As more multinational enterprises adopt cloud-based services and videoconferencing to conduct business, they are looking to their respective service providers for wider IP VPN and Ethernet coverage, and service providers are responding by expanding their offerings by as much as 40 percent in international markets.    Between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, the availability of Ethernet-based services (EoMPLS, EoSDH, and VPLS) rose 40 percent, while international IP VPN service availability grew 8 percent.   To expand the reach of their respective IP VPN offerings, the majority of the service providers surveyed said they had to work with various service provider wholesale partners ...

As the top three U.S. service providers--AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ)--and their large enterprise clients ramp up their respective data center footprints to deliver a suite of managed and cloud-based services, a robust opportunity for Ethernet switch vendors is being created. This data center drive, according to a new Dell'Oro Group report, will drive $28 billion in Layer 2-3 Ethernet switch sales in 2016, with the majority of the growth driven by sales of Ethernet switches for larger data center deployments. Leading the revenue charge will be the sales of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) switches. However, Dell'Oro predicts that 40 GigE and 100 GigE will exceed $3 billion in revenues during the period. "We expect the Ethernet Switch market to experience two significant years of market growth in 2013 and 2014 from the migration of servers towards 10 Gigabit Ethernet," said Alan Weckel, Senior Director of Dell'Oro Group. "We believe that in 2013, most large enterprises will upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet for server access through a mix of connectivity options ranging from blade servers, SFP+ direct attach and 10G Base-T." Weckel added that "in 2014, small and medium businesses will upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet" and  "towards the second half of the decade, 40 GE and 100 GE switches will be an important growth driver for the Ethernet switch market." For more:- see the release Related articles:NTT puts stake in India data center market with Netmagic purchaseTerremark expands Silicon Valley data center to keep up with customer growthWindstream expands Raleigh data center; enterprise IT spending forecast reaches $2.7TSavvis to expand data center reach to support more cloud, managed servicesCincinnati Bell sees data center business as foundation for cloud, managed services

In a year of careful spending stateside, data services have proven wise investments for companies seeking cost containment, and many data services products hold promise for 2012. I offer twelve trends for 2012, including continued growth in demand for fibre-based connectivity will drive investments in dark fibre, lit fibre, Ethernet-over-fibre, and more.

Optimum Lightpath, a competitive service provider serving predominantly New York metro-based businesses, now has a fiber network that is connected to over 5,000 buildings. On top of its fiber network, the service provider has continued to evolve its product set to develop industry vertical-specific applications including Interactive Patient Care for the healthcare sector, an Education Services Suite for schools, 40 Gigabit and Low Latency Optical Transport Service for the financial services sector, and Internet Voice Bundle and Next-Generation Hosted Voice for mid-market and large businesses. Being in the New York City area, Optimum Lightpath can help financial firms, for ...

In Part 2 we begin to explore the technical attributes that service providers believe are most important to help differentiate their Carrier Ethernet offerings.  We ask service providers to tell us what features and attributes they use to differentiate themselves.  We broke down these into two groups:  technical and non-technical. 

The Broadband Forum has introduced a new specification to address the use of MPLS in the mobile backhaul network as they move from TDM to packet-based wireless backhaul. With the "Technical Specification for MPLS in Mobile Backhaul Networks," otherwise known as TR-221, both wholesale carriers and their respective wireless operator customers will have a means to transport wireless traffic in the access and aggregation networks, including IP, TDM, ATM and Ethernet.Specifically, TR-221 defines the global requirements of MPLS technologies in mobile backhaul networks for encapsulation, signaling and routing, QoS, Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM), resiliency, security, and synchronization. In ...

The response to the survey has been fantastic.  Thank you to all who participated. We had widespread participation from service providers around the world who are currently offering or are planning to offer Carrier Ethernet services.  In the coming days we’ll be reviewing the results in this space. And next week, we will provide a link where you may download the complete summary report at no cost.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has initiated a new study group to explore 4x25-Gbps interfaces for 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) in data center and campus networks.

The IEEE has approved the initiation of a study group to explore enhanced 100 Gbps optical products for Ethernet operation...

