Wednesday, January 13, 2016

ADVA Acquires Overture for NFV-enabled Carrier Ethernet Solutions

ADVA Optical Networking has acquired Overture, bringing together two of the industry’s largest manufacturers of Carrier Ethernet (CE) access equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ADVA described the acquisition as a key step to further expand its cloud access solution portfolio. The acquisition completes the ADVA FSP 150 product family with an Ethernet-over-Copper solution, a programmable white-box network interface device (NID), a virtualized NID and an end-to-end orchestration solution. This means ADVA to deliver CE-based cloud services in a hybrid or NFV-pure-play environment.

Overture is a privately-held company based in North Carolina.

“Our acquisition of Overture is a defining moment in the cloud access market. We’re building something remarkable here,” said Brian Protiva, CEO, ADVA Optical Networking. “Firstly, we’re creating a number one player in Ethernet access devices. There’s a full account and product synergy between our companies, ensuring a complete solution set for business Ethernet, mobile backhaul and carrier wholesale applications that can be sold into each other’s customer base. Secondly, we have a shared vision for the future of the cloud services market and the virtualized network. Adding Overture’s NFV-pure-play and orchestration solutions to our hybrid NFV solutions, operators can select what best fits their plans. And last but not least, we’re creating an incredible team. Overture has great people with a wealth of knowledge. With one united company, we’re going to help CSPs take a huge leap forward. There can be no question that exciting times are ahead.”

http://www.advaoptical.com/en/newsroom/press-releases-german.aspx



Overture + Hatteras Merger Targets Carrier Ethernet Acceleration

Overture Networks and Hatteras Networks agreed to merge, creating a larger and more competitive supplier of Carrier Ethernet products. Hatteras is a leading supplier of Ethernet over Bonded Copper solutions, while Overture is the frontrunner in Ethernet over TDM and recently introduced a set of Ethernet over Fiber platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed. Both companies are venture-backed, privately-held start-ups based in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park.





CableLabs Awards First DOCSIS 3.1 Modem Certifications

CableLabs awarded the first DOCSIS 3.1 certifications to five cable modem vendors: Askey, Castlenet, Netgear, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive. Certification verifies compliance to the specifications, interoperability among products and enables competition and choice in the marketplace.

DOCSIS 3.1 technology is designed to meet the demand for higher speeds cost effectively by improving network efficiency and scalability while operating on existing cable operator networks, maintaining backward compatibility with existing DOCSIS deployments. DOCSIS 3.1 technology also reduces network latency, and so dramatically improves responsiveness for sophisticated applications such as gaming and rich web experiences. Cable operators can deploy multi-gigabit services over their existing Hybrid Fiber Coax networks based on consumer demand, leveraging their existing network infrastructure and DOCSIS devices to enable a smooth migration to the new capabilities of the DOCSIS 3.1 technology. This also represents the first set of DOCSIS specifications with worldwide applicability, a key element to delivering rapid scale and cost-effective products.

“Today’s news marks a key milestone for CableLabs in technical leadership and time to market,” said Phil McKinney, President and CEO of CableLabs. “The DOCSIS 3.1 specifications assure the cable industry’s leadership in the delivery of broadband services. This represents the most rapid development and implementation cycle for a broadband technology development program ever delivered by CableLabs. Development of the initial DOCSIS 3.1 specifications to product certification has occurred in half the time of previous DOCSIS specifications.”

http://www.cablelabs.com

BT Wins Cloud Contracts with the European Commission

BT has been awarded two new contracts by the European Commission to deliver public and private cloud services across 52 major European institutions, agencies and bodies - including the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Defence Agency.

Both framework contracts - awarded last December - run for up to four years with a combined worth of more than €24 million. Following execution of the framework contracts, BT will implement the contracted private cloud services, and becomes one of five providers that will compete for public cloud projects.

Corrado Sciolla, President Europe and Global Telecom Markets, BT Global Services, said: “This is a milestone in our journey to be the leading global cloud services integrator, and demonstrates how we minimise the complexity, risks and costs for our customers as they move to the cloud. I’d like to take this opportunity to, once again, thank the EU for putting its trust in BT.”

http://www.btplc.com/news/#/pressreleases/bt-secures-major-cloud-services-contracts-with-the-eu-1290656


  • Last August, BT signed another framework contract with the European Commission, with a value of up to €15.2 million over seven year, that included voice services across 21 major European institutions, agencies and bodies. This followed a large framework contract signed in March 2015 - with a maximum value of €55.7 million over five years - for the delivery of dedicated internet access to all major European institutions, agencies and bodies across the 28 member states.

Seagate Releases 10TB HDD Aimed at Data Centers

Seagate Technology launched its first 10TB enterprise capacity hard disk drive (HDD).

The new, 10TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD incorporates seven platters and 14 heads. The drive seals in helium to create a turbulence-free, quiet environment, decreasing both friction and resistance on the platters and delivering the industry’s lowest power/TB ratio and weight specifications for a 10TB HDD. It delivers an improved MTBF of 2.5 million hours and provides consistent performance to customers in a 24x7 multi-drive environment. Enterprise ready, the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD is available in both a 6Gb/s SATA and 12Gb/s SAS interfaces.

