Alcatel-Lucent Aims For The Cloud With SDN Venture

Nuage, which means cloud in French, was formed by Alcatel-Lucent nine months ago and has already lined up as clients large cloud service providers and telcos that are seeking to leverage software-defined networking (SDN) to more efficiently handle cloud workloads, Houman Modarres, Nuage's head of marketing, said in an interview Thursday with CRN.

Software-defined networking technology enables networks to be programmed to more efficiently handle complex demands of cloud data centers that provision massive server workloads.

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Until now, data center networks could not keep up with such demands, Modarres said. "The data center needs to grow up," he added.

Modarres said Nuage will offer cutting-edge SDN technologies. "We believe we are picking up where the others left off," he said. Nuage, based in Mountain View, Calif., is targeting its SDN-based services for cloud infrastructure providers and telcos, Modarres said.

Alcatel-Lucent is following Cisco and other networking companies that have been adopting SDN technologies.

Nuage is not divulging detailed information about its service yet, but Modarres said it is already working with customers and will come forward with more information in about three months.

PUBLISHED JAN. 10, 2013