Colt Excels at Cloud and Professional Video Carrier Ethernet Applications

CEN Feature (Nov 15 2011) Europe , Cloud

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   Colt, one of the leaders in the global Carrier Ethernet market, has been doing its best to maintain that position. Last week, CEN looked at the ways the Europe-focused carrier is enhancing the customer experience. This week we look at what Colt is doing to make the most of opportunities in the cloud and professional video markets.

   The Cloud Market

   “You have to be careful when you talk about the cloud because it means different things to different people,” said Peter Agnew, Colt director of technology strategy, on a recent phone call.

   Enterprises that are buying public cloud services typically access those services using Internet protocol, which may be underpinned by Carrier Ethernet. But Agnew also sees strong demand for at least two other approaches.

   “Some people want to buy cloud services but want everything in the cloud dedicated to them,” Agnew said. Carrier Ethernet, he said “is a very secure, high-performance way” of accessing cloud services using dedicated infrastructure.

   Alternatively, “some people want access to something that’s more shared,” Agnew said — and Carrier Ethernet can be a good choice for those customers as well. “We give people a choice of accessing the cloud over Ethernet or, if many addresses are involved, over IP-VPNs,” said Agnew.  “And, we can manage a service level agreement for the customer,” he added.

   Another important opportunity in the cloud market, Agnew said, is running Fibre Channel over Carrier Ethernet between data centers to support disaster recovery. Data centers have to mirror each other, Agnew explained, and Fibre Channel over Carrier Ethernet is a reliable and efficient way to do that.

   The Professional Video Market

   Colt’s customers in the professional video market include broadcasters, content providers and advertisers. Those customers most often look for connectivity between metro areas. Within a metro market, they are more likely to use dedicated fiber for their communication needs.

   “When you go between national or international markets — that’s where Carrier Ethernet comes in,” said Agnew.

   But it can’t be just any Carrier Ethernet service. It must have predictable latency and jitter, Agnew said. Agnew also noted that professional video customers want transport done at native speeds — especially in production or post-production environments — with compression typically used only in play-out.

   Customers in the professional video market typically use equipment that codes video onto Ethernet. By using Ethernet for transport, Agnew said, “They can take advantage of the unicast and multicast capabilities of Carrier Ethernet networks.”

   Moving forward, Agnew sees the possibility of enabling professional video customers to self-provision bandwidth on demand to support sporting events and the like. He envisions service being billed by the gigabit hour.

   However, before such a service can be offered, Agnew believes operators must establish an appropriate authentication methodology — one perhaps involving some sort of federation.

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