NEC’s Collaborative Solutions: Highlighting Interop 2016

Connect. Communicate. Collaborate. These three tenets of our organization were proudly on display as NEC showcased its Smart Enterprise solutions at Interop 2016, the 30th anniversary of the conference.

The Interop conference was founded to focus on network interoperability and openness. Initially, the show just emphasized IP networks, but throughout the years it has broadened its scope to technology collaboration in today’s cloud computing era.

All the NEC solutions on display were well integrated with this year’s Interop theme – that behind every successful innovation is effective communication and collaboration.

One of the highlights of our booth was NEC’s partnership with Dell to demonstrate our strengths in campus networking.

Campus networks include many diverse and challenging requirements, such as technology integration, provisioning, and security policy enforcement. By their nature, campus networks are frequently multi-tenant, meaning the networks must be virtualized so various users can ensure their distinct policy enforcement. Layered switch fabrics, ever-changing connectivity requirements, wired and wireless connectivity, and complex regulatory environments make campus networks difficult to manage.

NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Controller overcomes these obstacles. This solution enables network owners to control and manage their network centrally, bringing the same benefits of server virtualization.

NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Controller with @Dell S3100 switches will optimize campus network ops #SDN Click To Tweet

Together with Dell, we demonstrated how to deliver the performance, security, and agility campus networks demand in a cost-effective, easy-to-manage way. Deploying NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Controller with Dell S3100 switches will optimize campus network operations and reduce management overhead, boost scalability, and deliver secure and reliable connectivity.

Also showcased in the booth was NEC’s global open networking partner program, SDN Partner Space. With NEC and Netcracker SDN/NFV expertise behind it, SDN Partner Space enables network and IT vendors to enter the SDN/NFV market and redefine the rules imposed by traditional flat networks, while also benefitting from new business opportunities.

Joining SDN Partner Space can help transform the traditional business by including new applications and services that are only available in virtualized network environment. Moreover, SDN Partner Space enables in-house virtual network functions to be compatible with other SDN/NFV solutions so they can be cross-sold to businesses in any market.

Visitors to our booth were also able to see our high-availability data center on display. Large data computing tasks and the evolving requirements of the Internet of Things requires intelligent fault tolerant solutions to power a Smart Enterprise. Whether on premises or off premises, NEC’s infrastructure solutions provide the necessary foundation to meet these demands.

Interop 2016 was a great opportunity to share ideas, connect with the world’s IT community, and illustrate NEC’s commitment to orchestrating a brighter world.

NEC unveils Version 5 of ProgrammableFlow® Networking Suite, featuring OpenFlow 1.3

NEC unveils Version 5 of ProgrammableFlow® Networking Suite, featuring OpenFlow 1.3
Plans to demonstrate SDN technology and SDN ecosystem at Interop New York September 30-October 4

The ProgrammableFlow Networking team rolled out another market-leading version of its high performance OpenFlow Network Fabric last week.  First to support the OpenFlow 1.3 standard with a generally available SDN controller, NEC also announced new levels of scalability, up to 200 switches per controller, advanced performance and reliability characteristics-including Ether OAM and IP Multi-cast capabilities, important for the big content providers.  NEC has also expanded its network visualization capabilities, which of course have been integrated with the controller from inception, and include the ability to monitor end-to-end network flows from a central point.

NEC SDN ProgrammableFlow Suite

Johns Hopkins Physics Lab has implemented Version 5 to leverage the new OpenStack Grizzly interface.  OpenStack Grizzly delivers new levels of stability, and coupled with ProgrammableFlow SDN, enables integrated orchestration of compute and network resources.

NEC SDN Interop 2013

Version 5 will be featured by NEC at Interop New York this week at the Javits Center:

  • Version 5 of NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Software-defined Networking (SDN) solution will be showcased on the Expo floor, Booth 437.  Version 5 features the most advanced SDN controller on the market today, now scaling to 200 switches, with advanced performance characteristics including Ether OAM and Multi-cast capabilities
  • Demos will also feature the ProgrammableFlow northbound API, helping organizations proactively and automatically manage, secure and optimize their networks through SDN.  Applications leveraging this interface on the show floor will be:
    • SDN Management:  Red Hat’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform
    • SDN Security:  Radware’s DefenseFlow attack detection framework, ISC8’s Cyber Adapt and Armor5 Enterprise Mobile Security
    • SDN Optimization:  A10 AX Series Application Delivery Controller

These services build on the open ecosystem represented by the NEC SDN Application Center first announced in May at Interop, Las Vegas.

