Network News: Level 3, Ciena, Aquantia

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

Level 3 selected by Voxility.  Level 3 Communications (LVLT) announced its high-speed IP service was selected under a multiyear contract with European-based content provider Voxility to provide high-quality upstream IP connectivity. Level 3 will also provide both an ability to scale globally and international capacity in key markets that enable customer growth. "Voxility is going through a period of sustained, rapid growth, so the need to have access to a global network which can support this is paramount. As more and more services move to the cloud in this way, the importance of the supporting infrastructure will continue to grow," said James Heard, Level 3 regional president of EMEA. "Not only can the Level 3 network scale in support of this growth, it can also offer high connectivity and reliable service delivery. This helps customers such as Voxility differentiate their own offering to customers."

Ciena selected by Perseus Telecom.  Ciena (CIEN) announced that Perseus Telecom, a global provider of connectivity, has selected Ciena’s equipment, software and services to build an end-to-end, ultra low-latency network between the U.S. and Europe. The ultra low-latency network will connect New York City, New Jersey, London and Frankfurt, as well as a trans-Atlantic submarine connection. Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical transport equipment will provide the trans-Atlantic submarine portion of the network. To support its network build, Perseus has deployed Ciena’s 4200, 5150 Service Aggregation Switch and 6500 Packet Optical platform. “In working on our new QuanTA network, Ciena has been much more of a partner than just an equipment vendor as they worked with the Perseus research & design team in turning our vision and technical requirements into reality," said Andrew Kusminsky, Chief Operating Officer at Perseus Telecom. "Our ability to build and tune a network to exacting ultra low-latency requirements gives us a competitive advantage. Only Ciena could combine the advanced optical and Ethernet portfolio across both terrestrial and submarine applications with a specific end-to-end design around our ultra low-latency needs.”

Aquantia raises $35 million. Ethernet connectivity solutions provider Aquantia announced it has completed a Series F financing of $35 million. Funding was led by new investor RUSNANO. Aquantia launched its 40nm 10GBASE-T PHY chipset in 2011, as a critical ingredient to emerging LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) platforms for new data center servers and switches. “This past year has been tremendously gratifying, as it has been the culmination of hard work, innovation and powerful partnering in the 10GE and LOM space,” said Aquantia’s president and CEO Faraj Aalaei. “We are truly ecstatic about the takeoff of Intel’s Romley platform and what it means as a watershed event for the near-term ubiquity of 10GBASE-T in the data center as well as future opportunity across the Enterprise space. This is what we have been working toward, and our funding partners in this and all previous rounds have positioned us for tremendous delivery success."