Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

- und daher habe ich mir nach dem Einstieg bei Alibaba, die inzwischem mehr als 20% gut gemacht haben, auch einige Rakutens gekauft.

Look Out Amazon, Here Comes...Rakuten?
Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten announced on Tuesday it is acquiring Ebates for $1 billion.

The acquisition, which Rakuten hinted at last week, is part of the Japanese company’s push to grow its base beyond its domestic market and hopefully, become a global player. Having made some $1.2 billion acquisitions to date along these lines, this is Rakuten’s most ambitious move to date.

However, investors are dubious that the company can absorb yet another foreign acquisition, much less one the size of Ebates, despite Rakuten’s strong cash position.
Then there is the ever-present Amazon, which dominates the e-commerce market in the U.S. Few believe it will falter in the face of Chinese giant Alibaba, much less a Rakuten-Ebates combo.

Rakuten Goes Forth

Not surprisingly, Rakuten says it is undaunted. For starters, it has assembled a very interesting mix of acquisitions. There is messaging app Viber, which it purchased for $900 million in February, the Canadian ebook offering Kobo, Spanish video service Wuaki.tv, Viki, a digital content platform and Buy.com.
Now it has picked up Ebates.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/09/...ere-comes-rakuten/  

Operating much like Uber, Cabify is one of the most commonly used alternatives to Uber in Spain.
Cabify is available in Alicante, A Coruña, Barcelona, Benidorm, Madrid, Málaga, Marbella, Murcia, Santander, Seville, Valencia, and Zaragoza.

Founded in 2011, this Spanish-born ride-hailing app has since spread to Latin America. It operates much like Uber, with a similar interface and pick-up system that displays the upfront cost prior to booking.

In addition to the Cabify Classic, you can hail luxury and tailored rides including Cabify ASAP, Cabify Plus, Cabify Group, and Cabify Kids.

Safety is paramount, with all drivers being geo-tracked and identifiable by the company headquarters. As well as being the most popular, Cabify is the greenest alternative to Uber in Spain. They offset the CO₂ of every single trip while motorcycles and scooters are 100% electric.

https://thespaintravelguru.com/uber-in-spain
 

Rakuten Securities führt "U.S. Stock Large-Scale Preferential Service" ein
- Die Margin-Handelsgebühren für US-Aktien betragen 0 USD, und die Margin-Zinssätze und Aktienleihgebühren werden erheblich reduziert! Doppelte Anzahl an vergebenen Punkten

18. September

https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/company/newsrelease/fy2024.html
 

Eine berechtigte Frage hinsichtlich der Themen Kooperationen und Rakuten Affiliate Network Review im Jahre 2024: Wie hat sich das größte Affiliate-Netzwerk weiterentwickelt? Affiliate-Marketing ist nach wie vor eine der beliebtesten Methoden, um online Geld zu verdienen und Einnahmen zu generieren. In diesem Zusammenhang hat das Rakuten Affiliate Network eine herausragende Rolle gespielt. Doch wie hat sich das größte Affiliate-Netzwerk seit unserem letzten Review entwickelt? Wir werfen einen genaueren Blick darauf, um auch unsere ENtscheidung für diese Kooperation ab dem 1. März 2024 zu unterstreichen.

https://digital-hessen.de/...iliate-netzwerk-rakuten-weiterentwickelt
 

This hand-picked selection of the most intriguing affiliate marketing statistics includes essential information on earnings potential, high-earner strategies, industry insights, and overall sentiment toward affiliate marketing.

The global affiliate marketing industry is worth over $17 billion.

The global affiliate marketing industry is expected to grow to a market size of $27.78B by 2027.

Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of all internet orders in the U.S.

81% of brands use affiliate programs to boost brand awareness and drive sales.

31% of web publishers say affiliate marketing is a top revenue source.

Major brands get 5% to 25% of their overall online sales from affiliate marketing.

20% of brand marketers say affiliate marketing is their most successful channel.

The 3 most profitable affiliate niches are Education/E-Learning, Travel, and Beauty/Skincare.

Affiliate marketing is growing at a rate of 10% year-over-year.

The average affiliate marketer earns $8,038 per month.

78.3% of affiliate marketers use SEO as a primary traffic source.

83.1% of affiliate marketers are optimistic about the future of affiliate marketing.

https://www.authorityhacker.com/affiliate-marketing-statistics/
 

September 18, 2024

Rakuten Symphony is a standout player in telecom because of its unique ability to understand and solve customer problems, the President of its OSS Business Unit (OSS BU) has said.  

