assuring networks and services; and

• Zero-touch, automated troubleshooting and problem resolution.

As operator’s NFVi / 5G Cloud requirements are unique and different, it is important for an operator to validate their NFVi / 5G Cloud for telco grade performance to guarantee multivendor VNF/CNF/NS performance demands which runs on them. There are solutions to validate the NFVi, VIM & cloud native 5G Cloud in an automated framework which needs very less or no user intervention from lab-to-production.

Testing and Assurance

The agile, automated testing and assurance solutions help operators accelerate the design, development, and deployment of cloud and virtualized networks. Automating the testing and on-boarding of new VNFs from lab-to-live production leads to 75% reduction in time-to-deployment and almost 90% reduction in errors. Security infrastructure is hardened as security issues are tracked and remediated proactively, reducing both time-to-fault visibility and time-to-fault remediation. The easy to integrate, automated test coverage enables rapid deployment and configuration, in the dynamic virtualized environment, offering agility, scalability, and reduced TCO. Operators can validate NFV environments including SD-WAN or VNF services to ensure performance and SLAs with proven test methodologies, and deliver applications and services from any Cloud – private, public, or hybrid, with confidence.

Data Centre

Securing the Powerhouses of the Digital World

Sandesh Kaup

Country Manager, Milestone Systems, India and SAARC

The pandemic has catalysed India's digital transformation. As the economy reopens in a phased manner, enterprises are adopting a more tech driven approach to commence operations. With cloud and cloud-based applications being leveraged more than ever before, there is an increasing dependence on data centers for supporting the applications and servers required to run these services, thereby unlocking new opportunities to store and utilize this data.

According to a NASSCOM report, the nation’s growing internet penetration, increased adoption of cloud, IoT, AR/VR, AI/ML, big data analytics, and edge computing coupled with the Government of India’s push towards digitisation are some of the key factors driving the growth of India’s data economy. The ever-increasing usage of data coupled with the focus on data protection and data localisation policies is increasing the demand for datacentres in the country which is expected to touch 5 billion by 2025 growing 2X the CAGR compared to the global market over 2019 – 2025. With data being touted as the 'new oil' and/or the 'new currency', data centres have emerged as prime targets for criminals looking to disrupt business operations or stealing data for profit. Against this backdrop, the protection of data centers has assumed greater importance, and one of the strategies to enhance its security is by deploying an efficient IP access control, IP audio, software, and video analytics solution.

Protecting the data centre

Running a data centre in today’s world is an increasingly complex task. New technology, changing regulations, and new demands calls for developing tailored solutions that ensure the safety of these repository of valuable data. Video technology is a critical aspect in most security solutions to detect potential threats. Technological advancements have allowed for more responsive video surveillance wherein activities can be analysed in real time. For securing the perimeter, thermal cameras with long detection ranges and high-contrast images are ideal to ensure security as they perform well even in low-visibility conditions such as light rain, fog, smoke, or total darkness. Ground-based radar can also be used to track people and objects moving across open spaces and is less sensitive to things that trigger false alarms in other motion detection cameras like small animals and moving shadows. Video content analysis can identify objects left behind, count people, and employ other intelligent tactics to quickly identify threats. For example, who enters the facility, the duration of stay inside, and the exact area being accessed. An open Video Management Software (VMS) solution coupled with access control can be used to monitor the relevant access points after verifying authorization. CCTV cameras integrated with analytics can be installed to scan all areas that need tight control. An intelligent video solution can be utilized to detect the exact number of people present and can trigger an alert when the maximum number allowed is breached. VMS solutions can also provide insights into the average occupancy periods. For instance, these solutions can be customized to raise an alarm if someone overstays the specified time limit.

