Cloud Xpress: Google’s preferred metro pla

I didn’t want this bit to get lost in the middle of a thread so I started a new one. Please forgive me if you’ve already read Pete’s original posting.

What I have been trying to find official confirmation around is now confirmed. Google is an Infinera customer, yes. But not only that, they also identify a specific, preferred product in their platform for Metro DCI, and that product is Cloud Xpress. A product that has been “selling like hotcakes” and is a “proof point in the industry” to quote Tom Fallon. Now we know why.

Below is the source of the confirmation from George Notter, Jefferies analyst.

http://www.investors.com/news/technology/optics-benefit-firs…

On March 9, Microsoft Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich told the Open Compute Project summit that Microsoft will grow from 22 to 28 data centers in 2016. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud business.

Also, Google announced March 22 that it would add 12 new data center regions globally by the end of 2017, including two in the U.S., nearly doubling its existing 14 regions. And cloud leader Amazon Web Services, a rising business of Amazon.com, will grow from 12 regional clouds to 17 “in the coming year,” CEO Jeff Bezos said April 6 in his annual letter to shareholders.

Fiber-optic developers that create the high-speed lines and connections for data centers will be among those companies benefiting from this expansion.

“The first two new data centers (Oregon and Tokyo) will come online later this year, with the others to be launched in 2017,” said Jefferies analyst George Notter, regarding the Google announcement, in a March research note. “Based on our conversations with industry contacts, we think the additional investments are great news for Infinera (INFN), Ciena (CIEN), and to a much lesser extent, Alcatel-Lucent.

He cited the three as Google’s vendors for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM, an optics technology) and Infinera’s Cloud Xpress as Google’s preferred metro data center interconnect (DCI) platform, “although we wouldn’t be surprised if they (Google) eventually operationalized other vendors as well.”

Best,
–Kevin

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