NETWORKS EUROPE The magazine for network and data centre professionals November/December 2022 DEEP TROUBLE FOR DEEP TRAFFIC INSPECTION FIVE MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT WIFI 7 HOW DATA CENTRES CAN REDUCE ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION DEEP PACKET INSPECTION (DPI) IS IRRELEVANT TODAY. WE LOOK AT WHY TRAFFIC DECRYPTION DOESN’T WORK A NEW GENERATION DEBUTS WITH PROMISES OF FASTER SPEEDS AND ENHANCED RELIABILITY NOW IS THE TIME TO REVIEW THE MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION Can We Get to Net Zero by 2030? Network Performance Impact on Cabling Infrastructure The State of Cybersecurity in the UK IN THIS ISSUE:Energy Efficiency 05 Foreword 06 News The news desk highlights some of the latest industry stories. 16 Can We Get to Net Zero by 2030? In 2021, 25 operators and 17 associations in the data centre industry pledged to be net zero by 2030, when they signed up to The European Data centre Association’s Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (CNDCP). Steve Lorimer, Group Technical Director, Keysource. 18 How Data Centres can Reduce Electricity Consumption The escalating cost of power is headline news. According to the Office of National Statistics, in the UK, electricity prices rose by 54.0% and gas prices by 95.7% in the 12 months to August 2022. For data centres, particularly those operating inefficient legacy UPS systems, now is the time to review the management of technology and see what changes can be made to reduce power consumption. Louis McGarry, Sales and Marketing Director at Centiel tells us more. 22 Improving Energy Efficiency to Achieve Sustainability David Wilson, Global Offering Director for Telecom And Solar Energy Solutions at Vertiv looks at improving energy efficiency to achieve sustainability – the telecom operators’ journey. 26 Digital Circuit Breakers Power Up Data Centre Energy Management Sami Raitakoski, Group VP, ABB, reminds us how the evolution of the humble circuit breaker is supporting energy management. 28 Tackling Sustainability Myths and Celebrating Progress The data centre industry has long been committed to ensuring sustainability and efficiency, with providers working hard to use resources including power and water responsibly. David Watkins, Solutions Director, Virtus Data Centres discusses. 32 What Can Be Done About the Data Centre Energy Drain? Data centre operations require a safe, efficient, dependable and sustainable power supply. Matthew Margetts of Smarter Technologies, says the technology necessitating data centre growth is fortunately making them more energy efficient. CONTENTS www.networkseuropemagazine.com 02 182840 The views expressed in the articles and technical papers are those of the authors and are not endorsed by the publishers. The author and publisher, and its officers and employees, do not accept any liability for any errors that may have occurred, or for any reliance on their contents. All trademarks and brandnames are respected within our publication. However, the publishers accept no responsibility for any inadvertent misuse that may occur. This publication is protected by copyright © 2022 and accordingly must not be reproduced in any medium. All rights reserved. Networks Europe stories, news, know-how? Please submit to editor@networkseuropemagazine.com including high resolution (300dpi+ CMYK) images. Surrey Technology Centre Surrey Research Park 40 Occam Road Guildford, GU2 7YG www.networkseuropemagazine.com Published by: Abacus Communications Limited Publisher: Greg Ward Editor: Laura Vallis6476 Connectivity and Cables Edge Data Centres Cybersecurity Digital Transformation Data Centre Frontiers 36 Could IoT and Reliable Mobile Coverage be the Antidote to Climate Change? Stuart Waine, Director of Research & Development of Spry Fox Networks explains the key role of seamless mobile connectivity in climate change initiatives and carbon reduction strategies. 40 Network Performance Impact on Cabling Infrastructure Almost all new devices and applications require more and more bandwidth. Chris Dyke, Sales Director UK & Ireland, Allied Telesis discusses. 44 Five Common Myths and Misconceptions About WiFi 7 WiFi 7 is based upon the IEEE 802.11be draft amendment, Extremely High Throughput (EHT) and is coming soon to the marketplace. Markus Nispel, Chief Technology Officer, EMEA, Extreme Networks explains. 48 The Criticality of Choosing the Right System Integrator Partner There are three primary drivers behind the Cloud arms race: IT operational innovation, business process innovation, and market innovation. Eamonn O’Neill, CTO at Lemongrass Consulting finds out more. 52 Why Edge Data Centre Design Should be Different from Everything that Came Before Emerging markets such as edge computing present many exciting opportunities but also significant technical and engineering challenges. Ed Ansett, Chairman and Founder, i3 Solutions Group investigates. 54 Hybrid Data Centre: Key Considerations for Enterprises The hybrid data centre is not just one building but rather a platform of smart, networked/interconnected buildings with on-ramps to public and private cloud operators, and on-premise equipment across one or more geographies. Caroline Caldarera, Assistant Vice President - Enterprise Sales, CyrusOne tells us more. www.networkseuropemagazine.com 44 www.networkseuropemagazine.com CONTENTS 03 56 Getting The Data Lifecycle Right to Accelerate Digital Transformation Strategies Businesses have started to become more data-driven and embrace digital transformation strategies. Peter Ruffley, CEO, Zizo says these often become wasted endeavours as organisations are not realising what they have been missing from the start: the right data. 60 IoT Interoperability Fabien Jordan, CEO, Astrocast looks at the emergence of Satellite IoT (SatIoT) and why, to succeed, Systems Integrators should explore a proprietary data protocol, specifically developed to optimise every aspect of the SatIoT component. 