Here are the top stories SDxCentral wrangled this week related to SDN, NFV, cloud, and virtualization infrastructure:

Verizon Publishes an SDN/NFV Reference Architecture — We can't let AT&T have all the fun. On the heels of Ma Bell's Ecomp specification, Verizon lays down some SDN/NFV knowledge of its own. A bit of Friday fun from the NFV World Congress.

How NFV Got XO to Embrace DevOps — Also from NFV World Congress, a heartwarming tale of a carrier learning to break those silos.

And here are the week’s strays and stragglers we roped for you:

Dell business unit SecureWorks went public Friday, opening at $13.89 and closing slightly up at $14. Considering the IPO priced at $15.50 to $17, it's being considered a dud.

Apcera, which offers an application development platform for enterprises, hired Mark Thiele as chief strategy officer. Thiele was most recently executive vice president of ecosystem development at Switch Supernap.

A10 Networks introduced a  bare metal version of its Thunder Application Delivery Controller (ADC).

With help from 6WIND, Radware demonstrated  20 Gb/s performance on its virtual ADC, the Alteon NG VA.

The cyber security firm Anomali raised $30 million in series C funding, led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with additional investments from General Catalyst Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Paladin Capital Group.

Dell launched Dell Red Hat OpenStack Cloud version 5.0.

In related news, Midokura announced that Dell is offering the open-source Midokura Enterprise MidoNet (MEM) as an optional performance accelerator for the Dell Red Hat OpenStack Cloud, the on-premise cloud offering based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform.

Enter Cloud Suite is constructing a European Openstack-based public cloud, and the company has selected Mellanox’s Open Composable Networks (OCN) as the cloud network fabric for its Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering.

Netrounds, a provider of software-based testing tools, joined the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) OpenNFV Partner Program.

CloudVelox announced chip vendor EXAR as a customer. EXAR used CloudVelox's One Hybrid Cloud to move an Oracle disaster recovery app to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Security vendor vArmour introduced Project Ice Cream, an architecture to go with its Distributed Security System (DSS).

Illumio introduced the Attack Surface Assessment Program (ASAP), a security diagnostic service for cloud networks.

Here are the other stories SDxCentral covered this week:

  • Google Uses vEPC to Deliver WiFi to Train Stations in India
  • NTT Docomo Plans to Virtualize 75% of its Network
  • Verizon: Virtualization Is Laying the Ground Work for 5G
  • Ericsson Expands Its Restructuring After a Dim Q1
  • AT&T Is Giving the P4 Language a Whirl
  • VMware Reports Continued NSX Growth in Q1
  • Intel Cuts 12,000 as It Navigates Toward Cloud & IoT
  • Mesosphere Attracts Heavy Hitters to Its DC/OS Project
  • Mirantis Gathers More Partners for OpenStack Appliances
  • Former Cisco UCS Team Tackles Containers
  • Former F5 CEO Resurfaces at AppViewX
  • OneAccess Networks Offers White-Box Hardware With VNFs
  • SimSpace Replicates Massive Cyber Attacks in the Cloud
  • Enterprise IT Starts to Warm Up to NFV
  • Sprint, C Spire Cautious About SDN Deployments