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

Patel Gets $5.5M Payout to Leave Cisco — Patel was a 19-year veteran with Cisco and led the company’s engineering organization.

Downbeat Ericsson CEO Wants AT&T to Buy Time Warner —The potential merger is viewed as a bright spot in Ericsson’s future, but that might not happen.

Trump Win Could Be Beneficial To Some Tech Firms — A one-time repatriation tax break could be a boon to Cisco, Apple, and Juniper.

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

Microsoft open-sourced the code for its Azure Container Service (ACS) Engine and also updated ACS with support for Kubernetes 1.4 and Mesosphere DC/OS 1.8.4.

Microsoft also launched a preview of Azure Container Registry.

Wedge Networks added Wedge Advanced Malware Blocker (WedgeAMB) security application to its  security-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery platform.

Viptela developed an integration between its SEN platform and LiveAction’s LiveNX.

Allot Communications’ board of directors has elected Mr. Yigal Jacoby as its new chairman.

Allot has partnered with Amdocs to supply the underlying traffic detection function (TDF) for the Amdocs Policy Gateway (APG) system.

Centec and EmbedWay jointly introduced the ExSwitch6400 series 10-Gb/s Ethernet software-defined networking (SDN) white box solution, a 10- and 40-Gb/s Ethernet open-networking platform with native 100-Gb/s Ethernet (4x25G SerDes) uplinks.

Qosmos and Secucloud are partnering to enhance cyber security systems.

NXP Semiconductors unveiled an Internet of Things (IoT) system for large node networks (LNNs) with support for wireless communications protocols including Thread, ZigBee, and Wi-Fi.

Infoblox is partnering with the University of Washington, Tacoma, for research into the use of machine learning to help mitigate domain name system (DNS) cybersecurity issues.

Infoblox also announced the release of NIOS 8.0, which allows DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI) to scale according to the needs of the network.

IT services provider NYI announced that Megaport will provide NYI customers with access to major cloud service providers.

Silver Peak partnered with Cygate Finland to deliver a managed software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) service based on Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN and Unity Boost.

Affirmed Networks has been deployed by T-2, a European telecommunications provider, for delivering services over LTE to its subscriber base.

Aethra Telecommunications has joined the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) OpenNFV Partner Program.

Security vendor Nuix appointed former Dun & Bradstreet executive Ethan Treese as its CEO—Americas.

Viptela and CA Technologies integrated Viptela’s SD-WAN platform with CA Performance Management and CA Virtual Network Assurance.

Viavi Solutions is collaborating with network function virtualization (NFV) experts to demonstrate bandwidth-on-demand services.

Huawei and the Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO) jointly announced that ADMA-OPCO's cloud ready data center is now fully operational.

Verizon completed its acquisition of Fleetmatics for$2.4 billion in cash, or $60 per share.

Here are the other stories SDxCentral covered this week:

  • Verizon's IoT Business May Soon Top $1B
  • China Unicom Pick Spirent to Test NFV Middleware
  • Nvidia Sees Massive Potential in Data Center AI
  • There Will be 485 Hyperscale Data Centers Worldwide by 2020
  • Would HPE Acquire SimpliVity?
  • CentruyLink, Level 3 Combo Looks to SD-WAN to Build Enterprise Biz
  • Radisys Propels 5G, Contributes Virtual EPC to Open Source Group
  • Dtac Uses Nokia Gear for SDN in Thailand
  • Ciena Adapts Blue Planet's Virtualization for the Network Edge
  • New IBM Platform Brings Watson to IoT
  • Korea's KT Says It Will Launch 5G by 2019 — Will Verizon Follow?
  • Nutanix Muscles Into Enterprise Networking Territory
  • Facebook Intros Backpack, an Open 100G Modular Switch
  • Juniper To Go: vMX & vSRX Become Available in AWS
  • AT&T, Colt Test API-to-API Interface for SDN
  • Orange Business Services Uses Ciena & Juniper for SDN
  • Brocade's For-Sale IP Division Lands Fujitsu as a Customer
  • Rift.io Releases Commercial MANO Software Based on OSM
  • BT's SD-WAN With Nuage Will Launch in Early 2017
  • Q3 2016 Earnings Highlights and Expectations
  • Open-O: Here Comes the Sun (Code Releases)
  • Windstream Buys Earthlink for $1.1B
  • CenturyLink Sells its Data Centers to Investor Group for $2.15B
  • The 7 Largest Rounds of Funding of 2016 (So Far)