64 The State of Cybersecurity According to the ‘The state of cyber security in the UK’ report by iomart, in partnership with Oxford Economics, UK organisations now face an average of 24 cyber security threats per year. 68 Deep Trouble for Traffic Inspection Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is growing increasingly irrelevant in the face of modern security and network performance demands. Carlos Ferro, SVP and General Manager International Region, LiveAction takes a look at why traffic decryption doesn’t work. 72 Facing the Hidden Threats David Hall, VP Power Systems at Schneider Electric looks at the increasing importance of cybersecurity for utilities. 76 Africa – New Data Centre Frontier? The growth of the global data centre industry shows no signs of slowing down. Stavros Spyropoulos, Business Development Manager, Subzero Engineering examines the case for Africa. 80 Movers and Shakers We take a quick look at some of the industry's movers and shakers, including new appointments, promotions and personnel changes.THE UK'S LEADING INDEPENDENT SHOW FOR PROJECTS, PROGRAMMES, PROCESS AND RESOURCE QEII Centre in Westminster, London | 27th April 2023 VISITOR REGISTRATION NOW OPEN With leading exhibiting organisations, and FREE inspiring and high quality presentations to choose from, this unmissable event provides an unparalleled opportunity to learn from leading industry experts. The show attracts exhibitors from across the project management domain. It is a one stop shop for the latest developments in portfolio, programme and project management - ideal for practitioners to keep up to date with their profession. Admission to the Project Challenge Spring Show 2023 is FREE for delegates. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER TO EXHIBITTO SPONSORTO SPEAK www.project-challenge.com/ PLATINUM SPONSOR OUR PARTNERSIt's behind you!!! Another year is almost over and while it's tempting to look back with rose-tinted glasses over what we've achieved (on a personal and/or business level), it's important to review what didn't go to plan and how to prepare for next year. In this issue, we cover a number of critical issues for the data centre and networks industry. Our first section covers energy efficiency, the management and improvement of, how to reduce consumption and the sustainability measures designed to help create a greener future for us all. Our lead feature in this section asks if we can actually get to net zero by 2030 – a target pledged by the European Data Centre Association's Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (CNDCP). Other sections in this November/December issue look at network connectivity, cable infrastructure, WiFi 7 and the criticality of choosing the right systems integrator for your organisation's needs. We revisit edge and hybrid data centres and how they're far from a standard build. One of the big subjects requiring substantial consideration going forward is cybersecurity. We have three articles on the state of cybersecurity in the UK, how to face the hidden threats and why deep packet inspection is increasingly irrelevant in the face of network performance demands. But it's not all about looking behind you - I knew I'd get a panto comment in there somewhere! We do need to look at the new data centre frontier. Our final article in the final issue of 2022 looks at the growth of the global data centre. We examine the case for Africa and how that may be the answer to continue the industry's digital momentum. The January/February issue of Networks Europe will cover the data centre trends of tomorrow, racks and enclosures, and colocation. Please make sure you submit your articles before the editorial deadline of 16th January. The team at Networks Europe magazine wishes all our readers, advertisers and contributors a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope you manage to take some time out over the holiday period with loved ones and we look forward to working with you in 2023. Laura Vallis Editor Networks Europe magazine FOREWORD www.networkseuropemagazine.comwww.networkseuropemagazine.com 05Pre-empting Power Procurement CBRE’s European Data Centres Q2 report indicates that colocation vacancy across the region sank to a new low in Q2, falling to 15% from 17% in Q1. This is despite record-levels of supply, with a further 103MW set to come online in Q3 and Q4 in Frankfurt alone. According to CBRE, the vast majority of this supply is already accounted for, suggesting the sector is becoming steadily more forward-thinking in its approach to planning. With this in mind, Aggreko is warning that a similar approach should be taken to power procurement in order to avoid energy shortages later down the line. Billy Durie, Global Sector Head for Data Centres at Aggreko Northern Europe, said: “The severity of the vacancy issue illustrates why priorities are shifting across the continent, with the fact Frankfurt’s vacancy rate is set to drop to 6% by the end of 2022 being particularly eye-opening. Taking this into account, it is understandable that data centre operators are signing pre-lets increasingly far in advance in order to secure a place in the market. “Around 113MW of take-up has already been recorded in Q2, while CBRE forecasts that 178MW of pre-lets signed in previous years will be realised in 2022. Taking this into account, it follows that operators should take a similarly proactive approach to securing their power supply, in order to circumvent any issues that could arise once supply is granted.” This development follows the introduction of a number of restrictions on data centre construction and power procurement across Europe. In Frankfurt, the city council has issued a draft development plan that could hamper data centre development in a number of key areas. In the wider FLAP-D market, EirGrid has placed 30 applications for potential data centres on hold in Dublin, while power-hungry data centres have even been cited as the cause for a potential ban on new housing developments in West London. Aggreko’s recent report The Power Struggle – Data Centres outlines the long-term issues surrounding energy procurement in full. The report also highlights the potential for flexible energy models such as Hired Energy as a Service (HEaaS) to alleviate these challenges, allowing facilities to meet their energy demands through on-site power generation. Durie concluded: “The rapid evolution of the European data centre market necessitates a forward-thinking approach, in regards to securing both colocation supply and energy supply. “Here, the adoption of flexible energy models such as HEaaS will allow data centres to avoid energy shortages once their pre-lets come online, helping to secure their place in a market that grows more competitive each year.” Iceotope has announced a new study with Meta confirming the practicality, efficiency and effectiveness of chassis-level liquid cooling technology to meet the demands of high-density storage disks increasingly being deployed and utilised by hyperscale data centre service providers. The recently published study with Meta suggests the advantages of improved thermal management, reduced vibration, and equalised temperature across the JBOD, which leads directly to lower failure rates and costs for data centre operators. The hard drive systems supplied in a rack form factor in chassis drawers are an ideal fit for precision immersion cooling technology. Neil Edmunds, Director of Innovation, Iceotope, said: “As demand for data storage continues to escalate, so will the solutions needed by hyperscale data centre providers to efficiently cool the equipment. The study demonstrated that liquid cooling for high-density storage successfully cools the drives at a lower, more consistent temperature for fewer drive failures, lower TCO and improved ESG compliance.” According to Seagate, cloud data centres choose mass-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) to store 90% of their exabytes. Typically found in a 3.5in form factor, HDDs are a tried and tested technology which continues to offer data centre operators cost- effective storage at scale. Current top-of-the-range units provide 20TB capacity, but this is expected to reach >120TB by the end of the decade. More data storage means more spinning disks, higher-speed motors, and more actuators – all of which translates into more power being used. As disks go up in power, so does the amount of heat they produce. The introduction of helium into hard drive enclosures over the last decade has not only improved disk performance with less drag but, with the units now sealed, the practicality of using liquid cooling solutions at HDD level has been opened. The study showcases an air-cooled, high-density storage system re-engineered to utilise single-phase immersion cooling. The standard commercial storage system consisted of seventy-two hard drives, two single socket nodes, two SAS expander cards, NIC, and a power distribution board in a 4OU form factor. The hard drives were hermetically sealed, and helium filled. The liquid cooling system tested was an Iceotope precision immersion liquid cooling system - the air-cooled version was modified with the addition of a dedicated dielectric loop connected to a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger and pump. Meta proceeded to measure temperature variation across the hard drives and cooling pump power in the air-cooled and liquid-cooled systems. The results were conclusive and the study successfully demonstrated precision immersion cooling was a more efficient means of cooling the HDD racks. While precision immersion is found to be a superior alternative to air-cooling high- density disk arrays, other forms of liquid cooling including cold plates, tank immersion or two-phase immersion, don’t preserve the operational benefits such as HDD density, user access for serviceability and ability to hot swap drives to the same degree. Iceotope Study Reveals Precision Immersion Liquid Cooling Efficiency www.networkseuropemagazine.com NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 06Converged Contact: Integrating Communications to Improve Collaboration and Customer Experience In any walk of life, communication is critical and indeed it is often said that many problems can be avoided, or at least solved, by good communication. This is especially true in customer-facing businesses where collaboration is critical in delivering services and, meeting and exceeding customer expectations. But how can effective collaboration, excellent technology – and the strong communication needed to deliver it – be assured in businesses offering a home-based or hybrid working model, where members of individual teams may rarely if ever, meet face to face? It is a challenge that faces many