Here’s our gathering of the week’s news bits around software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and related topics.

… HP amped up its enterprise 5400 series switch line, calling it a Cisco Catalyst 4500 “killer.” With double the switching capacity of the previous release, the 5400R zl2 Switch Series has a 2-Tb/s ProVision ASIC and supports OpenFlow 1.3. HP claims its 5400R switches are three times faster than the Cisco 4500 and offer 43 percent better total cost of ownership.

... WAN optimization specialist Aryaka has released what it calls the first content delivery network (CDN) built for the enterprise, a market it claims has been neglected by CDN vendors. Aryaka will provide multi-segment TCP optimization for the first, middle and last mile, with the middle mile resting on its private core network. This design allows for reliable, high-performing delivery of both static and dynamic content, giving users across the world access in any location, the company says. Aryaka’s CDN will also rely on enterprise-grade global private connectivity with content acceleration, as well as dedicated network and cache resources. All of these advances will still remain in the secure Aryaka network for all WAN and cloud applications, inside and outside the firewall.

… Equinix is using Ciena gear to provide on-demand virtual network capabilities for service providers and enterprise. The on-demand networks have a programmable SDN architecture built on Ciena Optical VPN and NFV platforms, with WaveLogic processors.

… Array Networks launched a multitenant application delivery controller (ADC) designed to support up to eight independent ADC instances. Array says the AVX10650 is special in that it allocates dedicated CPU, SSL, memory and I/O to each instance so IaaS providers can support multiple customers or enterprises can support multiple applications on a single appliance.

… Glue Networks deployed a software-defined WAN (SDWAN) for “wet” infrastructure provider MWH Global. (MWH engineers water-related projects, such as the expansion of the Panama Canal.) The SDWAN connects 160 branch offices across the U.S., U.K., Australia, and India and replaces an MPLS network. Glue says MWH can now provision remote sites in minutes, compared with the three to six months it took to get an MPLS connection to a new site.

… Fresh off a $15 million round of funding, CloudPhysics launched storage analytics features that use insights from a global dataset to predict capacity or performance problems and recommend preemptive actions.

… Network Critical says packet-slicing capabilities now will be a standard feature on its SmartNA-X product family of network packet brokers. The SmartNA-X is a modular 1U platform integrating 1-Gb/s and 10-Gb/s interfaces for network connectivity and visibility.

… Citrix announced that CEO Mark Templeton will stick around indefinitely. In January, he'd announced his pending retirement.

And here are the stories we covered earlier this week:

• Cisco's APIC Will Ship As an Appliance
• PLUMgrid Latches Onto OpenStack, Extends Into Cloud Services
• Networking M&A Season Could Be Approaching
• Extreme Networks’ SDN Platform Starts With OpenDaylight
• MRV Intros the "SDN" Port