Network News: CENX, Level 3, Ciena

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

CENX gets $9.5 million investment.  CENX announced hat Verizon Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, and Mesirow Financial Private Equity have led a $9.5m investment in CENX. These funds will be used to meet the requirements and opportunities associated with its growing list of tier-1 wireless and wireline operator customers through increased system, engineering and support resources. “The telecommunications industry is in a massive transition from TDM to Ethernet/IP-based networks and services,” said Daniel Keoppel, Executive Director at Verizon Ventures. “This raises significant operational opportunities to be served by new Ethernet/IP-centric telecom systems, processes and services.” "CENX has developed an industry-leading solution to address operational aspects of the transition to Ethernet/IP,” said Tom Galuhn, President of Mesirow Financial Private Equity, Inc. “With its Ethernet expertise and innovative systems, CENX could deliver 25% or more annual opex savings for Ethernet mobile backhaul and enterprise off-net Ethernet access.”

Level 3 selected by ScaleMatrix.  Level 3 Communications (LVLT) announced that it has been selected by ScaleMatrix, a colocation, private cloud hosting and managed services provider, to provide secure, reliable connectivity between two of its primary data center facilities in San Diego, California, and Katy, Texas. The connection will be used to support critical applications and replication of sensitive customer information for their healthcare and financial services customers. The company also will use Level 3 services to connect their end customers to the data center facilities and to the public Internet. "Level 3's network delivers the efficiency, security and reliability we need to support our customers' requirements," said Chris Orlando, chief sales and marketing officer at ScaleMatrix. "Our customers need a hardened, secure IP network and Level 3 is clearly well positioned to provide the caliber of service and security they require to ensure the safekeeping of their sensitive data and applications."

Ciena selected for Trans-Pacific 100G submarine network. Ciena (CIEN) announced that the Japan-U.S. Cable Network is upgrading its trans-Pacific submarine network, which spans close to 23,000 kilometers from the U.S. to Japan, with Ciena’s coherent 100 Gigabits per second (100G) technology. Expected to be in service in early 2013, the upgraded network will bring five terabits per second of additional capacity to a crucial global network route connecting North America and northern Asia. The Japan-US Cable is made up of more than 35 consortium members, including global service providers such as Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink, KDDI, NTT, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, and Softbank Telecom. “As bandwidth consumption accelerates worldwide, submarine networks have emerged as a potential bottleneck in global networks due to the cost, challenge, and financial risks of deploying new submarine cables," said Anthony McLachlan, VIce President and General Manager, Asia Pacific at Ciena. "Ciena’s WaveLogic 3 coherent technology has completely changed the economics of bandwidth and time-to-market for submarine network operators, enabling dramatic increases in capacity over existing cable systems.”