“Cloud-based data center storage needs are expanding faster than many current infrastructures can sustain, rendering the capacity demands of users a herculean task for cloud managers,” said Mark Re, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Seagate. “Built on our years of research and development of sealed-drive technology, our new helium-based enterprise drive is designed precisely to help data-centric organizations worldwide solve the needs of their growing storage business.”

http://www.seagate.com

Fujitsu Network Communications Joins Canada's CENGN Consortium

Fujitsu Network Communications has joined Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), which is a consortium of industry, academic and research leaders dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of next generation communications solutions.  CENGN’s fully operational multi-vendor data centre houses an OpenStack production  environment connected to a real world WAN enabling connectivity speeds of more than 100 Gbps.  This unique environment is used to validate and test the performance and interoperability of proof-of-concept (PoC) end to end solutions based on emerging network technologies such as SDN and NFV.

“Fujitsu will be a great addition to our membership,” says Ritch Dusome CENGN President and CEO. “CENGN is aligning the global leaders in SDN and NFV solutions and Fujitsu will provide significant value considering their NGN expertise, technical competencies, and robust product and development environment.  This global collaboration is required to accelerate the development and introduction of new SDN and NFV products and services.”      

CENGN’s members also include Alcatel-Lucent, Allstream, BTI Systems, Cisco, EWA Canada, EXFO, Invest Ottawa, Juniper, Mistral Ventures, Rogers, TELUS and Viavi.

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/about/resources/news/press-releases/2016/fnc-20160113.html
http://www.cengn.ca/

Ixia Offers First 50 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Validation Test

Ixia introduced its 50GbE validation solution based on its Xcellon-Multis family of load module.

The 50GbE capabilities on Ixia’s Xcellon-Multis QSFP28 follow the company’s introduction of the world’s only shipping 25GbE solution in April 2015, based on the field tested Xcellon-Multis platform.

The company said it has already successfully connected its Xcellon-Multis QSFP28 load modules over copper media and demonstrated full line rate 50GbE interoperability with the ConnectX-4 Dual-Port network interface adapter and LinkX 50 Gbps direct attached copper cables from Mellanox Technologies.

“Ixia has developed and introduced the world’s first validation solutions for many Ethernet technologies, including 100, 40, 25 and now 50-Gigabit Ethernet,” said Sunil Kalidindi, Vice President of Product Management at Ixia.

http://www.ixiacom.com

Seaborn Completes $500 Million Funding for US-Brazil Cable

Seaborn Networks has secured the US$500 million in project funding for Seabras-1, a new transoceanic subsea fiber optic cable system directly connecting points of presence (POPs) in New York City (US) and São Paulo (Brazil). All conditions to this project financing have been fully satisfied; debt and equity funds have been drawn.

Full project equity capital was provided by Partners Group and development capital was provided by Seaborn. The project funding also includes total project debt of up to US$267 million provided by Natixis, Banco Santander, Commerzbank and Intesa Sanpaolo, which debt is backed by COFACE, the French Export Credit Agency.

Seabras-1 is a six-fiber pair system with initial maximum design capacity of 72 Tbps. It is the first system to provide a direct point-to-point route between the commercial and financial centers of the United States and Brazil. Seabras-1 also includes branching units installed on certain of its fiber pairs that point towards Halifax (Canada), Ashburn (US), Miami (US), St. Croix (US), Fortaleza (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and Las Toninas (Argentina).

"Seabras-1 is a key telecommunications infrastructure project for the Americas and will bring tangible benefits to businesses and individuals in Brazil and neighboring countries," stated Todd Bright, Managing Director and Head of Americas Private Infrastructure at Partners Group.

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, now part of Nokia, is currently constructing Seabras-1 for Seaborn under a contract in force.  Diverse, dark fiber backhaul and metro routes at each end of the system have been fully secured. Manufacturing of the Seabras-1 system is in progress, and the committed ready-for-service date is in the second quarter of 2017.

htt://www.seabornnetworks.com

Infinera Appoints Scott Jackson to Head Subsea Business Group

Infinera appointed Scott Jackson as vice president, responsible for overseeing the Infinera Subsea Business Group.

Mr. Jackson was involved in undersea fiber systems from their genesis, including the first transoceanic optical cable, TAT-8, connecting North America and Europe. In fact, he spoke the first words carried on fiber between continents.

Mr. Jackson’s experience includes 18 years at Bell Labs Submarine Systems, later Tyco Undersea Systems, where as a managing director, he led development of undersea repeaters and later undersea terminal equipment. Designs for the first optically-amplified repeaters, the first terminals incorporating forward error correction (FEC), the first remote-pump terminals, and the first wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) terminals all came from his group. Mr. Jackson also served as vice president and general manager for the Finisar NJ Transmission Technology Center, vice president of engineering for Kodeos Communications, vice president of engineering for Defense Photonics Group, and most recently, chief technical officer for 4D Security Solutions.

http://www.infinera.com