Making Connections: AboveNet, Equinix, Telx

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

AboveNet connects London and New York. AboveNet (ABVT) has launched a low latency end-to-end transatlantic connection between financial centers in London and New York. Seeing a demand for low latency transatlantic connectivity, AboveNet says it can now offer latency gurarantees on this premium service as low as sub-1ms round-trip for access to hundreds of buildings in the New York and London metro markets. “Adding the low latency capability between New York and London is a natural extension of our industry-leading Agility Guarantee program,” said AboveNet Chief Technology Officer Rajiv Datta. “In addition, we can now provide high bandwidth connectivity between London and our 16 U.S. markets for a broad range of customer applications.”

Equinix connects Two cities in The Netherlands.  Equinix (EQIX) announced the connection of its International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers, located in Zwolle (ZW1) and Enschede (EN1), to the Amersterdam-based Netherlands Internet Exchange (NL-ix).  “In view of our substantial growth ambitions, the NL-ix connection of the Equinix data center in Amsterdam, set up a year ago, was a very logical step for us. Following our excellent experience of partnering with Equinix, we didn’t have to think twice about connecting its data centers in Zwolle and Enschede to the NL-ix,” said Mar Gauw, NL-ix Commercial Director. ZW1 and EN1 data centers target small to medium size businesses but can also serve as a business continuity / fall-back location for the Equinix AM1 Amsterdam IBX center, which is one of the world’s largest single metro area Internet exchanges.

Telx expands colo with Hypercube. Telx announced that HyperCube, a premier provider of local and national tandem services to the nation’s largest carriers, has established a colocation center within Telx’s Miami, Florida facility. By doing this HyperCube will reduce backhaul network costs and it will allow them to offer their full set of services to the Miami market. Doug Davis, chief technology officer of HyperCube said “after evaluating several colocation providers in Miami, we found it to be the broadest carrier ecosystem in the area, providing us with more connectivity choices via a simple cross-connection.”

Cisco Containers Target Federal Market

The data center container housing the NASA Nebula cloud computing application arrives at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

It’s no surprise that Cisco Systems has confirmed that it is officially developing a data center container offering. In reality, Cisco (CSCO) has been busy in the container market for some time, most visibly in procuring a container for the Nebula cloud computing project at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. The Nebula “data center in a box” was built inside a FOREST container from Verari Systems filled with Cisco Systems’ Unified Computing System (UCS).

Now Cisco is packaging a UCS-packed container as a product, with the U.S. government as its anchor customer. “We’re looking at a model of building a Cisco container – with a Cisco part number – that will contain the unified computing platform,” said Bruce Klein, Cisco’s U.S. public sector senior VP. 

InformationWeek reported that Cisco had orders for 150 containers for the U.S. military.

Given its experience with the Nebula container, Cisco may also be shaping up as a beneficiary of NASA”s decision to revamp its $1.5 billion data center road map, apparently to include a larger cloud computing component.

Cisco’s container offering is described in a brochure on a portion of its web site dedicated to government solutions. The company says the containers can be deployed in 12 to 16 weeks and operated with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.05 to 1.25. The enclosure can contain either Cisco gear or third-party equipment.

Roundup: Equinix, Nirvanix, Nasuni, Ixia

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

Equinix selected by Boston Options Exchange. Equinix announced that the Boston Options Exchange (BOX), an all-electronic equity options market, is moving its operations featuring an ultra-fast matching engine, to the Equinix NY4 data center.  According to BOX Senior Vice President Alan Grigoletto, “Equinix provides a healthy exchange ecosystem – in essence a ‘living reef’ – where all participants can access additional data feeds and other technology vendors via cross-connects, and where market makers, high-frequency traders and order flow providers can co-exist.”  Participants of BOX services can now connect from Equinix hubs in Chicago and New York, or directly from space in the NY4 facility. Adding BOX to the Equinix eXchange Ecosystem opens up opportunities for all community members through Equinix cross connect services.

Nirvanix added as cloud provider by Nasuni. Enterprise cloud storage provider Nirvanix announced that it has been added to the list of cloud storage providers by Nasuni.  Nirvanix will provide Nasuni customers with unlimited cloud capacity, allowing companies to use and pay for only what they need, when they need it. Last month Nasuni unveiled the Nasuni Filer, a gateway to cloud storage, running on VMware as a virtual NAS. “The Nasuni gateway is a technological milestone in the cloud storage industry that enables organizations to easily benefit from Nirvanix’s unique enterprise cloud storage offering,” said Jim Zierick, President and CEO of Nirvanix.