businesses keen to offer flexible working arrangements to attract and retain high-calibre employees. As digitalisation gathers pace across all types of businesses, the communication tools we use continue to expand in number, complexity and capability. But like any tool, they are only as effective as the manner in which they are used – making simplicity and accessibility crucial. Having to use different solutions for landline, mobile phones, video calls, chat, email, SMS messages, social media and so on, can understandably be overwhelming for some individuals. This means the potential of these tools may not be fully harnessed, and business efficiency and customer service may be negatively impacted as a result. But none of these can be neglected if the desired flexibility and personalised service are to be offered to customers who may have different preferences in the way they communicate. And the challenge is exacerbated by the fact that employees who need to use all these tools could be in disparate locations – some in the office, some at home and some in a different country. The challenge is now being addressed through the concept of converged contact solutions. The goal of converged contact is to remove digital and physical barriers, ensuring truly meaningful human connections, whether internal within a business or with external stakeholders. Enreach’s converged contact solutions bring together all of these communication tools into a simple-to-use, user-controlled, flexible environment which can be accessed from anywhere. The ethos behind converged contact is that it is fundamentally focused around people, with technology as an enabler to those key interactions, rather than an end in itself. Converged contact seeks to make the experience of collaborative working just as powerful and rewarding as it would be if everyone were in the same room. It manages identities across locations, devices, networks and applications. Individuals can set their preferences once to cover all communication tools. For example, if someone is in an internal online meeting, any calls to their desk phone or mobile automatically go to voicemail – or, if it is a customer call, it can be diverted to a colleague who is available. The customer is dealt with rapidly and efficiently, but the colleague is not unnecessarily disturbed and can focus on the meeting for as long as is needed. A further advantage is that conversations can be started via one medium and transferred to another that is more suitable – for example, an online chat moving to a voice call. Customer details immediately come up on-screen and the conversation is captured into a central portal so colleagues can access it later when the same customer gets in contact again. This is key when building a long-term picture of individual customer behaviours and requests, allowing the team to respond appropriately without having to disturb the individual who dealt with that customer previously as the customer history information is readily available. Duncan Ward, CEO at Enreach UK, said, "We have been supporting SME businesses around the UK with converged contact solutions. From broadband to cloud services and everything in between, Enreach products and services have seamlessly integrated into a streamlined platform available from anywhere. "When it came to communication solutions, we discovered that customers needed functionality and stability. Businesses lacked confidence in their communication strategy, which meant that their team collaboration and customer experience was suffering as a result.” NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.comwww.networkseuropemagazine.com 07 metatalent.ai Joins the Global Reskill and Upskill Revolution metatalent.ai, an AI-powered talent marketplace for the future of work with its SaaS platform aims to enable intelligent reskilling and upskilling of human capital, transforming learners, educators and employers across the UK and the world. metatalent.ai is enabling the next generation of workforce with customised on-boarding and curated training programmes, aimed at giving access to the employability skills needed to thrive in the evolving global corporate landscape. metatalent.ai’s mission is to create a reskilled and upskilled future workforce, ready for deployment in organisations across the globe. By empowering and upskilling learners with the knowledge and skills they need to guarantee career growth, metatalent. ai helps global workers keep up with the constant changes in technology and the need for employer- recommended skills. As the demographic of young people either just joining or preparing to join, Gen Z and Alpha could make up as much as a quarter of the UK workforce by later this decade, with nine in ten of those jobs requiring digital skills as a minimum, according to the latest report from Intel. The company seeks to empower these emerging generations with the tools they need for the future of work. “Fuelled by the recent pandemic, the quick shift to digital working environments has left a growing need for skilled employees,” said Rehan Haque, founder and CEO of metatalent.ai. “With the global labour market unable to keep up with this demand, businesses are finding it more challenging and more expensive to employ the right talent for the job.”Siemon has announced the European release of its LightVerse high-density fibre optic cabling system that improves fibre network performance, manageability, scalability and flexibility in data centre and LAN environments. Engineered for excellence with a range of sleek enclosures and panels, the fully