Between the period of Q3 2007 and Q3 2011, the research firm revealed that median GigE port prices in major markets such as New York and Hong Kong declined at a rate of about 17 percent, while prices in London were down by over 20 percent. However, median GigE prices in Hong Kong continue to be 2.5 to 3.5 percent higher than prices in London. The majority of the lowest priced IP transit services can be found in both North American and European cities. As of Q3 2011, GigE prices were $7 per Mbps per month in New ...

Nearly 600 independent telcos nationwide have deployed fiber to the home, according to a new report published in the October Broadband Communities Magazine—and although GPON continues to be the dominant technology used in these networks, the report shows that active Ethernet is making gains.

In early 2011, Kevin Vachon, COO of the Metro Ethernet Forum, was in Mumbai. He spoke of the growing role of Ethernet in the enterprise. He was underscoring the point that industry players are slowly waking up to which is that demand for high bandwidth, low latency and low cost networks is driving the growth of Ethernet services.

Bright spots include lower interest expenses, Internet growth, improved CLEC margins TCT is among the roughly one-quarter of rural telcos that have a CLEC business—and Bethe also shed some additional light on why the profit picture in that area has improved. “The per-megabit backbone cost has come down,” said Bethe. TCT is now able to use Ethernet where it previously would have used slower and more costly DS-3 circuits, Bethe said.

Offering greater flexibility in terms of bandwidth and features at lower costs than traditional legacy TDM services, Ethernet access continues be the soup du jour of the network services market. By 2016, Insight Research has forecast in its new market analysis study Carriers and Ethernet Services: Public Ethernet in Metro & Wide Area Networks, 2011-2016 that U.S. enterprises and consumers will spend over $44 billion on carrier Ethernet services. As more incumbent and competitive service providers alike expand their respective wide area and metro Ethernet service portfolios, Insight argues the market will grow from $4 billion in 2011 to nearly ...

According to the new market research study, more than $44 billion is expected to be spent over the next five years on Ethernet services provided by carriers, which includes metro Ethernet, native LAN, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet private line and virtual private line, Layer 2 virtual private network, Ethernet access and virtual private LAN services.

As more multinational enterprises adopt cloud-based services and videoconferencing to conduct business, they are looking to their respective service providers for wider IP VPN and Ethernet coverage, and service providers are responding by expanding their offerings by as much as 40 percent in international markets.    Between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, the availability of Ethernet-based services (EoMPLS, EoSDH, and VPLS) rose 40 percent, while international IP VPN service availability grew 8 percent.   To expand the reach of their respective IP VPN offerings, the majority of the service providers surveyed said they had to work with various service provider wholesale partners ...

As the top three U.S. service providers--AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ)--and their large enterprise clients ramp up their respective data center footprints to deliver a suite of managed and cloud-based services, a robust opportunity for Ethernet switch vendors is being created. This data center drive, according to a new Dell'Oro Group report, will drive $28 billion in Layer 2-3 Ethernet switch sales in 2016, with the majority of the growth driven by sales of Ethernet switches for larger data center deployments. Leading the revenue charge will be the sales of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) switches. However, Dell'Oro predicts that 40 GigE and 100 GigE will exceed $3 billion in revenues during the period. "We expect the Ethernet Switch market to experience two significant years of market growth in 2013 and 2014 from the migration of servers towards 10 Gigabit Ethernet," said Alan Weckel, Senior Director of Dell'Oro Group. "We believe that in 2013, most large enterprises will upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet for server access through a mix of connectivity options ranging from blade servers, SFP+ direct attach and 10G Base-T." Weckel added that "in 2014, small and medium businesses will upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet" and  "towards the second half of the decade, 40 GE and 100 GE switches will be an important growth driver for the Ethernet switch market." For more:- see the release Related articles:NTT puts stake in India data center market with Netmagic purchaseTerremark expands Silicon Valley data center to keep up with customer growthWindstream expands Raleigh data center; enterprise IT spending forecast reaches $2.7TSavvis to expand data center reach to support more cloud, managed servicesCincinnati Bell sees data center business as foundation for cloud, managed services

In a year of careful spending stateside, data services have proven wise investments for companies seeking cost containment, and many data services products hold promise for 2012. I offer twelve trends for 2012, including continued growth in demand for fibre-based connectivity will drive investments in dark fibre, lit fibre, Ethernet-over-fibre, and more.