In the second edition of ‘Inside Track’, the new employee-facing live series hosted by comms director James Dartnell, Rahul Atri outlined the importance of understanding customer needs, why Rakuten has a strong track record of cultivating leaders and why “AI-washing” will not deliver value to mobile network operators.  

Atri returned to Rakuten Group as Rakuten Symphony OSS BU President in 2023 having previously played a central role in deploying Rakuten Mobile's network - one based on an autonomous, cloud-native, end-to-end network architecture. He now leads a division of over 1,000 employees – Rakuten Symphony’s largest BU, the majority of which comprises engineers.

The Inside Track session kicked off with Atri emphasising the telecom industry’s fascination with the Rakuten telecom story. Rakuten Symphony’s experience in operating Rakuten Mobile’s network gives the organisation an ability to put “ourselves in the customer's shoes and help solve their problems with technology,” he said.

“They want to learn from us in terms of how we created things and how we solve problems. What customers love about us is we are not just there to sell more boxes and software. We own their problem and solve that end-to-end. We've been successful at doing that.

“I've been in multiple conversations with customers where they're not initially able to articulate some of their challenges, but we’re able to tell them a story that shows we’ve gone through the same journey and how we overcame that challenge. We have a product platform which is run across the lifecycle of Rakuten Mobile. I think that's our differentiator - that’s extremely helpful to customers.”  

Atri highlighted how Rakuten Symphony’s unique approach to solving these problems has supported one of the world’s largest brownfield operators in retiring 15 legacy applications, with more to come. “That’s big – they’ve got so many technologies as part of their operation,” he said. If you want to work with brownfield operators and solve their problems, you need to have a culture in which you continuously innovate.”  

‘Be a kid’

The second episode of Inside Track hosted two audience participation polls, the second of which revealed an eye-opening result - 70% of audience members agreed that the most important factor in building innovative and effective products and solutions is through a culture that enables employees to be creative - and to fail – a sentiment with which Atri strongly agreed.  

“I want alchemists in my team - people who can connect the dots from what the customer is looking for to what the product should be. I think it's also very important in today's world to be a storyteller if you want to climb up the ladder faster. My advice is to be a ‘kid’ - be curious about everything. Don’t be scared of being judged. The more you experience you gain - especially in telecom – the more you build walls and a safety net around you. Learning never stops.”

Team work makes the dream work

Atri went on to highlight the importance of successfully unifying experts across UX, product management and quality assurance teams to deliver products and experiences that deliver value. “Whoever is working on products, whether it is the designer who creates the beautiful layouts and UX, the quality assurance team who really stress test the product, and developers who write the code – they all need to understand what the essence of the product is for the customer, how they're going to use it. In the OSS BU we know whatever code each employee is writing and where that is being used, how it looks, what customer uses it, and where it can be improved.”

No ‘AI-washing’

Understanding user intent is fundamental to Rakuten’s approach to developing AI services that can make a tangible difference to mobile network operators, Atri said. “We focus a lot on the ROI of our products - we don't want to just wash them with AI, to say we have a chatbot enabled. What customers really need is more insight and value. Today, anyone can talk to an AI platform. What we are working on is how to convert this into a mechanism where the tool can take care of the rest. We want to become a platform which can make a network programmable - where you can convey your intent to the platform, and the platform listens to you and takes care of the rest, whether it is scaling out a new application, deploying an edge site, reconfiguring itself or deploying networks to support slicing. The platform needs to understand whoever is behind the screen – whether it is a NOC engineer, a salesperson or the CEO - and what they are specifically asking.”

Leadership

The conversation concluded with Atri sharing his take on Rakuten’s strong track record of developing leaders internally – a culture that he himself has directly experienced. “Rakuten is the place where curiosity gets its wings,” he said. “Rakuten Symphony has been the disruptor. We've been the challenger. I think that comes from the leadership and the DNA we carry. We are a big company, but we have the heart and soul of a startup.”  

Atri is now striving to continue this positive example by increasing the number of female leaders within the OSS BU. He gave a nod to Subha Srinivasan, Rakuten Symphony’s Global Head of Customer Excellence, as an example to other employees. “I’m trying to increase the number of female mentors in our organization, and Subha is a great example of that. What we have seen is that female leaders are often faster, more agile, more complete.”

