Founded in 1997,WBENC, is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit and the largest third-party certifier of women-owned businesses. Providing a national standard, in-depth review of the company and on site inspection is a rigorous process for certification that can take up to three months. The procedures put in place are designed to confirm the business is operated, controlled and at least 51% owned by a woman or women.

“This is an exciting time for Powernet to operate with majority women ownership and taking the steps to obtain certification. It’s a great accomplishment especially with few women-owned technology businesses”, said Roberta Stevens, majority owner.

Just meeting the standards for Powernet is not enough. The company has always strived to exceed expectations providing customers with a competitive edge. Growing from a landline-based company to providing Voice, Data and Wi-Fi shows the company’s dedication to making investments in the industry and expanding into new markets.

“We always strive to  provide the best products and services to our customers” said Alli Stevens, CEO. “Being WBENC certified now allows us to better serve our clients by helping them meet their supplier diversity initiatives”.

Wholesale SIP carrier SipTrunks.org is predicting a shortage of VoIP paths and therefor has opened pre-registration for political campaign.

In order to provide campaign teams and political robocall providers with enough capacity, the wholesale VoIP company decided to start working on a first come, first served basis.

“Even though many people don’t like to receive RoboCalls and this type of dialing is heavily regulated and often not allowed, most political organisations are exempt from using the DNC registry. During the last elections, we saw such a high surge in demand for reliable, quality routes that we decided we needed a better system to prioritize whom we sell capacity to and to form partnerships with our downstream carriers in advance so we can handle the volume. That’s why we decided to start our pre-registration for robocalls and campaign teams system”, stated their VP of Carrier Relations.

According to Mr. M. Breeze, the increase in demand often leads to so called routes become “contaminated”, where one carrier sends VoIP calls to another carrier, whom in turn buys from the same carrier the original call originated. This can cause many calls not to complete, or even drop during the conversation.

The 2016 Presidential primary schedule is currently being assembled.

Organasations interested in SipTrunks.org’s pre-registry may go here for more information.

Top Companies were evaluated and selected based on a combination of overall satisfaction scores from an Employee Engagement Survey, and evaluation from an Employer Questionnaire covering topics related to HR programs, benefits and workplace culture.

Telesphere CEO Clark Peterson stated, “Telesphere is known as a desirable place to work, where the professional environment is highly productive, yet balanced. It’s good to know our employees feel the same. We’re very proud to receive this honor. Early on, we decided to make every employee a shareholder. We believe this pride of ownership contributes greatly to how hard our employees work, and how well they treat customers and each other.”

Peterson adds, “Our ability to attract and retain top talent directly contributes to Telesphere’s consistent growth, profitability, and industry-leading products and solutions. It’s our way of ensuring we always have the brightest and the best on our team.”

Winners were announced at a “Top Companies” breakfast reception June 27th and in a special supplement in the June 29 edition of the Arizona Republic, which can be viewed online at www.TopCompanies.azcentral.com.

As the seventh largest cable operator in the country, Suddenlink offers TV, Internet, phone and other services to its residential and commercial customers. In its ongoing efforts to provide fast, reliable communications, Suddenlink began its search for an automated device provisioning and IP address management solution that could not only accommodate the ever-increasing number of new subscribers and devices being added to its network on a regular basis, but also seamlessly integrate with the company’s existing device monitoring, network troubleshooting, data reporting and other back office systems.

“After a competitive review, we chose Incognito based on its on-site support, ability to customize the solution to our needs, and rapid migration,” said Rodney Lanham, vice president, technical operations at Suddenlink. “We now have the ability to quickly add new subscriber services while also being fully prepared for the increasingly widespread adoption of IPv6, which will keep us one step ahead as our needs – and the needs of our subscribers – continue to evolve.”