featured LightVerse system is specifically designed to address today’s fibre installation challenges, while also providing a robust, quality foundation for evolving network requirements. Available in 1U Core and Plus versions and 1U, 2U, or 4U Pro versions ideal to support a wide variety of applications, LightVerse supports up to 96 fibre terminations in a single rack unit for any termination method, including pre-terminated, field terminated and splice terminated fibre deployments. The system’s wide array of transition modules, pass-through adapters, pre-loaded enclosed splice cassettes, and stackable translucent splice trays support unique network needs and multiple connector types, including LC, shuttered LC, MTP, SC, ST and FC. Integrated front and optional rear cable managers, cable strain relief brackets that can be mounted in different locations, and multiple cable entry points facilitate flexible design and installation options with maximum fibre manageability and protection. LightVerse features a front and rear high-contrast sliding tray and integrated label holder, which can be accessed when the door is closed, ensuring easy inspection and administration of critical fibre connections. LightVerse enclosures and panels have been designed with the user in mind and can easily be installed by one person allowing easier and quicker rollouts and moves, adds and changes. Available with ultra low loss connectivity and support for multiple industry recognised polarity schemes, LightVerse modules and adapter plates combine with Siemon’s award-winning line of Plug and Play trunks, traditional LC duplex jumpers, and innovative LC BladePatch fibre jumpers to deliver a complete end-to-end ecosystem that unlocks the potential of high-density fibre installations. While designed to deliver excellent performance and usability, the LightVerse enclosures are also beautiful by design. The moulded scratch-resistant transparent front and rear doors with tamper resistant latching provides a world-class appearance, while keeping your critical connections secure. Siemon Unveils LightVerse High- Density Fibre Optic Cabling System Half of Young Tech Workers have Negative Industry Experiences Businesses must prioritise fostering an inclusive company culture in order to improve the professional experiences of young tech workers from underrepresented groups, new research has found. The data, published in Wiley Edge’s second annual ‘Diversity in Tech’ report, revealed that only 24% of UK tech workers aged 18-24 would describe their experience in the industry so far as ‘entirely positive’, and another 26% as ‘mostly positive’. Around a third (30%) said they have had a mixture of positive and negative experiences, and 11% mostly negative. Worryingly, one in 10 said they have not enjoyed their experience so far at all. When asked what had made their experience positive, 28% said they have enjoyed the work, and another 28% have found the work interesting. Only one in 10 said they found the work uninteresting, while 13% said they found the work difficult. Tom Seymour, Senior Director, HR, at Wiley Edge, commented: “While it’s great that half of young tech workers have enjoyed their time in the industry so far, it’s concerning that a significant proportion have encountered some challenges. “Our findings seem to indicate that it’s not the nature of the work that is an issue for most unhappy young tech employees. Instead, the research suggests that many businesses are still struggling to establish an inclusive, welcoming environment which is having a negative impact on the wellbeing of their tech teams.” Only a fifth (20%) of those surveyed said that they like their company’s culture, and another 20% said they have felt welcomed by their colleagues. Women were 22% less likely to say they have felt welcomed by their colleagues than men, and 22% less likely to say they like their company’s culture. They were also 45% more likely to say they had not had enough personal support. White respondents were more likely to say they liked their company’s culture than any other ethnic group (23% vs 20% average), while Black African respondents were the most likely to say they do not feel welcomed by their colleagues (17% vs 11% average), and to say that they actively do not like their company’s culture (22% vs 11% average). Seymour added: “In our experience, many businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of an effective DE&I strategy. However, this research shows it’s not necessarily a given that these values will filter down into every team. It’s vital to ensure that a business’s culture and values are consistently embodied by those in senior leadership and management positions, with any inappropriate behaviour dealt with quickly and decisively.” www.networkseuropemagazine.com 08 NEWS IN BRIEF Do you have news to share? Do you have a product to promote, a company partnership to announce or a new recruit to introduce? Contact editor@networkseuropemagazine.comCorero and Juniper Networks Expand DDoS Integration Corero Network Security has announced significant enhancements to its SmartWall Threat Defense Director (SmartWall TDD) for Juniper Networks customers. The latest enhancements extend DDoS protection to Juniper’s PTX Series Routers alongside its MX Series. SmartWall TDD not only offers seamless integration into Juniper’s MX Series Universal Routing Platforms and PTX Series and stops DDoS attack traffic directly at the edge of the network in seconds, it also includes newly enhanced protections against DDoS carpet bombing, also known as ‘spread