GÉANT’s Brings High Capacity Network to Hungary

Hungary's Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest will host CERN’s new remote data center and will process and store data from CERN for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).   The centre will be connected with multiple 100G links.

NIIF/Hungarnet, the Hungarian National Research and Education Network (NREN) has a central role to play in providing extreme high speed connectivity for data communication between the GÉANT Point of Presence in Budapest and the Wigner site hosting CERN’s remote centre.

In a joint statement, Matthew Scott and Niels Hersoug, joint General Managers of DANTE, the organisation which on behalf of Europe’s NRENs has built and operates the GÉANT network, said, “We’re delighted that CERN value the substantial benefits offered by the GÉANT network and services, and are continuing the long-standing and successful relationship that has seen GÉANT at the centre of the LHC data needs for many years. The Wigner data centre is exactly the kind of power user that the upgraded network will continue to support, and we look forward to working with all the partners involved to ensure the continued success of the LHC research.”

http://www.geant.net/Media_Centre/News/Pages/CERN_first_user_of_GEANT_terabit_network.aspx

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Extreme Debuts 100 & 40 GbE Modules for BlackDiamond

Extreme Networks introduced new 4 port 100GbE and 12 port 40GbE modules for its BlackDiamond X8 Open Fabric switch.


The new 100/40GbE XL modules, which are designed for highly virtualized multi-tenant cloud data centers, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and data center core deployments, support up to a million routes, Virtual Machines (VMs) and flow entries in the network.   The modules support 100GbE & 40GbE with non-blocking, wire-speed performance of Layer 2/3 services,  Layer 2/3 ACLs and flow flexibility with support of 100G-SR (100m) and 100G-OR (10Km) optics, a boost in scale of tables supported via an upgraded TCAM, and fault tolerance and redundancy with N+1 power support.  


Customer trials of the 12-port 40 and 4 port 100GbE XL modules begin in CY'13.  NTE list pricing includes: 40GbE 12 port XL module at US $6,000.00 per port; 100GbE 4 port XL module at US $35,000 per port.

Extreme Networks also announced support of Big Switch Networks Software Defined Networking (SDN) applications providing progressive and centralized methods to achieve network monitoring and virtualize networks. Specifically, Extreme is supporting Big Switch's Big Tap for traffic monitoring and dynamic network visibility with flow filtering.  Extreme is also supporting the Big Virtual Switch application, which virtualizes the network by provisioning the physical network into multiple logical networks across the stack, from Layer 2 to 7.



http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Ciena Announces Another 100G Customer - CENIC

The Pacific Wave international network peering facility, which connects research and education (R&E) networks in 40 Pacific Rim countries, was recently upgraded with Ciena’s6500 Packet-Optical Platform and 100G interfaces.

The 100G backbone brings Pacific Wave in line with the recent Internet2 and the US Department of Energy (ESnet) 100G backbone upgrades.

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives (CENIC) and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) operate the Pacific Wave facility, which is a distributed peering fabric with nodes in five locations in three cities: Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, and Seattle.

http://www.ciena.com

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EMerge Alliance Sets Standard for Hybrid AC and DC in Data Centers

The EMerge Alliance, an open industry association developing standards leading to the rapid adoption of DC power distribution in commercial buildings, has completed its namesake standard for facilitating the hybrid use of AC and DC power within data centers and telecommunications central offices.

The EMerge Alliance Data/Telecom Standard creates an integrated, open platform for power, infrastructure, peripheral device and control applications using AC and DC power.  This change in power distribution architecture involves making a single conversion of the incoming line of AC voltage to 380VDC, and then distributing it directly to rack-mounted ICT equipment, simplifying the otherwise unnecessarily complex power management provisions generally used in today's AC-powered data centers.


"The benefits are clear. By requiring fewer components and conversions than their AC counterparts, DC power systems in data centers suffer fewer heat related failures and require less space, energy, and maintenance to operate," said Dennis Symanski, senior project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and chair of the Alliance's technical standard committee. "DC power collection and distribution systems also simplify the use of locally generated power, providing an effective integration of on-site energy generation and storage with direct delivery of controlled power."

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Stoke Introduces Wi-Fi eXchange Gateway

Stoke introduced a wireless offload gateway, the Wi-Fi eXchange, that provides mobile network operators with the traffic insight and steering capabilities for managing and monetizing Wi-Fi connected subscribers.

Stoke's Wi-Fi eXchange provides granular control over subscriber sessions, enabling mobile broadband operators to apply policy to route some sessions to the mobile core, while Internet bound sessions bypass core network elements.