With Broadband Command Center from Incognito Software, Suddenlink can now support the latest standards and technologies, including DOCSIS®, PacketCable™, SIP, and IPv6, while also customizing its provisioning based on device type, location, service speed or quality, or other criteria. This increases the speed at which new services can be released, as well as improves the subscriber experience by reducing activation time. The addition of Address Commander from Incognito Software also allows Suddenlink to quickly identify and reclaim unused IPv4 addresses for subscriber devices, while also easily generating new IPv6 ones where needed.

“Analysts estimate that approximately 119 million connected devices will be installed in U.S. homes by 2015, which means that IPv4 addresses are becoming scarcer by the day, making it is no longer possible for service providers to manually track their IP addresses,” said Stephane Bourque, president and CEO of Incognito Software. “Employing an automated device provisioning solution that can also ensure reliable IP address management gives operators like Suddenlink a holistic view of their network to save them both time and money while still keeping their subscribers happy.”

“PowerFlex allows our customers to have a complete Allworx solution
from end-to-end and will improve our customers’ experience by
simplifying installation and support of our systems,” said Chris
Hasenauer, vice president and general manager of Allworx. “Our
customers have been asking us to provide additional products built with
the reliability they have come to know with our existing products.
PowerFlex does exactly that.”

The PowerFlex line consists of three products targeted to match the
Allworx voice server sizes. All switches offer features such as Power
over Ethernet (PoE), 10/100/100 speed, and the capability to
auto-configure when Allworx servers or phones are connected,
eliminating the need for lengthy installations and post installation
troubleshooting.

“We are continuously making additions and enhancements to our product
line to enhance our users’ experience,” said Hasenauer. “PowerFlex
demonstrates that total commitment to our customers.”

On Tuesday, September 24 from 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. Cbeyond’s senior vice president and general counsel William H. Weber joins Robert W. Quinn of AT&T, Sean Lev of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Ronald A. Brise of the Florida Public Service Commission for a panel entitled “Trials and Tribulations: Next Steps in the Transition to IP”.
Moderated by Joe Gillan of Gillan Associates, panelists will discuss how the FCC can move the industry forward during the transition to IP technology as well as focus on the impact on competition and consumer protection in particular.

On Wednesday, September 25 from 11:00 to 11:45 a.m. Brett Burgett, Cbeyond’s vice president, network engineering and planning, joins panelists from ETC Group LLC, Global Capacity, Neustar and TeliaSonera International Carrier for a panel discussion on “TDM to IP: Preparing Your Business for the Transition”. The panel will explore how the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is evolving from TDM to IP technology, the operational and economic benefits to be gained through VoIP interconnection and transport, and the appropriate sequencing of any future steps related to the signaling systems and databases.

Panelists also will showcase their current successes and approaches in efforts to implement their strategies, with a particular focus on the business issues related to IP-to-IP interconnection of managed networks.

On Thursday, September 26 from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. Greg Darnell, Cbeyond’s director of ILEC relations joins representatives from Cox, Time Warner Cable, TMI and XO Communications for a panel discussion entitled “VoIP Regulatory Strategies: One Size Does Not Fit All”. The panel will explore the relative merits of alternative regulatory strategies for competing in the telephony/VoIP markets.

“As the first company to build a 100% IP network delivering managed services to small business, Cbeyond has unique insights into the evolution and opportunities presented by IP-to-IP interconnection of managed networks,” said Brett Burgett, Cbeyond’s vice president, network engineering and planning.

Burgett is responsible for the strategic and tactical planning of Cbeyond’s IP Network and Voice infrastructure. His career comprises more than 19 years of management experience in voice, data and wireless networks with companies such as BellSouth, SDN Communications and BroadRiver Communications.

“As the first in the mobile satellite communications industry to
establish a new and modern network, Globalstar is leaps and bounds
ahead of the competition,” says Jay Monroe, Chairman and CEO of
Globalstar, Inc. “With the most modern network in place, Globalstar
customers will be connected when it matters most, in emergencies, to
continue business, or to connect with a loved one.”

