6 July 2015

IHS names Infinera leader in optical networking and data-center interconnect market

Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), has been named as a leader among the top optical network hardware vendors in the recently published 2015 Optical Network Hardware Vendor Scorecard of IHS (formerly Infonetics Research).

Infinera is described as the "ne plus ultra of the rapidly growing Internet content provider and data-center interconnect market". The report further highlights Infinera as a leader not because of size but because of "outstanding customer perceptions, large market share gains and tight finances". 

The IHS 2015 Optical Network Hardware Vendor Scorecard profiles, analyzes and ranks the 10 largest global vendors of optical transport equipment. It evaluates the top optical hardware vendors on criteria using metrics that include direct feedback from buyers, vendor market share, market share momentum, financials, brand recognition, reputation for innovation and other benchmarks. Infinera emerges as one of the three leading optical transport equipment providers worldwide.

"Infinera has excellent scores across the board," says Andrew Schmitt, research director, Carrier Transport Networking at IHS. "Infinera has market presence with excellent scores from customers for product reliability, service and support. The company also had excellent momentum as a result of big market share gains in 2014 and is the top perceived vendor when it comes to technology innovation," he adds. 

"The IHS Optical Network Hardware Vendor scorecard shows that Infinera's focus on customer satisfaction, quality and market-leading innovation continues to resonate with global network operators," says Infinera's CEO Tom Fallon. "We are honored to receive the highest recognition from IHS for the second year running based on our success deploying Intelligent Transport Networks around the world." 

Last year IHS (then Infonetics) ranked Infinera as the top optical vendor in its 2014 scorecard as a result of very high ratings among customers for technology innovation, reliability, and service and support. This year, IHS refined its scoring system and classified the top optical hardware vendors into three categories: leader, established or challenger, depending on their overall score.

Infinera expands Cloud Xpress family for high-capacity data-center interconnect

Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), has expanded its Cloud Xpress family of metro Cloud platforms with a new platform with 100 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) client services in the same compact form factor along with enhanced functionality. The Cloud Xpress family is designed specifically to address the needs of Cloud service providers, Internet content providers, Internet Exchange service providers, large enterprises and other large-scale datacenter operators.

The Cloud Xpress family, which first started shipping in December 2014, leverages the oPIC-500 optical engine, Infinera's unique metro-optimized photonic integrated circuit, to deliver DWDM data-center interconnect services up to 500Gb/s in a compact two-rack-unit chassis. The new Cloud Xpress with 100 GbE extends the hyper-scale density, simplified operations and low power of the existing Cloud Xpress family that operators can use to easily deploy and scale their networks. With the addition of the new platform, the Cloud Xpress family now supports 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE client-side interfaces to match customer specific requirements.

Along with introducing the Cloud Xpress with 100GbE, Infinera has announced enhancements to the Cloud Xpress family including MACsec encryption for improved security, NETCONF & YANG support for software-defined networking (SDN) and ease of use, and LLDP discovery protocols enabling data-center automation.

"100GbE is finally becoming available on data-center switches and achieving cost-effective pricing on routers - creating an emerging demand for 100GbE client-side interfaces on optical equipment designed for metro data-center interconnect," comments Andrew Schmitt, research director, Carrier Transport Networking at IHS. "Infinera is shipping 10GbE and 40GbE; adding 100GbE is a well-timed extension to the Cloud Xpress family, and helps it retain a leadership position in this emerging product category," he adds. 

"The Cloud Xpress platforms are purpose-built for the data-center interconnect market," says Stu Elby, senior VP, Cloud network strategy and technology, Infinera. "Based on Infinera's unique PIC and super-channel technology, the Cloud Xpress provides scale and simplicity while utilizing little power." 

The Cloud Xpress continues to deliver solutions that provide hyper-scale density, simplified network operations and low power, says Infinera. The Cloud Xpress offers 1Tb/s of input and output capacity in just two rack units, with up to 500Gb/s of line-side capacity and a mix of 10, 40 and 100GbE client-side interfaces. At 1 watt per Gb/s, Cloud Xpress delivers extremely low power, enabling very high practical rack density in real-world data-center environments, says Infinera. The rack-and-stack form factor and software approach of the Cloud Xpress enables it to easily integrate into existing Cloud provisioning systems using open SDN APIs.

The Cloud Xpress family also now offers several key features requested by large data-center operators. NETCONF & YANG support enables smooth integration into data-center automation and management systems; LLDP protocol awareness for auto-discovery of adjacent switches and routers across the WAN supports efficient connectivity validation and troubleshooting, and MACsec provides end-to-end encryption to keep data secure. Together, these features of the Cloud Xpress enhance ease of use in data-center environments, says Infinera.

By offering a network appliance-like experience similar to the server and storage infrastructure currently deployed in the Cloud, the Cloud Xpress enables smooth integration into existing operational processes, providing Cloud service providers, Internet content providers, Internet Exchange service providers and other large-scale data-center operators the ability to quickly deliver differentiated services by enabling a virtual pool of intelligent bandwidth, concludes Infinera.

See related items:

Infonetics names Infinera as top optical transport vendor

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