Michel Combes, Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) CEO, said that the company's plan to become a specialist in IP networking and ultra-broadband access will incorporate a mix of technologies that are driving service providers toward cloud-based services.
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During the opening of the vendor's cloud research and development center in Kfar Saba, Israel, Combes will outline how it will leveraging emerging technologies, including network functions virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN) technologies.
Its cloud facility in Israel will serve two purposes: provide a collaborative source with the company's Bell Labs unit, and serve as an incubation center for NFV activities and customer projects. The center has also established a collaborative relationship with major universities, including Tel-Aviv University and Technion.
A key element of its cloud vision is the CloudBand solution, which is the vendor's open, multivendor NFV management platform that enables service providers to extend the benefits of cloud to their own networks and business operations. Service providers can also use this platform to provide cloud-based services to their business and consumer customers.
The vendor is also moving parts of its product suite to the cloud as a way to "create a path to NFV technology and give service providers choices on which key network services to deploy to the cloud."
This new facility will also capitalize on the SDN solution it launched through its Nuage Networks subsidiary. As of the end of the second quarter, Nuage Networks' platform, which leverages the company's widely-deployed IP router technology, was being actively trialed with a number of Tier 1 service providers in North America and Europe.
While it will take time to see if his plan works, the IP division continues to be a key revenue growth area for Alcatel-Lucent. During the second quarter, the vendor reported that IP revenues rose over 25 percent year-over-year to $827 million.
For more:
- see the release
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