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...ident-rahul-atri-on-inside-track
 

September 17, 2024

In the second edition of Inside Track, the new employee-facing live series hosted by comms director James Dartnell, Rakuten Symphony's OSS Business Unit President Rahul Atri outlined the importance of solving customer problems, Rakuten's strong track record of cultivating leaders and why “AI-washing” will not deliver value to mobile network operators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF9L3VS39mw
 

R-Pitch: Inspiring a Corporate Culture of Entrepreneurship

September 18, 2024

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/innovation/rnn/2024/2407_009/
 

Rakuten Mobile Announces "SAIKYO SENIOR Program"!

September 19, 2024

Rakuten Mobile has announced the "SAIKYO SENIOR Program," a new program for users over the age of 65 which offers payment plans from effectively 780 yen monthly*, or effectively 1,000 yen monthly* if they include optional services such as 15-minute unlimited calling, mobile security and filtering services, and in-store support. The program aims to give these "SAIKYO digital seniors" confidence when it comes to using a smartphone to enjoy life with optimism and vibrancy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoDwFtS4SYo
 

Rakuten Medical Presented Research Results of Preclinical Studies for PD-L1-Targeted Photoimmunotherapy at The 83rd Annual Meeting of The Japanese Cancer Association 2024

Rakuten Medical, Inc.

Sep 19, 2024, 22:00 ET

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...ation-2024-302253184.html
 

September 18, 2024

By Eden Ezion

In every corner of the world, communities are the heart and soul of our lives. They bring us closer, creating bonds that last a lifetime. Together, we learn, grow, help each other and celebrate. We are here to make those connections even more meaningful. And guess what? Communities on Rakuten Viber are now offering a much better user experience to bring together people from different walks of life.

https://www.viber.com/en/blog/2024-09-18/...perience-just-got-better/
 

By Eden Ezion
September 9, 2024

We are thrilled to announce that Viber Pay, our innovative in-app digital payments feature, is coming soon to the Philippines! As a global leader in private and secure messaging, Rakuten Viber is excited to be the first messaging app in the Philippines to offer a fintech solution that allows you to send money to friends, loved ones, and businesses as easily and securely as sending a Viber message.

https://www.viber.com/en/blog/2024-09-09/...tlist-in-the-philippines/
 

September 19, 2024

Seasoned telecom veteran and Senior Director of Product Management Sridhar Bhaskaran shares his story, passions, his role at Rakuten Symphony and more.
Tell us about your journey to Rakuten Symphony

I come from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India. I started my professional journey in 2002 after finishing my Engineering degree in Computer Science. I was introduced to end to end product development lifecycle very early in my career. Within 6 months of joining as a fresher in a semiconductor company in 2002, we were put in the hot seat to deliver a real time diagnostic tool for DSL modem chipsets - with just a four-person team. Our scope of work not only involved developing the tool, but also to package it, write user guides and installation documents and even to design the logo of the product. After eight months of hard work, we delivered the product, and our lead asked us to go and present it in an international VLSI conference.  

This experience prepared me to look at product building from a completely different perspective. It taught me to go deeper, learn things outside of my comfort zone, question everything, seek answers for those questions and never stop until it is delivered as an easy to install and use package.

I was an active contributor to 3GPP core network standards between 2013 and 2019, involved in some of the key 5G core network specifications, including serving as the rapporteur for few specifications.
With that background I was hired by Altiostar as a standards expert back in 2019 to work on 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) standards and O-RAN Alliance standards. From being a standards delegate I transitioned into a full-time product management role in Altiostar and later Rakuten Symphony.

Can you share a bit more about your current role?

In my current role as Senior Director of Product Management, I was initially handling managing customer requirements and translating them into product requirements specifications and detailed systems specifications. Earlier I was actively handling few customers, but when we realized that we needed a full time role and team to write end to end systems / feature specifications, I took up that role within the product management team. Generally, systems / feature specifications are not done as part of product management. However, we took up that role finding a gap.  

Since the Open RAN ecosystem involves interoperating with multiple partners across layers, having full visibility into end-to-end solutions and how different pieces come together is very important. With my background in end-to-end product development engineering lifecycle and standards, I was able to easily fill this gap of systems engineering.

What has been the highlight of your time at Rakuten Symphony?