In 2006, Globalstar took the initiative to design, build and launch the
most modern satellite constellation. More than a billion dollars later,
its success can be heard with Globalstar customers experiencing
superior voice quality, connection, ease of use, and length of time to
maintain a call. Duplex service has been fully restored and Globalstar
customers are returning rapidly. In a recent earnings call, Globalstar
reported that new duplex voice and data subscribers doubled in the
second quarter and minutes of use increased 41%.

Globalstar’s new network supports its current lineup of voice, duplex
and simplex data products and services, including its SPOT-branded
consumer products which have initiated more than 2,500 rescues
worldwide. These new satellites have a 15-year design life, doubling
the life span of Globalstar’s earlier satellites.

Globalstar is the only MSS provider using the patented Qualcomm-based
CDMA technology, which provides crystal-clear voice quality from
anywhere within its global footprint. Calls occur with no noticeable
time delays on a network that transmits even a whisper.

Combined with the affordable and award-winning suite of consumer SPOT
retail products, Globalstar offers an extensive lineup of mobile
satellite services that meet the needs of the broadest range of
customers around the globe.

“Obtaining Cisco Master Service Provider partner status marks yet
another significant milestone for Cbeyond,” said Paul Gies, vice
president, business development at Cbeyond. “The certification is
further validation of the powerful combination of our cloud product
offerings and the Cisco hardware platform. This combination allows
small and mid-sized companies to now utilize the cloud to run their
businesses just as efficiently as much larger enterprise companies.”

The Cisco Master Service Provider Certification is part of the Cisco
Cloud and Managed Services Program, focused on helping partners such as
Cbeyond to envision, build, market, and sell cloud and managed services
with business acceleration tools and services, sales training and the
Cisco Cloud Marketplace to address the varied needs of its customers.
As a Cisco Master Service Provider Certified Partner, Cbeyond will sell
and deliver at least two Cisco Powered services (managed and/or cloud
services with Cisco Powered services designations), built on the IT
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, and provide enhanced
management and stewardship practices to its customers.

In addition, Cbeyond has achieved Cisco Powered services designations
in Cloud Services, Cloud Service for Infrastructure as a Service,
Managed Services, MPLS VPN, Metro Ethernet, Managed Services Internet
Service, and Managed IP Trunking.

Cisco Powered services allow customers to connect with confidence to
achieve faster time to value by minimizing technology lifecycle
complexity to reduce cost and risk. Customers also experience assured
performance through superior service, security, and 24/7 support from
Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO) and its certified partners while taking advantage
of continuous innovation based on open standards and Cisco’s extensive
R&D investment.

Global Capacity delivers network connectivity solutions including local network connectivity, as well as a full suite of Wide Area Network (WAN) and Access services nationally.  This expansion of its core network capacity enables superior network performance at market competitive rates.  One Marketplace customers can leverage Global Capacity’s core network to gain access to the most competitive local access connectivity across markets, regardless of where the customer is interconnected to One Marketplace.  This enables simple, efficient delivery of competitive Ethernet and TDM services across geographies, increasing the addressable market of customers efficiently and cost-effectively while eliminating the complexity of managing multiple local and long-haul venders.

“The additional bandwidth deployed between Global Capacity’s network PoPs expands the capabilities of One Marketplace, further simplifying the process to extend network reach and automate the pricing and delivery of solutions more cost-effectively across the United States,” comments Greg Hough, Executive Vice President of Network Strategy for Global Capacity.  “This unique design of core network combined with our leading state of interconnectedness, allows for customers interconnected at one PoP to connect and seamlessly leverage the valuable access networks of other One Marketplace PoPs, providing a true one-stop network procurement.”

The additional 30 Gigabits of bandwidth is deployed across two core, interconnected and diverse national rings.  The core provides the national network platform for One Marketplace.  One Marketplace delivers national access to more than 380 markets, with additional locations being added in 2013.  This broad reach is delivered with a single MSA, centralized online ordering and standardized delivery as well as an ongoing single point of contact for management of network connectivity, simplifying how customers buy network connectivity.

