Five things to watch May 19: Virgin Media Business partners 8×8 for cloud in the UK, Colt reduces latency on PrizmNet routes, and South Reach Networks…

2h | Natalie Bannerman

Capacity shares 5 key finance stories from around the world making headlines today!

Colt reduces latency on PrizmNet routes

Colt Technology Services has made further latency reductions on PrizmNet routes in Europe, to ensure ultra-low latencies for the Capital Markets.

Colt has now implemented next-generation Arista7130 Layer1 switches within the PrizmNet European core to provide even lower latency connectivity between the hubs and exchanges in London, Frankfurt, Zurich and Madrid.

"We know that every microsecond counts for Capital Markets participants. The latency reductions on these important European routes will help our PrizmNet customers improve their trading performance and execution success rates," says Matthew Reinholds, head of capital markets for the US and Europe, Colt.

"Colt will continue to monitor the market and make infrastructure investments to ensure we keep delivering the best possible latencies and performance for the Capital Markets community."

South Reach Networks acquires Florida Fiber and Colo Assets of Resurgence

South Reach Networks has acquired the Florida-based fibre and colocation assets of Resurgence Infrastructure Group (Resurgence).

The acquisition includes over 120,000 fibre miles of available capacity fromJacksonvilletoMiami, five neutral colocation facilities, key metro networks inJacksonvilleandBoca Raton, and direct fibre connectivity to multiple subsea cable landing stations and data centres throughout the state.

"We're thrilled to announce this latest acquisition of a key strategic asset, which complements our existing footprint inMiamiwith reach toLatin Americaand global markets," said industry vetran Michael Sevret.

"This asset bolsters South Reach Network's growing network-centric thesis. The acquired business will be quickly integrated, with resilient connectivity, into our existing platform, adding 10 new Tier 1 points of presence (PoPs) and over 350 route miles to our footprint.

Virgin Media Business partners 8x8 for cloud in the UK

Virgin Media Business has announced a partnership with 8x8 for accelerated cloud communications in the UK.

Under the terms of the agreement, Virgin Media Business will be able to extend its voice and unified comms portfolio, providing its customers with a new cloud-based and fully-integrated communications tools from 8x8 covering voice, video, chat and contact centre solutions.

This partnership provides our customers with a globally leading cloud communication platform that offers a step change in how businesses communicate with their customers and colleagues, said Andrew Halliwell, product director at Virgin Media Business.

8x8 is a truly disruptive business whose relentless customer focus and innovative products make them a natural partner for Virgin Media Business.

ZTE validates industrys first 5G carrier aggregation on 700MHz and 4.9GHz

ZTE has completed the validation of 5G carrier aggregation on 700MHz and 4.9GHz frequency bands in Shenzhen, China.

This validation has further enhanced the 700MHz + 4.9GHz dual-band networking solution, fully facilitating the next phase of commercial construction on 700MHz.

Leveraging ZTE's commercial 5G wireless base station and the latest 5G core network equipment, this validation has employed ZTE's latest 5G test terminal system to achieve a system downlink data throughput up to 1.68Gbps.

By effectively aggregating the dual-carrier resources at different frequencies on 700MHz and 4.9GHz, the service support capability of the dual-band networking solution better than that of 5G NR 100MHz, thereby addressing the service competition problem of the future commercial use on 700MHz.

Arista partners Microsoft for open networking with SONiC

Arista Networks has strengthened its commitment to open network software with the introduction of Arista switches powered by SONiC (software for open networking in the cloud).

This latest initiative is another proof point of the continued long-term partnership between Arista and Microsoft on our mutual cloud networking journey, said Dave Maltz, distinguished engineer at Microsoft.

This expansion of SONiC support allows customers to take advantage of Aristas broad platform portfolio, high quality system design, as well as global support allowing for broader adoption of cloud networking,

Enabled by a new Arista Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) offering, customers now have the flexibility to deploy SONiC software on Arista switching platforms, combining the benefits of open source software with Arista EOS for open, high performance, highly available networks.

Arista has a long history of collaboration and support for open networking with major contributions to SONiC. Arista switches Powered by SONiC brings open software choices for on-premise enterprise data centres.

We are helping customers realise their cloud networking transformation around resilience, automation and modern analytics backed by world class engineering and support. Added Anshul Sadana, chief operating officer at Arista Networks.

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Five things to watch May 19: Virgin Media Business partners 8x8 for cloud in the UK, Colt reduces latency on PrizmNet routes, and South Reach Networks...