Network News: CenturyLink, Cisco, Juniper

CenturyLink and Cisco help power ultra-fast 100 Gbps networks, and Juniper and Thursby Software partner for  Government secure authentication solution.

CenturyLink provides 100 Gbps to Colorado customer

CenturyLink (CTL) announced that it has launched its first dedicated 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) data networking circuit for a CenturyLink business customer through a direct connection to the company's recently upgraded 100 Gbps nationwide network. Colorado company DigitalGlobe will use CenturyLink's 100 Gbps Optical Wavelength Service to launch a new product allowing its customers direct access to satellite mapping data. The 100 Gbps circuit allows DigitalGlobe to transfer massive amounts of data at lightning speed from its headquarters in Longmont, Colorado, to its offsite data center, where its customers will be able to access the data remotely. "This is a significant day for the industry and for the state of Colorado. CenturyLink's deployment of commercial 100 Gbps service gives businesses bandwidth for the big data applications they need to excel," said Scott Russell, vice president and general manager for CenturyLink in Denver and Northern Colorado. "Our speed and capacity upgrades provide DigitalGlobe with an end-to-end optical network that improves efficiency and productivity. Simply put, 100 Gbps is the best the industry can offer."

Russian Telecom launches Cisco 100G Network

Cisco announced that Russian TransTelecom (TTK) has launched its 100G Ultra Long Haul dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) network in the St. Petersburg-Moscow and Moscow-Chelyabinsk-Yekaterinburg segments. The coherent optical technology increases the backbone network capacity from 40 to 100 gigabits per second per optical carrier. Launch of the segments with a total length of over 3000 km completes the first stage of the company’s project to create a national 100G ultra long haul DWDM network. Cisco optical solutions have made it possible to create the world's  longest unregenerate data transfer segment in land line networks in commercial operation – 2600 km, from Moscow to Yekaterinburg. “The ULH DWDM technology is currently the most advanced in the world," said Artem Kudryavtsev, president of TTK. "It will increase the total throughput of TTK’s launched network sections by six times. Its implementation will guarantee new connection and data transfer quality for our corporate customers. TTK’s private customers can count on consistently high Internet connection speed even with rapid subscriber growth and a steady increase in TransTeleCom’s subscriber traffic. We are currently implementing the technology in other network segments”.

Juniper and Thursby Software partner 

Juniper Networks (JNPR)  announced it has partnered with Thursby Software to enable government agencies to use smartcard authentication on Apple iOS devices. Through the integration, Juniper's Junos Pulse Secure Access Service and Thursby's PKard software and card reader hardware, government employees can now use the same smartcards in use today for all levels of authentication -- both physical and online -- to connect to private or carrier mobile networks through their iPhones or iPads. Use of smartcards as a means of authentication has been mandated and incorporated into service by many different government agencies and ministries around the world. The latest technology partnership allows Juniper to address these same needs for other nations' government agencies and ministries. "Providing a strong authentication option for government employees to securely connect to networks with their smartphones is another example of Juniper's leadership in network innovation," said Brian Roach, vice president, federal at Juniper Networks. "Juniper has provided secure, remote connectivity via mobile devices to enterprises for years, and now with Thursby, government employees have the option to securely connect to networks from their iOS device of choice."