“As businesses add public cloud capabilities to their on-premise IT systems, they need enterprise-grade reliability, security and management. To address this opportunity, IBM has built a portfolio of high-value private, public and hybrid cloud offerings, as well as software-as-a-service business solutions,” said Erich Clementi, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Technology Services. “With SoftLayer, IBM will accelerate the build-out of our public cloud infrastructure to give clients the broadest choice of cloud offerings to drive business innovation.”

IBM is acquiring SoftLayer to make it easier and faster for clients around the world to incorporate cloud computing by marrying the speed and simplicity of SoftLayer’s public cloud services with the enterprise grade reliability, security and openness of the IBM SmartCloudportfolio.

SoftLayer accelerates IBM’s ability to integrate public and private clouds for its clients, with flexibility that provides deployment options that enable a faster, broader transformation for small, medium and large businesses with a range of performance and security models.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, SoftLayer serves approximately 21,000 customers with a global cloud infrastructure platform spanning 13 data centers in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Among its many innovative cloud infrastructure services, SoftLayer allows clients to buy enterprise-class cloud services on dedicated or shared servers, offering clients a choice of where to deploy their applications. These clients will benefit greatly as new enterprise grade functionality from IBM emerges for SoftLayer customers, who will then have a unique opportunity to incorporate it as their business grows.

“SoftLayer has a strong track record with born-on-the-cloud companies, and our move today with IBM will rapidly expand that footprint globally as well as allow us to go deep into the large enterprise market,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “The compelling opportunity is connecting IBM’s geographic reach, industry expertise and IBM’s SmartCloud breadth with our innovative technology. Together SoftLayer and IBM expand their reach to new clients – both born-on-the-cloud and born-in-the-enterprise.”  

Already one of the world’s leading cloud providers, IBM expects to reach $7 billion annually in cloud revenue by the end of 2015. IBM offers more than 100 SaaS solutions to help marketing, procurement, ecommerce, customer service, human resources, city management, and other professionals make better decisions and better serve their customers. IBM also offers Watson solutions such as Client Engagement Advisor in the cloud, superior solutions such as IBM PureSystems and SmartCloud Enterprise+, as well as mission critical cloud services for SAP.

IBM is a leader with enterprise customers based on its vertical industry expertise delivered from 10 cloud computing centers on five continents. The acquisition of SoftLayer will complement IBM’s existing SmartCloud portfolio, providing enterprises with easy access to a broader range of choices that transform their workloads while continuing to innovate with SoftLayer to meet the needs of born-on-the-cloud firms.

New IBM Cloud Services Division 

Recognizing the importance of cloud to global clients, IBM today is announcing the formation of a new Cloud Services division. Following the close of the acquisition of SoftLayer, which is expected in 3Q 2013, this new division will combine SoftLayer with IBM SmartCloud into a global platform. The new division will provide a broad range of choices to both IBM and SoftLayer clients, ISVs, channel partners and technology partners. SoftLayer’s services will complement the existing portfolio with its focus, simplicity and speed. The division will report to Erich Clementi, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Technology Services.

“Our clients are telling us they want to realize the transformative benefits of cloud today – not just for individual applications, but across their entire enterprise,” said Clementi. “SoftLayer is a perfect fit for IBM. It will help us smooth the transition of our global clients to the cloud faster, while enabling IBM to more efficiently offer them its broad portfolio of open IT infrastructure and software services.”

IBM intends to expand SoftLayer cloud offerings to include OpenStack capabilities, consistent with its entire SmartCloud portfolio and historic commitment to open standards such as Linux. Given that most companies will mix public and private cloud services, clouds need to interoperate. In that way, firms can better leverage cloud to run their social, mobile and Big Dataapplications.

IBM will also support and enrich the SoftLayer cloud-centric partners and ecosystem and its performance capabilities for Big Data and analytics. IBM will provide go-to-market and customizable resources for its expanding cloud ecosystem.