The plethora of challenges that Open RAN ecosystem brings and the opportunities to solve them is what that keeps me motivated. Since we have to stitch together multiple pieces of the Open RAN puzzle – getting everyone aligned on a working end-to-end solution and making sure everyone understands it irrespective of their line of expertise and skillset is a huge interpersonal challenge in this area.

My current work always keeps me on my toes to learn new things outside of my comfort zone and dig deeper to identify solutions for problems. Bringing in this solution mindset and clear communication of end-to-end processes within and across the teams inside the RAN business unit of Rakuten Symphony is one of the highlights of my time at Rakuten Symphony.

Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you?

I have always had fascination for Thirukural, a collection of 1330 couplets from Saint Thiruvalluvar in Tamil literature. If I have to pick a couple which I relate to with regards to my work, those would be:
“Whatever you learn is useless if you can’t communicate it well and make everyone understand” and “Even if you are not able to learn and read – listen from experts and learn. That will help you like how a walking stick helps in old age.”

I also like the philosophy "Best way to learn a new subject is to teach it". This approach to learning was also supported by Richard Feynman, a famous American theoretical physicist.

What are some hobbies you enjoy pursuing in your down time?

My hobbies have changed during different phases of my life but one thing that I keep myself engaged in is active and competitive sport. In my school days and college days, I was pursuing competitive cricket, playing divisional leagues. I also experimented a bit with cycling, commuting to office everyday and doing some long-distance cycling over the weekends.

Involvement in competitive cricket from a young age, a sport where you have to stay focused for 7-8 hours a day had taught me to go through the ebbs and flows of life and approach challenges and successes with the same level-headed approach.

During my mid 30s I was travelling extensively for meetings and I took up reading, a habit I now really enjoy. I keep refreshing my books wishlist every year. Histories of human evolution, science and technology, history and Tamil stories tied to the culture of different communities are my favorites.

What’s next for you?

I am on a mission to make Open RAN easy to deploy, monitor and upgrade. The path is strewn with many challenges. Each challenge opens up as a new problem area to solve. Eager to see how far we can go and how we can empower others to come along with us on this journey.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...versation-with-sridhar-bhaskaran

 

By Victoria De Dios

July 19, 2024

https://thephilbiznews.com/2024/07/19/...ils-work-productivity-tools/
 

Kobo might release a 10.3-inch Kaleido 3 Elipsa by the end of 2024

26 July 2024 By Michael Kozlowski

Kobo has released its first generation of colour e-readers a couple of months ago. They initially ordered one million units of the Clara Colour and Libra Colour. The upstream supply chain can easily handle two additional million units to meet potential customer demand. Customers seem to be embracing the  7-inch Kobo Libra Colour compared to the  6-inch Kobo Clara Colour. The initial shipping ratio between the two was approximately 3:2, meaning consumers prefer the larger device.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a strong track record in the tech industry, disclosed in a recent report “Due to better-than-expected first-wave sales, Kobo will accelerate its plan to launch a larger colour e-reader using E Ink’s 10.3-inch Kaleido and expects to launch it before the end of 2024 at the earliest if the panel and assembly capacity can meet the rush order demand.”

https://goodereader.com/blog/kobo-ereader-news/...-by-the-end-of-2024
 

Open-RAN Investment by Operators to Surge in Next Five Years Reaching $39 Billion, as Operators Focus on Maximising Network Efficiency

Hampshire, UK – 29th July 2024: A new study by Juniper Research, the foremost experts in telecommunications markets, has found that annual operator investment into O-RAN (Open Radio Access Networks) will reach $11 billion in 2029; rising from $2 billion in 2024.

This culmination of nearly $40 billion of global investment into AI network automation by 2029 will be driven by the need to cater for increasing cellular connections and data.

O-RAN is a version of the RAN which supports multi-vendor deployments, and enables operators to expand AI RAN deployments. RAN is the technology that provides connectivity between end connections and network cores.

https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/...to-surge-in-next-five-years/
 

RAN Automation, SON, RIC, xApps & rApps in the 5G Era 2024-2030 - Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts - ResearchAndMarkets.com

September 20, 2024 10:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "RAN Automation, SON, RIC, xApps & rApps in the 5G Era: 2024 - 2030 - Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts" report from SNS Telecom & IT has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Automation of the RAN (Radio Access Network) - the most expensive, technically complex and power-intensive part of cellular infrastructure - is a key aspect of mobile operators' digital transformation strategies aimed at reducing their TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), improving network quality and achieving revenue generation targets. In conjunction with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning), RAN automation has the potential to significantly transform mobile network economics by reducing the OpEx (Operating Expenditure)-to-revenue ratio, minimizing energy consumption, lowering CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) emissions, deferring avoidable CapEx (Captital Expenditure), optimizing performance, improving user experience and enabling new services.

