Alcatel-Lucent eases network strain with Velocix buy

Alcatel-Lucent is stepping up its focus on rich media

Alcatel-Lucent has acquired content delivery network provider Velocix in a bid to help customers deal with the growing demand for rich media from consumers and enterprises.

Content delivery networks are specifically designed to cope with the stresses placed on networks by digital distribution. The systems create highly distributed, geographically dispersed delivery servers which replicate and synchronise content in order to reduce wait time for end users and optimise bandwidth usage.

"This acquisition strengthens our leading-edge portfolio of products and services in a key strategic area," said Philippe Keryer, president of the carrier product group at Alcatel-Lucent.

"Combined with our integration capabilities, it fits nicely into our application enablement strategy and our vision of the 'high leverage network' that supports it."

Keryer believes that an increasingly video-centric world makes reliability and optimal quality paramount considerations in infrastructure design.

The growth of high-bandwidth applications, such as video streaming and telepresence, has placed service provider networks under severe strain, and put them under pressure to deliver faster speeds and more capacity.

Companies like Velocix have been attempting to circumvent some of these issues by developing products which allow service providers to deploy their own advanced delivery capabilities to support digital content initiatives.

"With the acquisition of Velocix, Alcatel-Lucent brings a new, unique value proposition to network operators struggling to support customer demands for the high-performance delivery of rich media content," said Melanie Posey, research director of hosting and telecom services at analyst firm IDC.

"These are technology solutions for localised caching, as well as metro and regional/national overlay content delivery network services that enable internet service providers and content providers to establish mutually beneficial commercial agreements."

Steve Vogelsang, chief technology officer of the IP division at Alcatel-Lucent, said that financial details of the deal are not being disclosed. However he did say that all 35 Velocix employees should be offered positions within Alcatel-Lucent.

"Initially, Velocix will operate as a standalone entity, reporting into Alcatel-Lucent IP division (part of our Carrier Group)," he said.

"Velocix will continue to operate much as it does today. Initially the Velocix solutions will be integrated into Alcatel-Lucent's portfolio, and whether and how to integrate the capabilities of the Velocix offerings into other Alcatel-Lucent products will be determined over time."