Also at Interop, customers and NEC leaders will be discussing the business and technical impact of SDN:

  • Customer Rob Cannistra, of Marist College, NY.  Marist is an early adopter of SDN both from an enterprise and a research perspective.  He is speaking of his experience on the “End User Perspective” on Tuesday, October 1, from 3:45pm-4:30, moderated by Jim Metzler of Ashton, Metzler and Associates.
  • Thursday’s keynote at 10 a.m. will feature Kevin Hooper,  SVP at NEC Corporation of America, appearing on an SDN panel with representatives from HP, Cisco and Facebook
  • Samrat Ganguly, Chief Network Architect for NEC Corporation of America, will also participate on an SDN Workshop panel from 2:15-3pm Tuesday.

If you are in the New York area or attending Interop, please visit us on the show floor, Booth  437, to see working SDN today!

Later in the month in NYC, NEC will attend the Open User Network Group (ONUG) hosted by JP Morgan and Lippis Consulting.  ONUG will feature early adopters of SDN networking speaking on their experiences.  NEC will be demonstrating ProgrammableFlow Version 5 and integration with other switch vendors and third-party network and orchestration applications.

Watch this video to learn more about SDN.

NEC ProgrammableFlow Version 2 takes home coveted Best of Interop Grand Prize Award

Best_Interop_Award_2012_Winner_BannerIt was a banner Day 1 at Interop in Las Vegas for the ProgrammableFlow team.  Sitting in the expectant audience, listening as each of the eight Best of Interop (BOI) winners were announced, we were gratified to win Best of Interop in Management, Monitoring and Testing.  The competition was tough, against 40 other innovators and applicants in the category, including Riverbed’s Virtual Cascade Shark and Net Optics’ Spyke appliance.  However, according to the lead judge it was hard to beat something as unique as the NEC PF6800 ProgrammableFlow Controller when there’s “nothing comparable on the market today.”

And just as we had settled again into our seats, we were back on our feet in excitement:  the NEC ProgrammableFlow PF6800 Controller had won the Grand Prize—the best of the Best of Interop! According to lead judge Stephen Hill, “the ProgrammableFlow Controller PF6800 from NEC delivered the innovation, insight, and advanced thinking expected of a Best of Interop Grand Prize winner. ”  Read his thoughts in Information Week’s Best of Interop 2012:  Award Winners.  More details can be found in the press release appearing on the NEC Corporation of America website.

We have been working in the OpenFlow arena since the founding of the Clean Slate Lab in 2007 at Stanford University.  Atsushi Iwata, who leads the NEC R&D effort for ProgrammableFlow, understood the promise and the vision, and wrote a proposal that resulted in NEC providing funding for those very first efforts-along with Deutsche Telecom and Stanford itself.  Atsushi spent three years at the University working alongside the brilliant engineers and faculty at Clean Slate who developed the initial OpenFlow protocol.  Then, taking his knowledge back to NEC, Atsushi and his dedicated team have leveraged the protocol to develop the first OpenFlow fabric, providing complete network virtualization:  ProgrammableFlow.

You may remember, we also won 2011 Best of Interop award in the Infrastructure category with the ProgrammableFlow 1/10 GbE switch.  At last year’s show we were the first to announce delivery of a Generally Available OpenFlow product family.  At the time, OpenFlow and Software Defined Networking (SDN) were an enigma to most network architects and IT managers.  Now the industry is awakening to the promise of SDN and NEC is proud to be in the forefront of this revolutionary movement.

Congratulations go out to the ProgrammableFlow team – on both sides of the Pacific! Here are a few of our members celebrating the award this afternoon at Interop.

NEC_Best_Interop_Winners