New addition to company’s enterprise solutions portfolio boosts network performance, quality of service and security to help companies embrace the use of new devices, applications and cloud-based services
Paris, March 16, 2012 – Thanks to new capabilities from Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) enterprises can now make it easier for their employees to use their personal devices – such as smartphones and tablets – to access both personal and professional content and services while at work, with a high quality experience and without compromising the integrity of their corporate networks. The company’s expanding converged network solution is now able to identify what kinds of applications are being used by employees at different times, and give the most critical services priority to ensure a high quality user experience.
These new developments bring to life an entirely new approach to enterprise networking that Alcatel-Lucent refers to as “Application Fluency”. Application Fluency provides a network the ability to identify what device and application are being used – and by whom – and recognize if it is a critical business application which requires a specific level of quality of service (QoS), reserved bandwidth or if it can simply be given “best effort” treatment.
The Alcatel-Lucent Converged Network Solution is expanding today with the introduction of the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch™ 6450, substantially increasing the access capacity of enterprise networks, and the introduction of new capabilities for enterprise networks to more effectively manage network resources.
Stephane Robineau, vice president and general manager of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Network Business: “Our solution helps enterprises keep their employees satisfied and productive – while reducing the capacity-sapping impact of personal services and devices on their networks. As importantly, by building application fluencycapabilities into the network we are also making it possible for enterprises to ensure that employees who need guaranteed service quality for bandwidth-heavy applications, like video conferencing, can get it when they need it. These same capabilities also make enterprise networks better able to accommodate the introduction of services from outside of their networks, most notably from the cloud.”
Mike Spanbauer, senior industry analyst, Current Analysis, notes that this type of communication environment did not exist a few years ago:“There is undoubtedly an increasing number of challenges in networking today with the growth and importance of applications. IT managers would be wise to seek out solutions that have a network aware application layer that intuitively understands and can configure network flows for an optimal user experience. The more your network understands about the applications on it, the less you have to administer.”
About the Converged Network Solution
The converged network solution is based on the newly expanded OmniSwitch family and related software. Attributes of the Alcatel-Lucent Converged Network Solution include:
- High bandwidth wire-rate core switches, connecting to the access switches with 10GigE uplinks are perfect for new real-time applications requiring high capacity, such as the delivery of cloud services to mobile devices.
- Conversations managed in context, where user, device, and location are automatically detected by the network and the appropriate QoS, bandwidth and security parameters are applied.
- Multimedia Fluency, where the network automatically discovers which application (voice, video, etc.) is in use and further fine tunes QoS treatment as well as provide a dashboard of actual QoS delivered, enabling IT staff to easily adjust application and user policy.
- Simplified operations, with automated provisioning and integrated trouble shooting tools that reduce effort and time to resolve problems.
- Reduced costs, with a simplified network architecture that requires less equipment, makes better use of switch and network links through network virtualization technology, and consumes substantially less power, cutting operational costs.
- Long-term sustainable deployment as the solution is currently ready to support 40GigE, 100GigE, IPv6 and the continued convergence of wired and wireless access.
About the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6450 Ethernet LAN Switch
The new Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6450 is a wire rate, 1GigE switch that is deployed to provide network access. With options to upgrade functionality to include 10GigE uplinks and 1GigE to the desktop when needed, the OmniSwitch 6450 provides value and flexibility for customers. The OmniSwitch 6450 reaches a wider segment of the market which can benefit from this performance and value. The OmniSwitch 6450 will be available in Q2 2012.
About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU)
The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services. The company is home to Bell Labs, one of the world’s foremost R&D organizations, responsible for breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent is committed to making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible as we pursue our mission – Realizing the Potential of a Connected World.
With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 15.3 billion in 2011 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.
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