The Value of SoftLayer 

Among its many innovative cloud infrastructure services, SoftLayer allows clients to buy enterprise-class cloud services on dedicated or shared servers, offering clients a choice of where to deploy their applications. By building out a cloud with IBM and SoftLayer, a client can choose the work that belongs on a dedicated or a shared computing resource – thereby tailoring the privacy, data security and overall computing performance to the client’s needs. Importantly, this level of reliability and scale is critical for cloud-centric companies.  

SoftLayer provides the infrastructure for cloud-centric, performance-intensive applications in the areas of mobile, social media, gaming and analytics. The growing number of businesses incorporating mobile computing is helping drive SoftLayer growth.

·    In the last two quarters, more than 60 new gaming companies have moved to the SoftLayer global platform, frequently migrating from commodity cloud platforms because of problems with cost, latency, availability and raw performance.

·    SoftLayer’s architecture provides superior technical capabilities such as a software definable environment critical to a cloud infrastructure, programmable interfaces, and hundreds of hardware and network configurations.  This is designed to deliver a higher level of flexibility — mixing virtual and dedicated servers to fit a variety of workloads—automation of interfaces and hybrid deployment options.

·    SoftLayer’s automated networking infrastructure supports public, private and data center-to-data center architectures, and is designed to provide maximum flexibility and control for clients. The SoftLayer IT infrastructure connectivity enables connections with leading global network providers and Internet access networks.

•   IBM SaaS solutions for Smarter Cities, Smarter Commerce and other applications will be made available via SoftLayer over time, providing line-of-business clients improved time to value and new innovation across an increasingly integrated portfolio of solutions that accelerate business process innovation, provide analytics at the point of impact, and connect collaborative business networks within and across organizations.

The acquisition is expected to close following customary closing conditions including regulatory clearances.

About SoftLayer
SoftLayer, whose majority shareholder is GI Partners of Menlo Park, Calif., operates a global cloud infrastructure platform built for Internet scale. Spanning 13 data centers in the United States, Asia and Europe and a global footprint of network points of presence, SoftLayer’s modular architecture provides unparalleled performance and control, with a full-featured API and sophisticated automation controlling a flexible unified platform that seamlessly spans physical and virtual devices, and a global network for secure, low-latency communications. With 100,000 devices under management, SoftLayer is the largest privately held Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider in the world with a portfolio of leading-edge customers from Web startups to global enterprises.

About IBM Cloud Computing

IBM has helped thousands of clients adopt cloud models and manages millions of cloud- based transactions every day. IBM assists clients in areas as diverse as banking, communications, healthcare and government to build their own clouds or securely tap into IBM cloud-based business and infrastructure services. IBM is unique in bringing together key cloud technologies, deep process knowledge, a broad portfolio of cloud solutions and a network of global delivery centers. For more information about cloud offerings from IBM, visithttp://www.ibm.com/smartcloud. Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ibmcloud and on our blog at http://www.thoughtsoncloud.com.

Bandwidth consumption continues to rise; data centers, content delivery networks and large and small enterprises alike are demanding high-capacity, reliable bandwidth services. Wireless network operators are reacting swiftly to deliver more capacity, DukeNet Communications, 100G, fiber optic network, optical transport network, Tony Cockeram, Michael Prendergast, Southeastdriving more demand to the fiber backhaul networks that support them. Fiber-optic network providers such as DukeNet are responding by integrating higher network capacity to deliver scalable networks that efficiently aggregate traffic and can handle today’s bandwidth-intensive applications.

“Upgrading our legacy infrastructure to allow for 100G connections across key routes in our footprint is critical to our ability to continue meeting our customers’ growing demand for high-bandwidth services in an efficient manner,” comments Tony Cockerham, DukeNet Communications Chief Operating Officer.

“Our customer base is experiencing heavy demands on the network,” adds Michael Prendergast, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing at DukeNet. “This upgrade proactively positions us to respond in a way that underscores our ‘Next Gen Next Door’ philosophy. Whether it’s an upgrade to an existing 10G or a new 40G or 100G service, the DukeNet network is ready to meet our customer demands right away.”

