Nokia signs on Tencent and Baidu as data center interconnect customers

June 16, 2020

The two are existing Nokia clients, who are looking to add capacity to meet the requirements of growing cloud operations in China and the U.S.

Stephen Hardy

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Nokia says it has won contracts from China-based webscale operators Tencent and Baidu to supply optical transport equipment for their data center interconnect (DCI) needs. The two are existing Nokia clients, who are looking to add capacity to meet the requirements of growing cloud operations in China and the U.S.

Tencent and Baidu are two of the top four China-based webscale operators, asserts Nokia. Baidu operates the top search engine and Tencent is a leader in social media and online gaming. Both employ large cloud operations in China and abroad, which leads to a need to interconnect large data centers around the world. Nokia says such data center interconnects require large optical bandwidth and the flexibility that software-defined networking (SDN) provides.

The capabilities the company will supply are based on the Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Interconnect (PSI) platform, powered by the Nokia Photonic Service Engine (PSE). The contracts from Tencent and Baidu bring to 13 the number of Chinese webscale operators that are using Nokia’s data center interconnect technology, the company asserts.

“We continue to expand our relationship with China’s webscale giants,” commented Markus Bochert, president of Nokia Greater China. “Our leading DCI [data center interconnect] product portfolio and technology innovations in photonics and SDN controllers are key, as well as our strong R&D capabilities, globalized supply chain, and highly responsive service teams. These latest contracts with Baidu and Tencent consolidate our presence in the webscale market in China, which we are confident will continue to flourish in the coming years.”

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About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.