Network News: CenturyLink, Tata, Ciena, ADTRAN

Here’s our review of some of today’s noteworthy links for the networking sector of the data center industry:

CenturyLink wins $223 Million Networx Government order. CenturyLink (CTL) announced it recently won a $233 million task order to provide primary managed data networking services over the next five years to the Social Security Administration (SSA) under the Networx Universal contract. As a primary service provider, CenturyLink will help the SSA set the pace for the transition between providers, and provide network infrastructure for data, voice and video services. In this capacity, CenturyLink will serve all SSA data centers, regional offices, program service centers, remote operations communications centers and more than 1,500 field office locations around the world. "SSA touches the life of every American from birth forward. They serve a vital role in the security of Americans through all phases of life," said Diana Gowen, CenturyLink senior vice president and general manager, who oversees solutions for federal, state and local government customers. "With the increased pace at which baby boomers are filing for retirement benefits, as well as unprecedented increases in the demand for all the services SSA offers to citizens, the challenges facing SSA are daunting. We are prepared to expand on this partnership with SSA to ensure flawless delivery of these vital citizen services, and we look forward to working with them to provide the data networking services they need to serve the American public."

Tata completes an around the world network ring. Indian networking firm Tata Communications announces the completion of the world's first around-the-world fiber optic cable network with the official launch of its Tata Global Network – Eurasia (TGN-EA) cable. The cable connects Europe to India, through Egypt, bringing increased capacity, resilience and enhanced communications links to not only the Middle East, but to the rest of the world. The completion of the final TGN-EA link follows significant investment from Tata Communications in its global network in recent years. Tata Communications owns and operates a large sub-sea cable network which reaches countries representing 99.7 per cent of the world's GDP. "Our customers, whether a European auto-manufacturer, an Asian hotel group or a large U.S. financial services firm, need to compete in global markets and are demanding faster and more reliable worldwide connectivity," said Vinod Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Communications.  "Companies and carriers in developed and emerging economies require the confidence and security delivered by a wholly-owned network such as Tata Communications' TGN."

Sprint upgrades network with Ciena. Ciena (CIEN) announced that Sprint is upgrading its optical backbone network with Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform. The upgrades will enable Sprint to support growing demand for wireless and wireline high-speed data service offerings, reaching core network speeds of 40G and 100G today with the ability to scale to 400G and beyond in the future. Sprint and Ciena are planning a 400G field trial for early 2013. The trial will enable Sprint to check the feasibility of using 400 Gbps channels on systems already carrying live customer traffic. “Sprint, like Ciena, has viewed the use of advanced fiber optics as a strategic resource from its early days; however the conversation around end-user benefits has evolved from the sound quality of voice networks to the need for massively scalable data service networks," said Philippe Morin, Senior VP of Global Field Operations at Ciena. "Today’s service provider needs an unconstrained network to support the exponential data growth, while leveraging existing hardware and fiber investments. Ciena’s coherent optical technology provides Sprint with the resources to bridge this gap, while enabling a seamless path to deliver next-generation data services.”

ADTRAN announces cloud-ready BYOD Suite.  ADTRAN (ADTN) announced its BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Network Suite to enable any business, whether it’s a small-to-medium business, educational institution or large enterprise, to handle the network demand created by the proliferation of Wi-Fi enabled devices. Deployed as an integrated solution or in a “Blend-and-Extend” approach, the suite addresses key issues such as a highly scalable wireless LAN, unified management of wired and wireless users, enhanced wired LAN infrastructure and network security at the edge. “Part of the challenge enterprise IT managers face is how to scale their wireless and wired IT infrastructure to handle the increase in bandwidth and broad range of service support a BYOD environment requires when they are forced to manage their network resources as two disparate networks,” said Ted Cole, vice president of channel sales for ADTRAN. “What makes ADTRAN’s integrated BYOD Network Suite so attractive is that it bridges the gap between wireless and wired access to create one seamless network that is easily managed, maintained and expanded – an advantage that cannot be delivered by any other vendor in the market today.”