Ixia hosts low-latency measurement summit. Converged IP network test solutions provider Ixia (XXIA) announced the world’s first Low-Latency Measurement summit, which took place Thursday in Santa Clara. The summit was designed to help data center planners and enterprises that require low-latency communications create and deploy next generation converged data centers. “Low-latency devices are critical to the delivery of time-sensitive data flows, as in financial transactions,” said Douglas Gourlay, Vice President of Marketing for Arista Networks. “Low-latency testing, as performed at iSimCity, is crucial for data center equipment and network deployment.” Ixia is a global company, offering test systems to validate the functionality and reliability of complex IP networks, devices and applications. Earlier in the week Ixia and AT&T announced that the Ixia K2 100 Gigabit Ethernet test solution was implemented in AT&T’s testing of a standard-ready, single-flow, 100GE field trial.

Roundup: SGI Sets Performance Mark, AboveNet

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

SGI Establishes New Performance Record.  SGI announced that the Altix ICE integrated blade cluster is the leading performer in SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation’s) MPI2007 benchmark tests for high performance technical computing. The SGI ICE 8200EX with 2,048 cores of Intel Xeon processors X5560 (2.8GHz), together with SGI InfiniteStorage NAS, was more than 40 times faster than the 64-core, Intel X5482 (3.2GHz) reference cluster in the suite’s SPECmpiL_base2007 test. “The standards-based, industry-leading Altix ICE platform is a core component of sustainable, high performance IT infrastructures, offering a variety of interconnect options that enable users to efficiently scale their applications across thousands of processor cores,” said Christian Tanasecu, vice president of software engineering at SGI. Complete SPEC MPI2007 results can be found here.

AboveNet reports fourth quarter results. AboveNet (ABVT) announced results for the fourth quarter and full year ending December 31, 2009.  Two major items for 2009 were becoming cash flow positive, and for the first time, lit services revenue surpassed dark fiber revenue. “The market for next-generation Wavelength and Ethernet services is in its early stages, opening up attractive growth opportunities for us,” said AboveNet President and CEO Bill LaPerch. “We intend to leverage our capabilities as a focused provider of high-bandwidth solutions to help us achieve industry-leading growth rates over the long-term.” Revenue for the fourth quarter was $94.3 million and $360.1 million for 2009. Cash and equivalent balances at the end of 2009 totaled $165.3 million, compared to $87.1 million at the end of 2008.

Savvis expands cloud in Asia-Pacific. Savvis (SVVS) announced Tuesday that Savvis Symphony Open cloud infrastructure services will be available to clients in Asia-Pacific through its Singapore data center later this month. Citing high client demand for cloud infrastructure services, this will be the second cloud solution offered from their Singapore facility. “New and existing clients can now benefit from Savvis Symphony Open’s on-demand, dynamically scalable resources allowing them to control their IT costs and tailor their usage and set-up to meet their individual needs,” said Soon Cheng, managing director for Savvis Asia Pacific.

Roundup: Telx, SoftLayer, 100GB Trial, GlobeNet

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

Telx selected by SoftLayer as partner. Colocation provider Telx announced that they have been selected as a connectivity partner by SoftLayer.  SoftLayer has a presence in Atlanta and New York City Telx facilities.  Telx interconnection services provide the security, reduced latency and minimal number of hops on the network for SoftLayer. “Today, our customers can directly tap into our infrastructure on a guaranteed, high-speed connection without going over the public Internet,” said George Karidis, chief strategy officer at SoftLayer. “The Telx solution provides high redundancy, security, and limitless scalability,”

Next-Generation 100G field trial. Verizon (VZ), Juniper Networks (JNPR), NEC Corporation of America, and Finisar Corp. (FNSR) announced the successful completion of the first real traffic 100 gigabits per second (100G) optical fiber transmission field trial applying standards-based optics end-to-end and using the latest in 100G native router interfaces.  The field trial took place in the north Dallas area, over a 1,520 kilometer optically amplified section of the Verizon network.  Stefan Dyckerhoff, executive vice president and general manager, infrastructure products group at Juniper noted that “trends such as cloud computing, data center consolidation and virtualization are making the need for 100G more acute and urgent than ever before.”  The demonstration included live video traffic, through a 100G interface on the Juniper T1600 Core Router to the NEC SpectraWave DWDM system.  Between the router and the DWDM system was an IEEE standard-compliant 100GBASE-LR4 client interface, using 100G CFP optical transceiver modules from Finisar Corp.

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.

Roundup: Novell, Cray, Microsoft, Force10

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

Novell receives $2 billion bid. Shares of Novell Inc. (NOVL) soared recently as shareholder Elliott Associates LP made an unsolicited $2 billion takeover offer, signaling that investors expect a bidding war.  Elliott is a private equity firm that currently has an 8.5% stake in Novell. Last week the company reported its sixth straight quarterly sales decline, and CFO Dana Russell predicted “muted” revenue in the current quarter. Elliott has more than $16 billion under management and has been known to make investments to “crush the cash out of them and then leave the picked over bones for someone else to pick up,” according to the Cyber Cynic blog at Computerworld. Other rumored bidders for Novell include IBM, Microsoft, HP and Cisco.