Specifically designed to link Latin America with the rest of the world, Equinix’s MI3 facility serves as a carrier-neutral network access point for GlobeNet to connect its low latency, subsea cable route from Equinix’s SP2 facility in São Paulo, Brazil. This new connectivity between North and South America allows network service providers around the world to be able to tap into economic opportunities stemming from emerging commercial centers in Latin America.

Roughly 75 percent of all network traffic emanating from Latin America is coming into the United States via Miami. Globally, MI3 has the sixth highest Internet capacity and is a key hub location for domestic and international traffic routes. As a result, Equinix and its Brazilian subsidiary ALOG are perfectly positioned to serve high-bandwidth events, such as the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.

Erick Contag, Chief Operating Officer, GlobeNet: “In response to the demand GlobeNet is seeing for high capacity, low latency connectivity throughout the Americas, we made a strategic decision to deploy in MI3. As a major international hub for network traffic, M13 offers GlobeNet customers direct access to high performance networks in which to extend existing networks or expand into new markets.”

LATTIS has served as the go-to database for carriers and service providers to identify, establish and maintain tariff pricing across the U.S for over 20 years.  The enhancement of real-time geocoding capabilities enables LATTIS to provide customers with a more efficient process for converting addresses, postal codes and other segmented location information into geographical coordinates of various business sites, including offices and datacenters. By streamlining the process of generating accurate tariff quotes, LATTIS dramatically reduces the time, effort and cost of identifying and sourcing access network solutions, providing a boost in efficiency for back-office operations of carriers, integrators and service providers around the world.

“LATTIS provides a one-stop solution for accurate US tariff pricing, eliminating the need for multiple systems and cumbersome manual processes,” says Ben Edmond, Chief Revenue Officer of Global Capacity. “Having an accurate understanding of tariff rates is the core foundation of access network pricing.   Quickly and accurately calculating tariff rates allows service providers around the world to improve the time it takes to deliver quotes to customers, resulting in increased business wins and an improvement in overall client satisfaction.”

LATTIS subscriptions are licensed on a per-user basis and rates are updated monthly.  The database’s latest geocoding enhancement is automatically available to all active subscription holders through the platform’s monthly update.  To learn more about LATTIS, visit www.globalcapacity.com/pricingtools-lattis.php.

VoiceAmerica streams hundreds of live and on demand Internet radio programs per day, reaching three million listeners. With more than 250 on-air hosts, VoiceAmerica features a wide variety of talk show formats including sports, business, pop culture, health, hobbies and child-oriented programming.

“VoiceAmerica’s popularity is rising across the globe, and in order to continue providing a superior streaming experience to a growing audience, we must have a CDN that can handle high demand and scale to meet our expansion needs,” said Jeff Spenard, President of VoiceAmerica. “Level 3’s suite of media delivery services and its extensive IP backbone allows us to seamlessly deliver our content to more browsers, mobile devices and listeners around the globe.”

“Level 3’s global Internet backbone combined with its powerful CDN enables us to provide an exceptional streaming experience to every corner of the world,” said Mark Taylor, vice president of Media and IP Services for Level 3. “We’re pleased to provide the streaming platform that will give VoiceAmerica the foundation it needs to not only grow, but also continue to provide an exceptional user experience to an expanding audience.”

The Level 3 network is trusted by many leading entertainment and media companies to deliver content to audiences worldwide. The company’s services are engineered to seamlessly deliver high-quality online content to end-users, allowing media companies to spend more time developing the best content possible and less time focusing on how to deliver it online.

With the advances proven in the trial, Telefónica España will be able to meet the ever growing capacity demand of its customers. It will also use the new network flexibility to increase overall network resilience in working around outages or failures by diverting capacity to where it is needed in the network. GMPLS-based control plane intelligence will allow new ways for protecting highly meshed traffic dynamically so that subscribers can have their expectations met even when there are one or more failures in the network.

Key Facts:

• The Alcatel-Lucent/Telefónica España trial is a technology breakthrough: the first live network link running at 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps speeds using agile optical networks.
• Telefónica España is testing innovative technology to augment network capacity and resilience based on dynamic allocation of resources in the network putting the capacity where it is most needed at a particular time.
• Trial successfully demonstrated flexible optical networking with adaptive 100 Gbps/200 Gbps/400 Gbps transmission on a live network through the live optical channel successfully adapting to different speeds, distances and spectrum.
• This technology enables maximizing fiber performance: each channel is assigned just the piece of spectrum required for the performance needed in each case, and adjusts the parameters to have optimum speed/distance balance.
• The trial has demonstrated the capacity of Telefónica España network to scale up by a factor of 2.66 to 23 Terabits per second (Tbps) in a single fibre pair.

Manuel Fernández Daza, Director Access, Aggregation and Transport Networks Technology and Planning at Telefónica España said: “The future integration of 400 Gbps in our core network will enable us answering with optimum quality our clients’ ever growing demand for more bandwidth. Solutions that make the best use of our existing infrastructure, like the photonic mesh technology demonstrated in this trial, are how we will maintain our lead in the marketplace.”

Roque Lozano, President Alcatel-Lucent Spain and Global Account Manager for Telefónica said: “The success of this trial is a prime example of how Alcatel-Lucent works closely with our customers to bring new solutions to the marketplace in order to meet ever changing demands. Telefónica trusted us to perform what we said we would do on their network, and we did. We have a long standing track record in delivering 100Gbps coherent solutions to service providers around the world and we’ve made significant strides in developing and bringing to market a solid 400 Gbps offering.”

Technical details of trial:

• To perform the trial, the photonic mesh of Telefónica España at Catalonia was equipped with Alcatel-Lucent’s new 400G adaptive-modulation transponder and flexible grid ROADM integrated in the 1830 Photonic Service Switch.
• The field trial was carried out over an operational 1830 PSS mesh network carrying 40Gbps channels with live traffic. New 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps, and 400 Gbps light paths were established using PDM-QPSK and PDM-16QAM formats: 100Gbps and 200Gbps channels were provisioned with either 50GHz or 37.5GHz spacing, while 400Gbps channels were tested using either  100GHz or 75GHz spacing.
• The maximum tested distance was around 650 km, on the longest available path in the network. Commercially available flexible grid ROADMs were used to create 37.5GHz and 75GHz channels.
• All channel configurations were generated using the new 400Gbps module based on the Alcatel-Lucent 400Gbps Photonic Service Engine chip, featuring real-time coherent detection and soft-decision FEC. The switch among different operating modes only involved software commands.

“We are extremely excited to have Lanny join our executive team,” commented Adam Edwards, president of Telarus, Inc. “During his time at Comcast he demonstrated superior management and sales skills, but more importantly, he understands the channel. Having a tenured executive like Lanny leading our cable and fiber strategy and managing supplier relationships at a high level is going to be key for us going forward as we continue to focus on becoming the preeminent distributor of enterprise data, voice, and cloud services.”

Lanny Gray has a long history in telecom, working for industry-leading companies like Comcast Business, Broadweave (Veracity), American Fiber Systems (Zayo), Level 3, and XO Communications. While at Comcast Mr. Gray helped build and manage the local SMB and enterprise fiber sales forces who experienced consistent growth during his tenure.

“I am excited and honored to join the Telarus executive management team,” added Lanny Gray, Telarus’ new VP of Business Development. “I have always admired Telarus from a distance and I’m thrilled the time has finally come that I can be a part of their management team. They clearly have differentiated themselves in the telecom distribution space and I’m looking forward to helping Telarus continue its exponential growth.”

In his role as VP of Business Development, Mr. Gray will be responsible for all high-level supplier relationships, including sitting on advisory boards, formulating go-to-market strategies, high-level escalations, strategic marketing initiatives, and new supplier contract negotiation.

