JDSU to Split in Two: Optics and Network Enablement

JDSU announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies:

• An optical components and commercial lasers company (“CCOP”) consisting of JDSU’s current Communications and Commercial Optical Products segment. The CCOP company, with its long-standing reputation for optical innovation and quality, serves a $7.4 billion optical communications market expected to grow at a compounded rate of 11 percent over the next four years.  It also addresses an approximate $2.5 billion commercial lasers market, growing at a forecasted 7 percent annually.
  
• A network and service enablement company (“NSE”) consisting of JDSU’s current Network Enablement, Service Enablement and Optical Security and Performance Products (OSP) segments. The stand-alone NSE company will be a leader in its core businesses, addressing an approximate $7 billion network and service enablement market expected to grow at 6-8 percent annually. The NSE company will primarily focus its investments in higher growth markets, particularly software supporting virtualized and software-defined networks. The optical security business addresses an approximate $1.1 billion market growing at an expected 6-8 percent.

“Over the past five years, JDSU has invested heavily in innovation that is well aligned with the industry’s best growth opportunities, including cloud networking, data center expansion and software-defined networks,” said Tom Waechter, JDSU president and CEO.  “These opportunities extend beyond the traditional telecom ecosystem and now include web services, over-the-top, enterprise and other customers. We believe two fundamentally focused companies best position us to stay ahead of the accelerating pace of technology change and to compete even more effectively across the unique markets we serve today.”

http://www.jdsu.com

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T-Mobile US Pushes Ahead with Wi-Fi Calling

T-Mobile US announce its latest "Un-carrier" move: a push to enable Wi-Fi calling and texting for its Simple Choice smartphone customers.  The capability will now be supported by every smartphone it sells.

T-Mobile said its disruptive approach is to leverage every available technology to deliver coverage in places unreachable by any cellular network.

“Wi-Fi Un-leashed is a game changer. This is like adding millions of towers to our network in a single day,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “The difference between us and the traditional carriers is that they’ll do everything they can to make more money off you. We’ll do everything we can to solve your problems, and today, that’s about uniting Wi-Fi with our data strong network for unprecedented coverage.”

In addition to enabling T-Mobile customers to use any public or private Wi-Fi connection they can access like a T-Mobile tower for calling and texting, the Un-carrier has rolled out next-generation Wi-Fi calling and texting on its network. This supports high-quality HD voice, fast call setup times, fewer dropped calls and seamless voice coverage between T-Mobile’s nationwide Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network and Wi-Fi with compatible smartphones.

T-Mobile customers can also make free Wi-Fi calls to the United States from anywhere outside the country − all using their existing T-Mobile number with no app to install and no additional IDs or numbers to manage − wherever they have Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile is also introducing Personal CellSpot, a Wi-Fi home router that features patent-pending technology that prioritizes voice calls. Starting September 17, every Simple Choice customer with a broadband connection and a Wi-Fi-calling ready smartphone can get a T-Mobile Personal CellSpot completely free of charge with a $25 refundable deposit.

http://www.tmobile.com

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Infonetics: Data Center and Enterprise SDN Market Soars 192%

In-use for SDN Ethernet switch revenue, including branded Ethernet switches, virtual switches, and bare metal switches, grew more than 10-fold in 2013 from the prior year, driven by significant increases in white box bare metal switch deployments by very large cloud service providers such as Google and Amazon, according to a newly published report by Infonetics Research.

