PRESS RELEASE: SEACOM has said today that it has chosen Juniper and Cisco to provide their latest technology for a complete upgrade of the SEACOM global IP & MPLS network.

The network equipment upgrade is all part of SEACOM’s continuing commitment to provide its customers with the latest services and capabilities as part of a resilient, high quality network platform. Coupled with investments in diverse backbone network elements, this enables SEACOM’s customers to offer faster and more reliable Internet services to African and global businesses and consumers.

The deployment of the new service platform will enable SEACOM to provide a wider range of Ethernet-driven products and services to network operators and service providers. It will also give SEACOM the ability to accelerate the adoption and integration of IPv6 for its customers, in a world where global IPv4 addresses have run out. The new network will also allow SEACOM to leverage its strong Ethernet offering, to further enhance its award-winning Remote Peering service across Africa, Europe, the Asia Pacific and North America.

Mark Tinka, Head of Engineering at SEACOM says, “The combination of Juniper and Cisco offers us the right set of technologies to create Africa’s most advanced and progressive IP/MPLS network. These two vendors meet our strict technical requirements as well as our expectations for affordable cost-per-port and cost per-bit metrics. And most importantly, this new infrastructure is 100% Ethernet-focused, which will be great for our customers in having the confidence and flexibility to very easily deploy, scale and grow their networks and services.”

Tinka continues to say that “the new network will further offer us improved levels of operational efficiency and scalability, easing administration and providing a growth path for the future. We will easily be able to scale our IP/MPLS network up to Terabits of capacity and more, giving us plenty of headroom for growth.”

SEACOM will be supporting and promoting Ethernet as the connectivity option of choice for African and global service providers and operators. With SEACOM’s backbone, customers will be able to gain access to Gigabit, 10-Gigabit and 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports at affordable prices, with the ability to dynamically enjoy more bandwidth on demand when they need it.

In addition, the new network will extend the availability of native IPv6 services to all customers, as well as provide translated IPv6-to-IPv4 services for customers who cannot secure additional IPv4 addresses from AFRINIC, says Tinka. “Our new network will offer substantial advantages to anyone looking to do business on carrier-class Ethernet, IP and MPLS infrastructure between Africa and the rest of the world. These new investments will allow us to offer higher-quality services to our customers, so that they, in turn, can provide high quality services to their users within and outside Africa.”