Some mobile operators have established dedicated business units to commoditize their RAN automation expertise. NTT DoCoMo's OREX brand and Rakuten Mobile's sister company Rakuten Symphony are two wellknown cases in point. In the coming years, we also expect to see more spinoffs of academic institutes with commercial grade Open RAN automation offerings, such as Northeastern University's zTouch Networks and TU Ilmenau's AiVader.

It is worth highlighting that domestic rival Rakuten Mobile has already achieved approximately 17% energy savings per cell in its live network using RIChosted RAN automation applications. Following successful lab trials, the greenfield operator aims to increase savings to 25% with more sophisticated AI/ML models.


https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/...ts---ResearchAndMarkets.com
 

Rakuten India Rakathon 2024: 8,949 Registrations, 864 Ideas, 1 Winner

September 20, 2024

Rakathon 2024 hosted by Rakuten India centered on the theme "Prompt your AI-DEAS to reality" and drew an astounding 8,949 registrations including hundreds of Rakutenians. After a grueling 24-hour hacking period, the top 10 leading teams presented in front of a panel of judges. The best ideas ranged from AI assistants to hyper-personalized AI-based fashion guides, to AI-powered travel guides, to video-centric e-commerce solutions. Rakutenians, students, and participants from around the world gathered. Watch and see who won!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnbF2nAqw_k
 

Colombia Ecommerce Market Databook 2024, Featuring Falabella, Grupo Exito, Home Center, MercadoLibre, DiDi Food, iFood, Rappi, TaDa Delivery, Almundo, Aviatur, Beat - Ride, Cabify & Despegar

The E-commerce market in Colombia is expected to grow by 8.44% on annual basis to reach US$14.4 billion in 2024, growing steadily over the forecast period, recording a CAGR of 6.47% during 2024-2028. The E-commerce Gross Merchandise Value in Colombia will increase from US$13.3 billion in 2023 to reach US$18.6 billion by 2028.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...market-databook-2024-152100244.html
 

MTN, Accenture confirm Open RAN trial success

Johannesburg, 12 Sep 2024

This project was an opportunity to share its experience with MTN through the Rakuten platform.
MTN and Rakuten Symphony, part of the Japanese giant Rakuten Group, signed an MOU to conduct live 4G and 5G OpenRAN proof of concept trials in South Africa, Nigeria, and Liberia using Rakuten's cloud-native Communications Platform (RCP).

The trials, which started in 2022, combine RCP's OpenRAN technology with advanced automation
and autonomous network capabilities.

Accenture says this platform offers CSPs a portfolio to run their networks in the cloud, enabling operational use cases such as achieving energy efficiency milestones and implementing zero-touch automation.

https://www.itweb.co.za/article/...ran-trial-success/KPNG8v8NE6pM4mwD
 

Japan Mobile Phone Insurance Market to Surpass Valuation of USD 9,934.20 million by 2032 - Astute Analytica

Sept. 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Japan mobile phone insurance market is projected to hit the market valuation of US$ 9,934.20 million by 2032 from US$ 3,676.54 million in 2023 at a CAGR of 12.37% during the forecast period 2024–2032.

The Japanese mobile phone insurance market is also poised to benefit from demographic shifts and evolving consumer behavior. In particular, the aging population, with 36 million people over the age of 65, is increasingly adopting smartphones, driving a new segment of insurance consumers. This demographic values peace of mind and is more likely to invest in insurance that covers accidental damage and theft. Additionally, the youth segment, consisting of 25 million tech-savvy individuals under 25, is drawn to policies that offer flexibility and digital integration, such as app-based claims processing and real-time customer support. This dual-market approach allows insurers to tailor their offerings and capture a wider audience, fueling market growth.
Japan Mobile Phone Insurance Market Key Players

Apple Inc.

Asurion Japan Holdings G.K.

AT&T Inc.

JCOM Co. Ltd.

justInCase Inc.

Likewize (SoftBank Group)

NTT Docomo, Inc.

Rakuten Mobile, Inc.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.

Other Prominent players

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/...t%2520period%25202024%E2%80%932032.
 