Managing data

The data center comprises several network devices in a complex arrangement. These include switches, routers, firewalls, servers, storage systems, application delivery controllers, and video cameras. All these components manage and store business-critical applications and data. Any state-of-the-art data center must manage data from across multiple devices, and its storage for a stipulated time. With increased number of people socializing online, people working remotely, surge in the e-commerce and gaming industries, the amount of data that is generated daily has reached staggering amounts, bringing the data center industry at the fore of continuing India’s momentous transition into a data economy. Companies are increasingly looking to derive actionable insights from the data repository generated from high quality video. Therefore, to accommodate this unprecedented data growth, an ideal video technology platform is required that can ensure seamless data management through a single pane of glass while simultaneously optimizing investment costs.

Enhancing Efficiency

A data centre is a goldmine of information. The networked devices and servers that process, store, and distribute critical data are the precious components of an enterprise's digital infrastructure. Securing a data centre involves processes, policies, technologies, and procedures that ensure its physical and virtual protection. As risks evolve every day, data centres can benefit greatly from a seamlessly integrated security system that track threats even before a mishap occurs. For example, IoT (Internet of Things) sensors can be utilized to detect intrusion or emergencies like fire flood, earthquakes or even pre-empt equipment failure.

Data centres as a safe zone

To secure a critical facility such as a data center, there is a strong need for better performing hardware with greater storage capabilities, which are integrated with the right VMS architecture to best optimize the high volume of data generated. A powerful open platform IP VMS designed for large-scale and high-security deployments could be one such solution that technology leaders can opt for. It consolidates disparate storage silos to a single petabyte-scalable storage platform to meet retention time requirements, reduce technical complexity and performance bottlenecks. Besides capturing important attributes with rich metadata tagging; recording information such as scene content, or audio transcripts, the solution supports future growth needs with multiple deployment and configuration options, including tiering to AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. Emerging technologies like AI, Predictive Analytics, IoT, Intelligent Data Collection and Big Data infrastructures have successfully broadened the horizon in terms of the development, deployment, and operation of intelligent video management systems. The recent advancements of these infrastructures have also made it possible for a seamless data collection process to provide richer information for more accurate and credible analysis. Since the pandemic hit, we have seen a massive proliferation of connectivity, user distribution, and a greater focus on the systems that keep everything running - data centers. Therefore, keeping it safe is of utmost importance and aligning with the best-of-breed video technology solution providers is something decision makers cannot neglect.

ST Unveils STM32Cube Software & MCUs

STMicroelectronics has released new STM32Cube software packs and tools, as well as evaluation boards.

Features:

• Accelerate development with the latest STM32U5 microcontrollers (MCUs). • Combine security and power-saving innovations. • With up to 2MB of Flash memory on-chip. • First STM32 MCUs to leverage advanced 40nm process technology. • Delivers superior feature integration, memory density, dynamic power consumption, and standby power compared to alternative products in the market.

Features:

• The design is based on Panthronics’ PTX100R NFC Reader IC for contactless communication. • Renesas RA6M4 general-purpose secure microcontroller (MCU). • The RA6M4 MCU, which has an Arm Cortex-M33 CPU with TrustZone technology and integrated security IP. • EMVCo Level 1-compliant software runs in the PTX100R.

Applications:

Smart, connected consumer products such as activity trackers and smartwatches, as well as smart-home equipment, utility meters, equipment for industrial sensing and signaling, mobile point-of-sale (POS) terminals, insulin pumps, and glucose meters.

Availability:

Now ready for mass-market applications with stock at authorized distributors.

Renesas & Panthronics Brings New Design for mPoS Terminals

Panthronics and Renesas Electronics have released a new design that provides manufacturers of secure mobile point-of-sale (mPoS) contactless payment terminals with a new way to reduce the size and the bill-of-materials cost of their products without compromising performance or security.

Applications:

mPoS terminals.

Availability:

Available Now

TE Connectivity’s SNACompact Terminal Blocks

TE Connectivity has unveiled the new SNACompact terminal blocks range from ENTRELEC. Made in India, the new terminal blocks feature a compact design that delivers powerful performance, improving the panel building process for installers who must meet the demands of miniaturization.