Optimum Lightpath, a competitive service provider serving predominantly New York metro-based businesses, now has a fiber network that is connected to over 5,000 buildings. On top of its fiber network, the service provider has continued to evolve its product set to develop industry vertical-specific applications including Interactive Patient Care for the healthcare sector, an Education Services Suite for schools, 40 Gigabit and Low Latency Optical Transport Service for the financial services sector, and Internet Voice Bundle and Next-Generation Hosted Voice for mid-market and large businesses. Being in the New York City area, Optimum Lightpath can help financial firms, for ...

In Part 2 we begin to explore the technical attributes that service providers believe are most important to help differentiate their Carrier Ethernet offerings.  We ask service providers to tell us what features and attributes they use to differentiate themselves.  We broke down these into two groups:  technical and non-technical. 

The Broadband Forum has introduced a new specification to address the use of MPLS in the mobile backhaul network as they move from TDM to packet-based wireless backhaul. With the "Technical Specification for MPLS in Mobile Backhaul Networks," otherwise known as TR-221, both wholesale carriers and their respective wireless operator customers will have a means to transport wireless traffic in the access and aggregation networks, including IP, TDM, ATM and Ethernet.Specifically, TR-221 defines the global requirements of MPLS technologies in mobile backhaul networks for encapsulation, signaling and routing, QoS, Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM), resiliency, security, and synchronization. In ...

The response to the survey has been fantastic.  Thank you to all who participated. We had widespread participation from service providers around the world who are currently offering or are planning to offer Carrier Ethernet services.  In the coming days we’ll be reviewing the results in this space. And next week, we will provide a link where you may download the complete summary report at no cost.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has initiated a new study group to explore 4x25-Gbps interfaces for 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) in data center and campus networks.

The IEEE has approved the initiation of a study group to explore enhanced 100 Gbps optical products for Ethernet operation...

Between the period of Q3 2007 and Q3 2011, the research firm revealed that median GigE port prices in major markets such as New York and Hong Kong declined at a rate of about 17 percent, while prices in London were down by over 20 percent. However, median GigE prices in Hong Kong continue to be 2.5 to 3.5 percent higher than prices in London. The majority of the lowest priced IP transit services can be found in both North American and European cities. As of Q3 2011, GigE prices were $7 per Mbps per month in New ...

Nearly 600 independent telcos nationwide have deployed fiber to the home, according to a new report published in the October Broadband Communities Magazine—and although GPON continues to be the dominant technology used in these networks, the report shows that active Ethernet is making gains.

In early 2011, Kevin Vachon, COO of the Metro Ethernet Forum, was in Mumbai. He spoke of the growing role of Ethernet in the enterprise. He was underscoring the point that industry players are slowly waking up to which is that demand for high bandwidth, low latency and low cost networks is driving the growth of Ethernet services.

Bright spots include lower interest expenses, Internet growth, improved CLEC margins TCT is among the roughly one-quarter of rural telcos that have a CLEC business—and Bethe also shed some additional light on why the profit picture in that area has improved. “The per-megabit backbone cost has come down,” said Bethe. TCT is now able to use Ethernet where it previously would have used slower and more costly DS-3 circuits, Bethe said.

Offering greater flexibility in terms of bandwidth and features at lower costs than traditional legacy TDM services, Ethernet access continues be the soup du jour of the network services market. By 2016, Insight Research has forecast in its new market analysis study Carriers and Ethernet Services: Public Ethernet in Metro & Wide Area Networks, 2011-2016 that U.S. enterprises and consumers will spend over $44 billion on carrier Ethernet services. As more incumbent and competitive service providers alike expand their respective wide area and metro Ethernet service portfolios, Insight argues the market will grow from $4 billion in 2011 to nearly ...

According to the new market research study, more than $44 billion is expected to be spent over the next five years on Ethernet services provided by carriers, which includes metro Ethernet, native LAN, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet private line and virtual private line, Layer 2 virtual private network, Ethernet access and virtual private LAN services.