TAT-14 subsea cable to be removed following decommissioning

TAT-14, which is a consortium transatlantic cable system that entered service in 2001, is being decommissioned and removed. 

Commercial service on the TAT-14 system ended in December 2020.

Subsea Environmental Services and Red Penguin Associates (advisors) have been awarded the contract to decommission TAT-14. This includes removal and recycling of shore-ends in the US, UK, France, Denmark and The Netherlands as well as the deep-water segments in the North Atlantic.

After a year of planning, the operations phase of the project got underway last week with the recovery of shore-ends in Denmark and The Netherlands.  Completion of all in-shore works is anticipated by year-end 2021.  

John Theodoracopulos, (Subsea MD) commented:  ‘the scope of this project presents an exciting opportunity for all stakeholders to participate in the notable benefits associated with the decommissioning of TAT-14. Red Penguin have been an excellent partner and we look forward to continuing to work closely together.

http://subsea.cc/

• TAT-14 used four pairs of fibres—two pairs as active and two as backup. Each fibre in each pair carried 16 wavelengths in one direction, and each wavelength carried up to an STM-256. The entire system extended 15,428 km (9,587 mi). 
• Since commencing marine operations in 2014, Subsea Environmental Services has completed 16 decommissioning projects in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean, recovering over 22,000 kilometers of OOS cable (36,000 metric tons) from the ocean floor.

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Molex ramps up its copper and optical interconnect portfolio

Molex is scaling global deployments of its high-speed copper and optical interconnects and modules, including with a new  112G Active Electrical Cable (AEC) and ramping the manufacturing ot its 100G and 400G transceiver line. 

Copper

Molex has added the new 112G Active Electrical Cables (AEC) to its line of copper interconnect solutions that extend link reach at higher data rates. AEC increases reach up to five meters without requiring optical cables while also supporting smaller conductors for improved cable management. AEC can also support gearbox capabilities as well as smart cable functionality for adding an extra measure of system-level redundancy. This latest addition to the Molex copper interconnect family joins Active Copper Cable (ACC), which works just like passive cable to extend the reach of external cabling and supports low-power linear amplifier-based semiconductors for improved power management and thermal needs. Rounding out the copper lineup is Molex’s BiPass technology, which delivers best-in-class signal integrity with multiple near-ASIC connector solutions, including TGA and the NearStack family of connectors.

Optical

Molex also is driving industry-wide efforts to increase adoption of 100G and 400G optical links and module technologies. The company supports a full IEEE- and MSA-compliant portfolio and product roadmap to meet both intra-data center interconnect, and data center interconnect requirements. The expanding optical transceiver family includes 100G-DR, 100G-FR, 100G-LR, 400G-DR4 (500m and 2km), 400G-FR4, 400G-LR4, 400G-ZR and 400G-ZR+ as well as 800G roadmap products.

Molex said its pluggable optical transceiver models all benefit from the company’s vertical-integration expertise in silicon photonics, photonic integration, module assembly and packaging. 

“There is no such thing as ‘one size fits all’ interconnect technologies to support different applications across today’s enterprise and hyperscale data centers,” said Aldo Lopez, president, Datacom Solutions, Molex. “We offer our customers and ecosystem partners the broadest portfolio of future-proof interconnect solutions, which ease transitions to new architectures and simplify engineering development while reducing costs and time to market.”

https://www.molex.com/

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University of Surrey: silicon could be a photonics game-changer

Silicon is an outstanding candidate for developing new types of devices for controling multiple light beams, according to new research from the University of Surrey, suggesting new possibilities for the production of lasers and displays.

The researchers found that silicon possesses the strongest nonlinearity for manipulating laser beams – for example, changing their colour. 

Ben Murdin, co-author of the study and Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey, said: "Our finding was lucky because we weren't looking for it. We were trying to understand how a very small number of phosphorus atoms in a silicon crystal could be used for making a quantum computer and how to use light beams to control quantum information stored in the phosphorus atoms.

"We were astonished to find that the phosphorus atoms were re-emitting light beams that were almost as bright as the very intense laser we were shining on them. We shelved the data for a couple of years while we thought about proving where the beams were coming from. It's a great example of the way science proceeds by accident, and also how pan-European teams can still work together very effectively."

The research is published in the journal Light: Science and Applications

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-021-00509-6

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/study-suggests-silicon-could-be-photonics-game-changer

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Nokia's financial performance improves in Q1 2021

Nokia reported Q1 2021 sales of EUR 5.076 billion, up 3% over the same period last year, and up by 9% at constant currency. Gross margin rose to 37.9% from 35.3% a year earlier. There was an operating profit of EUR 431 million, compared with a loss of EUR 76 million a year ago.

Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO of Nokia, comments: "We have delivered a robust start to the year with strong net sales, operating margin and cash flow. Today’s results demonstrate that we are on track to deliver on our three-phased plan to achieve sustainable, profitable growth and technology leadership as announced at our recent Capital Markets Day.

"I was particularly pleased by strong sales growth across our Network Infrastructure business group driven by increasing demand for next generation connectivity; good progress in Mobile Networks in securing full portfolio competitiveness; continued double-digit sales growth with our Enterprise customers; double-digit sales growth in North America; and good net sales development for Nokia Technologies.

"At this point, we are maintaining our Outlook for the full year, as we want to see how 2021 continues to develop. The solid first quarter provides a good foundation for achieving the higher end of the 7 to 10% comparable operating margin range. We expect our typical quarterly earnings seasonality to be less pronounced in 2021, and we continue to monitor overall market developments including visibility for semiconductor availability. I am proud of how we have continued to successfully deliver to our customers during the global semiconductor shortage."

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2021/04/29/nokia-corporation-financial-report-for-q1-2021/

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American Tower sales rise 8.3% year-over-year

American Tower reported total Q1 2021 revenue of $2,159 million, up 8.3% compared to the same period last year. Net income amounted to $652 million, up 56% compared to last year.

Tom Bartlett, American Tower’s Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We began 2021 by entering into the Telxius Towers transaction, which we expect to be transformational for our European business. Our global teams followed that by delivering a strong quarter, highlighted by elevated demand for our sites, the construction of nearly 2,000 new towers and highly attractive growth in consolidated AFFO per Share."

"Looking forward, in the U.S., we expect that the gathering 5G momentum will enable us to leverage our extensive site portfolio and mutually beneficial relationships with key tenants to drive sustainable, predictable, recurring long-term growth in cash flows. Internationally, large multinational c'arriers are aggressively investing in their wireless networks to keep pace with rapidly growing mobile data usage as smartphone penetration accelerates and network technologies advance. 

Some additional highlights for Q1

• total capital expenditures were approximately $335 million, of which $19 million was for non-discretionary capital improvements and corporate capital expenditures.
• the company spent approximately $115 million to acquire 116 communications sites, including 48 sites in the U.S. and 68 sites in Latin America.

https://americantower.gcs-web.com/static-files/f1d87114-fa17-475e-b573-5721ccab944b

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NeoPhotonics posts Q1 sales of $60.9M, cites growing demand for 400G

NeoPhotonics reported Q1 2021 revenue of $60.9 million, down 11% quarter-over-quarter and 37% year-over-year. The gross margin was 21.9%, down from 22.7% in the prior quarter. There was a Non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.15, compared to a Non-GAAP net loss of $0.14 per share in the prior quarter.

The company said sales of products for 400G and above applications grew 134% year-over-year. Also, during the quarter, NeoPhotonics announced the successful completion of 2,000 hours of high-temperature reliability testing for QSFP-DD 400ZR modules, plus successful demonstrations in fully populated Ethernet switch.

“NeoPhotonics again delivered strong results in the first quarter, as we transition our business to cloud-centric. We demonstrated transmission of 400G data rates over 800 km using our 400ZR+ coherent modules,” said Tim Jenks, NeoPhotonics CEO. “We are excited about the prospects these modules are demonstrating for the next generation of highest speed over distance interconnects,” concluded Mr. Jenks.

https://ir.neophotonics.com/static-files/6b7a7be8-5f6a-4483-89aa-3a6b9d1eb537

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Wasabi scores $112M for cloud storage that's cheaper than AWS S3

Wasabi, a start-up based in Boston, announced $112 million in Series C funding for its cloud-based, object storage service.

Wasabi is offering a cloud storage service claimed to be 1/5th the cost of Amazon S3, with zero fees for egress or API requests.

Wasabi said its revenue and storage under management has also tripled in the last year with deployed storage recently passing one exabyte. The company has 22,000 customers worldwide, and Wasabi’s channel network more than doubled to over 5,000 partners worldwide. The company has data centers in the US, Europe and Japan.

The new funding was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from existing investors. The round follows Wasabi’s $27.5M in debt financing announced in January. The C round brings Wasabi’s total equity financing to $219 million.