spectrum’ or ‘subnet’ attacks. These additions make it easier than ever for customers to protect their networks against service downtime, and maintain business continuity with automatic DDoS protection. The enhanced Corero SmartWall TDD integrates with Juniper routers to deliver one of the most innovative DDoS solutions in today’s cyber defense market. Juniper and Corero are building on their well-established, successful partnership, delivering a state-of-the-art solution against DDoS attacks. Now integrated with Juniper’s PTX Series Routers and MX Series, Corero’s SmartWall DDoS software intelligence powers the DDoS solution with automatic, real-time detection and delivers line-rate mitigation through pre-integration with Juniper’s network infrastructure. Ground Control Focuses on Satellite IoT Opportunities Inmarsat has launched a new IoT service plan to drive growth and generate long term business for its distribution partners. This new service plan will be available to distribution partners who have signed up to its ELEVATE programme, with Ground Control, the first business to benefit from the offering. Inmarsat’s new ‘Internet of Things Growth Plan’ will give distribution partners access to a preferential pricing framework to help build competitive large scale IoT solutions using the BGAN M2M service. The pricing plan is just the latest benefit to be enjoyed by members of the ELEVATE programme, the goal of which is to attract highly innovative, fast-moving IoT solution providers into the BGAN M2M fold. With Inmarsat and Ground Control building on their existing relationship and pledging even closer strategic alignment, in order to unlock value from the new pricing model over the coming months. The pair also plan to develop several new joint solutions for the ELEVATE marketplace. Ground Control expects to introduce a number of existing solutions to the ecosystem, including integrating all BGAN M2M airtime packages into its next-generation data and device management platform, Cloudloop. NEWS IN BRIEF www.networkseuropemagazine.com 09 Arelion (formerly Telia Carrier) has announced that it has taken the next step in converging its IP and optical networking layers through a series of trials conducted with Acacia and Cisco over multiple, third- party, open line systems. On a live fibre route with existing ROADM infrastructure between Hamburg and Copenhagen, Arelion successfully leveraged Acacia Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD coherent modules with greater than +1 dBm transmit power between Cisco 8000 and NCS 5700 router platforms. The trial demonstrated the seamless integration of Routed Optical Networking with DWDM transponders carrying wavelength services. Acacia’s Bright 400ZR+ pluggable coherent optical modules can plug into Cisco routers, enabling Arelion’s further adoption of the simpler and more scalable architecture of Routed Optical Networking, combining innovations in silicon, optics and routing systems. This architecture simplifies the network layer stack, and meets the increasing bandwidth demands of Arelion’s customers while greatly reducing capital and operational expenditures. Through this demonstration of 400G coherent connections, Arelion has also demonstrated the interworking on brownfield long-haul applications built with third-party optical line systems. Arelion will continue its organic expansion, providing its service provider and enterprise customers with the opportunity to improve customer experience, efficient connectivity investment and better pricing, further realising the vision of Arelion’s early open optics and open line system investments. “Multi-layer architecture has always been challenging to scale and operate due to decades of accumulated complexity. With this latest trial, Arelion demonstrated the possibility to simplify conversion and interoperability, bringing us closer to Routed Optical Networking that evolves cost structures, scalability and efficiency,” said Dariusz Solowiej, VP Network Technology & Customer Operations at Arelion. “400G coherent pluggables will help our customers secure high- performance connectivity at the lowest cost and help us grow our networks in scale as we continue to connect the world.” “As the latest entrant in our comprehensive family of 400G pluggables, the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD is designed to expand optical transceiver applications by supporting higher transmit power and performance consistent with legacy coherent optics,” Benny Mikkelsen, VP/Chief Technology Officer at Acacia, now part of Cisco. “The ability of these solutions to meet the varying needs of network operators, while driving economies of scale on a common technology platform, is a key advantage for providers such as Arelion to grow their networks.” “The convergence of IP and optical networks provides a revolutionary reduction in network cost and simplifies management of the network,” said Bill Gartner, Senior VP/GM of the Optical Systems & Optics Group at Cisco. “This will enable Arelion to cost-effectively scale their network as bandwidth demands increase over time, enabling them to maintain their growth and protect their investment over the next 10-15 years.” With this demonstration, Arelion plans to provide its North American and European customers with enhanced access to Arelion’s number one ranked Internet backbone, AS1299, as well as Arelion’s portfolio of IP and optical technology services, including high-speed IP Transit, Cloud Connect, Wavelengths, Ethernet and SD-WAN. Arelion Completes First Multi-Vendor, Multi-Layer Field TrialNext >