Posts Tagged ‘verizon’

State of Verizon in 2010

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 by jrajani

2010 saw continued expansion for the Verizon global network, milestones included 100 gigabit per second technology, increasing speeds for FiOS and wireless customers as well as construction of a new technology center for improved innovations in wireless over time. The new facility will focus on 4G LTE wireless networks, building upon the history of the existing Verizon Technology Campus in Waltham, Mass., where research and testing has been taking place since the 1940s. The new center will continue to provide a central base for Verizon’s advanced technology initiatives.

In March, the company successfully completed the first real traffic 100G optical fiber transmission field trial using standards-based optics end to end and the latest in 100G native router interfaces over a 1,520 kilometer section (944.5 miles) of the Verizon network in north Dallas. Later in the year, Verizon completed an industry-leading 100G Ethernet trial over a metropolitan Ethernet infrastructure with 12.7 kilometers (7.9 miles) of field fiber in the Dallas area.

On a global front the company installed the first standards-based, multivendor 100G Ethernet link on its IP backbone between Paris and Frankfurt. This 100G advancement was the first to enable 100G Ethernet connections between routers.

Further, Verizon was ranked No.1 as the world’s most connected Internet backbone for the 11th time in the past 12 years. In its annual “Global Geography Report,” TeleGeography found the Verizon global IP network has the greatest number of autonomous system network connections. The AS ranking demonstrates the closeness of a network to the rest of the Internet as defined by the number of segments on the network route that data must take to reach the Internet.

Verizon is moving to an “everything-as-a-service” model in which cloud-based, converged enterprise solutions are delivered with built in security via managed and professional services. The company’s global IP network is the essential platform for this unique and powerful approach, which helps companies do business more effectively and efficiently, and Verizon made significant investments in 2010 in several key regions around the global to expand and enhance its capabilities.

The company’s submarine cable presence expanded in 2010 with the sixth cable landing site — in Shin Maruyama, Japan — on the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable. This site adds additional diversity and capacity to the company’s extensive Asia-Pacific meshed network, which connects the U.S. to Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and India.

The company continued enhancing its presence in the Asia-Pacific region with the opening of a second data center in Hong Kong, bringing the total data centers in the region to nine. This data center also serves as a point of presence on Verizon’s global mesh network, which provides additional paths for rerouting traffic in the event of a cable cut or other network disruption and improves resiliency and diversity. The new data center also enhances delivery, in Asia-Pacific, of the company’s on-demand global computing solution, Computing-as-a-Service, as well as Internet Data Center Services.

Verizon’s global network also saw strategic enhancements in the European region. Expansions in the company’s ultra-long-haul network, an increased number of new and diverse MPLS nodes, additional converged packet architecture sites and new ROADM deployments help meet the data-growth demands of Verizon enterprise customers that do business in Europe. The company also continues to work toward activating the Europe India Gateway (EIG) submarine cable, the next-generation undersea optical cable system connecting Europe, the Middle East and India. With a design capacity of up to 3.84 terabits per second, the EIG cable will provide Verizon a second diverse connection into the company’s Marseille cable terminal.

This year Verizon also expanded its presence in Africa with a new network alliance with Gateway Business Africa that expands Verizon Business Private IP network capabilities into several African countries. They are: Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Lesotho, Angola and Zambia.

Demand for bandwidth-hungry applications including streaming video and video telephony is rising steadily as people and machines become increasingly connected. Verizon demonstrated in 2010 that its FiOS network is future-proof and can easily grow along with consumer and small-business demands.

Earlier this year, Verizon reached near gigabit-per-second throughput on its existing GPON platform. The company also successfully tested a 10 gigabits-per-second broadband connection using XG-PON2, capable of downloading or uploading a 2.3 gigabyte movie in about four seconds. And in the latter part of 2010, the company launched 150/35 megabits per second (Mbps) Internet service – the fastest mass-market broadband service in the nation – over the company’s all-fiber-optic FiOS network to residential and small-business customers.