“Lanny Gray is a difference-maker,” commented Patrick Oborn, VP of Marketing for Telarus, Inc. “Over the years we’ve worked hard to develop a culture of innovation and to treat our agent and supplier partners with honesty and integrity. Lanny will fit right in and his impact will be immediate on our business. We look forward to leveraging his talents and connections to help us accelerate the growth of our company.”

“Our business and its continued growth in the top rank of network service providers are completely driven by our customers and their challenges,” says David Zahn, Vice President of Marketing at TelePacific. “They aren’t interested in purchasing expensive communications technology that will be as dated as a 3G smartphone in two years. What they want – and we’re making the investments to deliver – are integrated communications offerings that simplify their billing, lower their capital expense, deliver worry-proof security and keep them current with their customers’ rapidly expanding expectations. The bar is set pretty high – deliver seamless, easy-to-use communications networks that weave voice and data into business-building solutions.”

TelePacific recently rolled out and sold its first Hosted PBX product, a network based VoIP-based offering that lets customers tie together all their locations and employees into a single, easily managed and constantly updated solution. Managed by TelePacific, Hosted PBX takes the telecommunications equipment customers own, and puts everything but the IP handsets in the cloud. An extensive suite of features and functionality is delivered as a service, ensuring that state-of-the-art technology is continually delivered without costly and time consuming premise-based equipment upgrades. With TelePacific’s private IP network and end-to-end access control, service level agreements guarantee 99.999% quality and uninterrupted service so that businesses can concentrate on growing their bottom lines instead of their technical staffs.

TelePacific continues to expand into additional cloud-based business-enhancing applications including Hosted Exchange e-mail along with Email Syncing, security and archiving, Desktop and Server Storage, Mobile Device Management and Hosted SharePoint. These products let small to medium businesses take full advantage of leading edge quality services and features that have traditionally been reserved for large enterprises with deep pockets.

TelePacific is also filling out its cloud-focused bench with top industry professionals whose mandate is to accelerate the growth of customer-focused products. Most recently, telecom veteran Matt Mair joined the TelePacific to lead the cloud marketing effort. Matt brings 20 years telecom experience, including a deep understanding of IP, VoIP and cloud services.

“Getting me to come to TelePacific didn’t take a hard sell at all,” he explains. “Their commitment to customers, willingness to invest in cloud solutions and bred-in-the-bone understanding of the critical nature of delivering the voice and data communications that businesses depend on for their lifeblood was pretty compelling.”

Based on NetApp’s Distributed Content Repository Solution, Mountain-Moving Storage offers multiple solutions for managing massive data repositories including deep archival of unstructured data, long-term backup retention, and archival of video and image objects such as medical records, addressing regulatory requirements including PCI, HIPAA, and SOX. With agreements providing 100% Service Level Availability, PeakColo’s new storage offering is also a way to leverage object-minded applications such as Web 2.0 and emerging applications designed with objects in mind.

“PeakColo’s Mountain-Moving Object-Oriented Storage service is a key differentiator for our channel partners – from value-added resellers to data center providers – that look to diversify their product portfolios with cloud-based offerings,” states Luke Norris , CEO and Founder of PeakColo. “With the massive amounts of unstructured data created and used by enterprises of all sizes, cost-effective management can be a real problem. Our Mountain-Moving Storage is easy to manage, while still allowing end-users quick access to their stored data. And unlike other providers, Peak does not charge customers for seeding or retrieving their data.“

“As a long-standing partner, PeakColo’s pure channel focus offers high-margin financial models to NetApp partners,” said Jon Mellon, vice president and general manager, Service Provider Partners, NetApp. “PeakColo’s new object-based storage service is a great addition to their portfolio and will help our channel partners better meet customer needs for managing petabyte-scale unstructured data.”

By bundling PeakColo’s unique storage solution into their own service offerings, channel providers increase their competitive advantages. Providers can create customized back-up solutions for their clients with full protection of their existing data, as well as plan for future data requirements. Once stored, data can be accessed anytime, from anywhere in the world.