Happy Friday to everyone, and happy almost Fourth of July to some! Miss the news? Don’t worry, the SDxCentral weekly news roundup is here to deliver the news bits surrounding software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and more. Get ready, ‘cuz it’s coming atcha:

Cisco released its IoT System, based on six "pillars" that will create a complete architecture says Cisco, but really, it just sounds more like a bunch of little announcements all rolled up into one big-ish release. Network connectivity, fog computing, security, data analytics, management and automation, and an application enablement platform make up the six pieces to Cisco's IoT plan, and 15 new IoT products will be introduced as well.

Intel announced several executive changes, including the departures of Renee James and Arvind Sidhari, presidents of Intel and Intel Capital, respectively. James is leaving to pursue a CEO job elsewhere, while Sidhari is retiring. Both will leave in January.

Intel also announced that the former McAfee division, now called Intel Security, was formally integrated into the company on July 1. Intel Security is headed by General Manager Chris Young, who formerly led Cisco's security efforts. Intel Security was created by the $7.7 billion acquisition of McAfee in 2011.

Pica8 got Internet exchange TouIX to use its OS and white box switches, making the French company the first European Internet exchange provider to fully utilize OpenFlow.

OPNFV welcomed new Silver members this week, including Altera, Brain4Net, and CertusNet.

The OpenDaylight Project added 12 founding users to its advisory group in order to enhance the ODL developer community. Some of the users include Arizona State University, Comcast, T-Mobile, and AT&T.

InfoVista is the newest partner in the HP OpenNFV Application Partner Program.

Huawei introduced NEMO, a northbound language that allows the SDN controller to pinpoint network resources.

Cisco and Sprint are bringing a $15 million smart city project to Kansas City, Missouri, where Cisco will provide most of the hardware and Sprint will offer a Wi-Fi network. The project is expected to span a decade. Yeah, this might be only a little related to SDN, but this KC native is pretty excited... and if there's ever an excuse to talk about Kansas City, I'm gonna take it.

Here’s what else SDxCentral covered lately: