Hammerhead Systems, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, closed $30 million in Series C funding, for its traffic aggregation and switching platform.
Hammerhead's HSX 6000 is a purpose-built Layer 2.5 Aggregation Switch that features MPLS Pseudowire technology. It provides dense Ethernet aggregation, Pseudowire termination, legacy Frame Relay and ATM support, and Service Interworking. It features a "Layer 2.5" edge aggregation approach designed to integrate access services (wireline, broadband, broadband fixed wireless and 3G) that are typically based on Layer 2 connection-oriented technologies with new services that are based on Layer 3. The platform supports the migration of Frame Relay / ATM services onto MPLS backbones, so that it can be used as an aggregation platform in an Ethernet service architecture, offering native Gigabit Ethernet as well as Ethernet-over-SONET (both GFP and x.86) trunking capabilities. On the subscriber side, the HSX 6000 switch offers high-density fan-in across a range of new and legacy service interfaces, media and speeds, including Ethernet. 
Hammerhead has a strategic partnership with Fujitsu Network Communications in North America for distribution, joint marketing, product planning, and customer support and services.
The latest funding was led by new investor Silver Creek Ventures and joined by new investor Apex Venture Partners. All existing investors participated in the round which now brings the total equity raised by Hammerhead Systems to $80 million.
The company said it raised the new funding, in part, based on the strength of its top tier customer activity. Commercial installations are underway, although customer names have not been announced. The new funding will be used for working capital including expanding sales, marketing and customer support in North America and internationally, as well as the acceleration of product development in response to customer demand and establishing volume manufacturing.
http://www.hammerheadsystems.com
- In September 2005, Hammerhead Systems introduced an enhanced EMS capability based on XML/SOAP that enables its HSX 6000 Layer 2.5 aggregation platform to support up to a thousand different service profiles on a single port, including VoIP, IP Video, Internet, email and business services, while supporting up to a million flows per system. Each of these profiles can be "pre-engineered" onto the network, enabling virtually instant provisioning of new services using automated tools.
Hammerhead's new Pegador SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) supports the TeleManagement Forum 854 XML/SOAP Interface, which is a loosely coupled Internet-based framework mandated by large service providers. SOA will enable service providers to address the operational challenges in the deployment of higher value services and facilitate the development of web-based services and customer network management offerings. This could include the integration of business systems to management systems for reliable billing, web applications for transaction processing as well as integration to supplier and partners for purchase order fulfillment and order tracking, and service revenue opportunities for the enterprise in verticals such as the financial, retail, manufacturing or transportation sectors.
Hammerhead said its Pegador SOA could be used to facilitate such applications services, to bind IP networks with application networks, and to provide a high levels of flexibility for the service provider. XML/SOAP provides the critical link between service providers' business and management systems to deliver web-based applications that leverage the advanced service, quality and management capabilities of network elements.
