Alcatel-Lucent announced new vision "High Leverage Network".

Alcatel-Lucent announced its new vision "High Leverage Network or HLN" to allow the network providers to deliver their own differentiated portfolio of advanced applications, attractive content and personalized services to residential, business and mobile users, as well as their partners' users and other content and application providers' users. Recently, it has acquired Velocix, a leading global provider of Content Delivery Network (CDN) infrastructure and services to Internet and broadband service providers and media and entertainment companies.

CDNs optimize digital distribution over the Internet by replicating popular video and rich media content to geographically dispersed networks of delivery servers. This allows user requests for content to be served more rapidly and reliably from these local delivery servers rather than from a single source.

"With the acquisition of Velocix, Alcatel-Lucent brings a new, unique value proposition to network operators struggling to support their customers' demands for high-performance delivery of rich media content - technology solutions for localized caching, as well as metro and regional/national overlay CDN services that enable ISPs and content providers to establish mutually beneficial commercial agreements," said Melanie A. Posey, Research Director, Hosting & Telecom Services, IDC.

The acquisition of Velocix brings Alcatel-Lucent an enabling CDN infrastructure solution for Internet Service Providers and a wealth of experience and expertise that complements its existing technology and business initiatives. Velocix has a proven track record of constant innovation and advancement in Content Delivery Network technologies. The company was first to market a turn-key solution - Velocix Metro - that allows Internet and broadband service providers to deploy their own advanced delivery capabilities to support their digital content initiatives.

"This acquisition strengthens our leading-edge portfolio of products and services in a key strategic area. Combined with our integration capabilities, it fits nicely into our Application Enablement strategy and our vision of the 'high leverage network' that supports it. It also demonstrates our company's commitment to investing in the capabilities, know-how and technologies needed to effectively support the rapid evolution towards a video-centric world - with maximum reliability and optimal quality of experience," said Philippe Keryer, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Carrier product group.

"Velocix, with demonstrated strength in video and multimedia content delivery technologies, the highly distributed nature of their network architecture, and the skills and expertise of their team made them an ideal fit for Alcatel-Lucent. The Velocix solution enables Alcatel-Lucent to offer both managed and unmanaged CDN offering. The acquisition of Velocix strengthen our ability to support the evolution from single screen IPTV to full multi-screen video and rich media, in particular for our more than 50 IPTV customers over the world, for whom we are a trusted partner. The technology will enhance our content and networking asset management tools, in particular with respect to mobile content delivery of Unicast IPTV and OTT rich media traffic. It also allows us to establish a win-win situation for both the content owners and the telcos, by playing a role of intermediation comparable to what we have already developed through our MNC subsidiary (see http://www.mnc.ch/en/index.htm). " Philippe Keryer added.

"We are very excited at becoming part of Alcatel-Lucent and the opportunities that this will give Velocix and its customers", said John Lee, Chief Executive Officer at Velocix. "The acquisition is a great fit for both businesses, fully leverages our achievements to date and adds the strategic backing of a major corporation that is well positioned to shape the future of digital content distribution."