Infinera Adds Security, Automation to Cloud Xpress
Infinera today expanded its Cloud Xpress family, adding new automation features and security capabilities to its portfolio of metro cloud platforms.
Like its earlier 10- and 40-gigabit Ethernet models, the new Cloud Xpress with 100GbE version is designed for cloud service providers, Internet content providers, large enterprises, and other operators of large datacenters. Because of customers' need for speed, the developer expects stronger demand for 100GbE than the 40GbE edition, Vinay Rathore, director of product marketing at Infinera, told Enterprise Technology.
"Flexibility is key to this market …," said Rathore. "We actually shipped the 40GbE optimized version of the Cloud Xpress first, even before the 10GbE optimized platform, to meet specific customer requirements."
The platform, which first became available in December 2014, uses Infinera's oPIC-500 optical engine to provide DWDM datacenter interconnect services up to 500 gigabits per second in a two-rack unit chassis. Infinera claims the device is energy efficient.
In addition to the newest speed, Infinera disclosed new enhancements across the line of its entire Cloud Xpress portfolio, including MACsec encryption; Netconf and Yang support for software-defined networking and ease of use, and LLDP discovery protocols for datacenter automation.
Businesses want all data encrypted at the MAC layer, seeing this as a critical part of their overall security strategy in a world of regulation and website intrusions, he said.
"This is the first time we've integrated encryption into the Cloud Xpress platform and we expect to see it become table stakes in t his market," said Rathore.
Likewise the developer's upgrades address native support for Netconf and Yang at the request of clients who sought time savings and accuracy. The networking configuration protocol (Netconf) and the data-modeling language (Yang) are becoming de facto standards since tier 1 telecommunications companies began adopting them last year. Many leading vendors – such as Brocade, Cisco, and Juniper – support them as telcos demand equipment vendors help them move toward so-called "open networks," according to Light Reading.
"While Cloud Xpress is a simple platform, operators continue to look for ways to automate everything," Rathore said. "In that effort, NetConf and Yang coupled together, enhance the ability to automate things like network-discovery [and] service-provisioning in an open environment of the operator's choosing."
To further support simplification and standards, Cloud Xpress now includes LLDP – or Link Layer Discovery Protocol – support. Found on Ethernet networks and used for the automatic discovery of adjacent routers and switches, LLDP will transparently run across a Cloud Xpress network and between a customer's switches and routers in various locations, said Rathore.
"With support of this new LLDP feature, the Cloud Xpress family can detect those LLDP messages, record the information in them, and report that information to the datacenter operations management systems," he said. "This helps to make connectivity validation and troubleshooting simpler and more robust, and is therefore a feature that our customers are extremely eager to use to minimize costs and downtime."
The PIC-based, carrier class appliance includes built-in amplifiers that reach 150km without regeneration, according to the vendor. It features 500G of client capacity and 500G of WAN capacity.
