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

... HP is making strides to acquire Aruba Networks, according to Bloomberg. The news could break as early as next week, but it was noted that a deal hasn't been completed and inside talks could still get panned.

... Continuing with their longstanding collaboration, IBM and Juniper combined Juniper's MX Router Service Control Gateway and IBM Now Factory Analytics to enhance visibility of network subscriber and network behavior. Also, IBM Analytics will be integrated in Juniper's Cloud Analytics Engine.

... Docker Inc. released downloadable versions of Docker Machine, Docker Swarm, and Docker Compose, the orchestration tools announced in December. Machine and Swarm are now in beta, and Compose is in its version 1.1 release.

... CENX closed an additional (undisclosed) round of funding and claimed it achieved 500 percent revenue growth last year.

... Pivot3 rolled in $45 million in equity and bank financing this week. New funder Argonaut Private Equity joins past investors, and the firm's managing director, Steve Mitchell, will be added to Pivot3's board of directors.

... EZChip has announced the first product to come out of the Tilera acquisition: TILE-Mx, a new family of multicore processors. Featuring one hundred 64-bit ARM CPU cores in one chip, and 200 Gb/s throughput, the new product release focuses on high-performance processing.

... HP unveiled its Internet of Things (IoT) Platform, a service that empowers CSPs to manage heterogenous sets of IoT sensors and operate vertical apps on M2M devices. It also announced its HP Energy Management Pack, the first vertical app developed for the HP IoT Platform.

... Ericsson will fill a seat on the ONOS board.

... Telstra enhanced its voice network with three software products from Metaswitch, including MetaSphere Call Feature Server (CFS), the Metaswitch Universal Media Gateway, and Perimeta Session Border Controller.

... Security-as-a-Service provider FortyCloud launched by building a virtual private network within the cloud.

... ZTE Corporation released ElasticNet SDN IPRAN, a product that introduces virtualization technology to an IP radio access network (IPRAN) and simplifies network structures as well as operations and maintenance.

... Telekom Austria unveiled new NFV-related deployments, including a virtual evolved packet core (vEPC) using Connectem, Red Hat, and Procera. The 4G core system for VoLTE  is in service trials at a Serbian Telekom Austria subsidiary, Vip Mobile.

... Apcera will demo its hybrid cloud operating systems (HCOS), which the company claims is the first of its kind, with Ericsson at Mobile World Congress next week.

... Both Wind River and ARM released IoT kits. Wind River expanded on its Helix product portfolio to address IoT challenges, while ARM launched ARMmbed.

... Wind River also added new partners to its Wind River Titanium Cloud ecosystem, including ASTRI, which just introduced an LTE Small Cell Gateway and Security Gateway as virtual network functions, optimized for Titanium Server.

... DPI vendor Qosmos announced plans to demo service chaining on Cavium's LiquidIO Adapter at Mobile World Congress.

... Statup Konekt received $1.3 million in its latest round of funding. The company offers toolkits that help device manufacturers and IoT service managers connect devices over mobile networks.

... Mavenir released its SDN-enabled evolved packet core (EPC), designed to optimize data and voice services deployments for mobile operators.

... A second release of the Dell XC Series for Web-scale Converged Appliances was announced this week.

... Broadcom released its first fully integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) for the virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE) market.

... TelAlaska is the most recent network operator to deploy Metaswitch's Perimeta Virtualized Session Border Controller.

... NEC and its subsidiary NetCracker launched the new "NEC/NetCracker SDN/NFV Solutions" business brand.

... Ixia added OpenFlow support to its Control Tower network visibility platform.

Here’s what else SDxCentral covered lately:

• Juniper Burnishes Open Source Cred with Ubuntu Creators
• Juniper Board Welcomes Back an Old Friend
• Midokura Plays SDN With Japanese Gaming Provider
• Arista Installs Puppet Agent
• HP Revenue Drops As 'Execution Issues' Hit Networking Biz
• Avaya Knits OpenDaylight into Its Ethernet Fabric
• Mirantis OpenStack Adds Kubernetes Support
• Cisco Swallows the Red Pill of Open Source Software