Features:

• Durability engineered for harsh environments. • Streamlined installation. • Reduced overall maintenance. • Certification and rating for a variety of applications. • Flexible size range.

Applications:

The new SNACompact terminal blocks can be used for a variety of functions, including feed-through, ground, disconnect, multi-deck, fuse, test and measurement, sensor-actuator, mini blocks, thermocouple and more.

Availability:

Available Now

ROHM’s New Battery Charger IC

ROHM has developed a battery charger IC, BD71631QWZ, designed to provide low-voltage charging of wearables.

Features:

• All-solid/semi-solid types models using novel materials for the electrode part and batteries that adopt different terminal compositions. • However, many of the latest rechargeable batteries are small and thin, requiring low voltage charging in the 2V to 3V range. • Moreover, there are currently no battery charger ICs that can handle a wide voltage range. • Supports low voltage charging of not only li-ion but also new types of rechargeable batteries such as the all-solid and semi-solid state.

Applications:

Wireless earbuds and thin, compact IoT devices such as smart displays powered by rechargeable batteries.

Availability:

Available Now

Infineon to Unveil SECORA ID with FIDO

Infineon Technologies has declared to introduce the SECORA ID with FIDO for secured authentication to online portals with user-friendly tokens.

Features:

• The leading security solution actively protects from tampering and fraud. • Enhances the security of digital identities. • Utilizes the open industry standard and provides a simple, reliable and secured method for online authentication. • In combination with an electronic identity document (eID), FIDO can also be used by citizens to authenticate themselves to government portals and access their services. • The solution is implemented on an EAL6+ certified security controller and a Java Card™ operating system.

Applications:

Payment wearables and smart IoT devices.

Availability:

Available Now

MediaTek’s New Filogic 130 & Filogic 130A SoCs

MediaTek has released the new MediaTek Filogic 130 and Filogic 130A system-on-chips (SoCs) which both integrate a microprocessor (MCU), AI engine, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 subsystems and a power management unit (PMU) into a single chip.

Features:

• Integrates an audio digital signal processor to allow device makers to easily add voice assistants and other services into their products. • Support 1T1R Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz, along with advanced Wi-Fi features such as target wake time (TWT), MU-MIMO, MU-OFDMA, quality of service (QoS) and WPA3 Wi-Fi security. • Integrated HiFi4 DSP for more accurate far-field voice processing, always-on microphone capability with voice activity detection and trigger word support.

Applications:

Wide range of IoT devices..

Availability:

Available Now

Infineon’s OptiMOS 6 100 V with MOSFET Tech

Infineon Technologies has rolled out the OptiMOS 6 100 V with a new power MOSFET technology.

Features:

• The OptiMOS 6 100 V family of MOSFETs comes with improved R DS(on) and the industry’s best figures-of-merit (FOMs). • The devices help to reduce the energy consumption by one million Euros over a time of ten years. • Allow for easier thermal design and less paralleling, leading to excellent efficiency, improved power density, system cost reduction, and prolonged lifetime.

Applications:

Optimized for high switching frequency applications such as telecom and solar. Also ideal for battery-powered applications (BPA) and battery management systems (BMS).

Availability:

Available Now

Vishay’s vPolyTan Polymer Tantalum Chip Capacitors

Vishay Intertechnology has released a new series of vPolyTan surface-mount polymer tantalum molded chip capacitors designed to deliver reliable performance in high temperature, high humidity operating conditions.

Features:

• A robust design with improved hermeticity for increased protection in harsh environments. • The devices offer high-temperature operation to +125 °C and withstand temperature humidity bias (THB) testing of 85 °C, 85 % relative humidity for 500 hours. • These specifications make the capacitors ideal for decoupling, smoothing, and filtering in the harsh environments. • Offered in the D case (EIA 7343-30) size, the T50 series features ultra-low ESR down to 25 mΩ and ripple current to 3.0 A.

Applications:

Industrial, military, aerospace, and edge computing applications.

Availability:

Available Now

IDTechEx Explains 5G & its Deployment Adaptiv Networks & iTelecom Forge Channel Partnership

Ericsson to Acquire Vonage

5G technology is the most updated and improved version of mobile communication technologies having new characteristics. 5G is positioned as a technology that will redefine and accelerate numerous industries and will ultimately change the way people work and live. According to IDTechEx latest 5G research market report, “5G Technology, Market and Forecasts 2022-2032”, IDTechEx specifically looks into the deployment strategy of 5 key regions: the US, China, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. For each region, IDTechEx focuses on two aspects: government strategy and telecom operator strategy for the 5G rollout. What is the global 5G deployment status in 2021? 5G is recognized as an important infrastructure for both developed and developing countries. By the end of 2021, 79 nations have either commercialized 5G or are conducting 5G trials. Digging further into what frequency is most used – based on IDTechEx study – it is sub-6 GHz. This frequency band is used in over half of 5G commercial deployments and trails, with just a tiny percentage using mmWave. So far, only 9 countries have commercialized 5G mmWave. However, this is not surprising given that, the main restriction of mmWave transmissions is their low propagation range. Telecom companies would not employ the mmWave frequency band for national coverage. Looking at telecom operators' deployment strategies, we can see that low-frequency bands (for example, 700 MHz) are used for national coverage, whereas sub-6 GHz bands are utilized for city coverage, and mmWave is used for megacity hotspots. What is the important technical development/trend in 5G now? Though 5G is commercialized, there are still a lot of technical developments going on. In this article, IDTechEx discussed the 4 key points: • The race for lighter Massive MIMO sub-6 GHz radio: One crucial part of deploying a large-scale 5G network employing massive MIMO gear is that the radio must be lightweight and have a compact footprint, as these characteristics will help operators save significant money on overall deployment. This is where silicon comes in. Si's performance will have a huge influence on a radio's essential aspects, such as connection, capacity, power consumption, product size, and weight, and, ultimately, cost. In the 5G system sector, all of these are critical. In IDTechEx’s “5G Technology, Market and Forecasts 20222032“ report, a comprehensive analysis of the Si industry and its impact on 5G development is provided. • Small cell deployment Small cells are proposed to address the challenge of short signal propagation range caused by high frequency. Creating an ultra-dense network by deploying more small cells plays a key role in 5G as it allows to complement the macro network and therefore boosts data capacity. Adaptiv Networks has formed a channel partnership with iTelecom, a top master agency and managed service provider. iTelecom agents will now be able to offer award-winning, affordable SD-WAN products for small businesses throughout North America. Adaptiv's SD-WAN solutions enhance the quality and reliability of any UCaaS solution and provide an industry best, seamless failover. Agents can now offer managed connectivity as a simple add-on service with all the benefits of SD-WAN. Adaptiv's SD-WAN solution is available through iTelecom with an innovative per-seat pricing model that aligns with how agents sell other business cloud-based services, such as VoIP. Adaptiv offers cloud-managed business connectivity solutions backed by the largest patent portfolio in the SD-WAN industry. The company operates in a 100% channel go-to-market strategy and provides training and marketing content to help its resellers communicate the value of SD-WAN to their customers.

Ericsson has decided to acquire Vonage Holdings Corp. for USD 21 per share. This represents a total acquisition price of approximately USD 6.2 billion (Enterprise Value). The merger agreement was approved unanimously by the Board of Vonage. For Ericsson, the acquisition builds on the success of the integration of Cradlepoint in September 2020. Cradlepoint has continued to develop strongly under Ericsson’s ownership. Vonage’s presence in the Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) segment will provide Ericsson with an opportunity to access a complimentary, substantial and high growth segment. With increasing investments in 4G and 5G - and a flourishing ecosystem of new applications and use cases leveraging the power of modern networks - demand from enterprises for programmable networks has been accelerating.