FEBRUARY 28, 2008 -- Optical transport and DWDM provider Ekinops (search for Ekinops) and Agarik, a specialist in hosting and managing critical web infrastructures, network operator, and subsidiary of the Bull Group, have teamed up to open a very long-haul, DWDM 10-Gbit/sec network, linking Agarik's data center in the Paris area to Bull's data center in Pays de Loire.
In operation since Jan. 14, 2008, this optical transport link spans more than 400 km (250 miles). It will allow the customers of Agarik and Bull hosting and managing services to benefit from the latest network infrastructure technologies. The companies claim that their collaboration to transport multi-gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel streams results in one of the longest distances ever spanned by a DWDM terrestrial link in France. Ekinops has provided Agarik with a solution that will ultimately double the capacities of the optical signal, while keeping costs down, according to the supplier.
To design its system, Ekinops used Raman amplification, which is based on an energy exchange and can be implemented over fibers already deployed. This quantic effect has been little used on this type of network to date. Ekinops says it optimizes the transport capacities of optical fiber and extends distances spanned by optical carrier waves and is used mostly for submarine projects.
By replicating data between both sites, Agarik can now offer its customers a business continuity plan and a technology for high-performance network storage. Moreover, Agarik is currently developing a virtualization solution that will allow for the evolving needs of its customers' networks, in quasi-real time and without physical intervention.
With the availability of the new broadband link set up by its subsidiary Agarik, Bull says it is significantly strengthening its telecommunications infrastructures; increased capacities enable Bull's hosting and managing services customers to benefit from the latest technologies and IT processes.
Having virtualized its infrastructures, Bull has now started deploying virtual data centers by taking full advantage of synchronous and asynchronous replication, geographical clusters, and remote backups.
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