Here's our gathering of the week's news around software-defined networking (SDN) and related topics.

... Oracle and Microsoft Azure got cozier. ZDNet notes that it's been possible to run Oracle applications on Azure for free, because the code involved was considered a preview. As of March 12, Microsoft will start charging (and here's the rate card, if you're interested.)

... For the first time since 2009, Cisco's revenues are down on a year-to-year basis, and they're going to stay that way for a while. Revenues for the second quarter, which ended Jan. 25, were $11.2 billion, compared with $12.1 billion for the same quarter a year earlier. Cisco predicted third-quarter revenues of $11.2 billion to $11.5 billion, compared with another $12.1 billion the previous year. Among Cisco's challenges: slower sales to emerging markets, especially China.

... Even so, Cisco increased its dividend by about 12 percent, to 19 cents per share. Maybe it's a move meant to keep hedge-fund king Carl Icahn at bay, Scott Raynovich speculates on The Rayno Report.

... Guavus launched a virtualized version of its Reflex analytics platform for service providers. The reasons are the usual: A virtual piece of gear is a little bit cheaper for the customer and allows for much more flexible deployment. Guavus says it's got a fully virtualized environment already running live for one Tier 1 operator.

... Midokura is now offering free trials of MidoNet. Signup info is here.

... Pertino announced general availability of its Cloud Network Engine, an SDN-powered service for small and medium-sized businesses. The gimmick here, as noted earlier, is that Pertino developed an SDN architecture but isn't selling it; rather, Pertino is using the technology itself to provide a cloud service.