Ultimativer Leitfaden für Viber für Unternehmen [Februar 2024]

https://respond.io/de/blog/viber-for-business

 

Rakuten Viber Partners with FISH Visayas Bringing MSMEs Online with Viber for Business

By Mary Ruth Ochavillo. Posted on SEPTEMBER 11, 2024.

Cebu City, Cebu – On September 5, 2024, twenty-six (26) micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), comprising 39 entrepreneurs from Cebu, participated in “Chat to Scale Up: Empowering MSMEs with Rakuten Viber Business Accounts.” This initiative, organized by Rakuten Viber in partnership with the FISH Visayas Project, aimed to expand MSMEs’ market reach by guiding them in creating Viber Business Accounts. These accounts allow enterprises to connect with other businesses and consumers directly, opening up opportunities for greater market access and customer engagement.

https://fishvisayas.afosfoundation.org/2024/09/05/...siness-accounts/

 

How digital twin technology will tame 5G/6G RAN complexity

By Kexuan Sun
Principal Wireless Architecture, Rakuten Symphony CTO Office

September 17, 2024

The increasing complexity of 5G, and early 6G, network infrastructure demands sophisticated management solutions.  

Much of the complexity is due to networks built using different hardware types, multi-cloud environments, and varying protocols from multiple vendors. This heterogeneous environment poses challenges in terms of cost, performance, and energy consumption – and necessitates intelligent solutions.  

One promising approach is the integration of AI/ML into RAN to automate RAN deployment and ongoing operations. Training these AI models, however, needs the data from a live production network for accuracy, but can negatively affect services if trained in a live network.

One solution is the use of digital twin (DT) technology optimized for the RAN (DT-RAN).

In a previous white paper, I explored how digital twin technology applies to Open RAN and 5G.  Recently, I contributed my thoughts on how DT-RAN could work for AI/ML training, evaluation and performance as a contributor to a DT-RAN research report sponsored by the O-RAN ALLIANCE next Generation Research Group (nGRG) task force. Rakuten Symphony joined 10 other network operators, telecom vendors and one university from around the world to compile the research for the report.  

This research report is one of the documents that will inform the work of standards bodies to create at DT-RAN standard. The 3GPP is developing its DT-RAN standard slated for Release 19 / Release 20 that will be finalized in 2025 or 2026. The O-RAN ALLIANCE is also planning to include DT-RAN in its O-RAN Rel005 that will be available at about the same time.

The rest of this post will give you a preview of my use case, but the research report has other interesting use cases for DT-RAN including network testing automation, network planning, and energy savings. I encourage you to download the entire report here.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...y-will-tame-5g-6g-ran-complexity
 

Vendor innovation in Kubernetes CSI: Advanced data management and performance enhancements

By Brooke Frischemeier
Head of Product Management, Unified Cloud Rakuten Symphony

September 20, 2024

In the first edition of this three-blog series, I introduced the Kubernetes Container Storage Interface (CSI) and discussed its fundamental benefits for enterprise storage solutions. In this second instalment, I will delve deeper into how vendors can leverage CSI to introduce advanced data management features, enhance performance and scalability, and improve security. These innovations are particularly crucial for enterprises operating at the edge, where efficient and reliable storage solutions are paramount.

Advanced data management features

One key area for innovation in CSI is advanced data management. Vendors can integrate capabilities such as advanced lifecycle management, compression, and tiering into their CSI drivers. These features can help reduce storage costs and improve efficiency by minimizing the amount of data that needs to be stored and transferred.

Data lifecycle management and protection

Features like automated snapshots, cloning, and backup can provide robust data protection and disaster recovery options. Automated snapshots capture the state of a volume at a specific point in time, allowing organizations to restore data to that state if needed. Cloning creates a copy of a volume, which can be used for testing or development purposes. Backup features ensure that data is regularly backed up and can be restored in the event of data loss or corruption.

Automated storage policies

Storage policies define rules for data placement, replication and retention, automating and enforcing data management in Kubernetes. These policies ensure data is stored in the appropriate locations, replicated for high availability, and retained according to compliance requirements. This automation simplifies management and enhances data reliability and security.

Quality of Service (QoS)

Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) is a performance measurement used to benchmark the speed at which a storage device or system can read and write data. QoS in Kubernetes ensures storage performance meets the specific requirements of different workloads. By setting performance metrics like IOPS, latency, and throughput, QoS guarantees that critical applications receive the necessary resources, optimizing performance and preventing resource contention in multi-tenant environments.

