Google Cuts Cloud Storage Pricing 20%, Adds Durable Reduced Availability Option

Google cut the price of its standard Cloud Storage service by over 20% and announced a limited preview of Durable Reduced Availability (DRA) storage, which is an archival service with longer data retrieval times. 

Another new feature is Persistent Disk Snapshotting, which enables the user to crete an instant backup of a disk and then move it around Google datacenters in order to startup a new VM.  

Google has also continued to add to its European datacenter support, which lets the users assign applications, data and virtual machines to European Datacenter for regulatory compliance and to be closer to customers.

http://googledevelopers.blogspot.com/2012/11/google-cloud-platform-new-features.html

In June, Google introduced its Compute Engine service, which provides on-demand, virtual Linux machines at Google scale. The service lets you run large-scale computing workloads on the same infrastructure that runs Google Search, Gmail and Ads. 

"Ten thousand cores is really cool," said Urs Hölzle, Google's Sr. VP of Technical Infrastructure, and then demonstrating a genomics application being instantly scaled to a further 600,000 cores. Google is promising up to 50% more computer power per dollar compared to other cloud computing service providers. The price for one virtual core starts at $0.145 per hour. The service is live now and a Developers Guide with open APIs is available.

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Sprint Adds 11 More LTE Markets

Sprint has extended its 4G LTE network to customers in 11 new cities/counties, including:

•  Anderson, Ind.
• Clarke County, Va./Jefferson County, W.Va.
• Harrisburg/Carlisle/Hershey, Pa.
• Hagerstown, Md./Martinsburg, W.Va.
• Harrisonburg, Va.
• Muncie, Ind.
• Peabody, Mass.
• Salina, Kan.
• Shenandoah County, Va.
• South Bend/Mishawaka, Ind.
• Winchester, Va.

Sprint's LTE service is now available in a total of 43 markets.  The network was first launched in July.

http://www.sprint.com/4GLTE

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Delloro: Huawei Leads in Q3 WDM Sales

The total WDM market which is comprised of both metro and long-haul applications grew 14 percent year-over-year in 3Q 2012 and is forecast to reach $8 billion for the full year 2012. It is expected to climb further in 2013, according to a newly published report from Dell'Oro Group.

The top five vendors in this space are Huawei, Ciena, Alcatel-Lucent, Fujitsu and NEC, according to the Dell'Oro tracking.

“It was the year 2000 when the WDM market peaked at $7.7 billion and then promptly burst downwards to $1.8 billion,“ said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Optical Transport research at Dell’Oro Group. “Since then, it has taken twelve long years to reach this milestone but we are finally on a path to best this previous revenue peak and to attain a new record revenue marker for the WDM market. We are forecasting the total WDM market to be $8 billion for the full year 2012 as a larger number of service providers roll out 40 and 100 gigabit DWDM wavelengths to meet the rising demand for bandwidth."

http://www.delloro.com

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aql to Build Huge Data Center in Leeds, UK

aql confirmed plans for a massive, £43 million data center to be built in the city of Leeds, England.  The company has three existing data centres in the city, but these are expected to be fully populated by mid-2013.  The new DC4 data center will consist of two six storey buildings totalling 120,000 square feet (11,100 m2)  of space.  The new buildings will be connected to aql’s existing city sites (DC1, 2 and 3) by a private fiber loop.  Project completion is expected in 2014.

aql said it is  working with Leeds and Partners to drive forward the region’s digital strategy and the new centre – one of the UK’s largest independent data centres – could attract more major players in the industry to join existing names such as Cogent, SSE Telecom, Level (3), Janet and Fujitsu.

http://www.leedsandpartners.com/press_releases/data-centre-boost-for-citys-growing-digital-sector/

http://www.aql.com

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Interoute Acquires Danish IT Company

Interoute, which operates over 60,000 km of lit fibre, 9 hosting data centres and 32 collocation centres across Europe, is acquiring the Danish IT company Comendo’s subsidiary Comendo Network.  The deal will double Interoute's evenues and its employees in Denmark. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Interoute will be taking on all of Comendo Network’s prominent customers, including DSB, Saxo Bank and DONG Energy.

