Company expands 40 gigabit Ethernet (40 GigE) capabilities throughout the network; collaboration with Citrix helps ensure an exceptional experience for workers with new applications and cloud services

Interop, Las Vegas, May 7, 2012 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced a major upgrade of its award-winning data center switching solution or ‘fabric’, the Alcatel-Lucent Mesh. By extending high-performance 40 gigabit Ethernet (40 GigE) links throughout the Mesh, the company has dramatically increased the speed, responsiveness and flexibility of enterprise data center networks, making them better able to support bandwidth-devouring, real-time applications like video collaboration, virtual desktop, and the growing array of cloud services.

To complete the evolution to 40 GigE in the Mesh, Alcatel-Lucent has added 40 GigE capabilities to its OmniSwitch 10K Modular Ethernet LAN Chassis, a high-performance network core switch. This move – coupled with the use of a technique called ‘Shortest Path Bridging’ which optimizes server-to-server communications across the entire Mesh -enables enterprises to essentially transform their data center networks into private clouds, giving them the flexibility to reconfigure data center resources quickly and easily.

To complement the 40 GigE enhancements, the Alcatel-Lucent Mesh has also been verified as Citrix Ready™.  The Citrix Ready program helps customers identify third-party solutions that are recommended to enhance networking and cloud computing solutions from Citrix, and ultimately provide a seamless experience for users. Alcatel-Lucent is collaborating with Citrix to support the growing demands of mobile workstyles, cloud services and the variety of new applications being delivered across enterprises wide area networks (WANs), and to support the introduction of virtualized desktops, that place a burden on the network and require a greater level of infrastructure support.

Klaus Oestermann, Group VP & GM Cloud Networking Group, Citrix said: “Networking infrastructure has taken center stage as the unstoppable forces of mobility and cloud transform the demands of the datacenter.  With the Citrix cloud networking portfolio including NetScaler 10 and Branch Repeater 6 we are giving enterprises the same cloud platform capabilities to power their business that the largest public clouds have enjoyed for years.  This is game changing, and we are excited to work with one of the world’s leading communications companies to usher in this new era.  As a charter member of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s ecosystem program, we will be able to give our enterprise customers the confidence to deploy full interoperable Citrix Ready solutions.” 

Camille Janssens, ICT Director of DHL Expresssaid: “The demand for more bandwidth is a constant challenge. New technology implementations like those from Alcatel-Lucent are delivering the ability to scale to faster speeds in the future while creating a highly reliable data center capable of acting as a global hub.”

About Alcatel-Lucent’s Data Center Switching Solution, the Mesh

The Alcatel-Lucent Mesh uses a unique ‘direct connect’ architecture – where elements of the network are directly connected to each other without a central hub - to weave together smaller groupings of switches, called ‘pods’ and form a single, seamless data center network that can easily allow resources to  be automatically reallocated. The Mesh delivers low-latency, server-to-server connectivity and can scale in size from as few as 100 to over 14,000 server-facing ports with just two core switches. This scalability provides customers with the option to deploy a small data center fabric and grow as needed with the deployment of additional 10GigE capable servers. Alcatel-Lucent’s data center network solution, essentially a private cloud, can be integrated with Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand carrier cloud solution, creating a hybrid cloud model where employees can access a wide array of data and applications anywhere and on any device.

Specific attributes of the Mesh include:

• Low-Latency wire-rate bandwidth - Where 40 GigE connections within the Mesh provide 1GigE and 10GigE server facing ports, which are perfect for new real-time applications requiring low latency bandwidth, such as the delivery of cloud and virtual desktop services to mobile devices 
• Applications managed as services - Where the network automatically adjusts to follow virtual machine movement both within and between data center sites for better efficiency and reduced costs 
• Shortest Path Bridging – A standard driven in part by Alcatel-Lucent in which the network provides scalable, multi-path, server-to-server connectivity that is cloud compatible enabling the optimized delivery of cloud services 
• Simplified operations - Where virtual chassis technology allows multiple switches to be managed as if they were a single switch 
• Ready for storage convergence - Where ‘loss-less’ Ethernet technology supports both iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)  paving the way for combining applications and storage networks into a single network in the data center 
• Reduced complexity - Where Virtual Edge Port Aggregation (VEPA) technology enables a single control point for quality of service (QoS), management, and security. This ensures that there is a consistent application of QoS and security for all switching while removing duplication of management tasks 
• Long-term sustainable deployment - The solution is currently ready to support 100GigE which is already available on elements of our IP portfolio

About the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch^TM 10K Modular Ethernet LAN Chassis

The new 10 GigE and 40 GigE options for the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 10K provides unmatched port density and wire-rate bandwidth. These new options provide value and flexibility to the customer to select the bandwidth mix and density they need today, with an upgrade option through a software license in the future, providing a pay-as-you-grow model and decreasing the barriers to scale up. These new options also allow the OmniSwitch 10K to reach a wider segment of the market that can benefit from the reliability of a chassis. The new 10 GigE and 40 GigE options will be available in Q3 2012.

About Application Fluent Networks

Application Fluent Networks enable a high-quality end-user experience for delivery of real-time applications along with reduced complexity for IT and network managers. This is achieved through simplified, resilient and low-latency network architecture with built-in security. To improve end-user productivity, an Application Fluent Network also features automatic controls for adjusting application delivery based upon profiles, policies and context. Application Fluent Networks also deliver streamlined operations through automated provisioning and low power consumption.