Here are the top stories SDxCentral wrangled this week related to SDN, NFV, 5G, IoT, cloud, and more:

Broadcom's Purchase of Brocade Gets Delayed, Again — Extreme will purchase Brocade's networking assets directly from Brocade.

1 Million Container Instances in 2 Minutes Draws Rare Applause — A Microsoft Azure container demo shows hyperscale support, pushes the focus onto application stability.

Dell EMC and Nutanix: HCI Partners or Frenemies? — IDC’s tracker unleashed a maelstrom of headlines, online comments, and alternate statistics.

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

Ericsson plans to open a 5G design site in Austin, Texas, by 2019.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) partnered with BT and SK Telecom to create an innovation hub for startups in the UK and Seoul, dubbed TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centers (TEACs).

Red Hat released its Red Hat Container-Native Storage 3.6, with support for containerized applications and infrastructure in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

The merger between CenturyLink and Level 3 received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter of 2017.

GE Power’s Monitoring and Diagnostic Center in Atlanta will use GE’s own Asset Performance Management (APM) software, powered by GE's Predix Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

The consulting firm Tech Mahindra and the security orchestration software vendor UBiqube have joined to deliver integrated SDN and NFV offerings.

GTT acquired Transbeam for $28 million in cash. Transbeam provides managed data and voice services.

Nutanix released new capabilities on its Acropolis File Services (AFS) software, which streamlines IT operations by natively converging virtual machine (VM) and file storage into a single scale-out platform.

Neustar is integrating its Trusted Device Identity product with NetFoundry’s Application Specific Networking platform.

Dell EMC expanded its Open Networking initiative with new infrastructure options and service capabilities.

ECI launched its Mercury uCPE (universal customer premises equipment), which provides virtualization across CPE and a service provider's point of presence (PoP).

Telia released an industry guide that delves into the impact of NFV on communication networks and into the automation benefits of VNFs.

NetApp launched a new string of software releases to its Data Fabric, further enhancing application performance, cloud connectivity, and data protection.

Microsoft and NetApp partnered to create the industry’s first Azure Enterprise Network File System (NFS) service. Powered by NetApp, the NFS service will be delivered natively in Azure.

Centina Systems, which does network service assurance, is planning to expand its team in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Telco Systems and NEC/Netcracker created a joint solution to support fast deployment of NFV service chains across data centers and at customer premises.

Enea rolled out a new series of NFV software, which the company plans to demonstrate at next week’s SDN and NFV World Congress in The Hague, Netherlands.

SoftNAS added three new additions of its Cloud Data Platform product line.

Telefónica integrated its SealSign platform with Microsoft Azure Key Vault for the safe online storage of passwords and digital signatures.

The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and EdgeX Foundry signed an agreement to align their efforts.

Palo Alto Networks added new application protections to its Aperture Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) security, now providing application protection for several Amazon Web Service (AWS) solutions.

ZeroStack debuted a software-defined infrastructure that offers multi-cloud container operations so developers can have a consistent platform.

Teneo and Riverbed partnered to deliver a new Visibility-as-a-Service (VaaS).

Here are the other stories SDxCentral covered this week:

  • Gartner Survey: CIOs Move from Cost Savers to Revenue Generators
  • Nokia Using Startup Pensa's Automation Software
  • Cisco, Telenor Launch Mobile-Focused Neutral Cloud Platform
  • Google, Barefoot Networks Add Legs to P4 with Runtime API
  • Level 3 Expands Its Network Security in APAC, Africa
  • Nuage Networks Wins SDN Deal with Large Chinese Enterprise
  • VOLTHA Release Provides the Brain for At&T's XGS-PON Plans
  • Mellanox Launches Software-Programmable Adapters for SD-Data Centers
  • Oracle Paints Altruistic Picture for Containers and Serverless Computing
  • Oracle Builds a Blockchain Cloud Service Based on Hyperledger
  • EdgeX's Barcelona Release Sets Path for Open Source IoT
  • Oracle's Larry Ellison Says Companies are 'Losing the Cyber War'
  • Send in the Robots: Platform9 Automates Severless Workflow
  • Oracle Promises One Cloud to Rule Them All
  • Kubernetes Co-Developer: Community Eyes Big Cloud Providers' Commitment
  • Apstra Delivers an Integrated Layer 2, Layer 3 Data Center OS
  • IoT Moves to Mainstream by Targeting Vertical Industries
  • WireFlare's 'Ridiculously Fast' Deployment on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
  • Gap, FedEx, Caesars Entertainment Rain Love on Oracle Cloud
  • Oracle's Ellison Teases 'Highly Automated' Security Technology
  • Kubernetes 1.8 Hits Security, Stability of Leading Container Orchestrator
  • Hardware Maker Lancom Gets into SDN
  • Level 3 Warns Investors about Canadian Firm's Mini-Tender Offering