"Following our purchase of VCG last year, the purchase of Comendo Network further strengthens our position in Denmark and the Nordic region. This gives us critical mass in the Danish market and provides an excellent platform for further development of our cloud based network solutions and video communications," stated Gareth Williams, CEO Interoute.

http://www.interoute.com
http://www.comendo.com

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Bright House Acquires Telovations for Cloud Comm Services

Bright House Networks, the sixth largest owner and operator of cable systems in the U.S., will acquire Telovations, a Tampa, Florida-based Cloud Communications provider that delivers businesses hosted voice solutions, including PBX and managed SIP trunking. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Brighthouse said the deal helps accelerate its cloud based and managed services, as well as enhance its mission to offer small and medium sized businesses additional services.

“We welcome this collaborative opportunity to combine our fiber optic network and managed services offerings with Telovations’ cloud-based unified communications services to provide companies with a much broader array of network capabilities and industry-leading services,” said Leo Cloutier, senior vice president, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Bright House Networks.


Bright House Networks currently serves more than 2.4 million customers in five states including Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan and California.

http://www.brighthouse.com/corporate/about/11031.htm
http://www.telovations.com

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France's Bouygues Telecom Sells Towers for EUR 205 Million

Bouygues Telecom is selling of 2,166 of its cell site towers to France Pylons Services (FPS), a new company formed to hold and manage the towers.  Bouygues Telecom said it is taking this action to lower its debts.

The deal is valued at for EUR 205 million and Bouygues Telecom will retain a 15% equity stake in FPS.  Therefore, the net proceeds to Bouygues Telecom this transaction is approximately EUR 185 million.

Ownserhip of the first 1,873 towers was completed today and the remaining towers will be sold in Q2 2013.

Bouygues Telecom currently serves 11 million mobile customers (including Simyo and Darty Telecom) and 1.8 million fixed broadband customers (including Darty Telecom),  as well as more than 1.5 million business customers.

http://www.presse.bouyguestelecom.fr

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Arianespace Lands New Launch Contract with Echostar

Echostar awarded a new contract to Arianespace to launch multiple new satellites over a multi-year period from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana. Echostar expressed confindence in relying on the Ariane 5 rocket to deliver on-time success for its near term expansion programs.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

“EchoStar’s renewed confidence in Arianespace is extremely gratifying to us. This launch contract allows us to play a role in the expansion of EchoStar’s broadcast and data revolution. Our dedication to quality gives customers like EchoStar a solid foundation for innovation and growth,” said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace.

In 2012, Arianespace performed eight successful launches at the CSG:  six Ariane 5, one Soyuz and one Vega. Starsem, its European-Russian subsidiary, has also carried out a launch of Soyuz from the Baikonur cosmodrome.  The company has a Soyuz launch plus another Ariane 5 launch at CSG before the end of the year. 

http://www.arianespace.com/news-press-release/2012/11-26-2012-EchoStar-launch-contract.asp
http://www.echostar.com

 In July 2012, EchoStar XVII, which is one of the highest capacity satellites ever built, was successfully launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

EchoStar XVII is an all Ka-band, broadband satellite designed to provide well in excess of 100 Gbps capacity to HughesNet across North America. Its multi-spot beam architecture will expand coverage and focus capacity on the areas with the highest traffic demand. It uses the Space Systems/Loral satellite bus.

In October 2012, Hughes Network Systems activated its new HughesNet Gen4 satellite Internet service. HughesNet Gen4 delivers downlink speeds of up to 15 Mbps, depending on the plan. Pricing starts at $49.99 per month for 10 Mbps downlink with a 10 GB cap for a 24 month term , plus $9.99 per month to lease the equipment.

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Oclaro Sells Off Thin Film and Interleavers for $27 Million

Oclaro has sold its thin film filter business to Photop Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of II-VI Incorporated, and will also sell its interleaver product line to Photop Koncent (FuZhou), also a wholly owned subsidiary of II-VI.  The deals are valued at $27 million.

"Divesting our thin film filter business and the interleaver product line is consistent with our strategy to focus our resources on our core competencies," said Alain Couder, chairman and CEO of Oclaro. "The proceeds from these deals improve our balance sheet and give us additional operating flexibility to serve our global customer base.

http://www.oclaro.com

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Alvarion Supplies its 802.16e Wireless in Guinea

Alvarion announced a contract to supply its 4Motion 802.16e solution to ETI, a leading Internet service provider in Guinea.  The network will extend from the capital city, Conakry, to cover the entire country covering an area of 246,000 square kilometers (94,981 sq mi).

Alvarion notes that ETI’s network is designed to deliver voice and data services in the 2.5 GHz spectrum to a wide range of customers, including both high-end enterprise customers as well as residential customers.

http://www.alvarion.com

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