The solution support multiple authentication specifications, including WFA Passpoint, and a range of connection protocols.  It is interoperable with WI-Fi equipment from Aruba, Ericsson/Belair, Cisco, Meraki and Ruckus as well as mobile core element (GGSN) vendors including Ericsson, Cisco, Huawei and Nokia Siemens. Multiple trials are underway worldwide.

Stoke said its Wi-Fi eXchange also opens the door for operators to capture revenues from advertising and other premium services.  

'We know from current engagements that seamless connections and monetization have now become a top priority for operators," said Dan McBride, Vice President of Marketing at Stoke. 'Their ultimate vision for Wi-Fi is to deliver the same experience and service over Wi-Fi as they do over the cellular network. Stoke's Wi-Fi eXchange makes this possible today, by providing standards-based solutions to congestion issues, user connectivity problems, and operators' need to control and monetize Wi-Fi traffic.  We leverage key principles from market-leading but not yet broadly implemented standards, meaning that operators can execute to their vision now, without waiting for upgrades or replacements to tens of millions of hotspots."

http://www.stoke.com

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Cisco Posts Strong Quarterly Results- Sales +6%, Income + 18% YoY

Cisco reported net sales of $11.9 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.1 billion or $0.39 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.6 billion or $0.48 per share, for its first fiscal quarter ended October 27, 2012.

"We delivered record results this quarter -- with revenue growth of 6 percent and strong earnings per share growth -- demonstrating our vision and strategy are working," said John Chambers, chairman and chief executive officer, Cisco. "Our innovation engine, operational discipline and on-going evolution are enabling us to differentiate in the market. Cisco is at the center of the major market transitions -- cloud, mobility, video -- and yet we believe the largest market transition lies ahead of us, as the Internet of Everything becomes a reality."

Some highlights:

• Revenue growth of 6% occurred in very challenging market conditions. The service business continues to grow at double digit rates. Sales to US enterprises grew 95, sales to U.S. service providers grew 13%, while sales to U.S. commercial sector was down 5%.
• Cisco is making progress in becoming a major IT player and not just network equipment supplier
• The government market is expected to remain challenging going forward. The telepresence business was down in the mid teens.  
• Cisco believes it is well positioned for next gen data centers thanks to its ability to unify the physical and the virtual.
• In Q1, product orders were flat YoY. Geographically: Americas +2%, Latin America +3%, led by Brazil at 24% and Mexico at 11%, Canada was down 12%; APAC was up 7%, India was up 50%, Japan grew in the mid single digits, and China was flat; EMEA declined 10%. 
• Europe may get worse before it gets better.  There are signs of improvement in the U.S. market. APAC likely to remain fastest growing area.
• Cash flows from operations were $2.5 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared with $2.3 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2012, and compared with $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.
• Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $45.0 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared with $48.7 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

http://www.cisco.com

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Amazon Web Services Opens in Sydney

Amazon Web Services activated a new Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region to reduce latency to end-users based in Australia and New Zealand. Sydney joins Singapore and Tokyo as the third Region in Asia Pacific and as the ninth Region worldwide. The facility is delivering multiple services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS).

 Separately, Equinix announced the availability of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect to the Equinix SY3 International Business Exchange data center in Sydney.

http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2012/11/12/announcing-the-aws-asia-pacific-sydney-region/

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Calient Adds OpenFlow to its Data Center Optical Switch

CALIENT Technologies will be releasing an application programming interface (API) for OpenFlow on its S320 optical circuit switch. This will allow the S320 to optimize high-capacity data flows at the optical layer and to function as part of an integrated packet-circuit switched software-defined network (SDN).

Calient's 320-port (full duplex) S320 is a MEMS-based optical switch that connects top-of-rack switches in a data center. The OpenFlow API runs on the S320’s MEMS Switching Module (MSM), a high-availability switching and control subsystem with redundant control processors and a Linux-based operating system.

Calient said an OpenFlow controller can reconfigure S320 connections based on time of day, real-time application flows or predictive algorithms.

http://www.calient.net/

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Avaya and GENBAND Collaborate on Unified Comm Roadmap

GENBAND and Avaya are jointly offering a Unified Communications (UC) roadmap for carrier class enterprise users of Avaya Communications Server 2100 (CS 2100) and Avaya SL-100. The collaboration will enable customers of both companies to use multimedia applications powered by Avaya Aura and the GENBAND GENiUS platform. Together the companies will continue to deliver a SIP-based UC solution that spans all fixed and mobile business communications functions for carrier-class enterprises in the higher education, healthcare, finance and government verticals. http://www.avaya.com http://www.GENBAND.com

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