Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Cisco Posts Sales of $12.6 Billion, Confirms 5,500 Job Cuts

Cisco reported fourth quarter revenue of $12.6 billion, net income (GAAP) of $2.8 billion or $0.56 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.2 billion or $0.63 per share.

"We had another strong quarter, wrapping up a great year. I am particularly pleased with our performance in priority areas including security, data center switching, collaboration, services as well as our overall performance, with revenues up 2% in Q4 excluding the SP Video CPE business," said Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco. "We continue to execute well in a challenging macro environment. Despite slowing in our Service Provider business and Emerging Markets after three consecutive quarters of growth, the balance of the business was healthy with 5% order growth. This growth and balance demonstrates the strength of our diverse portfolio. Our product deferred revenue from software and subscriptions grew 33% showing the continued momentum of our business model transformation."

Cisco also confirmed a corporate restructuring that will eliminate 5,500 jobs, representing approximately 7% of its global workforce. Currently, Cisco has about 73,711 employees, up from 71,833 a year ago. The company said it intends to invest aggressively in growth areas such as security, IoT, next-gen data center and cloud, while lowering its cost base in slower areas of its portfolio.

Some highlights for the quarter:

  • Total Q4 2016 revenue was $12.6 billion, up 2%, with product revenue up 1% and service revenue up 5%. 
  • Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 3%, EMEA up 3%, and APJC down 2%. Product revenue growth was led by Security at 16%. 
  • Collaboration, Wireless and Switching product revenue increased by 6%, 5%, and 2%, respectively. 
  • Service Provider Video, NGN Routing and Data Center product revenue decreased by 12%, 6%, and 1%, respectively.
  • Cisco had $65.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, compared with $63.5 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2016, and compared with $60.4 billion at the end of fiscal 2015. The company said total cash and cash equivalents and investments available in the United States at the end of Q4 was $5.9 billion.


http://www.cisco.com

Intel Releases 100G Silicon Photonic Transceiver

After 16 years of investing in R&D, Intel announced the commercial release of its first silicon photonics product -- a 100G CWDM4 QSFP28 optical transceiver supporting in data center distances of up 2km over duplex single-mode fiber, with high speed and low-power consumption. The new product is designed to be compliant with 100G CWDM4 and CLR4 MSA, QSFP28, and CAUI-4 specifications.

The compact QSFP28 form factor enables high faceplate density in networking equipment. It supports the CWDM wavelength grid (1271, 1291, 1311, and 1331 nm) for uncooled operation, and the electrical interface is  compliant with IEEE 802.3bm CAUI-4 standard.

In a keynote address, Intel's Diane Bryant said silicon photonics would play an increasing role in the company's vision for future data center architecture.

http://itpeernetwork.intel.com/bringing-light-intels-silicon/







Infinera Validates Optical Line Systems with Lumentum's White Box

Infinera and Lumentum have validated Infinera’s portfolio of DWDM platforms over Lumentum’s white box optical line system.

The interoperability testing included Infinera’s XTM Series, Cloud Xpress Family and DTN-X Family (including XTC and XT Series) platforms. In addition, the companies successfully conducted interoperability testing of Infinera’s next generation Infinite Capacity Engine pilot hardware.

Specifically, the Infinera platforms interoperated with the Lumentum white box open line system including the 20 port Transport ROADM. The test cases covered point-to-point metro fiber links carrying multiple modulations including QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying), 8QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and 16QAM with PIC based super-channels over the Lumentum open line system. The test was able to fill the fiber to full capacity at QPSK, 8QAM and 16QAM data rates via 19 super-channels injected into a single rack unit 20 port ROADM. A fully loaded solution achieves up to 24 terabits of fiber capacity using the Infinite Capacity Engine at 16QAM. The testing successfully validated standard optical parameters including optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) for seamless performance over metro distances.

The companies described the interoperability testing as the first multi-vendor driven demonstration of, and commitment to supporting, an open, interoperable and agile approach to the construction of transport networks, including for data center interconnect (DCI) and metro/edge WDM transport.

Infinera and Lumentum also noted that they are collaborating on open packet optical transport in the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), an industry initiative co-founded by Facebook.

“By validating the industry’s first white box open line system interoperability with Lumentum, Infinera has demonstrated our commitment to delivering the innovative and open optical solutions that our customers need,” said Tom Fallon, Infinera CEO. “Infinera’s leadership in technology innovation with large-scale photonic integration is changing telecom networks. This announcement is yet another step in the path to delivering on our vision of enabling an infinite pool of intelligent bandwidth that the next communications infrastructure is built upon.”

“Lumentum’s award-winning optical white boxes are designed for simplicity and scalability, with open interfaces to enable Software Defined Networking (SDN),” said Alan Lowe, Lumentum CEO. “The demonstration of successful interoperability with Infinera validates the open system approach that should deliver the simplicity and service innovation many network operators desire.”

https://www.infinera.com/infinera-validates-intelligent-transport-network-portfolio-over-lumentum-white-box-optical-line-system/
https://www.lumentum.com


Centurylink Expands Data Center Interconnection Options

CenturyLink has significantly increased the number of network carriers available for interconnections across its fleet of global data centers.

CenturyLink now provides customers with access to 99 different carriers and network providers across the company's 58 data centers throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. CenturyLink offers an average of seven network carrier connections at each data center, and some facilities offer more than 20 unique providers.

"In today's increasingly digital world, businesses, government agencies and consumers alike face drastically increased needs for connectivity," said David Meredith, senior vice president, global data centers, CenturyLink. "In order to meet this steep demand, organizations must take a hybrid IT approach and maximize the value of their IT assets. By accessing several different data center carriers, CenturyLink customers are better positioned to deliver reliable and secure connections for their clients."  

https://www.lumen.com/en-us/hybrid-it-cloud/data-centers.html