Networking News: Carney Named CEO at Brocade

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines from the network sector:

Brocade names Lloyd Carney as CEO.  On Monday Brocade (BRCD) announced that its Board of Directors unanimously appointed networking industry veteran Lloyd Carney to the position of chief executive officer effective immediately. With nearly 30 years in the high-tech industry, Carney has held a number of senior leadership positions at various networking and semiconductor companies. Most recently he was CEO and board member at Xsigo Systems. "I believe Brocade is poised to leverage its heritage of strong innovation and significantly disrupt the status quo in the data-networking industry," saidCarney. "There are profound changes happening across high tech today and Brocade has a great opportunity to lead that transformation through differentiated products and customer focus. Success here will accelerate profitable growth for our company and drive further value for our shareholders. I am very excited and honored to lead Brocade at this time." Carney succeeds Michael Klayko, who resigned in August after serving as served as CEO since 2005.

Level 3 selected by NATO.  Level 3 Communications (LVLT) announced that it has signed a contract with the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) to install and maintain an IP Virtual Private Network  to be used by the NATO-Russia Council Cooperative Airspace Initiative (NRC CAI). The aim of this initiative is to enhance airspace transparency between NATO and Russia, identify any suspicious aircraft activities, and provide early warnings through the monitoring of NATO-Russian airspace. As part of this project, the Level 3 network will connect a range of NATO monitoring facilities and enable real-time display and observation of commercial airspace activities. "The Level 3 network and our IP VPN services are designed for performance, security and productivity, and we are pleased to be selected by NATO to provide IP VPN-based infrastructure between the key locations of the CAI network," said James Heard, Level 3 regional president of EMEA.. "With our services, NATO will be able to exchange air traffic information and direct voice coordination with the security and reliability they need."

Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance enter billion dollar long term contract - India's Reliance Communications and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), have announced an end-to-end network managed services contract aimed at delivering superior customer experience in Eastern and Southern India up to 2020. Extending an existing relationship between the two companies for over $1 billion, it will deliver world-class, seamless voice and data communications services to Reliance customers. Alcatel-Lucent will bring independent wireless and wireline teams together into a single network management organization, allowing Reliance Communications to strengthen its focus on growing its business. “We are happy to announce our new partnership with Alcatel-Lucent, which is a transformative leap from the limited scope and vision of traditional outsourcing of services," said Gurdeep Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Wireless Business at Reliance Communications. "This will enable Reliance Communications to take the lead in offering next generation telecom solutions that will meet and exceed the expectations of our customers, and help them to transit from voice-led usage to a seamless data experience across multiple devices and platforms.”

Comcast selects Ciena for 100G.  Ciena (CIEN) announced that it is providing next-generation 100G coherent optical technology to Comcast Cable for use in its core network. The deployment at Comcast will enable growing customer demand for  high-capacity services and applications, such as HD video, mobile data and cloud computing. It also will help Comcast more easily evolve its network and create energy efficiencies by reducing the number of network components, including optical regenerators required in its network. Ciena is also providing Comcast with network management system capabilities and a range of professional services via its Ciena Specialist Services portfolio. “Adding Ciena’s WaveLogic 3 to our already installed 6500 Packet-Optical Platforms lets us leverage that investment to deliver more content, faster Internet speeds and enable new cloud-based applications for our customers, while also providing future core 400G scalability,” said Kevin McElearney, senior vice president, Network Engineering, at Comcast Cable. “As we scale beyond our 100G network, Ciena’s coherent optical technology will help us to deliver on our ongoing commitment to maintain and operate a high-performance, feature-rich advanced network.”