Cisco Unveils High-Capacity CRS-3 Routers

While we were at Data Center World hearing a keynote about the coming tidal wave of mobile data, Cisco Systems (CSCO) was unveiling an Internet networking product designed to handle all that traffic. Cisco says the CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS) has more than 12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system. With a capacity of up to 322 Terabits per second, the CRS-3 could enable “the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes,” according to Cisco. For more, here’s a video from Cisco providing an overview of the CRS-3 and its capabilities, which runs about 3 minutes, 45 seconds.

Check out our Cisco Channel for other news from the company. For additional video, see our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

Cisco OTV: Virtually Spanning Data Centers

In the beginning, there were text files. As the Internet evolved, the files moving across the network grew in size – first photos, then videos, then widgets. And now, with virtualization transforming many IT departments, virtual machines loom as the next payload networks must confront.

On Monday Cisco Systems (CSCO) will officially introduce a new technology that will make it easier to seamlessly move groups of virtual machines between data centers.

Cisco says its Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) solves many of the challenges that have made it difficult to shift large workloads between facilities, potentially opening new frontiers in disaster recovery, data center consolidation, and even energy management.

Tunneling Over IP
OTV is a new feature of the Nexus OS operating system that encapsulates Layer 2 Ethernet traffic within IP packets, allowing Ethernet traffic from a local area network (LAN) to be tunneled over an IP network to create a “logical data center” spanning several data centers in different locations. OTV technology will be supported in Cisco’s Nexus 7000 in April 2010, and existing Nexus customers can deploy OTV through a software upgrade.

Cisco Outlines Plans for Enterprise Clouds, IaaS

Cisco Systems (CSCO) this week bolstered its cloud infrastructure offerings to enterprises and service providers by developing separate design guides for those respective markets. The guides present validated designs that enable enterprises and service providers to develop cloud infrastructures using Cisco gear and partner software.

The Secure Multi-Tenancy into Virtualized Data Centers guide is aimed at enterprises wanting to build clouds and is published with NetApp and VMware. It describes the design of what the vendors calls the Secure Cloud Architecture, which is based on Cisco Nexus Series Switches and the Cisco Unified Computing System, NetApp FAS storage with MultiStore, and VMware vSphere and vShield Zones.

The vendors said the architecture “isolates IT resources for enhanced security in shared virtual and enterprise cloud environments.” The guide provides details about implementing and configuring the architecture. The partners said they have “streamlined” customer support to provide a 24-hour “cooperative support model” for issues related to the products used in the architecture.

Roundup: Cisco’s Space Router, AboveNet

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

Cisco space router operates in orbit. On Monday Cisco announced that their Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) technology has achieved a major milestone with the successful in-orbit test of the Cisco IOS software’s networking capabilities and the company’s on-board router. The technology was aboard an Intelsat IS-14 commercial GEO satellite and launched November 23, 2009. The Cisco IRIS technology is a program to build a radiation-tolerant IP router for satellite and related spacecraft. Cisco vice president for the Global Government Solutions Group Steven Boutelle said “this milestone is another step in our strategy to expand borderless networks into space and redefine how satellite communications are delivered. This technology can help transform satellite communications around the world by reducing latency and increasing the efficiency.” Managed by Cisco and Intelsat the IRIS program is a Department of Defense Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) and the payload will convert to commercial use following a three month JCTD in April 2010.

AboveNet connects all 20 Equinix U.S. data centers. Equinix (EQIX) and AboveNet (ABVT) announced that AboveNet has deployed operations to the Equinix New York-1 data center, marking the company’s deployment to all 20 of Equinix’s IBX centers in the U.S.  AboveNet offers managed services, Ethernet, metro networks and a global Tier 1 optical IP network.  Making use of the Equinix global services delivery platform, AboveNet will enhance peering capabilities with other Tier 1 networks.  Equinix chief marketing officer Jarrett Appleby said “our partnership with AboveNet offers a strong Tier 1 network and high bandwidth connectivity solution options for the community of IBX participants while offering AboveNet significant new revenue opportunities and a national infrastructure for Tier 1 peering and future carrier Ethernet needs.”  Equinix acquisition target Switch and Data announced that Lexent Metro Connect, a dark fiber network provider in New York, has become part of the Switch and Data GeoReach program.  Lexent Metro Connect has also completed construction of a low-latency dark fiber network route to Switch and Data’s North Bergen site located in New Jersey.  The GeoReach program is a select group of providers who have engineered their networks to meet the needs of the high-efficiency trading community.

Huawei to deploy DWDM platform for GlobeNet. Global telecommunications solution provider Huawei was selected to deploy a next generation DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) optical platform for network transport services company GlobeNet. The Huawei platform will connect GlobeNet’s cable landing station in southern New Jersey to its Point of Presence sites in New York city via two diverse paths. The diverse paths will allow GlobeNet to deliver services to their other sites in Brazil, Venezuela, Bermuda, Florida and others. The network solution provided by Huawei will support 10Gb per second, 40GB per second and future 100Gb per second wavelengths to competitively deliver advanced, high bandwidth services.

Roundup: Teraco, Digital Realty, Isilon Systems

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

Teraco Opens Second South Africa Site: Teraco Data Environments has switched on the first phase of its new data center in Johannesburg. The facility near ambo International airport is being billed as a “central node” to new national telecommunications networks. The facility is the second carrier-neutral data center Teraco has built in South Africa, joining the company’s existing Cape Town site. Telehouse has leased space in both data centers, marking its entry into the South Africa market. See TechCentral for additional details.