Compression

Compression reduces the size of data by encoding it more efficiently. By integrating compression capabilities into their CSI drivers, vendors can help organizations store more data in the same amount of space, further reducing storage costs.

Enhanced performance and scalability

Another critical area for innovation is performance and scalability. Vendors can focus on optimizing their CSI drivers to reduce latency, increase input/output operations per second (IOPS), and ensure that their solutions can handle large-scale deployments efficiently.

Reducing latency

Latency is the time it takes for a storage request to be processed. By optimizing their CSI drivers to reduce latency, vendors can improve the performance of applications that rely on storage. This can be achieved through techniques such as caching, which stores frequently accessed data in memory for faster access and optimizing the storage stack to minimize processing time.

Increasing and managing IOPS

By increasing IOPS, vendors can improve the performance of applications that require high levels of storage throughput. This can be achieved through techniques such as parallelism, which allows multiple storage requests to be processed simultaneously, and optimizing the storage hardware to handle more operations per second. Furthermore, IOPS can be used to control and manage throughput in shared environments, which is increasingly necessary in edge deployments where storage resources may be limited and frequently shared among applications.

Handling large-scale deployments

As organizations scale their Kubernetes environments, they need storage solutions that can handle large-scale deployments efficiently. Vendors can optimize their CSI drivers to ensure that they can manage large numbers of volumes and handle high levels of storage traffic without performance degradation.

Security enhancements

Security is a critical concern in any storage solution. Vendors can innovate by incorporating advanced security features into their CSI drivers, such as end-to-end encryption, secure multi-tenancy, and compliance with industry standards like GDPR and HIPAA.

End-to-end encryption

Encryption ensures that data is protected from unauthorized access by encoding it in a way that can only be decoded with the correct key. By implementing end-to-end encryption, vendors can ensure that data is protected both at rest and in transit, providing a higher level of security for sensitive data. This is especially relevant for edge cloud use cases as data will most certainly cross WAN links.

Secure multi-tenancy

In multi-tenant environments, multiple users or organizations share the same infrastructure. Secure multi-tenancy ensures that each tenant's data is isolated and protected from other tenants. By implementing secure multi-tenancy features, vendors can help organizations meet their security and compliance requirements while sharing infrastructure resources.

Compliance with industry standards

Many organizations are required to comply with industry standards and regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from Europe and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the U.S. By ensuring that their CSI drivers comply with these standards, vendors can help organizations meet their regulatory requirements and avoid potential fines and penalties.

The Kubernetes CSI provides a robust foundation for storage management in containerized environments. By focusing on areas such as advanced data management features, enhanced performance and scalability, and security enhancements, vendors can not only enhance their CSI offerings but also provide significant value to their enterprise customers, especially those operating at the edge. In the final blog post of this series, I will explore how vendors can simplify management and monitoring, and support hybrid and multi-cloud environments to further revolutionize enterprise storage solutions.

Stay tuned for more insights on leveraging CSI to unlock the full potential of Kubernetes storage management.

https://symphony.rakuten.com/cloud/blogs/...-performance-enhancements
 

Patent applications for RAKUTEN MOBILE, INC. on September 12th, 2024

       1.1§ACTION EXECUTION SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF (18245150)
       1.2§METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATION AND ROLE-BASED CONTROL IN MARKETPLACE (18012777)
       1.3§CONSTRAINT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CLASSIFIER BASED CONSTRAINT MANAGEMENT (18011526)
       1.4§COOPERATIVE TRAINING MIGRATION (17770049)
       1.5§INSTRUCTION FOR UE TO START AI, ML BY BASE STATION (17999402)
       1.6§CAUSE SPECIFYING SYSTEM AND CAUSE SPECIFYING METHOD (18044992)
       1.7§ACTION EXECUTION SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF (18044991)
       1.8§CENTRALIZED KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR MONITORING AND DATA STORAGE APPARATUS AND METHOD (17757300)
       1.9§APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING UPLINK CARRIER AGGREGATION IN A RADIO ACCESS NETWORK (17923498)
      1.10§CONTROL SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD (18246682)
      1.11§SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE DCI RAR OPTIMIZATION (18010344)
      1.12§SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING RRC INACTIVE MODE ENHANCED PAGING FOR MOBILE TERMINATING-SMALL DATA TRANSFER (18011314)

https://wikipatents.org/index.php/...ublished_on_September_12th,_2024