Check out our top articles for July 2018, covering the SDxCentral universe of SDN, NFV, and related topics. Rankings are based on unique visitors aggregated during the month.

10. Infinera Acquires Optical Transport Rival Coriant for $430M

Both vendors were recently labeled as "challengers" by IHS Markit in the optical networking space behind heavyweights Cisco, Ciena, Huawei, and Nokia. Read more.

9. Cisco and Samsung: A Natural Partnership on 5G?

Cisco recently said its partnership with Ericsson was languishing. But its relationship with Samsung is moving full-steam ahead. Read more.

8. Security Vendor Fortinet Sells SD-WAN Directly to Customers

According to Gartner research, there are more than 60 SD-WAN vendors, and 90 percent of them offer little or no security. Fortinet's SD-WAN has a single controller to manage both the security and the other SD-WAN features. Read more.

7. AT&T Caters to Customers That Prefer a Full Cisco NFV Stack

AT&T's other virtualization platform, FlexWare, now includes SD-WAN from VMware/VeloCloud. Read more.

6. Intel Buys a Programmable Chip Company to Prepare for 5G

Programmable chips will play a key role in 5G networks because complex processing will be necessary in the baseband and the base station. Read more.

5. Networking Startup Snares Another Former Cisco Executive

Randy Pond spent 22 years at Cisco before leaving in 2015. It's speculated that his hiring means Pensando may soon come out of stealth mode. Read more.

4. Huawei Faces Scrutiny Over Claims It Infiltrated a Closed Facebook TIP Meeting

A former Huawei employee says he was fired for refusing to use a fake company name to gain access to the private TIP gathering. Huawei says this is just a labor dispute, and the claims are groundless. Read more.

3. Dell Technologies, VMware Reach $9B Deal After Months of Speculation

Under the agreement, Dell Technologies will buy VMware tracking stock. This will allow Dell to go public (again) and pay down its debt. Read more.

2. Would AWS Sell White Box Switches to Enterprises?

The hyperscale public cloud providers such as AWS have built network operating systems that are very simple and only have the features they need and nothing more, said IDC analyst Brad Casemore. Read more.

1. White Box OS Startup Arrcus Takes On Cisco, Arista, and Juniper

CEO Devesh Garg says the company's operating system isn't limited by legacy software or hardware and can take advantage of innovations in the underlying silicon. Read more.