“ONF is delighted to co-host the first Cloud-Net Summit alongside Layer123.

We look forward to sharing our networking vision face-to-face with influential leaders and activists from Europe’s principal carriers and technology organisations. The intense interest in OpenFlow and SDN, high growth in ONF membership, and the rapid surge towards commercialisation are strong evidence of a pent- up market need.

Join us to discover and debate the particular value of OpenFlow in the emerging Carrier Cloud business opportunity, and the further potential of Software-Defined Networking as a transformational approach to existing and future carrier networking challenges”.

- Dan Pitt, Executive Director, Open Networking Foundation.

Exploit innovative Carrier Cloud architectures and service delivery methods to compete in the new managed service environment - attract new customers, deliver new services and cut operational costs!

The rapid growth of the Public Cloud has led to new SME and enterprise customer expectations on cost, flexibility and time to market for their managed services. Leading services providers are developing innovative new solutions to maintain market leadership and to exploit the new revenue opportunities and operational benefits that The Cloud can deliver to them and their customers.  
 

In turn, the network supporting the Cloud must re-invent itself to deliver a fundamental change in the way that services and applications can be offered, configured and operated in order to support new business models and fight off new competitive forces. This is the focus of Cloud-Net..

• Introducing OpenFlow: Software-Defined Networking for Cloud
• Harnessing Carrier Ethernet for Cloud Services
  
• Enhancing IP/MPLS for Data Centre Interconnect
  

Carrier Cloud is both an opportunity for you to grow your managed services business and a threat to the traditional pricing and service delivery structures of your existing business. As always, when it comes to new business opportunities, the key to success is getting the detail right from the start. That requires an in-depth knowledge of the underlying challenges and solution options so that business innovation can flourish.

Cloud-Net is a ground-breaking and uniquely specialist event focusing on the network requirements to support a successful Carrier Cloud business. Here you can join industry leaders from key functions within the network ecosystem to help you:

• Build a scalable, efficient and robust Carrier Cloud infrastructure
• Leverage existing assets to deliver Cloud services with Carrier-class performance, quality, reliability, scalability and security
• Identify the architecture and technology choices that will deliver the best solution for your business needs
• Make influential new contacts that will help you to develop your business

Key themes featured in the inaugural Cloud-Net Call for Papers include:

• Commercial initiatives by service providers to exploit the Carrier Cloud services market opportunity
• Carrier Cloud requirements and the new network solutions they are driving - an end to end view including all key building blocks
• Cloud technologies enabling dynamically allocated resources - Carrier Ethernet, IP/MPLS, OpenFlow and SDN
• Cloud resource orchestration, provisioning and management
• Cloud Core for performance - new Data Centre architectures
• Cloud Interconnect for efficiency - supporting VM mobility
• Cloud Access for ubiquity

Contribute to the Cloud-Net Knowledge Exchange sessions and access this event without fees (Operators, Enterprises, Analysts and Regulators only)

Meet and share expertise with over 150 of your industry peers, from service providers, content providers/data centres, industry analysts, Carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS, access, performance monitoring and management solution vendors, systems integrators and large enterprises.

Spend your time in active engagement with your industry's most knowledgeable and well-connected leaders, during:

• Keynote sessions - gain a strategic view from the most senior level within innovating service providers and market-making vendors, as they share their visions of current challenges, market drivers and business opportunities
• Case studies - find out how your peers are evolving their existing infrastructure and investing in new network features
• Panel discussions - hear a representative range of different viewpoints on the key issues and get answers to your own questions
• Solution  showcase - examine new solutions and witness new technology demonstrations in the Cloud-Net exhibition area
• Knowledge Exchange - participate in expert led group discussions - get into the detail and share your experiences with peers - limited FREE places available

Some events are essentially passive show-and-tell experiences for "delegates". Information generally flows in one direction only. Not at Cloud-Net! We know your time is short and the most valuable learning opportunities are when you have some control over the conversation.

We've structured this conference so you get the best of both worlds - all the news and examples you expect at an event, plus structured, but open networking where you control the debate.

10th February 2012 - Metcalfe to Unveil 'New Ethernet'
Ready or not, that's what's being presented by the "Father of Ethernet" Bob Metcalfe, currently a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners and Professor of Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, on Feb. 23
Source: Lightreading
>> READ MORE 
 

26th January 2012 - IBM and NEC announce that they will work together to offer networking solutions based upon SDN and OpenFlow
IBM and NEC are moving OpenFlow beyond academic labs and cloud computing theory
Source: NETWORKWORLD
>> READ MORE 
 

25th January 2012 - What Impact Will Open Flow Have on Carrier Ethernet?
Carrier Ethernet is an important building block of a new networking option that could begin to have a significant impact over the next year or two. I’m talking about software-defined networks—an initiative also known as Open Flow
Source: Carrier Ethernet News
>> READ MORE 
 

11th January 2012 - New Tools for New Computing Challenges
Open Flow is part of the Software Defined Networking initiative, in which network software plays a crucial role in making the network more programmable and responsive
Source: The New York Times
>> READ MORE 
 

10th January 2012 - Operators embracing cloud services in earnest, significantly expanding cloud offerings
The top operator strategies for offering cloud services are bundling cloud services with network connectivity services and offering cloud services over Ethernet or IP VPN services
Source: Infonetics Research
>> READ MORE 
 

14th December 2011 - MEF sets sights on the cloud
With the MEF set to approve several new Carrier Ethernet specs next month – including updates for CoS and mobile backhaul, and the new E-Access spec for interconnecting wholesale Ethernet access services – the industry group is turning its attention to the cloud
Source: telecomasia.net
>> READ MORE 
 

29th November 2011 - Alcatel-Lucent adds networking to enhance the cloud
Alcatel-Lucent has developed an architecture that addresses the networking aspects of cloud computing. Dubbed CloudBand, the system will enable operators to deliver network-enhanced cloud services to enterprise customers
Source: Gazettabyte
>> READ MORE 
 

22nd November 2011 - Cloud Impact on Ethernet Switch Market Could Top $1 Billion
The Ethernet Switch market is undergoing a technological transformation in the data center, as virtualization changes where and how applications are connected to end users. Two major trends will forever alter the Ethernet Switch market...
Source: DELL'ORO GROUP
>> READ MORE 
 

11th November 2011 - Carrier Ethernet will reign in the cloud
We are now approaching the world of telecommunications in a virtual manner; I am here, therefore I’m not. In this new world, cloud vendors, enterprises and providers are now charged with keeping up with customer expectations
Source: INKSLINGER
>> READ MORE