Verizon also began testing Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) on its FiOS services. This new protocol is designed to eventually replace the current Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which over the next few years will be depleted due to the increased growth of the Web and IP-enabled devices.

In December, Verizon Wireless launched the world’s first large-scale 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, the fastest and most advanced 4G network in America, in 38 major metropolitan areas and more than 60 commercial airports coast to coast. The new network, which offers speeds up to 10 times faster than the company’s 3G network, will be extended throughout the current 3G coverage area by 2013.

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Google Reverses Stand on Net Neutrality

Thursday, August 5th, 2010 by jrajani

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Google has turned around on it’s stance on “net neutrality” as they work on boosting profits. The basic definition of the term Net neutrality is that all data is treated equally by Internet service providers. The WSJ and NYT have reported that Google and Verizon are close to a deal that would let Verizon speed up certain online content faster to their customers if content providers pay for preferred delivery.

Wednesday, Google Chairman offered a new definition of net neutrality. Speaking at a technology symposium in Lake Tahoe, he said: “I want to make sure that everybody understands what we mean about it. What we mean is that if you have one data type, like video, you don’t discriminate against one person’s video in favor of another. It’s OK to discriminate across different types…”

“Apparently Google redefines principles to suit the business need of the moment,” said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate with the nonpartisan, nonprofit group. “Google and Verizon have great incentive to cut deals because of the relationship between their rivals, Apple and AT&T. What Google and Verizon are trying to do is carve up the Internet behind closed doors for their own benefit.”

Consumer Watchdog claims that net neutrality means all data traveling over the internet should be treated the same by Internet service providers. The rules for neutrality should apply to wired and wireless modes of data transmission.

Additionally, a recent poll released by the group found most of their American respondents are concerned by the revelation that Google’s Street View cars had invaded on private WiFi networks. While Google received an overall 74% favorable rating, nearly two-thirds of those polled (65%) say the Wi-Spy scandal is one of the things that “worries them most” or a “great deal” with another 20% saying it “raises some concern” when considering Internet issues.

The poll, conducted for Consumer Watchdog by Grove Insight, Ltd., found a solid majority (55%) is also bothered (“one of the most” or “great deal”) by Google’s cooperation with the National Security Agency without saying what information is being shared. Even more voters call for Congressional hearings on “Google’s gathering data from home WiFi networks and its sharing of information with U.S. spy agencies like the National Security Administration, the NSA” (69% favor, 19% oppose).

Source: Consumer Watchdog

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Verizon Helps Implement New Health Care Cloud

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by jrajani

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A major challenge to digital patient records is that various hospitals and medical practices have implemented incompatible IT platforms which store data in varying formats. The Verizon Health Information exchange is going to address this issue by giving health care providers the ability to access patient records using cloud services.

The exchange will accomplish this herculian task by consolidating patient data from various sources and creating a standardized format for secure access over the web. Providers who sign up for the service will be given a login to a secure portal which will give doctors and nurses a unified view of the patient’s health history regardless of the data location.

The aim of the exchange is to reduce medical errors, duplicative testing and control over administrative costs which should lead to increased patient safety and treatment results. The service will charge a monthly fee based on patient-record volume and is the case will all cloud services—subscribers will only pay for computing cycles once they are used.

“By breaking down the digital silos within the U.S. health care delivery system, the Verizon Health Information Exchange will address many of the interoperability barriers that prevent sharing of clinical data between physicians, clinics, hospitals and payers,” said Kannan Sreedhar, vice president and global managing director, Verizon Connected Health Care Solutions. “Providing secure access to patient data will enable health care organizations to make a quantum leap forward in the deployment of IT to meet critical business and patient-care issues.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by the US government in 2009 has made available 56 federal grants totaling $54 million which will be used for implementation of secure digital health information systems across the nation.

Health IT departments will be able to use the exchange service efficiently as the cloud platform does not require a change in systems, processes and workflow. The Verizon exchange uses proven identity access management controls and ensures that only authorized users have access to sensitive patient clinical records and information.

Verizon is partnering with Medfx, MedVirginia and Oracle for deliverability of key features such as clinical dashboard, record locator service, cross-enterprise patient index and secure clincial messaging. “The ability to dynamically scale technical resources and pay for those used are key benefits of health information exchange platforms hosted in the cloud,” said Lynne A. Dunbrack, program director, IDC Health Insights. “Cloud-based platforms will appeal to small to mid-sized organizations looking to shift technology investment from cap-ex to op-ex and to large regional or statewide initiatives that need to establish connectivity with myriad stakeholders with divergent needs and interoperability requirements.”

MedVirginia will be one of the enterprise level clients adopting the Verizon platform. The consortium was formed in 2000 based out of Richmond and focuses on initatitves to improve quality, safe, efficiency of health care through the use of IT systems.

“Based on our track record of success, MedVirginia projects continued growth in the expanding marketplace for health IT,” said Michael Matthews, chief executive officer of MedVirginia and chairman of the NHIN Compatibility Committee administered by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. “Our current and future needs require enhanced functionality, flexibility, performance and scalability, and the cloud-based Verizon Health Information Exchange meets those requirements.”

The exchange intends to meet federal standards for privacy, and the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. In addition, the exchange will be in line with requirements outlined by the Nationwide Information Network, which is compromised of standards, protocols, legal aggrements, specifications and services implemented by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology which supports secure exchange of health data over the web.

What are your thoughts on sensitive clincial data residing in the cloud? If successful this exchange should be a good first step towards improving patient experience with health care in the United States.

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5 tips to improve retail IT infrastructure

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by jrajani

As the summer season progresses, retailers experience “down” time as most consumers head outdoors. This is a great opportunity for retailers to evaluate their IT systems and processes and determine how to generate more value from them.

If you are in the retail business, here are 5 valuable tips from Verizon business to improve your IT infrastructure:

1. Perform an IT ‘physical.’
With the holiday season still several months away, summer is the ideal time to ensure that all IT systems are healthy and will perform well during the busy season.

Retailers should thoroughly review and update existing systems. This includes validating that you have installed the current version of an application, applied upgrades and patches, verified all systems work, and identified appropriate help desk contacts. Evaluate the most critical systems first, which generally include point-of-sale (POS) and other in-store systems.

Use last season’s performance as a baseline:
Did your systems support your store objectives? If there were issues, have they been addressed? Or are there open issues that need to be prioritized?

2. Focus on the frontline.
In retail, the people with the biggest impact on your brand are the in-store associates. They are the frontline when it comes to customer service. Are your associates fully leveraging in-store technology to better serve customers? Is there an opportunity to use modern communications and collaboration tools to improve store team productivity? Have you planned to ensure that the right number of associates will be on your floor to meet the holiday rush?

3. Change your passwords early and often.
This is a simple procedure that nets big security rewards. Using standard passwords and failing to update old passwords allow hackers easy access into corporate networks. Retailers should pay specific attention to whether they have used seasonal passwords and shared them with temporary workers, such as during the summer or holiday season.

4. Keep your networks fresh. Perform a network diagnostic.
Refresh network settings. Look for forgotten or unused connections, which can decrease network speed and introduce security vulnerabilities. Consider the impact that e-commerce activities are having on the performance of your website. Before the busy season begins, tweak your network to deliver the highest levels of security, capacity and performance.

5. Build a culture of innovation that spans the entire year.
During the holiday rush, most of an IT team’s time is taken up with handling routine processes and an occasional emergency. Set aside time now for your business stakeholders to communicate their evolving objectives, allowing the IT team to reflect on them and respond with new ideas, even if the implementation of new enhancements may have to wait until the end of the holiday season.

Source: Verizon Business

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