Cray and Microsoft collaborate on cloud computing. Supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (CRAY) announced its custom engineering group will work with Microsoft Research to explore and prototype a system that could provide a glimpse into the future of cloud computing infrastructure.  With a focus on the data center, Cray hopes to design a supercomputing architecture that dramatically lowers the total cost of ownership and reduce facility, power and hardware costs.  “Our goal is to work with partners such as Cray to accelerate changes in system designs for next-generation data centers,” said Christian Belady, Director of Hardware Architecture in Microsoft’s Extreme Computing Group. Belady discussed his move into Microsoft’s Research group in a blog post Wednesday.

Force10 Networks files for IPO. Force10 Networks filed for a $144 million Initial Public Offering this week, to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FTEN.  Force10 recently claimed the highest port density in 10G Ethernet switching.  In April 2009 Force10 merged with Turin Networks.  The amount of shares and the price of the IPO were not disclosed.

Roundup: Fujitsu’s New Super, Force 10, Ciena

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

Fujitsu & Japan AEA Unveil Supercomputer. On Monday Fujitsu announced that it has  completed joint development of a new supercomputer system with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). Clocking in at 186.1 teraflops, the new system is the fastest supercomputer in Japan, based on the November 2009 Top500list of supercomputers.  One of the systems in the supercomputer is a large-scale parallel computation unit, which uses Fujitsu’s latest blade server, PRIMERGY BX900, in a configuration of 2,134 nodes (4,268 CPUs, 17,072 cores) connected using the latest InfiniBand QDR high-speed interconnect technology.  Using the LINPACK benchmark, the new system would place first among the Japanese entries posted and 19th in the world on the TOP500 list.

Force 10 Networks Achieves Highest Port Density. Force10 Networks announced the availability of a new 40-port line-card for its ExaScale virtualized core switch/router platform, setting a new benchmark for 10 Gigabit Ethernet port density. The new 40-port line card increases density on the ExaScale E1200 virtualized core switch/router to 560 10 GigE ports in a single half-rack chassis.  Parks Fields, manager at Scalable Systems Engineering at Los Alamos National Lab noted “high performance computing environments call for density, performance and reliability in the smallest energy-efficient footprint possible.  Force10 Networks continues to offer leadership in this area.”  Pricing for the 40-port 10 GigE line-card starts at $97,500 and will begin shipping in the second quarter of 2010.

Ciena Powers AboveNet’s Ultra-Low Latency Network.Network specialist Ciena announced that AboveNet has deployed Ciena’s 2RS module for the CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform as a part of the service provider’s recently introduced Agility Guarantee program, which provides industry-leading ultra-low latency service level agreements. The Agility Guarantee program allows AboveNet to offer a network solution that delivers round-trip latencies as low as sub-1 millisecond for some services.  “AboveNet is a long-time customer that has chosen Ciena to be among the select few vendors to provide equipment to support its network,” said Mike Aquino, Senior Vice President of Global Field Operations at Ciena. “The deployment of Ciena’s 2RS modules on AboveNet’s base of CN 4200s underscores the ongoing value of that network investment and our mutual goal of enabling high-capacity, low-latency connectivity for end customers.”

Roundup: ReliaCloud, enStratus, HP, Intel

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

ReliaCloud Offers enStratus Management Platform.  Cloud provider ReliaCloud announced a new partnership with enStratus, a national cloud management platform that delivers governance for enterprise applications in the cloud. ReliaCloud is a product of Minnesota managed hosting and data center provider VISI. ReliaCloud customers now have access to a suite of software management tools from enStratus that are also used with Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and Microsoft Azure platforms. ”The highly regarded management platform and experience in cloud security and availability management at enStratus is invaluable to regulation-heavy businesses or enterprises that are concerned about reliability and business continuity,” said Jason Baker, chief technology officer for ReliaCloud.  ReliaCloud and enStratus will be hosting the Minneapolis CloudCamp on Tuesday, March 2nd.

HP on Data Center Efficiency. Last week Hewlett Packard announced a range of services for small to midsize data center operations that help improve efficiency, increase flexibility of IT budgets and ensure service-level commitments.  HP services aim to simplify the management of multivendor environments and maximize return on investment.  Ron Silliman, Gartner principal research analyst said “organizations should take a whole-environment approach to operational efficiency to reduce risk and drive better business outcomes.” ZDNet reported that HP will launch its Singapore research hub, focusing on data center architecture, cloud computing services and sustainable processes and practices. Prith Banerjee, director of HP labs said that the Singapore site will aim to “lower total cost of ownership by 75 percent in data centers and halve the carbon footprint.”  The lab will support cloud research at other HP Labs sites that will then funnel into Cirious, HP’s enterprise cloud software platform.