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

Cisco Pegs Layoffs at 5,500 Employees — A 7 percent restructuring will prime the company for a future in cloud, security, and the Internet of Things (IoT), CEO Chuck Robbins says.

Unraveling AT&T's and Verizon's Virtualization Vendors — Who's "in" on the big carriers' NFV plans? We try piecing it all together.

Hackers Hold an Auction for Alleged NSA Secrets — And it appears they got hold of a couple of valid Cisco firewall exploits.

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

Intel launched a virtual reality platform called Project Alloy.

Nutanix validated its hyperconverged infrastructure software to run on Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) servers.

CA Technologies released enhancements to its comprehensive privileged access management portfolio.

Aviat Networks partnered with software vendors and research institutions for the automation of microwave networks.

Genband named Steven Bruny as chief operating officer of the company's Network Transformation Business.

Talari Networks announced the availability of its Adaptive Private Networking (APN) 5.2 and Aware 2.2 management software.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) released shared storage options that help small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) modernize their IT.

Here are the other stories SDxCentral covered this week: