Deal to merge CenturyLink and Level 3 operations would create a new behemoth in enterprise telecommunications.

Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat and Google CEO Sundar Pichai vowed that the company's investments in machine learning, cloud and broadband are worthwhile, as are its latest forays into hardware like the new Pixel phone and Google Home device.

The right analogy can explain the complexity of OpenStack to folks who are unfamiliar with it. Or it can confuse them even more.

Sixteen vendors demonstrate they can run the same workload on different OpenStack distributions, cruelly depriving the audience of an opportunity to see more than a dozen people humiliate themselves onstage.

Some of the world's biggest businesses have strategic OpenStack deployments, but the market is tiny compared to proprietary public cloud giants like Amazon Web Services.

Researchers are using OpenStack to explore the basics of atomic physics, as well as looking ahead to build a vast telescopic array that will peer across the galaxy.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT to roll out NYC-style WiFi kiosks in London; Dubai, Huawei team up on airport data centers; the Internet of Pets.

Managed service provider expects to leverage new investment to fund organic growth as well as possible acquisitions.

Salesforce's annual customer conference this year was like a comic book convention. In a good way.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vodafone launches SME cloud marketplace, trials Massive MIMO; new MTN CEO's start date brought forward; BT boss hits back at rivals over Openreach.

The cloud provider was looking for something more open.

Salesforce says it helps telcos improve sales by getting a single view of customers across Internet, mobile, phone and in-person interactions.

Cloud growth highlighted a strong quarter for Microsoft, as its stock price hit an all-time high.

NTT is extending its Enterprise Cloud services to run private OpenStack as a service.

Juniper is refocusing on scalable networking hardware innovation, after a tumultuous – and sometimes comical – few years.

New downtown data center debuts next door to existing facility, promising no-latency connections to 100-plus networks.

IBM's so-called 'strategic imperatives' &ndash comprising cloud, analytics, mobile and security &ndash are growing, but not at a great enough rate to lift the company overall.

vCloud Air service will now be available via Equinix Cloud Exchange or by Direct Connect, depending on the location.

Salesforce, Twitter's last serious suitor, has dropped out of talks to acquire the messaging service.

Service provider focuses on shortening lead times for delivery of wavelength and Carrier Ethernet services over multi-vendor gear.

Salesforce.com revealed that it is working to integrate some of its applications with Google's, shortly after Microsoft announced the launch date for its Dynamics product.

Enterprises will be able to run VMware workloads on the Amazon public cloud, turning private clouds into hybrid clouds.

Ericsson, BelAir, SpiderCloud and Vivato vets emerge with an AI-fueled take on the evergreen problem of making enterprise WiFi less of a hassle to deploy and manage.

European operator says it has partnered with a major US operator to enable international, multi-network SDN-enabled flexible services that can be set up in minutes by one operator to run on another's network.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia targets smaller networks with management system; MTN invests in Iranian cab-hailing app; CityFibre gets cracking in Bracknell.

Getting a complete picture of individual customers turns out to be tricky.

Igneous is offering high-capacity leased storage servers located behind the company firewall, managed over the cloud.

The company is looking to redefine itself as a provider of services for enterprises moving to and managing clouds.

Oracle sets a final deadline for its offer after T. Rowe Price objects.

Enterprises will see end-to-end visibility of their premises-network-cloud ecosystems along with better cloud app security.

Web giant and network giant combining forces on cloud services, security and IoT.

Carrier believes most businesses will want a range of options and not simply pure-play OTT delivery of SD-WAN.

Focused on scalability, resiliency and improved user experience for the popular open source cloud platform.

Three years after VMware said it should be able to clobber Amazon in the cloud, the two companies are partnering, according to a report.

Network operator says its service will be different from the many on the market via multiple access types, integration into AT&T cloud.

The web-scale Internet companies are having a significant influence on the telecom infrastructure equipment and services sector in a number of different ways, explains Heavy Reading Chief Analyst Patrick Donegan.

The company hired its first CFO, often the sign that it's getting ready for an initial public offering.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT rivals seeks pensions advice; Orange gets approval for bank buy; Nokia looks to improve basestation efficiency with Eta acquisition.

The data center operator is maintaining an open environment to support multiple connections, but business processes to do that are lacking.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Microsoft rolls out its European cloud; Interoute provides airline support; Apple Pay reaches Russia.

Company says it's capitalizing on its integrated cloud architecture and underlying SDN to speed reach and quantity of enterprise services.

Telefónica launched its new Open Cloud public cloud service and Cloud Server services in Chile, Brazil and Mexico thanks to a partnership agreement with Huawei that's focused on migrating IT services to the cloud.