ADVA Optical Networking’s FSP 2000 selected for Northeast Utilities’ new data center

June 12, 2006

ADVA supports New England’s largest utility system with WDM-based business and storage systems

Mahwah, New Jersey, USA and Martinsried/Munich, Germany. - ADVA Optical Networking today announced that Northeast Utilities Service Company has deployed ADVA’s Fiber Service Platform (FSP) 2000 to support high-bandwidth business and storage services between its corporate headquarters and a new data center.

“Our new data center is a multi-million-dollar investment and the high-capacity WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) layer is the foundation of it all,” said Peter Roding, manager, IT Telecommunications Engineering, with Northeast Utilities. “We made a big decision when we chose ADVA – we displaced existing WDM equipment from another vendor. We did so because ADVA’s platform delivered the right solution and ease of use with less demand for resources like power and space, thus, lowering our cost of ownership. We were able to build a next-generation network behind ADVA and benefit from its superior support offerings.”

Northeast Utilities operates New England’s largest energy-delivery system, serving about two million customers in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In 2005, the company decided to close its existing data center and open a new facility. It evaluated four providers of WDM platforms to support Enterprise System Connectivity (ESCON), Fibre Channel (FC) and Gigabit Ethernet traffic between the new data center and corporate headquarters – linked by redundant, 39- and 49-kilometer optical-fiber links. Northeast Utilities ultimately selected the FSP 2000 because of ADVA’s proven ability to support multiple protocols over the distances and age of existing installed fiber, as well as ADVA’s long-standing certifications with Northeast Utilities’ storage providers.

Installation of the ADVA solution required only one day in January 2006. Though Northeast Utilities’ application services were not ready for changeover to the new data center, ADVA was able to run tests on the gear to prove to Northeast Utilities that all ports would operate properly and channels would transport traffic. When Northeast Utilities switched operations to its new data center in April, there was no interruption in services for network users.

“Northeast Utilities had particular logistical and performance requirements. We worked together to provide an optimum solution to satisfy current traffic requirements and still support substantial future growth,” said Brian P. McCann, ADVA’s chief marketing and strategy officer. “The FSP 2000 is a proven solution that delivers high-bandwidth enterprise connectivity and extensive flexibility for expansion in services.”

ADVA’s FSP 2000 was launched in May 2001, and more than 3,000 systems have already been sold. Targeted toward enterprises and carriers, parallel use of Coarse and Dense WDM (CWDM and DWDM) and muxponder technology enables up to 512 applications to be transported over one single fiber pair. The FSP 2000’s robust character and ability to transport all protocols between 8Mbit/s and 10Gbit/s per wavelength make the product an ideal solution, particularly for large-scale, high-bandwidth networks.

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