ECI’s Apollo transport solution will support SURFnet’s next generation optical transport network

Petach Tikva, Israel, December 19, 2016: ECI, a global provider of ELASTIC Network® solutions, and SURFnet, the Dutch National Research and Education Network, announced today that on Friday, December 16th, the two companies signed a contract for the optical layer of the SURFnet network. The next generation of the SURFnet network, SURFnet8, will feature ECI’s Apollo high speed optical transport solution coupled with a 100G blade and new collector ROADMs. This new network will support the services provided by SURFnet to the education and research organizations in the Netherlands. SURFnet will migrate to the new ECI solution in 2017.

“It is clearly time to migrate to a next generation network as we have simply outgrown our current infrastructure, which no longer provides enough flexibility or bandwidth per wavelength. Moreover, this new solution allows for automating operations and bandwidth restoration, both important capabilities for the future,” said Jac Kloots, Project Manager at SURFnet. “Of the nine candidates for this tender, we selected ECI as they offer an unrivaled combination of advanced capabilities and service along with the possibility to quickly, easily and cost effectively migrate to 400G, as future requirements may warrant. Excellent support of Alien Wavelengths was another winning factor. We are delighted to partner with ECI so that we may continue to provide the very best to the Dutch education and research community.” Left to right: Fernando Valdivielso (Head of EMEA Regional Business Unit), Erwin Bleumink (CEO SURFnet, member SURF Executive Board), Christian Erbe (General Manager ECI GmbH).

Amongst its capabilities ECI’s Apollo platform provides state-of-the-art, transparent and flexible DWDM transport. Apollo combines high performance, high power RAMAN support, and low latency with software configurable, colorless, directionless and gridless optical routing, for maximum efficiency and programmable networking.

“ECI has a very strong relationship with national research and education networks (NREN) worldwide and in fact SURFnet is the sixth NREN customer in Europe and the third such tender that we have won in the last few months. We are pleased that SURFnet has also placed its trust and confidence in ECI,” said Christian Erbe, Head of Municipality, Utility and Government Sector EMEA from ECI. “Apollo is a good choice for those wanting to upgrade their technology. ECI’s inherent evolution strategy ensures that our customers are buying a solution that can grow and adapt as their needs change. The Apollo solution is 200G/1T ready and has an inherent evolution path to programmable networks of the future.”

“With the new photonic layer the Dutch education and research community is ready for the future. We are confident that together with ECI and their Apollo platform we will move towards a network that allows a more versatile service delivery and enough bandwidth to institutions, teachers and researchers,” said Erik Huizer, CTO at SURFnet.