“This new funding is a watershed event for Wasabi,” said Wasabi CEO & Co-Founder David Friend. “With revenues tripling for each of the last 3 years and over $100M of new investment led by one of the world’s largest and most prestigious financial institutions, our customers will know that their data is in the hands of a reliable, fast-growing company with the substantial resources to meet their growing needs. Storing the world’s data in the cloud is one of the biggest opportunities in the IT industry, and we are now well-positioned to secure a leadership role in the evolution of the cloud. We will continue to invest in our proprietary software, grow our channel, enhance our brand and expand storage capacity around the world.”

https://wasabi.com/press-releases/wasabi-secures-112m-series-c-financing-sets-sights-on-global-expansion-and-company-growth/

• Wasabi was started by co-founders David Friend and Jeff Flowers, who previously collaborated on the founding of five other successful tech companies. Their previous venture is Carbonite, a consumer service that backs up hundreds of millions of new files every day using technology that Jeff and David’s team created.

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Vectra AI raises $130 million for automated threat detection/response

Vectra AI, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced $130 million in new funding for its work in automated cyber threat detection and response. The company's mission is "to see and stop threats before they become breaches."

“Over the past year, we have witnessed a continuous series of the most impactful and widespread cyberattacks in history. To protect their employees and digital assets, our customers require security solutions that are smarter than today’s adversaries and provide coverage for cloud, data centers and SaaS applications” said Hitesh Sheth, president and chief executive officer at Vectra. “As we look to the future, Blackstone’s global presence, operational resources, and in-house technology expertise will help us achieve our mission to become one of the dominant cybersecurity companies in the world.”

The new $130 funding round was led by funds managed by Blackstone Growth. This brings Vectra's total funding since inception to more than $350 million at a post-money $1.2 billion valuation.

Viral Patel, a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, said: “Vectra has a proven ability to stop in-progress attacks in the cloud, on corporate networks, and in private data centers for some of the top organizations in the world. The company has experienced extraordinary success through its commitment to combining innovative AI technology, first-class customer service, and top talent, and Blackstone is excited to become part of the Vectra team.”

For 2020, the Vectra reported a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 100 percent, while sales of its Cognito Detect product for Microsoft Office 365 have grown at a rate of over 700 percent. 

http://www.vectra.ai

• Vectra AI is headed by Hitesh Sheth (president and CEO), who previously was chief operating officer at Aruba Networks. Hitesh joined Aruba from Juniper Networks, where he was EVP/GM for its switching business and before that, SVP for the Service Layer Technologies group, which included security. Prior to Juniper, Hitesh held a number of senior management positions at Cisco.

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Altibox deploys 800G with Ciena’s Waveserver 5

Altibox, one of the largest regional operators in Norway and Denmark, is utilizing Ciena’s Waveserver 5 coherent optical solution, including its 6500 flexible grid colorless, directionless, contentionless open line system, to create a robust and flexible network for cloud providers, global webscale providers and large enterprises at speeds up to 800G.

Ciena’s coherent optical solution enables Altibox Carrier to support new high bandwidth routes that connect data centers in key digital hubs across Europe, including large cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Hamburg. With this move, Altibox Carrier is also strengthening its NO-UK submarine cable that spans 670km and connect routes between the Nordics, United Kingdom and US.

Altibox Carrier is deploying Ciena’s Waveserver 5 platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme and 6500 flexible grid colorless, directionless, contentionless open line system, all managed by Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP)  domain controller. The solution helps lay the foundation for a fully adaptive network with a programmable infrastructure that leverages coherent technology innovations and automation to provide higher levels of scale and resilience. Additionally, the openness of Ciena’s coherent optical solution offers network operators complete freedom in choice of technology and consumption models.

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IBM to acquire Turbonomic for app performance assurance

IBM agreed to acquire Turbonomic, an Application Resource Management (ARM) and Network Performance Management (NPM) software provider based in Boston, MA. Financial terms were not disclosed. Media reports valued the deal at between $1.5 billion and $2.0 billion.

IBM said the acquisition will provide businesses with full stack application observability and management to assure performance and minimize costs using AI to optimize resources – such as containers, VMs, servers, storage, networks, and databases. The acquisition complements IBM's recent acquisition of Instana for application performance monitoring (APM) and observability, and the launch of IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps to automate IT Operations using AI. 

Turbonomic's ARM software optimizes the performance, compliance, and cost of applications in real-time. Upon close of the acquisition, IBM plans to integrate Turbonomic's ARM software with the APM and real-time observability capabilities of Instana and the ITOps capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps to help customers assure application performance and minimize costs by driving optimization across development, test and production environments.

"IBM continues to reshape its future as a hybrid cloud and AI company," said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud and Data Platform. "The Turbonomic acquisition is yet another example of our commitment to making the most impactful investments to advance this strategy and ensure customers find the most innovative ways to fuel their digital transformations."

http://www.ibm.com

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