Some highlights:

• Vendors are seeding the market with SDN-capable Ethernet switches in the data center and enterprise LAN
  
• The leaders in the SDN market will be solidified during the next 2 years, as 2014 lab trials give way to live production deployments
  
• Bare metal switches are the top in-use for SDN-capable switch use case in the data center and are anticipated to account for 31% of total SDN-capable switch revenue by 2018
  
• Infonetics forecasts the “real” market for SDN—that is, in-use for SDN Ethernet switches and controllers—to reach $9.5 billion in 2018
  
• The adoption of SDN network virtualization overlays (NVOs) is expected to go mainstream by 2018

“There is no longer any question about software-defined networking (SDN) playing a role in data center and enterprise networks. Data center and enterprise SDN revenue, including SDN capable Ethernet switches and SDN controllers, was up 192% year-over-year (2013 over 2012),” reports Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., directing analyst for data center, cloud, and SDN at Infonetics Research. “The early SDN explorers—NEC in Japan and pure-play SDN startups in North America—were joined in 2013 by the majority of traditional switch vendors and server virtualization vendors offering a wide selection of SDN products.”

http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2014/Data-Center-and-SDN-Market-Highlights.asp

#SDNforecast

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Cyan Extends its Packet-Optical + SDN with MPLS-TP

Cyan announced a series of new features to its Cyan Z-Series Packet-Optical Transport (P-OTP) and Blue Planet SDN platforms, including support for MPLS-TP, support for additional Carrier Ethernet 2.0+ capabilities, hitless software upgrades, traffic policing and shaping, and support for a new 100G DWDM coherent CFP.

Some highlights of the enhancements:

• 8-degree, 96 channel ROADM – Cyan is adding to the existing family of single-slot 2- and 4-degree ROADM modules to support more flexible topologies and high-density 10G, 100G, and future 400G applications.
  
• Integrated amplifier modules – Cyan is introducing a new family of integrated Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA) modules, which provide extended optical reach for metro, regional, and long-haul applications.
  
• Four new APIs for SDN-powered packet-optical infrastructure: Optical Services, SNMP Trap Forwarding, Physical and Logical Inventory, and Site Manager API.
  
• Support for MPLS-TP - over the coming months, Cyan will roll out new MPLS-TP capabilities for the Z-Series PSW modules that will ensure highly reliable and predictable delivery of Ethernet services between metros and across an MPLS core. When coupled with Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN Platform, MPLS-TP capabilities will enable resilient and scalable packet transport along with advanced end-to-end control, multi-vendor management, and service orchestration. Cyan also will ensure interoperability between existing PBB-TE networks and new MPLS-TP deployments.

“Over the years, Cyan has been associated with many industry firsts; we brought to market the first family of purpose-built packet-optical transport platforms and the first SDN and NFV orchestration platform optimized for network operators and the WAN,” said Mark Floyd, CEO, Cyan. “With today’s enhancements, we have further enriched our offerings and solidified our position as the network transformation leader.”

http://www.cyaninc.com

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Infonetics: Ethernet Switching Up 11% to $5.4B in 2Q14

The global Ethernet switch market grew 11% to $5.4 billion in 2Q14, a result of better than anticipated results at #1 Cisco and strong results by a number of smaller players including Arista, Brocade, HP, Huawei, Juniper, and ZTE, according to Infonetics Research's most recent Ethernet Switches report, which tracks unmanaged, web-managed, and fully-managed fixed and chassis switches by port speed (100M, 1G, 10G, 40G, 100G).

Some highlights:

• Year-over-year growth accelerated from 2% in 1Q14 to 6% in 2Q14
• Switching growth was well balanced across small- and medium-sized business (SMB) and enterprise accounts, and the public sector is showing signs of stabilization
• Web-managed and fully-managed fixed switches posted strong growth from 2Q13 to 2Q14, while unmanaged and chassis switches declined
• 100G ports grew over 50% sequentially in 2Q14, and over 3,000 ports were sold;
• 100G on fixed switches will start shipping in 3Q14, which is expected to sustain current market growth rates
• Asia Pacific is the key growth region for Ethernet switches right now, but not all countries are faring equally: China is delivering very strong growth and the rest of APAC is accelerating, while Japan is trending flat to slightly down

"The Ethernet switching market recovered in the second quarter of 2014 after a slow first quarter, but revenue growth remains challenged as vendors compete aggressively against each other, white-label solutions gain greater traction, and large data center operators negotiate more favorable terms," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.

