Zayo to provide metro dark fiber in Chicago for big customer

Zayo has been selected by a global technology company for metro dark fiber in Chicago. The solution will provide additional high-performance capacity between the company’s data centers.

Zayo said its solution leverages its dense Chicago fiber network that spans more than 1,600 route miles and connects more than 35 data centers. Dark fiber offers substantial levels of bandwidth, a higher level of control and long-term lease terms.

Zayo operates four zColo data centers in the Chicago metro area, with a total footprint of more than 258,000 critical square feet.

Zayo also provides diverse connectivity into 350 Cermak, one of the world’s largest data centers. 350 Cermak is a key carrier hotel in the region and a backbone of the internet. Chicago is one of the top data center markets in the U.S. due to affordability of power, available fiber connectivity and low exposure to natural disasters.

In addition to Zayo’s Chicago metro fiber footprint, Zayo has several major long haul routes that connect into the city, including New York/New Jersey to Chicago via the low-latency Spread Networks by Zayo route, Columbus to Chicago, Minneapolis to Chicago, Omaha to Chicago, Indianapolis to Chicago, St. Louis to Chicago and Toronto to Chicago.

“Zayo’s high fiber count footprint in Chicago enables us to be one of the few providers that can offer customers diverse dark fiber along with access to long haul routes,” said Steve Orlando, senior vice president of Central Region at Zayo. “In this case, our customer continues to require additional bandwidth to accommodate growth, and we look forward to increasing their dark fiber capacity.”

http://www.zayo.com

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Intel backs early-stage start-ups in Israel

Intel is launching an incubation program focused on early-stage startup companies in Israel in key segments, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems and other data-centric technologies and business models.

The Intel Ignite program, which is based in Tel Aviv, will leverage Intel’s global market access and business and technology leadership to provide early-stage startups with unique advantages on their paths to disrupt the future.

Intel will host 10 to 15 top pre-seed to seed startups through a 20-week program where they will receive hands-on mentorship from Intel and industry experts in a variety of product, business, management and technical areas. Intel is committed to accelerate their growth and scale their ideas for greater impact.

“Intel has always worked in concert with open ecosystems to scale new technologies so they can be transformational for our customers, business and society. This process is fueled by the innovation and passion of the startup community,” said Intel CEO Bob Swan. “Israel has the deep skill base in AI, autonomous systems and the underlying technologies critical to these inflections that make it a natural choice to launch our Ignite program.”

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AT&T sells WarnerMedia offices in NYC for $2.2 billion

WarnerMedia, an operating company of AT&T, completed the sale-leaseback of its premises at 30 Hudson Yards to a consortium for approximately $2.2 billion. The company announced its initial agreement to sell these assets in April 2019.

WarnerMedia’s lease at 30 Hudson Yards runs through early 2034.

AT&T said it will use proceeds from this transaction, along with additional planned sales of non-core assets, to reduce its debt.

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CiscoLive!: Innovations in Optics

The cost of optics has come down, but not nearly as fast as silicon, said Bill Gartner, VP/GM of Cisco's Optical Systems & Optics, speaking at this week's CiscoLive! event in San Diego.

For 100G systems, roughly 50% of the bill of materials (BoM) is the optics. At 400G, roughly 70% of the BoM is optics. This has spurred Cisco to take a more active role in developing its own optics for data centers, enterprise networks, and even Service Provide and webscale applications. Beyond cost savings, Gartner said Cisco's investment in optics is at the heart of its Intent-based Networking strategy.

Earlier this year, Cisco acquired Luxtera, a developer of silicon photonic technologies, for $660 million in cash and assumed equity awards. Luxtera, which is based in Carlsbad, California, focuses on silicon photonics process and packaging technologies for building integrated optics capabilities for webscale and enterprise data centers, service provider market segments, and other customers. Luxtera leverages a hybrid integration approach wherein the photonics die forms the base of the transceiver chipset, while the light source and electronics die are attached on top. The company says its ability to integrate all optical components into a single silicon chip enables it to manufacture at wafer scale.

In terms of its supply chain, Cisco currently designs its own optical components and relies on contract manufacturers for the actual production. Gartner said Cisco is constantly evaluating whether it makes sense to bring production in-house. Cisco is currently shipping over 10 million transceivers per year. The portfolio current ranges from spans of under 30 meters to metro distances in the 80km range, and from under 1G up to 400G.

Regarding the use of onboard optics and the COBO initiative back by Microsoft and others, Gartner said that a lot of work is underway. Specifically, Luxtera's expertise in this area was one of the reasons that drove Cisco to acquire the firm. Luxtera is actually doing onboard optics. Gartner said you can think about onboard optics as a stepping stone to the idea of packaging optics and silicon, which is something he thinks will be necessary in the future.

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