Digital Realty Competes for Australian Contract: Wholesale data center operator Digtial Realty Trust (DLR) has teamed with Macquarie Capital Group to compete for a contract to consolidate 130 data government data centers in New South Wales in Australia. Other organizations participating in the bidding process include Canberra Data Centres, CSC, Equinix (EQIX), Fujitsu, Global Switch, Oracle and Sun. See Australian IT for additional details.

Roundup: Q9 Networks, Cisco, IBM

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

Cisco to Power NBC’s Olympic HD Coverage. Cisco announced Wednesday thatit is will provide NBC with a  media-aware IP video network infrastructure during the network’s all-HD coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. To support production and video-archiving functions NBC will be testing the Cisco Media Data Center and Unified Computing System. Cisco Flip video cameras will help NBC analysts and bloggers shoot on-the-fly video around the winter games. “The NBC network powered by Cisco technology is a medianet in action, making a great example of what a network optimized for extreme video traffic and rich media applications can handle,” said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Service Provider Group.

IBM Provides Modular Server Room with India Bank.  IBM has entered into an agreement with India’s Karad Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd. (KUCB) to deploy a Scalable Modular Server Room (SMSR), a pre-designed and pre-fabricated data center. The deal is expected to enable KUCB to save nearly 75% on resource allocation costs. Additionally IBM will provide facility and maintenance services for both the data center and disaster recovery sites of KUCB.  “With the scale of our operations expanding, it is imperative for us to invest in technology solutions that are ready-to-deploy and continuously meet the unique requirements associated with our growth,” said KUCB’s Chairman, Dr. Subhash S. Erram. “IBM’s unique value proposition through SMSR and their consultative approach was in synch with our requirements.”

Q9 Networks selected by Canadian Automobile Association. Toronto based Q9 Networks announced that it was selected by the Canadian Automobile Association South Central Ontario to provide a comprehensive data center colocation solution. As a consolidation plan for the Association they will go from two internal and two external facilities to a single Q9 data center with failover to a second Q9 facility. “Q9 sells its colocation services based on a power reservation model that gives us an incentive to understand and closely manage the power draw of our IT assets,” says CAA SCO Chief Operating Officer, Jay Woo.

Data Center of the Future: A Virtual Trade Show

Cisco and its partners invite you to register today for a Data Center of the Future live virtual trade show on December 15 and 16, 2009. Throughout this two-day live event, you’ll be able to learn what the future of the data center might look like from the perspectives of networking, storage, applications, and physical infrastructure technology partners.

Whether you’re just starting out on the journey – looking for cost effective ways to get more out of your current data center – or whether you’re already well down the virtualization track and thinking about how to deploy a Private Cloud or IT as a Service, there is valuable information for all.

Register here and join other IT and data center decision makers in this unique virtualized trade show environment.

Roundup: SoftLayer, Power Loft, Level 3

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

• SoftLayer continues data center expansion. SoftLayer Technologies announced the opening of three new data center pods in the Dallas, Seattle and northern Virginia data centers.  The new pods add capacity for 20,000 additional servers, bringing total capacity to more than 45,000 servers. “These three new pods meet the customer demand increases that we expect in the very near future,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “And they are only preliminary measures in our growth strategy for 2010. We have some big plans which we can’t wait to share with everyone.”  SoftLayer has standardized on the pod architecture for data center design, allowing them to optimize space, power, network, personnel and internal infrastructure. The company recently announced that it was on track to report more than $80 million in revenue for 2009 and raised $20 million to fund the continued growth of the company.
• Power Loft opens Virginia Data Center: Power Loft LLC announced the substantial completion of their first data center, Power Loft @ Innovation. Located in Prince William County, Virginia, this 225,000 square foot facility has signed an international IT technology outsourcing company as its anchor tenant, and was recently awarded the first Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Green Award. “Power Loft is in the forefront of creating energy efficient data center space,” said Bobbie Kilberg, President & CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC).  “Having our company singled out to receive the NVTC Green Award, turned four years of hard work into a very unexpected night of celebration for us all,” said Jim Coakley, CEO of Power Loft LLC. “We are very
  proud to be so honored and we commend the NVTC for elevating the visibility of the many companies in Northern
  Virginia who are making an increasingly positive impact on our environment.”
• Level 3 to support Clearwire’s 4G network. Level 3 Communications announced an expanded relationship with Clearwire Communications Tuesday to support their CLEAR 4G WiMax services.  The agreement provides Clearwire with network transport services as a part of their deployment of CLEAR WiMax services in major metropolitan markets across the United States. Level 3 will provide high speed connectivity to Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C., Houston and the Bay area.   CLEAR 4G WiMax is a next generation mobile internet solution from Clearwire that claims to be 4 times faster than 3G.  Clearwire has been growing rapidly and in their third quarter 2009 results reported that 4G network coverage increased by 67% to over 10 million people.  They also recently had a $1.564 billion equity financing round. Is there a map for that? – you bet.

Addressing FCoE in the Data Center

Power, cooling and space challenges are the norm for most data centers today. These challenges are a direct result of infrastructure sprawl and disparate technologies caused by cabling, adaptors and switch ports for networking and storage. While server virtualization has begun to address part of the issue, many problems remain and new challenges emerge. This webcast look as ways to solve some of these data center challenges using Fibre Channel over Ethernet.

The main application of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is in data center storage area networks (SANs). FCoE has particular application in data centers due to the cabling reduction it makes possible, as well as in server virtualization applications, which often require many physical I/O connections per server.

With FCoE, network (IP) and storage (SAN) data traffic can be consolidated using a single network switch. This consolidation can:

• reduce the number of network interface cards required to connect to disparate storage and IP networks;
• reduce the number of cables and switches;
• reduce power and cooling costs