Continues Machowinski: "So while overall switching demand remains healthy, revenue is growing at only half the rate of port shipments."

http://www.infonetics.com/cgp/login.asp?id=914

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ALU Virtualizes its Velocix Content Delivery Network

Alcatel-Lucent is rolling out a series of enhancements to its Velocix Content Delivery Network (CDN) solution to enable pay-TV operators to better manage their networks and set a new standard for the customer experience of IP video services. The new capabilities bring this CDN solution in line with Alcatel-Lucent's NFV portfolio.

The company said its goal with these improvements is to decouple the software that controls and routes traffic on a network from the physical infrastructure that provides compute and storage resources. This greatly reduces the time needed to install or expand the CDN. Virtualization also gives operators the agility to instantly create a new CDN cache in case of a hardware failure, minimizing any potential disruption in quality of service.

Specifically, the Velocix Virtual CDN will use automatic resource allocation to create an ‘elastic CDN’ capable of adjusting capacity to both planned and unexpected changes in demand, for example during a popular sporting event or due to a viral video. After the peak, computing resource can be released for other applications.

Additional new capabilities include:

• The reporting capability of the Velocix CDN has been extended to give operators greater visibility of the traffic flowing through the network without increasing any additional latency or load. Patented Bell Labs techniques are used to measure the quality of video streamed to customers without the need for network probes or for installing software on customers’ devices.
• Integration with the network routing control plane enables the CDN to learn automatically from changes in the IP infrastructure and optimize the cache selection accordingly. For example, when a new IP address is assigned to a user, the CDN adapts dynamically to make sure customers are always served from the optimal cache.
• The Velocix Universal Network Application Programming Interface (UNAPI) also enables unprecedented integration with external systems to develop customized applications for network configuration, content management and reporting.
• Velocix Proxy Language provides a powerful way to dynamically control how content is cached and processed. Using an industry standard programming language (LUA), a pay TV provider can modify how a request is treated depending, for example, on a user’s location or device. This opens up a wealth of personalization opportunities to improve the customer experience or traffic management on the network. It also allows a service provider to bring the web traffic for their pay TV service onto the same CDN as the video traffic.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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365 Data Centers Pulls in Funding for Expansion

365 Data Centers announced $16 million in Series B funding and a $55 million credit facility for the expansion of its co-location business.

The announcement comes a few months after 365 Data Centers announced a new management team, corporate identity and 365 Quick Start, which makes data centers more accessible.  The company cityes triple-digit percentage YOY sales growth and broken its all-time quarterly sales record by over 20 percent.

The new funding came from existing investors Crosslink Capital and Housatonic Partners.  The credit facility came from Fortress Credit Corp., an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group.

"365 Data Centers brings greater flexibility and accessibility to clients through solutions that simplify colocation services to bring them more in line with cloud consumption models. This new financing allows us to continue executing on our growth strategy, whether organically or by acquisition," said John Scanlon, CEO, 365 Data Centers. "We've put together an experienced management team, created a strong growth plan, and delivered great results in a matter of months. We have the faith and support of capital markets behind us, and when talent meets capital, good things happen."

http://www.365datacenters.com

In April, 365 DataCenters, which was previously known as 365 Main, announced a corporate rebranding as it focuses on colocation services for small and medium enterprises.  The company operates in sixteen markets across the U.S.

In this video interview, John Scanlon looks at the colocation opportunity with small to medium-sized businesses especially as they make the transition from on-premise infrastructure to hybrid cloud solutions. The company's goal is to make data centers more accessible to small customers by eliminating long-term commitments.

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Google Hangouts Now Offering Free Calling

Google began offering free voice calls from Hangouts on Android, iOS and the web to regular telephone numbers in the U.S. and Canada.  International calls can be made a low rates.

The new capability represents the integration of Google Hangouts with Google Voice.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/call-me-maybe-introducing-free-voice.html

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